THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† US Courts: Multiculturalism Has Its Limits: The Supreme Court turned away an appeal from Homaidan Al-Turki, who blamed anti-Muslim sentiment for his conviction for keeping his 24-year old Indonesian housekeeper a virtual slave in CO. The Saudi Arabian national was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison on charges of unlawful sexual contact, and another 8 years for theft.
† People Who Live In Glass Houses Shouldn’t Throw Bricks: Someone threw a brick through a window of the Marion County (IN) Republican Club that was wrapped in a piece of notebook paper on which was written "Stop the right wing" in purple ink, reports the Marion Star:
Political historians say descents into incivility happen periodically, at times of significant political change.
The difference is that now we hear about every shocking outburst again and again, on 24-hour cable news, on YouTube, on Twitter - where there were a few random threats of violence during the weekend - and on blogs too numerous to count. …
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, an expert on political communication who conducted a study of incivility in the House of Representatives from the 1940s through the mid-1990s, said she found the worst incivility always occurs when there is a very close vote on a consequential matter. She also found it occurs when there's a strong constituency that feels deeply about an issue and has support on the floor.
"The point is, it's not a case of incivility constantly getting worse," said Jamieson, a professor at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the
The Republican Club may be looking at a $600 bill to fix the window, which is currently patched up with duct tape.
[Hat Tip: RedStateNews]
Editorial Note: Charles Alan Wilson, who was arrested by the F.B.I.for repeatedly threatening to kill Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) for supporting Obamacare is not a Tea Party supporter, according to one of his voice mails (“I'm not a tea party bagger. I'm an independent
† Young, GOP And Black: The Associated Press reports that “black conservatives are really taking heat for their involvement in the mostly white tea party movement—and for having the audacity to oppose the policies of the nation's first black president”:
I've been told I hate myself. I've been called an Uncle Tom. I've been told I'm a spook at the door," said Timothy F. Johnson, chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, a group of black conservatives who support free market principles and limited government.
"Black Republicans find themselves always having to prove who they are. Because the assumption is the Republican Party is for whites and the Democratic Party is for blacks," he said.
Johnson and other black conservatives say they were drawn to the tea party movement because of what they consider its commonsense fiscal values of controlled spending, less taxes and smaller government. The fact that they're black - or that most tea partyers are white - should have nothing to do with it, they say.
"You have to be honest and true to yourself. What am I supposed to do, vote Democratic just to be popular? Just to fit in?" asked Clifton Bazar, a 45-year-old
Tea party voters represent a new model for these black conservatives - away from the black, liberal Democratic base located primarily in cities, and toward a black and white conservative base that extends into the suburbs. …
Racist protest signs at some tea party rallies and recent reports by U.S. Reps. John Lewis, D-Ga., and Barney Frank, D-Mass., that tea partyers shouted racial and anti-gay slurs at them have raised allegations of racism in the tea party movement.
Black members of the movement say it is not inherently racist, and some question the reported slurs. "You would think - something that offensive -you would think someone got video of it," Bazar, the conservative blogger, said.
Editorial Note: As no video ever surfaced to corroborate his vile smears, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) is no longer insisting that he was spat upon by a Tea Partier.
† Today’s Letter Is “I.” As In Ingrate. (second item): As Americans continue to expend their blood and treasure in Afghanistan, those on whose behalf we are sacrificing - including their leaders, no make that especially their leaders - seem not to know (or brazenly lie about) why we are in their country in the first place. Here's another foreshadowing of what their lives will be like once we leave, and why they should be damned grateful that we are still there:
Since their offensive here in February, the Marines have flooded Marja with hundreds of thousands of dollars a week. The tactic aims to win over wary residents by paying them compensation for property damage or putting to work men who would otherwise look to the Taliban for support.
The approach helped turn the tide of insurgency in
One tribal elder from northern Marja, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being killed, said in an interview on Saturday that the killing and intimidation continued to worsen. “Every day we are hearing that they kill people, and we are finding their dead bodies,” he said. “The Taliban are everywhere.”
Indeed. Afghan National Police commander Col. Ghulam Sakhi tells The New York Times that “at least 30 Taliban have come to one Marine outpost here to take money from the Marines (“You shake hands with them, but you don’t know they are Taliban. They have the same clothes, and the same style. And they are using the money against the Marines. They are buying I.E.D.’s and buying ammunition, everything.”)
Seemingly unperturbed about truckloads of taxpayer dollars falling into Taliban hands and used to kill American soldiers, Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marine expeditionary brigade in Helmand Province, tells The Times: “We’ve got to re-evaluate our definition of the word ‘enemy.’ Most people here identify themselves as Taliban.”
Couple Nicholson’s jaw-dropping analysis with rules of engagement that ensure unacceptably high U.S. troop casualties, and you have to wonder whether we intend to win this war. Our definition of “enemy” should be “anyone trying to kill or maim coalition troops.” Our response should be to kill him first. At least, that’s how nations and their military used to prosecute wars.
† Fed Up With Farmers: Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Alex Kozinski ruled that a CA law against slaughtering “downers”- livestock too sick to walk – applies to pigs as well as to cows, overturning a lower court decision that “sided with pork processors who sought to keep the state from enforcing the ban at swine slaughterhouses,” reports The Associated Press:
"In effect, the district court reasoned that states may ban the slaughter of certain species, but once a state allows a species to be slaughtered, it cannot impose further restrictions. Hogwash," Kozinski wrote.
The video featured cows too sick or injured to stand being dragged with chains and rammed with a forklift.
The incident at the Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. facility in
The federal government also banned the slaughter of "downer" cows as a result, since the animals could be suffering from mad cow disease or other serious ailments.
Under
It’s unfortunate that it takes a judge’s order – and Kozinski’s no bleeding heart – to prevent livestock farmers from putting meat from diseased animals into the food supply, at least in CA.
† Sometimes, Nanny Knows Best: President Barack Hussein Obama has problems with simple arithmetic, as workers at stimulus-fund recipient Celgard unhappily found out last week when a woman named Doris asked whether it was a "wise decision to add more taxes to us with the health care" package, because "[w]e are over-taxed as it is." Obama launched into a 2,500 word, 17-minute filibuster in which he kept miscounting the points he was enumerating, reports The Washington Post:
Always fond of lists, Obama ticked off his approach to health care - twice. …
But Obama wasn't finished. He had a "final point," before starting again with another list -- of three points.
"What we said is, number one, we'll have the basic principle that everybody gets coverage," he said, before launching into the next two points, for a grand total of seven.
Obama never did address
† Updates To Previous Posts (fifth item Restorative Capital Punishment): Steven Hayes now wants to plead guilty to charges of capital felony murder, sexual assault and other crimes in the CT home invasion killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 11-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley, but his attorney is trying to convince a judge that his client is seeking "suicide by state" and is not competent to make such a decision, reports The Associated Press:
"Steven Hayes' chronic suicidality, symptoms of depression, erratic sleep patterns, loss of periods of concentration, and conditions of confinement have obscured his ability to make adequately considered decisions," his attorneys wrote in court papers. "Every decision he makes is focused upon accelerating the process to impose the sentence of death, what he has been described as calling 'suicide by state.' "
Defense lawyers have been concerned about Hayes' mental state since he tried to kill himself in prison on Jan. 30. But state experts who evaluated Hayes issued a report last week concluding he was competent to stand trial. …
A change of plea would have to be accepted at a formal hearing. If Hayes is allowed to change his plea, a jury or a three-judge court would decide his sentence because he is not allowed to plead guilty to a death sentence.
Hayes' attorneys, public defenders Tom Ullmann and Patrick Culligan, said if the judge allows Hayes to plead guilty, they will seriously consider withdrawing from the case.
"We do not think we can partake in such a stained and sordid process that greases the wheels of the machinery of death for such a diminished, tortured and suffering human being," they wrote.
† Updates To Previous Posts (The Right To Bear Arms Belongs To Us All: Part II): As expected, Dick Heller is going to appeal U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina’s ruling upholding new restrictions on gun ownership the Washington, D.C. Council passed after the landmark 2008 Supreme Court decision in his favor. Heller’s attorney Stephen Halbrook characterized Urbina as “overly deferential toward the city.”
† Updates To Previous Posts (fourth item, My Friend The Witch Doctor, He Taught Me What To Do): After the BBC broke the story of an epidemic of child sacrifices in Uganda, The Associated Press follows up with it’s own report:
The number of people killed in ritual murders last year rose to a new high of at least 15 children and 14 adults, up from just three cases in 2007, according to police. The informal count is much higher - 154 suspects were arrested last year and 50 taken to court over ritual killings. …
The problem is bad enough that last year the police established an Anti-Human Sacrifice Taskforce. Posters on police station walls show a sinister stranger luring two young girls into a car below bold letters that call on parents to "Prevent Child Sacrifice." …
Many complained of police corruption, slow investigations and a lack of convictions by the country's lethargic courts … Of about 30 people charged with ritual killing last year, nobody has yet been convicted. The last conviction was in 2007.
"There is a lack of political will to protect the children. We have beautiful laws but a lack of political will," said Haruna Mawa, the spokesman for the child protection agency ANPPCAN [African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect].
† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, Living In These Mad, Mad, Madoff Times): The Associated Press reports that Annie Leibovitz is being sued by investment firm Brunswick Capital Partners for (allegedly) stiffing them on $800K in fees for help arranging a financing agreement with Colony Capital that allowed her to retain rights to her work last, which she had put up as collateral for a $24 million loan.
† Updates To Previous Posts (fifth item, All The News That’s Fart To Print): The North Face settled its trademark infringement suit against The South Butt out of court. Jimmy Winkelmann, a University of Missouri freshman biomedical engineering student who founded the St. Louis-based parody clothing company, is in Panama City, FL, on spring break and whiling away the hours giving away South Butt T-shirts to “a number of young ladies," according to his attorney Albert Watkins.
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