TSA

Still Alive

Still Alive ...

My oh My

Enjoy

Fire From The Heartland from Citizens United on Vimeo.

Burn the Constitution

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer writes for the court in a ruling released yesterday that previous Supreme Court decisions uphold worker retaliation protection.




EDITORIAL: Save the Koran, burn the Constitution

Justice Breyer sacrifices the First Amendment to placate Islam

Washington Times

You can't burn a Koran in a crowded theater, and Supreme CourtJustice Stephen Breyer suggests that to placate foreign extremists, Koran burning might be banned everywhere else in America too.

In an interview aired Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America,"Justice Breyer, who is on tour promoting his new book, averred that in the Internet age, speech traditionally protected by the First Amendment may have to be weighed against its global impact. George Stephanopoulos asked the justice about the canceled Sept. 11 Koran burning proposed by Pastor Terry Jones, and whether the fact that people riot in Afghanistan over what happens in the United States poses a challenge to the First Amendment or could "change the nature of what we can allow and protect."

Justice Breyer's largely rhetorical answer invoked the late Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. "Holmes said [free speech] doesn't mean you can shout 'fire' in a crowded theater," Justice Breyer said. "Well, what is it? Why? Because people will be trampled to death. And what is the crowded theater today? What is the being trampled to death?" The implication, which Mr. Stephanopoulos reinforced, was that today the crowded theater is the entire world, and any speech that foments violence by anyone for any reason could fall outside First Amendment protections.

The analogy is extremely poor. Shouting fire in a crowded theater doesn't incite an angry riot but a chaotic every-person-for-themselves scramble for safety. The potential danger is understood by everyone present, all of whom are threatened. The darkness of the theater, the confined and ungainly space and the likelihood of the quick spread of fire make quick action imperative. In only one context does shouting fire in a crowded theater make sense: when there actually is a fire.

Holmes' "clear and present danger" test doesn't apply to Koran burning because there is no imminent danger. The world is not a small, dark, crowded room with few exits. Safely burning a Koran does not physically threaten anyone, not even those who think the book reflects the word of God. There is no need for immediate action. There is no potential for the same type of close-quarters chaos. The violence that may arise in response to it is calculated and directed, and such a riot is as much political theater as the Koran burning itself.

It's troubling that a member of the Supreme Court would imply that anything that happens abroad in response to the exercise of free speech in this country should somehow inform the high court in assessing the boundaries of the First Amendment. This is symptomatic of creeping internationalism in the thinking of some justices. In this case, though, the suggestion is not simply to follow the lead of foreign courts, but to take into consideration the violent actions of foreign radicals when weighing American freedoms. Justice Breyer seems open to such a balancing test, in which acts should be banned if they offend a small minority of anti-American extremists who respond with irrational violence.

By this thinking, the best opposition response to any provocative speech is to protest violently. If a rent-a-mob riot in Afghanistan can cause a member of the Supreme Court to begin to question the value of First Amendment protections, the message to opponents of free speech is to ramp up the fighting. Make danger both clear and present.

Justice Breyer hedged that constitutional protection for Muslim books to pander to the sensitivities of radical Islamists abroad is not a foregone conclusion. "It will be answered over time in a series of cases which force people to think carefully," he said. "The judges sit back and think." Clearly on this question, Justice Breyer needs to follow his own counsel.

Remember when America was on America's side?

It will be again. Despite the best efforts of its enemies, this country isn't finished yet.

On a Roll

I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.

How was your Summer?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugp5g-Ttd5Q&feature=player_embedded

How was your Summer?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugp5g-Ttd5Q&feature=player_embedded

Go Visit my riding buddy

Chessie Cat has been getting some great miles in this summer go catch a few rides before fall wet weather shows up.

You will love her pics!!





http://chessiestales.blogspot.com/2010/08/three-state-ride-tn-va-and-ky-its.html

Religion of Peace

Bloomberg On Ground Zero Mosque During Ramadan Dinner :

Opponents are “un-American”

Stop the BigGovJobs bill

http://michellemalkin.com/



By Michelle Malkin • August 9, 2010 02:05 AM

The Democrats call their $26 billion, Big Labor/bankrupt states’ bailout legislation the “EduJobs” bill.

Let’s inject some truth in advertising.

The “EduJobs” bill is nothing but a BigGovJobs bill — a massive election season pay-off to Democrat special interests. With your money.

I noted last week that Nancy Pelosi is summoning her minions back to Washington for a special session to rush the Senate-approved legislation into President Obama’s hands (the House had approved an earlier version of the bill). As with so many other political wealth redistribution schemes peddled by the ruling majority and championed by the White House, this one comes wrapped in endless, specific-seeming promises of salvation (it will save “3,000″ in Washington state, “5,000 slots” in Illinois, and “4,200″ in Michigan).

But like porkulus math, BigGovJobs math ain’t all it’s cracked up to be:

“This is potentially great news, because in these economic times we can use some bridge to get us through,” said Lisa Freiburger, chief of operations for Grand Rapids Public Schools. “But we also have some huge questions.”

The bill cleared the Senate on a 61-39 vote, and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated she plans to call representatives back from their August break to vote on the bill, which President Obama is expected to sign.

According to the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor, Michigan’s $318 million allotment would be the seventh-highest, behind Texas, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Georgia.

The money could be used to cover an estimated 4,200 jobs.

Some of the money comes from other school programs, with $50 million cut from an adolescent literacy program, nearly $11 million from a teacher technology plan and $82 million from a student financial aid administration plan.
But school officials said they have no idea what strings would be attached to the money, whether the state legislature would approve the cash as part of a special supplemental budget, how long the money would last, and how they would pay for stop-gap measures while waiting for the taxpayer funds to flow.

Officials in Maine know it’s all just another empty game of kick the can:


…will Maine’s $39 million share from the education jobs package actually restore lost teacher jobs?

First, there’s the bureaucracy to deal with.

“It would clearly take some months for us to pull it together,” Maine Department of Education spokesman David Connerty-Marin told me when I first asked him about the education jobs package two weeks ago.

That’s because, if the money is handled at all like economic stimulus funds, states will have to apply for their share, the feds will have to approve it and state education officials will have to figure out how to distribute it.

Second, school districts might be skeptical about another federal handout.

After all, they’re already dealing with the reality that their share of economic stimulus money will dry up after the upcoming school year.

“That’s the cliff that people are talking about,” Augusta schools Superintendent Cornelia Brown told me two weeks ago.

The education jobs package is likely another pool of one-time money.

So, if districts return positions to their payrolls in September and the revenue outlook doesn’t improve substantially for the 2011-12 school year, the cliff might be that much steeper during upcoming school budget season.
Who really benefits? You guessed it:

…Kyle Olson of the Education Action Group argues the bill is payback to unions that have supported congressional campaigns.

The Muskegon-based union watchdog estimates the NEA would get about $36 million in dues from the bill, and the American Federation of Teachers would realize about $14 million.

“It’s not about student achievement. It’s about protecting the adults,” he said. “Public schools have a spending problem, not a funding problem. Pelosi and her regime are perpetuating the problem at a time America literally can’t afford it.”
Mark Tapscott notes that the tax-dollar dependent National Education Association is hard at work….pushing its dues-paying members to lobby Washington to pass BigGovJobs.

Mike Antonucci at Hot Air reports that while the Dems push the teachers’ union bailout, school districts across the country are rehiring laid-off teachers without having to reach into other people’s pockets.

The hurried House vote on this latest Pass It Now/Read It Later bailout is expected Tuesday.

Help stop the BigGovJobs political protection plan:

Protests are planned in at least a dozen states, and Tea Party activists are set to show up at Congressional offices Saturday through Monday, according to conservative activists familiar with their plans.

Demonstrations will occur at the offices of Democrats’ facing tough re-election races, including Reps. Betsy Markey (Colo.), Dina Titus (Nev.), Martin Heinrich (N.M.), Earl Pomeroy (N.D.), John Spratt (S.C.) and Rick Boucher (Va.), according to a planning paper circulating among conservative groups.
Phone numbers for those vulnerable Dems:

Betsy Markey (202) 225-4676
Titus (202) 225-3252
Heinrich (202) 225-6316
Pomeroy (202) 225-2611
Spratt (202) 225-5501
Boucher (202) 225-3861

Voting by felons

As noted yesterday, the Obama/Holder Justice Department has been suppressing the votes of our men and women in uniform. But before you judge our liberal rulers too harshly, keep in mind that they make up for it by encouraging voting by felons:

The Justice Department is so unenthusiastic about military voting that its website still lists the old requirement for a shorter 30-day military voting window, rather than the current law mandating 45 days. On the other hand, the Justice Department has no legislative mandate whatsoever to involve itself with helping felons to vote, but its website devotes a large section — 2,314 words — to advising felons how to regain voting privileges.
Here we have American politics in a nutshell. There is the party that honors patriots who lay their lives on the line for our freedom, and there is the party that honors lowlife criminal scum as eats away at that freedom like some horrific form of gangrene.

Who do you respect more, a soldier or a felon? Answer that and you know how to vote.

Temporary Marriage

(Marriage is among the traditions of the Prophet Mohammad)

In order to elevate the spiritual atmosphere, create proper psychological conditions and tranquility of mind, the Province of the Quds'eh-Razavi of Khorassan has created centers for temporary marriage (just next door to the shrine) for those brothers who are on pilgrimage to the shrine of our eighth Imam, Imam Reza, and who are far away from their spouses.

To that end, we call on all our sisters who are virgins, who are between the ages of 12 and 35 to cooperate with us. Each of our sisters who signs up will be bound by a two year contract with the province of the Quds'eh-Razavi of Khorassan and will be required to spend at least 25 days of each month temporarily married to those brothers who are on pilgrimage. The period of the contract will be considered as a part of the employment experience of the applicant. The period of each temporary marriage can be anywhere between 5 hours to 10 days. The prices are as follows:

•5 hour temporary marriage - 50,000 Tomans ($50 US)
•One day temporary marriage - 75,000 Tomans ($75 US)
•Two day temporary marriage - 100,000 Tomans ($100 US)
•Three day temporary marriage - 150,000 Tomans ($150 US)
•Between 4 and 10 day temporary marriage - 300,000 Tomans ($300 US)
Our sisters who are virgins will receive a bonus of 100,000 Tomans ($100 US) for the removal of their hymen.

After the expiration of the two year contract, should our sisters still be under 35 years of age and should they be so inclined, they can be added to the waiting list of those who are seeking long-term temporary marriage. The employed sisters are obligated to donate 5% of their earnings to the Shrine of Imam Reza. We ask that all the sisters who are interested in applying, to furnish two full-length photographs (fully hijabed and properly veiled), their academic diplomas, proof of their virginity and a certificate of good physical and psychological health which they can obtain through the health and human services of the township of their residence. Please forward all compiled material and send to the below address by the 31st of the month of Ordibehesht, 1389 (May 21st, 2010).

So dad or some significant male guardian should consent in writing for 12 and 13 year old applicants. How quaint.

Your religion of piece.

Yes... piece... these women are pieces...

And western feminists are mum.

Why might that be? Well, I'm sure that after these temporary marriages are dissolved, there will likely be the need for abortions.

That must be it.

Free Liver for Wife Killer

Having a new liver installed can be costly for the rest of us, but all a confessed murderer had to do was destroy his old one by gobbling rat poison. Taxpayers fixed him up with a new liver free of charge, with no waiting:

A confessed Bronx wife-killer who destroyed his liver in a half-cocked suicide attempt blew past nearly 2,000 New Yorkers on the state's transplant list to get a new organ, The Post has learned.
"It's an outrage — a complete waste on a man who obviously had no regard for life," said a friend of Jordania Sarita, 36, who cops say was stabbed to death by husband Johnny Concepcion on July 5. …
Sarita's mother, Maria, told The Post: "There are people that wait years for a liver transplant. There are children on the waiting lists, people who work hard."

Working hard is not how you get ahead in a world run by moonbats. Guess who will be getting priority after the federal government has finished consolidating total control of the healthcare system? The answer: not you.

Sickening Hypocrisy

http://hotair.com/



Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.

Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.

But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.

Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?

Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7 million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000.
We have unemployment at 10%, new legislation costing trillions shoved down out throats every week, an economic forecast as bleak as can be and then an architect of that mess is skipping town to avoid paying taxes he forces on everyone else. Mind-numbing hypocrisy

73,000 Blogs Shut Down by Whom and Why?

Obamunism is getting scary for those of us who rely on the Internet for information. After 73,000 blogs were closed down by Big Government, supposedly for copyright violations, we learn that the actual reason for the shutdown is unknown, as is the identity of the government agency imposing it.

Blogetery.com, a little-known WordPress platform used by more than 70,000 blogs, was shut down by its Web hosting company more than a week ago and nobody seems willing to say why or who is responsible.

BurstNet, the Web-hosting company, informed Blogetery's operator that service was terminated at the request of some law enforcement agency but wouldn't say which one. As for the reason, BurstNet hasn't made that clear either. In an e-mail to Blogetery's operator, BurstNet managers did say that they had little choice but to terminate service.

You Might be NEXT

This pisses me OFF

Stealing Valor is Free Speech?

Thanks Blonde
http://mobyrebuttal.blogspot.com/

I cant seem to make the htmls work copy paste if it pisses you off too.


"...A law that makes it illegal to lie about being a war hero is unconstitutional because it violates free speech, a federal judge ruled Friday as he dismissed a case against a Colorado man who claimed he received two military medals.

Rick Glen Strandlof claimed he was an ex-Marine who was wounded in Iraq and received the Purple Heart and Silver Star, but the military had no record he ever served. He was charged with violating the Stolen Valor Act, which makes it a crime punishable by up to a year in jail to falsely claim to have won a military medal.

U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn dismissed the case and said the law is unconstitutional, ruling the government did not show it has a compelling reason to restrict that type of statement..." (source)

This is a REALLY hard one for me. You know I'm as pro-service member and veteran as a civilian can be, BUT... I vacillate here. As despicable as it is to lie about serving your country (or to hold signs that say "God hates Fags" outside of a funeral), are we going to legislate all lying and uncomfortable speech or just some? Is Stolen Valor going to apply to the guy who uses the false information on a resume or the guy trying to get laid when he's out of town?

The emotional side of me wants lying about service to be illegal



(especially when I read the stories of the guys throwing themselves on grenades to save their 'brothers'),

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-19-Grenade_N.htm

but the logical side begrudgingly agrees with the judge...we have to embrace free speech --even when it sucks. Right?

Felons Vote for Democrats

Minnesota should be really Proud






That was the part of the article about Al Franken's ill-gained Senate seat that jumped out at me. Not that I'm particularly surprised, but it's nice to have in writing for when someone like rbb asks for written proof of what everyone already knows...

"...341 convicted felons in largely Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul voted illegally in the 2008 Senate race between Franken, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, then-incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman.



The final recount vote in the race, determined six months after Election Day, showed Franken beat Coleman by 312 votes -- fewer votes than the number of felons whose illegal ballots were counted, according to Minnesota Majority's newly released study, which matched publicly available conviction lists with voting records..." (source)

I was going to point out that I wouldn't even want the win if it was convicted felons that had rallied behind me and put me over the top...but then again, Democrats are probably against the no voting restriction places on rapists, murderers and pedophiles...because who are we to tell someone that raped a child that he can't have a say in our Democracy...

And, what no one is saying about this story is --what happens from here? This was no insignificant election. Stuart Smalley was the 60th vote that got Obama care through. Does this throw that into limbo? Does the State do an investigation or does a comedian get to keep his illegitimate seat?