The Left continues to bastardize the meaning of rights

Rights, as defined by our Founders came from our Creator, or were natural rights, that is rights that are inherent to us all. Those rights included the right to property, freedom of speech, association, the freedom to practice your own religion, or to practice no religion at all, and the right to keep and bear arms among others. You might have noted that among the rights I listed, a right to not be offended was not present. Nor was a right to force a business to sell a product to you. The Left, it seems, is intent on creating such God-given rights. Such rights cannot exist in a nation that honors liberty. A “right” not to have your feelings hurt infringes upon the right of everyone else to freely express their opinions. Likewise any effort to create a “right” that forces a business to sell or provide a service to anyone would naturally place an undue burden upon that business owner.

Take a case from Colorado described in The Blaze

Should bakers and other vendors be allowed to refuse service to gays and lesbians, specifically when it comes to marital ceremonies? “No,” argues one gay couple who have filed a discrimination complaint against a Colorado baker who refused to provide them with a wedding cake.

Masterpiece Cakeshop, owned by Jack Phillips and based near Denver, Colorado, is at the center of the dispute after David Mullins and Charlie Craig attempted to order the baked good from the business last summer.

Phillips, declining to provide service after learning of the couple’s sexuality, cited his Christian beliefs. But Mullins and Craig aren’t accepting Biblical arguments as a viable basis for the refusal.

“We were all very upset, but I was angry and I felt dehumanized and mortified,” Mullins said in an interview with the Associated Press.

What was then posted by the couple on Facebook, as Gawker notes, spread like wildfire and is now making national headlines. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is also involved, having found two other couples were Phillips declined to make cakes for in the past as well. The legal group is not researching next steps in the contentious case.

Last week, the Colorado Attorney General’s office also filed a formal complaint. If the baker loses and continues to refuse service to gays and lesbians, he could be fined $500 per instance — and given up to a year in jail, his attorney claims. Phillips will stand in front of the state’s Civil Rights Commission in September.

As a person who has worked in the restaurant business for over 20 years, I am well aware that every restaurant reserves a right to refuse service to anyone. Over the years I have refused service to a small number of people who were too drunk, or disturbing other patrons. That is, and should be the right of every business owner. I have never refused anyone because of their sexuality, nor would I, frankly. And, if I ran a bakery, or a catering business, or a restaurant that hosted wedding receptions, I would not hesitate to do business with a Lesbian or Gay couple. And, to be honest, I think this bakery owner is being a bit hateful, but, that is his right.

I cannot grasp why a Gay couple would want to do business with that bakery. My attitude would be  to say “screw you, I will get a cake somewhere else”. I also do not understand where these two men get the notion that it is OK to force something upon the bakery owner. But, somewhere along the way, this Gay couple have convinced themselves that they have a right not to have their feelings hurt. They, feel they were discriminated against, and that sucks, but guess what, people on both sides of the business costumer relationship discriminate every day. That is just reality. Using the force of courts or government to force businesses to serve costumers they do not wish to serve is something we ought not to encourage. Call me crazy, but I prefer liberty.

Senator Durbin ought to read the Constitution sometime

Big Fur Hat lays into Senator Durbin

Lil Dick Durbin can go F himself, sideways 

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin has in the past had a very subjective and abstract view of the Constitution, and on Fox News Sunday he once again wondered which people might be “entitled” to constitutional protections and which people might not:

“You’ve raised an important point and I heard Sen. Graham call for special counsel,” Durbin said. “I’m not ready to do this at this moment. I would like to know if Holder has any conflict in here beyond what we heard when it comes to the Fox case.”

“But here is the bottom line — the media shield law, which I am prepared to support, and I know Sen. Graham supports, still leaves an unanswered question, which I have raised many times: What is a journalist today in 2013? We know it’s someone that works for Fox or AP, but does it include a blogger? Does it include someone who is tweeting? Are these people journalists and entitled to constitutional protection? We need to ask 21st century questions about a provision that was written over 200 years ago.”

 

 

 

Religion of Peace, and Public Beheadings

Shocking video from the scene of a London terrorist attack

A man with blood-soaked hands holding what appeared to be a meat cleaver and a machete spoke out at the gruesome scene of a suspected terror attack that left one man dead in broad daylight in London on Wednesday, telling a cameraman, “you people will never be safe.”

According to reports, two men attacked and killed a third man near a London military barracks,shouting “Allahu Akbar.” The London Daily Telegraph characterized the attack as “Islamist terror.” Unconfirmed reports stated the man killed was a soldier. Two U.K. government officials told the Associated Press the attack seemed to be motivated by radical Islam.

“We swear by Almighty Allah, we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. The only reasons we killed this man is because Muslims are dying daily. This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” the man with bloodied hands told a camera, as the victim’s body lay nearby. ” I apologize that women had to witness this today, but in our land, our women have to see the same! You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don’t care about you!”

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The two swine that committed this evil act were shot by police. More at The Other McCain and Viral Read

Remind me again how British soldiers run over people on city streets in broad daylight and then butcher them like cattle:

A British soldier was reportedly murdered near an Army barracks by two men who beheaded him while shouting “Allahu Akbar!”
Eyewitnesses told reporters they saw the victim — believed to be a soldier stationed at the Royal Artillery Barracks — being “hacked to bits” Wednesday on a street in the South London area of Woolwich by two men with large knives variously described as “meat cleavers” or “machetes.” One witness said the two attackers appeared to be attempting to record video of their butchery of the victim. . . .
The BBC confirms the British government is treating the incident as terrorism . . .
One witness, identified only as James, said two men had attacked another man, aged about 20, who was wearing a T-shirt of military charity Help for Heroes.
“These two guys were crazed. They were just animals. They dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road and left his body there,” he told LBC radio.
He said after the “horrendous” attack, the two men, who were also in their 20s, stood around, waving knives and a gun, and asked people to take pictures of them “as if they wanted to be on TV or something”.
“They were oblivious to anything, they were more worried about having their photo taken, running up and down the road,” he said.

The AP scandal will get much worse if this is true UPDATED! Congressman Nunes doubles down

Via Doug Giles OBAMA’S BOYS TAPED PHONE CALLS BETWEEN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS & AP REPORTERS

 

The Obama administration may have even secretly obtained phone records for members of Congress is going to be a bombshell if true.  See what Rep. Devin Nunes told Hugh Hewitt this afternoon:

Rep. Nunes: I don’t think people are focusing on the right thing when they talk about going after the AP reporters. The big problem that I see is that they actually tapped right where I’m sitting right now, the Cloak Room.

Hewitt: Wait a minute, this is news to me.

Nunes: The Cloak Room in the House of Representatives.

Hewitt: I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Nunes: So when they went after the AP reporters, right? Went after all of their phone records, they went after the phone records, including right up here in the House Gallery, right up from where I’m sitting right now. So you have a real separation of powers issue that did this really rise to the level that you would have to get phone records that would, that would most likely include members of Congress, because as you know…

Hewitt: Wow.

Nunes: …members of Congress talk to the press all the time.

Some are saying that none of the current scandals will get Obama, but if this one is true, and we do not have any proof that it is, it just might. It depends on two things, first being the veracity of the accusation, the second being the media. The big question is if the media IS really out of love with Obama. If they are, then look out, it could get rocky, particularly if the media focuses energy on all the current scandals. Stay tuned

 UPDATE! Congressman Nunes is not backing off his accusations

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) doubled down on the accusations he made yesterday on the Hugh Hewitt program that the Holder Justice Department was monitoring phone records from the House press gallery. Today Nunes told reporter David Drucker, “There’s no other explanation.”

Roll Call reported:

Expanding on a Wednesday interview with conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt,Rep. Devin Nunes told me Thursday morning that there is no other explanation in light of the DOJ’s acknowledgment that, as part of its inquiry into national security leaks, it subpoenaed AP phone records from the House press gallery.That’s a prime spot from which reporters frequently initiate and receive telephone calls from members of Congress and their staff.

The California Republican said that the AP phone records scandal that has focused on First Amendment infringement actually runs deeper, and should examine what he is convinced includes an illegal violation of the separation of powers by President Barack Obama’s administration.

“As I pointed out to Hugh Hewitt, there’s no question that Justice knows what members of Congress the AP was talking to during the two-month time period,” Nunes told CQ Roll Call.

Nunes serves on the House Intelligence Committee and, as such, said he has some familiarity with the leak the Department of Justice is investigating, a leak he said many committee members are genuinely concerned about.

Again, stay tuned

 

At least it was not “very, very, very serious”

Eric Holder is a national embarrassment. By the way how confident should we feel that his Justice Department will be looking into the IRS scandal?

Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters Tuesday that the leak to the Associated Press that prompted the Justice Department to secretly obtain phone records for AP reporters and editors constituted a “very, very serious leak” that “put the American people at risk.”

The AP sent a scathing letter to the DOJ on Monday, after they were informed that the DOJ had secretly obtained two months worth of phone records from April and May of 2012, a period of time during which the AP reported on a covert CIA operation in Yemen to prevent an airplane bomb plot. The Justice Department had previously said it was investigating the leak.

“This was a very serious leak. A very, very serious leak,” Holder said Tuesday at a press conference. He added that it was possibly the most serious leak he had seen, or at least top two or three.

See, it was “very serious” In fact it was “very very serious”, in his personal top three very, very serious leaks it seems. I wonder if it was more, or less serious than selling guns to Mexican cartels?

 

‘No Possible Justification’: Associated Press Livid After DOJ Secretly Obtains 2 Months Of Its Phone Records

‘No Possible Justification’: Associated Press Livid After DOJ Secretly Obtains 2 Months Of Its Phone Records – The Blaze

The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.

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The revelation comes just days after it was first reported that the Internal Revenue Service has been “inappropriately” targeting conservative political groups and that Benghazi whistle-blowers (Gregory Hicks, Mark Thompson, and Eric Nordstrom) were instructed by White House officials to keep quiet about the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, attacks.

The records obtained by the Justice Department listed incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, for the work and home phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP.

In all, the government seized those records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices whose phone records were targeted on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.

In a letter of protest sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt said the government sought and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation. He demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies.

“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know,” Pruitt said.

“We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news,” the letter continues.

The government would not say why it sought the records. U.S. officials have previously said in public testimony that the U.S. attorney in Washington is conducting a criminal investigation into who may have leaked information contained in a May 7, 2012, AP story about a foiled terror plot. The story disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaida plot in the spring of 2012 to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States.

In testimony in February, CIA Director John Brennan noted that the FBI had questioned him about whether he was AP’s source, which he denied. He called the release of the information to the media about the terror plot an “unauthorized and dangerous disclosure of classified information.”

Prosecutors have sought phone records from reporters before, but the seizure of records from such a wide array of AP offices, including general AP switchboards numbers and an office-wide shared fax line, is incomparable.

In the letter notifying the AP Friday, the Justice Department offered no explanation for the seizure, according to Pruitt’s letter and attorneys for the AP. The records were presumably obtained from phone companies earlier this year although the government letter did not explain that. None of the information provided by the government to the AP suggested the actual phone conversations were monitored.

Among those whose phone numbers were obtained were five reporters and an editor who were involved in the May 7, 2012 story.

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The Obama administration has aggressively investigated disclosures of classified information to the media and has brought six cases against people suspected of leaking classified information, more than under all previous presidents combined.

Justice Department published rules require that subpoenas of records from news organizations must be personally approved by the attorney general but it was not known if that happened in this case. The letter notifying AP that its phone records had been obtained though subpoenas was sent Friday by Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney in Washington.

Spokesmen in Machen’s office and at the Justice Department had no immediate comment on Monday.

The Justice Department lays out strict rules for efforts to get phone records from news organizations. A subpoena can only be considered after “all reasonable attempts” have been made to get the same information from other sources, the rules say. It was unclear what other steps, in total, the Justice Department has taken to get information in the case.

A subpoena to the media must be “as narrowly drawn as possible” and “should be directed at relevant information regarding a limited subject matter and should cover a reasonably limited time period,” according to the rules.

The reason for these constraints, the department says, is to avoid actions that “might impair the news gathering function” because the government recognizes that “freedom of the press can be no broader than the freedom of reporters to investigate and report the news.”

News organizations normally are notified in advance that the government wants phone records and enter into negotiations over the desired information. In this case, however, the government, in its letter to the AP, cited an exemption to those rules that holds that prior notification can be waived if such notice, in the exemption’s wording, might “pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation.”

It is unknown whether a judge or a grand jury signed off on the subpoenas.

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The May 7, 2012, AP story that disclosed details of the CIA operation in Yemen to stop an airliner bomb plot occurred around the one-year anniversary of the May 2, 2011, killing of Osama bin Laden.

The plot was significant because the White House had told the public it had “no credible information that terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, are plotting attacks in the U.S. to coincide with the (May 2) anniversary of bin Laden’s death.”

The AP delayed reporting the story at the request of government officials who said it would jeopardize national security. Once government officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP disclosed the plot because officials said it no longer endangered national security. The Obama administration, however, continued to request that the story be held until the administration could make an official announcement.

The May 7 story was written by reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman with contributions from reporters Kimberly Dozier, Eileen Sullivan and Alan Fram. They and their editor, Ted Bridis, were among the journalists whose April-May 2012 phone records were seized by the government.

Brennan talked about the AP story and leaks investigation in written testimony to the Senate. “The irresponsible and damaging leak of classified information was made … when someone informed the Associated Press that the U.S. Government had intercepted an IED (improvised explosive device) that was supposed to be used in an attack and that the U.S. Government currently had that IED in its possession and was analyzing it,” he said.

He also defended the White House’s plan to discuss the plot immediately afterward. “Once someone leaked information about interdiction of the IED and that the IED was actually in our possession, it was imperative to inform the American people consistent with Government policy that there was never any danger to the American people associated with this al-Qa’ida plot,” Brennan told senators.

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Related article:

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Carl Bernstein: AP Phone Scandal A ‘Nuclear Event’ – News Max

Investigative reporter Carl Bernstein on Tuesday called the scandal involving the Department of Justice securing telephone records of Associated Press reporters and editors a “nuclear event.”

“This is outrageous,” Bernstein said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It is totally inexcusable. This administration has been terrible on this subject from the beginning.

“The object of it is to intimidate people who talk to reporters,” he said. “This was an accident waiting to become a nuclear event, and now it’s happened.”

The AP reported late Monday afternoon that the “Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press.”

The organization was not told the reason for the seizure. But the timing and the specific journalistic targets strongly suggest they are related to a continuing government investigation into the leaking of information a year ago about the CIA’s disruption of a Yemen-based terrorist plot to bomb an airliner, The New York Times reported.

The development represents the latest collision of news organizations and federal investigators over government efforts to prevent the disclosure of national security information, and it comes against a backdrop of an aggressive policy by the Obama administration to rein in leaks, according to The New York Times.

Under President Barack Obama, six current and former government officials have been indicted in leak-related cases, twice the number brought under all previous administrations combined.

“The numerical thing doesn’t matter,” said Bernstein, a former Washington Post reporter who, along with Bob Woodward, broke the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon. “What matters is, this is a matter of policy. It is known to the president of the United States that this is the policy. To say that there was no knowledge, in quotes, specifically about this in the White House is nonsense.”

“This is a policy matter, and this does go to the president and the people around him,” he said. “The idea is to try and make an example of those people who talk to reporters, especially on national security matters. National security is always the false claim of administrations trying to hide things that people ought to know.”

That the Justice Department sought records of phone calls made over congressional phone lines could also raise a separation of powers issue between the administration and legislative branches of government.

“The First Amendment is first for a reason,” House Speaker John Boehner spokesman Michael Steel tells Newsmax. “If the Obama administration is going after reporters’ phone records, they better have a damned good explanation.”

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Holder To Answer On Wednesday For Justice Dept. Snooping On AP Reporters – Washington Times

Angry Republicans won’t have to wait long for their chance to question Attorney General Eric Holder about his role in the Justice Department’s snooping on Associated Press journalists.

Long before news broke on Monday that Justice had gathered extensive phone records from reporters and editors at The AP, Mr. Holder already had been scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday afternoon.

The hearing, ironically titled “Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice,” now will become the first forum for House Republicans to hammer Mr. Holder over what critics are calling another stunning abuse of power by an administration that’s being crushed under the growing weight of multiple running scandals.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Robert Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, says he plans to ask Mr. Holder “pointed questions” about the issue when he testifies on Wednesday.

Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee who has frequently clashed with the Department over the long-running “Fast and Furious” gunrunning scandal, also is demanding answers.

“Americans should notice that top Obama administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don’t have to answer to anyone,” Mr. Issa, California Republican, said in a statement. “I will work with my fellow House chairmen on an appropriate response to Obama administration officials.”

Rep. Frank Wolf, Virginia Republican, told The Hill newspaper that the incident is reminiscent of Watergate.

“It is the arrogance of power and paranoia. I think it’s shocking. It reminds me of the Nixon days,” he said. ‘If they can do it to The AP, they can do [it] to any news service in the country.”

The AP broke the news Monday that the Justice Department had gathered two months of telephone records from April and May 2012. The records included incoming and outgoing calls, how long each call lasted, the phone numbers of various reporters and editors and other information.

The federal government reportedly was seeking information on a May 7, 2012, AP article detailing how the CIA had derailed a planned al Qaeda-linked group. The story was published a day before President Obama planned to publicly announce the attack had been foiled, the AP said.

Much like the response to recent revelations that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups, even Democrats are taking aim at the White House over the AP phone scandal.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, Vermont Democrat, said he’s “very troubled” by the news and questions whether the Justice Department truly needed to resort to secretly gathering phone records.

“The burden is always on the government when they go after private information — especially information regarding the press or its confidential sources,” he said. “I want to know more about this case, but on the face of it, I am concerned that the government may not have met that burden.”

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Obama Hailed ‘World Press Freedom Day’ As His DOJ Was Seizing AP Phone Records – CNS

President Barack Obama issued a statement heralding World Press Freedom Day in May 2012, at the same time his Department of Justice was secretly obtaining phone records from Associated Press reporters and editors.

“On this World Press Freedom Day, the United States honors the role of a free press in creating sustainable democracies and prosperous societies,” Obama said in a statement on May 3, 2012. “We pay special tribute to those journalists who have sacrificed their lives, freedom or personal well-being in pursuit of truth and justice.”

The AP disclosed on Monday that the Justice Department obtained telephone records of 20 separate lines, including all outgoing calls and personal phone numbers, in April and May of 2012. The AP is the world’s largest wire service serving newspapers, websites and broadcast media.

“We call on all governments to protect the ability of journalists, bloggers, and dissidents to write and speak freely without retribution and to stop the use of travel bans and other indirect forms of censorship to suppress the exercise of these universal rights,” Obama said in the May 3, 2012 statement.

Obama issued a similar statement for World Press Freedom Day in 2011, 2010 and 2009, but not for 2013.

Obama did not issue a written statement this year, but referenced it while in Costa Rica on May 3.

“I’m proud to be here as you host World Press Freedom Day,” Obama said on May 3, 2013 at a joint press conference with Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla. “So everybody from the American press corps, you should thank the people of Costa Rica for celebrating free speech and an independent press as essential pillars of our democracy.”

World Press Freedom Day is an event sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

“In some cases, it is not just governments threatening the freedom of the press,” the president said in last year’s statement. “It is also criminal gangs, terrorists, or political factions. No matter the cause, when journalists are intimidated, attacked, imprisoned, or disappeared, individuals begin to self-censor, fear replaces truth, and all of our societies suffer. A culture of impunity for such actions must not be allowed to persist in any country.”

Outrage at the DOJ information-trolling is coming from both conservatives and many liberals, including the American Civil Liberties Union.

“The media’s purpose is to keep the public informed and it should be free to do so without the threat of unwarranted surveillance,” said Laura W. Murphy, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Washington Legislative Office. “The Attorney General must explain the Justice Department’s actions to the public so that we can make sure this kind of press intimidation does not happen again.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney on Monday issued a statement saying, “Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP.” He directed further questions to the Justice Department.

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Peace Bricks?

Good Freaking Grief

The city of Seattle is one of many that launched a gun buyback program in the wake of the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut last December.  Now, city officials have decided what to do with the more than 700 firearms they received, according to the Associated Press. 

They’ve decided to turn them into “peace bricks.”

What are peace bricks, you ask?  Apparently they are like regular bricks, but “carry messages of peace,” and they’ll be placed in various locations around the city.

Well, Liberalism IS an ideology for the childish so….

 

Better get the Vaseline America

Grab your ankles, because our “representatives” are going to ram an immigration bill through, WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT THE FUCK IS IN THE BILL!

Via The Daily Caller:

The “Gang of Eight” senators will release their immigration bill on Tuesday, just one day before the only scheduled hearing, according to news reports, bolstering GOP charges that advocates are planning to rush the controversial bill through the Senate before the public knows what is in it.

The bill is to be released April 16, according to a Friday report by The Associated Press.

The next day, before other senators have time to understand what is in the complex bill, Vermont Democratic Sen. Pat Leahy is slated to hold an April 17 hearing with one witness, Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano.

There is no evidence that Democrats plan to hold additional hearings that would help senators — and Americans — to get testimony from immigration, police and wage experts about the workability and impact of the bill, which reportedly includes more than 1,000 pages.

The Democrats’ blitz has prompted protests and requests for additional hearings from GOP Senators, including Alabama Sen. Jess [ed.- they mean Jeff] Sessions, the ranking chairman of the Senate’s budget committee.

Every Senator in the Gang of Eight Ass Hats should be forced to resign like the disgraces they are. And do not give me that “but it is a bi-partisan bill” crap either! A bad bill is a bad bill, no matter who votes for it. And yes, any bill that the people cannot have time to read and digest is a bad bill!

 

Breaking News!! Dirty Little Communist Penguin still DEAD!

Michelle Malkin ain’t shedding any tears

While Michelle, and other regular Americans are disgusted by the Chavez worship, Chris Wysocki notes that some are truly heart broken

Via Republican Party Animals:

(AP) — The formal announcement by the Venezuelan government that Hugo Chavez has died sent shockwaves through the ranks of the Hollywood elite, who had long been the Venezuelan leader’s staunchest supporters. Throughout the day, celebrities struggled to cope with the devastating loss.

“Sean is devastated, completely inconsolable,” Sean Penn’s publicist Amy Glattensturmer told the AP. “He’s been in his bedroom all day. He won’t eat, he won’t berate his staff, he won’t punch women, he wouldn’t even come outside to look at the brand new Ferrari Enzo the studio sent him as incentive to read a script. He realizes that a true champion of the working class has died today, and, as one himself, Sean has taken the hit very hard.”

“The relationship between celebrities and their dictators is a very close one,” PR guru Benjamin Shaltzberg told the AP. “Hollywood celebrities had formed a huge bond with Chavez. It will be difficult to replace.”

Throughout Tuesday afternoon, cars full of mourners were seen driving up to Tim Robbins’ 20,000-acre private estate, called “Proletariat Meadows,” in Westchester County. Robbins, who would not speak directly to the AP, did release the following statement on Twitter: “We who struggle in the working class have lost a hero — a man of strong hand, and one of the few who truly realized what a genius I am.”

Read the whole thing, for more reactions from Naomi Campbell, Mike Tyson, Michael Moore, and Alec Baldwin. They’re devastated, and they want you to know it.

When I was younger, I was puzzled why liberals ignored the evils of Communism, then, it hit me, they ignore those evils because Liberals are, in fact junior Communists in training. From Liberal, they devolve to calling themselves Progressive, and eventually, they embrace full-blown Leftism, which is is just another bastard child of Marxism.

 

Oh, the Great Folly of the Left’s Definition of Equality

There is no such thing as government ensured equality. Such a thing is, and always will be non-existent. The closest the government can do is to try its best to apply laws equally, and to treat people and businesses equally where taxation and regulation are concerned. Of course, the Left defines equality not by opportunity, but by outcomes. That is a fool’s errand to pursue. Think of it like this, even among the very successful there is not equality. There are many successful burger chains for example, but, their sales are not equal, any given year one will make the most profits, or have the most sales, which, of course, means that all are not equal. It is the same with people, as anyone who ever went on a job interview can attest. Some applicants will have more experience, some have better voices, are more attractive, which can hurt and help, some have better interview skills, the list of things that are bound to be unequal is endless. Yet, the Left continues to obsess over the equality of outcome, as if the government can guarantee such a thing. In fact, the only real thing the government can do to help create an environment where everyone can do their best is to stay out-of-the-way. Our President, of course, would not agree, to him, government is not only the best answer, it is the only answer.

CHICAGO (AP) — Pressing his case in the town that launched his political career, President Barack Obama called Friday for the government to take an active, wide-ranging role in ensuring every American has a “ladder of opportunity” into the middle class.

Speaking at Hyde Park Academy in Chicago, Obama sought support for proposals, unveiled this week in his State of the Union address, to increase the federal minimum wage and ensure every child can attend preschool. He also pitched plans to pair businesses with recession-battered communities to help them rebuild and provide job training.

“In too many neighborhoods today, whether here in Chicago or in the farthest reaches of rural America, it can feel like for a lot of young people the future only extends to the next street corner or the outskirts of town, that no matter how much you work or how hard you try, your destiny was determined the moment you were born,” Obama said.

Ensuring that no child is denied the ability to go as far as his or her talents will allow means removing some of the roadblocks from early in life, Obama said, calling for intensified efforts to promote healthier family environments. He called for removing financial disincentives to marry and reforming child support laws in hopes that more children will grow up in stable homes — and, specifically, with a responsible father in the picture.

The issue is not whether government can help some, it rather if they should. The government has a tendency to help some by handicapping others. That is not equality, that is the government picking winners and losers. Not that helping those that are disadvantaged is a bad idea. It is, in fact, a noble venture, but  a venture that private charities and individuals should take part in rather than the government.

 

More Bandemonium from Bloomberg

The little wannabe dictator is at it again

Salt, soda, cigarettes, firearms, trans fats, baby formula — next up for suppression by the parody of a totalitarian tyrant who passes for Mayor of NYC: Styrofoam.

Bloomberg plans to use part of his Thursday State of the City address to push for a ban on Styrofoam food packaging. …

“One product that is virtually impossible to recycle and never bio-degrades is Styrofoam … something that we know is environmentally destructive and that may be hazardous to our health, that is costing taxpayers money and that we can easily do without, and is something that should go the way of lead paint,” Bloomberg will say, according to excerpts of the speech obtained by The Associated Press.

He said his administration would work with the City Council to ban Styrofoam food packaging from stores and restaurants.

H’T to Moonbattery, where Dave Blunt adds this

Coming next: a ban on plastic. Or maybe the transistor. Or radial tires. Or the color orange. Who knows?

New Yorkers will now pay more for takeout food that doesn’t stay warm so that Bloomberg can congratulate himself on making their world a little less free. The rest of the country will have to deal with supplying products to its largest city in the face of bizarre restrictions that pile up by the day.

People like Bloomberg are dangerous, Their fanaticism increases with whatever power they are allowed to gain. Pray this ass hat never gets elected to anything after his stint in NYC is over.

 

I think America really needs more sheriffs like this guy

I just love folks who cut the BS and speak the unvarnished truth, it drives the Left batty!

 

A duty to protect yourself? Absolutely! And of course, the bed-wetting quickly followed

The spot has quickly earned criticism, including from the Milwaukee Deputy Sheriffs’ Association and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

Milwaukee Deputy Sheriffs’ Association president Roy Felber told the Associated Press it sounds like a call to vigilantism, while Barrett’s spokeswoman said it sounded like Clarke was “auditioning for the next Dirty Harry movie.”

No, he sounds like a man who is not afraid of common sense. And like a man who trusts the PEOPLE to responsibly exercise their God-given rights! Like I said we could use a lot sheriffs like him, and surely a lot more politicians like him,

 

Just one question for Mr. Pay Their Fair Share

Why not ask for people to donate to charity or to pay down that nasty deficit rather than selling political access?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Planners of President Barack Obama’s second inauguration are making an unprecedented solicitation for high-dollar contributions up to $1 million to help pay for the celebration in exchange for special access.

The changes are part of a continuing erosion of Obama’s pledge to keep donors and special interests at arm’s length of his presidency. He has abandoned the policy from his first inauguration to accept donations up to only $50,000 from individuals, announcing last month that he would take unlimited contributions from individuals and corporations.

Why Mr. President?

Ah yes, OF COURSE, here comes the “blame toy guns” crowd

IDIOTS!

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) –  A crusade against toy guns that began in 1987 is being re-launched following the elementary school shooting in Connecticut that left dozens dead.

Santa Monica activist Jerry Rubin says a personalized merit award will be sent to children who write to him about why they don’t like playing with toy guns.

Rubin says his anti-toy gun project used to reward children who sent in their toy guns with teddy bears in exchange, but stopped after he ran out of the 5,000 donated stuffed animals.

STUCK ON STOOPIT!

Fiscal Cliff update! Speaker Beohner offers up tax hikes on millionaires

Point one. Boehner ought to know better, Obama is seeking to use this issue to cripple the GOP. 

Point two. This added revenue will do nothing to reign in the deficit, because it does nothing to reign in the real  problem SPENDING!

Point three. No matter what Boehner and the party do, the Democrats and media will still blame them for everything.

Point four. Once you abandon your principles the game is over.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Signaling new movement in “fiscal cliff” talks, House Speaker John Boehner has proposed raising the top rate for earners making more than $1 million, a person familiar with the negotiations said. President Barack Obama, who wants higher top rates for households earning more than $250,000, has not accepted the offer, this person said.

The proposal, however, indicated progress in talks that had appeared stalled. The person would only discuss the plan on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

As part of a broader budget deal, Boehner is still seeking more spending cuts than Obama has proposed, particularly in mandatory health care spending. Boehner has asked for a long-term increase in eligibility age for Medicare and for lower costs-of-living adjustments for Social Security.

Point five. Who wants to bet that those spending cuts never happen? Who wants to bet the Democrats are calling for more spending by next Summer?

 

Hamas Leader learns what happens when you screw with Israel! Update! Muslim Brotherhood threatens Israel

The Other McCain notes that Tweeting can be dangerous

But mainly, yeah, it was the air strike:

Hamas has said that Israeli air strike in Gaza which killed Ahmed Jabari, the head of its military wing, “has opened the gates of hell” . . .
Jabari, who is the most senior Hamas official to be killed since an Israeli invasion of Gaza four years ago, was killed in an air strike on a vehicle, in a dramatic resumption of Israel’s policy of assassinating Palestinian militant leaders.
Jabari has long topped Israel’s most-wanted list, the Associated Press reported, and was blamed for in a string of attacks, including the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit in 2006.
His son was also reportedly killed in the targeted air strike, according to Osama Hamdan, a Hamas representative in Lebanon . . .

The IDF video of Jabari being turned into bacon bits is uplifting!

Donald Douglas has more, apparently Israel is getting ready to take out some trash

IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai confirmed that the strike was “part of our goal, to land serious blows on Hamas and other organizations. Jabari is the first target… We’ve only just started, and this isn’t the end of it. All of the options are open, and we will persist in our determination to continue to hit all of the [terror] organizations further down the line.”

Mordechai said that the IDF was prepping its ground troops for a possible incursion into the Gaza Strip, but noted that such an operation was not necessarily going to happen, and that the IDF didn’t want to turn Operation Pillar of Defense into a second Cast Lead — the winter 2008-9 assault on Hamas in Gaza that did include extensive ground operations.

TCOB Israel!

The Muslim Brotherhood, of course, is outraged that Israel would defend itself

The Daily Star reported:

Egypt’s Islamist Freedom and Justice Party, formerly headed by President Mohamed Morsi, said on Wednesday Egypt would no longer stand by as Israel attacked Palestinians after air strikes killed a Hamas leader.

The FJP, the political arm of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood movement, said Israeli air strikes that killed top militant Ahmed al-Jaabari in Gaza earlier on Wednesday required “swift Arab and international action to stop the massacres.”

The party, which fielded Morsi in a June election to replace toppled president Hosni Mubarak, said Israel “must take into account the changes in the Arab region and especially Egypt.”

Egypt “will not allow the Palestinians to be subjected to Israeli aggression, as in the past,” the party statement said.

Mubarak, overthrown in early 2011, was criticised by his opponents for his response to an Israeli invasion of Gaza in 2008-2009 following rocket fire by Palestinian militan

Two things here. First Israel is not going to be cowed by these terrorists, Israel can handle anything Egypt has militarily. Second, Egypt’s new leaders feel emboldened no doubt by the re-election of Obama, who has shown he is not Israel’s friend. Elections do have consequences, and this is one of those.

Allen West loses bid for re-election, or does he?

1389 Blog has the scoop

Facing defeat, Florida Rep. Allen West on Wednesday demanded a recount in his bid for re-election against Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy.

With all precincts in the south Florida district reporting, Murphy has 160,328 votes, or 50.4 percent, to West’s 157,872 votes and 49.6 percent, according to the Associated Press, which has still not officially declared a winner.

In a statement Wednesday morning, the Republican congressman and Tea Party favorite’s campaign said the race was still far from over.

“This race is far from decided and there is no rush to declare an outcome,” the campaign said. “Ensuring a fair and accurate counting of all ballots is of the utmost importance. There are still tens of thousands of absentee ballots to be counted in Palm Beach County and potential provisional ballots across the district.”

The campaign went on to voice suspicions about the actions of one county election supervisor and called for a full hand recount.

“Late last night Congressman West maintained a district-wide lead of nearly 2,000 votes until the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections ‘recounted’ thousands of early ballots,” the campaign said. “Following that ‘recount’ Congressman West trailed by 2,400 votes.”

The campaign said there were “numerous other disturbing regularities” reported at polls across the county, including “doors to polling places being locked when the polls closed” — a violation of Florida law because it prevents the public from being able to witness how results are tabulated.

Not that Democrats would cheat or anything

The growing war against freedom of speech

 

Ever since that video “caused” all those attacks and riots by “peaceful” Muslims, there has been a growing chant from Leftist surrender monkeys, and radical Muslims to curb freedom of speech, here is your latest example via Weasel Zippers

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The head of a leading Islamic organization Saturday called for a global ban on offending the character of the Prophet Muhammad, saying that it should be equated with hate speech.

Such a ban would demonstrate how an interconnected world respected different cultural sensitivities, said Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in an interview with The Associated Press.

“If the Western world fails to understand the sensitivity of the Muslim world, then we are in trouble,” Ihsanoglu said. Such provocations pose “a threat to international peace and security and the sanctity of life.”

Ihsanoglu’s remarks follow protests that erupted in Muslim countries after a low-budget film, “Innocence of Muslims,” produced by a U.S. citizen denigrated the Prophet Muhammad by portraying Islam’s holiest figure as a fraud, womanizer and child molester.

Ihsanoglu, whose organization represents 57 Muslim-majority countries, said they respect the right of freedom of expression, but believed a line had to be drawn at incitement.

“We are not saying stop free speech. We are staying stop hate speech,” Ihsanoglu said.

Actually, the problem is that too many Muslims are assbackwards savages who live in the Seventh Century, and cannot control their “rage”. How about the Useless Nations, and all useful idiots on the Left, and tools of terrorists like Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu get together and elevate the Muslim world rather than demand that civilized people walk on egg shells so as not to offend the oh so sensitive Muslim world? How about the Muslim World evolve at some point? How about we try to stamp out the evil of Sharia Law, and honor killings, and gender mutilation and the rape of nine-year-old girls instead of trying to silence the rest of the world?

What the Left is doing here is blaming the victims of Islamism, rather than the monsters who perpetrate the senseless violence. Of course the Left has a long history of victim blaming. Crime is not the  fault of criminals, it is, instead the fault of gun owners. The Soviet Union was not evil for trying to subjugate the globe, oh no, America was evil for preventing it. Palestinians are not evil for constantly attacking Israeli civilians, no! Israel is evil for trying to defend its people. The Left is evil. Any ideology that so often defends evil must be seen and defined as evil, and, again, the Left has been doping a slow dance with evil for a very long time.

 

The worst possible thing you can do is show weakness to terrorists

And yet, on September 11th, our embassy is attacked by radical knuckle dragging Jihadist swine, and WE apologize?

A mob of protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy compound in Cairo and tore down its American flag on Tuesday, replacing it with a black flag commonly associated with Islamic terrorists.

The protesters were angered by a film that allegedly insults Muhammad, and attempted to raise a flag with the message “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger,” Reuters reports. Muhammad is the prophet of Islam.

Warning shots were fired, but no one was injured.

The Associated Press reports that no embassy personnel were inside the compound at the time. Tuesday was the eleventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed over 3,000 Americans. (SEE ALSO: U.S. negotiating $1B aid deal with Egypt)

The name of the offending film was not mentioned, but demonstrators chanted anti-American slogans and held up shredded pieces of the American flag.

The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that it “condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.”

“Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy,” the statement read. “We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”

Oh no! Not hurt feelings! Are you kidding me? Muslims cannot take having their egos bruised? They cannot be offended without resorting to violence? Cry me a river! Tell you what, how about this, the next time any embassy of ours is attacked, we shoot dead every SOB attacking it, pull our people out, close the embassy, and leave a sign reading DO NOT MAKE US COME BACK! Instead we act like cowards? Good freaking grief!

Look, this is not complicated at all. If I offend someone, and I surely offend many every day on this blog, and they attack me physically for that offense, I do not owe them anything. Well, except for an ass whipping.

In a related post, RS McCain has a great post up about this. I think McCain AND his son, who is joining the Army, understand what I mean! And God bless a protect Bob McCain!

The other day I asked my wife where our 19-year-old son Bob was.

The answer: Hiking up a mountain with an 85-pound pack.

He recently enlisted in the Army, having scored a near-maximum on the ASVAB test, and will report to boot camp in a few months — some kind of delayed-entry deal — as an aspiring candidate for the elite Special Forces. Already a Red Cross certified lifeguard, he is so fired-up that he’s voluntarily doing PT (physical training) in advance, which is why he hiked up the mountain with an 85-pound pack.

Because he is preparing to kill our nation’s enemies.

My wife is concerned for our son’s safety. No, dear — let our nation’s enemies worry about their own safety. Because he’s coming to kill them.

Do you want to be America’s enemy? Really?

Egyptian protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy on Tuesday, tore down the American flag and burned it during a protest over what they said was a film being produced in the United States that insulted Prophet Mohammad. . . .
Once the U.S. flag was hauled down, some protesters tore it up and showed off pieces to television cameras. Others burned the remains outside the fortress-like embassy building in central Cairo. . . .
“This movie must be banned immediately and an apology should be made,” said 19-year-old Ismail Mahmoud, a member of the so-called “ultras” soccer supporters who played a big role in the uprising that brought down Hosni Mubarak last year.

Hey, Ismail: Do you think this flag-burning stuff is smart? You want to turn this into war? You want my son to come kill you?

I don’t know anything about this movie you and your “ultra” mob are all excited about, Ismail, but attacking a U.S. embassy isn’t the kind of thing that Americans take lightly, no matter what gutless apologies you get from the pussies at the State Department. And the same goes for that mob of violent savages in Benghazi:

Gunmen and security forces clashed at the U.S. consulate office in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Tuesday as the armed group protested over a film being produced in the United States, a security official said. . . .
“There are fierce clashes between the Libyan army and an armed militia outside the U.S. consulate,” Abdel-Monen Al-Hurr, spokesman for Libya’s Supreme Security Committee, said.
“The U.S. consulate’s security guards inside the building fired at the militia as it was trying to enter and attack it.”

See, I’ve got skin in the game, so to speak, and this is what enrages me about the folly of appeasement, which only invites such attacks.

Go read it all! I think RS McCain might agree with me that we need to fire whomever apologized, and do as Generals Stonewall Jackson or George S Patton might do

Annihilate these savages. Hunt them down and kill them, and kill any of those other vicious fanatical bastards who try to stop us.

Amen! Appeasement is a fool’s errand!

US READY TO STRIKE IRAN?

Big Peace has this news

(AP) US envoy to Israel: US ready to strike Iran

JERUSALEM

Washington’s envoy to Israel says the U.S. has plans in place to attack Tehran if necessary to prevent it from becoming an atomic military power.

In remarks before the Israel Bar Association, Dan Shapiro said the U.S. hopes diplomacy and economic sanctions will pressure Iran to abandon its suspect nuclear program.

He says the U.S. prefers not to resort to military force “but that doesn’t mean that option is not fully available. Not just available, but it’s ready. The necessary planning has been done to ensure that it’s ready.”

While I am sure that the plans are made, contingency plans are there for all sorts of military situations, I must pose the first question that popped into my head. Would such an attack be made to help you know who get you know what in November? It seems an unbelievable question, or at least it would if we were talking about just any other US president. But, we have all seen first hand how Obama pimped the Osama killing, so…………..