Target to San Diego Gay Group: Get off Our Property or We'll Sue You

The latest news coming out of San Diego's gay community is the lawsuit being filed against them by Target (the retailer). The pro gay-marriage group, Canvass for a Cause, has been picketing outside Target stores in response to the retailer's donation to a political candidate who is anti gay-marriage. Since the protestors were on private property, Target had them removed. A judge has ruled in Target's favor.

Typically, a furor has erupted in the wake of these events. The attorney for Canvass for a Cause is arguing that courts have traditionally held that the land outside department stores, retailers, etc., to be public domain, and that people have the right to assemble/free speech in public domain lands.

What do you think? Here is a link to the whole story.

Top Headlines for Friday, March 25 2011

California GOP Elects First Openly Gay Board Member

Lost amidst all insider bickering, Haley Barbour question-dodging, press-banning and John Bolton sabre-rattling at the weekend California Republican convention was a bit of history:
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=85460#ixzz1HdcrRNcG

Senator Barbara Boxer gets up in GOP's face about Effort to Defund Planned Parenthood

GOProud Joins other Conservative Outfits in Effort to de-fund Planned Parenthood

New York Rep. Anthony Weiner both Toasts Obamacare...and Pushes for Statewide Exemption to "save money."

Obama Administration Storied history with Inspectors General - Why Amtrak failed par the course

As Usual, Eric Holder Offers Policy on Racial Lines Only

Much has been made in the media about bullying as of late. While Columbine really opened up the national discourse on the social ramifications of bullying, a resurgence of high-profile, violent scenarios have resulted in deaths, suicides, and jail time. While the faces have changed - these days, social media provides bullies a venue - the message is still the same: bullying affects kids. Whether you're a gay kid at Rutgers hooking up with somebody in his dorm room, whose roommate all the while has been feeding the video stream to the Internet, or you're a mother-daughter team masquerading as a facebook/myspace guy to bait a girl down the block, only to later tell her she should kill herself, the progression of bullying is something that needs to be analyzed to find a root, then addressed by the government. Unfortunately, that means Eric Holder.

The current administration's idea of dealing with bullying is essentially to apply the anti-discrimination laws of the 60s and 70s to school settings. This means reverse racism, of course. The anti discrimination/hate-crime laws focus on protecting things like sex, race, religion, and sexual orientation, or people with handicaps or disabilities, etc. If you're one of these golden ticket winners in the eyes of the Obama Administration, consider yourself protected....or, at least, able to pursue legal recourse. However - if you're, for example, a tubby straight white kid being bullied for being fat, or, a white kid being bullied by a black kid, or a black kid being bullied by another black kid, you're SOL (shit outta luck). Yet another hasty, ill-conceived bandaid from the Obama administration, these becoming the hallmark of his tenure as Worst President Ever. Sagging auto sales? Cash for Clunkers! Rising unemployment? Put 'em to work in the Census! Historic uprisings in the Arab world? Doddle and jetset for 30 days, then whimper out a tenuous co-sponsorship of a U.N. no-fly resolution.

I'll leave you with one thing to think about. The next time you're voting for something and you feel those awful stirrings of White Guilt™ in your belly, remember what it got you all the last time, as you're sitting with your child and his black eye and scarred psyche from being picked on by a student who gets bussed in from 3 counties away, in the waiting room of a government-owned doctor's office behind 450 illegal immigrants waiting to give birth for free, only to find out you can't afford the gas to drive home afterwards.

Japan's Stock Market is Going Nuclear

In the wake of that country's worst earthquake ever - recently upgraded to a moment magnitude of 9.0 from original estimates as low as the low 8's, then 8.8, then hovering around at 8.9, making it the 5th worst quaker in recorded history - the fallout included the usual victims: architectural damage, fires, power outages, tsunami; what nobody was banking on were implications in Japan's notoriously efficient and technologically advanced nuclear power infrastructure.

Unfortunately, catastrophic damage at the Futsushibidabubabidadudshubi (sic) Nuclear Power reactor near Sendai - a port city around 35N in the Northeastern part of Japan - has led to superheated fuel rods, increased radiation levels (as high as 25-30x normal levels in areas north of Tokyo), and a real shit-show for Tokyo Power Co. Plant workers even had to divert sea-water into the reactors as a last-ditch effort to prevent a worse melt-down, something that I have gathered from several articles over the last couple of days, is considered a very last-ditch effort to cool overheated fuel rods in the event that coolant is either depleted or cannot be accessed. For those of you novices in nuclear physics (morons!), the fuel rods are literally several meter long rods of nuclear material which become superheated due to radiation, then inserted into water to produce steam. The steam is what actually produces energy, not nuclear energy itself. Dumping sea-water into the core to cool them down, I would imagine, "fucks stuff up."

Fears of a Chernobyl-style meltdown (which experts, and yours truly, both feel is not a possible scenario, so don't worry) have translated to a real Chernobyl-style stock market meltdown. The Nissei - Japan's benchmark index, like our DOW or S&P, has shed 11%, up from a 14% sell-off earlier yesterday - making it the 2nd worst sell-off in that index's auspicious history. The 1st worst? Oct 2008, in the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis. Of course, major sell-offs in one of the world's biggest economies spreads. The Hang Seng (china), as well as India's indices suffered, and the DOW went down about 187 points. This is not catastrophic by any standards, but, it shows how the world's economy has really integrated and globalized.

In any case, that's just the news I have time to share at 6:30 am before I have to leave for school. I would like anyone reading to offer a moment of silence, of prayer, of thought, whatever your preference, for the potentially tens of thousands of dead in Japan. GOd bless!

5 members of Israeli West Bank Family have their throats slit - World shrugs

By now, I know enough to say, with conviction, that I will never know enough to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There are perhaps, only a handful of other deep-reaching, long-lasting, controversial agreements which permeate every aspect of life, from diplomatic disagreement through full-blown cultural antagonism. Reports grounded in objective fact are nonexistent - too much passion exists on both sides. We hear that Palestinians murder Israelis in cold blood. We hear that Israelis fire missiles indiscriminately into Palestinian territory. We hear that neither side's claim to sovereignty is legal or should be recognized internationally. We hear Israelis are evil colonial imperialists, strong-arming their neighbors into submission with their nuclear arsenal and superior military. We hear that Palestinians unanimously support, harbor, and sympathize with Hamas. What we never hear, however, are serious and realistic intentions to forge a peace.

On the heels of Saturday's news piece, that 5 members of an Israeli family living in the West Bank had their throats slit as they slept, by suspected Palestinian militants, the international community is in a furor. A link to the original story is below, and it also follows up with Israel's planned response to add several hundred settlements in the West Bank - an obvious backtrack from their pledge to halt any further settlement until a mutually agreed upon plan had been reached - in order to secure the area.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/13/israel-expand-settlements-family-killing

All I can really say is - murdering a family in cold blood, in the middle of the night, to make any type of statement about politics, religion, government, or anything at all - is not the right way to do things. I get that both sides of this schism feel equally passionate about the core issues....but how can society purport to label itself "civilized" if this is how we handle things? So many people on comment boards, on other blogs, etc., seem to target one side or the other. Some say that Israelis deserve this due to their past treatment of Palestinians. Others say that Palestinians deserve retaliation for this. I say: stop disrespecting your neighbor. What is so important? What is the end goal? What does this accomplish? Maybe nobody should be allowed to reside in the West Bank - nary an iota of good news has ever come out of that region.

NPR serves up its own head on the Chopping Block!

Well, well, well, it's not everyday that I have to augment a post I put up about 12 hours earlier....but what a 12 hours it was. In the wake of NPR's VP of Bullshit Ron Schiller's embarassing exposition by Project Veritas' James O'Keefe, a conservative filmmaker, in the very recent past (just read the immediately preceding post), NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, which every media outlet EVER will make it a point to mention is of no relation to the former Schiller, has resigned.

Viv has been battling a proverbial shitstorm ever since the ouster of NPR Commentator Juan Williams over his "incendiary" comments, in which he claimed that Muslims in turbans on airplanes make him nervous (surprise!). But the comedy of errors that has ensued that fateful day has hammered nail after nail into NPR's coffin and essentially derailed any credibility the organization may have had to make a strong case for continued public funding. The push to de-fund NPR is no stranger, nor is it a novel concoction of the Tea Party. As some of you may recall, once in the early-mid 1990s, and once again in 2005, have members of Congress called for NPR's de-funding. For those not familiar with the controversy, a brief synopsis is as follows: many people, both in the American public, and in public service, believe that NPR has a left-wing, liberal slant. Whether or not that is true, of course, is open to interpretation; whether or not it matters is also contested. The belief is that due to the fact NPR and sister subsidiary PBS are partially subsidized by the American taxpayer, approximately 10% of the operating budget or so, that they automatically forfeit the right to "endorse" a political alignment or slant. I think that most people agree on that notion.

In any case, the current "hotly" conservative House of Representatives, pushed to electoral victory in part by the Tea Party, has renewed calls to defund NPR, and I'd say that at no other point in history has it looked like they have had this good a chance of making it happen. It was just this past Monday when Vivian Schiller had appeared to make her case for the continued congressional earmarking of NPR; now, Monday seems like a day from some alternate dimension. Vivian has resigned; Ron's out. The dominoes keep falling against them. Keep in mind, in the recent past alone, NPR has been pretty gaffe-tastic - from its erroneous reporting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' death (she survived) during the Tucson massacre, to the furor over Juan Williams' termination, which she even admitted happened "badly," though she did stand by her conviction, to the increasing cries of liberal bias NPR has endured during her two year tenure.

The Figures:
The CPB - Corporation for Public Broadcasting - is the parent of both NPR and PBS. This year alone, the CPB distributed approximately $470 million of federal dollars to the organizations. I have the same problem with NPR as I do with things like Amtrak - if these supposedly necessary, wonderful organizations can't survive in the free market without subsidies, why not let them go up against natural selection and let the chips fall where they may? The wonderful thing about a truly economically free market is that, (ideally), the best product with the most reasonable price ends up "winning." Why prop up a failing idea? I know the argument - that federal subsidies to NPR acts merely as "seed funding" which attracts private investment - but all we do have is theory. I know that $470 million dollars is literally less than a drop in the bucket when it comes to the freakishly brobdinagian deficits we hear about on a monthly basis these days, but every little bit counts, and we'll never know what will evolve unless we allow it to happen. I feel that the fear of "what might happen" isn't a valid reason to maintain a failing product, regardless if some people utilize it. Have hope in free enterprise - have hope in something! I will continue to update with any developments on this story. God Bless and good night all.

James O'Keefe Finally Makes NPR Wake Up to Half the US Population - Bye Ron Schiller!

Let's face it - despite the fact that NPR is funded, in significant part by "white, middle America," they haven't exactly had the most warm, friendly relationship with "white, middle America." NPR seems to pride itself for its hard-earned status as newsbastion to the erudite elite Left. See "Juan Williams firing" if you have any doubt about that - thoughtcrimes are punishable by termination.

James O'Keefe - the conservative founder of Project Veritas - is probably best remembered as the brainchild behind the 2009 ACORN and Planned Parenthood exposes, or perhaps the 2010 controversy behind Sen. Mary Landrieu's failed phone-tapping attempt (oops!) In any case, he videotaped NPR's Rob Schiller speaking with two prospective (fake) Muslim donors, and verbally tongue-lashed America's Tea Party movement, Christians, and right-wing constituency, which, if you remember, makes up about 50% of our country. While interpretations of the video differ - some believe that he didn't really say anything incriminating and stuck to pretty standard fundraising tactics, whereas others are appalled - what is certain is you're going to have a reaction one way or the other. Here is a link to the video:



NPR summarily dismissed Schiller - a far cry from the days of the ouster of Juan Williams. Could it be the pendulum is finally swinging in the other direction? I give NPR credit for respecting the beliefs of a major part of the American population and doing what it thought it had to do, instead of sweeping this under a rug, pretending it didn't happen, or skirting the issue until it went away.

Graydon Carter's Pet Can't Stay On Topic - How Vanity Fair's James Wolcott went from Piers Morgan to Sarah Palin in 2 minutes or less

Link to Full Article: I know it takes about 10 minutes to read, but this is, I promise you, the worst piece of "journalism" that has ever been published:

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/04/wolcott-201104?currentPage=1

How does this happen? I know Graydon Carter has become the laughingstock of the publishing world, as Vanity Fair begs and pleads to hang on to dear life. It's becoming pretty obvious why. James Wolcott is, perhaps, the least objective journalist since Helen Thomas, who, thankfully, is only moments away from death. A piece he begins by talking about Piers Morgan fails to mention his name in the entire back 50% of the 3 page article.
Instead, not even functional as a paean to the Democratic party or liberals in general, it devolves into a hit-piece on Sarah Palin. It appears PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) has reared its head - at fucking Vanity Fair. I'm sorry - are you Newsweek?

Sarah Palin really needs to be researched as an alternative fuel, because Jesus f*ing Christ, people have been fueling their rage with her for over 2 yeaaaars. I *hate* Obama, like, I really, honestly hate him, and at least there are a million reasons to hate him....but even me, 2 years later, has mellowed out a bit. I barely mention his incompetency or laughable idiocy at all anymore. How does talking about Piers Morgan's desire to brand himself turn into a review of Sarah Palin's Alaska within two paragraphs? NO WONDER YOUR PUBLICATION IS BANKRUPT, GRAYDON. YOUR WRITERS HAVE ALREADY ALL SOLD OUT.

Rats of a Feather: Ellsburg cries 'foul' on administration's handling of poor little Brandon Manning

"Queer Traitor"

Sorry Brandon, you'll get no sympathy from this gay guy. Being a yellow-bellied traitor is the worst thing a person can be, in my opinion, and because you're a mealy mouthed, failure of an Army queer, it doesn't single you out for any special treatment or any sympathy. I was so glad to hear that the Army, on Wednesday (yesterday), decided to levy an additional 22 offenses on you. I hope you're enjoying the brig. What do you think your parents think of you?

In any case - Ronald Ellsburg - the guy who released The Pentagon Papers to the NY Times in the 1970s, detailing secret information on America's involvement in Vietnam from 1945-1969, believes that Manning is being unfairly treated, and being singled out. I hope he gets a capitol offense slammed against him personally - conspiring with the enemy. In any event, I get a kick out of reading the liberal blogs where unkempt, overweight Left Coast basement dwellers decry Manning as a hero of unparalleled courage. What is brave about squealing? Your country comes first.

Union Rallies and Polite Discourse: Some Myths the Left Relies On

All across the country, pro-Union groups and Union supporters have rallied for "solidarity" with what's been going on in Wisconsin. Far be it from a Leftist to let any opportunity to incite class warfare go to waste, these gatherings have left civility behind faster than the Left abandoned the "Blame Bush" mantra...just kidding. In Lansing, MI, Union fomenters have resorted to violence. See my post about violence in Massachussetts from several days ago. This follows in pretty much the same vein.

A Tea Party member brought a camera along to capture the "civil" and "nonviolent" protest in Michigan.


See these videos regarding the protests in Madison, WI:

Calderon to U.S.: It's Your Fault Our Drug War is a Miserable Failure

Mexico's "Center-right" President, Felipe Calderon, was elected in 2006 and quickly made the priority of his administration the tackling of Mexico's gang-drug problem. Let the Leftist Chorus sing: "It's the West's fault Mexico has a gang and drug problem." Remember, the Europeans who settled America "stole" Mexico from the Europeans who settled Mexico. Sorry, Aztlan theorists. Plus, our standard of living and our success meant there is apparently less for Mexico to have. Moving back from my tangent. Calderon's struggle to reclaim vast tracts of Mexican territory lost to drug-peddling gangs resulted in approximately 36,000 lost souls in the last 4 years, including drug dealers, gang members, police, army, and civilians.

Calderon, slipping in the polls and facing the ire of his entire country for his abysmal handling of the situation and the rampant escalation of drug violence, is surely looking for a scapegoat, so he hopped on the most popular bandwagon of the last 100 years: Blame America. Let's go down a simple list of his cries:

1. "Americans have money and a huge appetite for drugs!"
2. "Americans don't have a ban on guns and are selling assault weapons to the gangs!"
3. "America isn't doing enough to help us!"
4. "America enforcing its borders and national sovereignty is causing Mexicans to turn to gangs and drug dealing!"

Sweetie, honey, save it. We already feed, clothe and house the bottom 25th percentile of your population - your derelict, undesirable border-hoppers. Try adding something to your GDP other than remittances. Felipe needs to be re-acquainted with the term "stop biting the hand that feeds you." He can't take care of his own constituents, so it somehow fell on our shoulders, because through some chutes-and-ladders convolution of logic, it's America's fault for Mexicans killing each other, in Mexico. Well, this violence has gotten so out of hand, it is spilling over onto American soil, and Americans are getting killed.

You know - no matter what America does, we never get a thank-you. We give the entire world handouts they don't deserve, we get nothing back except criticism and hatred. For one year, I want all the money that usually leaves our borders in terms of charity of any kind to stay in the country. Force all remittances to be spent on our GDP. I just want to see what would happen. I want to see what would happen if we stopped propping up the UN. Would Mistakeretary Ban-ki Moonbat flip out? Would we experience phenomenal growth? Of these things I'm not sure, but I am sure of this: if we keep giving people handouts and we get nothing back but disrespect, what do you think more money is going to do? I don't think we can afford to help Mexico, and I don't think we should, unless they let us do it on our terms. Mexico doesn't respect our sovereignty, but I'm sure our foreign aid, troops, and special ops would have to respect theirs.

The High Road is something America has always followed - that is more than I can say for the rest of the world. Mexico's war on drugs is a manifestation of a systemic, deeply rooted problem in their society. Until Calderon can figure out a way to generate economic prosperity with a plan that doesn't include shipping dirt-poor Mexicans to America to work illegally, drugs and gangs will proliferate. They are a product of poverty. The question is - just how morally impoverished is Calderon and his administration?

Invulnerable TSA employees find that they aren't above the law, after all

Link to the original story from reporter Dan Herbeck at The Buffalo News:

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/police-courts/police-blotter/article355093.ece

Here is the article posted in its entirety below:
BEGIN STORY ---------------

Updated: March 1, 2011, 4:16 PM


A federal Homeland Security employee who assisted in screening passengers at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport was arrested today on charges that she provided help to drug dealers at the airport.

Minnetta Walker, 43, of Glenwood Avenue, was arrested this morning by agents from the FBI and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She pleaded not guilty late this afternoon before Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr.

Police said she is alleged to have assisted "known drug traffickers" with information and with getting through airport security checkpoint.

"There have been some developments in an investigation at the airport. There has been an arrest," said Earl Gould, spokesman for the Buffalo FBI office.

Walker works for the Transportation Security Administration, a Homeland Security agency whose workers conduct the security screening of passengers and baggage passing through the Buffalo airport, law enforcement officials said.

TSA officials had no immediate comment on the arrest when contacted by The Buffalo News.

Walker has been watched and followed for months, after federal agents became aware of her alleged ties to Buffalo drug dealers, authorities told The News.

Top officials of the TSA in Buffalo assisted in the probe, as did U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement investigators and officers of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, who work at the airport.

NFTA Police Chief George Gast said he was aware of the arrest and the investigation.

"I can say that we have no evidence or indication that any other employees were involved," Gast said.

Walker, who told the judge she makes $40,000 a year at her airport job, said "no comment" when approached by a reporter after her court appearance.

END ARTICLE--------

What does this say to you? To me, this indicates that again, the TSA is coming under fire. Yes, of course, no job is full of 100% law-abiding people. However, it seems that the TSA is rapidly taking its place at the peak of the pantheon of bloated, corrupt government agencies - more evidence to avoid turning healthcare into a government job. When the TSA was founded - and it's hard to believe it was just 10 years ago - it had only a few hundred employees and a miniscule budget. It has since blown up over the years into an agency employing thousands and thousands of people, and its budget has likewise exploded. With all the complaints regarding the TSA lately, can they afford this latest flub? The idea that these people take such gleeful opportunities to molest you legally, and are assisting drug dealers on the side, is enraging. I motion to privatize American airport security. Taxpayers don't need to be subsidizing this nonsense.
Down with the TSA, down with legally sanctioned molestation, down with government-subsidized drug trafficking.