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The good “Reverend” just never ceases to amaze me with the hypocrisy that spews out of his mouth.
April 29, 2008 —
Barack Obama made a call for nonviolence in the aftermath of the Sean Bell verdict - infuriating the Rev. Al Sharpton, who accused the presidential candidate of trying to “grandstand in front of white people,” sources told The Post.
During what a source described as a “heated” phone call yesterday, Sharpton told Obama he was disappointed with the Illinois senator’s words on Friday, when Obama said “resorting to violence to express displeasure” was “completely unacceptable and counterproductive.”
“[Obama] issues this statement and not a single rock had been thrown,” said a source. “How does the candidate of change ask people to accept a verdict that is unjust?”
The source said Sharpton had hoped Obama would “side with the Bell family” and not use it as an “opportunity to grandstand in front of white people.”
An Obama spokesman described the conversation as a chance to “hear [Sharpton's] views and to get his perspective.”
Grandstanding in front of white people? Really?!? So saying that violent protest is not in the best interest of either the law enforcement or the black community is not only siding against the family of Mr. Bell but is also a slap in the face of black Americans and selling out to white voters? As a “typical white person“ I think I can answer emphatically that Baracks comments didnt appeal to me, but came across as standard political double speak. He managed to remain completely neutral in admonishing any side in this matter, while allowing that some form of protest could be acceptable as long as it was nonviolent. Well, kudos to him for not endorsing violence anyway.
Even more amazing is the fact that even if the allegations were true, “Reverend” Al would accuse anyone of grandstanding. I guess that grandstanding only becomes grandstanding when its done for white people. Just another day of life in the US of KKKA.
Not shut it down… shut it up!
The amazing 4 page response to the “Reverend” Al Sharpton via the New York Post.
April 26, 2008 — JUSTICE has been served in the Sean Bell case.
However horrific Bell’s slaying by police gunfire, Judge Arthur Cooperman yesterday resisted pressure to make the verdict an alleged test of civil rights - a test which, according to the city’s race agitators, had only one proper and predetermined outcome - and instead decided the case on the facts before him.
The New York Police Department has already begun scouring its training to try to drive down even further the chance that such a blood-curdling tragedy is repeated. Now it falls on Mayor Bloomberg to explain to the city how rare such tragedies are and to lay out the case that the NYPD is the greatest protector of civil rights in New York - given that the No. 1 civil right is freedom from fear and violence.
THE prosecution’s case began falling apart almost from the start. As Judge Cooperman noted, its witnesses contradicted their own prior statements and made claims on the stand that ballistics evidence clearly disproved.
In addition, many of the prosecutions’ witnesses corroborated the officers’ narrative of that night’s events:
* They confirmed that there’d been a tense exchange outside the Club Kalua (a crime-ridden strip joint in Queens) between an apparently armed man and Sean Bell and his companions (who had been celebrating Bell’s wedding the next day with a bachelor party at the club).
* Several acknowledged that Bell and his friends had referred to getting a gun.
* Some prosecution witnesses also verified what forensics evidence unambiguously demonstrated: that Sean Bell’s car had sped twice into Detective Gerald Isnora and an unmarked police van as Detective Isnora was trying to signal the car to stop.
Please read the full article in the link to the post above but the final page tells the real story that the race hustlers don’t want you to hear.
ANTI-COP agitators and politicians are fond of claiming that the police are a threat to black lives. In fact, no single private or public agency has saved more minority lives than the NYPD.
Had murders stayed at their early 1990s levels, before the NYPD got smart about policing, 13,000-plus more New Yorkers - the overwhelming majority of them black and Hispanic - would be dead today.
In fact, even as the NYPD brought down homicide a remarkable 70 percent, it was driving down its own use of force. In 1973, there were 1.82 fatal police shootings per 1,000 New York officers; in 2006, there were .36 such shootings per 1,000 officers. And the vast majority of those police shootings are against criminals who are threatening the officer with force.
The department is one of the more restrained big-city police outfits in the country. Its fatal shooting rate is a tenth those of the Phoenix and Philadelphia departments, for example. While every mistaken shooting of an unarmed innocent civilian is an unmitigated disaster, the number of such NYPD shootings over the last two decades can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
ABOVE all else, remember this: The risk posed to New Yorkers by the police is negligible compared to the risk posed by criminals - and NYPD New York officers work their hearts out every day to try to protect law-abiding residents from crime.
If Al Sharpton and Charles Barron really cared as much about law-abiding minorities as they say they do, they would join the police in that mission -they’d stigmatize criminals, not the cops. They’d protest outside the jail cells of rapists and robbers who terrorize the elderly and frail; they’d call on crime witnesses to cooperate with investigators.
The sad fact is, had Sean Bell been killed by a fellow club-goer, Al Sharpton and Charles Barron wouldn’t have taken the slightest interest in him. The world knows about him only because he was killed by police officers.
Need proof? A week after Bell’s death, another groom-to-be was fatally gunned down by some robbers in Brooklyn who had just pistol-whipped three other victims.
His name was Earl Williams - and no one ever protested his death. But New York’s police force worked to find his killer - and continue today to risk their own lives to safeguard ours.
According to Roll Call:
Reid was joined by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) in criticizing Republicans for any potential delays. And then who actually causes the delays? Politics…you gotta be disgusted by it.
Almost a week after the death of a truely great american, I ran across a speech that the late Mr. Heston gave at Harvard in 1999. I feel compelled to share it now.
The speech with partial audio can be found here.
“I remember my son when he was five, explaining to his kindergarten class what his father did for a living. “My Daddy,” he said, “pretends to be people.”
There have been quite a few of them. Prophets from the Old and New Testaments, a couple of Christian saints, generals of various nationalities and different centuries, several kings, three American presidents, a French cardinal and two geniuses, including Michelangelo. If you want the ceiling re-painted I’ll do my best. There always seem to be a lot of different fellows up here. I’m never sure which one of them gets to talk. Right now, I guess I’m the guy.
As I pondered our visit tonight it struck me: If my Creator gave me the gift to connect you with the hearts and minds of those great men, then I want to use that same gift now to re-connect you with your own sense of liberty … your own freedom of thought … your own compass for what is right.
Dedicating the memorial at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said of America, “We are now engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.”
Those words are true again. I believe that we are again engaged in a great civil war, a cultural war that’s about to hijack your birthright to think and say what resides in your heart. I fear you no longer trust the pulsing lifeblood of liberty inside you … the stuff that made this country rise from wilderness into the miracle that it is.
Let me back up. About a year ago I became president of the National Rifle Association, which protects the right to keep and bear arms. I ran for office, I was elected, and now I serve … I serve as a moving target for the media who’ve called me everything from “ridiculous” and “duped” to a “brain-injured, senile, crazy old man.” I know … I’m pretty old…but I sure Lord ain’t senile.
As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I’ve realized that firearms are not the only issues. No, it’s much, much bigger than that. I’ve come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our Land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated.
For example, I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963 — Long before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else’s pride, they called me a racist. I’ve worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe. I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite.
Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh.
From Time magazine to friends and colleagues, they’re essentially saying, “Chuck, how dare you speak your mind. You are using language not authorized for public consumption!”
But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we’d still be King George’s boys-subjects bound to the British crown.
In his book, “The End of Sanity,” Martin Gross writes that “Blatantly irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost every area of human endeavor. There seem to be new customs, new rules, and new anti-intellectual theories regularly foisted on us from every direction. Underneath, the nation is roiling. Americans know something without a name is undermining the nation, turning the mind mushy when it comes to separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong. And they don’t like it.”
Let me read a few examples.
At Antioch college in Ohio, young men seeking intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of the process from kissing to petting to final copulation … all clearly spelled out in a printed college directive.
In New Jersey, despite the death of several patients nationwide Who had been infected by dentists who had concealed their AIDs — the state commissioner announced that health providers who are HIV-positive need not… need not … tell their patients that they are infected.
At William and Mary, students tried to change the name of the school team “The Tribe” because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to learn that authentic Virginia chiefs truly like the name.
In San Francisco, city fathers passed an ordinance protecting the rights of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to have separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery.
In New York City, kids who don’t speak a word of Spanish have been placed in bilingual classes to learn their three R’s in Spanish solely because their last names sound Hispanic.
At the University of Pennsylvania, in a state where thousands died at Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set up segregated dormitory space for black students.
Yeah, I know … that’s out of bounds now. Dr. King said “Negroes.” Jimmy Baldwin and most of us on the March said, “black.” But it’s a no-no now. For me, hyphenated identities are awkward … particularly “Native-American.” I’m a Native American, for God’s sake. I also happen to be a blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux. On my wife’s side, my grandson is a thirteenth generation native American … with a capital letter on “American.”
Finally, just last month … David Howard, head of the Washington D.C. Office of Public Advocate, used the word “niggardly” while talking to colleagues about budgetary matters. Of course, “niggardly” means stingy or scanty. But within days Howard was forced to publicly apologize and resign.
As columnist Tony Snow wrote: “David Howard got fired because some people in public employ were morons who (a) didn’t know the meaning of niggardly,’ (b) didn’t know how to use a dictionary to discover the meaning, and (c) actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance.”
What does all of this mean? It means that telling us what to think has evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can’t be far behind. Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why did political correctness originate on America’s campuses? And why do you continue to tolerate it? Why do you, who’re supposed to debate ideas, surrender to their suppression? Let’s be honest. Who here thinks your professors can say what they really believe? It scares me to death, and should scare you too, that the superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason.
You are the best and the brightest. You, here in the fertile cradle of American academia, here in the castle of learning on the Charles River, you are the cream. But I submit that you, and your counterparts across the land, are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation since Concord Bridge. And as long as you validate that … and abide it … you are - by your grandfathers’ standards - cowards.
Here’s another example. Right now at more than one major university, Second Amendment scholars and researchers are being told to shut up about their findings or they’ll lose their jobs. Why? Because their research findings would undermine big-city mayor’s pending lawsuits that seek to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from firearm manufacturers. I don’t care what you think about guns. But if you are not shocked at that, I am shocked at you. Who will guard the raw material of unfettered ideas, if not you? Who will defend the core value of academia, if you supposed soldiers of free thought and expression lay down your arms and plead, “Don’t shoot me.”?
If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist. If you see distinctions between the genders, it does not make you a sexist. If you think critically about a denomination, it does not make you anti-religion. If you accept but don’t celebrate homosexuality, it does not make you a homophobe. Don’t let America’s universities continue to serve as incubators for this rampant epidemic of new McCarthyism.
But what can you do? How can anyone prevail against such pervasive social subjugation? The answer’s been here all along. I learned it 36 years ago, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., standing with Dr. Martin Luther King and two hundred thousand people.
You simply … disobey. Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently, absolutely. But when told how to think or what to say or how to behave, we don’t. We disobey social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes personal freedom. I learned the awesome power of disobedience from Dr.King … who learned it from Gandhi, and Thoreau, and Jesus, and every other great man who led those in the right against those with the might.
Disobedience is in our DNA. We feel innate kinship with that Disobedient spirit that tossed tea into Boston Harbor, that sent Thoreau to jail, that refused to sit in the back of the bus, that protested a war in VietNam. In that same spirit, I am asking you to disavow cultural correctness with massive disobedience of rogue authority, social directives and onerous law that weaken personal freedom.
But be careful … it hurts. Disobedience demands that you put yourself at risk. Dr. King stood on lots of balconies. You must be willing to be humiliated … to endure the modern-day equivalent of the police dogs at Montgomery and the water cannons at Selma. You must be willing to experience discomfort. I’m not complaining, but my own decades of social activism have taken their toll on me.
Let me tell you a story. A few years back I heard about a rapper named Ice-T who was selling a CD called “Cop Killer” celebrating ambushing and murdering police officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time/Warner, the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the world. Police across the country were outraged. Rightfully so - at least one had been murdered. But Time/Warner was stonewalling because the CD was A cash cow for them, and the media were tiptoeing around it because the rapper was black.
I heard Time/Warner had a stockholders meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills. I owned some shares at the time, so I decided to attend. What I did there was against the advice of my family and colleagues I asked for the floor. To a hushed room of a thousand average American stockholders, I simply read the full lyrics of “Cop Killer” - every vicious, vulgar, instructional word.
“I GOT MY 12 GAUGE SAWED OFF
I GOT MY HEADLIGHTS TURNED OFF
I’M ABOUT TO BUST SOME SHOTS OFF
I’M ABOUT TO DUST SOME COPS OFF…”
It got worse, a lot worse. I won’t read the rest of it to you. But trust me, the room was a sea of shocked, frozen, blanched faces. The Time/Warner executives squirmed in their chairs and stared at their shoes. They hated me for that.
Then I delivered another volley of sick lyric brimming with racist filth, where Ice-T fantasizes about sodomizing two 12-year old nieces of Al and Tipper Gore.
“SHE PUSHED HER BUTT AGAINST MY … .”
Well, I won’t do to you here what I did to them. Let’s just say I left the room in echoing silence. When I read the lyrics to the waiting press corps, one of them said “We can’t print that.” “I know,” I replied,”but Time/Warner’s selling it.” Two months later, Time/Warner terminated Ice-T’s contract. I’ll never be offered another film by Warners, or get a good review from Time magazine. But disobedience means you must be willing to act, not just talk.
When a mugger sues his elderly victim for defending herself … jam the switchboard of the district attorney’s office.
When your university is pressured to lower standards until 80% of the students graduate with honors … choke the halls of the board of regents.
When an 8-year-old boy pecks a girl’s cheek on the playground and gets hauled into court for sexual harassment … march on that school and block its doorways.
When someone you elected is seduced by political power and betrays you…petition them, oust them, banish them.
When Time magazine’s cover portrays millennium nuts as deranged, Crazy Christians holding a cross as it did last month … boycott their magazine and the products it advertises.
So that this nation may long endure, I urge you to follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobediences of history that freed exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an aroused rabble in arms and a few great men, by God’s grace, built this country.
If Dr. King were here, I think he would agree. Thank you. “
You represented the best of what this nation is and we owe you a debt of gratitude for your courage.
Rest in peace sir.
Some people never learn the lessons that have cost us so dearly. In yet another example of Democrats efforts for peace at any price, Jimmy Carter has decided to meet with Hamas in Syria.
NEW YORK CITY — Former President Jimmy Carter is reportedly preparing an unprecedented meeting with the leader of Hamas, an organization that the U.S. government considers one of the leading terrorist threats in the world.
The Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat reported Tuesday that Carter was planning a trip to Syria for mid-April, during which he would meet with Khaled Meshal, the exiled head of the Palestinian terror group Hamas, on April 18.
Deanna Congileo, Carter’s press secretary, confirmed in an e-mail to FOXNews.com that Carter will be in the Mideast in April. Pressed for comment, Congileo did not deny that the former president is considering visiting Meshal.
“President Carter is planning a trip to the Mideast next week; however, we are still confirming details of the trip and will issue a press release by the end of this week,” wrote Congileo. “I cannot confirm any specific meetings at this point in time.”
Meshal, who lives in Syria to avoid being arrested by the Israeli government, leads Hamas from his seat in Damascus, where he is a guest of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The State Department has designated Hamas a “foreign terrorist organization,” and some groups hold Meshal personally responsible for ordering the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack once said of the prospect of meeting with Meshal, “That’s not something that we could possibly conceive of.”
Some Carter critics called the latest reports typical of the ex-president.
“It’s about par for the course from President Carter, demonstrating a lack of judgment typical of what he does,” said John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. “To go to Syria to visit Hamas at this point is just an ill-timed, ill-advised decision on his part.”
“I’m not surprised that Carter would do this, as he has been supporting Palestinian extremism for many years,” said Steve Emerson, director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, a watchdog group.
Carter would be the first Western leader of his stature to meet with the Hamas chief. Though Meshal met with Clinton officials in the 1990s, the Bush administration has sought to isolate Hamas, enforcing rigid sanctions on its government in Gaza and refusing to meet with its leaders unless it recognizes Israel and abandons terror.
“I think this [visit] undermines the U.S. policy of isolating Hamas,” said Emerson. “I think this encourages Europeans to further dilute their sanctions against the Hamas government.”
“When you put the prestige of a former president of the United States in a meeting with one of its terrorist leaders, you’re giving it a legitimacy and currency it never had,” said Bolton.
But Ibrahim Hooper, communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a non-profit advocacy group, said Carter’s efforts demonstrate he’s a true partner in peace.
“I think if true, this report would indicate that President Carter is willing to travel any road in search of peace,” he said. “I think President Carter would only undertake such a mission if he believed that something could be achieved in terms of peace and reconciliation in the region.”
Hooper added that because of Carter’s reputation among Palestinians he might be able to bring some pressure to bear.
“Obviously President Carter has a great amount of credibility in the region because of his past efforts seeking peace internationally,” Hooper said.
The Al-Hayat report stated that Carter would be traveling in his capacity as head of the Carter Center, and not in his capacity as a former president.
“That’s a distinction that’s absurd,” said Emerson.
“Maybe he’ll give up his pension, but he’s always a former president,” said Bolton.
Unfortunately, this is just the latest in the trend of diplomatic efforts by Democratic party leaders. Nancy Pelosi, Jim McDermont, both had smashingly successful talks in the middle east (yes thats called sarcasm). Even leading presidential candidate Barack H. Obama wants to start a new dialog with Iran. Maybe Jimmy is on to something here though. No matter that the Hamas charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, removal of infidels from muslim lands and even states that peace conferences are “ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Muslims as arbitraters.” Yes no matter how useless and wasteful negotiating with this group is Mr. Peanut may one day yet be able to say we again have “Peace for our time.”
And yet another example of how the third party payment system is inefficient and fraudulent. When will we learn that the buyer-seller model is so much more desirable than the buyer-seller-receiver model? Today’s AP report on the VA is just the latest example of the failures of this bureaucratic model.
Veterans Affairs employees last year racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in government credit-card bills at casino and luxury hotels, movie theaters and high-end retailers such as Sharper Image and Franklin Covey — and government auditors are investigating, citing past spending abuses.
All told, VA staff charged $2.6 billion to their government credit cards.
The Associated Press, through a Freedom of Information request, obtained the VA list of 3.1 million purchases made in the 2007 budget year. The list offers a detailed look into the everyday spending at the government’s second largest department.
And,
At least 13 purchases totaling $8,471 were charged at Sharper Image, a specialty store featuring high-tech electronics and gizmos such as robotic barking dogs. In addition, 19 charges worth $1,999.56 were made at Franklin Covey, which sells leather totes and planners geared toward corporate executives.
On at least six occasions, employees based at VA headquarters made credit card charges at Las Vegas casino hotels totaling $26,198.
When the buyer gets no direct value from the purchase and an unlimited supply of funds are available by which to make the purchases, corruption and fraud are soon to follow.
right now and her opening joke was about sniper fire. (Also, Leno just referred to the media as “us.”) Leno of course isn’t asking hard questions about the Bosnian sniper lie or other issues, and he probably shouldn’t, that’s not his job. But in his usual brilliance, Christopher Hitchens has asked some hard questions and deduced some worrisomely inexhorable conclusions. It’s worth a read.
Congress’ grilling of oil execs for their companies’ profits brought to mind an old post of mine from last year where I brought up a few numbers on oil profit and government inlays from gas taxes. Original article, most of which had nothing to do with oil, here. Here’s the relevant snippet:
Remember how irate the Left was when despicable Exxon-Mobile made–gasp!–nine cents of profit per dollar of oil? Imagine what Liberals would do if somebody tried making 18 cents. (Turns out the answer to that is “absolutely nothing” since the federal government alone leeches 18.4 cents per dollar spent on gas—again, angelic Big Government makes twice off of gas what evil Big Oil makes–and what makes one angelic and the other evil? The fact that one forcibly took that wealth and the other had the unmitigated audacity to earn it.)
Where is the global outrage over this film? Will “peace loving” Muslims denounce this message?
The following transcript is from a video made by Muslims for Muslim children. The video shows a child stabbing President Bush to death and turning the White House into a mosque.
From MEMRITV:
Bush: Who are you? What brings you to my home? How did they let you in, boy? My guards! My soldiers! Get this boy out of here.
Child: Nobody will take me out of here.
Bush: Who are you to come here and threaten me?! You are on my own turf, you little child, you! Get out. My dear, bring your father, your grandfather, or your mother, so I can talk to them. Get somebody older and smarter than you. What, you came here on your own?
Child: You killed daddy in the Iraq war. It’s true, you killed him in the Iraq war. As for my mom – you and the criminal Zionists killed her in Lebanon. You and the criminal Zionists also killed my younger and older brothers in the Gaza holocaust. I’m an orphan, you criminal!
Bush: What are you talking about? Where did you come from? Don’t I have enough troubles already? Where did you come from?
Child: I have come to take revenge with this sword – revenge for my mother and my sisters. You are a criminal, Bush! You are despicable. You made me an orphan! You took everything from me, Bush! I must take revenge on you, with this sword of Islam, the Prophet’s Al-Battar sword.
Bush: No… No, my dear. I give you my word that this is it. I repent, just don’t kill me. Where are my guards? Where are my people? Help! Help! He wants to kill me. Help!
Child: There are no guards, and your people have surrendered, Bush. I have not come alone, Bush. I have brought thousands of thousands of children from Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. You have denied all these children their fathers and mothers. That’s why I have come to take revenge on you and on all the criminal traitors who collaborated with you.
Bush: Okay, fine, that’s enough. I will give you whatever you want from me.
Child: What can you give me? All I want is one thing. Bring back my father and mother. I don’t want anything from you. I don’t want anything from you, just bring back my father and mother. I place my trust in Allah. I need to kill you.
Bush: No, my dear. Enough. I will give you anything you want. I also… Enough with that. Come with all your friends to the White House. I will give you food and toys. We will sit in the White House and talk. You will get whatever you need.
Child: You are impure, Bush, so you are not allowed inside the White House.
Bush: What are you saying?! Why am I not allowed into the White House?
Child: Because it has been turned into a great mosque for the nation of Islam. I will kill you just like Mu’az killed Abu Lahab. I will kill you, Bush, because that is your fate.
Child stabs Bush repeatedly
Child: Ahhh, I killed him.
For months the media has been forecasting a major economic recession, and yet American taxpayers are still forced to fund this $1.12 billion empire. PRNewswire reports:
“It is absolutely incredible,” said Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League, “but the annual report just released by Planned Parenthood Federation of America shows that $114 million of the government funds received by Planned Parenthood were not needed and only increased the abortion giant’s assets.”
Sedlak was referring to the 2006 — 2007 PPFA annual report released late last week. The report shows that PPFA had a total income of $1.02 billion. Of that total, $258.7 million came from donations; $366.9 million came from fees charged customers at its clinics; and a whopping $336.7 million came from the American taxpayer.
The report also showed that PPFA recorded a profit of $114.8 million and increased its total assets to $1.12 billion.
The lead from a Fox story this morning:
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea threatened South Korea with destruction Sunday after Seoul’s top military officer said it would consider attacking the communist nation if it tried to carry out a nuclear attack.
For all of their bluster and human-rights violations, the North Koreans do occasionally provide some entertainment, this time by saying the equivalent of “We will destroy you for attacking us after we try to destroy you.”A post-announcement evil laugh would have been icing on the cake, but I suspect most North Koreans lack from mass starvation the resonance vis a vis body mass needed to produce a Dracula-style chortle, though an “also your mom’s fat!” would have been a suitable substitute.
In a related but somewhat overlooked story, Kim, saying, “I’ve never before seen such redundancy and obviously ridiculous syntax, even for non-native English speakers…come on guys you’re not even trying,” executed all members of the Korean Central News agency. We suspect the mass-slaying came after the dictator read sections of the agency’s Sunday comments on South Korea, such as, “Everything will be in ashes, not just a sea of fire, if our advanced pre-emptive strike once begins.” Yes, for those of you out there wondering, ashes are scarier than fire and advanced preemption differs from regular preemption…somehow…if their strike once begins…
While Islamists may be able to intimidate centralized organizations such as LiveLeak…or the Dutch government, file sharing networks are extremely cellular, so much so that once information is released onto them, it is nearly impossible for it to be withdrawn, no matter what threats are made. I was pleased this morning to see this working to our advantage when I searched Isohunt.com for Fitna and found at least half-a-dozen copies already available to anyone with a mind to download one.
To download your own legal copy of Fitna, follow these steps (if your video player gives you trouble, I recommend using VideoLan–it will play virtually every file-type imaginable).
1. Visit uTorrent.com and download their torrent program here.
2. Install uTorrent by opening the file you just downloaded.
3. Once uTorrent installs, click here. When the page opens, click “Download .torrent” and then when the box pops up, tell it to open using uTorrent. (You’re now downloading the film. If this for some reason doesn’t work, move on to the next steps below.)
4. Visit this link which will auto-search Isohunt.com for copies of Fitna
5. Select the copy you want to download and click on it. (Currently I prefer the 133.55 MB version–it plays well and is in English.)
6. Once you click the file you want, you will be taken to another page with a “Download .torrent” link. Click the link, choose to open it with uTorrent, and uTorrent will start downloading the film automatically.
Remember that downloading items such as Fitna is not illegal because they are designed for public consumption. Downloading movies, music, and other intellectual property may be illegal and should be avoided. The Watchmen in no way endorse illegal file sharing.
In another fine example of the liberal mantra on free speech (freedom for me, but none for thee) Forrest Lake Highscrewel in Minnesota cancelled a scheduled event in which decorated veterans from both Iraq and Afghanistan were to discuss with students the importance of the missions operating in both these countries.
The event in question was cancelled when several parents of students called Principal Steve Massey concerned according to the Minneapolis St. Paul Star Tribune that “the event was becoming political rather than educational and therefore was not suitable for a public school .” Principal Massey included that if the event went on as planned, many parents said that they would stage a protest during the event. On the decision to cancel the event Principal Massey said “The event was structured to be an academic classroom discussion around military service. We thought we’d provide an opportunity for kids to learn about service in the context of our history classes. As the day progressed, it became clear that this was becoming a political event … which would be inappropriate in a public setting.“
Now, correct me if I’m wrong but I thought that liberals wanted to discuss our differences and valued diversity in opinion. Also, I must say that I’m not questioning their patriotism or their love for our troops (even though they don’t support their mission, don’t want them to recruit, and now wont even let them speak about their experiences). Contrary to the open-mindedness they preach to us, this is just the latest example of do as I say not as I do from the Anti- military and anti America crowd.
Rabbi Uria Ohana was just going about his day inside a subway station when a young man snatched off his Yarmulke and ran off with it. Not to be deterred in his expression of faith, Rabbi Ohana gave chase through the subway station only to run into this young man and a few of his friends. The man, 18 year old Ali Hussien and two unidentified friends began to throw punches at the rabbi and yelled Allah akbar (God is great) while they beat him.
check out the full story here.
Now this latest display of “tolerance” and “respectful religious disagreement” did not happen in Tel Aviv, Egypt or even in one of the many European countries now running over with militant islamists. This latest attack came in a substation located in Brooklyn, NY. Now, since our country has infected itself with an acute case of Political Correctness, I will start the legal disclaimer section of my blog. I the engaging party of this blog here-do attest and vow, in the presence of God, Allah, Jehovah, Budda, mother earth, everything and anything you the reader believe and hold dear, that I dont believe all muslims to be of the militant variety.
Just like any group, there are elements that will abuse the good name of a religion and distort the practice of the majority, but this attack begs the question of what was being taught to those disciples of Muhammad. Certainly they did not learn this behavior on their own, so what code of conduct are they learning at home and at their mosque? Just out of my own curiosity, I ask you to indulge this question also. If the shoe were on the other foot, and a young Jewish male had ripped the religious head dress off a young muslim woman, or if several jewish men had beaten up a muslim cleric while chanting how great their God was, what do you think the reaction would be from the muslim community?
To my eternal amusement, as the young man who had stolen the yarmulke was attempting to flee, reveling in the knowledge that Allah had blessed his actions, he was struck by a vehicle and had to have emergency services treat him. Even now however, political correctness is still a factor in serving justice for Rabbi Ohana. Since he has decided to press charges in the incident, New York City Prosecutors have not yet decided if this crime falls into the category of a “hate” or bias crime (I would have to agree, since the victim was not gay, black or muslim for which this special victim status was intended). Ill stop my rant now but I raised this story with one point in mind. Our political correctness is killing us, and unless we dig our heads out of the sand now, we might not have a head to pullout later.
Despite having the most liberal voting record of 2007, Obama claims to be:
“a leader who can finally move beyond the divisive politics of Washington and bring Democrats, independents and Republicans together to get things done.”
Not that an endorsement by the New Black Panthers and statements like “typical white American” are divisive.
It was only a few days ago that the supreme court began hearing arguments from attourneys representing the District of Columbia as well as Dick Heller, a security guard who simply wanted to take his gun home with him for protection while not on duty. Heller, who is 65, would ordinarily not be allowed to have a handgun in his house under the existing DC rules, challenged the long standing DC gun ban and surprisingly won his appeal in a district court last year. Now, I hate to take away from the heaping good time we are having on Barack Obama’s attempt to stop the bleeding from stockpiles of video, showing his pastor blasting rich people, white people, rich white people, black people that arent democrats, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, black people who would vote for Hillary Clinton, and America in general (did I mention rich white people?). However, this issue is important and really hasnt been discussed in much detail. Why is this case so important you might ask? Well, in a nutshell the courts from all appearances seem to be on the verge of deciding not only the constitutionality of the DC gun ban, but in a much larger scope; the right of private citizens to own firearms.
Still missing the big deal? Well how about we start at the beginning. Im a firm believer that the men that founded our country were pretty sharp guys. When they penned the constitution and the bill of rights specifically, they believed that our most basic freedom comes not from government, but from our creator. The freedom to pray to whom we want, to assemble peacefully when and where we want, and to say what we want is not granted to us by our politicians. They come to us from a much greater power and are not negotiable…ever. The other rights such as fair trials and unreasonable searchs, ect. are again ours without dispute from our government. These rights have been tried and tested over many years, but have stood throughout the world as a symbol of freedom and hope, that our country has never and will never belong to a tyrant to control. Rather that we the people of this nation will govern ourselves and our affairs. The second amendment however is particularly important to the other rights specifically mentioned in the bill of rights, because this right is the only recourse we the people have to defend ourselves and our rights. Thats right folks, the second amendment was never intended for hunting (its just one of the perks). Dont believe me?
The wording of the Amendment itself should be very clear “A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed“. For the benefit of anyone not convinced of the intent behind this amendment, lets go back and look at the words of the founders themselves on this very topic.
Thomas Jefferson first talked about this matter when helping to create the constitution of the state of Virginia saying “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” He reafirmed this belief in a letter to Justice John Cartwright around 1824. “The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed…”.
Samuel Adams confirmed citizen firearm ownership when he spoke to the Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer in 1789 saying “”And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the Press, or the rights of Conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms;…”.
Alexander Hamilton concurs as well stating in one of his contributions to the Federalist Papers that “The best we can help for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.” This amendment was also confirmed by President Geoerge Washington in his first annual address to congress in 1790. He stated “A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.”
I could go on citing more examples of the founders telling us that this amendment, is the bedrock on which the others sit. I could list examples throughout history such as in Germany, Russia, and China and expound upon the attrocities that ensued after these nations instituted gun bans on their respective citizens since they could no longer defend themselves from an unjust government. I could provide the evidence of the failings of the DC gun ban (or of many gun free zones across the country) but in the interest of breavity I will not. I will simply conclude by saying that regardless of how you FEEL about guns, my right to protect myself, my family, my friends, or my property can never be taken from me by my government. My government never gave me the right of self defense, my creator did.
Joe Vento, owner of the famous Philly cheesesteak shop that displayed a sign asking patrons to speak English when ordering, took on political correctness and won. After the Philadelphia commission found probable cause against Geno’s for discrimination, the case went to a public hearing where:
In a 2-1 vote, a Commission on Human Relations panel found that two signs at Geno’s Steaks telling customers, “This is America: WHEN ORDERING ‘PLEASE SPEAK ENGLISH,’” do not violate the city’s Fair Practices Ordinance.
Shop owner Joe Vento has said he posted the signs in October 2005 because of concerns over immigration reform and an increasing number of people in the area who could not order in English.
Vento has said he never refused service to anyone because they couldn’t speak English. But critics argued that the signs discourage customers of certain backgrounds from eating at the shop.
Commissioners Roxanne E. Covington and Burt Siegel voted to dismiss the complaint, finding that the sign does not communicate that business will be “refused, withheld or denied.”
“There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room but for one language here and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality; we have room for but one soul loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people.” - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1907
Quick to denounce Don Imus yet, continues to defend the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama shows his true colors and America is not impressed.
According to NewsMax:
It took Barack Obama more than a year to repudiate his former pastor’s racially charged anti-American tirades, but when it came to denouncing Don Imus for his racial slurs against the Rutgers girls basketball team, it took Obama only a week to demand the shock jock be fired
And now, the latest Gallup poll shows:
For the first time in nearly six weeks, Hillary Rodham Clinton leads Barack Obama, 49 percent to 42 percent in daily tracking polling conducted this past Sunday to Tuesday.
Since the first Islamic missionaries arrived on our shores during the 1920s, the goal has been to conquer America. A variety of subversive methods have been put toward those ends, although the non-violent approach of establishing Shar’ia law is the most feasible since government neutrality towards religion is guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. By attempting to convince Americans that Islam does not have any fundamental disagreements with the ideals of a free society, unsuspecting Americans will not be alerted to the real ends being sought. By giving the appearance of wanting to join the great American experiment, not work against it, Islamists intent on their religion dominating our Western culture are really masking an attempt to destroy it from within.
Non-violent Muslim efforts are manifested in the election of a second Muslim to the U.S. House of Representatives. According to the Militant Islam Monitor, on March 12, 2008, Andre Carson was sworn in as a representative from the 7th District of Minnesota.
Despite Mr. Carson’s assertions that he is an “orthodox, universal secular Muslim,” a term which seems crafted to reject Islamism, the fact that he has chosen to partner with groups like CAIR and extremists like Ellison suggests otherwise, that Carson is instead, playing a game of intentional deception.
Carson’s continued presence in Congress - where it appears that he will follow in Keith Ellison’s footsteps - is therefore a matter of grave concern and further evidence that the stealth jihad has now spilled into the very halls of Congress.
While the many Americans who voted for him may see themselves as accommodating of other religions, they fail to realize that Islam is not just a religion, but also a legal system that issues such punishments as floggings, stonings, and the severing of limbs. It is not a religion of peace as some would like to claim. If America is to preserve its existing order, we must be vigilant in defending it against the social and political pressures in favor of handing Islam a special status. Instead, we must foster the revealing of the true nature of Islam.
Fox reports that Obama’s site finally took down an endorsement from the New Black Panther Party . Leader of the NBPP, Malik Zulu Shabazz, said he understood the decision and would continue to strongly support Obama, no doubt sending chills down the aspiring nominee’s spine. According to the story, the Candidate of Unity is also the candidate of choice for an organization
identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a tolerance education organization, as an extremist hate group. The Anti-Defamation League calls NBPP “the largest organized anti-Semitic black militant group in America. … the group continues to organize demonstrations across the country that blend inflammatory bigotry with calls for black empowerment and civil rights.”
The NBPP lists on its Web site a 10-point plan for full employment for black Americans as well as housing, education, free health care and an end to the death penalty.
In addition, it demands slavery reparations, the release of all black prisoners from American jails, trials of blacks only by all-black juries, an end to all black cooperation with police departments, exemption for blacks from the all-volunteer U.S. military and a separate country for African-Americans.
Nothing says “unity” quite like calls for a separate country.
Of course it’s true that we can’t fault Obama for the choices his supporters make (other than following him that is), but we can ask why he attracts these types of supporters.
ABC News ain’t havin’ none of it…
Buried in his eloquent, highly praised speech on America’s racial divide, Sen. Barack Obama contradicted more than a year of denials and spin from him and his staff about his knowledge of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s controversial sermons.
This should account for a few extra hires in each of her rivals’ campaigns.
Thousands of pages of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s schedules as first lady are being released to the public after months of pressure and criticism that the Clintons were delaying the disclosure.The National Archives, which operates the former President Clinton’s presidential library in Little Rock, announced Tuesday it would release 11,046 pages of Clinton’s daily schedules at the Little Rock facility and online Wednesday morning.
The timing for this is interesting. Despite her claims, Hillary has been able to release these documents for a long while but chose to weather the criticism she received for not having already let them go. In doing so, she staved off the even more intense onslaught of attacks that will come from exposing to the public the nuggests of gold contained within. As the files are finely combed by opposition research teams, I am sure we will see something revealed that could have been the last straw to a campaign that could have died many times already (think NH, March 5th, etc.). Now, when Obama is in hardcore defensive mode and his numbers are slipping, Hillary probably figured this was the best chance she is going to have to get this necessary move out of the way. The frenzy over Jeremiah Wright proves the perfect cover for such a release, and a perfect contrast. While Obama is seen distancing himself from some sort of dark secret in his life and trying to cover it up, Hillary is seen as being open and forthcoming. (h/t Alisa)
The Pentagon just released a new report covering hundreds of documents recovered in Iraq following the invasion. What it shows is a clear link between Saddam and al Qaeda:
“Captured documents reveal that the regime was willing to co-opt or support organizations it knew to be part of al Qaeda — as long as that organization’s near-term goals supported Saddam’s long-term vision.”
And there’s this:
“Saddam supported groups that either associated directly with al Qaeda (such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led at one time by bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri) or that generally shared al Qaeda’s stated goals and objectives.”
The media, of course, jumped on the line in the Executive Summary of the report (that’s as far as they read) that said there was no “smoking gun.”
They just don’t make preachers like this anymore. I wonder why not? Better yet, what can we infer about someone who willingly sits under this tripe for years…and raises his children there? Just a thought.
Barack Obama spoke today, trying to calm voter’s concerns about a candidate whose preacher calls on God to damn America when he’s not busy blaming American for introducing AIDS to African Americans…intentionally.
I’m not sure the speech accomplished much though, other than reminding us that Obama continues at a church pastored by someone who is either completely intellectually dishonest or absolutely looney. As a friend at dinner tonight pointed out, it seems all Obama managed to do was sully his grandmother’s name while trying to avoid acknowledging his pastor’s sullied name. I mean really Barack, you want to convince us that it’s ok for your pastor to be a racist because your grandmother was one too? Or is it that it’s ok for you to accept your racist pastor because your grandmother was racist. Come on Obama, was the teleprompter out?
Editors’ Note: The following post obligatorily strikes a sober chord. It wouldn’t do to start a blog about ideas without a serious post about the value of our central idea: Freedom. So take a look if you’re curious about our reasoning and background. Otherwise, just check out the last couple of paragraphs and then hang on because things are about to get fun, really fast.
The bug bit after Buckley passed away. I don’t know what it was. Maybe all of the videos of Firing Line I watched. Maybe all of the obituaries. Or maybe it was the conscious knowledge that we had lost one of the intellectual giants of the last sixty years–and our leader.
When President Reagan died, I mourned. When Milton Friedman died, I mourned. When Buckley died, I jolted bolt upright. This is not to diminish Reagan and Friedman, but to laud Buckley. His death and the outpouring of sympathy, interspersed with recognition of his intellectual acumen by the Right and, perhaps more significantly, the Left, helped rekindle my enthusiasm not for politics, partisanship, or even conservatism but for freedom itself.
Freedom is the most important value of all. Morality, equality, tolerance, respect–none of these can exist without the life-giving breath that is freedom.
But as history has shown and Jefferson noted, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” Though the days of the Great Society have passed–minorities plunged into poverty by the unintentionally devilish device of government welfare still toil to recover–Americans see more threats to freedom daily. They abound. Mississippians elected a representative to their state congress who proposed making it a crime for restaurants to serve obese people. California has mandated that thermostats contain radio-transmitters allowing the government to control them during “times of need”–whatever those may be. Public schools suspend students for making market transactions with each other in the form of the sale of a bag of Skittles.
William Somerset Maughan said, “If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that, if it is comfort or money it values more, it will lose that too.” He was right. Many among us value a great many things more than freedom. The cry “make a law” echoes in our ears nearly as often as “please” and “thank you” are heard, and certainly more than anyone dares utter the name “Jesus” in public (unless in epitaph form, which is perfectly acceptable). It is these gradual encroachments–good intentions made law–that will pave the way to hell.
We have been down this road before, the difference is that those who tried statism in the past tried to rapidly implement it. This failed miserably, though not before tens of millions died grasping, gasping deaths. Moralists took lessons from this and continue their flirtation with statism, hoping that gently prodding the beast instead of fully awakening it will invoke blessing not ruinous blast. But they play a dangerous game, the consequences of which can only be a diminution of that most sacred of all values: freedom.
In 1955 William F. Buckley said that the National Review “stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.” Things are not so grim as they were then. Some today are inclined to yell “stop.” The rise of talk radio, internet news, and the blogosphere has given voice to many who love freedom as we do. But others urge the state on, praising the fetters it inflicts on freedom. To them we join with the chorus Bill Buckley started some 53 years ago, and yell “Stop!”
In the days ahead, we hope to provide commentary and discussion on the news of the day, articles on prescient issues, and not a little entertainment mixed in. It’s unimaginable that many of our submissions will approximate this post’s length or somber demeanor. We’re a diverse group of writers, from objectivists to evangelicals, neo-cons to libertarians. With that mixture, the discussions should be robust, and we will do everything we can to keep the mood light and humorous when possible. This space will be a playground for us to explore ideas on the Right, debunk fallacies on the Left, and give a good dose of pop-culture and irreverent media analysis in between.
So pull up a mouse and chair, pick up a volume of the Federalists or PJ O’Rourke, and join in.
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