Coming Soon to a Stadium Near You!!!!

Fatwa Productions

in association with

Jihad Entertainment

present the

2006 Islamarama Peace Tour

Join speakers from your favorite terrorist groups including

• Hamas
• Hezbollah
• Al-Quada
• The ACLU
• Code Pink
• The DNC
• The Democratic Underground

and more as they tell you all about the

Religion of Peace and Pieces

Special appearances by Cindy Sheehan, Michael Moore and Markos Moulitsas from Daily Kos and hosted by Bill and Hillary

Explosive entertainment provided by musical guests such as the

• Italian Muslim Crooner Don Ramadan with his chart-topping love ballad "I love you more than I love my goat" and the
• Islamic Rock group The Infidels with their sky-rocketing single "La-la-la-la-la"
  
  Special appearance by by the Gitmo Crew preforming their number one club mix

"Whoosh Goes the Book"

The 2006 Islamarama Peace Tour kicks off in Mecca, with stops in Medina, Mosul, Fallujah, Baghdad, Tehran and Jarkarta

For tickets call 1-555-EXPLODE

The 2006 Islamarama Peace Tour....

"It'll Blow You AWAY!!!!"

Blogburst: Death to the ACLU

The ACLU, who claim to be Americas gaurdian of liberty is ironically the most active religious censor in America. For nearly two generations it has relentlessly forced countless communities into submission when it comes to public expression of faith, particularly Christianity.

California has been fighting to save their seal, its history and heritage from the clutches of the ACLU's secular cleansing with everything they've got. The people voted to keep the seal, but the ACLU is not interested in democracy. They believe they know what is best for society, and are willing to force it on people through their finely tuned skills of judicial activism.

Now they are at it again- this time in the small village of Tijeras, New Mexico (population 474). Earlier this week, our friend The Mary Hunter at TMH's Bacon Bits told us the story, and asked, where is the ACLU?

Two residents of a New Mexico town are suing to remove three crosses from the official town seal. The suit says "the crosses serve no governmental purpose other than to disenfranchise and discredit non-Christian citizens" and accuses the city of violating the plaintiff's constitutional right to religious freedom, invading their privacy, and violating the civil rights act of 1964. The mayor says he plans to fight the lawsuit since, he says, the crosses have a historical reason for being in the logo. After all, the town in question is Las Cruces, which is Spanish for "The Crosses."

The Alliance Defense Fund will be stepping up to the plate once again to defend religious liberty.

TIJERAS, N.M. - The village council of Tijeras agreed Thursday to be represented by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund in their battle against a lawsuit threatened by the ACLU. The ACLU claims the village logo violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because it depicts a small cross.

"We have carefully reviewed the ACLU's allegations and believe the seal is entirely constitutional under the law," said ADF Senior Counsel Gary McCaleb. "The main feature of the city seal is not the cross but the Zia, which is a Native American religious symbol. The symbols of the seal reflect the history and culture of this ancient village. Many of the same design elements, such as the Zia, are found in the state flag. Why isn't the ACLU suing against the state flag?"

The seal, which depicts a conquistador's helmet and sword, the Native American Zia symbol, and a small rosary, was designed in 1973 to accurately reflect the village's history and not to further any religion.

"The ACLU is once more specifically targeting a cross while it ignores Native American religious symbols. It reveals their desire to target all things Christian, regardless of the fact that the cross in the Tijeras seal is clearly an historic symbol and not an attempt to endorse any particular faith," McCaleb said.ADF

This small town is standing up to the ACLU, and that should be commended. With a population of 474 this is no small feat. Its these small communities the ACLU love to prey on. These kind of lawsuits are the ACLU's speciality, and its sad for an organization that claims it is protecting our civil liberties, to be one that practices daily at stripping them away. We applaud this small town for standing up for their liberty. Thank goodness we have the Alliance Defense Fund out there protecting religious liberty from the secular cleansing of the ACLU. Why the ACLU are allowed to continue their destruction of liberty is beyond me, but its high past time for people to do something about it!

Join us in our fight against the ACLU and its seclular cleansing of America. We are a grassroots organization trying to gather the troops to fight the ACLU, expose their agenda, awaken America, and save liberty from the clutches of the secular agenda.

This was a production of Stop The ACLUblogburst. Over 100 blogs are already on board. If you want to join us, just register through our portal. We will add you to our mailing list, and send you the info on how to get aboard and fight the ACLU.

Boards already on board.

Quick Serenity Note

The movie rocked and I will be posting my review, spoiler free, tomorrow afternoon. So come back to read what I thought of the movie. In the meantime, check out the official website here. Have a great night everyone.

My Brother

My brother leaves for his second tour in Iraq today. He and other members of the 101 Airborne are heading to Iraq to serve our country by helping Iraq establish a free and democratic nation and introduce a few terrorists to Allah along the way.

Stay safe Jon and know that we are all proud of you. You and your men are in our thoughts and prayers.

Todd, Carmen, Ryne and Emma.

Live Blogging Cspan

I am watching CSpan on my lunch. Yes I know I could be doing quite a few other things. I wanted to hear the Democrats scream and holler about the House hearings on the Katrina response.

The Players

Rep. Bennie Thompson
Rep. Louise Slaughter
Another unidentified Rep.

They are giving a news conference after the testimony by former FEMA head Brown. They filed a petition to get an independent inquiry in to the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

Not much to say about the whole Q&A section they are currently in. They are bitching about how that Bush Administration can not be trusted to investigate it's own people. Rep. Thompson is telling the reporters and the audience that is the single great duty of Congress. The duty to investigate the current administration.

The interesting part about those comments to me is the simple fact that while he is complaining about the funding levels for the Army Corp of Engineers and FEMA, the fact remains that this Congress has never voted down a budget submitted to them by the White House. In fact, just about every budget of President Bush's has passed with very little modification. So I ask Rep. Thompson, are willing to investigate how you and other members of Congress failed to provide enough funding for FEMA and the Army Corp of Engineers.

Ok, now we have Rep. Slaughter talking about the American people deserve a 9/11 style investigation because the 9/11 commission was the greatest thing the Congress has ever done.

Did this women even read the report? How about all the information that has come out since the report was published but was not in the report? How about the omission of Able Danger from the report entirely? Some people should not speak in public without supervision much less be members of Congress.

Well, I am off to finish my work day. Have a good one everyone.

Kerry's Form 180: The Blogburst Edition

I’d like to talk a little bit about how John Kerry betrayed his brothers–the POWs who are still in Vietnam–whether they’re dead or not. He strove to “normalize” relations with Vietnam and in the process, buried the records of over 300 POWs who could still be alive.

Of all the things I’m aware that John Kerry has done in his lifetime–opposing every single conflict we’ve ever been involved in since he was an adult–this is the lowest of the low.

Michael D. Benge, a former POW in North Vietnam (1968-1973), has this to say about Vietnam at this interview at Frontpage Magazine:

Our politicians lost a winnable war. You are at a great disadvantage in getting the truth out of the enemy when you lose, instead of winning — rather like being a eunuch. The American and Vietnamese military were not defeated by the NVA, but were betrayed and defeated by politicians in the United States. These same politicians, such as John Kerry, and later, John McCain, as U.S. senators in 1993, swept it all under the rug when they were members of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs and issued their final report that there was no evidence that any POWs were still alive in Vietnam. Neither was there evidence that they were dead. Our government gave the North Vietnamese a list of over 300 POWs that were last known to be alive and in the hands of the North Vietnamese. To this date, only a handful of remains of these POWs have been returned. This begs the question, “What is the fate of those not yet accounted for?” Yet Senators McCain and Kerry, apologists and advocates for the North Vietnamese communists, claim that they are fully cooperating in the accounting process. I beg to differ with them.

You could easily compare what’s happening now to what happened then. But what’s most disturbing is this:

I cannot tell you accounts of POWs still in Vietnam after the war, but I can tell you that there was evidence that POWs were still alive after the war. In 1991, we had two satellite images of two Americans in North Vietnamese who has stamped out their pilot authenticator codes in the grass in the compound where they were being held. Although Marine Pvt. Garwood testified in close session of congress to a number of American POWs he saw while in North Vietnam after the war, this information has never been declassified. The U.S. gave the North Vietnamese a list of over 300 Americans who were known to have been captured alive and were in the hands of the North Vietnamese, but only a handful of remains of these POWs have ever been returned. Of the remains returned, several were “green” showing signs that they were of POWs alive several years after the war. Senators John Kerry and John McCain parsed the summary of the 1993 report by the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs so that it implied that although there was evidence that some Americans had been left behind, there was no compelling evidence that were alive at that time. What they deliberately forgot to say is that neither was there evidence that they were dead.
link

“When he became a senator, Kerry continued to stab Vietnam soldiers in the back. Kerry began pushing normalization of trade with Vietnam. To that purpose, he founded the Senate Select Committee for POW/MIA Affairs. Kerry became chair of the committee. In order to normalize trade, the Vietnamese government would have to prove that its hands were now clean with regard to POW/MIAs.

Kerry tried to erase the possibility that prisoners of war were still alive in captivity in Vietnam. I spoke Monday evening with Mike Benge, a POW/MIA activist. Benge was a civilian POW held from 1968 until 1973 by the North Vietnamese Army; he spent 27 months in solitary confinement, one year in a “black box,” and one year in a cage in Cambodia. Benge accuses Sen. Kerry of shredding key papers documenting “live sightings of POWs in Vietnam and Laos” during the POW/MIA hearings. According to Benge, Kerry attempted to shred all copies to prevent leaks and future declassification of the materials.”

In “Reckless Disregard, Buzz Patterson talks about what Kerry did in order to normalize relations with his commie Vietnamese comrades:

Kerry refused to interview key witnesses and ordered committee staff to shred important intelligence documents….The committee’s final report…concluded there was “no compelling evidence that proves” that American POWs were still alive in Vietnam….Kerry and his committee…made no attempt to identify those who had been abandoned, how they had died, who killed them, or where their remains might be. As he had done twenty years earlier, former naval lieutenant Kerry turned his back on those with whom he had served. (p. 63)

In his book “Reckless Disregard”, Buzz Patterson talks about making an official trip to Vietnam to collect the remains of some of these poor men who were left behind, tortured and murdered by the VC…and how absolutely humiliating it was to go to Vietnam and have the communists sneering and smiling when they turned over small boxes of “remains” and actually put their hands out to get paid for them.

It appears as though John Kerry not only wrote up his own commendations to get medals under highly disputable and questionable circumstances, sided and met with the enemy (Madame Binh in Paris), but years and years later, in order to “normalize” relations with Communist Vietnam, he AGAIN turned his back on his brothers–the POWs who might still be alive.

The gloves are off, Senator Kerry–release your records entirely, otherwise your calls for Roberts’ records, O’Neill’s records, the Swift Boat Veterans’ records and everyone else’s indicate that you operate by a devastatingly obvious double standard–as if the rules and regs that are in place apply to everyone else but you.

Join the blogbursts to help FREE Kerry’s 180 every Tuesday!

We’ve formed a blogburst group and here are the bloggers who are contributing so far. If you want to join the blogroll for Free Kerry’s 180, click here to email me, include the url for your blog. The blogburst is every Tuesday, so don’t forget to blog about it. All you have to do is encourage Kerry to set his 180 FREE, I’ll send you the code for the blogroll.

The more people we have, the merrier!

Quick Update

Just a quick update on my friend Robert's daughter Emily. They found a heart late this afternoon and she went in to surgery about 10pm PST. I will update as I know more or you can visit Robert's site here. Please say a prayer for a successful surgery and a quick recovery for Emily. Thank you all.

Guard the Border Blogburst

I had originally wrote this piece in May and felt that in light of the current stuggle by everyday Americans to get our leaders to address this issue of border security I would republish it since the information in it is just as important now as it was back then. Enjoy and have a great day.

The impact of illegal immigration are felt across this nation in many ways, but the dirty secret that is only talked about in back alleys and dark rooms is the hidden cost of immigration. Before I talk about the “hidden costs” of illegal immigration here is some information about the most talked about costs associated with illegal immigration.

The spread of illegal immigrates is costing Americans billions of dollars and after you take a look at the numbers below, think about what it’s going to cost you and your community.

Cost of Illegal Immigration to Texas: 4.7 billion a year or an extra $725 to each resident in the form of taxes, higher education costs, higher law enforcement costs, and higher health care costs.

Cost of Illegal Immigration to California: 10.5 billion a year or an extra $1,183 to each resident in the form of taxes, higher education costs, higher law enforcement costs, and higher health care costs.

Cost of Illegal Immigration to Arizona: 1.3 billion a year or an extra $700.00 to each resident in the form of taxes, higher education costs, higher law enforcement costs, and higher health care costs.

Some of the factors that contribute to the hidden costs of illegal immigration can be directly attributed to the President’s plan for a guest worker program. Don’t get me wrong, I support the President in most of what he does but when it comes to illegal immigration he and Congress have continued the sad legacy of letting the American people down in regards to protecting this country and securing our borders. Let’s look at the proposed plan and identify the hidden costs of this plan to reward immigrates for breaking the law and coming here illegally.

In the plan proposed and sadly supported by too many in Congress, would grant temporary status to the estimated 8 to 12 million illegals in this country. Consider this, if these immigrates are granted amnesty and they are actually employed then who would pay their medical benefits since we are told that everyone “deserves” health care. We are told time and time again that most of the jobs that illegals take are the low wage ones that Americans will no longer do such as the agriculture, food service, landscaping, and construction. Only a small number of those jobs by default come with any health insurance thus we are left to wonder how the gaps in coverage will be met. After all since the illegals with now be properly documented “guest workers” they will no longer be able to walk into a hospital and get the free health care that illegals now enjoy to the tune of 200 to 300 million dollars a year. Most likely the shortfall in coverage will be made up by the American taxpayer in the form of Medicare or Medicaid. And yes I know that some illegals pay into those systems and under the “guest worker” their employers would be required to collect those taxes and contribute as well. The fact remains that employers are currently required by law to do so and yet some how fail to do just that. Strange how that works eh?

One of the ways we can measure the “hidden” costs of illegal immigration is be the widespread hiring of illegals by American employers looking to make a quick buck. I ran across this article recently by David Simcox written in 1999 and the points he makes about the hiring of illegal immigrates are even sounder now then they were back in 1999. The fact is that businesses large and small have an appetite for hiring illegal low cost labor that has been proven to drive down wages in whatever industry that the illegals are used. That’s the term I choose to use to describe the illegally hired illegals, used. They are used by businesses to generate a quick profit while denied the basic benefits of the employment they share will legally employed workers. Often they work in unsafe, unhealthy, unethical conditions without any recourse against the employers. Don’t get me wrong, I am now and always have been a capitalist but when the marketplace dictates that a group of employees is without recourse or options in regards to their employment, something must change that situation. Either market forces, the employees or in extreme cases the government must step in to fix the situation.

Since the government and the illegals seem to be powerless to fix the problem that leaves the forces of the market of which every consumer belongs to. In addition to depressing wages, employers hiring illegals also cheat taxpayers, artificially create a low cost expectation by consumers, and gain an illegal and unethical advantage over their competition. The fine, as of today, for employing an illegal immigrate was a mere $3,000 per illegal. Now that may seem like a lot of money to you and me but to large companies it is a drop in the bucket when measured against the savings of employing the illegal in the first place. And if that is not bad enough the companies usually can have their lawyers negotiate with the government and have the fines lowered even further with promises of community investment which they get to write off their taxes. As you can see the practice of hiring illegals can be very profitable even if the company is caught and prosecuted. Here is brief list of some employers that have either been caught employing illegals or continue to: Tyson, Smithfield Foods, Conagra, Wal-Mart, Northrop
Grumman, Continental Maritime, Sears Tower, Piedmont Triad International Airport, Julie’s Café, Orlando Federal Middle District Courthouse, Naval Coating Incorporated, Duane Arnold Energy Center Nuclear Power Plant, Logan International Airport, Pacific Maintenance, Inc, Home Depot, and Great Texas Employment Agency Inc. This information is available to anyone on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under their press release section, located here.

The fact is that the cheap labor that American companies and ultimately the American consumer crave is costing us in so many other ways as shown time and time again. Think that hiring illegals to pick oranges in Florida is providing you with cheap orange juice; think again after you read this. The same rules of economics apply to the cheap produce we enjoy from all over this country. According to Harvard economist George Borjas the impact of low wage illegal workers is felt hardest in the small communities with no other industries then agricultural to bare the burden of the “hidden” costs.

“In places like Palm Beach County that have huge agricultural holdings that draw migrant laborers, the impact on local taxpayers is even greater because there is no other large industry and most of the costs of services to immigrants – public education, health care, law enforcement – are borne by local governments.”

Some additional costs that may be “hidden” include the cost of an even increasing number of illegal immigration cases before our courts, and taxpayers footing the bill for Mexican children crossing the border everyday to attend school in the United States. By far in my humble opinion the most devastating “hidden” cost is the dirty little secret of illegals having kids here in the United States to cement their ability to stay in the country. Not only do they exploit a loophole in immigration law but they contribute to the coming collapse of our health care system in certain parts of the country. Illegals that come to this country to either intentionally have children or have children while here illegally are taxing public assistance and saddling medical facilities with even-increasing uninsured medical costs. Just because an illegal or anyone for that matter is uninsured does not mean that treatment is withheld, under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1985, hospitals are obligated to treat the uninsured without reimbursement. The only difference between a citizen and an illegal is the hospital has a way to seek reimbursement from a citizen where they have no recourse against the illegal. Even the doctors are finally joining the battle against illegal immigration; of course we should expect them to since the medical debt racked up by illegals now threatens their very livelihood.

The fact is that illegal immigration touches each and every part of our lives in many ways and while there are certain ways we can measure the impact, the true cost of illegal immigration that we bear is hidden in many subtle ways. The only way we can reverse the trend and recoup some of our tax dollars is by continuing to pressure the government to reform immigration law and secure the borders, by identifying and taking our business away from companies that either support illegal immigration or directly hire illegal immigrates and by supporting the brave men and women that work for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

-------------------

This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to kit.jarrell at gmail dot com.

Blogs already on board:

A Little Something For The Browncoats

I guess the best way to describe the passion I feel for this movie/television show/fantastic story is to tell how I found Firefly and became a Browncoat. I never saw the show when it was on Fox, frankly I have never watched much television on Fridays (the original airdate) until recently, thanks to SCI-FI Channel. I saw Firefly for the first time this past April courtesy of a co-worker who had snagged the entire series off the BBC and brought it in to work for us to watch. From the first episode, I was drawn in by the depth of the characters and the overall concept of the show. Joss Whedon has some serious balls to do a space western but then again he is the guy who brought the world "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". We watched the entire series in about two and a half days and I was blown away. Like every other Browncoat, I could not really think of any reason for Fox to cancel the show and thought Fox had made a big mistake.

I have always been a big science fiction fan, Star Wars, Star Trek (old and new), Battlestar Galactica (old and new) but this show was different. The dialogue was outstanding and on the level of one of my other favorite writers, Kevin Smith. Let me clarify what I mean by my statement of the dialogue was outstanding. The writing was snappy and sarcastic without being over the top and rather then being the common television fare. Joss's writing is sometimes a leap because it assumes a certain level of intelligence from the viewer rather then play to the lowest common denominator. The entire 'verse that Firefly exists in very believable and does not focus on the technology like quite a few other science fiction shows.

The best thing I can say about the television series is that at the end of every episode, it left you wanting more. That is the sign of a great television show no matter what the subject matter. Another show that I love and watch on a regular basis is Seinfeld. I can't say that I felt that way about Seinfeld at the end of an episode, but Firefly was different.

The entire cast of Firefly are criminals on one level or another and yet they are easy to relate to on a personal basis. I wonder what a shrink would say that means about all of us Browncoats. After I had seen the show at work, I went out, got the DVD set, and proceeded to watch it twice more. I watched it once with the regular audio and then with the commentary. I started to poke around online and was absolutely astounded by the cult following that Firefly had generated. It was only then that I learned that the show was from 2002. All I could say was WOW. The show had been off the air for almost three years and during that time, a grassroots effort to bring Firefly back to either television or film had sprung up. I recently read an interview with Joss Whedon and he explained that he just felt like the story had not been told and many times the fan support encouraged him to keep working.

When I learned about Firefly returning as the movie “Serenity”, I was thrilled because like every other fan of the television show, I felt cheated by Fox’s decision to cancel the show after not even a full season. Given some of the programming choices that Fox has made in the past, I really can’t explain why the show was not given at least a full season or part of a second. Well I guess that all does not matter now since Universal signed Joss to do a three-picture deal starting with Serenity.

As I mentioned yesterday, I am going to a press screening of Serenity on Wednesday the 28 of September. I am so psyched to see this movie and sight unseen I will predict that the movie will be successful beyond even the hopes of Universal and Joss Whedon and filming will begin on the sequel shortly. As I promised, there are quite a few links below to some fan sites and some official sites below for those who have yet to discover Firefly/Serenity or for Browncoats who want to bone up before the movie is released on September 30. This concludes the big damn post about Serenity for now. Keep flying everyone and I will see you out in the ‘verse.

Joss Whedon, the Oscar® - and Emmy - nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE, ANGEL and FIREFLY, now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity. The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family –squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

The Official Serenity Movie Site

The Wikipedia page for Firefly

The Signal aka The Big Damn Podcast

The Serenity Chinese Pinyinary site

The Firefly Movie Site (Fan site)

Joss Whedon’s Blog

Finally yet importantly, one big damn interview with Joss.
(9,500 words to be more or less exact.) Enjoy.

平静

WTF Friday Rant Volume 1 Issue 34

I apologize for the delay in posting the WTF Friday Rant; it could not be avoided due to the intrusion of real life upon online life. No worries, it is a Friday and a weekend of rest is upon us.

Couple of things I want to mention that may seem outside the scope of this blog. First like most who write about politics on a regular basis, I do have other interests. One of which is participating in charities that are close to my heart. I continue to encourage everyone who can and are so inclined to donate in any form to the Red Cross to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina and now the victims of Hurricane Rita. I also have a charity that is quite a bit closer to home that I would like to mention. I have good friend, Robert Brightwell whose daughter Emily is currently awaiting a heart transplant at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He is detailing the ordeal in somewhat regular posts over at his site, Drunken Samurai. They have also set up an Emily Brightwell Fund over at Wells Fargo Bank. If you wish to donate, just contact any Wells Fargo location and tell them the money is for that fund. You can also click on the donate button to the left of this post and I will make sure that the money gets to Robert and Emily. Thank you to all that have already helped.

Now on to a much lighter subject. I do not know how many of my readers are Browncoats but if you are then you all know that we are less then a week away from the release of Serenity on Friday September 30 and that is very shiny. I have been lucky enough to have been selected to attend a press screening of Serenity on Wednesday September 28 and I will blog about it Thursday morning and again on Friday. In fact, I will be posting a special Saturday post tomorrow about the entire Firefly/Serenity story and it will include many links and be spoiler free since I have not seen the movie yet. If you have no idea what I am talking about, visit the website and check it out. Below is a quick synopsis of the movie to give you a taste.

Joss Whedon, the Oscar® - and Emmy - nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE, ANGEL and FIREFLY, now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity. The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family –squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

So without further ado on the WTF Friday Rant, enjoy the links and have a great weekend everyone.

Nutbags march on Washington DC, blame lack of coverage on Hurricane Rita.

Seems the Anti-American leftist crowd is complaining that they are not getting the news coverage they think they deserve because of other more important events, namely Hurricane Rita. Don’t think know that Karl Rove is in direct control of all serious weather events? I guess they did not read that part of the Republican Party platform when it was inserted last election cycle. See, reading is fundamental.

Left wing Monster: Arafat

FrontPage Magazine has a great truthful profile of what an evil monster Arafat was and how he has completely damaged his people’s chance for peace and set them on a path of continual violence and conflict with Israel. Check it out.

College Censorship is alive and well at Cornell University

The Cornell University newspaper recently published an empirical study of the link between color and crime. The leftists on the campus freaked out and are now prepared to censor the paper because of its obvious hostility towards people of color. Sometimes the truth is ugly and very hard to deal with or accept but that does not mean it should be censored.

Bloggers tell the FEC to leave our first Amendment rights alone

The FEC is trying to reverse itself and regulate political speech on the internet in an attempt to curb what they see as unregulated campaign contributions. Frankly, in my opinion free speech should never be limited or classified as campaign contribution.

One last observation about the failure of the New Orleans management.

The city officials of New Orleans will have quite a political price and hopefully a price of another in the form of jail time for their criminal negligence. I suspect we will have to wait and see.

Just a couple more examples of Hillary Clinton’s insanity, here and here.

Given her recent behavior, I am not nearly as frightened of her becoming President as I used to be. I am still sure she will run but I really don’t think she is such a sure thing to win as people think she is.

Here is a trio of stories about Able Danger and what might have been. Links are here, here, and here.

I am glad to see that some people are staying on top of this. The MSM is trying very hard to ignore it, which may signal a willingness to avoid any news that could be harmful to either Bill Clinton’s legacy or Hillary’s chances for the presidency. The American people and certainly, the victims of 9/11 deserve answers on what Able Danger found, who in the Clinton administration prevented the passing of information, and whether or not it could have prevented the attacks.

CNN Poll says fewer then half of Americans think we will win in Iraq

Polls are the crack of the MSM, in other words they only server purpose for those who do not have deep-seeded convictions and move from position to position as the wind blows. This particular poll only talked to 818 adults over a three-day period and has a sampling error of plus or minus 4%. Look at those numbers again. EIGHT HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN adults in a nation of almost THREE HUNDRED MILLION people. Does that seem right to anyone that the MSM take the opinions of a mere 818 adults in a nation of 300 million as the gospel when it comes to opinions on a certain topic? Polls are complete bullsh*t and have no rhyme or reason to them since most poll questions can be asked in many different ways to skew a poll or guarantee a certain result. If the poll had shown an overwhelming margin of people thought that victory was an absolute certainty then it would have never been reported. My brother and other members of his 101 Airborne unit leave for their second tour of duty in Iraq on Wednesday and I can tell you this, they will do their duty and we will win.

EU discovers they have no testicles and gives Iranian Nuclear Program a pass in the UN.

I guess the world is going to leave it up to the United States to do something about the Iranian illegal nuclear weapons program. The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to the UN Headquarters in New York recently and not only thumbed his nose at the rest of the world in regards to his nuclear program but also made the statement that he was going to share his nuclear technology with other Arabs. Someone needs to step in regard to this planned proliferation of nuclear technology and it seems like it will fall to the United States with very little help from Europe and Asia.

Weatherman blames hurricanes on Japanese Mafia

You know I have to throw a good conspiracy theory out there every now and then. Too funny if you ask me.

Ronald McDonald has a sex change.

You might fall out of your seat reading this one. Boy that hospital bill must have been a real ah mah duh hwoon dahn!!! Bet you can’t guess what I just said? Leave a comment with you guess of language and text of the statement. Have a great weekend.

Blogburst: Death to the ACLU

On 1, Oct. 19, 1976 Congress passed an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which gave the Courts the power to award attorney's fees in civil rights cases to the prevailing party. 'The Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act of 1976' was passed with high hopes, and the good intentions that it would help provide relief for individuals that might not otherwise be able to afford the expenses of defending their civil liberties if they were violated. The ACLU, and other judicial activitist have completely turned the intentions of this amendment on its head.

Whenever the ACLU fights voluntary prayer in school, a war memorial because it's in the shape of a cross, ten commandment displays, or keeping the boyscouts from military sponsorship, and they win, you pay for their attorney's fees.

What was intended to protect people from having their civil rights violated has been twisted by the ACLU to use as leverage when they threaten small schools and communities that can't afford to defend themselves from the well funded, and well staffed ACLU bully. Yes, legislation intended to protect civil liberties is often used to supress religious expression by the likes of the ACLU.

There is currently legislation in the House introduced by Representive Hostettler that hopes to remedy its abuse. It is an amendment that limits the attorney fees in Establishment Clause cases to injuctive relief only. In other words, if the ACLU wants to pick a fight over someone praying in public, or a ten commandments display that offends one sensitive athiest, they'll have to dig into their own deep pockets, and it will not come from yours.

We want your voice to be heard in D.C. supporting this legislation. It's really simple, all we need is your autograph.

SIGN THE PETITION TO GET THE ACLU OFF THE TAXPAYER'S DOLE

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Kerry's Form 180: The Blogburst Edition

Big Ass Hat Tip To Cao for this post

John Kerry sees America as an occupier, not a liberator. Critics pounce on that, “aren’t you aware,” they sneer, that President Bush has used the term “occupiers”?

Do they mean when the president said this?–

“As a proud and independent people, Iraqis do not support an indefinite occupation–and neither does America. We’re not an imperial power, as nations such as Japan and Germany can attest. We are a liberating power."

Aren’t the people of Iraq liberated from a terrible dictator? Did we not transfer sovereignty over to the Iraqi people exactly when we said we would?

John Kerry and his crowd derisively call American troops “occupiers” because it fits within their warped belief system: that America is the problem, and not the solution. While more than 50 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq are enjoying freedom, Mr. Kerry is still fretting over whether the U.N. crowd likes us or not.

9/11 changed everything. Everything, that is, except the national Democrats’ shameful, manic obsession with bringing down a commander in chief. John Kerry has been wrong many times, but he’s never been more wrong than in his failure to support our troops and our commander in chief in this war on terror.

John Kerry has a long record of proposals to weaken our national security in a time of war.

For his entire adult life, John Kerry has been against whatever America was fighting for at the time. In the early 1970’s, he personally, along with his fellow left-wing war protestors in Vietnam Veterans for Peace, made up lies about atrocities supposedly committed by American soldiers in Vietnam. A man named Steve Pitkin rode to Detroit for the Winter Soldier event in the same van from Baltimore and Washington with Kerry. He didn’t intend or want to speak at the event, and knew of no atrocities, but Kerry, personally, and others buttonholed him on the floor and demanded he say something, hinting that he would get no ride home otherwise. So he got up and lied, as he has now admitted.

Kerry made at least one and probably two trips to Paris in the early 1970’s where he met with two different Vietnamese communist delegations to the official peace talks. That action may have been treasonous, but his own justification for it is almost as damning. The line his supporters are putting out is that he went to talk to Madame Binh and the other communists, because he considered doing so “necessary to fight through the lies of his own government.” In other words, he thought the communists would be more truthful than the Americans.

In Ho Chi Minh City, a 1993 photo of John Kerry hangs in a special museum room dedicated to honoring anti-war activists who helped the Vietnamese Communists win. Oops, wait a minute. The communists actually changed their display to emphasize Kerry’s work as a Senator rather than his anti-war record. Interesting, heh? hehehe don’t underestimate the value of Commie propaganda!

The first documentation of the picture was acquired by Vietnam veteran Bill Lupetti and publicized by Vietnam Vets for the Truth, a group that held a rally against Kerry’s presidential candidacy in Washington.

The group said the photograph’s “unquestionable significance” lies in its placement in the American protesters’ section of the museum.

“The Vietnamese communists clearly recognize John Kerry’s contributions to their victory,” group spokesman Jeff Epstein said.

Now, according to a report from Paris,

“There was a new display of pictures and the hard communist war rhetoric that was present in the old display is now been changed. Kerry is no longer featured as a North Vietnamese war hero, but as a visiting American diplomat.”

In the 1980’s, Kerry’s left-wing ideology again brought him to side with America’s enemies. He called the US action in Grenada “a bully’s show of force,” and then traveled to Nicaragua in 1985 to meet with that country’s communist dictator, Daniel Ortega. He was convinced that Ortega’s Soviet and Cuban backed Sandinista thugs were the good guys there, and never expressed the slightest contrition when (thanks to President Reagan’s firm support of the Contra freedom fighters) elections clearly demonstrated the Nicaraguan people did not want Ortega as their leader. Again, he and his office fabricated stories designed to make America look bad, which is thoroughly documented at Insight Magazine and elsewhere.

As he had a decade earlier, Kerry sided with the Communists against America.

By the 1990’s, no thanks to Kerry, world Communism had ceased to be a threat, but Kerry continued his anti-Americanism, opposing the first Gulf War in 1991. Later, with a fellow Democrat in the White House, Kerry supported the Bosnia and Kosovo actions, using them to push for an internationalist program that would diminish the ability of the U.S. to act decisively in its own interest. Again, this is a position on which he has been consistent over the years, having pushed in 1970 to have the United Nations take over command of U.S. military forces in Vietnam.

Now, he says Iraq is the “wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time.” So here’s a man who has been in favor of keeping Saddam Hussein in power, not only in Iraq, but also in Kuwait, who wanted Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista Marxists to run Nicaragua and Ho Chi Minh to rule all of Vietnam. That’s a pretty consistent record, if you ask me, a record of defeatism and anti-Americanism.

A la the chameleon-like Zelig of the Wood Allen movie – nothing about Kerry is as it appears to be. Isn’t he Irish? Well, actually, no. John Kerry’s grandfather was a full-blooded Czechoslovakian Jew whose real last name was Kohn–before they goy-icized their name.

Is there anything about the war-hero/VC symp, “Irish”-Jewish-Brahmin, left-wing moderate, pro-abortion Catholic, patrician-tribune-of-the-people that’s real?

Let’s find out. Senator Kerry, release your military records like you promised the American People on Tim Russert’s show. We haven’t forgotten, we’re not going to give up, it’s just best that you pony up.

That is…unless you have something to hide.

Join the blogbursts to help FREE Kerry’s 180 every Tuesday!

We’ve formed a blogburst group and here are the bloggers who are contributing so far. If you want to join the blogroll for Free Kerry’s 180, click here to email me, include the url for your blog. The blogburst is every Tuesday, so don’t forget to blog about it. All you have to do is encourage Kerry to set his 180 FREE, I’ll send you the code for the blogroll.

The more people we have, the merrier!

NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.

Guard the Border Blogburst

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, illegal immigration has come to the forefront yet again as Americans watch hundreds of jobs that could (and should) go to displaced workers being taken instead by illegal immigrants.

Here's the problem: You've got millions of illegal immigrants from south of the border working in jobs that "most Americans won't do." Meanwhile, you've got thousands of people with no jobs and no homes, many of whom have what I call the sponge mentality. This way of thinking can be summed up in one word: Gimme. You know what I'm talking about, right? Gimme welfare. Gimme food stamps.

Now that cleanup is in full swing, hundreds of illegals have jumped on the opportunity to get across the border and get their foot in the door. And sure enough, the next logical step in this process has happened. They think they deserve visas.

"If we are working and helping to raise this city, at least they should give us a work visa," said Manuel Armenta, a 44-year-old Mexican who came to Biloxi five months ago to do cleaning work at a hotel.

Read that again and see if you notice anything. He came here five months ago. That means, he was already here illegally when Hurricane Katrina hit. He's not some philanthropic benefactor, he's an opportunist. He sneaks across the border months ago, and now that the hotel he worked at is gone, he's jumped on the wagon of "helping with the cleanup", and then has the gall to say he deserves permission to be here.

Many migrants living here illegally constantly worry about being detained and expelled.

A visa "would help us to not have fear," said Hugo Martinez, 37, who has been working alongside Armenta.

Doesn't this story just pull at your heartstrings? These poor people, right? Hardly. These illegals are taking jobs that could help people who deserve them. People who lived in New Orleans legally and want to come home and start over, for example.

Both Armenta and Martinez said the main thing is to earn a living, regardless of their immigration status.

"But being legal, one could be here without distrust," Martinez said.

Jose Martinez, a 40-year-old Guatemalan, said the U.S. government should somehow recognize the contribution that undocumented workers are making to rebuild hurricane damaged areas.

"Even if it was just a temporary permit, at least we could get insurance," said the former hotel worker, now laboring to remove debris at a shrimp plant.

See this? They not only want visas, they want insurance. They say "even if it was just a temporary permit", but come on. Does anyone with a brain really think these illegals will leave once their permit is over if they get insurance? Be realistic for crying out loud. They say they worry about being detained or expelled? Then why do they feel so comfortable giving their full names, ages, and what they're doing for work to the media? Doesn't sound like hiding and worrying to me. And let's not even take into account the tone of the article. Written by E. Eduardo Castillo, it's a veritable ode to the merits of amnesty for illegals.

But almost as important as the whining requests demands of the illegals who are so unafraid of getting attention drawn to themselves is the attitude of so many of the New Orleans residents. Let's boil this down.

You have people who are used to laying back and taking what the government gives them instead of getting off their butts to work for it themselves, and then you have illegal immigrants who are aggressive. Think about that. It's no wonder that there's an influx of illegals into New Orleans right now - and it's no wonder that the powers that be are willing to let them stay for a bit to help with the cleanup. G-d forbid that New Orleans residents do it. They're too busy spending their free cash at the strip bar.

Illegals should not be allowed into this country, for any reason. Residents of New Orleans should be given those jobs. One of the reasons our country is so great is because of the "can-do" attitude of our citizens in the past. There was a time when a whole town would gather to help one person rebuild a burned down barn. We have become what we are in part because of an attitude that said, "If it needs to be done, we'll do it until it's done."

Let Americans from New Orleans rebuild their city - if you can get them out of the titty bars and Louis Vuitton shops, that is.

More at the Immigration Blog

-------------------

This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to kit.jarrell at gmail dot com.

Blogs already on board:

WTF Friday Rant Volume 1 Issue 33

All I can say is bring on the weekend. I am ready for some football, college and pro, and the first race in the chase. It's been a long week it seems so today's WTF Friday Rant might be a little shorter then normal but I will make up for it with an extra dose of snarkyness. I am still in mourning after Michigan lost to the hated Notre Dame but that is life. On a brighter note, I did win my first week match up in my fantasy football league and stand ready to crush this week's opponent. Please don't forget to help with Hurricane Katrina relief if you can, just click on the Red Cross banners on either side of this post. Now on to the madness, enjoy this week's links and have a great weekend everyone.

Air America Hosts defends Farrakhan's claim of deliberate levy demolition
I am not surprised by Chuck D's refuse to refute Farrakhan's idea since he has always been all about pushing the racial divide, just listen to any of Public Enemy's music. I was however surprised by the response of Rachel Maddow since she is considered by many to be a reasonable leftie, not by me but by "many". I guess we can add one more title to Air America's business card, racist organization.

Iran's President declares that he will share his nuclear technology with other Arab nations
I know that this story broke yesterday but I was focused on the President's speech and other national events such as our Pledge of Allegiance being ruled unconstitutional. Of course this is just the kind of news that makes us all warm and fuzzy. As I have said before, the EU-3 need to step up or the United States will once again be forced to ride in and save the day. A nuclear Iran is bad enough but one that has pledged to openly share nuclear knowledge with other Arab nations is very scary, especially if they include Hamas and al-Qaeda in their group of "Arab nations". Am I the other one that is scared to death of an Iranian nuke being set off here in the states?

John Kerry shoots his mouth off again and is still an asshat
Johnny Boy released a statement that was critical of the President's speech and recovery proposals last night, in fact less then an hour after Bush was finished speaking. So he waits till now to speak his mind? Where the Hell was Kerry for the past two weeks while the President was signing funding for the Gulf Coast and visiting the damaged area? John was huddled up in his office trying to decide if he was against the relief funding but he was for it. John, you should shut the Hell up and try to be part of the solution rather then just being a pain in the ass.

Pentagon played CYA and ordered Able Danger "Atta papers" destroyed
I don't really care who this burns but someone has to get to the truth and politics be damned. If it was Clinton's fault then fine, if it was Bush's fault then fine, but we need to know the truth. To the Hell with politics on this issue because it is fundamental to the safety of every American. Imagine the outrage from the American people if we have an attack now and it is found that the terrorists came through the porous border?

CAIR is now hiring experienced photo shoppers please apply at their website
I have no PhotoShop skills and I could have done a better job. Who does CAIR think they are fooling? The sad answer is the MSM. Most Americans that take the time to learn about CAIR will recognize them for what they are, a front organization for its terrorist members. God help these people if an attack happens and it is traced back to one or more of CAIR's members.

As if we needed any other reasons why Israel was wrong for giving back Gaza, here is are more to ponder, here and here.
I really feel that Israel has made a terrible mistake in giving back Gaza. Israel has opened the door for expanded operations by Hamas, Hezbollah and given al-Qaeda an opening to start an offensive against them. We can only prepare to stand with them if and when the violence starts up again.

Hugo Chavez throws a "Kill Bush" party and the MSM shows up
So Hugo and the American MSM trip all over themselves to condemn Pat Robertson for speaking his sometimes misguided mind but everyone takes a pass on any criticism Chavez for throwing a party and encouraging the killing of President Bush. Could it be because no one in the MSM thinks Chavez is capable of doing the job? You better believe that the Secret Service takes every threat seriously. I guess that is because they actually do their job regardless of their personal opinions, so the MSM could learn quite a bit from the Secret Service.

Geraldo vs. The New York Times
I am putting fifty on Geraldo in this fight and I don't really like the guy. I tried to see if anyone in Vegas would take this bet but I was disappointed this time. The New York Times is either going to settle out of court and try for a gag order or just ignore it. Either way it is just one more example of their liberal bias.

Your tax dollars are paying for strip club dancers and many beers
I am so glad that we are living in the United States. Where else can we be so generous to give people in need taxpayer money and then not require the money be spent on life's essentials like food and shelter. Throwing money at a problem without oversight is not only the liberal way but it serves to nothing but continues the cycle of fraud, poverty, and ensures the survival of a welfare state.

Only half of evacuees willing to return to New Orleans and rebuild
People this is a good thing regardless of how the MSM will paint it. These people who only knew poverty and a welfare state in New Orleans have had their eyes opened to the wonderful range of opportunity that America has to offer. The rate of people who will not return to New Orleans is even higher among the evacuees here in Phoenix, less then a quarter are going to return and rebuild. I can't blame then at all, they have been handed an amazing opportunity out of tragedy and they are grabbing on with both hands.

NASA to unveil lunar plans on Monday to public
The plan is to get men back on the Moon for seven day stays and use lunar resources to augment what the astronauts are going to bring with then. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Microsoft thinking of buying AOL or something
Just a piece of advice to Microsoft put down the crack pipe and step away from Time-Warner. If Microsoft was to buy, merge or do anything with AOL it would be the death of the company that has brought us such great things as undocumented features (bugs) and Clippie.

Some interesting iPod news here and here and if anyone wants to, buy me this (4 GB model please) and I will be your friend forever.
Apple is slowing moving away from being a computer company and will be a gadget and software company. I may even try out OS X when it comes out for Intel-based computers, but their downfall has always been the lack of software and price of their hardware. We will have to wait and see.

And last but not least in my mind, Hockey prepares for its return with some pre-season games this weekend.
With the rule changes and new salary cap in place this season is going to be a strange experiment in patience by most hockey fans. I am looking forward to this season even after all the changes and hope my Red Wings find some scoring.

Blogburst: Death to the ACLU

Just yesterday a lefty judge ruled the pledge of alligience unconstitutional. It's pretty simple, either we are a nation under God, or a nation without God. I'm not sure the far left know how dangerous it is that they are trying to take God out of our history, and how fragile our moral fabric has become. It wasn't that long ago the out of control judicial branch ruled in favor of the federal government to take away our private property. There is no doubt the judicial branch has too much power that goes unchecked. It's time Congress step up and put a stop to the judicial tyranny and legislation from the bench. Rehnquist said it should be an impeachable offense. I completely agree.

Part of the process of exposing the radical agenda of the ACLU is to expose some of the deceptive tactics that it uses. One of those methods is often referred to as "spinning". One example of this is to take a quote from someone, take it out of context, and claim that it means something completely different than it's original intent. That is the case in one lie that the ACLU uses in many cases....

The Separation Of Church And State Myth

Not that many people could quote you the first ammendment, but many would tell you that it refers to separation of church and state. That is a common misconception, and is absolutely not true. The words "separation of Church and State" are not in the first ammendment. What the first ammendment does say is,"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."This falehood comes up almost every time religion and politics touch, and usually by the ACLU. Most recently it has come up with the issue of the ten commandments case.

So where did this myth come from?

It all started with a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to Danburry Baptist Association in 1802. The focus is on a portion of the letter where Jefferson states, "...I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state..." Jefferson wrote this letter to the Danburry Baptist Association to assure them in their concerns that the government would not establish a national denomination.

One of the most significant in a series of cases heard by the Supreme Court on the establishment of religion clause of the First Amendment was Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962). It was in this case that the phrase "Wall of separation of Church and State" became the cry of the far-left, and anti-Christian movement.

Intent of The Founding Fathers

So, was the original intent of our founding fathers to keep religion completely out of the government? Well, I will let them speak for themselves.

If Jefferson believed that the government should keep its hands out of religion completely, then why, while President of the United States, and the first elected president of the Washington, D.C. public school board, did he place the Bible and the Isaac Watt's hymnal into the public school system as required reading?Source

"Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion, and the duties of man towards God."Quote(Gouverneur Morris, 1792, Notes on the Form of a Constitution for France.)
Founding father who physically wrote the Constitution, and most active member of Constitutional Convention, spoke 173 times on the floor.Source

"Why...should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a school book? Its morals are pure, its examples captivating and noble. The reverence for the sacred book that is thus early impressed last long; and, probably, if not impressed in infancy, never takes hold of the mind."Quote
(Fisher Ames, The Works of Fisher Ames, 1809.) Founding father who on September 20, 1789 helped provide the wording for the First Amendment. Source

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars.... The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them.... Let it simply be asked, 'Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert?' ...And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds...reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
(George Washington, 1796, Farewell Address.)Quote

These are just a few quotes showing how the founding fathers recognized religion's place in the founding of our government. The First Amendment was meant to ensure the churches protection from government interference. Not vice versa.

"There was a secular study done by the American Political Science Review on the political documents of the founding era, which was 1760-1805.
This study found that 94% of the documents that went into the founding era were based on the Bible, and of that 34% of the contents were direct quotations from the Bible.
88% of students nationwide are educated in the public school system.
The Bible was the foundation and blueprint for our Constitution, Declaration of Independence, educational system, and our entire history until the last 20 to 30 years".Source

As a matter of fact, Congress funded the printing of the first English language Bible printed in America. It came to be known as the "Bible of the American Revolution".

So to downplay the significance of Christian influence in our nation's founding, is to rewrite history in a false light. The founding fathers never intended for the secularization of the government that groups like the ACLU are advancing now. They wanted freedom to express religion. That is why it is the very first ammendment in the constitution.

Who Has Endowed You With Your Rights?

It is a very important question, because whoever gives you the rights also has the power to take them away. Is it the state or God? Here is what the Declaration of Independence has to say about it:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Source

If you believe that your rights come from the state or society and not God, it brings up the question that George Washington asked...

"..Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert?' ...And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds...reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
(George Washington, 1796, Farewell Address.)

Or the one that Jefferson himself asked...""Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?"
(Thomas Jefferson,Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781.)

And in summary, I will ask the same question. If you completely remove God from having any role in our government, you have handed your rights over to the State. The founders unanimously agreed that our rights were endowed to us by a Creator. They all signed the famous declaration that stated so. So, their intent should be obvious. It will be a scary day for those in the majority who believe in a deity, if the State tries to assume that role. Especially when it comes to our civil rights. And the secular direction that America is being pushed in is leading us far away from the original intent of our founding fathers. When the Courts have assumed the role of stripping us of our first ammendment rights to express religion, they are playing God! And the fact that this is already beginning to happen, is a legitimate thing for us to fear.

It's time we stand up and make our voices known.

This was a production of stop the ACLU blogburst. Over 100 blogs already onboard. If you would like to join us please just go to our portal, and register. You will be added to our mailing list, and we will send you the information you will need.

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The Mayor Lied and People Died

I generally do not watch “Meet the Press” on Sunday mornings, frankly because I am either asleep or watching football pre-game shows. Football is king in this household and Sunday is more then just a day of rest but that is another post for another time. Since I rarely watch the “Meet the Press” live, I subscribe to the podcast or audio of the show through iTunes. Therefore, as it was I listened to the podcast late in the evening on Sunday and became so outraged I had a hard time falling asleep.

The primary guest on the show with Tim Russert was the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin. You can find the transcript of the show here, but rest assured I will be quoting from it quite a bit to illustrate exactly how incompetent Mr. Nagin is. From reading the bio of Nagin on Wikipedia, it seems that he was once an upper level business manager for Cox Communications and a registered Republican. Given the whining and bitching that this man has done over the last 15 days I find it very hard to believe that this man ever was a Republican or believed in some of our core values like personal responsibility and self-reliance from government. I think he switched parties to get elected in a predominantly Democrat city, especially after reading that he was hesitant to back John Kerry in 2004. Who knows and at this point, who cares? Regardless of his party affiliation, he is a disgrace to elected officials everywhere and that is the message of this post.

This man is so far removed from the reality that the rest of us share that he comes off in the interview as a drowning man trying to stay afloat. Maybe he thinks that if he can be in the front and center during the rebuilding of New Orleans then his citizens will forgive him and re-elect him when they are able to hold elections again. This man is living in paranoia since the hurricane hit New Orleans and even claimed the CIA might “take him out” because he yelled at President Bush. In fact as the below quote shows, he is even willing to play the race card and then back off when challenged.

MR. RUSSERT: You had said earlier that you didn't think that race was a factor in the preparation and evacuation, and yet you had given an interview to the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper, and let me read it for you and our viewers.

"Definitely class, and the more I think about it, definitely race played into this. If it's race, fine, let's call a spade a spade, a diamond a diamond. We can never let this happen again. Even if you hate black people and you are in a leadership position, this did not help anybody."

Who in the leadership position hates black people?

MAYOR NAGIN: Well, you know, I don't know who hates black people, but I will just tell you this, that I think the imagery that came out across the nation portrayed that this was primarily poor black people that were affected. And I don't know if that affected the response or not. But I got really upset when I heard about some of our residents walking to one of the parish lines and were turned back by attack dogs and armed guys with machine guns. Then the secretary of Homeland Security came and he asked me to meet him at Zephyr Field, which is near the Saints' training facility. And when I walked over there, I just started to pay attention to things and I saw porterlets that we didn't have. I saw ice. To this day, Tim, no one has dropped one piece of ice in the city of New Orleans to give some people relief. I saw lights that we were begging for for the Superdome and for the Convention Center that made that a horrific environment. I saw all of that sitting on the ground and not moving to New Orleans. So someone has to explain that.

MR. RUSSERT: And you think those decisions were based on race?

MAYOR NAGIN: You know, I don't know, but I'm hearing all sorts of weird things right now, like, you know, they're going to build--what is it called?--a huge trailer park somewhere in the woods of mid- Louisiana and they're going to bring all the people back that have been dispersed and they're going to create this tent city, if you will. And, you know, for the most part, that would be a huge mistake because here in Texas, where I am, I have viewed these shelters and our people are getting much better care--hospital care, housing care, support--than they would in some huge tent city or trailer park that they build in the middle of Louisiana.

Sounds to me like the mayor is pretending to be a little boy who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and now just wants to forget it happen. The fact is that Nagin failed his city in a time of crisis by not trying to use all resources available as well as not following his own plan for evacuating New Orleans. When he is point-blank asked what mistakes he made, after Russert referenced a Time magazine poll showing that most Americans blame state and local officials for the poor response, he ducks the question and tries to place the blame back on the federal government. Read the entire exchange below.

MR. RUSSERT: What's the biggest mistake you made?

MAYOR NAGIN: My biggest mistake is having a fundamental assumption that in the state of Louisiana, with an $18 billion budget, in the country of the United States that can move whole fleets of aircraft carriers across the globe in 24 hours, that my fundamental assumption was get as many people to safety as possible, and that the cavalry would be coming within two to three days, and they didn't come.

MR. RUSSERT: Many people point, Mr. Mayor, that on Friday before the hurricane, President Bush declared an impending disaster. And The Houston Chronicle wrote it this way. "[Mayor Nagin's] mandatory evacuation order was issued 20 hours before the storm struck the Louisiana coast, less than half the time researchers determined would be needed to get everyone out. City officials had 550 municipal buses and hundreds of additional school buses at their disposal but made no plans to use them to get people out of New Orleans before the storm, said Chester Wilmot, a civil engineering professor at Louisiana State University and an expert in transportation planning, who helped the city put together its evacuation plan." And we've all see this photograph of these submerged school buses. Why did you not declare, order, a mandatory evacuation on Friday, when the president declared an emergency, and have utilized those buses to get people out?

MAYOR NAGIN: You know, Tim, that's one of the things that will be debated. There has never been a catastrophe in the history of New Orleans like this. There has never been any Category 5 storm of this magnitude that has hit New Orleans directly. We did the things that we thought were best based upon the information that we had. Sure, here was lots of buses out there. But guess what? You can't find drivers that would stay behind with a Category 5 hurricane, you know, pending down on New Orleans. We barely got enough drivers to move people on Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday, to move them to the Superdome. We barely had enough drivers for that. So sure, we had the assets, but the drivers just weren't available.

MR. RUSSERT: But, Mr. Mayor, if you read the city of New Orleans' comprehensive emergency plan-- and I've read it and I'll show it to you and our viewers--it says very clearly, "Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the mayor of New Orleans. The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life-saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedure as needed. Approximately 100,000 citizens of New Orleans do not have means of personal transportation."

It was your responsibility. Where was the planning? Where was the preparation? Where was the execution?

I have a question for Mr. Nagin, what happen to you sense of duty to your fellow citizens? It is easy to play the blame game and say it was not my fault, everyone does it and I am sure I will accused of such by the leftists that read this post, I have already defined my response to Hurricane Katrina and it includes possibility leaving my family to help rebuild New Orleans however long it takes. Men and women who exhibit leadership are more concerned with results and to Hell with politics when lives are on the line. Regardless or the consequences or the politic fallout, Nagin should have used ever resource available to him. He had resources at his disposal that were never used but available thanks to the President declaring the entire gulf region a federal emergency almost 3 days before the storm made landfall. Look at this except below from the “Meet the Press” interview when the conversation turns once again to resources that could have been used to evacuate people.

MR. RUSSERT: Amtrak said they offered to remove people from the city of New Orleans on Saturday night and that the city of New Orleans declined.

MAYOR NAGIN: I don't know where that's coming from. Amtrak never contacted me to make that offer. As a matter of fact, we checked the Amtrak lines for availability, and every available train was booked, as far as the report that I got, through September. So I'd like to see that report.

MR. RUSSERT: They said they were moving equipment out of New Orleans in order to protect it and offered to take evacuees with them.

MAYOR NAGIN: I have never gotten that call, Tim, and I would love to have had that call. But it never happened.

A skeptic might say that Russert set him up but in my opinion, Tim Russert is above that level of journalism. I might not agree with his politics most of the time but in my book, Tim Russert is a class act. Ray Nagin is another story all together. He was elected on a pledge to rid New Orleans of corruption and governmental abuses but in the end, he has become his own governmental abuse as he failed his citizens when they needed strong leadership most.

Cross-posted at The Wide Awakes.