Saturday, January 16, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Supreme Court To Decide Whether Washington Can Release Names Of Anti-Domestic Partnership Petition Signers
The Los Angeles Times reports that the "Supreme Court on Friday got involved for the second time this week in a case in which opponents of gay rights fear they will be harassed if their views are made public. The high court will consider whether Washington state officials can release more than 138,500 names on a petition seeking a vote on overturning the state's domestic partnership rights. Protect Marriage Washington, which unsuccessfully opposed the law giving gay couples expanded rights, wants to shield from disclosure the signers of the petition for a referendum on that law. The group says it fears harassment by gay rights supporters, some of whom have vowed to post signers' names on the Internet. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has said before the Nov. 3 vote that the names could be made public, but the Supreme Court blocked their release until it decided whether to hear the case. Arguments will be heard later this year." Tweet
What Barack Obama Told Bush When His Legislative Agenda Faced Popular Disapproval: "Save Face And Step Back"
Good for thee, but nor for me:
Tweet
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Mika Brzezinski Says Lincoln Is Her Favorite Founding Father
Lincoln was elected president in 1860, and was not born until 20 years after the United States adopted the Constitution. As she mocks Palin's seemingly poor answer to the question that Glenn Beck put to her, Brezenski could be heard saying Lincoln is her favorite founder:
Tweet
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
U.S. Leads Response To Haiti Earthquake
Fox News reports that the "United States was leading an international relief effort Wednesday to rescue victims trapped in the rubble and provide aid after a devastating earthquake in Haiti, as dozens of other countries contributed assistance ranging from heaps of cash to small teams of aid workers. Canada, European nations and countries across Latin America have mobilized supplies and aid for the island nation. But one geographically close country is conspicuously absent from the roster of helping hands. Cuba, which had evacuated some of its residents as a precaution in case the earthquake triggered a tsunami, has so far not offered any assistance publicly to its devastated island neighbor. Though the two countries have had warm ties since establishing relations 12 years ago after a 36-year break, the Cuban government Web site, along with Cuban news agencies, did not detail any offers of Cuban aid." Tweet
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Chapman Law School Dean John Eastman: "Prop 8 Trial Set Up Aids Gay Marriage Side"
To read this important article visit http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/12/eastman.marriage.on.trial/. Tweet
New Jersey Senate Votes Against Gay Marriage
The New York Times reports that the "State Senate on Thursday rejected a proposal that would have made New Jersey the sixth state in the nation to allow marriages involving same-sex couples. The vote was the latest in a succession of setbacks for advocates of gay marriage across the country. After months of intense lobbying and hours of emotional debate, lawmakers voted 20 to 14 against the bill, bringing tears from some advocates who packed the Senate chambers and rousing applause from opponents of the measure, who also came out in force. The vote ends the effort to win legislative approval of the measure, and sets the stage for a new battle before the New Jersey Supreme Court." Tweet
Monday, January 11, 2010
Lying Hypocrite Senator Dianne Feinstein Defends Reid Even Though She Had Condemned Lott
Senator Feinstein defended Reid after his racially insenstive remarks by saying that "I saw no Democrats jumping out there and condemning Senator Lott" when he made comments praising Senator Strom Thurmond's 1948 run for president at Thurmond's 100th birthday. First of all, as Feinstein was alive and in the U.S. Senate at the time Lott made his birthday party remark, it is obvious that she is lying. The only alternative is that her lack of memory capabilities makes her unfit to serve in the Senate, but it is clear that what she is attempting to do is rewrite the narrative so that the double standard disappears. Feinstein's ridiculous comments are in fact more proof that the double standard exists, or else there would be no reason to attempt to cover it up. Mrs. Feinstein was in fact herself "out there condemning Senator Lott."
As the Washington Times reports, "several Democrats — including Mrs. Feinstein — did in fact target Mr. Lott after his remarks. 'This statement casts a dark shadow over Sen. Lott's ability to be a credible party leader,' she said in 2002, according to an Inland Valley Daily Bulletin news story. 'I can tell you if a Democratic leader said such a thing, they would not be allowed to keep their position,' Sen. Mary Landrieu, Louisiana Democrat, said of Mr. Lott in 2002. Sen. John Kerry also called on Mr. Lott to resign, saying 'I simply do not believe the country can today afford to have someone who has made these statements again and again be the leader of the United States Senate,' according to a Boston Globe article." Now these are the same people, along with Al Sharpton and the NAACP, defending Senator Reid.
The bottom line is that a double standard has never been more clearly exposed.
Tweet
Senator John Cornyn Also Blasts The "Double Standard" After Reid "No Negro Dialect" Comment
The Washington Times reports that "Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican and chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement that Mr. Reid should step down, calling his comments 'embarrassing and racially insensitive.'"
"It's difficult to see this situation as anything other than a clear double standard on the part of Senate Democrats and others," Mr. Cornyn said.
Senator John Cornyn has reason to condemn this "clear double standard" and demand Reid's resignation. Cornyn knows full well that if he ever became Senate Majority Leader and had made a racial comment such as the one made by Reid, Al Sharpton and the NAACP, along with the Democratic party, would not be rushing to defend him as they are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He knows that if today's Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConell had made the same comments as Reid all hell would have broken loose. He knows full well that Senator Trent Lott was pressured to resign from his post as leader when he made comments that were construed as racial remarks as well.
Tweet
DOD Report States That In Case Of Fort Hood Killer Nidal Malik Hasan, Superiors Ignored Their Own Worries
Richard Lardner of the Associated Press reports:
A Defense Department review of the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, has found the doctors overseeing Maj. Nidal Hasan's medical training repeatedly voiced concerns over his strident views on Islam and his inappropriate behavior, yet continued to give him positive performance evaluations that kept him moving through the ranks.
The picture emerging from the review ordered by Defense Secretary Robert Gates is one of supervisors who failed to heed their own warnings about an officer ill-suited to be an Army psychiatrist, according to information gathered during the internal Pentagon investigation and obtained by The Associated Press. The review has not been publicly released.
Hasan, 39, is accused of murdering 13 people on Nov. 5 at Fort Hood, the worst killing spree on a U.S. military base.
What remains unclear is why Hasan would be advanced in spite of all the worries over his competence. That is likely to be the subject of a more detailed accounting by the department. Recent statistics show the Army rarely blocks junior officers from promotion, especially in the medical corps.
Hasan showed no signs of being violent or a threat. But parallels have been drawn between the missed signals in his case and those preceding the thwarted Christmas attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner. President Barack Obama and his top national security aides have acknowledged they had intelligence about the alleged bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (OO'-mahr fah-ROOK' ahb-DOOL'-moo-TAH'-lahb), but failed to connect the dots.
The Defense Department review is not intended to delve into allegations Hasan corresponded by e-mail with Yemen-based radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki before the attack. Those issues are part of a separate criminal investigation by law enforcement officials.
In telling episodes from the latter stages of Hasan's lengthy medical education in the Washington, D.C., area, he gave a class presentation questioning whether the U.S.-led war on terror was actually a war on Islam. And fellow students said he suggested that Shariah (shah-REE'-yuh), or Islamic law, trumped the Constitution and he attempted to justify suicide bombings.
Yet no one in Hasan's chain of command appears to have challenged his eligibility to hold a secret security clearance even though they could have because the statements raised doubt about his loyalty to the United States. Had they, Hasan's fitness to serve as an Army officer may have been called into question long before he reported to Fort Hood.
Instead, in July 2009, Hasan arrived in central Texas, his secret clearance intact, his reputation as a weak performer well known, and Army authorities believing that posting him at such a large facility would mask his shortcomings.
Four months later, according to witnesses, he walked into a processing center at Fort Hood where troops undergo medical screening, jumped on a table with two handguns, shouted "Allahu Akbar!" - Arabic for "God is great!" - and opened fire. Thirteen people were killed in the spree and dozens more were wounded.
Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. He remains at a San Antonio military hospital, undergoing rehabilitation for paralysis stemming from gunshot wounds suffered when security guards fired back during the massacre. Authorities have not said whether they plan to seek the death penalty.
After the Fort Hood shooting, Gates appointed two former senior defense officials to examine the procedures and policies for identifying threats within the military services. The review, led by former Army Secretary Togo West and retired Navy Adm. Vernon Clark, began Nov. 20 and is scheduled to be delivered to Gates by Jan. 15.
Army Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to comment on the West-Clark review because it's not complete. "We will not know the specific content of the report until it is submitted to the secretary of defense," he said.
Hasan's superiors had a full picture of him, developed over his 12-year career as a military officer, medical student and psychiatrist, according to the information reviewed by AP.
While in medical school at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences from 1997 to 2003, Hasan received a string of below average and failing grades, was put on academic probation and showed little motivation to learn.
He took six years to graduate from the university in Bethesda, Md., instead of the customary four, according to the school. The delays were due in part to the deaths of his father in 1998 and his mother in 2001. Yet the information about his academic probation and bad grades wasn't included in his military personnel file, leaving the impression he was ready for more intense instruction.
In June 2003, Hasan started a four-year psychiatry internship and residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and he was counseled frequently for deficiencies in his performance. Teachers and colleagues described him as a below average student.
Between 2003 and 2007, Hasan's supervisors expressed their concerns with him in memos, meeting notes and counseling sessions. He needed steady monitoring, especially in the emergency room, had difficulty communicating and working with colleagues, his attendance was spotty and he saw few patients.
In one incident already made public, a patient of Hasan's with suicidal and homicidal tendencies walked out of the hospital without permission.
Still, Hasan's officer evaluation reports were consistently more positive, usually describing his performance as satisfactory and at least twice as outstanding. Known as "OERs," the reports are used to determine promotions and assignments. The Army promoted Hasan to captain in 2003 and to major in 2009.
At Walter Reed, Hasan's conflict with his Islamic faith and his military service became more apparent to superiors and colleagues, according to the information. He made a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, a trip expected of all Muslims at least once. But he was also cited for inappropriately engaging patients in discussions about religious issues.
Early in 2007, Maj. Scott Moran became director of psychiatry residency and took a much firmer line with Hasan. Moran reprimanded him for not being reachable when he was supposed to be on-call, developed a plan to improve his performance, and informed him his research project about the internal conflicts of Muslim soldiers was inappropriate.
Nonetheless, Hasan presented the project, entitled "Koranic World View as It Relates to Muslims in the U.S. Military," and it was approved as meeting a residency program requirement, according to the information.
Hasan graduated from the Walter Reed residency program and began a two-year fellowship in preventive and disaster psychiatry. Despite his earlier reservations, Moran wrote a solid reference letter for Hasan that said he was a competent doctor.
Reached by telephone, Moran declined to comment.
Hasan completed the fellowship June 30, 2009. Two weeks later he was at Fort Hood.
Tweet
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Ann Coulter To Reid Supporter Al Sharpton: "Did He Ask You To Stop Using That Negro Dialect?"
The double standard that should have been focused on is the one that Al Sharpton could not deny. No other examples need even be given, because the Lott to Reid comparison is the most relevant. Trent Lott had to resign as Senate Majority Leader after his comments, while Senate Majority Leader Hary Reid is being defended by all the same Democrat politicians that dumped on Lott, by Al Sharpton, and by the NAACP, after a "no negro dialect" comment. The Republican actually had to resign from his leadership post while the Democrat is defended by the likes of Sharpton and being given a free pass. This is the very definition, the ultimate example, of an undeniable double standard.
Tweet
Burt Neuborne Of NYU School Of Law And Randy Barnett Of Georgetown University Law Center Debate Constitutional Interpretation And The Bill Of Rights
It is the originalist approach taken by Prof. Randy E. Barnett that is the more legitimate method of interpretation, but you can see the discussion for yourself:
Tweet
Senators McCain, LIeberman, Barrasso, And Thune Visit Jerusalem: Ending Guarantees "Will Not Pass Congress"
The Jerusalem Post reports that "four senior US senators, John McCain, Joe Lieberman, John Barrasso and John Thune held a press conference Sunday afternoon in Jerusalem in which issues pertaining to the future of US-Israeli relations were addressed. The senators responded to recent speculation regarding ending US financial guarantees to Israel. US envoy George Mitchell alarmed Israeli officials by suggesting last week that the US could use financial pressure to extract new concessions from the Israelis. 'Under American law, the United States can withhold support on loan guarantees to Israel,' Mitchell had told PBS interviewer Charlie Rose over the weekend, noting that the previous administration of George W. Bush had done so. But he quickly added that he preferred persuasion to sanctions. Lieberman said unequivocally that any attempt to cancel financial guarantees to Israel will 'not pass Congress.' McCain also weighed in on the issue, stating that any talk of withholding guarantees from Israel in order to pressure it is not helpful, and 'I don't agree with it.' The senior senator from Arizona said that while he held Mitchell in the highest regard, 'We disagree with that comment,' and that he was sure that it was not the policy of the Obama administration either. At the meeting held in the David Citadel hotel in Jerusalem, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the four visitors that the Hizbullah terrorist group is continuing to arm and the Lebanese government is to be held responsible for any attacks emanating from its territory into Israel. Barak also discussed the need to restart peace process talks with the Palestinians, as well as the Iranian issue. The defense minister expressed his happiness in meeting 'old friends of Israel' who proved their support in hard times. Barak said he was certain the senators will remain steadfast friends of Israel in any future situation." Tweet
RSS Feed (xml)