Comments (0) Chapter 3 – What NOT to do when caught:
Don’t describe your affair as a “Love Story.”
Don’t tell folks about all the other times you made it to 3rd Base.
For more if you can stand it- Blech – Read HERE
Had a minor coding glitch. It’s all good now.
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Well, at least 11% of adults surveyed by Rasmussen said this – no word on whether they were US Citizens or not.
7% of respondents were “not sure”
Elections are won by the smallest of margins if we have people who don’t even want to be here voting in election, you can see what their impact on the makeup of our Elected Officials. This explains so much about why the Chris Dodds of the world are in power. By the way – he has a nice cottage in Ireland set aside for his alternate residence, dontcha know!
If you don’t want to be here, then don’t let door hit you on the way out.
Survey is HERE
People are waking up from the three day drunk they went on to rid themselves of the Bush Administration, and they’re wondering who they brought home from the bar!
Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking poll shows Obamas approval Index at -2%
This the difference between the percentage of voters who strongly approve and strongly disapprove among likely voters.
Latest numbers are 31% strongly approve and 33% strongly disapprove. The total approve numbers have dropped to 54% vs. total disapprove of 40%.
From Reuters:
Obama: “It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition, rather than democratic elections.”
Sec. State Clinton declares “We do think that this has evolved into a coup”
Interesting posturing don’t you think? This administration has to know the growing discontent in this country may likely erupt into ongoing protests. It is equally possible that the many of laws the Democratic party continues to push through Congress and policies implemented by the White House may be found unconstitutional. The refuge of these scoundrels will be to rely on elections, of which they exert a high degree of influence, including the pending 2010 census to be run through ACORN. So, yes, I suppose if you can control the elections through rampant fraud you too would be enthusiastics about keeping tyrannical leadership in place until such time as the next election can be conveniently scheduled.
“Analysts said quick criticism of the coup by Obama and Clinton on Sunday pleased Latin American countries bitter about the long history of U.S. intervention in the region.”
Latin American countries like Venezuala? Well I sure hope they like us now!
Last week the Congressional Budget Office released their budget forecast documents. It speaks for itself.
We know, of course, that we will never pay off this debt. The best we can hope for is for the economy to grow large enough that the debt as a percentage of GDP shrinks back to manageable levels. This strategy would require that we slow our spending in the future. Like Wimpy, our government will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.
If a 65 Billion Dollar Ponzi Scheme lands Bernie Madoff 150 Years in Jail, what does a One Trillion Dollar Healthcare Scheme by Obama deserve?
Honduran Protest Images = youths trashing and looting the city. Most footage consists of military and police. Why? If the cameras were turned to look at the protesters, the crowd would look small indeed.
Iranian Protests = of thousands citizens of all ages protesting a tyrannical regime
“The question is, what do I learn from it and what do others learn from it?”
Typical of all politicians, SC Gov. Mark Sanford tries to reframe the discussion around his lack of integrity.
The question really is – How can he restore the trust that South Carolinians had in him, and how can people have faith in someone who can’t even be true to his own family. Until you figure that out, step out of the public arena.
The public has a right to expect a high level of integrity from their elected officials. If they can’t at least get that, then what should they expect?
Oh wait -I know – more of the same.
After missing seeing the Iranian protests as part of a larger issue and dithering in his responsiveness to that Freedom seeking people in that country, Obama misfires again – this time in Honduras.
Turns out that the Honuran army fullfilled its Constitutional duty this weekend in prohibiting their President Zelaya from subverting their very own constitution.
That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.
But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.
The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.
Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court’s order.
The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica.
Read the whole Wall Street Journal op-ed HERE
Yes, as hard as it may be to believe, we have actually witnessed not a coup, but a South American country’s military acting with integrity and honor in preserving their peoples freedom. When Hugo Chavez is quick to support exiled President, you KNOW who the “bad” guy is!
But somehow Obama just can’t bring himself to make a principled call – at first he was “deeply concerned.” Now Secretary of State Clinton is “withholding any formal legal determination.”
Its 3am – I don’t think EITHER ONE OF THEM will answer the phone!!!!
What can be so difficult here, or is Obama becoming concerned that a free people and their armed forces might not take any crap from a tinpot dictator?
h/t Jawa Report
Massachusetts Governor Patrick submitted H4102 “An Act to Reduce Firearm Violence” which would limit Mass. citizens Second Amendment Rights.
The bill would:
So the state which saw the opening salvo of our nation’s Revolution at Lexington and Concord begins the process of firearms registrations. Who will be this century’s Paul Revere?
No word yet on how exactly this would prevent “gun violence”
Amazingly, Massachussets ALREADY has a law which limits firearms owners to four personal transferms per year and requires them to notify the state! So they’re going from four to zero.
So says Pat Boone in his Newsmax story today
“…Because of the furor and allegations, and because candidate Obama wouldn’t or couldn’t produce a valid U.S. birth certificate, an official or two were dispatched from Washington to see if one existed in Hawaii. After a brief huddled conference with a local data and statistic keeper, from which no press statements were released, there was a brief and quiet announcement that the matter was “resolved.” What does that mean?
Many, who know more than I do about what actually happened, notably the United States Justice Foundation, have surmised that baby Obama’s mother, about to have her child in Kenya, had booked a flight to Hawaii but was prohibited from flying because delivery was so imminent. But soon after baby Barack was born, USJF theorizes she flew with him to Oahu and obtained some kind of “record of birth” as if he’d been born there.
Now, because this Foundation and a number of other organizations have persevered in demanding to see an actual original birth certificate, a published report claims that a high level legal team has already been paid over $800,000 to block all efforts to see even the certificate that may exist, valid or original … or not.”
Read the entire article HERE
The GOP is a dead brand.
What does the average person think of when they conjure up an image of the GOP?
Old White Men? Greedy, CorporateFat Cats? “Speculators,” Racists, stuck in the past, Religious Moralizers?
What images doe the Democrat brand hold?
Fairness, Helping the “little guy” and “middle income folks”, friend to minorities, open minded, etc.
Again – you may not agree with these impressions but they are INTEGRAL to why the Dem’s trounced the Republicans last election. From a BRANDING perspective, the Democrats have boxed the GOP into such
Now it is entirely possible that the Dem’s may completely blow it in the next year and allow the GOP to gain back some seats in the mid term election. Hoping your opponent will make a mistake is a far cry from a STRATEGY.
The reality is that the GOP is a DEAD BRAND. It allegedly stands for Conservative values, but they destroyed the fiscal trust during the Bush administration. Now we hear all the GOP hacks talking about how they learned their lesson, but seriously folks – what lesson did they learn? The Tea Party movement is the natural outgrowth of this anger among conservative Americans who are desperately looking for someone to carry their water in Washington.
So what’s the solution?
As any politician will tell you, the best way to get elected is to Give People Something!
That something is FREEDOM and LIBERTY.
The Libertarian party name is already taken, and while an excellent platform ; their stance on legalizing drugs puts them outside the mainstream and the reality of getting a successful national movement going. And lets be honest their Brand image is of the lone kook,or dope smoking hipster – like it or not.
That leaves The FREEDOM Party
Everyone likes something that is Free, and we even have that word in the name of the brand! A bonus if you will! the Dutch have already figured this out – will we?
I am sure Republicans won’t take this advice until AFTER the 2010 elections when they realize the Dem’s won’t give them too many openings. Heck it may take until another national election where the Republican Party trots out another long in the tooth candidate short on solutions who gets trounced by Obama the Charismatic.
Once they lick their wounds, the Republicans will make a public show of repudiating their old brand and joining a new movement – the FREEDOM PARTY, where they can leave the old brand baggage behind – including those GOP members who are not true to the brand.
boy – I will sure miss him- all I’m left with is that ShamWow guy to keep me from having to watch the constant stream of male “enhancement” ads on late night TV. Hang in there ShamWow guy and stay out of jail for crying out loud!
“Whatever the City’s ultimate aim—however well intentioned or benevolent it might have seemed—the City made its employment decision because of race. The City rejected the test results solely because the higher scoring candidates were white.”
The Supreme Court today ruled in a 5-4 decision to overturn the Ricci case which involved 10 white and Hispanic firefighters whose promotion exams were thrown out by the city of New Haven, CT because the city feared a discrimination lawsuit by black firefighters. Some media outlets are referring to this case as one of “Reverse Discrimination”, but those weasel words don’t work – the SCOTUS found the case to be about DISCRIMINATION based on race – both for the white AS WELL as the Hispanic firefighters.
Have you ever read a SCOTUS opinion? You don’t need to be a lawyer to appreciate the writing. Read the Opinion HERE
As with most things in the media, the facts of the case don’t usually get spelled out in an easy sound bite. Amazingly, the opinion lays out the chronology of the efforts the city went to build their promotional system and tests, and the extra effort they made to make sure it was racially unbiased. The city hired a firm for $100,000 to do this! From page 9 of the opinion:
“At every stage of the job analyses, IOS, by deliberate choice, oversampled minority firefighters to ensure that the results—which IOS would use to develop the examinations—would not unintentionally favor white candidates.”
The test assessors were drawn from outside the city, with a 66% minority makeup. Each of the nine member assessment panels had two minority members.
Lieutenant exam results:
| White |
43 |
25 |
58% |
| Black |
19 |
6 |
32% |
| Hispanic |
15 |
3 |
20% |
| Total |
77 |
34 |
44% |
There were 8 Lieutenant vacancies, and per the rules, the top 10 Candidates were eligible for immediate promotion.
The top 10 were all white. Subsequent vacancies would have allowed the top 3 black candidates to be promoted.
Captain Exam Results:
| White |
25 |
16 |
64% |
| Black |
8 |
3 |
38% |
| Hispanic |
8 |
3 |
38% |
| Total |
41 |
22 |
54% |
There were seven Captain vacancies at the time thus per the rules, 9 Candidates were promotion eligible – 7 Whites and 2 Hispanics
When pressed by the City about concerns of discrimination impact on minorities, the consulting firm stated:
“ Legel defended the examinations’ validity, stating that any numerical disparity between white and minority candidates was likely due to various external factors and was in line with results of the Department’s previous promotional examinations.”
“Although they did not know whether they had passed or failed, some firefighter-candidates spoke at the first CSB meeting in favor of certifying the test results. Michael Blatchley stated that “[e]very one” of the questions on the written examination “came from the [study] material. . . .[I]f you read the materials and you studied the material, you would have done well on the test.””
“I don’t even know if I made it,” Ricci told the CSB, “[b]ut the people who passed should be promoted. When your life’s on the line, second best may not be good enough.”
Firefighters who opposed the certification complained that the test questions were not relevant, and “they criticized the test materials, a full set of which cost about $500, for being too expensive and too long. “
Geez – those excuses never worked for me in school!
A follow up meeting with Witnesses drew these amazing statements:
Christopher Hornick, consultant who competes with the company who created and administrated the New Haven tests who “had not “seen the job analysis data,” told the CSB that the scores indicated a “relatively high adverse impact.”
Janet Helms, a Boston College Professor whose publication list you must see to believe, claimed her primary area of expertise was “race and culture as they influence performance on tests and other assessment procedures….expressly declined the CSB’s offer to review the examinations. At the outset, she noted that “regardless of what kind of written test we give in this country . . . we can just about predict how many people will pass who are members of under-represented groups.”
Justice Scalia said it best in his separate opinion:
“[The]…resolution of this dispute merely postpones the evil day on which the Court will have to confront the question: Whether, or to what extent, are the disparate-impact provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 consistent with the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection?”
Justice Alito Nails the real issue in his separate opinion (emphasis mine)
“… the City’s asserted reason for scrapping its test—concern about disparate-impact liability—was a pretext and that the City’s real reason was illegitimate, namely, the desire to placate a politically important racial constituency.”
He then blasts the dissenting Judges with this missive (bold mine)
“The dissent grants that petitioners’ situation is “unfortunate” and that they “understandably attract this Court’s sympathy.” Post, at 1, 39. But “sympathy” is not what petitioners have a right to demand. What they have a right to demand is evenhanded enforcement of the law—of Title VII’s prohibition against discrimination based on race. And that is what, until today’s decision, has been denied them.”
The Dissenting liberal gang (Ginsburg, Souter, Stevens and Breyer drone on at length with racial population statistics, and avoid ENTIRELY the issue that it could be that OTHER factors than race could have produced the test results. They blame the access to study materials were based on race. They even tuck in a 9/11 reference – folks – you just can’t make this stuff up!
This is why Presidential ELECTIONS MATTER. The President selects Justices for LIFE and the SENATE confirms them – we need to ensure we maintain a balanced view in both branches of government to maintain our country’s LEGAL SANITY!
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