"We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."... John F. Kennedy
[Updated]- Short video below courtesy of Parisa Vahdatinia- Current TV
In February of 2007, a fishing boat accidentally caught a 1,090-pound Colossal Squid and as a team of scientists at the Museum of New Zealand slowly thaw the giant Squid out, they have discovered it's a female with eyes the size of beach balls.
This spectacular specimen has been thawing for three days at the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum in Wellington, New Zealand and the first discovery made was that it had eyes with lenses of 10 to 12 centimeters in diameter.
(In this Feb. 22, 2007 file photo, released by New Zealand Fisheries Department shown is a giant squid caught in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. New Zealand scientists have begun thawing the world's largest squid to try to unlock some of the secrets of one of the ocean's most mysterious beasts. The 495 kilogram (1,089 pound), 8-meter (26-ft.) long colossal squid was removed from its freezer Monday April 28, 2008, and put into a tank filled with a saline solution)
According to Professor Eric Warrant of the University of Lund in Sweden, if this Colossal Squid were alive, those eyes would measure 40 centimeters across and he describes them as, "about the size of a beach ball."
"These are without doubt the largest eyes that have ever been studied and probably among the largest eyes that have existed during the history of the animal kingdom," he wrote in a blog on the Wellington-based museum's website.
(Marine scientists in New Zealand were thawing the corpse of the largest squid ever caught to try to unlock the secrets of one of the ocean's most mysterious beasts.)
The full measurements of this giant squid will not be known until it is fully thawed, but it was believed to be eight meters (26 feet) or more in length, with two long tentacles that "carry up to 25 rotating hooks each and eight arms each contain up to 19 hooks used to capture prey and bring it to its beaked mouth."
After further examining this creature, which is believed to be "medium sized", scientists have also discovered that it's a girl as evidenced by finding ovaries filled with several thousand eggs.
You can keep up with the discoveries as the scientists from the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum make them at the Museum website.
You can also see more photos of this Colossal Squid here.
Three children have been removed from a Strong City Compound which is for The Lord Our Righteousness Church after allegations of sexual abuse of minors came from an April 21-22 investigation.
Two girls and one boy, all under the age of 18, have been removed from Strong City compound which is located in northeastern New Mexico after an investigation which started on April 22, 2008, when allegations of inappropriate contact between minors and the adult leader of The Lord Our Righteousness Church, Wayne Bent, 66, who is also identified on the church's Web site as Michael Travesser.
A fourth child agreed to be interviewed by Children, Youth and Families Department. The girl used to live on the compound but now lives elsewhere with her parents.
The Lord Our Righteousness Church is called a "doomsday cult" and an "apocalyptic church", in reports from Associated Press and United Press International.
According to Romaine Serna, who is a spokesperson for Children, Youth and Families Department, the state police did not meet with any resistance when taking the children and goes on to say that she wasn't aware of any other youths at the compound.
Wayne Bent, 66, who is known in the church as Michael Travesser, established the church at a rural site called Strong City, north of Clayton in extreme northeastern New Mexico. He said God anointed him Messiah in July 2000.
According to the Strong City website for The Lord Our Righteousness Church, Bent/Travesser states, "There was never any child molestation, or adult molestation by anyone, including myself. There has never been “sex with minors” or anything remotely approaching that, and, I was never the initiator in any of the events. The Father in heaven came down upon each one who came to me to ask of me what they had been given to ask. And I never did what was asked, until the Father in heaven instructed me to do what had been asked of me, as well.
Serna said two children removed from the ranch were placed in foster homes, and one accepted voluntary placement, which usually means with a friend or relative.
From United Press International:
Bent and members of The Lord Our Righteousness Church are featured in an episode of the show "Inside" to be broadcast May 7 on the National Geographic Channel. In a clip of the show, two young females tell of lying naked with Bent, who has denied having sex with minors.
State officials have declined to reveal what information or from what source they received on April 21, 2008, that led to the removal of the children.
463 children were removed from the FLDS compound in Texas and custody was awarded to the state of Texas pending further investigation of alleged sexual abuses to the female children. New reports show the abuse, might not have been limited to females.
In a story that continues to twist and turn like a badly written novel, the more information that comes out about the life of the children on the Yearning for Zion Ranch, which is a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) compound, the more bizarre the largest custody case in America gets.
Long story short so I can get to the point of this post, a phone call led Texas Child Protective Services to the FLDS compound, the phone was later thought to have been a hoax, but investigators after going to the Ranch to investigate the claims, witnessed what they described as evidence of abuse, via young girls, under legal age, being pregnant and/or already having children.
CPS officials along with law enforcement then obtained a warrant based on their observations, which led to the removal of what was believed to be 416 children, but later they discovered it was 463 children as some of the teen mothers had first claimed to be 18 or older and officials determined they were not.
After the removal, Judge Barbara Walther conducted a mass hearing and awarded 60 day temporary custody of all 463 children to the state of Texas, pending further investigation and DNA testing to determine family relationships.
It was later reported that 31 out of the 53 young girls in custody were either pregnant or had already bore children and yesterday, one of the young girls gave birth to a bouncing baby boy.
Which brings us to the news being reported today, which is that state officials told legislators today that they are investigating the possible sexual abuse of some young boys taken from a polygamist sect's ranch .
These are the first reports regarding abuse to the boys of the compound, other than the cases of the "Lost Boys", who are often put out on the street as young as 13 years old.
In written and oral testimony provided to lawmakers Wednesday, officials with the state Department of Family and Protective Services said interviews and journal entries suggested that boys may have been sexually abused.
Furthermore, testimony has also been given that at least 41 children from the compound has suffered broken bones at young ages, which could or could not be from simply being young and careless. Many people break bones when they are children, so that in and of itself is not conclusive of any abuse.
Although Cockerell did not elaborate on the broken bones, a report by his department's Child Protective Services division said medical exams and interviews indicated "that at least 41 children have had broken bones in the past."
"We do not have X-rays or complete medical information on many children so it is too early to draw any conclusions based on this information, but it is cause for concern and something we'll continue to examine," the CPS report said.
FLDS sect members deny that any abuses were regularly occurring on the ranch, and an FLDS spokesperson, Rod Parker, says that the testimony given today was, "a deliberate effort to mislead the public."
The first set of hearings to determine whether the children from the FLDS compound stay in state custody or if some, any or all are allowed to return to the YFZ ranch, are set for May 19, 2008.
It is that time of year again and firefighters are battling wildfires in Nevada, Arizona and California today.
In Reno, Nevada, 350 plus firefighters are battling a 1,200-acre blaze that officials say is 50 percent contained, has seen major wind gusts cause approximately a dozen firefighters to be treated by paramedics after dirt, ashes and cinders were blown into their faces, 5 of which were brought to the hospital.
In Arizona, on the edge of the Grand Canyon National Park, firefighters are seeing some progress in their battles against a 2,000-acre wildfire.
The X fire has burned an estimated 3.1 square miles, or 2,000 acres, of ponderosa pine about three miles south of the Grand Canyon National Park boundary.
As of Wednesday morning, there was zero percent containment, but Denk says that may change as crews assess the work.
The blaze was spotted just after noon Tuesday and rapidly grew, with very erratic fire activity.
No injuries reported there.
In California, firefighters are still battling a blaze that they have been fighting since Saturday, which saw over 1,000 evacuated from their homes, to which they have since returned to. The public schools in Sierra Madre have also reopened.
We speak quite a bit of the sacrifice our fine military men and women make when they sign up, offer their lives to protect America and US citizens, get sent far from home and courageously serve this great country.
Family men and women are not the only ones that sacrifice and volunteer to go abroad and risk their lives, but others, with no family and no ties make the same sacrifice take the same risks to defend our country.
Robert, a friend from the Patriot Guard Riders just emailed and pointed me to Joe's Daily Thoughts, where we find that recently he asked that people send his cousin some mail and packages in Iraq to show the kid some support while he was away from home, and his cousin received an overwhelming response, to which he addresses in a thank you letter to Joe.
There are more like Joe's cousin, Marines that are getting no mail, no packages or communication with their fellow countrymen to which they are risking their lives for , so..... below I am going to list some names and an address where mail, care packages, cards, anything that readers feel like sending, can be mailed to.
From the email:
It has been brought to my attention that there are a group of US Marines based from Great Lakes Naval Base, now deployed in Iraq, who are not getting any mail. Not a note, not a love letter, not a care package has been received by them.
Retired Marine and dear friend Marty Smith has been in communication with Col. Curt Ames, USMC, and according to Col. Ames' contact in Iraq, these Marines never get any mail. I was asked to "drum up some business" for these outstanding Americans. I know that from past requests like this one, many of you have stepped up beyond anyone's imagination and delivered "big time" to our heroes overseas.
Let us show these Marines we are here for them and we support them and care and love them.
Cpl Adams, Michael D Sgt Bleuer, Cassandra D Cpl Calderon, Jose Cpl Camp, Jesse S Sgt Carson, William R Cpl Finney, Bryan D Cpl Greenblatt, Justin M LCpl Larose, Katie L Cpl Magallon, Felipe D Cpl McFalls, Williams H Sgt Morales, Francisco Cpl Morris, Eric D Cpl Salais, Zuzi E LCpl Warda, William D LCpl Zhevakina, Yelena S
They are all at the same address:
MTACS-38, MACG-38, 3D MAW (FWD) UIC 41126 FPO, AP, 96426-1126
It is in your hands now folks..... let us show them some love.
The flurry of media attention, blog postings and television commentary since those controversial videos of Barack Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, came to light publicly, has been relentless.
The reason for this is because of the content in those videos, many people, including Obama, tried to rationalize those words, saying the "sound bites" were not representative of the pastor himself. People claimed that Wright's words were taken out of context and Obama himself claimed that the "God Damn America" comments and other racial and anti-American ideologies were not the "norm" for Jeremiah Wright's sermons and that the majority of them were not things that Barack Obama had heard when he sat in a pew at the Trinity United Church of Christ for almost 20 years.
For weeks Obama had tried to get beyond his association with Wright and his offensive comments, explaining in a speech given in Philadelphia, right after the videos became public, that he had heard controversial comments from Wright but nothing to the level of what those sound bites had shown.
Many people accepted Obama claims at face value, asserting that he went far enough in distancing himself from Wright's words without disowning the man himself, others still found themselves asking how a man could sit in church, listening to a pastor for almost 20 years and not know what the man was about? Still more would go on to ask publicly, was Obama speaking out against Wright's rhetoric only because he had to for the sake of politics and his political aspirations?
While Obama dealt with the fallout of this highly controversial topic, Jeremiah Wright laid low, wasn't being seen publicly very often, yet when he was, his words were recorded and reported on at length, until many believed that Obama would be able to rise above the controversy and move on.
Then Wright took to the stage again with a series of appearances and public interviews, which many reported as direct attacks, not only against America and politics and a number of other issues, but direct attacks against Obama, even going as far as to suggest that the only reason Obama distanced himself was because he was a politician and had to.
One of his direct quotes along those lines was, ""Politicians say what they say and do what they do because of electability. He had to distance himself because he's a politician...Whether he gets elected or not, I'm still going to have to be answerable to God."
After a number of interviews with Wright, when it became obvious that this whole issue was going to blow up again, Obama finally disavowed Wright's publicly stated views, saying, "The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church."
Obama also declared that if Wright thought his comments were simply "political posturing", then Wright did not know him very well.
The questions in many a mind stayed the same, was Obama's speech too little too late? Did he really disagree with Wright? If so, why would he and his family sit in Wright's church for almost 20 years and listen to him? Why did Obama refer to Wright as his spiritual mentor or guide? Why did Obama originally try to rationalize Wright's rhetoric when it first became public and say he was "like family?
Finally, why would Obama declare in one speech "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother", and in the next speech addressing the issue, doing just that by saying, "I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia, explaining that he has done enormous good in the church. But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS; when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century; when he equates the U.S. wartime efforts with terrorism – then there are no excuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced, and that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally here today"?
The are all legitimate question being seen asked from both sides of the political aisle, in newspapers, blogs and television news shows.
There is another question though that seems to resound loudly and that is, why is Jeremiah Wright doing this? Why is he continuing to make these controversial statements, in public, even knowing how badly he could damage Barack Obama's political aspirations?
Why is he directly attacking Obama and giving Obama's opponents more ammunition against him?
The New York Post has an article where they say a source close to Jeremiah Wright tells them, it is revenge because Wright felt that Obama betrayed him back in January of 2007, when Obama rescinded an invitation for Wright to stand up with him when Obama was announcing his candidacy for president.
According to the Post's source, "After 20 years of loving Barack like he was a member of his own family, for Jeremiah to see Barack saying over and over that he didn't know about Jeremiah's views during those years, that he wasn't familiar with what Jeremiah had said, that he may have missed church on this day or that and didn't hear what Jeremiah said, this is seen by Jeremiah as nonsense and betrayal."
"Jeremiah doesn't care if he derails Obama's candidacy or not . . . He knows what he's doing. Obviously, he's not a dumb man. He knows he's not helping."
The source goes on to say that Wright's stated reason is to defend black churches, but that his real motivation has been much more personal and that Wright, as well as other senior members of the church, "believe that Obama has betrayed over 20 years of their supposed friendship."
This source is not the only one that believes defending black churches is not what Wright's motivation has been, as evidenced by comments made from black ministers from some Los Angeles churches.
Rev. K.W. Tulloss of Weller Street Missionary Baptist Church in Boyle Heights, says, "This didn't have anything to do with the black church -- it was basically an attack on the individual message he proclaimed, which hurt some individuals. My own members were offended by Rev. Wright's words. His views have cast a wedge between people, and that's the exact opposite of the unity Jesus represented."
Rev. John J. Hunter of First AME, says, "I am hurt and disgusted that one of the most historic political campaigns in the nation's history could be derailed by this pastor who has been needlessly callous, careless and insensitive in his remarks."
Some simply think the delivery and inflammatory nature of the remarks was unnecessary, but the theme is the same, no one really understands the motive behind what Wright is doing.
Which leaves us with a final question... if Wright has been causing all this controversy with his recent interviews after Barack Obama refused to disown the man, while disowning his words.... what will Wright do now that Obama has finally tried to sever the ties completely as of yesterday's speech?
Is anyone else waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak?
Are we in the beginning stages of a global race war? Not yet, thank God. But consider this.
Islam, through the obvious successes of Al Qaeda and its affiliates in intimidating and embarrassing the West, has touched the heartstrings of many of the colored peoples of this world, and re enforced that seething undercurrent of post-colonial victimization that runs at varying depths throughout the Third World. Thus, thanks to the cynical machinations of the Islamists, our world is in danger of being divided once again -- as Japan and Germany both attempted to divide it in their own special ways, for their own special purposes -- between those supposedly exploited peoples of this world and their purported oppressors, who, they have once again convinced themselves, are the cause of all of their troubles -- past, present and future.
By ingeniously tapping into this latent but persistent strain of reverse racism, Islam has presented itself as a champion of the Third World in its never-ending battle to break free from the cruel shackles of white suppression. This is how this very real Clash of Civilizations is beginning to play itself out -- even here in America with the recently uncovered Wright/Obama anti-white crusade.
Unfortunately, the great and undeniable flaw in this seductive paradigm is that, with a few notable exceptions, whenever and wherever the black man, or, if you prefer, the man of color, has achieved a certain amount of autonomy and broken away from the yoke of overbearing white governance the consequences of this new found freedom have almost invariably been bloody and chaotic. Whether we look to post-colonial Africa, or those sordid post-colonial kingdoms and ruthless dictatorships of the Middle East -- or even our own American cities where the black majority has taken hold of the reins of government, the results are invariably the same: society self-destructs and the crime rate soars. Outside investments quickly dry up and corruption runs rampant. Whether the example is Haiti, Philadelphia, Rhodesia, Algeria or New Orleans, the same bloody post-colonial, post-white governance downward-spiralling scenario plays itself out.
This is such an explosive subject. It has become almost impossible to talk about it without creating a huge furor, or nowadays, without actually breaking some new multiculturalist law. Yet, somehow, to deal with the truths of our world, to even attempt to solve some of its most critical problems, we must find the courage to discuss these issues openly, honestly, and without malice.
What, then, is my point? Am I merely trying to prove that whites are somehow superior to the colored peoples of this world? No. But it is undeniable to all but the most committed ideologues that by almost any standard Western civilization has proven itself superior to a lot of other civilizations. What, then, is the proper message to those people in some of those other civilizations who feel disenfranchised and betrayed by history? Give up? Accept the inevitability of the white yoke forever? Learn to live with the fact that you were somehow born naturally inferior? Hell no! I repeat -- Hell no! This is the hopeless and deadly message of our enemies. This is the negative message of inverted racism. This is the darkness of Islam.
Our message is simply this: Cut out the crap. Start being truthful with yourselves and quit blaming others for all of your troubles -- the Crusaders, the white colonialists, the Jews, the WASPS -- The Victimization Card only gives you a losing hand. If you attach yourself to the victim's cause, the cause of hatred and resentment and revenge, you will lose your God-given chance to succeed. Look at history and try to be honest. Did the Victimization Card ever really work? It certainly doesn't look that way to me. The Victimization Card has given us endless strife, a lot of wars, and a few Indian casinos, but has seldom if ever helped a suffering people.
No, the way out of the darkness is to follow the light of truth. If your way hasn't proven successful, then dump it. Attach yourself to those other ways of thinking and acting that have proven to be successful. Go with the winners. The winners don't have colors, they have civilizations. Don't lay back and sulk with the losers. Are you listening, Palestinians? Don't plot revenge, plot success.
This whole volatile subject has nothing whatsoever to do with race or color, but everything to do with civilizations, and everything to do with truth.
Of course, this whole earth-shaking subject is to be considered taboo. We are forbidden to even broach this subject. We are all, we are being admonished every day, equal. All peoples are equal, all religions are equal, all races are equal. If one group of people gets ahead of another group of people in terms of civilizational development it must have been perpetrated through some kind of trickery or malfeasance. Not by hard work or merit. Not by finding a system that works.
Damn it. Islam is succeeding by suppressing the truth of its real tyrannical and totally intolerant nature and presenting itself as the rallying banner of global victimization. And we, in the Judeo-Christian West, have yet to find a viable method to counter the deceitful foundations of this growing movement. All of the unsuccessful or disgruntled people of this world are now to become united under Islam in their struggle against all of the successful people of this world. In fact, in this new-fangled version of religious Marxism, individual success itself is now to be considered the ultimate evil. The price for this apparent unity demanded by Islam of all of its subjects and converts is the same price that all tyrants have demanded throughout the course of human history -- submission, or in another word, "Islam".
Are we, then, in the beginning stages of a global race war? Not yet. But, take heed -- if the Islamists continue to seduce converts into their bleak world vision, it could soon become one.
On my nightly drive home, I listen to Savage. I don't always agree with him, but sometimes he has an idea worth repeating and getting out there. This is one of those ideas and it deals with the gas pump prices.
It's short, sweet, to the point--and could work. It would break OPEC's monopoly on foreign oil to us and get us off foreign sources of oil, thus leaving our dependence on US oil alone.
As I'm writing this several hours after hearing it this evening, these are MY words and not Savage's. I'm paraphrasing what he said.
1. For each illegal mexican immigrant in the United States right now, Mexico should send us the equivalent number of barrels of oil-per DAY-for free. This would cover the costs inherent to the taxpayer for costs incurred by the illegals on our soil in education, welfare, identity theft, crimes committed and healthcare. If mexico balks at this, send our military to seize the oil and add those costs to the barrels per day owed to us.
This would be anywhere from 11 to 20 million barrels PER DAY.
2. Drill ANWAR and forget about the caribou--the same caribou who were allegedly in danger from the pipeline before and who have, in actuality, thrived due to the warmth in the pipeline. The caribou are not in danger from drilling ANWAR.
3. Flat out take the oil from the Iranians and Iraquis--admittedly I may have heard this one incorrectly--and mark it as for services rendered. Do this until the costs we've incurred in protecting the middle east are paid and the ANWAR fields are producing profitably. We're already being accused of doing so, might as well make it true, right?
Simple--a three point plan, no more dependence on foreign oil, Mexico pays us for their illegal immigrants (Mexico might be spurred into finding ways to keep their citizens home instead of coming here--again my thought, not what Savage said), and the caribou thrive.
Too bad it makes too much sense. If it didn't it might have a chance of going somewhere.
Also posted at Digg! here; GOP Hub here; Real Clear Politics here (unless they've once again resumed censoring me); Wake Up America here; A Newt One here and Grizzly Groundswell here
Recently news came out that 31 out of the 53 teenage girls that were removed from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, were pregnant or had already had children. One of those children had a healthy baby boy today.
Early April, Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) removed 463 children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) compound on the Yearning for Zion Ranch, after CPS officials witnessed that underage children on the ranch were pregnant or already had babies.
After two days of chaotic child custody hearings, (day one shown here, day two shown here) Judge Barbara Walther, gave temporary custody of all 463 children to the state of Texas, pending further investigation and DNA testing.
Today one of those 53 young girls gave birth to a bouncing baby boy, with sect members, CPS workers and law enforcement officials stood watch outside the maternity ward.
Child Protective Services spokesman, Patrick Crimmins, says, "The boy is healthy and the mother is doing well."
This brings the total of children up from 463 to 464 that are not in state custody. It was originally assumed that there were only 416 children but later officials determined that some of the young girls claiming to be 18, were not and were actually underage.
Rod Parker, a spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, contends that the girl is 18, but Crimmins says, "The mother is younger than 18."
Under Texas law, children under the age of 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult. A girl can get married with parental permission at 16, but none of these girls is believed to have a legal marriage under state law.
The first set of hearings to determine whether the children from the FLDS compound stay in state custody or if some, any or all are allowed to return to the YFZ ranch, are set for May 19, 2008.
Of the 463 children, 250 are girls and 213 are boys. Children 13 and younger are split, 197 girls and 196 boys, but there are only 17 boys aged 14 to 17 compared with the 53 girls in that age range.
(Clockwise: Daniel Bueno, David Alvidrez, Bobby Hernandez)
Robert "Bobby" Hernandez, 31 years old, is still on the run, wanted on suspicion of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, burglary and kidnapping.
Omar Guzman, 28, Jeni Rivera, 26, and Pablo Guzman, 22, were all found dead in a home in a home in Peoria, Arizona, on April 15, 2008, after a fourth victim, Maria Diaz, 26, survived a gun shot to the head and dialed 911 to report a burglary.
Diaz was treated by paramedics and was taken to the hospital where she survived her injury.
The police investigation led them to Glendale, AZ., where they arrested Daniel Bueno, 17, and David Alvidrez, 18, for suspicion of first-degree murder and burglary. Bueno was also charged with attempted first-degree murder and kidnapping.
Hernandez is described as a Hispanic man, 5 feet 7 inches tall and 170 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He is considered armed and very dangerous. A reward is being offered through Silent Witness -- 480-WITNESS -- for information leading to his arrest.
It is believed the killings were a result of a drug robbery gone bad.
In solidarity with our friends in Berkeley, on Sunday, April 27th, The Gathering of Eagles told Susie Benjamin and her friends from Code Pink that they were not welcome in New Jersey. What a great day for Eagles!
Susie slinked into sleepy little Northern New Jersey, certain she could defile our state without comment. Imagine the surprise when “Peacers” came down Route 23 and discovered it lined with American flags and patriots there standing up for our troops! The first sign that greeted them? “Code Pink…NOT WELCOME IN NEW JERSEY!”
Eagles began arriving at 10 am, in advance of the luncheon, from all over the state of New Jersey and from New York, Connecticut, Virginia and Bev Perlson, from the Band of Mothers, came all the way from Chicago! In all, we were more than 30 strong.
As each car entered the parking lot to the hotel hosting the luncheon, Eagles were there to stand up for our troops. While organizers of the lunch claimed 250 guests, unless the cars passing us were clown cars holding a few dozen each, their numbers were no where near this…in fact, it was a rather pathetic turnout for them.
Code Pink’s actual feelings about free speech for all except themselves, came within the first 15 minutes of their typically late arrival with a call to the police to remove the Eagles from the PUBLIC street in front of the hotel.
The Eagles had been on the street for almost two hours before the Pinkos actually arrived and were without incident or disturbance. Arriving cars were not delayed one single second and no entrance was impeded. They wanted us removed simply because they did not want us to exercise our free speech….despite the platitudes they claimed when a few of them scurried up the driveway to harass us.
Three police cars arrived and, after confirming that the Eagles were legally entitled to be there and were causing no disruption and merely exercising free speech, the police bid us a friendly good-bye, much to the dismay of the “Peace” advocates.
More on demonstrators against Code Pink from The Star Legder:
"The original Medea murdered her children," read one protest sign outside The Regency House hotel on Route 23 in Pompton Plains, where the dinner was held. "Medea Benjamin is murdering ours."
Some 18 people from groups that oppose anti-war protests as "anti-American" hoisted signs condemning CODEPINK as supporting terrorism.
"I'm here to support our soldiers," said Beverly Perlson, founder of the group Band of Mothers. Perlson, whose son served four tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, flew in from Chicago to attend the rally in Morris County. She said CODEPINK protesters, who have agitated for the closure of a military recruitment center in Berkeley, Calif., are not just "anti-victory," they are "pro-defeat."
"They want to see us lose. I don't understand this," Perlson said, after a heated exchange with CODEPINK supporters. "I've been referred to as the mother of a terrorist. ... My son isn't a terrorist."
The fact is that military supporters and groups such as GOE and parents of military members in Iraq as well as parents that have lost children in the war, afmilies and those that support our military, are not going to stand back and allow Code Pink to malign and disparage our troops.
This is not the 60's, this is not Vietnam and veterans from around the country will not allow that to happen again.
Code Pink and all groups like them will learn that where ever they decide to declare battle against our troops, Americans will stand up against them.
I will end this with a portion of the original GOE article, one that touched me:
And thank you, most of all, to that young soldier who stopped to thank us. You, sir, are why Eagles soar.
[Update below]Video and full transcript of Obama's remarks with Q & A section found below.
When Jeremiah Wright's racist, anti-American sermons came to the light of day and were blasted from one end of the Internet to another, via video, showing his words coming from his mouth, Barack Obama had a chance to disown and denounce the words and the man, but he did not go far enough on either front to make a difference or to stop the associations from some that made the point that if Barack Obama sat in a pew listening to his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, for almost 20 years, on some level he must have agreed with those beliefs.
After the firestorm started, Barack Obama took to the airwaves and televisions sets, and tried to distance himself from the words of his pastor, while still saying Wright was "like family to me."
Obama took it a step farther in his speech, and said:
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
I asked at the time if Obama went far enough or if he simply rationalized Wright's rhetoric and that refusal to disavow, disown and completely sever those ties with Wright, has just came back to bite Obama...hard, as Wright makes the rounds in more highly public appearances and speeches.
Jeremiah seemed to lie low for a while, but recently he has made a slew of public appearances, seeming to suggest that the only reason Barack Obama was distancing himself at all was because it was politically expedient.
Wright made comments like, "Politicians say what they say and do what they do because of electability. He had to distance himself because he's a politician...Whether he gets elected or not, I'm still going to have to be answerable to God."
Other of Wright's recent comments were covered here yesterday, and instead of toning his rhetoric down, Wright seems to have stepped it up a notch or two, which had bloggers and pundits all over, declaring that Obama had to disown the man himself.
But what he said today extemporaneously, the way in which he said it, the unrepentant manner in which he reiterated some of his most absurd and offensive views, his attempt to equate everything he believes with the black church as a whole, and his open public embrace of Farrakhan and hostility to the existence of Israel, Zionism, make any further defense of him impossible. This was a calculated, ugly, repulsive, vile display of arrogance, egotism, and self-regard:
Barack Obama just made a speech I caught on television (I will provide the transcript when it is available), where he finally denounces the man, not just the words.
A couple of Obama's comments are, "The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church.
They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs."
An other strong statement from Obama when he says, "If Reverend Wright thinks that’s political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn’t know me very well and based on his remarks yesterday, I may not know him as well as I thought either.”
One of the strongest and clearest denunciations yet from Obama was when he said, "I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia, explaining that he has done enormous good in the church. But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS; when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century; when he equates the U.S. wartime efforts with terrorism – then there are no excuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced, and that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally here today."
Reactions to Obama's speech today are varied as Talk Left head lines with "Obama Live Press Conference on Wright: Throws Wright Under the Bus", and Andrew Sullivan titles his with, "Obama Divorces Wright," and that is just two of the first reactions.
The comments from Jeremiah Wright are not new, not unheard and simply reinforced what was said in the original videos of his sermons, yet it has taken months for Obama to realize that Wrights words and statements do not match Obama's own belief systems?
The questions that voters will have to answer for themselves are whether this denunciation of Wright is too little, too late and is it real or was it done for political expediency?
[Update] A portion of Obama's beginning remarks, via YouTube.
[Update]Transcript of Barack Obama's remarks regarding Jeremiah Wright. .
More than 20 percent of the nation’s two-year-olds are not fully immunized against infectious diseases to which they are especially vulnerable.
New research has been released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that shows that 20 percent of America's children are not getting the Immunizations needed to be protected and stop the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases.
According to Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, there are now vaccines to protect children against 15 diseases before age two. Despite that, more than 20 percent of the nation’s two-year-olds are not fully immunized against infectious diseases to which they are especially vulnerable.
She goes on to say, "A substantial number of children in the United States still aren't adequately protected from vaccine-preventable diseases. The suffering or death of even one child from a vaccine-preventable disease is an unnecessary human tragedy."
The lead investigator of the study, Elizabeth Luman of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, says that immunizations are, "important for both the health of the child and the health of the public."
She goes on to point out that the recent measles outbreaks in California and Arizona has been mostly caused by people who have not been vaccinated at all and that have not complied with the appropriate timing and age recommendations of vaccine doses.
"Vaccination at the wrong age or the wrong interval is not a major danger from the perspective of eventual immunity induced by the vaccine," said Dr. Michael Pichichero, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
"The public health issue is the lack of full protection from a disease until the vaccination series is completed. … The recent various outbreaks of measles, mumps and other vaccine-preventable diseases brings attention to the risks parents need to know they are accepting."
The study and those involved in the study assert that much of the reason for so many children not being properly immunized could be the complicated schedule that has to maintained to get these vaccines at the right time because they become ineffective to stopping infection or spread if the shots are gotten too early, too late or too close together.
Dr. Robert Frenck, who is a professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and a committee member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on infectious diseases, points out another reason why parents might not be as vigilant in making sure their children are protected from preventable diseases.
One reason for lack of strict adherence to the vaccine schedule may be a fading consciousness among today's parents of what these immunizations are protecting children against. Frenck said he remembers seeing a childhood friend in an iron lung, the result of polio.
"It scared me to death," he said. "Kids these days, and probably most adults, don't even known what an iron lung is -- and that's because of immunization."
So far, smallpox has been completely eradicated from the planet thanks to immunizations, while great gains have been made with measles and polio.
SMALLPOX.
In this day and age diseases like smallpox are rarely even spoken about, yet before the vaccine was created for smallpox, half those infected died from the disease and those that survived were seriously maimed, through severe scarring of the skin with deep pock marks, blindness and infertility.
(Man with smallpox. Public Health Images Library- Photo CDC)
In was the development of the smallpox vaccine that eradicated the disease. There is no specific treatment for smallpox disease, and the only prevention is vaccination.
POLIO.
Polio is a viral disease that can damage the nervous system and cause paralysis. Since polio immunization has become widespread in the United States, cases of polio are rare. However, polio remains a problem in many parts of the world.
At one time poliovirus infection occurred throughout the world. Transmission of wild poliovirus was interrupted in the United States in 1979, or possibly earlier. A polio eradication program conducted by the Pan American Health Organization led to elimination of polio in the Western Hemisphere in 1991. The Global Polio Eradication Program has dramatically reduced poliovirus transmission throughout the world. In 2005, only 1,948 confirmed cases of polio were reported globally and polio was endemic in six countries.
Although I have addressed just two vaccine preventable diseases CDC has a full list diseases to which there are vaccines to protect against.
We live in an age where some of the diseases listed are a distant memory we read about in history books or hear about from our older relatives, but because vaccines were created to help eradicate some of those diseases, many of us have never actually seen what these diseases can do, nor do we have direct memories of the massive outbreaks which throughout history have killed millions.
You can find out more about vaccines and immunizations at the CDC, including schedules, answers to some basic questions as well as worries and concerns about vaccines and everything you need to know about vaccine preventable diseases.
A former middle school teacher who was arrested twice for having sex with underage boys, has been arrested again on Monday after being caught in the home of one of those children.
Stephanie Ragusa, 29, is a former teacher for the Davidson Middle School, in Tampa and was first arrested on March 13, 2008, for having a sexual relationship with a 14 year old boy.
According to the sheriff's investigation, Ragusa had three sexual encounters with the teen between Oct. 1, 2006, and May 4, 2007 — twice in her car and once in her apartment, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.
Ragusa was arrested again on April 15, 2008, for having sex with another minor who was 15 years old and she was charged with lewd and lascivious battery and two counts of sex with a minor.
Investigators at that time said Ragusa and the underage child had over 20 encounters over the time frame of a several months between February 2007 and March 2008. They also allege that she provided condoms and alcohol to the minor.
Investigators say text messages found on Ragusa's cell phone led them to discover the relationship. They also say the victim identified Ragusa based on two tattoos that can only be seen when she is not wearing pants.
Despite the arrest, Ragusa was all smiles when she left the Orient Road Jail late Tuesday. She was released on $22,500 bond.
Yesterday, April 28, 2008, Ragusa was arrested again, this time she was caught at the home of one of the boys she had previously been charged with having sex with.
According to detectives, the underage boy contacted them and informed the authorities that he has been exchanging text messages with Ragusa and that the last time they had sexual relations was on April 5, 2008.
The two continued to stay in contact from April 5 until April 28, when detectives spotted Ragusa leaving the boys home.
After investigating, deputies say they learned the two had sex, and that the witness they had interviewed saw Ragusa and the boy kissing at the house. Detectives say the witness videotaped them kissing using his cell phone, and then turned the video over to deputies.
The witness also told detectives that when he went into the boy's home, he heard noises coming from the boy's bedroom. Investigators say the witness told them it sounded like Ragusa and the boy were having sex, and they say the victim later confirmed that they had.
Detectives were told that Ragusa supposedly went to the boys home to discuss the previous charges and according to what the teenager told the police, the "two ended up in a familiar place, his bedroom."
Ragusa is now being held without bond at the Hillsborough County Jail, awaiting a hearing for a bail revocation hearing because a judge had previously ordered that if she was arrested again, he would revoke her bail.
According to Lt. Asteasuainzarra, Ragusa is not speaking to investigators and he says, "I can assure you that we are doing everything we can right now to make sure that she is not out at liberty to do this again."
Suffolk city spokeswoman Dana Woodson said one person died when two apparent tornadoes passed through the city Monday afternoon. Bob Spieldenner from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management said at least 200 others were injured there.
At least 18 others were injured when the storm hit Colonial Heights, Spieldenner said. Three of those were taken to hospitals.
Sentara Obici Hospital in Suffolk was damaged, but remained operational and was accepting patients, Spieldenner said. The injured also were being taken to another hospital in the city, Woodson said.
"Multiple buildings have been destroyed, homes have been destroyed," Woodson said. She said the areas around the hospital and in the community of Driver were hardest hit.
Jeff Judkins, the city's emergency management coordinator, said there also were reports of people trapped inside cars. It's the worst damage he's seen in the area, he said.
An emergency shelter will be established by Monday night, Suffolk spokeswoman Dana Woodson said.
There does seem to be a question as to whether the death was a result of the storms or unrelated.
The pervasive pattern of underage marriages and teen pregnancies that originally gave Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) the grounds to remove 463 children from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Texas, has just been highlighted with the news that out of 53 female teenagers among those children removed, 31 of them are pregnant or have already had children.
Despite all the rhetoric from the mothers about the children not being abused at the FLDS compound, this disturbing pattern shows massive abuse of underage girls that were "spiritually" married to older men and then sexually abused, on a consistent basis and with the mothers doing nothing to stop this abuse.
All 463 children have been placed in temporary foster care, most at large facilities to keep as many of them together as possible.
Given these latest numbers about the child abuse that ran rampant at the ranch, the likelihood of those children being returned to that home, is dwindling as more news and tests come out.
From the raid to the initial 2 day hearing that came afterward, in which Judge Barbara Walthers gave the state 60 days temporary custody and ordered DNA testing off all the children and some adults (some adults did not provide samples for testing), we have reported on this.
All previous posts are listed below for those that are just catching up with this news.
Two contractors from Sterling Boiler were killed in an explosion in a Terre Haute, SG Solutions coal gasification plant.
The accident occurred just before 11 a.m. today when a flanged opening on a high pressure vessel containing synthetic gas failed. Federal, state and local officials have been notified, and the investigation is ongoing. There is no danger to those nearby the plant.
The victims names are being withheld until their families can be notified.
SG Solutions is a national leader in the development of synthetic gas for use in the generation of electricity for homes and businesses. As one of only two Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) facilities in the United States, SG Solutions has received national recognition as a flagship project of the Department of Energy Clean Coal Program.
It has not been determined what caused the leak that led to the explosion and Sterling Boiler acknowledged the accident and offered condolences to the workers' families.
"Sterling is assisting local authorities in every way possible in determining the cause of the explosion,” the statement said. "Our hearts and prayers are with the families of these individuals.
Production at the plant stopped immediately following the incident and will resume once an investigation is concluded and all safety procedures are evaluated. Prior to today's incident the facility had experienced no fatalities since opening in 1995.
The Editor and Publisher shows that once again the New York Times is showing a decline in circulation while the Wall Street journal sees a modest rise.
The New York Times has often blamed the rise of Internet media for its decline in advertising and circulation, ignoring the fat that they no longer report just the facts but more often report according to political agenda.
The Wall Street Journal on the other hand has shown a massive increase of political reporting on the front page and yet they still have seen a slight rise in their circulation.
The difference in the Wall Street Journal since Rupert Murdoch took over can be seen from the style of reporting and the front page content, especially in political cover, which shows that from Dec. 13, 2007 through March 13, 2008, political coverage more than tripled, jumping to 18 percent compared with 5 percent in the four months before the ownership change.
The biggest jump in numbers, in fact, has been in political coverage on the front page.
(Click image to enlarge for better reading)
Murdoch's intentions to be competitive with the New York Ties seems to working to his advantage even though the WSJ has only seen a jump of 0.3 percent, which is very modest, when compared with the 3.5 percent daily and 4.5 for Sunday drop for the New York Times, the numbers take on a whole new meaning.
The WSJ has the same competition from the Internet as the New York Times does, so perhaps the New York Times should start addressing the topic of their agenda reporting vs reporting of actual news.
If not, their numbers will continue to see the type of decline that has plagued them for months on end now.
In a 6 to 3 vote the Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge over Indiana's Photo ID Law, which would require voters to show a government issued identification to be allowed to cast a ballot at elections.
In the case Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (07-21), the Supreme Court voted to reject a constitutional challenge to Indiana's Photo ID law, which requires people to have some form of government ID to be allowed to vote in an election.
According to the Indiana Secretary of State website, a government ID must meet 4 criteria to be acceptable to use for voting purposes.
1. Display your photo
2. Display your name, and the name must conform to your voter registration record. Conform does not mean identical. Below are examples of names that would conform to "Robert John Crew"
* Robert John Crew * Robert J. Crew * Robert Crew * R. John Crew * R. J. Crew
* Bob John Crew * Bob J. Crew * Bob Crew * John Crew * J. Crew
3. Display an expiration date and either be current or have expired sometime after the date of the last General Election (November 7, 2006)
* Including Military IDs with expiration does of "INDEF"
4. Be issued by the State of Indiana or the U.S. government
In most cases, an Indiana driver license, Indiana photo ID card, Military ID or U.S. Passport is sufficient.
The 65 page PDF file, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the main opinion said " Valid neutral justifications for a nondiscriminatory law, such as SEA 483, should not be disregarded simply because partisan interests may have provided one motivation for the votes of individual legislators."
JUSTICE SCALIA, joined by JUSTICE THOMAS and JUSTICE ALITO, was of the view that petitioners’ premise that the voter-identification law might have imposed a special burden on some voters is irrelevant. The law should be upheld because its overall burden is minimal and justified.
The 6 Justices that voted to reject the challenge were, Justice John Paul Stevens, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas.
The three justices that dissented were, Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter.
More than 20 states require some form of identification at the polls. Courts have upheld voter ID laws in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, but struck down Missouri's. Monday's decision comes a week before Indiana's presidential primary.
The decision also could spur efforts to pass similar laws in other states.
Indiana does provide free ID's to the poor and also allows those without ID to cast a provisional ballot and then allows them 10 days to show up at the county courthouse to provide identification or otherwise show the ability to prove who they are.
The ACLU issued an immediate press release stating their disappointment in todays decision which stemmed from an appeal of two lower court decisions that upheld the state's law requiring voters to present government-issued photo IDs in order to vote.
"Today's decision minimizes the very real burden that Indiana's voter ID law places on tens of thousands of eligible voters who lack a government-issued identification while accepting at face value Indiana's unsubstantiated claim of voter fraud," said Ken Falk, Legal Director of the ACLU of Indiana and lead counsel on the case.
Justice Stevens did address that very issue in the ruling by stating that Indiana providing free identification as well as they 10 days to bring verification to the courthouse would also "help reduce the burden on people who lack driver licenses."
Justice Stevens wrote the main opinion which ends on page 24, and starting on page 25, Justice Scalia writes a concurring opinion, then on page 31, Justice Souter writes his dissenting opinion. Bryers dissenting opinion starts on page 61.
This ruling comes at a crucial time with Indiana's primaries nearing but even more crucial is that the Supreme Court ruling now upholds the Voter ID Law before the 2008 presidential elections.
Three Children, a 3-year-old and 2-month old twins, were left alone by their 28-year-old mother, Christina Page, while she ran to the store, leaving food on her stove which caught fire and threatened the children's lives.
A woman upstairs from the apartment the children had been left alone in, noticed the smoke and called 911, which resulted in police and firefighters rushing to the apartment in Webster, Massachusetts, and rescuing the three children and the family dog.
According to police, the owner of the building, Anne W. Kuria, lives on the second floor and noticed smoke just after 4 p.m. She called 911, went into the first-floor apartment to investigate and found heavy smoke from food burning on the stove. The wall behind the stove was also on fire.
Ms. Kuria used a wet towel to try to extinguish the fire, but the towel caught fire and she fled. When police arrived, she told them she believed there were children inside the apartment. Police described her as frantic.
According to Assistant Fire Chief, Robert Gryncewicz, he feared the worst when he discovered two unresponsive infants lying on a bed in the apartment and says, "It was a scary thought seeing them both lying there, you start thinking the worst right away."
The children were taken to the Hubbard Regional Hospital and transferred to UMass Memorial Medical Center, where they were treated for smoke inhalation and then will be turned over to the custody of the Department of Social Services.
According to police, Christina Page left the children alone for approximately one hour.
Police waited for the mother to return home and arrested and charged her with three counts each of wantonly permitting substantial bodily injury to a child and wanton reckless behavior causing risk to a child.
If convicted of permitting substantial bodily injury to a child, she could face 5 years in prison.
According to the Webster Massachusetts Police Department press release, the officials that risked their lives to save those three children were, Officers Tobby Wheeler, Patrick Perry, Donald Southall, Assistant Fire Chief Robert Gryncewicz, and Sgt. Michaela Kelley.
Approximately 1,000 people were told to leave their homes on Sunday as wildfires burned and officials admit they only had the fire about 30 percent under control.
All Sierra Madre schools were closed on Monday. Sierra Madre is in Los Angeles County, about 13 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Shelters have been opened for those forced out of their homes.
(An airplane drops flame retardant on a slope Sunday in Sierra Madre, California.)
At one point early Monday, fire crews had cause for concern with the 400+ acre wildfire burning in Southern California, when winds unexpectedly shirted and sent embers towards nearby homes.
A Sierra Madre spokeswoman, Elisa Weaver, says there is about 500 firefighters bravely battling the blaze with the help of helicopters and water-dropping air tankers, in the daytime.
"This is pretty serious," Weaver said. "Some of these areas have not burned in over 40 years."
Sierra Madre spokesman James Carlson said Sunday evening that crews had the fire 30 percent contained. Light winds and rising humidity had aided firefighters, who hoped to have the blaze fully contained within four to seven days, Carlson said.
The evacuations would be in place until at least 6 a.m. Monday.
So far, two firefighters have sustained minor injuries, one with heat exhaustion and another with a strained knee.
The fire heads toward the Angeles National Forest and according to Battalion Chief Tim Davis of the Forest Service, "It's very steep, inaccessible terrain, and it's very heavy brush. Very difficult and arduous labor for these crews. You can't get bulldozers into the majority of where these fingers of fire run."
Marc Peebles, of the Southern California Incident Management team says it will be four days to a week before the fire might be fully contained, depending on weather conditions.
There is yet another fire, in San Diego, burning on 50-acres in what fire officials described as open space. Officials said the fire was not threatening homes and there were no calls for evacuations.
[Update] Firefighters lose ground and containment is only at 23 percent, down from the 30 percent quoted earlier.
Contrary to media reports, Jeremiah Wright hasn’t been in self-imposed exile since Obama distanced himself from Wright’s anti-American and racist remarks. On the contrary, Wright has continued his whirlwind speaking tour across America. Friday he was interviewed by Bill Moyers of PBS, Sunday he delivered two sermons at Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, where he finally received a belated award from Brite Divinity School (see previous articles below), then he flew to Detroit to address the NAACP, and this morning his gave another self-gratification speech to the National Press Club.
So what’s up with Wright?
To summarize Juan Williams’s assessment on Fox TV following Wright’s speech this morning, Wright is saying “If you are attacking me, you are attacking the Black Church.”
Yesterday, Wright said that he was being “crucified.” Today the Black Church is being crucified.
Williams went on to observe that Wright never explained his inflammatory statements. “It was all about ego and self-gratification for Wright. . . Wright isn’t looking out for Obama. . .It’s all about Wright and Black Theology.” Williams said that Wright “Is playing racially divisive politics. You don’t hear that from the Black Pulpit. It’s not typical.”
I watched the entire speech and the Q&A session following the speech. His speech lasted less than fifteen minutes but it was packed full of inflammatory quotes that should come back to haunt Wright as well as continue to plague Obama. Another 20-30 minutes were devoted to answering pre-screened questions.
Here’s the gist of the speech:
Wright said that he will be opening a two day symposium of Black Theologians, scholars, and social workers etc., and said that Obama has called for a dialog on the Black Church. He opened his speech by referring to the media’s playing of the “out of context” sound bites saying, “It’s not an attack on Jeremiah Wright. It is an attack on the Black Church.”
Then Wright went into a brief history of the Black Church in America and attempted to distinguish his “Prophetic Theology of the Black Church” from James Cones’ “Black Liberation Theology.” What are the differences? Basically none except that Wright’s theology goes beyond “white supremacy” to the prophets of the Old Testament. He hinges his theology on the 61st chapter of Isaiah and on Luke 4.
According to Wright, his theology is a theology of liberation, transformation, and “ultimately, reconciliation.” Why did he insert the word “ultimately”? According to Wright, the white church in Europe and North America is a “theology of white supremacy.”
Here’s a summary of Wright’s speech concerning what whites have to do in order to become reconciled to the Black church in America.
God’s desire is for a radical change in a social order that has gone astray. God’s desire is for a radical transformation. This is the heart of Liberation Theology. What must we do in order to become reconciled? “Children of God repenting for past sins against one another.”
Apparently, Wright thinks whites have a long, long way to go before they deserve to be reconciled to the Black Church.
I wonder what kind of additional repentance Wright has in store for Whites? Hint, go listen to Obama’s new pastor’s sermons and, can you spell Reparations and residtribution???
With regard to the “white supremacy” church in America, Wright quoted Dr. William Augustus Jones to explain how one’s theology determines one’s sociology. Really? Can we get permission from Wright to apply that same standard to Obama???
I wonder if Wright considered that if that’s truly the case, then why shouldn’t all Americans have a right to ask Obama to explain his own theology in terms of comparison and contrast to Trinity United Church of Christ and Jeremiah Wright?
The Q&A session offered some hard questions that Wright attempted to turn to his favor.
When asked about the “chickens coming home to roost” post 9/11 sermon he responded:
“Have you heard the whole sermon? (He waits for a response) Well that nullifies that question.” Then Wright went on to say that (1) “I was quoting the ambassador of Iraq,” (2) What Wright said “comes from the Bible”, and (3) “You cannot do terrorism against other people and not expect it to come back on you.”
Asked if he was patriotic and loved Aemrica, Wright said:
“I served six years in the military. Does that make me patriotic?” Then he waved a flimsy salute.
Hummm. Looks like he doesn’t want to give a direct answer on that one.
Wright was asked about his relationship with Louis Farrakhan, the acting head of the Nation of Islam. Wright implied that he had been hurt by his relationship with Farrakhan because Farrakhan has once called Zionism a “gutter religion.” But Wright went on to say, “Farrakhan and I don’t agree on everything. Farrakhan is one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st centuries. I won’t put down Farrakhan any more than (Nelson) Mandela would put down Castro.”
Asked about Sen. Obama’s disavowal of him, Wright reminded the audience that Obama had not disavowed him just “distanced himself from me because he is a politician.” Wright said that he was downstairs praying with Obama before Obama went upstairs to talk. What does this imply?
When asked about his own motivation, Wright said, “If Obama had not said what he said he would never get elected.” Then Wright added, “I’m not running for office . . .(then with a kidding grin) I’m hoping to be V.P.” As a matter of fact, he said that again at the end of his speech. Interesting, and I bet he’s serious.
Asked about what evil our government is capable of, he said, that based on the Tuskegee experiment, “I believe our government is capable of anything.”
Asked if he likened Israeli policies to apartheid, he denied saying that and said that Israel has a right to exist but needs to sit down and work out a solution – reconciliation.
Wright refused to comment about Bill Clinton and said that “I came to talk about the church not politics.” Funny, he could have fooled me.
Wright was asked how the Black and White church could reconcile. He said that many have already “taken great steps to do so. To reconcile, whites must understand the injustice that was done.”
He would start educating at the earliest levels by using “Infusion curriculum” – telling the true story.
When asked if Islam is the way to salvation, Wright said, “Jesus said, ‘Other sheep have I not of this fold.’”
So what’s Obama to do?
Wright, like a dirty old piece of gum, is permanently stuck to Obama’s shoe. Obama can’t shake him. Granted, Obama hasn’t tried very hard to convince most voters that he’s all that upset with Wright, but why should he? If Obama were to come out even stronger against Wright or his own Black Liberation church, he’d lose the votes of his primary supporters on the left.
Some speculating yesterday on the news had the Obama camp actually redirecting Wright in an attempt to rehabilitate his image. The idea is that if Obama can stop attacks on Wright, he can win the blue collar white votes he badly needs. The only way to do that is to turn this thing on his head. Apparently, the far left is taking the ball and running with it.
Here’s the new spin. To question Wright or Obama is tantamount to white racism!
Recently John McCain was criticized by members of the far right for publicly expressing distaste for an ad that the NCGOP was to run which associated Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright. McCain went as far as to ask the NCGOP to not run the ad.
Jeremiah Wright, for those unaware, has been Obama's pastor for almost 20 years and his sermons which are available to the public, created a firestorm in the media and blogosphere, with speeches where he said "God Damn America" and declared 9/11 was the chickens coming home to roost, along with a number of other controversial statements that have been labeled as racist by many. (You can see some of those statements at the article I wrote at the time where I provided video)
McCain has tried to stick to legitimate political issues in his campaign and although he annoyed members of the conservative base with his request about that ad, centrists, moderates and Independents applauded his stance.
Then Barack Obama literally opened the door for John McCain to address the Wright issue, by telling Fox News, in an interview with Chris Wallace, that the topic of Jeremiah Wright was a "legitimate political issue".
WALLACE: Question: Do you think that Reverend Wright is just the victim here?
OBAMA: No. I think that people were legitimately offended by some of the comments that he had made in the past. The fact he's my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue. So I understand that.
When a politician opens the door, widely, for another politician to walk through, they should not be surprised when it happens.
Although McCain still does not appreciate the NCGOP's advertisement associating Obama with Wright, realizing that Obama has just admitted his associations are legitimate political issues, McCain finally starts to address them as such.
In Florida, John McCain had some things to say about the issue saying that Wright's comparison with the Romans at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion to the Marines, was "beyond belief."
But Mr. McCain took a different approach at a news conference here when he criticized Mr. Wright for, as the senator paraphrased him, “comparing the United States Marine Corps with Roman legionnaires who were responsible for the death of our Savior, I mean being involved in that” and for “saying that Al Qaeda and the American flag were the same flags.”
“So I can understand, I can understand why people are upset about this,” said Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. “I can understand why Americans, when viewing these kinds of comments, are angry and upset.”
An Obama spokesperson, Hari Sevugan, criticizes McCain for addressing a topic that Obama himself had just admitted was a "legitimate political issue", by saying, "By sinking to a level that he specifically said he’d avoid. John McCain has broken his word to the American people and rendered hollow his promise of a respectful campaign.”
Once Obama let that genie out of the bottle, there is no putting it back in and the topic of Jeremiah Wright is not the only topic John McCain is addressing in regards to Barack Obama's associations.
But in recent days, Mr. McCain has stepped up his attacks on Mr. Obama on other fronts. He questioned Mr. Obama’s association with William Ayers, a former member of the radical group Weather Underground. And he also said of a supportive statement that a member of Hamas had made about Mr. Obama: “It’s clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States.”
That comment about Hama's refers to an interview on WABC radio a couple of weeks ago, with a top Hamas political adviser, Ahmed Yousef, where he stated that Hamas hopes Obama wins the presidential election.
“We don’t mind–actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance,” Yousef said in response to a question about the group’s willingness to meet with either of the Democratic presidential candidates.
Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by Canada, Israel, Japan, and the United States, and is banned in Jordan.
On a conference call with bloggers on Friday, John McCain addressed the Hamas issue by saying, "I think it is very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States. I think that the people should understand that I will be Hamas’ worst nightmare."
“I never expect for the leader of Hamas . . . to say that he wants me as president of the United States,” McCain said. “I think it is very clear . . . why they would not want me to be president of the United States. So if Sen. Obama is favored by Hamas, I think people can make judgments accordingly.”
Obama's questionable associations, terror groups publicly stating they wish him to become president, his pastor's insistence on continuing to stay in the spotlight with public speeches that further highlight racial divisions at a time when Obama is trying to "convince party leaders he can appeal to white, blue-collar voters critical to capturing the White House", are all legitimate political issues as well as shining a spotlight on the theology and guidance that Barack Obama has sought and practiced for almost 20 years.
These issues may or may not impact Obama in the Democratic contest for the nomination for presidency with Hillary Clinton, but as Clinton is undoubtedly arguing to the superdelegates which will determine who is nominated for the Democratic party, these definitely will be major issues in the general election where one of the two Democratic contenders will be up against John McCain.
18 year old Nathaniel Dickson has been arrested and charged with four counts of murder after authorities responded to a 911 call and discovered four dead bodies in a home in Easley, South Carolina, two female and two male.
The authorities found the body of Mr. Dickson’s 46-year-old father outside the home in Easley. Inside were his 46-year-old stepmother, 19-year-old stepsister and 14-year-old brother.
The police said the brother was apparently shot as he hid behind a clothes dryer.
Dickson had just moved back home after breaking up with his live-in girlfriend and police have not stated a motive as of yet. He was arrested in Belton SC, about 20 miles from where the bodies were discovered.
Other reports say the victims were all shot in the head.
The names and age of the victims, according to the police: Samuel Andrew Dickson Jr., 46 (father), Martiza Hurtado Dickson, 46 (stepmother), Melissa Giliam Salazar, 19 (stepsister) and his 14-year-old brother, Taylor Alex Dickson.
A 73 year old Austrian man, known as Josef F, has been arrested on suspicion of incest and keeping his daughter in captivity.
In a twisted story of incest and abuse, the 73 year old allegedly kept one daughter locked in the cellar of their home for 24 years and fathered 7 children with her, according to police.
As details emerge, reports are that he not only kept that one daughter locked up, but kept 3 other children locked up as well, while the other three were being raised by their grandparents.
These details started emerging after one of the children, the 19 year old known only as Kerstin F, was dropped off at Amstetten hospital last weekend and when doctors made an appeal for the mother to come forward to offer up medical history for the child, the father released the mother to do so.
Josef F allegedly then released the mother and two other children from the cellar, telling his wife Rosemarie that she had chosen to return home, police say.
It was not immediately clear how police were alerted.
The mother, named as Elisabeth F, has been receiving medical and psychological treatment since being discovered.
She appeared "greatly disturbed" psychologically during questioning and agreed to talk only after authorities assured her that she would no longer have to have contact with her father, and that her children would be taken care of, police added.
Other than the 19 year old, there were 6 children, three girls, three boys, ages 5 to 20 and they have all been taken to an unknown safe location.
According to a police spokesperson, Franz Polzer, some of these children, as of their release, were seeing daylight for the first time in their lives.
Statements made by Elisabeth, now 42 years old, show that she alleges she had been raped by her father since she was 11 years old when he lured her into the cellar of the house on August 28, 1984 and drugged and handcuffed her before locking her up.
It was assumed she had disappeared voluntarily when her parents received a letter from her asking them not to search for her.
"Abused continuously during the 24-year-long imprisonment", Elisabeth bore six children while a seventh, one of a set of twins, died soon after birth.
The dead baby was allegedly taken out of the cellar and burnt by Josef.
To top off one unbelievably sick and twisted tale with another one, Josef F's wife, Rosemarie claims she didn't know what was going on.
The problem with constantly changing a story, especially for a politician, is that previous words are captured in print, published, via audio or caught on video and trying to change your actual words or explanations is that you are caught, publicly, telling lies.
This isn't really about a flag pin, no, it is about giving one reason and when that didn't work out so well, giving another reason that sounds better and accusing people that quoted your previous words, of telling lies.
Case in point.... Barack Obama and the flag pin.
Last October Obama was asked why he didn't wear a flag pin and his answer was:
"You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism."
His words are clear...he decided not to wear the pin.
Now, lets look at his attempt to rewrite his own reasons and words.
"And the second thing, the way this has come up is the fact that I don't always wear a flag pin. Now I don't know if any of you who don't have flag pins consider yourselves unpatriotic. I think you're patriotic. The reason that I don't always wear a flag pin is not that I disrespect the flag, it's that when I started wearing a flag pin after 9/11, I gotta admit that sometimes I would misplace it and so I didn't always put it on."
So, now it wasn't his decision, it was that he misplaced it sometimes... anyone buying this?
He continues:
"Then I was asked about this in Iowa," Obama said. "And somebody said 'Why don't you wear a flag pin?' I said, well, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I said, although I will say that sometimes I notice that they're people who wear flag pins but they don't always act patriotic. And I was specifically referring to politicians, not individuals who wear flag pins, but politicians who you see wearing flag pins and then vote against funding for veterans, saying we can't afford it."
You can look at his two explanations for yourself and decide if they match up with each other, or if he was simply trying to make it sound better this time than it did last time.
The flag pin never was much of an issue for me, hence my not writing about it at length at the time, but his constant stream of lies, many shown here, is a problem for me. His consistent attempts to skewer the truth when it fits his agenda and then simply act like he did nothing wrong when he gets caught in a lie, is a problem.
The audacity it takes to tell these lies, straight to people's faces when his previous words were published over and over again, also shows he doesn't really care about the truth and further goes to show that his supporters don't either, or they would call him out on it and insist he start showing more honesty.
Little misstatements, little white lies or simple changes to a story told many times, is almost considered normal in politics, but when it becomes the one consistent theme, as with Rezko, Wright, and Ayers, and a whole list of topics ranging from big to small, it can be considered a pattern.
It is a pattern Obama supporters would rather ignore, as would Obama himself, but unless they face it head on and start holding him accountable, their credibility will fly out the window right along with his.
When someone jumps headfirst into the American political arena it opens the door for journalists, opponents and US citizens to start probing into every aspect of their lives.
The life of a politician, especially one running for the highest US office that can be held, the presidency, is a life where everything is subject to investigation, talk, rumor and which can play on even the most even tempered person's nerves, which was displayed recently when Barack Obama was trying to eat breakfast and reporters were relentlessly questioning him, and he responded by saying, "Why can't I just eat my waffle?"
Waffles aside, there is a legitimate question whether a person should be judged by his associations with certain individuals and whether an association or more than one is "telling" of a man and his character or judgment.
Many complained when Barack Obama joined the race for the Democratic nomination for presidency, that Obama was unknown, he wasn't vetted, and many didn't know enough about him to judge whether he was someone they would be willing to vote for to become the president of the United States of America.
When the spotlight was shone on Obama, some information came to light that to many, was quite worrisome.
In no particular oder, citizens have seen many articles showing Obama's connection or association with Tony Rezko.
First Obama said that his association with Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who is currently facing federal charges of attempted extortion, money laundering, and fraud, wasn't a close association, which news reports later showed wasn't exactly the truth. Then further digging showed there was also more money that exchanged hands than previously admitted.
Barack Obama admitted to having shown poor judgment with his association with Rezko.
Fair enough, it happens to the best of us.
Then came a firestorm of publicity about another association of Obama's. This time it was his pastor of almost 20 years, Jeremiah Wright, someone that Barack Obama has described as "like a member of my family". This is a man that preached what many have called "anti-American" rhetoric by way of sermons where he proclaimed, "God Damn America" (Video here of Wright's statements) as well as other controversial statements about a variety of subjects.
Barack Obama gave a speech shortly after that story broke, where he condemned Wright's words, yet did not condemn the man that said them. In that speech Obama also admitted to having heard controversial statements from his pastor, which he said he disagreed with, but just four days before, Obama said he had never heard those controversial statements.
Moving along to someone else that Barack Obama said was a spiritual adviser and/or guide, more news came out that Senator James Meeks, another pastor associated with Obama by his own statements, also had a video thrown out to the masses with the same type of speech as Wright.
The reports and bloggers made a big deal out of a Che Guevara flag that was prominently displayed in one of the many campaign offices for Barack Obama, a flag, even Obama's critics doubt he knew was put on the wall, but many had a hayday with speculation about the type of supporters Obama was drawing to him.
Which brings us to another association of Obama's, which has recently come to light and that is a man named, Sam Graham-Felsen.
Sam Graham-Felsen, a journalist-on-leave from The Nation, joined Obama for America in March 2007 where he works for the New Media department as the official blogger, daily presenting the campaign's public face. Now he's under fire for his reputed Marxist sympathies from bloggers at Common Ills on the left and Little Green Footballs on the right.
Graham-Felsen, according to a 2003 article in the Harvard Crimson, adorned one corner of his shared student apartment with "a Communist Party flag ... bought on their trip to Russia the summer after sophomore year."
According to Huffington Post, who listed information about paid staffers on the Obama payroll, from America campaign 2007 second quarter report, Graham-Felsen is a paid staffer for Barack Obama.
The WND article goes on to say that Graham-Felsen used to have a Communist Party flag in his Harvard campus apartment and published in a self-professed 'revolutionary Marxist' journal.
You can read the rest yourself, but the point of this article is that most everyone can agree that a person cannot be held responsible for an associates words or actions.
I think it is also safe to say that most people can be said to have shown bad judgment once in a while or at least once in their lives.
How many questionable associations can be brought to light for one person before people legitimately can ask about the "judgment" of a man that wants to hold the highest position in the US, that of the presidency?
More importantly, if a person surrounds themselves, consistently, with questionable characters, is it fair to start associating that person with company he chooses to keep?
These are questions voters will have to answer for themselves in the coming months.
Indonesia is running their first massive rehearsal drill for a potential pandemic of Avian Flu aka Bird Flu. They are doing this to see how prepared they would be should the bird flu start to spread from human to human.
With the recent news that there has been troubling mutations in the avian flu virus as well as a short list of examples of the virus spreading from human to human within a family, Indonesia is conducting a drill which started Friday, April 25, 2008 and will run for three days.
This large scale simulation, called the National Pandemic Preparedness Plan, will include thousands of villagers, health workers, military and government officials, equaling approximately 5,000 people that will take part in this drill.
Subhash Salunke from the World Health Organization (WHO) tells Associated Press reporters, "This is a very important event from the perspective of public health. It will certainly help better equip Indonesia in the event of a pandemic. But other countries struggling to contain bird flu outbreaks can and will learn from this exercise as well."
On the 17th of April, the WHO updated the worldwide and country by country figures, showing a total of 381 cases and 240 deaths, with 132 cases and 107 deaths in Indonesia. Viet Nam is the next highest, with 106 cases and 52 deaths reported.
Health experts in Indonesia estimate that up to 60 million Indonesians will become infected if the virus starts to spread from human to human.
The simulation started with one man going to the village clinic with symptoms of the avian flu virus and from there the simulation continues with what they call "reasonable assumptions", starting with the assumption that the man caught the virus from contact with an infected bird.
They question the man, find out there was no contact with sick or dead birds, then jump straight to the possibility it was spread from human to human. They proceed to trace the virus to another man in the village which has officials seal off the village and launch containment procedures which include chickens and ducks and isolating any other humans who may be infected.
The scenario then leads them to attempt to stop any potentially infected persons from airline travel by using thermal scans on all people entering and leaving the airport and will spray their vehicles with disinfectant.
Nine members of the Triathlon Club of San Diego were swimming at Solana Beach yesterday when a shark attacked and killed one of it's members, David Martin, who was 66 years old.
Martin was the first shark fatality in San Diego County since 1959, although in 1994 the body of Michelle Von Emster was found, missing the right leg, but the medical examiner ruled that death was caused by falling off the cliffs.
This stretch of coastline has no history of shark activity.
The members of the Triathlon Club of San Diego were training for a triathlon and were headed north from Fletcher Cove Beach Park toward Tide Beach Park when the shark attacked Martin, biting into both of his legs as he was approximately 150 yards offshore in water 20 to 30 feet deep.
Witnesses say they saw him lifted into the air, waving his arms in the air wildly before he went down, then they grabbed him and held him until others could come helped take him to shore.
One witness, Diana Noble, was swimming about 20 feet behind Martin when she heard someone yell, "shark" and she says, "I thought that was a dumb thing to say. My brain couldn't register that it was real."
Noble also says that after they brought Martin to shore, they saw that, "Where the injuries were, it was just a massive pool of blood."
Noble, who has competed at the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii the past two years, said the trauma will deter her from returning to the ocean anytime soon.
“It's such a freak accident,“ she said. “It seems surreal.”
Some San Diego beaches are closed and being patrolled throughout the weekend as helicopters from the Coast Guard and county Sheriff's Department fly along the shoreline to see if the shark was still in the area.
Another witnesses, who was working on the beach repairing a seawall, heard the commotion and ran over when Martin was brought out of the water and along with the lifeguard, started CPR, but Martin was already dead.
Romero describes the wounds, saying, "His left leg from the knee down was just shredded", then added that the right leg had a wound so deep it went right down to the bone.
According to Richard Rosenblatt, a professor emeritus of marine biology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, the description of the attack from the eye witnesses, suggest it was a Great White shark that attacked Martin because he "was thrust vertically up out of the water", which typically matches the methods that Great Whites use to ambush their prey from below.
The County's medical examiner ask Rosenblatt to examined Martin's body to make a determination and Rosenblatt said, "Those are the kind of slicing wounds that you would expect from a white shark."
After delivering a single, devastating bite, white sharks typically back away and wait for their prey to become unconscious before returning to feed.
Rosenblatt also believes from the bite marks on Martin's body, that the Great White that attacked would be about 2 to 17 feet long.
Jeffrey Graham, who is a marine biologist and shark expert at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, has this advice for swimmers, "Don't go in waters occupied by large numbers of marine mammals, such as sea lions", he continues, "Wherever there are marine mammals, such as in a rookery, these sharks are going to be nearby because that's what they're built to eat."
There are not many people that Democratic supporters despise quite as much as they do Rush Limbaugh. He has been often criticized for his outrageous statements. He has done it again by saying, "I'm dreaming of riots in Denver."
Not long ago, I remember reading about an organization called Re-create 68, which is a group of people that want to protest at the Democratic convention that will be held on August 24-28, 2008, in Denver Colorado.
The significance of the Re-create 68 name, is that it refers to the Democratic convention of 1968, held in Chicago, Illinois, and which was rife with such protests from Democratic supporters and police actions, that as television cameras filmed, over 100 police officers and 100 demonstrators were injured and over 500 people arrested.
Outside the official convention proceedings, anti-war demonstrators clashed with 11,900 Chicago police, 7500 Army troops, 7500 Illinois National Guardsmen and 1000 Secret Service agents over 5 days.
This site, by its very name and stated intent is to re-create an event that was one of the most violent Democratic protest with party supporters protesting Democratic politicians, and yet the site, their goal and their intentions have gone largely ignored.
Enter Rush Limbaugh.
Rush Limbaugh is known for his outrageous statements and more recently for his "operation chaos" plan where he encouraged Republican voters to vote for Hillary Clinton in primaries, to keep her in the contest for the Democratic nomination for presidency.
On Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh once again said something that has Democratic supporters calling for his prosecution, claiming he is trying to incite riots at the August Democratic Convention.
Denver Channel.com titles their piece, "Rush Limbaugh Calling For Riots In Denver", the sub header of the piece, after reading the actual Limbaugh transcript, seems to better describe the words he used, but I will leave that to you to decide. The sub header is, "Talk Show Host Wants America To See Actions Of 'Far Left'".
He said the riots would ensure a Democrat is not elected as president, and his listeners have a responsibility to make sure it happens.
"Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don't elect Democrats," Limbaugh said during Wednesday's radio broadcast. He then went on to say that's the best thing that could happen to the country.
The portions of Limbaugh's transcripts that pertain to these conversations are within two different segments of his show.
The first portion is called, "Why It's Called Operation Chaos", and it discusses his plan to for Republican voters to vote for Hillary Clinton and why he wanted that, to keep the two Democratic contenders at each other's throats for as long as possible, to lessen any chance of either one of them being able to win the election in 2008 for presidency.
In that transcript, in regards to the latest controversy about the riots at the Democratic convention, Limbaugh said:
The dream end... I mean, if people say what's your exit strategy, the dream end of this is that this keeps up to the convention and that we have a replay of Chicago 1968, with burning cars, protests, fires, literal riots, and all of that. That's the objective here.
He goes on to finish discussing Operation Chaos, then the comments causing such a stir, came later in the day, which is covered in another transcript.
Setting the scene, Limbaugh is on the phone with a caller, they are discussing his ego and how the caller did not like his comments about the riots and the replay of the 1968 convention.
CALLER: I believe that, with -- with passion. But then also, I mean our -- our whole premise was our Constitution for our safety, you know, for our children's safety. And what would that show by riots and burning cars no matter what side did that? I just think, Rush, that that comment was a little out of line and maybe just not properly thought through. Because I don't believe that way, and I don't believe that most of us want that. Because people get hurt in those situations -- and we believe that our side as Republicans, we can do it better than the rest.
RUSH: As we would be demonstrating because there won't be riots at our convention.
CALLER: Actually they would be demonstrating as Americans --
RUSH: We don't riot.
CALLER: -- that they're more out of control.
RUSH: We don't burn our cars. We don't burn down our houses. We don't kill our children. We don't do half the things the American left does. We need the American left -- and this is another great thing about Operation Chaos; nothing to do with my ego. We need as many ignorant Americans to wake up and find out exactly who the modern-day Democrat Party is as dominated by the far left in this country. We need that to be seen. Now, I am not inspiring or inciting riots. I'm dreaming. (singing to the tune of White Christmas) "I'm dreaming of riots in Denver." Remember 1968? And which party did that? It was the radicals in that party, the anti-war radicals, the same bunch of clowns that are running around defining the Democrat Party today. What the world thinks of us? There was an analogy just this week about somebody in the world. I'm drawing a mental blank about this. But the fact is that the Democrat Party has members in it that have already said, "There will be riots," or something to that effect. Al Sharpton.
He was throwing down the gauntlet to the superdelegates: "You take this election away from Barack Obama, and there's gonna be trouble......
Sharpton's comments are in the video below.
Reaction to Rush Limbaugh's words has come out fast and furiously, promising to become a firestorm at the rate it is going.
Some are saying he is deliberately trying to incite violence, one even suggests locking Limbaugh up in a mental institution, another suggests that he was trying to get Republicans to "pretend" they were Democrats and riot so that Democrats would look bad, and others are saying dreaming of something is not inciting it.
That is just a small sample of reactions to the latest comments by Rush Limbaugh.
This leaves but one question in my mind.... why is no one talking about the Re-Create 68 site, which by it's name alone suggests recreating one of the most violent Democratic protests in history against Democratic politicians by their own supporters, yet Rush's assertion that he "wishes", "dreams" or even 'wants" for the far left to show the world a side of themselves that would commit violent acts, receives calls to jail him and institutionalize him?
Are his words any worse that the Re-Create 68 site? Or is it simply because some people just love to hate Rush Limbaugh?
A Times Online journalist goes to Basra and reports that a city once fearful and scared of the militia that threatened and killed indiscriminately, is now a city alive with activity where bands are performing at wedding parties, women are wearing jeans and young people are afraid to attend school and are looking forward to it.
When al-Maliki decided to crackdown on the al-Sadr's Mahdi Army in Basra, many criticized him and reported every problem that happened, every death , every moment of the battle as if a battle happens with no fighting.
Now, weeks later, things have changed for Basra and the people who live there and they are happy with the changes.
Not long ago we quoted Basra residents saying they finally felt secure because of the Iraqi security forces presence and today we see things are looking up and Basra has, indeed, turned a corner.
Yet after three years of being terrified of kidnap, rape and murder – a fate that befell scores of other women – Nadyia Ahmed, 22, is among those enjoying a sense of normality, happy for the first time to attend her science course at Basra University. “I now have the university life that I heard of at high school before the war and always dreamt about,” she told The Times. “It was a nightmare because of these militiamen. I only attended class three days a week but now I look forward to going every day.”
She also no longer has to wear a headscarf. Under the strict Islamic rules imposed by the militias, women had to cover their hair, could not wear jeans or bright clothes and were strictly forbidden from sitting next to male colleagues on pain of death.
“All these men in black [who imposed the laws] just vanished from the university after this operation,” said Ms Ahmed. “Things have completely changed over the past week.”
Read the whole thing.
This has been a turning point, but not just for Basra, but for Maliki as well. He has shown that once he determined that with US and coalition help, his security forces were capable of taking Basra back and giving it to the residents instead of the murdering thugs that has controlled the area for so long, he was capable of making the decision, implementing it, and winning a very important battle.
One many doubted he or his Army was ready for, yet they did it.
They had their problems along the way but by any definition of success, Maliki was successful.
For the first time in four years local residents have been emboldened to stand up to the militants and are turning in caches of weapons. Army checkpoints have been erected across Basra and traffic police are also out in force.
The security forces have also torn down many banners supporting al-Mahdi Army as well as portraits of its leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, though some still remain in militia strongholds.
The contrast could not be more stark with the last time The Times visited Basra in December, when intimidation was rife.
The militias aka the men in black, have vanished and Basra has come to life and the residents of Basra have no intention of letting those men in black back into their town to rule.
h/t to Susan at Wake up America for a link to the transcript. If you prefer to read rather than watch, the full transcript is below the video.
I've pulled this quote out of for posterity:
Quote, "Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill gods who do not belong to the black community. Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in black power which is the power of black people to destroy their opinion pressers here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love."
Take a look into Barack Obama's Pastor's theology, which he, Jeremiah Wright, so proudly professes.
How Radical is Obama`s Pastor?; Supreme Court Hears Second Amendment Case; Millionaire Bails out Hundreds of Illegals
Aired March 19, 2008 - 19:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) GLENN BECK, HOST (voice-over): Tonight more fallout from Obama`s controversial speech about his former pastor. Does Jeremiah Wright believe in what`s called a black liberation theology? How radical is that school of thought?
Plus a big wig from Boston spends $200,000 to bail out illegals swept up in raids. Is he a hero or a villain? See if you can guess what I think.
And it`s been five years since the war in Iraq began, and except for today, the media has largely ignored the story lately. But the reason they`ve been ignoring the war is actually good. And I`ll explain.
All this and more tonight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BECK: Well, hello, America.
After Barack Obama`s speech yesterday on the racially charged anti- American comments of his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, the liberal media held a pity party: "Oh, poor Barack, he`s just got a crazy grandpa. And don`t we all have a crazy grandpa?" No. Here`s "The Point" tonight.
Reverend Jeremiah Wright is much more dangerous than any crazy grandpa any of us might have had. The foundation of Wright`s beliefs are rooted in the theological tradition based in hate, intolerance and racial black nationalism. Here`s how I got there.
I told you just last week that I wouldn`t give any platform to any slinging of any mud for any candidate or any party. And I feel I am keeping my word on this. I am not piling on Obama due to the comments of his former pastor. What I`m doing, and what I think is important that we all do, is shine a light on Barack`s past.
We don`t know, really, who this guy is. We have to kind of piece it together, not only by what he says in the present, but what he has done in the past. Who is Barack Obama? Who has built his foundation?
So what did Barack do in the last 20 years? Well, he`s -- one thing, sat in one of the pews of the Trinity United Church of Christ and listened to Reverend Wright`s sermons. He says he counts Wright as a member of his family and his senior spiritual adviser. OK. If that`s true, then I think it`s fair that we find out who Wright is and what he believes.
In the talking points page of the Trinity church`s Web site, Reverend Wright, in his own words, states that the foundation of his beliefs are in systemized black liberation theology and praises James Cone`s book, "Black Power and Black Theology." This is what James Cone, the man who Obama`s senior spiritual advisor looks up to and whose ideas he preaches, states as black liberation theology. Listen carefully and please follow along.
Quote, "Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill gods who do not belong to the black community. Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in black power which is the power of black people to destroy their opinion pressers here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love."
Wow, America, here is what you need to know tonight. The man who wrote those words contributed to the foundation of Reverend Jeremiah Wright`s ministry. Barack Obama has been Fed a steady diet of those teachings for 20 years. He sat in the pew every Sunday, soaking it in. He never denounced or rejected the Reverend`s beliefs until it was politically advantageous.
So do we believe 20 years of evidence or a 20-minute speech? Forget about me. I want to ask you the question: is this the kind of man you want to have access to the most powerful man on earth?
Ken Blackwell is a senior fellow for family empowerment of the Family Research Council. And Ramesh Ponnuru is the "TIME" columnist and senior editor for "The National Review".
Ramesh, let me start with you. "Newsweek" called a couple of dozen prominent African-American pastors and asked them how out of step is Jeremiah Wright with what they see coming across the country? What did they find?
RAMESH PONNURU, "TIME"/"NATIONAL REVIEW": Well, they found that not one of their experts was willing to say that the Reverend Wright had crossed any kind of significant line. They were saying that this sort of stuff is firmly within the mainstream of the churches that they`re talking about, not that all churches are like this but that a lot were.
BECK: OK. Here`s what I don`t understand, Ramesh. Is I`m reading the editorials. I read four papers today. You can`t find an editorial in a mainstream paper today that says anything but that Barack Obama was brave, et cetera, et cetera.
This is poison. This would destroy anybody else`s career. How is this just being dismissed?
PONNURU: Well, partly it`s because, for some of his fans among liberals and in the press, Barack Obama can`t sneeze without it being called eloquence.
Partly it`s because he managed very skillfully to change the subject. The question you`ve been talking about I think is the right question, which is what does his association, his tight and longstanding association with the Reverend Wright say about him, his beliefs and his judgment?
Instead, he made it all about this grand canvas of race relations in this country.
BECK: Right.
PONNURU: So it`s not about his judgment. It`s about all of us, the moral test is of us, not of him.
BECK: OK. Ken, I wanted to have you on, because you were a former U.N. ambassador -- U.S. ambassador at the U.N. And you have seen this black liberation philosophy or theology before. Explain. I think this is even more frightening than the stuff that I`ve already read on television. Explain what you`ve seen.
KEN BLACKWELL, FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL: Essentially, liberation theology took root in Africa and Central America. It was often offered up by Marxist regimes that knew that they couldn`t uproot the church, so they tried to weaken the doctrine of the church. So it is an alternative doctrine of the church that embraces big government. It advances a collectivist ideal and idea, and it says the state, not the individual is central to society.
And that is very disquieting. But it also gives you a better understanding of the under-girding of Senator Obama`s big-government, liberal philosophy that would increase spending, increase taxes, weaken our military and our position in the world.
BECK: I`ll tell you, it explains the comments of his wife. It explains -- you`re exactly right, his big-government ideas. If you understand what this theology is, you do begin to understand Barack Obama, but it is in a -- I believe in a frightening way.
However, I`m being labeled the one that`s the hate-monger for asking these questions. How is this theology out there and it not be labeled racist and hate-mongering?
BLACKWELL: Well, it`s part of a series, of parts. Here`s a guy who says that he studied the doctrine of Saul Alinsky, who was an anarchist, a radical. Here is a guy who basically said that, while he was in Reverend Wright`s church, he embraces Louis Farrakhan.
The fact is that nobody has elevated this beyond his race. He can speak eloquently on race and moving towards a color-blind society, but what he can`t speak to is how he got there going to a color-conscious theology and how he got there by embracing, I think, a position that was really radical and antithetical to this whole notion of God as being central to our nation and the individual as being primary.
BECK: Ramesh, do you think, if I had -- if I had a gun to your head and made you make a prediction, lay your last thousand dollars on the table and make a bet, does this just tighten Barack Obama`s core, and I think tear us apart even more, make us -- you know, pretty much guarantee 1968? Or does this -- does this -- does he get away with it? Does it -- does it do anything to anybody in the end?
PONNURU: I think Obama -- you know, we`ve heard a lot of people say, oh, he threaded the needle. And that`s true except for one factor. He may be getting through the primaries this way. But unfortunately, there`s also a general election.
And I`m not sure that this kind of double talk, where he sort of says he`s not excusing the Reverend Wright and his anti-American comments and then gives seven paragraphs of excuses for it, is going to work with the general electorate. I they they`re fooling themselves.
BECK: I have to tell you, I have more respect for Democrats than this. I don`t think Democrats are -- are in line in Reverend Wright at all.
Ken, Ramesh, thank you very much.
NOTE FROM MAGGIE'S NOTEBOOK: At this point the Jeremiah Wright-Barack Obama conversation ends. Beck goes on to discuss Iraq, Ban on Guns, Illegal Aliens, and The Economy and Rising Energy Costs.
Well, at least for Rep Murtha. He has some 'splainin' to do in more ways than one. As you will recall, or not, some time ago, via some shady goings on, LTC William Russell was removed from the PA ballot and it was concocted at such a time that there would not be enough time to go around and run a round to get the signatures that he needed.
The next order of battle was to have at least 1,000 PA voters in the 12th District write in the name of William Russell. Primary day came and went and lo and behold, miracles of miracles, the goal was not only met but was exceeded and they are still counting them.
Tonight, LTC William Russell will be on the American Truth Warriors Blog Talk Radio show at 1900 hours EST (7 PM EST for you civilians). He will explain The Why he started in on this journey and how he overcame the back door shenanigans of the man he seeks to unseat this November.
Please join us as an Iraq War Veteran blazes a new path to bring Truth, Justice and the American Way back to the tainted and dishonorable halls of CONgress.
His web site is here and the other Iraq War Veterans blazing the same trails can be found here.
Tune in here and listen and/or participate in the chat room...we will have to register with BTR to chat...guests are welcome but guests cannot participate in the chat room. Not my rule. The call-in number to ask LTC Russell questions is 646-652-2670.
The national 'Day of Silence' scheduled for today and Friday, to support gay and lesbian students, is causing some major controversy with groups and parents protesting the event.
According to the Day of Silence website, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender/Transsexual (LGBT) event this year is being held in memory of Lawrence King, a California 8th-grader who was shot and killed Feb. 12 by a classmate because of his sexual orientation and gender expression.
Students at schools across the country vow to be silent for day, some wearing shirts with the words "Hello, I am Silent" and others simply refusing to participate in portions of classes that require them to speak.
This has parents and other groups questioning if schools, that are meant to educate the children, are the appropriate place for this type of event.
A prominent anti-gay-rights activist last week called for 1,000 "prayer warriors" to protest in front of the school Friday morning and school staff has been fielding calls and email from concerned parents that are concerned about students taking a silent vow in support of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth at some schools.
A local church took out a full-page ad in Wednesday's Snoqualmie Valley Record in support of the school's Gay Straight Alliance (GSA), which is sponsoring the Day of Silence. The ad was meant to counter one by the Rev. Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, inviting residents to join his protest and declaring: "It's time for moral people to be unashamed and take a stand."
The day of silence is not a school-sanctioned event, although many schools participate.
A group of parents for students that attend the Desert Ridge High School in Arizona, sent out a letter which, in part, states, "These organizations are trying to ensure that anything less than endorsement of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender lifestyles will not be tolerated in our schools or by our students. They want to modify school policies to include language which would remove the rights of those opposed to these lifestyles including the right to state our moral, religious, or even just personal belief that this is wrong. They do not feel anyone with an opinion or belief different from theirs should be able to express that opinion or belief."
That group of parents are allowing their children to stay home from school Friday to protest National Day of Silence. One parent is even inviting students to his house for swimming and pizza.
One parent, Randy Bellino, thinks his son, Jake, "should be learning about math and science, not gay and lesbian rights." He is the parent inviting students over to swim and eat pizza.
Another parent, Gail Fox, in Houston's Pershing Middle School, who has a daughter, CeCe White, that is helping organize the event because her best friend is gay, supports her daughters involvement saying, "She has an opinion, and I think that's a great thing."
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network has registered five participating schools in Katy, at least two in the Clear Creek school district and more than 20 in the Houston area. The organization estimates that more than 6,000 schools and several hundred thousand kids will keep silent Friday.
In response to the massive amounts of communication from groups and parents about the day of silence, the superintendent of Katy's school district, Alton Frailey, made it clear to the teachers in his district that although his schools were not officially asked to participate, if they were asked, "my answer is no."
He also sent out a districtwide e-mail on the subject, saying, "The degree of exposure and political posturing currently being generated is bringing more attention to this particular subject than is necessary", and in that email he instructed teachers to not make exceptions for students taking vows of silence.
One mother of an elementary school student in Katy, Lori Wilson, said she started receiving forwarded emails back in March, about the silent protest and she is one of the parents that has emailed the school's administrators.
"It's sad because we can't have a day of silence for prayer, but we can have a day of silence for that," she said.
This is but a small sample of what is going on around the country in schools.
One thing is clear, no matter what side of the issue people are on, all can agree that there won't be much scholastic education going on in the schools from one end of the country to the other, on Thursday and Friday.
According to Wikipedia, these days of silence have been going on annually since 1996.
A 19 year old man jumped in front of a commuter train in Miami Florida. According to witnesses, the man walked to the edge, looked to see if a train was coming and then jumped in front of the oncoming train.
The force of the impact literally knocked "his shoes off" and pushed him between the rail cars and a wall below the platform, where rescue workers rescued him, shutting down the Miami Metrorail until the rescue operations were completed.
The man suffered injuries to his right arm and possibly broke his legs and was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital. The man's identity has not be released yet.
The train remained stopped at the Douglas Road station near Coral Gables, a wealthy Miami suburb. Buses transported commuters to another train station. The rest of the commuter system was operating normally, although a large part of it south of downtown was briefly closed due to the accident.
Miami Fire Rescue spokesman Ignatius Carroll tells reporters that the man was injured but those injuries were not life threatening.
As information trickled into newsrooms, we found out that there had been a limited ground operation conducted by Israel, into Syria, to confirm the information they had about Syria and North Korea were collaborating on a nuclear program.
They confirmed it, then they struck the facility.
Which leads us to today's news that the intelligence committees in congress is going to get to see a video taken in that facility in Syria, which will allegedly show North Korean involvement.
The officials said the video of the remote site, code-named Al Kibar by the Syrians, shows North Koreans inside. It played a pivotal role in Israel's decision to bomb the facility late at night last Sept. 6, a move that was publicly denounced by Damascus but not by Washington.
According to one American official, the Telegraph reports, the video evidence is "very damning".
Reports said that the video showing North Koreans inside the Syrian reactor would demonstrate that Yongbyon was the model for al-Kibar, including an “identical” configuration and the same number of holes for fuel rods.
This information comes as the US is negotiating with North Korea about their own nuclear intentions and while Washington and Pyongyang are haggling over a missing portion of plutonium in the North Korean stockpile.
For some this soon to be seen video comes at a bad time which will make negotiations with North Korea even more tense, but to others, it is better to know before making a deal that would grant North Korea energy subsidies, plus major diplomatic and security benefits in return for dismantling its nuclear program, if they have no intention of honoring such a deal.
Bill Clinton's negotiations with North Korea represented a "decade of delusion." Evidence that North Korea was violating the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty surfaced within weeks of Clinton's first inauguration. After a year of inaction allowed Pyongyang to create at least one nuclear weapon, the emboldened Stalinists announced their formal withdrawal from the treaty. It seemed North Korean officials were angling for a payoff. They must have realized they struck the jackpot when Clinton named tough-as-nails Jimmy Carter as his principal negotiator.
Under the final terms of the Agreed Framework approved in October of 1994, Clinton agreed to provide the "Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea" (DPRK) with two light water nuclear reactors and a massive allotment of oil. The U.S. agreed to ship 500,000 metric tons of oil annually in response to the North's pretense that the energy-starved backwater had developed the nuclear facility to generate power. These shipments have cost taxpayers more than $800 million to date - a bargain compared with the $6 billion spent on constructing the nuclear reactors, which now empower North Korea to produce 100 nuclear bombs each year.
All these measures failed to quell the North's atom-lust.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
A new element in a case that has been constantly changing and moving forward, is reported today. Senate Leader, Harry Reid, is requesting the Justice Department review federal efforts to combat child abuse and criminal activity in polygamous communities.
Updating on the child custody issue for the FLDS children, the Senate leader's request is just the latest in reports coming out today. Others include the DNA samples already collected from all the children and some adults, being sent to the lab, more children being moved to their temporary homes, lawyers complaining and news that the FLDS men might be running to avoid charges.
Three weeks after the removal of 437 children from the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch, which is a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) compound, for allegations of abuse after Child Protective Services said they witnessed evidence of abuse, the state has finished taking the children's DNA samples and some of the parents, and have sent it to Alamance County, where LabCorp will be doing the testing for Texas state to determine family lines for the children.
Texas State District Judge Barbara Walther ordered the DNA tests last week after a two day hearing in which she determined that the children would stay in state custody pending further investigation.
Yesterday over 100 children were moved to their temporary foster facilities, teenage mothers being kept with their babies and large groups of children being placed into facilities together, because the state felt it best to keep as many siblings together as possible. CPS has been having a difficult time determining what children are siblings because the children have given different names are not always sure what family they belong to and some could not identify their biological parents, hence the DNA testing.
Today more children were taken to 16 different facilities across Texas, where they will stay until their DNA results are in as well as the parents, at which time they will travel back to the court to determine if they will be placed back at their homes or if Texas state will retain custody.
The children's parents are again returning to the Schleicher County Memorial Building today to undergo a cheek swab, be photographed and assigned a number. Not many showed up on Tuesday. Texas attorney general's spokeswoman Janece Rolfe said those who do not show could face fines or jail time.
"The court order is clear that being found in contempt of court could be a consequence," she said.
Rolfe also says that by not cooperating, "They jeopardize their ability to have their children returned."
Lawyers are also in court today in front of Judge Walther, complaining about the children being moved to their foster homes and want to tour the facilities.
Other news coming out today is something that was mentioned on Nancy Grace last night and which the New Yorks Times is alleging today.
Not only are some of the parents that were ordered to provide the DNA samples to be matched with what child is theirs, are not showing up to provide those samples, but some of the fathers are being reported as allegedly leaving town to avoid criminal charges that may be filed on them should they be determined to have impregnated the children from the ranch.
An estimated 175 adults in the group are also supposed to participate in the genetic testing, although some of the men were said to have left the state to avoid possible criminal charges.
With that said, there are a number of mothers that are showing up and providing the DNA samples.
In the meantime, Senate Leader Harry Reid, sent a letter to the Attorney General, Michael B. Mukasey, expressing his concern about the "pervasive criminal activity" by polygamist groups in the southwestern United States, as underscored by the raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound in Texas.
Reid previously wrote to then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in September 2006 saying the federal government should work with state officials to address the "broader pattern of serious criminal conduct by all those who use multiple marriages to abuse women and children."
Reid goes further when he states, "The recent raid of one polygamist compound in Texas uncovered many of these problems. But Texas may just be the tip of the iceberg."
From the raid on the FLDS compound, to the removal of the children and the subsequent court hearings, judges orders, DNA tests and relocating the children to their foster homes, all of this has been handled by the state and some may feel that each state should take care of the problem themselves.
Reid does continue on to make another point:
"The problem remains acute," Reid, a Nevada Democrat, wrote, noting that some polygamists have isolated themselves by setting up tightly controlled towns, with officials discouraging victims of polygamy from seeking help.
Reid continues with, "In the fact of such corruption, state and local law enforcement is often inadequate. Federal assistance is vital."
The ad in question, is found at YouTube. (URL provided for email subscribers because videos do not appear in those email alerts)
The ad above was created by the NCGOP and it shows the infamous Jeremiah Wright speech where he says, "God Damn America", while explaining Barack Obama's association with Wright. This ad is to show NC voters that Obama is "too extreme" for them.
John McCain has officially asked the NCGOP to not run the ad and to take it down, a request they are not prepared to grant.
The North Carolina GOP has the ad up at their website.
You will not see the typical, "I am John McCain and I approved this ad", and his letter to the NCGOP leaders, via NYT'S, The Caucus, expresses why.
From the beginning of this election, I have been committed to running a respectful campaign based upon an honest debate about the great issues confronting America today. I expect all state parties to do so as well. The television advertisement you are planning to air degrades our civics and distracts us from the very real differences we have with the Democrats. In the strongest terms, I implore you to not run this advertisement.
This ad does not live up to the very high standards we should hold ourselves to in this campaign. We need to run a campaign that is worthy of the people we seek to serve. There is no doubt that we will draw sharp contrasts with the Democrats on fundamental issues critical to the future course of our country. But we need not engage in political tactics that only seek to divide the American people.
Once again, it is imperative that you withdraw this offensive advertisement.
McCain told reporters on his campaign bus in Kentucky that, "We asked them not to run it. I'm sending them an e-mail as we speak asking them to take it down", he continues, "I don't know why they do it. Obviously, I don't control them, but I'm making it very clear, as I have a couple of times in the past, that there's no place for that kind of campaigning, and the American people don't want it."
He also asserts he hasn't seen it and hopes he will not see it.
North Carolina GOP spokesman Brent Woodcox said the ad will begin running statewide on Monday, a week before the state's crucial May 6 primary.
To that end, Woodcox says, "We have a great relation with the RNC and we fully support John McCain for president. But this is an ad about two North Carolina candidates for governor. The ad is going to run."
A dozen Patas monkeys escaped the Safari Wild preserve in Polk County, which is a wildlife preserve in Florida. Those monkeys include mature males, reproducing females and a dominant troop leader.
Enough ingredients to start their own colony in the wild.
Patas monkeys are no threat to the people in Florida and they made their great daring escape by doing something that was generally believed they wouldn't do-- they swam. The left their beautiful island home and swam right across the pond.
Their keepers never thought the patases would brave the dark waters of an 8-foot-deep, 60-foot-wide moat around their 1-acre island preserve north of Lakeland. But they did. Every last one of them went into the drink and over a wall.
This great monkey escape did not surprise everyone though, as a veterinarian, Mark Wilson, who runs the Florida Teaching Zoo in Bushnell and who imports patas monkeys for placement in preserves and zoos, points out, these patas monkeys were wild and not born in captivity. That means the natural fear they would have had of the dark waters of an 8-foot-deep, 60-foot-wide moat around their 1-acre island preserve north of Lakeland, didn't exist as is evidenced by every one of the patas, going into the water, swam and went over the wall.
Wilson says, "They have their wild instincts intact. It probably never occurred to them not to swim out", he then continued with, "They probably looked over the fence and said, 'Hmmm, this is home.' They are wild. They know how to forage for food and they know how to avoid predators."
This colony was taken from the wilds of Puerto Rico, where their numbers have grown rapidly, and they faced euthanasia. Wilson's group intervened and brought them to the preserve. The monkeys arrived as a group Thursday, and after two days of reconnaissance, they left as a group, led by a female with a baby on her back.
"They're very social," Salisbury said.
Being that they are no threat to human and carry no diseases, the desire to capture them and bring them back to the preserve stems from fear that predators will harm them when they were originally brought to the wildlife preserve to save them.
With Hillary Clinton winning the Pennsylvania primaries with a double digit win, it assures the Democratic party that the bitter contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will continue, with no real end in sight.
The nightmare scenario that worried Democratic leaders for months, which many have stated publicly, has come to pass.
Clinton comes one step closer to the popular vote and Obama still leads in delegates.
A New York Times piece blames Clinton for negative campaign advertising and she responds on the Today Show, where she was also asked about the exit polls which showed that 67 percent of Pennsylvania voters think she attacked Barack Obama unfairly...yet, she points out quite correctly that 55 percent of the voters voted for her anyway. (H/T Hot Air)
What this shows is that right or wrong, for Hillary Clinton, negativity has worked in Pennsylvania, although using a candidates own words against him, pointing out the flaws of your opposition and pointing out their inexperience, for some could be called just smart campaigning and not negativity.
Which puts Barack Obama in a bind.
He has made it a cornerstone of his public statements to say he wants to change politics, he doesn't intend to go negative and he refuses to "play" the Washington game.
He has played it up to a point, but he has also made many missteps along the way, which are pointed out time and again by many, especially Hillary Clinton.
In one article at Washington Post, it seems that some also believe Obama needs to take the gloves off and keep them off, as they titled their piece, and some question if it is already too late to save the Democratic party from becoming any more fractured than it has already become between Clinton and Obama supporters.
Next stop? May.
In May,Saturday the 3rd in Guam, Tuesday the 6th, Indiana and North Carolina, Tuesday the 13th, West Virginia and and Tuesday the 20th, Kentucky and Oregon, according to the New York Times Democratic Primary Schedule.
It's been a hard fought battle, and today will determine the outcome of the hotly contested Pennsylvania battleground as voters turn out to the polls in heavy numbers in the Keystone State. Early reports indicate high numbers waiting in long lines before the polls opened at 7 am this morning.
“Let’s just say it’s very busy,” said Joseph Passarella, the director of voter services for Montgomery County, sounding a little harried. “Our phones have been ringing since 6:15 this morning and have been ringing nonstop. We’ve never had a primary election this busy.”
Among the phone calls were people who wanted to vote in the primary but had not switched their registration to Democratic in time, Mr. Passarella said. Those people were told that they were not allowed to vote in the Democratic primary.
Mrs. Clinton was planning to hold a victory celebration in downtown Philadelphia, while Mr. Obama was scheduled to fly to the next battleground as the polls close in Pennsylvania at 8 p.m. Eastern time. He is due to appear at a rally in Evansville, Ind., with the rock singer John Mellencamp; Indiana and North Carolina hold Democratic primaries on May 6.
“I have come to the conclusion that this race will continue until the last primary or caucus vote is cast,” Mr. Obama said on Tuesday. “And that’s not that far away.”
Election officials had already predicted a record turnout for today's election, and the numbers have been higher than they had predicted at most precincts.
Check back with Wake Up America tonight as we begin following the results throughout the night as returns are announced and updated.
7:50 pm CST CBS and FOXNews project Hillary Clinton winner of Pennsylvania Primary
Imagine going to tidy up your child's treehouse and finding three guns, ammunition, ear plugs and empty Crown Royal bag wrapped in a bed sheet inside.
Thomas O'Connell who lives in East Englewood, Florida, found just that when he climbed up to his daughter's treehouse to clean up.
He grabbed up the items, called the police and according to police the man had found "a Jennings Bryco 9mm pistol, identified by serial number, was stolen Dec. 7, 2007, from a home on Coliseum Boulevard in Port Charlotte. A Hi-Point 9mm carbine rifle with serial number was not listed as missing, but a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun with no visible serial number was sawed off with only a pistol grip."
Not only that but wrapped in the sheet was a plastic bag with 343 rounds of 22-caliber long rifle ammunition and another plastic bag with 94 rounds of 9mm ammo...add to that a couple folding knives, ear plugs, cigar wrappers and an empty Crown Royal liquor bag.
The man was last in that treehouse on April 13, 2008.
Now word on the last time the daughter was in there.
The sheriff’s office is asking that anyone with information please call the CCSO at 941-639-2101; or Crime Stoppers at 800-780-TIPS (8477).
With the DNA tests being conducted, CPS finding placement for 437 children removed from the FLDS compound in Eldorado and news of Canadian children now in Texas state custody, questions of education for those children are now being answered.
An earlier Wake Up America piece shows new information being reported about Canadian children that were residing at the Yearning for Zion Ranch as well as an update on the DNA testing and the state having established that they had more underage mothers than originally thought.
Many issues have had to be dealt with at once and one of which that hasn't been addressed as of yet, is the education of the 437 children that the state of Texas is now responsible for providing.
Officials from the Alvin Independent School District (ISD) are meeting with Texas Education Agency officials to discuss the possibility as well as the difficulties of enrolling the children in school.
This difficulty is being compounded by a lack of documentation for the children that is usually needed to enroll a child in school, from Social Security cards, immunization records, educational record and even birth certificates.
According to Education Week (subscription needed for full article), days after the children were taken into custody after Child Protective Services determined they were in imminent risk of abuse if they were allowed to stay on the FLDS compound, San Angelo Independent School District organized the delivery of four truckloads of school supplies and textbooks to shelters where the children were staying in San Angelo.
This week teachers from the district began teaching art, math, and physical education.
After Judge Barbara Walther ruled that the children would be kept in state custody for 60 days, arrangements started being made to place the children into shelters and foster care, which led those shelters to contact the Education officials to discuss having the children enrolled for school.
One such example is Jim H. Green Kidz Harbor shelter in Liverpool, which is located on a six-acre tract on the banks of Chocolate Bayou, who was notified that their services might be need in housing approximately 40 of the children in Texas state care, that contacted the school district officials to discuss enrollment because children at that shelter must be enrolled in school.
Alvin ISD spokeswoman, Shirley Brothers, said, "We have been informed there is a possibility youngsters from West Texas would be placed at a facility in Brazoria County", she goes on to say, "We have asked the Texas Education Agency for direction."
She said the district plans to test and assess the educational needs of each of the new arrivals and place them in the school programs they need.
The same process was used for about 150 students who arrived in the district after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Brothers said.
The Texas CPS has said that the majority of the children from the sect will not go into traditional foster care homes, but instead will be placed in larger residential facilities to enable CPS to keep larger groups of the children together whenever possible.
Greg Cunningham, spokesman for the Department of Family and Protective Services, says that since some of the children have up to 20 siblings, "They won't be going to a two-bedroom home with a mom and a dad. We're trying to keep them in larger groups."
In the same article quoted above, there are issues of Texas states policy and lack of any oversight into private schools or home schooled children with a regents' professor at the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education at Arizona State University, David C. Berliner, criticizing the state of Texas for such a hands-off policy, by saying, "Walking away from such responsibility is cowardly. Texans should be ashamed of their lack of oversight."
That point is countered by David Bradley, who is a State Board of Education member, who counters with, "They didn't go in there and raid the place because the kids weren't getting an education."
Kidz Harbor, in preparation for the possibility that it may receive at least 40 children, asked area businesses Monday for donations such as towels, bedding, furniture and toiletries.
In the meantime, there is activity outside and within the coliseum where the children are being housed while DNA testing is being done, where buses were sighted on the San Angelo Coliseum grounds, being loaded with bottled water, food, women and children and the fairgrounds are on "lock-down" with no one being allowed to enter except emergency personnel.
Texas Child Protective Services have refused to provide details on where they are moving the women and children.
Greg Cunningham, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said that more information would be released later today, saying only, "We are not discussing the topic of moving children."
The last news brief on the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services' website was yesterday where they did say that once DNA testing was complete and the court finalizes the order, the children's placement will be handled, and that the will keep teenage girls and their children together, and sibling groups together as much as possible.
They also state that once, "in foster care, DFPS will begin evaluating the educational, healthcare and counseling needs of each child and create a service plan for each child."
[Update] Judge Walther did sign the finalized order for children to start being placed into their temporary foster homes, and those buses at the coliseum were taking them there, until individual custody hearings can be held.
Updates will be added as more information comes out.
Hillary Clinton has made every effort not to make any firm or committed statements during her current campaign regarding her plans for policy with Iran concerning it's nuclear development programs. Today we see a different Hillary Clinton on ABC.
It's down to the wire in Pennsylvania. With voters heading for the polls today, the last ditch efforts to win the hearts and minds of voters for today's election was carried out yesterday. Or was that the end of it? Both candidates made appearances on ABC's Good Morning America this morning
Obama stated during his interview that he's had to say some "sharp things about Clinton" because of the attack campaign he said she has been running against him, stating, "You've always got to measure if somebody throws an elbow at you and after three or four times of getting elbows in the ribs, you know, at what point do you sort of say okay, you know, we -- we, we've gotta put a stop to that?" A far cry from what he said on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night when he said Clinton was doing him "a favor" by putting him "through the paces," comparing the campaign to spring training." Obama played basketball in school, a sport he still participates in today.
Clinton, however, also appearing on Good Morning America, was asked how she intends to handle Iran and the growing concern over the Iranian pursuit of a nuclear program and their threatening stance against Israel, stating that were Iran to attack Israel: "I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran...In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."
An interesting stance for Clinton, who last October wouldn't answer the question asked by moderator Brian Williams in an MSNBC debate as to what her "red line" would be "concerning when to, if to attack Iran."
Clinton at the time wouldn't answer the question, even when pressed by Williams, who had to come back at her after she gave a lengthy non-responsive answer. "Respectfully, Senator," Williams said, "same question though: Do you have a threshold…?
Clinton would only say, "I want to start diplomacy….I am not going to speculate about when or if they get nuclear weapons."
Her current remarks are quite a contrast from that cautiousness.
Political posturing in an attempt to win votes and the nomination of the party, or a true statement on her planned policies for Iran? That's ultimately up for the voters to decide. However, given the team Clinton history of saying whatever seems to be expedient for the moment, one has to speculate that this sort of posturing is done with the same careful, calculated motivation of addressing an issue based upon public opinion polls.
Some of those that claimed to be of age when first removed from the YFZ Ranch have now been determined to be underage and in a twist, some may not have mothers in the Texas FLDS compound because they came from Canada.
When the children the Texas FLDS compound were removed because Child Services found that all children at the ranch were at risk for physical or sexual abuse which showed a "pervasive pattern and practice" of underage marriage, some claimed to be adults.
Since the children were removed from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, with some adult women voluntarily going to be with the younger children, Child Protective Services and attorneys have been working non stop to solidify actual birth dates, which has resulted in the knowledge that some of the girls that had previously claimed to be adults have now been correctly classified as juveniles.
As of now, with the corrects made, although not all the ages have been determined, so these numbers will fluctuate, the total number of children being reported as being in state care is at 437, which was previously reported as 416.
Texas state has place at least five of those underage girls, those that are mothers already, with their children in foster care. CPS is making it clear that they will be keeping the teenage mothers with their children as they continue to find placement.
As for the adult mothers, Shari Pulliam who is a CPS spokeswoman says that there are no plans that, "involve placing (adult) mothers with their children."
In Judge Barabara Walther's response to attorney's concerns about not keeping the adult mothers with their younger children, she highlighted CPS' position by saying that, "the mothers had placed their children at risk for abuse in the FLDS setting."
She continued, "The court has ruled the conditions those children were in were not safe for the children. I did not make the facts that got this case into the courts."
With so many attorneys and so many issues, there are quite a few motions being sent to the court, over issues such as the use of the phone lines that were installed at the coliseum, so that the women and older children can communicate with their attorneys and issues private prayer and worship.
Walther has suggested that CPS and the attorneys find a monitor from the mainstream Mormon Church whose presence may be more palatable to the FLDS members than that of a complete outsider.
She also made it clear that only the most serious of issues should be addressed by the court and others should be death with between the attorneys and CPS officials.
In making that point, Walther stated, "I'm not going to monitor what color napkins get handed out, and that's where this is leading."
Canadian Children in Texas State Care.
A new twist has arisen in a case that is already, by far, the largest Child Protection case in America's history, news reports are showing that some of the underage mothers that have been taken into custody, came from Canada.
The Vancouver Sun reports that at least five Canadian women resided at the FLDS compound in Texas, according to Teressa Wall Blackmore, who left the sect nearly two years ago.
She can name five young women sent from Bountiful, B.C. to marry American members of the FLDS, two of which who were married to warren Jeffs, who was recently convicted of two counts of being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl and is currently in Arizona awaiting trial on charges of forcing younger age girls into marriage.
No one -- not Blackmore, Canadian government officials, B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal or the Texas authorities -- can say exactly how many underage Canadian mothers and children are in protective custody.
Not only are Texas authorities having trouble determining how many Canadians there are, they can't figure out who the children's parents are. Many of the children don't know, won't say or are too young to answer the question, while some of the mothers have refused to say who the children's fathers are.
B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal is monitoring this case very closely, and if there are indications that evidence shows crimes committed by British Columbians at home, he will consider sending a member of his staff to Texas.
Among the possible evidence is that underage girls were sent illegally from Bountiful to the Texas compound to become plural wives to older men.
In a case that seems to have more twists and turns than a badly written mystery novel, one thing is abundantly clear, the ramifications of the evidence being presented has not only the media watching, but also officials from other states and countries, as problems long ignored, including, polygamy, underage marriages, and sexual abuse of minors, within the Texas FLDS compound is finally brought to light.
(Note- A correction has been made to the number of children listed above)
[Update] Reader KB just had a great find.... possible shelters for the kids and more logistical problems in how to make sure they are schooled....hard to enroll kids that have no documentation.
Thanks KB !!!!!!!
This is cross posted at Digital Journal and has some very interesting comments.
The last Democratic debate held in PA., had Barack Obama supporters besides themselves because Obama was asked some difficult questions and didn't handle them well.
Is it any surprise that his supporters have now taken to chanting "NO MORE DEBATES"?
The North Carolina Democratic Party has just issued a statement announcing that the planned debate to be held there has been canceled.
We regret to inform you that the proposed Democratic Presidential Debate scheduled for April 27 has been cancelled due to time constraints and logistical issues associated with such a large, national event.
You have shown tremendous passion and interest in being a part of history as Democrats are poised this year to elect the first female or African-American President. However, there were also growing concerns about what another debate would do to party unity.
We hope your interest in the North Carolina Democratic Party will not end with the cancellation of the debate.
We will keep your e-mail addresses for a random drawing to attend a special event in the fall featuring the nominee.
Senators Clinton and Obama have offered additional opportunities to be seen and heard across the state in the coming weeks and months.
Both candidates have committed to attending our Jefferson-Jackson Dinner on Friday, May 2 in Raleigh.
According to Democratic chairman Jerry Meek, last week, this debate could have brought the party $300,000 through individual sponsorships of pre- and post-debate receptions.
They claim it was logistics but after the pounding Obama took at the last debate, no one is really surprised that he backed out of this one.
Clinton's N.C. director Ace Smith said in a statement, "It is unfortunate that Senator Obama has chosen to brush off the people of North Carolina by flatly refusing to debate. But we are willing to move forward with another time and location for the debate so that he has no excuse for not participating."
Team Clinton must be disappointed since the media has finally started asking Obama the hard questions, and now he doesn't want to deal with them or questions.
SCRANTON, Pa. - As Sen. Hillary Clinton was preparing to campaign here today, Sen. Barack Obama was meeting with voters at a diner and apparently pretty hungry.
"Why can't I just eat my waffle?" he said, when asked a foreign policy question by a reporter at the Glider Diner.
A South Carolina teen appeared in court today, after being arrested Saturday when his parents opened a package that had been delivered for him and found 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate, then contacted authorities.
Ammonium nitrate is a substance that can be used as an explosive when combined with diesel fuel or another similar agent.
Ryan Schallenberger, an 18 year old high school student, was charged for plotting to bomb his school, when authorities found designs for an arsenal of explosives including a nail bomb that would have "devastated" students in a crowded hallway, according to a local police chief.
The teenager kept detailed records as well, of his expenses and his plans, calling the plot, "Columbine III", and laying out what is called the "bomb summary", which described the different types of explosives he would use in the suicide attack.
Randall Lear, who is the Chesterfield Police Chief, told ABC News, "I think he was more concerned about a high body count than killing anyone in particular."
Lear continued with details of what type of damage this would have done when he said, "Inside a school, with confined concrete walls, just a little bit of nails, nuts and bolts, ball bearings and some of these explosives devices, it would devastate the student body."
This caused the authorities to have bomb-sniffing dogs go through the school checking classrooms and hallways to make sure Schallenberger hadn't already left some type of device in the school.
Jay Hodge, the Chesterfield County prosecutor, is planning to ask the court to order that Schallenberger undergo a mental evaluation, when he appears in court tomorrow for a bail hearing.
I see in an ABC report that Lear has other things to say about how close this teenager was to being able to carry out the attack.
While there was no date provided for the bombing, Lear said that with the shipment of ammonium nitrate, he had all the materials he would need to carry out the attack at his fingertips.
"This was a legitimate threat," Lear said. "Once that package was in, he had what he needed to formulate these explosives devices."
He gives the credit to those that deserve it the most, the parents for having the courage to turn their son in as he says, "I can honestly tell you, were I faced with that scenario, I don't know if I could have made that decision. I don't know whether I would have been brave enough to do what these parents did."
[Update] Authorities found other items that belonged to Schallenberger, which included, a CD that featured "every available source of reporting" on the April 20, 1999 Columbine School massacre which resulted in the deaths of 12 students and a teacher, as well as wounding 23 others, before the two students responsible, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, committed suicide.
The authorities also found an audio recording which would have served as Schallenberger's suicide note, saying goodbye and explaining his attack on the school.
"In one of his rants, he was going on about undeserving people," Lear said, describing a possible motivation for the planned attack. "It was something like, 'You've got all these rich guys that think they're better than everyone else, and they get all the hot girlfriends, and they don't deserve the hot girlfriends.'"
Despite a heavy police presence at the Chesterfield High School on Monday, the school Schallenberger had intended his attack, only a quarter of the students showed up for classes.
Chesterfield High School principal, Scott Radkin, told ABC news, "My statement to parents was, 'You do what you feel like is best for your child'."
Prosecutors have new weapons against polygamy and marriage involving underage teens because Texas lawmakers heeded Utah authorities' experience with the FLDS group.
The DNA samples of the 416 children that were removed from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, begins today and tomorrow mobile units will also start collecting DNS from the men and women at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) compound, as ordered by Judge Barbara Walthers, which will help authorities determine the lineage of the children and who are the mothers and fathers.
According to experts, determining the lineage of the children may prove challenging but not impossible.
A professor of human genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Lynn Jorde, says that determining the parentage of 416 children from a polygamous sect may be a bit more complicated because most members of the closed community share common ancestry but should not prevent Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) from identifying parents, saying that her intuition is that, "it's not going to cause serious problems."
Her view is shared by the chairman of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine, Arthur L. Beaudet, who says, "DNA studies should be able to answer all questions quite readily except for distinguishing parents who might be identical twins."
These DNA tests will be used for multiple purposes, and were ordered because a CPS investigator told Judge Walther at the two day hearings to determine custody of the 416 children that it had been "been tough to link children to parents because they've been trained to evade questions about relationships and use 'mother' to address all their father's wives."
Last Friday a Texas State Judge ordered the DNA tests of 416 children as well as parental testing for the parents, to determine the lineage of the children. Testing will not only determine lineage, but could provide a basis for criminal charges.
Testimony at those hearings by CPS investigators showed that multiple children under the age of 17, were found to be pregnant, which according to those investigators and officials, gave ample cause to believe that the children were at imminent risk of abuse if they were returned to the FLDS compound.
The Judge agreed and awarded temporary custody of all 416 children to the state of Texas as well as ordering the aforementioned DNA tests.
The article linked above brings up another interesting point:
Amplifying the name confusion is this: Most every person in the FLDS community can trace his or her family lines back to four original founders - John Y. Barlow, Leroy S. Johnson and Richard and Fred Jessop. Those surnames, along with Jeffs, Keate and Steed, dominate the community today.
In 2001, authorities in Utah started cracking down on underage marriages and arranged marriages of teenagers, within the FLDS group.
The allegations made national headlines -- young girls forced to marry older men, teenage boys ejected from the community to create a surplus of brides, and police officers who turned a blind eye toward the practices.
A handful of prosecutions ensued, including a police officer accused of marrying an underage girl.
TEXAS.
In 2004, the FLDS groups started constructing a compound in Texas and Texas lawmakers, at the urging of Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, started taking steps in 2005 to strengthen its laws.
Shurtleff's statement to the Texas legislator was clear and blunt, when told them, "Imagine a community run as a theocracy, where women are considered nothing but property, where women have two purposes -- to please their man sexually and have children."
The Texas legislators took his advice and made major changes to their laws against polygamy and underage marriage.
Representative Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville sponsored the new bill to strengthen the laws and upgraded the penalties for polygamy from misdemeanor to felony and raised the minimum age that minors with parents' permission can marry from 14 to 16, modeling the new laws after Utah's statutes.
In cases where teenage girls have babies, authorities will look closely at how old they were when they conceived and at the father's age. And because polygamous sects do not file marriage certificates of second and third wives, the law also allows prosecutors to charge people with polygamy in situations where there is an appearance of the crime, such as multiple wives living under one roof.
According to the legislative director for the Texas District and County Attorney's Association, Shannon Edmonds, polygamy was rarely prosecuted because it was a misdemeanor in the past and now that it carries the potential penalty of lengthy prison terms, prosecutors are more likely to prosecute.
Prosecuting laws with no precedent will prove to be challenging, then again, that is how precedents are set to begin with.
The final version of the bill also made it illegal for children to marry their stepparents. It also provided for the prosecution of parents who allowed children younger than 16 to get married.
In here lies the basis of concern for many, as well as a whole slew of legal ramifications for the mothers and fathers of the 416 children now in state custody.
The specific laws in that bill that apply to the polygamist FLDS sect.
Prohibits marriage of people younger than 16. Requires parental consent of people 16-17; Prohibits marriage between current and former stepchildren and stepparents; Provides for felony prosecution of parents who allow children younger than 16 to marry; Allows for prosecution of people who perform wedding ceremonies for people younger than 16; Prohibits people from being in a common-law marriage if they are already married; Makes having sex with first cousins a second-degree felony, while other forms of incest may be considered third-degree felonies; Voids marriages in which one of the parties is underage, meaning that sexual acts committed during those marriages can be considered felonies.
Now, if as shown in portions of the Bishop's records that were introduced into evidence in the two custody hearings, that most everyone in the FLDS compound can be traced back to four original founders and three additional surnames, which totals seven families, how many of the above laws will these DNA tests prove have been broken?
Questions of Incest.
CBS reports that at least one expert, Lawrence Kobilinsky, who is a professor of forensic science at John Jay College in New York, warns that the chain of custody of the massive amount of DNA samples must be managed that they needed to be careful of any "mix-ups", but when he was asked about another issue, one of incest with the FLDS community and whether these DNA tests could establish if incest occurred, he responded by saying, "I believe there will be. When you have situations like that, people are more closely related, DNA technology is able to establish kinship, so we can do a paternity, we can do kinship. It's the same kind of testing that we use for criminal matters."
This is not the first time issues of incest have come up in regards to the FLDS community, in fact, Warren Jeffs, the sect's self-pronounced prophet, who was convicted in Utah of being an accomplice in the rape of a 14-year-old girl, is now in Arizona awaiting trial and the charges against him are sexual conduct with a minor, incest and conspiracy.
Time has a report, from yesterday. discussing the construction of the the FLDS community's family tree as well as discussing the group's custom of allowing first cousins to marry and what genetic dangers this presents to children in the form of "Fumarase Deficiency syndrome", including severe defects, which have been found in disturbing levels in the Hildale-Colorado City enclave.
Most of these issues will not be dealt with in the hearings for custody of these children because those are focused on child abuse and sexual abuses on children, but everything that gets entered into the court record, will then provide prosecutors already established evidence for future indictments.
Despite members of both the Democratic Party and the Republican party speaking out against Jimmy Carter's meeting with terrorists leaders and despite the US Government making it clear he would do more damage than he could help, once again, Carter who has long associated with terrorists, went ahead with his meeting.
He comes out of it pounding his chest as if he accomplished something other than setting back US policy and having his picture taken with terrorist leaders.
One sentence and two paragraphs of one article shows everyone that Jimmy Carter has not changed on iota and with age, his foolishness appears to have compounded and that famed wisdom people are supposed to get with age? He proves that sometimes, they lose whatever passed for a brain to begin with. We have this:
Carter said Hamas officials, including Mashaal, agreed to this in a written statement.
"Let me read exactly what they accepted verbatim. This is their language: 'If President Abbas succeeds in negotiating a final status agreement with Israel, Hamas will accept the decision made by the Palestinian people and their will in a referendum monitored by international observers ... even if Hamas is opposed to the agreement,'" Carter said.
Then the very next sentence is where Hamas basically flips Carter off and shows that they simply used him as the pawn he has always been for terrorists.
But Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri in Gaza said Hamas' readiness to put a peace deal to a referendum "does not mean that Hamas is going to accept the result of the referendum."
Such a referendum, he said, would have to be voted on by Palestinians living all over the world. They number about 9.3 million, including some 4 million living in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.
Hot Air's title implies that Jimmy Carter is a useful idiot, I must disagree, in this case as with so many before, he is nothing more than a useLESS idiot.
Gateway Pundit takes us back in time to show us that Hamas offered the same deal in 2006 and we all know how that turned out, don't we?
Carter cannot even use lessons from the past to learn from, he is that clueless.
Michelle Malkin appropriately points out Hamas does have some use for Carter, he makes a good mailman as he does their bidding.
All in all, Carter does not need help in acting like a court jester or a fool but Hamas was more than willing to help anyway.
Dear Mr. President, My name is Hope. I am the undying spirit of the American Patriot, the loyal Homefront, and I am writing to you today with a heavy heart. During these most perilous of times, once again, the good people of this great nation look to you, Mr. President, for our guidance and for our inspiration. We on the Homefront have proven our steadfast loyalty in the past and we offer it up to our embattled nation once again. Throughout our nation's history, by our selfless actions we have shown our willingness to sacrifice our creature comforts and our daily pleasures, our willingness to sacrifice our time, our industry, even our sons and fathers and brothers.
We are not blind, sir, and we are not ignorant of the perils we face. But we have become increasingly confused and conflicted. Our nation has been split asunder. Brother against sister, neighbor against neighbor. We cry out for your guidance and your inspiration, but, alas, to no avail. We are desperate for unity and clarity and purpose. However, rather than bringing us closer together you have been both directly and indirectly responsible for pulling us further apart and weakening us as a nation. You have -- forgive me, sir -- unwittingly played into the hands of our adversaries.
If you recall, immediately after that fateful day in September, we rallied behind you as one and awaited your orders. We loyally supported the bloody but necessary wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, no matter how unpopular or unsuccessful they may have at times appeared. We have stood steadfastly behind you and have tirelessly fought against those internal enemies, those traditional leftist forces of multiculturalism, moral equivalency and pacifism, who would willingly give this wonderful country of ours away. We eagerly awaited your call, our call to duty. But it never came. Instead, you told us to go shopping.
We are, we are being told, presently in the midst of a war, a nebulous War on Terror. But we are still unclear as to who our enemies are. Traditionally, in times such as these we have relied on our wartime presidents to provide us with a coherent narrative of the conflict, the reasons why we fight. We look to you for inspiration and clarification: This is who we are fighting and this is why we are fighting them. This is the enemy. This is what he looks like and this is what he wants to do to us. And this is why we must win. All of our great wartime presidents, from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, to FDR and Ronald Reagan understood the necessity of this role of narrator and guide and fulfilled it admirably. And their unwavering leadership sustained us throughout those inevitable dark days of war and made our ultimate victory possible.
In short, leaders must lead and presidents must preside. We are loyal citizens and we are patriots, but we are not diplomats, we cannot be expected to understand the finer subtleties of international statecraft. We need the issues simplified. The reasons for fighting and dying must be made crystal clear. We welcome this simplification. We would even welcome propaganda. We might need the unquestioning passion and simplicity of propaganda.We are not professional diplomats, but neither are we fools. We know the enemy is not Terror. Terror is the weapon that our enemy uses in the hopes of bringing us to our knees. Our enemies are Muslims, and their creed is Islam. To attempt to circumvent this obvious truth will only bring us failure and dissent.
Imagine if you will Churchill flying off to Germany and hobnobbing with Nazis...
or FDR in one of his 1942 Fireside Chats, employing some kind of tortuous logic to convince us that we were not at war with the good Japanese people, but only with some small fanatical military clique within the Japanese government...
Preposterous isn't it? And yet, Mr. President, with all due respect, here are just a few of your inscrutable and confusing pronouncements on the nature of our present ruthless adversaries:
In the President’s Words: Respecting Islam The United States is a nation dedicated to religious tolerance and freedom, and President Bush has acted to ensure that the world's Muslims know that America appreciates and celebrates the traditions of Islam. "Here in the United States our Muslim citizens are making many contributions in business, science and law, medicine and education, and in other fields. Muslim members of our Armed Forces and of my administration are serving their fellow Americans with distinction, upholding our nation's ideals of liberty and justice in a world at peace."
Remarks by the President on Eid Al-Fitr The Islamic Center of Washington, D.C.December 5, 2002 "Over the past month, Muslims have fasted, taking no food or water during daylight hours, in order to refocus their minds on faith and redirect their hearts to charity. Muslims worldwide have stretched out a hand of mercy to those in need. Charity tables at which the poor can break their fast line the streets of cities and towns. And gifts of food and clothing and money are distributed to ensure that all share in God's abundance. Muslims often invite members of other families to their evening iftar meals, demonstrating a spirit of tolerance."
Remarks by the President on Eid Al-FitrThe Islamic Center of Washington, D.C.December 5, 2002 "America treasures the relationship we have with our many Muslim friends, and we respect the vibrant faith of Islam which inspires countless individuals to lead lives of honesty, integrity, and morality. This year, may Eid also be a time in which we recognize the values of progress, pluralism, and acceptance that bind us together as a Nation and a global community. By working together to advance mutual understanding, we point the way to a brighter future for all."
Presidential Message Eid al-Fitr December 5, 2002 "Islam brings hope and comfort to millions of people in my country, and to more than a billion people worldwide. Ramadan is also an occasion to remember that Islam gave birth to a rich civilization of learning that has benefited mankind."
President's Eid al-Fitr Greeting to Muslims around the World December 4, 2002 "Ours is a war not against a religion, not against the Muslim faith. But ours is a war against individuals who absolutely hate what America stands for, and hate the freedom of the Czech Republic. And therefore, we must work together to defend ourselves. And by remaining strong and united and tough, we'll prevail."
Press Conference by President Bush and President Havel of Czech Republic Prague Castle, Prague, Czech Republic November 20, 2002 "Some of the comments that have been uttered about Islam do not reflect the sentiments of my government or the sentiments of most Americans. Islam, as practiced by the vast majority of people, is a peaceful religion, a religion that respects others. Ours is a country based upon tolerance and we welcome people of all faiths in America."
Remarks by President George W. Bush in a statement to reporters during a meeting with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan The Oval Office, Washington, DC November 13, 2002 "We see in Islam a religion that traces its origins back to God's call on Abraham. We share your belief in God's justice, and your insistence on man's moral responsibility. We thank the many Muslim nations who stand with us against terror. Nations that are often victims of terror, themselves."
President Hosts Iftaar DinnerRemarks by the President at Iftaar Dinner State Dining Room "Islam is a vibrant faith. Millions of our fellow citizens are Muslim. We respect the faith. We honor its traditions. Our enemy does not. Our enemy doesn't follow the great traditions of Islam. They've hijacked a great religion."
Remarks by President George W. Bush and President Megawati of Indonesia The Oval Office, Washington, D.C. September 19, 2001 "The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war."
My dear Mr. President, we rely on you and your good judgment to protect us, to defend our borders and to identify and deal with our enemies who would harm us. We need you and your leadership. But I'm afraid that all too often you have merely added to the confusion and weakened our national resolve. We have been hesitant to add our voice to those who wish to undermine your presidency or do damage to our democracy. But the perils are not receding, they are advancing. The imminent threats coming out of the fanatical apocalyptical regime in Iran are even more dangerous than the ones we face today. This time our very survival may be at stake.
We on the American Homefront cannot be expected to enter into a new and even more deadly conflict calling for even greater and more costly sacrifices and yet remain conflicted about who it is we are fighting. We need you to be strong. We need you to be clear. We need you to cut out all the PC nonsense, sir, and tell the world once and for all who it is we are fighting and why we are fighting them. We can no longer rally around a president who finds it impossible, or somehow inconvenient, to identify our enemies. We need you Mr. President, and now more than ever you need us.
Humans make mistakes, some little, some a little bigger and some mistakes are simply so huge that they deserve a spotlight shined on them. Mistakenly dropping food and weapons to an enemy in a time of war ranks right up there with the word "massive".
NATO officials have admitted that containers were were dropped from a helicopter, last month, into a Taliban-controlled area of Zabul province in Aghanistan. In those containers were pallets of rocket propelled grenades, ammunition, water and food.
Those pallets were supposed to go to a police checkpoint in Ghazni, which is a remote section of Zabul.
Instead of being dropped into the right area, according to Nato's General Carlos Branco, the navigator confused two grid references that were similar in nature and dropped the supplies in the wrong spot where it was picked up by the Taliban.
All of this has been reported to the Internal Security Affairs Commission of the Wolesi Jirga, which is the Afghan parliament's lower house.
Politics being what they are, Afghan politicians are accusing NATO of purposely supplying the Taliban with the food and weapons, to which NATO denies and General Branco says it was "human error".
At Nato headquarters in Brussels, a spokesmen tells reporters that they are not "fired up about it", then continues by saying, "It sounds like someone made a mistake. It was a cock-up rather than a conspiracy."
They conclude with, "The forces on the ground are working to get the message across that we do not deliberately supply the Taliban with arms."
To err is human, to forgive divine is the old expression by Alexander Pope, but when the enemy is launching grenades at NATO forces and soldiers, it might be a little hard to be so generous, knowing that NATO is the one that supplied those arms, accidentally or not.
Given the rich opportunity afforded to Hillary Clinton surrounding Barack Obama's documented ties to terrorist organizations, why is she not using them in her campaign? Could there be something she doesn't want us to know about her own history?
A few days ago I posted a piece outlining Barack Obama's ties to known terrorists. George Stephanopoulos addressed it in the Philadelphia debates, and the left went ballistic in the blogs and in commentaries afterward.
The question has arisen, however, in light of the Philly debates, of why Senator Clinton didn't go for Senator Obama's political jugular over the issue? There may be a very good reason for that, as a little digging and research uncovers that the Clinton's have their own connections to terrorist groups and individuals who have been known to commit acts of terrorism or governments supporting them.
In 1998, during the administration of her husband Bill, the FAA granted permission to "commercial" flights from Cuba to cross U.S. airspace en route to Canada using one East coast flight route, and one west coast. This permission was granted despite the known ties of the Cuban government to terrorist sponsoring states in the Middle East, and in despite the knowledge of the Clinton administration of Cuba's biotechnical manufacturing plants [biological warfare]. Fidel Castro, then dictator of Cuba, was also on the record with his hatred of the United States.
In a 2001 Judicial Watch report warned that the United States government was ignoring the threat of Cuba to the nation. Representative Robert Menendez of New Jersey presented the following findings at a Congressional hearing:
# Three suspected Afghans were arrested in the Cayman Islands with fake passports after transit to Cuba.
# Cuban spy Ana Belen, only recently arrested after working at the Pentagon for years, provided classified information to Cuba.
# Cuban spies recently convicted in Florida provided Castro with detailed information about the U.S. mail system. (This could cause raised eyebrows, given the recent anthrax problems at postal facilities and mailrooms in and out of government.)
# Castro recently visited Iran, following interchanges that have for years existed between scientists in Cuba and Iran and the documented cases of terrorists who have sought and achieved safe harbor on the island just 90 miles from U.S. shores.
Then Secretary of State Colin Powell stated that he was "not familiar" with most of the findings, a situation that Judicial Watch called "scary," as he had earlier announced his desire to soften the Cuban embargo.
It should be noted that Powell was Secretary of State during the first term of the Bush administration, a position currently held by Condoleeza Rice.
Then President Clinton also issued pardons to several individuals who had been involved in terrorist activities. In 2001 a pardon was issued to former Weather Underground member Susan L. Rosenberg, who had been convicted and was serving sentence after being arrested in 1984 "while unloading 740 pounds of dynamite, a submachine gun and other weapons from the back of a car." Rosenberg was being sought at the time of her arrest for suspicion of involvement in a 1981 Brinks armored car heist that left two police officers and one guard dead, a role she has denied playing any part in.
In 1999, 16 Puerto Rican nationals were pardoned by Clinton, who were responsible for the bombings of more than 100 U.S. political and military installations, upon their promise to renounce violence. These attacks had left six people dead and dozens wounded. Clinton justified the pardons by saying that none of the men had been convicted of crimes that resulted in death or injuries.
Hillary Clinton's involvement with terrorists and terrorist organizations isn't limited to her involvement with her husband Bill, however, as reported by LankaNewspapers.com, a Sri Lankan news outlet.
According to a fundraising web site for the Senator, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) activists are involved in raising funds from 100 Dollars to 2300 Dollars to help elect Senator Clinton as the next United States President.
New Jersey residents have expressed the fear, that LTTE or the Tamil Tigers could flush supporters with millions of dollars, to buy influence over the next possible President of the United States of America by infiltrating into democratic fund raising machine.
An email distributed by a female activist, Pat Pathmakumar for the group under the name `Tamils for Clinton` has appealed to contribute for the Clinton fund by sending checks to her or a man named Ram Ranjan, a man who organized the LTTE Heroes day meeting in New Jersey last year. Ranjan has publicly admitted he raised funds for LTTE front, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO).
To be sure, Hillary Clinton has attacked Obama on a great many points and issues. Her campaign has been accused of "mud-slinging" and the use of smear tactics, but then this is what we expect from team Clinton, the use of the politics to their advantage in every way they deem necessary. Perhaps a historical look back at the Lincoln-Stevens debates is necessary, from time to time, as well as a look back at Andrew Jackson, a noted duelist of his day, in his own bids for public office, in order to give us, today, a full appreciation of the Clinton's sense of history in their conduct during political campaigns.
But this issue, this key issue that is being covered by some media sources concerning Obama, is for some reason taking it's time in coming to the forefront concerning Clinton. Even FOXNews has not to date given this the coverage that has been given to the Obama terrorist ties.
Perhaps the Obama connections having light shed on them have opened the door for the Clinton connections, as well. Only time will tell for that. In the meantime, the fact does remain that both Democrat candidates have their share of ties to terrorism.
This came to me in my email and I was given permission to post and spread this anywhere and everywhere I can. While I am no fan of HRC, her lies are well documented in many places. Barack Hussein Obama's lies have been effectively compiled here, by Mr. Peters. I don't think this was what Barack Hussein Obama meant by the words "hope" (hoping we wouldn't get something like this put together for all to see?) and "change" (change from a republic into a socialist state is what he wants).
Read, memorize, swipe and publish!
OBAMA’S LAUNDRY LIST OF LIES by Alan Peters
1. Selma Got Me Born. LIAR--your parents felt safe enough to have you in 1961; Selma had no effect on your birth, as Selma was in 1965.
2. Father Was A Goat Herder. LIAR--he was a privileged, well educated youth, who went on to work with the Kenyan Government.
3. Father Was A Proud Freedom Fighter. LIAR--he was part of one of the most corrupt and violent governments Kenya has ever had
4. My Family Has Strong Ties To African Freedom. LIAR--your cousin Raila Odinga has created mass violence in attempting to overturn a legitimate election in 2007, in Kenya . It is the first widespread violence in decades.
5. My Grandmother Has Always Been A Christian. LIAR--she does her daily Salat prayers at 5 a.m. according to her own interviews. Not to mention Christianity wouldn’t allow her to have been one of 14 wives to 1 man.
6. My Name is African Swahili. LIAR--your name is Arabic and Baraka’ (from which Barack came) means blessed in that language. Hussein is also Arabic and so is Obama.
7. I Never Practiced Islam. LIAR--you practiced it daily at school, where you were registered as a Muslim and kept that faith for 31 years, until your wife made you change so you could run for office.
8. My School In Indonesia Was Christian. LIAR--you were registered as Muslim there and got in trouble in Koranic Studies for making faces (check your own book).
9. I Was Fluent In Indonesian. LIAR--not one teacher says you could speak the language.
10. Because I Lived In Indonesia, I Have More Foreign Experience. LIAR--you were there from ages 6 to 10 and couldn’t even speak the language. What did you learn, how to study the Koran and watch cartoons?
11. I Am Stronger On Foreign Affairs. LIAR--except for Africa (surprise) and the Middle East (bigger surprise), you have never been anywhere else on the planet and thus have NO experience with our closest allies.
12. I Blame My Early Drug Use On Ethnic Confusion. LIAR--you were quite content in high school to be Barry Obama, no mention of Kenya and no mention of struggle to identify-your classmates said you were just fine.
13. An Ebony Article Moved Me To Run For Office. LIAR--Ebony has yet to find the article you mention in your book. It doesn’t--and never did--exist.
14. A LIFE Magazine Article Changed My Outlook On Life. LIAR--LIFE has yet to find the article you mention in your book. It doesn’t--and never did--exist.
15. I Won’t Run On A National Ticket In ‘08. LIAR--here you are, despite saying on live TV you would not have enough experience by then and you are all about having experience first.
16. Present Votes Are Common In Illinois. LIAR--they are common for YOU, but not many others have 130 NO VOTES.
17. Oops, I Mis-voted. LIAR--only when caught by church groups and democrats did you beg to change your “mis-vote”.
18. I Was A Professor Of Law. LIAR--you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.
19. I Was A Constitutional Lawyer. LIAR--you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.
20. Without Me, There Would Be No Ethics Bill. LIAR--you didn’t write it, introduce it, change it or create it.
21. The Ethics Bill Was Hard To Pass. LIAR--it took just 14 days from start to finish.
22. I Wrote A Tough Nuclear Bill. LIAR--your bill was rejected by your own party for its pandering and lack of all regulation-mainly because of your Nuclear Donor, Exelon, from which David Axelrod came.
23. I Have Released My State Records. LIAR--as of March, 2008, state bills you sponsored or voted for have yet to be released, exposing all the special interests pork hidden within.
24. I Took On The Asbestos Altgeld Gardens Mess. LIAR--you were part of a large group of people who remedied Altgeld Gardens. You failed to mention anyone else but yourself in your books.
25. My Economics Bill Will Help America. LIAR--your 111 economic policies were just combined into a proposal which lost 99-0, and even YOU voted against your own bill.
26. I Have Been A Bold Leader In Illinois. LIAR--even your own supporters claim to have not seen BOLD action on your part.
27. I Passed 26 Of My Own Bills In One Year. LIAR--they were not YOUR bills but rather handed to you after their creation by a fellow Senator, to assist you in a future bid for higher office.
28. No One Contacted Canada About NAFTA. LIAR--the Canadian Government issued the names and a memo of the conversation your campaign had with them.
29. I Am Tough On Terrorism. LIAR--you missed the Iran Resolution vote on terrorism and your good friend Ali Abunimah supports the destruction of Israel.
30. I Am Not Acting As President Yet. LIAR--after the NAFTA Memo a dead terrorist in the FARC, in Colombia, was found with a letter stating how you and he were working together on getting FARC recognized officially.
31. I Didn’t Run Ads In Florida. LIAR--you allowed national ads to run 8-12 times per day for two weeks-and you still lost.
32. I won Michigan. LIAR--no you didn’t.
33. I won Nevada. LIAR--no you didn’t.
34. I Want All Votes To Count. LIAR--you said let the delegates decide.
35. I Want Americans To Decide. LIAR--you prefer caucuses that limit the vote, confuse the voters, force a public vote and only operate during small windows of time.
36. I passed 900 Bills in the State Senate. LIAR--you passed 26, most of which you didn’t write yourself.
37. My Campaign Was Extorted By A Friend. LIAR--that friend is threatening to sue if you do not stop saying this. Obama has stopped saying this.
38. I Believe In Fairness, Not Tactics. LIAR--you used tactics to eliminate Alice Palmer from running against you.
39. I Don’t Take PAC Money. LIAR--you take loads of it.
40. I Don’t Have Lobbyists. LIAR--you have over 47 lobbyists and counting.
41. My Campaign Had Nothing To Do With The 1984 Ad. LIAR--your own campaign worker made the ad on his Apple in one afternoon.
42. My Campaign Never Took Over MySpace. LIAR--Tom, who started MySpace, issued a warning about this advertising to MySpace clients.
43. I Inspire People With My Words. LIAR--you inspire people with other peoples’ words.
44. I Have Passed Bills In The U.S. Senate. LIAR--you have passed A BILL in the U.S. Senate-- for Africa--which shows YOUR priorities.
45. I Have Always Been Against Iraq. LIAR--you weren’t in office to vote against it AND you have voted to fund it every single time, unlike Kucinich, who seems to be out gutting you, Obama. You also seem to be stepping back from your departure date - AGAIN.
46. I Have Always Supported Universal Health Care. LIAR--your plan leaves us all to pay for the 15,000,000 who don’t have to buy it.
47. I Only Found Out About My Investment Conflicts Via Mail. LIAR--both companies you cite as having sent you letters about this conflict have no record of any such letter ever being created or sent.
48. I Am As Patriotic As Anyone. LIAR--you won’t wear a flag pin and you don’t put your hand over your heart during the Anthem.
49. My Wife Didn’t Mean What She Said About Pride In Country. LIAR--your wife’s words follow lock-step in the vein of Wright and Farrakhan, in relation to their contempt and hatred of America.
50. WalMart Is A Company I Wouldn’t Support. LIAR--your wife has received nearly a quater of a million dollars through Treehouse, which is connected to WalMart.
51. Treehouse Is A Small Company. LIAR--the CEO of Treehouse--last year--made more than the CEO of WalMart, according to public records.
52. University Of Chicago Hospital Pay Is Fair. LIAR--your wife’s pay raise was nearly 150% her already bloated rate and the hospital is a Non-Profit Hospital, which made $100,000,000 in the last 3 years. They overcharge blacks VS whites for services and overcharge everyone in general by 538%!
53. I Barely Know Rezko-Only 5 Billed Hours. LIAR--you have known him for 17 years and decided to do a real estate deal with him during a time when he was proven to be under investigation. Despite this, you divided your property and had $300K taken off before the mortgage problems started. Then Rezko’s wife buys the lot beside it that you can’t afford saving you $625,000.
54. My Donations Have Been Checked Thoroughly. LIAR--you only gave back Hsu ($72K) and Rezko (first $66K, then when caught lying $86K, then when caught lying again $150K and now caught lying YET AGAIN OBAMA, it’s $250k) their money when publically called on their involvement in your campaigns.
55. My Church Is Like Any Other Christian Church. LIAR--your church is so extreme, the pastor who married you, Rev. Wright, just got done blaming the US for 9/11 and named Louis Farrakhan their person of the year.
56. I Disagree With My Church All The Time. LIAR--you have yet to repudiate Wright, who married you and your wife and you still donate large sums of money to assist the church in furthering its message--hatred and revenge. In 2006 alone you donated $22,500 to the church you so terribly disagree with. That is nearly $500 PER WEEK-that sure is disagreement, Senator Obama.
57. I Have Clean Connections Despite Rezko. LIAR--you are not only connected to Exelon and Rezko, you are also connected to Hillary PAC supporter Mr. Hsu AND an Iraqi Billionaire of ill repute, Nadhmi Auchi, who ripped off people in the Food For Oil Iraqi deal. Seems Mr. Auchi may have helped Obama buy his million dollar property long before Obama had millions of dollars. Wonder what favors Mr. Auchi expects when Obama leaves Iraq free to be taken over by special interests such as him.
58. I never heard sermons like Rev. Wrights, that have been in videos all day including YouTube. LIAR!--3 days later during your Mea Culpa BS speech you said, “Did I hear controversial statements while I sat in that church? Yes I did.”
59. The Passport Invasion is a conspiracy to find dirt on me. LIAR–your own Campaign Foreign Policy Advisor is the CEO of the company that looked into your records. PS-You had them look into yours to hide the fact you looked into Clinton’s and McCain’s more than a year before!
60. Rev. Meeks has nothing to do with my campaigning. LIAR--Rev. Meeks appeared in ads for your Senate Campaign, donated to you and helped raise money, then AND NOW. PS-He also seems to despise America .
61. My wife didn’t mean America is ignorant, she was just using a phrase. LIAR–again, MicHELLe’s comments perfectly sync with Wright’s, Meek’s, and Farrakhan’s, both in language, anger, and direction.
62. I am very Anti-Terror. LIAR--[03/30/2008] One of your good pals is long time radical and terrorist William Ayers, with whom you have been seen in the last 12 months and who has helped the now jailed Khalidi, Professor at Columbia who invited Ahmadinejad to the University, to raise money for Palestinian terrorism attacks against Israel. PS-Your church published a pro Hamas Manifesto - guess you weren’t there on THAT Sunday either? How lucky for you.
63. I have the best plan to cure the Mortgage Crisis. LIAR--[03/30/2008] You and your campaign buddy Penny SubPrime Bank Collapse Prizker have had your little fingers full of subprime cash - Obama has taken $1,180,103 from the top issuers of subprime loans; Obama received $266,907 from Lehman; $5,395 from GMAC; $150,850 from Credit Suisse First Boston; $11,250 from Countrywide; $9,052 from Washington Mutual; $161,850 from Citigroup; $4,600 from CBASS; $170,050 from Morgan Stanley; $1,150 from Centex and last but certainly NOT LEAST-Obama received $351,900 from Goldman Sachs. I am sure that cash all came from folks who knew the subprime loan they had was a dream, eh?
64. I played a greater role in crafting liberal stands on gun control, the death penalty and abortion. LIAR--[03/31/2008] It was found that Obama-the day after sitting for the interview-filed an amended version of the questionnaire, which appears to contain Obama’s own handwritten notes added to one answer. Read Obama had greater role on liberal survey.
65. I did NOT play the race card. LIAR--[03/31/2008] Obama was the first to play the race card. According to Philadelphia Inquirer, Quietly, the storm over the hateful views expressed by Sen. Barack Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has blown away the most insidious myth of the Democratic primary campaign. Obama and his surrogates have charged Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has deliberately and cleverly played the race card in order to label Obama the black candidate.
66. I did not take money from oil companies. LIAR--[03/31/2008] THE FACTS: True enough, Obama does not take money from oil companies. No candidate does. It is illegal for corporations to give money to politicians.
Corporations do, however, have political action committees that collect voluntary donations from employees and then donate them to candidates.
Obama doesn’t take money from PACs. He also doesn’t take money from lobbyists.
But he does accept money from executives and other employees of oil companies and two of his fundraisers are oil company executives. As of Feb. 29, Obama’s presidential campaign had received nearly $214,000 from oil and gas industry employees and their families, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Clinton had received nearly $307,000 from industry workers and their families and Republican Sen. John McCain, the likely GOP presidential nominee, received nearly $394,000, according to the Center’s totals.
Two of Obama’s fundraisers are Robert Cavnar, the chairman and chief executive of Houston-based Mission Resources Corp., and George Kaiser, the president and CEO of Tulsa-based Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. Source: Associated Press via Yahoo News.
67. I don’t think my church is actually particularly controversial, Obama said at a community meeting in Nelsonville, Ohio, earlier this month. LIAR–Yesterday, he told a different story. “Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes,” he said in his speech yesterday in Philadelphia .
68. Look at my education record in Illinois. LIAR--In reality, Obama never really championed the local councils. He supported them behind the scenes and only eventually came out publicly on their behalf. When he did weigh in, he came down on the wrong side of the debate against protecting principals from unwarranted dismissals and in favor of keeping councils independent, no matter what.
In the end, the resolution of the conflict between the two sides didn’t alleviate anyone’s concerns. Instead, it prolonged a turf battle that seems to have dragged down academic progress in the years since. Read more here http://www.slate.com/id/2188010?wpisrc=newsletter
1.Obama claims special birth. Much more so than we might believe.
Reports emanating from Africa allege his mother was in Kenya with his ARAB Kenyan (NOT Black Kenyan) father--this is clearly shown in Kenyan Govt. Registry documents which list the father as an Arab Kenyan--at a very late term of her pregnancy and was not allowed on a flight to return to HAWAII .
She gave birth to him in Kenya , immediately got on a plane and then registered him as being born in Hawaii.
2. He is NOT an African American but an Arab American and cannot claim African minority status, which by US Federal regulations require a person to have 1/8 (one eighth) of the minority blood (12%).
From his mother he has 50% white blood, from his father he has 43.25% Arab blood and from his MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER he manages to hold onto 6.75% African or Black heritage blood.
He has had to duck and weave all his life and use whatever lies he could use to even pass for black and the benefits this minority status provided. So even this, while understandable-is a documented LIE. ==================================================== BREAKING NEWS - ISLAMIC SUPPORT FOR Obama HUSSEIN COMING INTO THE OPEN IN CA
Outside this mosque in Anaheim, California (State College Drive) we finally get definitive evidence of two things:
1. Word has been out in the Islamic community worldwide for some time (especially Indonesia and Malaysia) to begin overt support for Obama.
2. We heard rumors the Islamic Republic of Iran is also passing the word to their American agents and clerics to support Obama but had nothing tangible till now.
3. The photo above was taken during the last week of March, 2008 by an AntiMullah person who happened to see this woman and was delighted to have a camera on hand.
4. Don't be misled by there only being one person. Mosques have been told to get the message across effectively rather than to hold demonstrations since there was no protest involved where numbers rather than a "bilingual" sign become important.
416 children were removed from a FLDS compound, the YFZ Ranch, after Child Protective Services provided evidence of physical and sexual abuse, on children, at the compound. After DNA samples are taken, foster homes have been found for those children
It started with a phone call that led Child Protective Services and Texas State authorities to believe that abuses were being perpetrated on children at the Yearning For Zion Ranch, in Texas.. Officials obtained permission to enter the ranch and after witnessing what they called "evidence of physical and sexual abuses, via multiple children under 17 being pregnant and/or having children already, 416 children were removed.
Although there is question about who initially placed the call, a girl supposedly named "Sarah", Texas State US Attorney Greg Abbott says that legally, "the case really doesn't hinge upon that particular 16-year-old", he goes on to add, "Once investigators, in good faith, go into the compound and determine whether or not there was any kind of wrongdoing; the case is on its own after that."
In that determination, the Judge took into consideration the testimony of CPS officials and other expert witnesses and she has also ordered DNA testing for all the children and mothers and fathers, to try to help sort out family relationships that have confounded authorities since 416 children were taken into state custody two weeks ago.
Today reports are in that after the DNA testing on the children is complete, CPS will start moving all 416 children to foster homes and they will be keeping mothers younger than 18 with their children and try to keep siblings together , "to make these transitions as easy as possible", according to Darrell Azar, a spokesman for Child Protective Services. He continues on to say, "We want to keep them together as much as possible so they don't feel they're completely isolated from their culture or the people they know."
The child welfare agency has said that the sect encourages adolescent girls to marry older men and have children, and that boys are groomed to become future perpetrators. Sect members deny the allegations.
To that end, former sect members have began to speak out (via, PoliGazette) about what life at a FLDS compound is like, one of which is Les Zitting, who is the 6th son of a woman who was herself the 9th wife of one of the leaders of the FLDS in the 50s, Charles Zitting.
When he was asked what he thought of the actions of the Texas CPS in this case, his reply was, "Thank you TEXAS – but we’ll see… In time they could recover yes, but it will take months and in some cases, years. I am still dealing with my own personal emotions and this is 38 years later."
When asked about the practice, based on his personal experience and knowledge of the group, about girls being “married” before the age of 16 and asked if this was commonplace or an exception, his answer was, "I would have to answer TRUE and some even much earlier than age 12. "
When he was asked if he had any additional thoughts that weren't covered in the interview questions, his answer had more to do with the mothers of the group.
I have tried NOT to watch the news casts as these Polygamist women spoke. I knew there were LIES being spoken!!! As I watched, I asked myself, “How can you people, who claim integrity, honesty, and truth look into those cameras and tell the entire world that you don’t know of any under-aged marriages between girls under 16 to men 2 ,3 and even 4 times their age”. People need to and probably will go to prison for this. Texas has girls in their custody “right now” either pregnant or with babies and the girls are not 16 years old yet…. And the older women are saying to us all that they don’t know of this happening — they are liars !!! This has happened for DECADES !!!!
That interview was set up with coordination of Jay Beswick, who has been commenting on a previous Wake up America thread that dealt with the forgotten children of the group, the "Lost Boys", which are children as young as 13 that have thrown out of the FLDS group, put on the streets, some for as little as kissing a girl or wearing a short sleeved shirt.
(Note- Mr. Beswick has kindly given this blogger, names and numbers of former sect members to interview. Those interviews will began next week, so this will be an ongoing series of interviews with former members, as well 'who knew what and when' and why nothing has been done before now to stop this type of child abuse.)
UPDATE: 4/21/08-A 4.5 aftershock hit again this morning.
Geologists say the temblor just before 12:40 a.m. registered 4.5 magnitude at its epicenter about 5 miles northwest of Mount Carmel. The location is in the same area as Friday's early morning earthquake, which shook a wide area of the Midwest and caused minor damage.
Original post:
Illinois is not known for being in danger from Earthquakes, but on Thursday morning, a 5.2 Earthquake rattled the state of Illinois. As of 11:00 am on the same day, six aftershocks had already been felt measuring as high as magnitude 4.6.
This magnitude 5.2 earthquake is the biggest quake to hit Southern Illinois since 1968 and has caused minor damage in the state known as the birthplace of the skyscraper.
Andrew Velasquez III, director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, said, "Mother Nature sent us a wake-up call."
The aftershocks themselves seem to be more wake up calls being issued, especially for people that have lived in Illinois their whole lives and never experienced an earthquake.
Chicago police got 126 calls right after the earthquake struck from residents unfamiliar with the sensation.
``I've never gone through any earthquake and I've lived in Chicago all my 47 years,'' said Colleen Muench, a livestock clerk at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange who was awake because her alarm was accidentally set too early.
``I grabbed my kitchen counter and dishes in the cabinet shook,'' she said.
The Illinois Governor, Rod Blagojevich, briefed the public on what to expect following the earthquake, explaining to them what aftershocks were as well as warning of people offering to repair earthquake damage, write earthquake insurance policies or insist that they can get paid by an insurance company for repair costs.
Blagojevich said, "Earthquakes certainly are not common here in Illinois and so it is understandable that people may be concerned about feeling vibrations in the hours and days ahead. We want to make sure people understand what is taking place and how to prepare for aftershocks as much as they can. We also want people to be very wary of those offering to repair damage or write insurance policies following the earthquake. Unfortunately, there can be people who try to capitalize on events like this.”
Aftershocks are additional earthquakes that follow with tremors in the same general area that the original earthquake first was experienced. Aftershocks can be felt for up to a week after the first event and are generally smaller quakes that the first one but some have been known to be equal in strength and can cause structural damage, especially if the first quake weakened specific foundations.
Three aftershocks with magnitudes of 1.3 to 2.8 occurred Saturday in the general region as Friday's 5.2 quake in the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone. That main shock was centered in southeastern Illinois, roughly five miles from Bellmont. It was followed by a magnitude 4.5 aftershock later Friday morning.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, this is typical following an event as was seen on Thursday.
They report that there has been limited structural damage in West Salem, Illinois and Louisville, Kentucky. Felt over a wide area of the central United States with felt reports as far west as Kansas, as far north as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and as far south as Georgia.
The difference in perception of how the people of Illinois feel as stated by Muench and how people originally for California, a state that feels many more quakes on a regular basis, can been seen in the reaction of Toni Dane, a 60 year old waitress that moved from California to Chicago and she says, "I'm from L.A.: that wasn't an earthquake, just a little shake."
Dr. Norman Spack, who is a pediatric endocrinologist, started a new clinic at Children's Hospital Boston, with the goal of delaying puberty in children so they can decide whether they want a male or a female body.
The clinic that Spack started is called the Gender Management Service Clinic, where kids as young as 10-12 for girls and 12-14 for boys, are given drugs to stop puberty from hitting.
In an interview done at Boston Globe, Spack is asked, "At what age do you give kids drugs to delay puberty?"
His answer was, "The puberty-blocking drugs work best at the beginning of the pubital process, typically age 10 to 12 for a girl and 12 to 14 for a boy. Stopping puberty is, in itself, a diagnostic test. If a girl starts to experience breast budding and feels like cutting herself, then she's probably transgendered. If she feels immediate relief on the [puberty-blocking] drugs, that confirms the diagnosis."
These treatments for children, not only change their physical appearance, but as he explains to his young patients, could also leave them sterile for life.
The biggest challenge is the issue of fertility. When young people halt their puberty before their bodies have developed, and then take cross-hormones for a few years, they'll probably be infertile. You have to explain to the patients that if they go ahead, they may not be able to have children. When you're talking to a 12-year-old, that's a heavy-duty conversation. Does a kid that age really think about fertility? But if you don't start treatment, they will always have trouble fitting in. And my patients always remind me that what's most important to them is their identity.
The problem some are seeing with this is that in previous reports, Spack is alleged to have admitted that only about 20 percent of children who claim to have a confusion over their gender hold those feelings in adulthood.
Spack says that he became committed to this cause because he had met transgendered people in their 20s who were in good shape socially but were having trouble getting their physique to conform to their identity.
Mass Resistance, a pro-family organization, is a vocal critic of this, stating, "We don't think that demonic is too strong a word to describe this. It brings us thoughts of the Nazi doctors who thought they were doing good things."
This delaying of puberty is being done and children as young as 12 have already been given these treatments.
Readers can decide for themselves whether they think a 12 year old is mentally mature enough to make life altering decisions, which could leave them without the ability to produce children later in life.
A now defunct Russian newspaper has defied the Kremlin, and paid for reporting on rumors about the possible engagement of Russian President Vladamir Putin and 24 year old Olympic Gymnast and Parliament Member Alina Kabaeva.
For months, the rumors of the possible romance of President Vladimir Putin with Alina Kabaeva have been quietly circulating around Moscow. Rumors that have remained unpublished until yesterday.
Last week, the Moskovski Korrespondent dared to report that there was a romance, that Putin had already divorced his wife Ludmilla in secret, and that Putin plans to marry Kabaeva.
Today, there is no Russian newspaper named Moskovski Korrespondent.
The paper admitted there was no factual basis for its claim that Putin had already divorced Ludmilla, 50, his wife of 24 years, and would marry Kabaeva in June, shortly after standing down as president and becoming prime minister. It cited information from a party planner who claimed to be bidding to organise the lavish reception.
Both Putin and Kabaeva denied the report, which was followed up by European newspapers but ignored by Russia’s media, which do not delve into the private lives of politicians.
Editor Grigori Nekhoroshev was forced to resign his position, stating that he thought they should break the taboo and run the story. Russian billionaire tycoon Alexander Lebedev ceased publication of the paper immediately, the parent company blaming "costs and conceptual disagreements with the newsroom" but denying that there was any political motivation in the decision to shut down the newspaper.
Many Russians believe otherwise. Putin discounted the article and condemned the paper as tabloid journalism. Kabaeva threatened to sue. Putin, during his presidency, brought control of all Russian television under control of the Kremlin and has been highly sensitive of criticism from the print media.
So much for the much vaunted freedoms of the Russian Federation...
London seriously stinks. Quite literally. The smell is being described as "putrid" and although some tried to blame the French, that was ruled out. Even the Queen at Windsor Castle, was not spared from this foul smell.
Friday morning the people in London awoke to a horrible smell that had many people wondering if the city's sewers had overflowed.
People in London, Kent, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, East Anglia and Devon were complaining about the foul odor.
It wasn't the sewers and The Daily Mail tried to blame the French for the odor, but that was soon rebutted by a a forecaster at the Met Office, Helen Chivers, who assured everyone the smell had come "from Northern Europe."
Google actually has the piece still listed under the first title, but when you click, it takes you to the piece blaming the Germans.
Back to the issue of the odor. Chivers told ABC that due to the weather situation, "air over Germany, Belgium and Holland hasn't moved for a while."
"One doesn't know whether the origins of the smell are industrial or agricultural, but we think it's built up over time, since it was trapped in the atmosphere for a while. That's why it's so intense," she said.
It is believed that once the rain starts falling as it inevitably does in London, the odor will dissipate and despite quite a few calls when the odor originally was notices, the London Fire Brigade spokesman told reporters that they hadn't received any further calls about it as of yesterday.
Some of the head lines from the major media have shown some humor on the part of the writers or editors that title their pieces, such as, CNN International, who head lines with, "Stinky manure smell engulfs London, " or Guardian.co.uk with, "What's that smell? A whiff of Europe", although my personal favorite was from ShortNews.com, with their headline declaring that, "London Smells Like %$#@."
According to the Guardian piece, the National Farmers' Union believed the putrid smell was coming from Dutch farmers with their "slurry spreading" at the end of their no spread Winter period.
Their communications director, Anthony Gibson, said, "This is what happens when farmers are forced to empty their slurry store all in one go at the same time instead of being able to apply it little and often during the winter. We are grateful to the Dutch farmers for laying on such a pungent demonstration of what could happen every spring here in the UK if the government presses ahead with its ill-conceived proposal to implement a blanket ban on winter slurry spreading."
The Water Aid charity claims that London has not smelled this bad since the, "Great Stink of 1858", caused by raw sewage.
Whatever the ultimate cause is, all account do agree on one thing.... London smells like crap.
With the controversy over the use of tasers still being hashed out in the media and public, a new device is being created by a company called Lamperd, that uses the same technology that is used in tasers, as a bracelet, to be worn on planes.
Electro-Muscular Disruption Technology (EMDT) has been used by law enforcement officials in the form of tasers, and not without controversy, especially when there has been a death to someone after having been tasered by police or law enforcement authorities.
EMDT devices use a high-voltage, low power charge of electricity to induce involuntary muscle contractions that cause temporary incapacitation.
Lamperd FTS has announced and even created a video (seen at YouTube and below) to show how the development of a new project they are working on.
The EMD Safety Bracelet is being created by Lamperd with intention of an Airline Security Project, and according to their promotional video, which uses footage of the 9/11 attacks on the word trade center in their beginning scenes, their project is in response to the billions of dollars being spent on airport security.
The video goes on to point out the systems already being worked on to improve security, then they show how critics say those measures won't wok effectively.
They lead into their idea by saying "no matter how sophisticated the technology is, the technology is only as good as the people using it".
They assert that once terrorists have boarded a flight, the pilots and crew are "the last line of defense," and how an Air Marshall could inadvertently cause more damage when shooting at a suspect by puncturing a hole in the plane or shooting a passenger by mistake, and the video gives illustrations of this happening.
Then comes the question and the point of the whole video, about 3 minutes and seven seconds into it, where they ask, "Is there a solution?"
YES!! There is, they say.
It starts when a passenger purchases a ticket, saying they can also be fitted with an Electronic ID Bracelet, that they will wear until they disembark the flight at their destination.
The promotional video claims this would make traveling much more convenient for the public, and replace the need to carry a ticket because it would contain all pertinent passenger information. This bracelet would also allow for tracking a person through the airport terminal, including the passenger's carry on luggage which would also be coded like the bracelet.
(An illustration used in Lamperd's promotional video which shows how these devices could be activated by an airline crew member to render someone immobile.)
Then comes the kicker and the main purpose of the bracelet, it would also be equipped with an Electro-Muscular Disruption technology, which would allow crew members, using radio frequency transmitters, to "quickly and effectively subdue hijackers", by overriding the attackers nervous system rendering them completely immobile for several minutes.
Everyone feeling safer?
This video, according to the Lamperd website has already received 30,000 views.
With the raging controversy about law enforcement officials using Electro-Muscular Disruption Technology, via tasers, and questions of those devices being used inappropriately because of a lack of proper training about when and how to use them, is this idea going to cause further controversy by even suggesting that those not in the law enforcement field, be given that type of power.
Would it only be used against terrorists? How about unruly passengers or those that get a little drunk and loud?
Would individual airlines even consider the use of these devices and would any government across the world even consider letting them?
Many complaints were leveled at Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, mostly from Barack Obama supporters, about the questions that were asked of Obama in that debate (transcript here) but after going through it, The Politico points out that "the balance of political questions (15) to policy questions (13) was more substantive than other debates this year that prompted no deluge of protests."
In fact, this was the first Democratic debate after the controversial words from Obama's pastor of almost 20 years, Jeremiah Wright, became public. The first debate since Obama's "middle America" comments about small town people clinging to their guns and religion because they were "bitter", and Gibson and Stephanopoulos, would have been abdicating their responsibilities if they did not ask about those issues.
The problem of balance comes into the equation because Hillary Clinton has been a huge figure in American politics for so long that the spotlight has generally been on her while Obama made awesome speeches and was generally seen as the media darling.
The reason for that is simple.
Obama was largely unknown. There wasn't years of information built up surrounding him to draw from.
Now that Barack Obama is in the spotlight, people are finally getting a glimpse into the "man" not the aura surrounding him and the media has finally found information to balance out the equation.
The more that is learned, the more he will rightly be questioned and in the latest Democratic debate, he clearly showed he wasn't ready for this change.
Moreover, those questions about Jeremiah Wright, about Obama’s association with 1960s radical William Ayers, about apparent contradictions between his past and present views on proven wedge issues like gun control, were entirely in-bounds. If anything, they were overdue for a front-runner and likely nominee.
If Obama was covered like Clinton is, one feels certain the media focus would not have been on the questions, but on a candidate performance that at times seemed tinny, impatient and uncertain.
Asking a presidential candidate questions about his associations and relationships, about his views on topics that have been highly publicized and controversial, should be the standard and not the exception and yet Obama and his supporters seems to want sympathy (and donations) because he was finally asked some pertinent, relevant, questions.
Here is a portion of the email the Obama campaign sent out after the debate, the email was cleverly titled in the subject line as "Gotcha".
Susan --
Did you see the debate last night?
If you did, you saw more gotcha politics and distractions than questions about the pressing issues affecting our country.
In fact, it took more than 45 minutes before Barack was asked about the economy, health care, or foreign policy.
Regrettably, Senator Clinton seemed all too comfortable with that type of debate. She's running a 100% negative campaign in Pennsylvania, taking every opportunity to make personal and discredited attacks against Senator Obama.
You can send a message that politics doesn't have to be played this way.
Make your first donation today, and someone who's already given will match whatever amount you decide to give. You can double your impact, and you'll even get to see the name and town of the fellow supporter matching your first online gift.
Will you make a $25 donation now?
Of course it goes on to explain why i should donate to his campaign and how he wanted a change in this type of politics.
What exactly does he want changed?
Does he want to go back to no one knowing more about him? Is he so scared of what people might learn now that the focus is on him, that he would rather not be asked legitimate questions and where he will whine when he is asked those questions?
Do we, the people that vote, not have the right to know every single thing we can about a candidate that wants to become president? Not only about policy stands, but about who the person is? What they think? What their beliefs are?
As the New York Times' 'The Caucus' points out, liberal bloggers, again mostly Obama supporters within the liberal blogosphere, all went into a complete frenzy telling their readers to complain to ABC, swamping ABC with emails whining about how unfair it was to ask Obama these types of questions.
And one’s got to wonder how much of the outrage stems from a true disappointment in the moderators’ focus on gaffes — oh, woe is journalism! — and how much comes from frustration that Mr. Obama was the candidate to have more explaining to do.
They also point out that Hillary Clinton has received scrutiny for 16 years and now that some of the scrutiny is being focused on Obama, it seems the rules have changed and Obama supporters, instead of being happy that people can finally have a chance to know their candidate are complaining because the information that is being asked about isn't exactly favorable to Obama.
So, back to the title question, "was Obama treated unfairly"? Or is the question that should be asked, "Is Obama finally being treated fairly"?
After two grueling days of testimony with hundreds of lawyers, parents and 416 children as well as Child Protective Services and law enforcement officials testifying, Judge Barbara Walther has ruled all 416 FLDS children will remain in state custody.
With different Wake up America articles over the last two days, I have reported continuous updates on the hearing in Texas to determine the custody of 416 children that were removed from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, almost two weeks ago.
The testimony from Child Protection Services (CPS) consisted of evidence that young girls, some as young as 13 were "spiritually" married off to old men and then impregnated.
Other testimony showed that girls ages 14 and 15 years old were also either pregnant or already had children. This case is the biggest child custody case ever seen in US history.
After a chaotic two days, District Judge Barbara Walther has just issued her ruling that all 416 children will remain in the Texas state care, allowing child welfare workers to start finding foster homes for them.
The judge has also ordered paternity and maternity testing on the fathers and the mothers to determine which children belong to who.
According to the judge a mobile unit will used to collect DNA samples from the children on Monday and the parents on Tuesday.
Before reading the verdict, Judge Walther explained the task that was before her, saying, "This is the hardest, toughest decision a judge makes every day. There is no easy way to do this."
A follow up hearing has been scheduled for June 5, 2008.
CPS spokeswomen, Marleigh Meisner, said the agency was pleased with the decision and that this case was not about religion but about the safety and well being of the children.
FLDS women sat silent and motionless inside Walther's courtroom upon hearing the ruling. After the judge left the courtroom, many huddled with their attorneys and listened as the lawyers explained the meaning of the decision.
The testimony today and yesterday showed a pattern of abuses that were perpetrated at the YFZ Ranch on young girls by older men that the mothers did not attempt to stop because it is their belief that at puberty, a young girl is old enough to become spiritually married and start bearing children.
There were suggestions of a compromise of mothers leaving the ranch to be able to be with their children, but some expert testimony also stated that the mothers might not be capable of making decisions for themselves much less for children.
Texas Child Protective Services chief investigator Angie Voss testified yesterday boys in the polygamous sect are groomed to become perpetrators of sexual assault, and girls become their victims. Today, she rejected scenarios proposed by attorneys that might lead to the return of the children.
Psychiatrist Bruce Perry of Texas, also took the stand this morning. Perry has worked with children from the Branch Davidian sect and said although he has found much to be admired about the FLDS, "the environment is authoritarian."
Perry testified that "young girls who are 14, 15 or 16 are not emotionally mature enough to enter into healthy sexual relationships" and also focused his testimony on the limited choices available to FLDS children.
Because of the unique circumstances in which these children have been raised, questions of what type of homes would be appropriate for them have not been answered yet.
When that question was put to Perry, he said that returning the children to the ranch would be detrimental and continued on to say, "because they are either victims of sexual assault, potential victims of sexual assault or potential perpetrators."
He also stated that state facilities and normal foster homes are not set up for these particular children's needs either.
When asked which option would be best for the children — a return to the ranch, placement in the f
