THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Never Mind Marxism. Will An Obama Administration Be Totalitarian?: Part II: At a regularly scheduled Board of Education meeting, The Rev. Floyd Rose, president of the Valdosta/Lowndes County (GA) Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, called for the resignation of Valdosta City School Superintendent Dr. Bill Cason because he did not allow students to watch President Barack Hussein Obama’s speech when it aired, reports the Valdosta (GA) Daily Times:
“Here is what I know, here is what you know, here is what the hundreds of people here and out in the street know,” Rose said. “If Dr. Cason were black and 80 percent of the school children in his district were white, and he arbitrarily decided not to allow white children to watch a white president’s ‘back to school’ speech,’ and whites came here tonight in the numbers that blacks have come to protest, he would resign, or be fired. And we are here to demand no less.”
For his part, Cason explained that the lessons plans included with the speech did not align with Georgia Performance Standards, and cited other school systems that also chose not to air the speech or allowed students to opt out. During his comments, one person in the audience shouted, “He lies!” and another shouted that the other school systems “are not 80 percent black.”
Carson pointed out that his school system has increased the number of black students graduating from high school 12.2 percent, and concluded his remarks by stating: “I am not a racist. And I am not a person that does not put children first.”
Too bad the parents Carson was addressing could not say the same.
† Is Obama Already A Lame Duck?: In a commentary for Politico, Jeremy Lott, editor of Capital Research Center’s Labor Watch newsletter, makes the case that President Barack Hussein Obama is “failing miserably” in his “grandiose” pledge to deliver “sweeping change” and to “fundamentally alter the American economy by backing sweeping environmental, labor and health care legislation”:
The question that most political handicappers are considering right now is not “Will Republicans make gains at the midterm elections?” but “How large will those gains be?”
What all this means is, barring some unforeseeable world event, Obama’s will probably not be a historic presidency. He will have some successes and a lot of failures. His opposition won’t roll over, and his party will refuse to go along with his more costly, and thus risky, schemes. He won’t coast to reelection.
† What Freedom Of Speech Means To Muslims: In a Washington Post op-ed, Egyptian-born writer Mona Eltahawy takes the United Nations to task for including Egypt's culture minister Farouk Hosni amongst a short list of contenders to become the head of its Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization:
During his lengthy tenure, Hosni has alienated many Egyptians by suffocating cultural and intellectual freedom while giving a leg up to religious zealotry. …
[H]e has used censorship and disregarded individual freedom to ultimately strip Egypt of its robust culture. He might not have actually burned books, but he has banned plenty. …
Hosni's supporters say that it's time for an Arab U.N. cultural chief. It may be. But with his record, Farouk Hosni doesn't deserve to head UNESCO. Those of us proud of our Arab heritage, full of artists who challenge and enlighten rather than restrict in efforts to "protect" our morals, know that Farouk Hosni is not the man to represent us.
Meanwhile, the government of Turkey has levied a $2.5 billion fine against Dogan Yayin, a conglomerate of newspapers and television stations including the Turkish-language version of CNN, according to The New York Times:
Dogan journalists have not shied away from stories that the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s iron-willed prime minister, does not like. And Aydin Dogan, an owner of the media group’s parent company, is one of Mr. Erdogan’s most vocal critics. That makes it all the more suspicious that the Erdogan government levied a tax penalty on the Dogan group that is almost much as the value of the entire company.
Executives of the European Union, which has been considering the addition of Turkey to its powerful group, quickly noted their concern. “When the sanction is of such magnitude that it threatens the very existence of an entire press group, like in this case, then freedom of the press is at stake,” a spokesman said.
The Turkish government also has other ways of silencing journalists it does not like (second item).
† “Stop Us Before We Steal Again!”: Laura and Matthew Eaton, who appeared on the "Dr. Phil" show and boasted that they had been supporting their three kids by fencing $100,000 worth of shoplifted toys on eBay over the past six years, pleaded not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to transport stolen property, reports The Associated Press: “A federal grand jury indictment unsealed Monday says authorities seized more than 500 boxes of stolen toys when they raided [the couple's] home in San Marcos with a search warrant in March.” If convicted, they could each be sentenced to at least 27 months in prison.
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