Thursday, December 06, 2012 12:19:55 AM
Scott DesJarlais: 'God Has Forgiven Me' For Scandalous Past (LISTEN)
12/02/2012
Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) told a radio host God has "forgiven" him for his scandalous past, including having an affair with a patient and later pressuring her to get an abortion.
"As far as where I stand on pro-life [issues,] I feel I have been very solid in my views," DesJarlais told conservative talk show host Ralph Bristol Saturday. "I don't think, Ralph, that I implied that there was nothing in my past. I didn’t go back and dig up all my personal shortcomings and display them. I went through this divorce a long time ago. I made a very poor decision in my first marriage. I know God's forgiven me.”
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/01/scott-desjarlais_n_2224075.html [with still-image video with the audio of Scott's statements embedded, and comments]
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Mike Fleck Comes Out: Republican Becomes Openly Gay Pennsylvania Representative [UPDATE]
By Paige Lavender
Posted: 12/01/2012 11:32 am EST Updated: 12/02/2012 10:56 am EST
Pennsylvania state Rep. Mike Fleck (R-Huntingdon) came out [ http://www.politicspa.com/republican-state-rep-mike-fleck-im-gay-2/44597/ ] Saturday.
“I'm still the exact same person and I’m still a Republican and, most importantly, I’m still a person of faith trying to live life as a servant of God and the public. The only difference now is that I will also be doing so as honestly as I know how," Fleck said, according to Politics PA. The Huntingdon Daily News, a subscription-based news service, first reported [ https://huntingdondailynews.our-hometown.com/news/2012-12-01/Front_Page/Rep_Fleck_takes_place_in_history.html ] the story.
Fleck, who was married to a woman for almost a decade, said his Christian faith kept him from coming out for years.
“I wanted to live a ‘normal’ life and raise a family,” Fleck said. “I also believed that by marrying, I was fulfilling God’s will and I thought my same-sex attraction would simply go away."
Fleck was also actively involved with the Boy Scouts of America -- an anti-gay organization [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/17/boy-scouts-gay-ban_n_1679854.html ] -- as an Eagle Scout and then as a district executive for the group.
Despite the GOP's resistance to same-sex marriage, Fleck said he would remain with the party because he's not "a one-issue person."
“The Republican party is all about the government needing to stay out of people’s lives,” Fleck said. “I’m not a one-issue person and it’s not a one-issue party.”
CORRECTION: This story erroneously stated Fleck was the first openly gay lawmaker in Pennsylvania. Brian Sims [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/26/brian-sims-pennsylvania-lawmaker-gay_n_1455485.html ] was actually the first. We regret the error.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/01/mike-fleck-gay_n_2224007.html [with comments]
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Judge temporarily blocks California gay conversion therapy law
State Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, left, and David Pickup, a licensed marriage and family therapist, address lawmakers in favor and opposition, respectively, of a bill to ban a controversial form of psychotherapy aimed at making gay people straight during a hearing at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif.
(AP)
Published December 04, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO – A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked California from enforcing a first-of-its-kind law that bars licensed psychotherapists from working to change the sexual orientations of gay minors, but he limited the scope of his order to just the three providers who have appealed to him to overturn the measure.
U.S. District Court Judge William Shubb made a decision just hours after a hearing on the issue, ruling that the First Amendment rights of psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals who engage in "reparative" or "conversion" therapy outweigh concern that the practice poses a danger to young people.
"Even if SB 1172 is characterized as primarily aimed at regulating conduct, it also extends to forms of (conversion therapy) that utilize speech and, at a minimum, regulates conduct that has an incidental effect on speech," Shubb wrote.
The law, which was passed by the California Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in October, states that therapists and counselors who use "sexual orientation change efforts" on clients under 18 would be engaging in unprofessional conduct and subject to discipline by state licensing boards. It is set to take effect on Jan. 1.
Although the ruling is a setback for the law's supporters, the judge softened the impact of his decision by saying that it applies only to three people -- psychiatrist Anthony Duk, marriage and family therapist Donald Welch, and Aaron Bitzer, a former patient who is studying to become a counselor who specializes in clients who are unhappy being gay.
The exemption for them will remain in place only until Shubb can hold a trial on the merits of their case, although in granting their request for an injunction, the judge noted he thinks they would prevail in getting the law struck down on constitutional grounds.
Complicating the outlook is that another federal judge in Sacramento is considering similar arguments from four more counselors, two families and a professional association of Christian counselors, but has not decided yet whether to keep the ban from taking effect.
"We are disappointed by the ruling, but very pleased that the temporary delay in implementing this important law applies only to the three plaintiffs who brought this lawsuit," National Center for Lesbian Rights Legal Director Shannon Minter said. "We are confident that as the case progresses, it will be clear to the court that this law is fundamentally no different than many other laws that regulate health care professionals to protect patients."
Lawyers for the state argue that outlawing reparative therapy is appropriate because it would protect young people from a practice that has been rejected as unproven and potentially harmful by all the mainstream mental health associations.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/04/judge-temporarily-blocks-california-gay-conversion-therapy-law/
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WAR on Christmas (Brief history of Christmas)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M5UzPd4u0U
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Ken Reid, Virginia Official, Calls Atheist Group 'Terrorists' After Leader Criticizes Holiday Display (VIDEO)
By Meredith Bennett-Smith
Posted: 11/29/2012 10:20 am EST Updated: 11/30/2012 9:47 am EST
A Virginia county courthouse is once again at the center of Christmas controversy after an elected official called members of a local atheist group "terrorists."
Ken Reid, a supervisor representing the Leesburg district, was not happy after local atheist leader Rick Wingrove criticized Loudoun County-sponsored holiday displays [ http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/26/leesburgs-christmas-distinctly-american/?page=all ] planned for the Leesburg courthouse lawn, The Washington Times reports.
“None of the religious organizations in the county have had any problem with what we’re doing,” Reid told newspaper in a story published Monday. “It’s strictly this group of terrorists. They’re fanatics who basically want to stamp out religion in all public life and property.”
Tensions about separation of church and state during the holidays [ http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/11/28/loudoun-county-official-calls-atheists-terrorists-for-supporting-churchstate-separation/ ]
One of last year’s evil atheist displays in Loudoun County
have been high in Leesburg for several years, with the lawn of the courthouse at the center of the battle.
Last year, for example, officials allowed nine holiday displays outside Loudoun County Courthouse, including a very controversial skeleton Santa Claus hanging from a cross, a painting paying tribute to the birth of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and a traditional Nativity scene, The Times reports. Several of the displays were vandalized.
This year, in an effort to cut down on the discord, the Board of Supervisors did away with the all-comers approach, banning unattended displays [ http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Traditional-Holiday-Display-Debate-at-Loudoun-County-Courthouse-178003021.html ], according to NBC4. Instead, the Board approved its own selection of displays: a Christmas tree, nativity scene, Santa and a Menorah.
Undeterred by the Board's ruling, however, Wingrove and the American Atheists announced plans for an attended display on the courthouse grounds [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/atheists-plan-attended-holiday-display-in-leesburg/2012/11/13/a5df0e8a-2db7-11e2-89d4-040c9330702a_story.html ], the Washington Post notes.
“The board made it really onerous for everyone but religious groups to put up displays,” Wingrove told the Times. “We will not have the exposure as in the past.”
Furthermore, Wingrove told NBC 4 that the Board of Supervisors was in essence giving "special access for Christian groups," while preventing other groups from having the privilege.
It was comments like those that provoked the outburst from Reid.
Local democratic leaders were quick to condemn Reid's comments [ http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Loudoun-County-Supervisor-Calls-Atheists-Terrorists-181252281.html ].
"We have to be very sensitive here in Leesburg to tossing around words like ‘terrorism’ when there are neighbors who have actually held themselves against the terrorists in the line of battle," Loudoun County Democratic Committee Chair Evan Macbeth told NBC4.
On Tuesday, Reid apologized but added, “I still think they're fanatical.”
According to the Washington Post, the debate over holiday displays in Leesburg has "deepened" since 2009. Wingrove recently told the paper that "if religion is okay on government property, science certainly is."
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/29/war-on-christmas-debate-virginia-officia-ken-reid-atheist-terrorists_n_2207723.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Fox News Fake War on Christmas 2012
More Fox News Fake War on Christmas videos at http://bit.ly/US0x0X
190+ Fox News Bias videos at http://bit.ly/jdC5ju
It's that time of year again, when Fox News tries to create a false "War on Christmas" to feed the persecution complex of some Christians, this time in several stories about a Santa Monica nativity display lawsuit that Fox News covered using lies, misrepresentations, and bad legal analysis as I show in this video.
The teaser clip I use of Fox News anchor Jon Scott comes from a longer segment of Fox News' November 20, 2012, broadcast of "Happening Now" which I have not found available online
The clips I use of Fox News anchor Rick Folbaum and criminal defense attorney Tom Kenniff come from a longer segment of Fox News' November 22, 2012, broadcast of "Happening Now" available online at http://bit.ly/TmOWtK
The clips I use of Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and Fox News legal analysts Lis Wiehl and Kimberly Gulfoyle come from a longer segment of Fox News' November 20, 2012, broadcast of "The O'Reilly Factor" which I have not found available online
The clip I use of Fox News host Steve Doocy and Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson, Jr., comes from a longer segment of Fox News' November 19, 2012, broadcast of "Fox and Friends" available online at http://bit.ly/SkUCTC
The clips I use of Fox News host and legal analyst Laura Ingraham come from a longer segment of Fox News' November 20, 2012, broadcast of "Fox and Friends" available online at http://bit.ly/V4lmMw
The images I use of my 2010 YouTube video titled "Is National Prayer Day Constitutional" comes from the YouTube player page at http://bit.ly/VjoHYn
The image/text I use of federal judge Audrey Collins November 19, 2012, order in the "Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee vs City of Santa Monica" case comes from a page on my own website at http://www.liberalviewer.com/nativitycaseorder.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rdLMWsB438
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Santa Monica Nativity Scene Lawsuit Dismissed, Judge Urges Churches To Consider Other Options
11/30/12 02:11 AM ET EST
LOS ANGELES -- A Los Angeles federal judge on Thursday dismissed a Christian group's lawsuit to force suburban Santa Monica to reopen spaces in a city park to private displays, including Christmas Nativity scenes.
U.S. District Court Judge Audrey Collins issued the ruling after earlier this month denying an injunction sought by the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee.
Christmastime Nativity scenes had been erected in Palisades Park for decades. Last year, atheists overwhelmed the city's auction process for display sites, winning 18 of 21 slots and triggering a bitter dispute.
The city then banned private, unattended displays at the park.
An attorney for the group says he plans to appeal the ruling.
Collins had said the city was within its constitutional right to eliminate the exemption that had allowed the Nativity at the oceanfront Palisades Park because the change affected all comers – from Christians to Jews to atheists – and provided other avenues for public religious speech.
The coalition of churches that had put on the life-sized, 14-booth Nativity display for decades argued the city banned it rather than referee a religious dispute that began three years ago when atheists first set up their message alongside the Christmas diorama.
In her ruling Thursday, Collins said the coalition has other options.
"For instance, plaintiff could erect displays in some public parks around the city (excluding Palisades Park) as part of a one-day community events permit, or plaintiff could erect attended displays in all of the city's public parks," Collins wrote in her 25-page ruling. "Plaintiff raises several arguments to suggest that these alternatives are not adequate, but none is persuasive."
The trouble in Santa Monica began three years ago, when atheist Damon Vix was granted a booth in Palisades Park alongside the story of Jesus Christ's birth.
Vix hung a sign that quoted Thomas Jefferson: "Religions are all alike -- founded on fables and mythologies." The other side read "Happy Solstice." He repeated the display the following year but then upped the stakes significantly.
Vix recruited 10 others last year to inundate the city with applications for displays and the atheists used half their spaces, displaying signs such as one that showed pictures of Poseidon, Jesus, Santa Claus and the devil.
Most of the signs were vandalized and in response the city ended a tradition that began in 1953 and earned Santa Monica one of its nicknames, the City of the Christmas Story.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/santa-monica-nativity-scene-lawsuit_n_2218540.html [with comments]
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Bill O'Reilly Confronts Rhode Island Governor Over 'Holiday Tree'
Bill O'Reilly continued his trademark vendetta against the War on Christmas™ tonight, confronting Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee over his decision to rename the state Christmas tree as a "holiday tree." 'Tis not the first Christmas season that Chafee has earned O'Reilly's ire, but Chafee this time appeared on The Factor to defend his decision.
O'Reilly opened his show by responding to the controversy stirred up by his interview last night with atheist David Silverman, in which O'Reilly asserted that Christmas is not a religion, but a philosophy, and is therefore appropriate to celebrate in federal buildings. O'Reilly mocked the [QUOTE] criticizing him on the internet for challenging his theological fortitude.
At the start of the interview, O'Reilly asked Chafee why he was changing the name of the tree. Chafee explained he was merely following the lead of previous governors in making sure the state is not promoting one particular religion over another. O'Reilly tried to explain to Chafee the origin and traditions of the tree, to which Chafee told O'Reilly he didn't need a "lecture."
Chafee found the controversy analogous to a time when the Lord's prayer was required in certain schools, but after the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional and there was some initial controversy, people ended up accepting it. O'Reilly dismissed the comparison between a religious prayer and a "secular symbol" as a disingenuous one.
When Chafee scolded O'Reilly for trying to stir up controversy, O'Reilly shot back by calling Chafee the controversial one for trying to impose his will on the people of his state. Chafee observed that O'Reilly and his Fox News colleagues "are too angry" about Christmas controversies every year. O'Reilly responded, "I want our traditions to be respected!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvvBv8imuCw [also at e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmXTnWPEs7U , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9_jkVgo9KY and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAA4R8M3Xfo ] [more at "Bill O'Reilly Clashes With Gov. Lincoln Chafee: 'Fox News ... Is An Angry Network'", http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/bill-oreilly-chafee-fox-news-angry-network_n_2217303.html (with video of much of the O'Really/Chafee portion of the segment above the same as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Vw-EV7M8Y embedded, and comments)]
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Bishop Reacts to "Holiday Tree" Controversy
Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Providence Diocese speaks out about the tree-lighting fiasco at the state house.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCW78PSB13M
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Bill O'Reilly Takes On Priest Over Being 'Angry' At War On Christmas
Bill O'Reilly is committed to fighting the good fight in the War on Christmas™, and not nobody, not nohow, is going to deter him from his mission, not even a Catholic priest. Father Jonathan Morris sat down with O'Reilly to defend his comments on Fox & Friends that the Christmas season should not be about anger towards others but about love and brotherhood, leaving O'Reilly to mount a defense of Christmas rage.
O'Reilly admitted that he doesn't really want to be "deal[ing] with assaults against Christmas" ever year, but he continues to be utterly insulted by the way atheists and secular progressives are attempting to subvert the holiday or take the Christ out of Christmas or something. Morris clarified his point to say that of course he agrees with O'Reilly and Christians should speak out against attempts to muzzle the holiday, but suggested that Christmas is not a time for anger.
O'Reilly insisted his quest was a noble one, stating that the "forces of secularism" want to "destroy the Christmas tradition." He said that religion is slowly but surely "losing the [culture] wars" on issues like abortion and gay marriage because church leaders are not being vocal enough. Morris said that leaders have a responsibility to "stand up and to believe and to profess their belief."
Morris also tried to challenge O'Reilly's bizarre insistence that Christianity is a philosophy, not a religion, and O'Reilly promised to have Morris back so they could have that discussion soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5aWZZmcBqA [also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBhQo_mwOqw ]
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The War on Christmas - New HD version
http://www.DavidDuke.com
DON'T LET MY VIDEOS BE CENSORED!
Due to organized efforts to stifle free speech and ban my videos --
YouTube restrictions have led to removal of all comments on this video! My videos are overwhelmingly approved by millions of viewers, and they average higher than 90 percent positive comments and comprise some of the highest rated political videos on the entire Internet. Viewers love these videos! But, the Zionists don't !
The Zionist efforts to block my videos are relentless. They want to keep the world from learning the truth.
The only way you can be sure to find my videos if they are censored is to not only subscribe to my YouTube Channel -- but be sure to SUBSCRIBE at MY WEBSITE as well. Subscribe to News and Updates at:
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By subscribing on my website, even if my channel or videos are censored or removed -- you can still receive notices of links where you and your friends can see my videos
If the Zionists are successful in banning my channel, then all YouTube subscribers are inaccessible to me -- so you can only be informed about my videos if you are SUBSCRIBED AT MY OWN WEBSITE.
Thank you for your efforts for free speech and your efforts to ensure your Right and Right of everyone to see my political videos and read my articles!
Without your support and efforts my vital work could well be silenced.
Sincerely,
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http://www.davidduke.com
How the Jewish extremists are waging war on the Western cultural and religious tradition of Christmas. It shows how Christian Christian symbols are banned on public ground, while Jewish religious symbols are placed even in front of the White House. It compares the love and peace of the Christmas celebration to Hanukkah, which is symbolized by the Menorah. Hanukkah is a celebration of a military victory and massacre against the Greek Syrians whose only crime was to be tolerant to the Jews of Jerusalem and accept them freely. Jewish leaders could not accept this because it posed a danger of assimilation! So in the United States, a nation where are told that assimilation is the American ideal we have thousands of symbols put up on public land promoting Jewish supremacist ideology! It's wacky that this goes on but one thing is for sure, it sure does show who run things in the United States. Sadly, it must be said that the same thing is also going on in almost every European nation as well!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCLnie3HPMg
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Merry War On Christmas!
All of us at foxattacks.com and Brave New Films would like to wish all of you a merry War On Christmas! Because if the word "Christmas" isn't displayed in stores or by America's supposedly secular government, where else can you celebrate it except your church, your home, with friends and family, parades, and in your mind?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzIoS9_0aA4
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The 12 Days of Conservative Movement Christmas
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(linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=81664890 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=81832674 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=81967385 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=82087771 and preceding (and any future following)
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Secession Theology Runs Deep In American Religious, Political History
By G. Jeffrey Macdonald
Posted: 11/30/2012 9:26 am EST Updated: 12/01/2012 11:11 am EST
(RNS) Corruption has gone too far. The righteous must break away. Hope now rests with a holy remnant that will honor foundational texts.
The message sounds familiar. A church schism? No, mounting calls for secession from the United States.
Since President Obama won re-election, more than 750,000 Americans have petitioned the White House website to let their respective states secede, from Alaska to Iowa to Maryland and Vermont. Those leading the charge are framing it, observers say, in terms that suggest a deep-seated religious impulse for purity-through-separation is flaring up once again.
But this time, it's playing out on a political stage.
"Today's secessionist movements are just the latest example of a long parade of breakaway groups (in American history) seeking to restore some lost ideal," said Peter J. Thuesen, professor of religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. "The problem is that the ideal is invariably a mirage."
Seeking purity through separation has marked American religious history since the Puritans sailed from Holland to establish a holy beacon in the New World. It helps explain why Baptists, Presbyterians and others have splintered into countless subgroups over the years, and why the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church this fall.
The pattern commonly involves one group breaking off to re-establish a holy community by living in fresh accord with sacred texts. Religious purists have the Bible to guide their quest; secessionists look to the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Both insist these centers of authority have suffered neglect and must be restored.
"That's a persistent line of thought," said Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life [ http://www.bc.edu/centers/boisi/ ] at Boston College. "There are people who are disappointed with the direction the United States has taken. ... It's primarily political and economic, and then they just find a religious cover for it (as) they tap into pre-existent religious language."
Dismissing the United States as hopelessly corrupt, secessionists are picking up the breakaway-for-purity motif and running with it. Radio host Alex Jones, whose show airs in 60 markets, alleged on Nov. 15 that "foreign megabanks have hijacked the government" and have made secession necessary.
"We do not want to secede from the Union to destroy the republic, but to restore it," Jones said. "Go to the White House website. Do your own petitions to reinstall the Declaration of Independence. ... It's now time to launch the second American Revolution."
Secessionists, such as Russell Longcore of Marietta, Ga., take inspiration from history. He sees secession as pursuit of God-given liberty, such as when American colonies seceded from Britain in 1776, when Southern states left the Union in the 1860s and when the Soviet Union dissolved into 15 separate states two decades ago.
In his view, petitioning the federal government is "silly" because states don't need permission to secede, but he regards the petitioners' goal as nonetheless serious and moral in nature.
"The moral decay comes from the fact that Washington, D.C., has summarily ignored the Constitution," said Longcore, an insurance claims consultant who blogs at dumpdc.com [ http://dumpdc.wordpress.com/ ( http://dumpdc.com/ )]. He offered the example of unsanctioned wars.
"Article One, Section Eight (of the Constitution) says Congress should have authority to declare war and to prosecute a war," Longcore said. "There hasn't been a declared war since World War II, but we've been in an awful lot of wars."
Other narratives help secessionists, as well as religious isolationists, understand their efforts as part of a noble tapestry. Evangelical groups have for years supported Christians in South Sudan, which broke off from Sudan last year after persistent clashes with Muslims in the north. Some now laud how Sudanese Christians separated and hope American Christians would do similarly by withdrawing at least culturally, if not legally.
Those inspired by such examples include Jim Rawles, an evangelical blogger and novelist who teaches survival skills for the coming day when America's economy collapses. He sees no point in seceding, since the federal government would "hammer" such efforts anyway.
Instead, he's getting more response these days, he says, to his call for Bible-believing Christians, Orthodox Jews and Messianic Jews to relocate to what he calls the American Redoubt: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, eastern Washington and eastern Oregon.
One reason he gives on his website for separation: "Even if God has withdrawn his blessings from our nation as a whole, he will continue to provide for and to protect his remnant."
"It's time to distance ourselves from the vile corruptness that we see inside the Washington, D.C., Beltway," said Rawles, who blogs at survivalblog.com [ http://www.survivalblog.com/index.html ( http://survivalblog.com/ )]. "It is analogous to the Puritan exodus (from Europe). They couldn't fit in and said,'We're going to move to completely virgin territory and start afresh.' ... In effect, we're becoming pistol-packing Amish."
Some scholars still aren't buying it. As Wolfe sees it, calls for secession and cultural withdrawal are just sour grapes.
"It's not religious in inspiration at all," Wolfe says. "It's like in the Old South, where if you gave (secession) a religious cover, you made it sound better. But it's just people who basically have difficulty accepting that we have a two-party system. One party wins. One party loses."
But separatists insist the impulse to flee corruption and live rightly before God is genuine. And if that means clustering in ever more secluded enclaves, then so be it.
"The Bible teaches that the remnant will be small," Rawles said. "People who recognize that they are of the remnant, that they are God's elect, will in increasing numbers choose to vote with their feet."
Copyright 2012 Religion News Service
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/secession-theology-american-religious-political-history_n_2215158.html [with comments]
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(linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=82079552 and following
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Scott Walker's Plan To Eliminate Same-Day Voter Registration Opposed By Wisconsin Poll Workers
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) wants to eliminate same-day voter registration in the state.
11/30/2012
Wisconsin poll workers are speaking out against Gov. Scott Walker's (R) proposal to eliminate same-day voting registration in the state, despite his argument that it would lighten the burden on these overworked officials on Election Day.
In a speech on Nov. 16, in the wake of President Barack Obama's win in Wisconsin, Walker called for the repeal of Wisconsin's same-day registration law.
"States across the country that have same-day registration have real problems because the vast majority of their states have poll workers who are wonderful volunteers, who work 13-hour days and who in most cases are retirees," he said. "It's difficult for them to handle the volume of people who come at the last minute. It'd be much better if registration was done in advance of election day. It'd be easier for our clerks to handle that. All that needs to be done."
But nearly a dozen poll workers who spoke with The Huffington Post all had the same message: Same-day registration is not a problem, and Walker should not eliminate it.
"This whole idea that this is somehow a burden on poll workers is just not true, and I can guarantee you it's not the perception of the vast majority of the people who work at the polls," said Ruth Irvings, 61, who served as a poll worker in Milwaukee this year with her 24-year-old son.
"I've been a poll worker, and I've worked the registration table [in the last three elections]," added Lanore Rusch, 75, a Wausau resident. "We have no problem whatsoever. We aren't overworked. ... For Walker to say that the people who are doing the registration can't keep up is just foolish. He should come down and watch once in awhile."
Kevin Rusch, Lanore's 53-year-old son who has worked at the polls in Wausau for the last year and a half, was more blunt in his assessment of Walker's claim: "That's utter bullshit. I don't know who he's talking to."
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/scott-walker-wisconsin-voter-registration_n_2212941.html [with comments]
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Republicans just don’t get it
(Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
Hours after Stuart Stevens insults most Americans, Tom Davis credits Obama's victory to the "underclass"
By Joan Walsh
Thursday, Nov 29, 2012 10:07 AM CST
On Wednesday I finished my piece on Mitt Romney strategist Stuart Stevens [ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/28/stuart_stevens_delusional_jackass/ ] boasting that President Obama “only” won the votes of Americans who earn less than $50,000 – that’s most people, by the way – and rushed to MSNBC’s “Hardball” to discuss the GOP’s diversity problems with supposedly moderate former Congressman Tom Davis of Virginia.
It was a calm, respectful conversation, until Davis volunteered that Romney lost because of Obama’s voter turnout operation – specifically, his ability to turnout “underclass minorities” and “particularly those who orient toward the city” who were “pulled out of the apartments.” Since we had been talking about the GOP’s problems with women and people of color, I respectfully offered Davis some “free advice” – that it might be time to retire the term “underclass.” It got worse.
Davis mumbled about the term not being “politically correct,” and when I referenced Stevens’s slur against people who make less than $50,000 a year, many of whom are actually middle class, Davis jumped in: “That’s not where the voter turnout came, if you know your voter stats, it was really people who were making even less than that, pulled out of the apartments…groups that traditionally haven’t voted.” (Yes, I caught the condescending “if you know your voter stats.”)
Davis’s “underclass minorities” remark has gotten a lot of attention – Salon flagged it and posted the video here [ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/28/tom_davis_says_underclass_minorities_helped_obama/ ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGZ2nBUNHwg , next below)]
Republicans don’t know what to do when “groups that traditionally haven’t voted” turn up at the polls. Because they know they lose. And this is an ancient struggle, predating this country’s founding but embedded in its DNA. We sometimes forget: There once were property requirements to vote in many states. It wasn’t until 1830, more than 50 years after our nation’s founding, that white men had universal suffrage (of course it took a lot longer for black men and longer still for women.) Even after that, we fought a long voting rights struggle against poll taxes and literacy tests and other ways to keep African Americans from voting in the South.
Because Republicans and the powers that be know one thing: If every eligible voter actually voted, we would live in a very different, much more just and more fair world. A world with less economic suffering and much more opportunity. Even allowing for the fact that some working class people don’t vote their own economic interests, whether because of culture or religion or race: If we made sure that lower-income people voted in the same proportion that upper income people do, the GOP would be on an even faster path to extinction than it is currently.
That’s what accounts for the new GOP push for restrictive voting laws. Republicans are no longer talking as much about “fraud,” which has been proven to be virtually non-existent; they’re owning up to the fact that the new laws are intended to suppress the turnout of minorities and poor people who came out to vote in record numbers in 2008 and then again in 2012. Those folks who were “pulled out of the apartments” by the Obama campaign.
I should note that former John McCain strategist Mike Murphy is one of the handful of Republicans that sort of gets it; I’m sure Murphy and I would disagree about exactly how his party can fix its problems, but he certainly sees its problems clearly. Writing in Time today, Murphy laid it out this way [ http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/28/can-this-party-be-saved/ ]:
The Republican challenge is not about better voter-turnout software; it is about policy. We repel Latinos, the fastest-growing voter group in the country, with our nativist opposition to immigration reform that offers a path to citizenship. We repel younger voters, who are much more secular than their parents, with our opposition to same-sex marriage and our scolding tone on social issues. And we have lost much of our once solid connection to the middle class on kitchen-table economic issues.
Sadly, even Murphy doesn’t talk about how his party can reach the poor, or African Americans, a third of whom voted for Richard Nixon in 1960, but who abandoned the GOP over its ongoing opposition to civil rights. Still, Murphy’s diagnosis and prescriptions are a start; he is of course being vilified by the right as I type these words, and my praise won’t make him any more popular.
Finally, a word about the word “underclass.” I chided Davis for using the term, calling it “dated.” It’s more than dated; it’s ugly and divisive. I also talked about how middle class people were getting lumped into Stevens’ and Davis’s stereotypes of low-income Obama voters, but the fact remains that yes, most poor people voted for Obama, and that’s a good thing, for them and for the president. In my effort to be polite, I probably soft-pedaled the point. Dismissing them as an “underclass” is just another way that Republicans blame the poor for their poverty and place them outside the American family.
Copyright © 2012 Salon Media Group, Inc.
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/29/republicans_just_dont_get_it_2/ [with comments]
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Orly Taitz Loses Obama College Records Suit In California Court
By Mollie Reilly
Posted: 12/02/2012 11:11 pm EST Updated: 12/03/2012 11:04 am EST
Orly Taitz, the California dentist and attorney who has gained notoriety for her relentless efforts to prove that President Obama is ineligible for office, suffered another blow last week when an Orange County judge rejected her attempt to retrieve Obama's college records.
As first reported by the school's student paper, the Occidental Weekly [ http://occidentalweekly.com/news/2012/11/28/taitz-loses-court-case-to-occidental-over-obamas-records/ ], Taitz had filed a legal motion to compel Occidental College to release transcripts and other records from when Obama was an undergraduate there in the late '70s and early '80s, alleging that Obama was not born in the United States and is currently using a fake social security number. The private college's counsel, Carl Botterud, pointing to privacy concerns, deemed [ http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/11/barack_obama_orly_taitz_occide.php ] Taitz's case "frivolous" and "without merit." The self-proclaimed "queen of the birthers" then argued that the matter of Obama's alleged foreign birth was important enough to overrule privacy laws.
"Your opposition will constitute Obstruction of Justice, Aiding and Abetting in the elections fraud in forgery and treason in allowing a foreign citizen to usurp the U.S. Presidency with an aid of forged IDs and usurp the civil rights of the U.S. citizens," Taitz wrote in an email [ http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/?p=360759 ] to Botterud ahead of their court date. "At any rate your opposition and your attempt of intimidation and your allegiance or lack of allegiance to the United States of America is duly noted. Just make sure not to forget to bring with you Mr. Obama's application, registration, and financial aid application."
Orange County Superior Court Judge Charles Margines rejected Taitz' argument, citing procedural errors and questioning the quality of her evidence.
“You should know that evidence is not stuff printed from the Internet,” Margines told Taitz, according to the Occidental Weekly.
Margines also ordered Taitz to pay the college $4,000 [ http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2012/11/obama_occidental_records_case_lost_orly_taitz_birther.php ] to cover the resources spent defending itself.
Taitz's birther crusade has taken several hits over the last year. She unsuccessfully attempted to block Obama from appearing on the ballot in Kansas [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/03/orly-taitz-birther-kansas_n_1935190.html ] and Vermont [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/birther-vermont_n_2146210.html ] to no avail. She also ran [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/06/orly-taitz-birther-queen-_n_1572400.html ] for U.S. Senate in California, but failed to place in the top two of a crowded field of candidates.
Despite the string of defeats, Taitz is not giving up. Last month, she announced her plan to file complaints [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/19/orly-taitz-volunteers-addresses_n_2160566.html ] against state officials over Obama's reelection.
"This is really a very sad state of affairs," Taitz wrote [ http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/?p=363228 ] on her website. "I feel that the nightmare of the Soviet Union is back in full force."
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/02/orly-taitz-obama-college-records_n_2229370.html [with comments]
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Bobby Jindal’s school voucher program ruled unconstitutional
Louisiana Gov. Governor Bobby Jindal
(Nati Harnik/AP)
Posted by Natalie Jennings on November 30, 2012 at 4:18 pm
One of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s signature accomplishments, a private school tuition voucher program, was ruled unconstitutional by a Louisiana judge Friday, the Associated Press reports [ http://www.theadvertiser.com/viewart/20121130/NEWS01/121130025/Judge-rules-voucher-program-unconstitutional ]:
State Judge Tim Kelley said Friday that the program improperly diverts money allocated through Louisiana’s public school funding formula to private schools. He also said it unconstitutionally diverts local tax dollars to private schools.
Kelley ruled in a lawsuit backed by teacher unions and school boards seeking to shut down the voucher program and other changes that would funnel more money away from traditional public schools.
Jindal (R-La.), who is frequently touted as a potential contender in the 2016 Republican presidential race [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/jostling-in-the-2016-race-already/2012/11/24/23d61e78-3673-11e2-bfd5-e202b6d7b501_blog.html ], pushed the legislation through the state’s legislature in April. Two statewide teachers’ associations and a group of school boards filed legal challenges [ http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/07/judge_denies_injunction_in_vou.html ] shortly thereafter.
Jindal said in a statement Friday afternoon that he would appeal the ruling.
In addition to the lawsuits, the program was criticized [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/jindals-voucher-program-called-bad-for-religious-freedom-by-interfaith-alliance/2012/08/07/6300f2e2-e0bc-11e1-8fc5-a7dcf1fc161d_blog.html ] for letting students attend religious schools that teach Young Earth Creationism — the belief that the universe is no older than 10,000 years.
“Today’s ruling is wrong-headed and a travesty for parents across Louisiana who want nothing more than for their children to have an equal opportunity at receiving a great education,” Jindal said. “This ruling changes nothing for the students currently in the program. All along, we expected this to be decided by the Louisiana Supreme Court.”
© 2012 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2012/11/30/la-judge-bobby-jindal-school-voucher-program-unconstitutional/ [with comments]
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Louisiana Approves Course Providers, Despite Court Defeat on Vouchers
December 5, 2012
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/charterschoice/2012/12/louisiana_approves_course_providers_despite_voucher_ruling.html [no comments yet]
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Let's Stick to Facts on Evolutionary Theory
By Carl Safina
Posted: 12/03/2012 10:31 am
In a column elevated by erudition but ultimately marred by muddled thinking, Nicholas Wade, writing [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/science/biblical-literalists-clash-with-science.html ] in The New York Times tells us that, because U.S. Senator Mark Rubio answered a reporter's question about the age of Earth with a moronic dodge, scientists should respond by admitting that evolution is a "theory." That will fix things.
Pardon me?
Mr. Wade noted that Rubio said, "Whether the earth was created in seven days, or seven actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries."
Uh-huh. Rubio is a possible Republican contender for the 2016 presidential race. And talk about mysteries: What's the matter with this party?
Mr. Wade discussed how, historically, certain Protestant sects came to assert that every word in the Bible was literally the true word of God. He further noted:
"atheists like the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins beat the believers about the head, accomplishing nothing; fundamentalist Christians naturally defend their religion and values to the hilt, whatever science may say. A scientific statesman, if there were such a person, would try to defuse the situation by professing respect for all religions and making a grand yet also trivial concession about the status of evolution... evolution is both a theory and a fact... no fact is better attested. But... evolution is a theory; no one talks about Darwin's 'fact of evolution.' Unlike a fact, a theory cannot be absolutely true... The theory of evolution, though it has no present rivals, is still under substantial construction."
Well, so is music theory. Mr. Wade waded deeper into this muddle of his making, continuing:
"By allowing that evolution is a theory, scientists would hand fundamentalists the fig leaf they need to insist, at least among themselves, that the majestic words of the first chapter of Genesis are literal, not metaphorical, truths. They in return should make no objection to the teaching of evolution in science classes as a theory, which indeed it is."
I don't get it; do you? How do fundamentalists need permission to insist on what they already believe? And, why would they need to "agree" that evolution -- meaning that life evolves and new species come from common ancestors -- should be taught as a theory rather than as the proven, settled science it is? In many states, that, for them, would be a major coup.
I encourage you to read Mr. Wade's column yourself, because it strikes me as very peculiar coming from such an experienced science writer. But I'd like to focus on just one point: Mr. Wade helped perpetuate a common, major confusion about what's meant by the word, "theory."
The biggest misconception about evolution is that it's "only" a theory. To most people, a theory is an untested hunch. But in science, a hunch is called a hypothesis. If a hypothesis is tested and confirmed repeatedly, and if all the confirmation creates a body of knowledge useful for predicting events, the knowledge is called "theory." That's very different.
Imagine a child sitting at a piano for the first time. They notice that some keys sound dissonant together, and others harmonize. Eventually, the child may know how notes will sound before hearing them played; that's music theory. It's not "just" a theory. It's an understanding of music so thorough that one could compose a symphony despite being completely deaf -- as Beethoven did.
This predictive sense of theory is the same way scientists use the word. Atomic theory predicted that a series of procedures would cause a big explosion. Germ theory predicts that if surgeons wash their hands, fewer people will die of infections. Evolutionary theory can predict, for example, that excessive fishing will create smaller fish. It explains why malaria and insects develop resistance to antibiotics and pesticides. Evolution is as scientifically accepted as gravity. And while we don't quite understand how gravity works, we know a lot about how evolution works -- much more than Charles Darwin, even with all his genius, could have dreamt.
Scientifically, there is nothing to "concede" about evolution. That life evolves is proven, used in agriculture, feared in medicine, and observed in nature. Fundamentalists are not arguing fine points of evolutionary conjecture about kin versus group selection or the genetics of altruism. They are arguing that the world was created in six days and hasn't changed since. How very silly of them. And how embarrassing, and dangerous. Handing people fig leaves doesn't strike me as adequate when they'll need a decent suit if they want to look civilized.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-safina/lets-stick-to-facts_b_2231458.html [with comments]
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(linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=82042809 and preceding (and any future following);
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=66821790 and preceding and following
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Sheldon Adelson Spent Far More On Campaign Than Previously Known
GOP donor and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson
(AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
By Peter H. Stone
Posted: 12/03/2012 12:00 am EST Updated: 12/03/2012 12:35 am EST
WASHINGTON -- Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson vowed to spend as much as $100 million to defeat President Barack Obama and help the GOP take control of Congress. According to two GOP fundraisers with close ties to the Las Vegas billionaire, he made good on that promise -- and then some. Adelson ultimately upped the ante, spending closer to a previously unreported $150 million, the fundraisers said.
Adelson, a fierce critic of Obama’s foreign and domestic policies, has said that his humongous spending was spurred chiefly by his fear that [ http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81588.html ] a second Obama term would bring "vilification of people that were against him." As that second term begins, Adelson's international casino empire faces a rough road, with two federal criminal investigations into his business.
This coming week, Adelson plans to visit Washington, according to three separate GOP sources familiar with his travel schedule. While here, he’s arranged Hill meetings with at least one House GOP leader in which he is expected to discuss key issues, including possible changes to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the anti-bribery law that undergirds one federal probe into his casino network, according to a Republican attorney with knowledge of his plans.
During the election, Adelson told Politico that the Justice Department investigation, and the way he felt treated by prosecutors, was a primary motivation for his investment in Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and other GOP candidates. He put his money where his mouth was. The two GOP fundraisers, both with strong ties to Adelson, said that the casino mogul dished out close to $150 million, including between $30 million and $40 million to the Karl Rove-founded Crossroads GPS and at least $15 million to grassroots efforts with financial links to Charles and David Koch. Among other major beneficiaries of Adelson’s largess were the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which received almost $5 million from Adelson, and the Republican Jewish Coalition, which got the bulk of its $6.5 million budget from him, the fundraisers said.
All of these are non-profit groups, which -- unlike the super PACs that raked in $54 million in funds from Adelson and his wife -- are not currently required to disclose their donors. Adelson’s public spending spree, larger than any other donor's in the last election, was made possible by two high court rulings in early 2010 that allowed corporations, unions and individuals to write unlimited checks to outside groups for political ads and other activities backing candidates
The two fundraisers who provided information to The Huffington Post represented separate groups that each received seven-figure checks this year from Adelson. The fundraisers learned details of Adelson’s spending plans about a month prior to the election: one heard of them in a talk with the casino owner himself, while the other didn’t indicate if his information came from Adelson or a top aide to the billionaire. Both requested anonymity to protect their ties to Adelson and because they were not authorized to speak publicly about his giving.
Adelson’s hefty support for Rove’s GPS made sense, said a third fundraiser who knows both men, because of their long-standing links. Adelson forged good ties with Rove after he served as deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush and this year they bonded further. Rove spent much of the last night of the Republican National Convention hanging out in a skybox suite with Adelson and other politicos and friends, and Rove also provided the casino mogul occasional advice on potential donations -- at least once undercutting another group seeking Adelson funding, said the two GOP fundraisers.
Rove, who also provided advice in 2008 to the Adelson-backed dark money group Freedom’s Watch, was just one of several GOP politicos with shadow party links that Adelson schmoozed and brainstormed with in Tampa. Long known as a hands-on donor who likes to immerse himself in details, Adelson had a crowded convention schedule. For instance, he spent time one afternoon meeting with leaders of several groups that he’d either already helped, or was considering writing more big checks to for their electoral drives.
Among the political heavies Adelson met with that afternoon were Sean Noble, a leading operative for the Koch brothers, and Carl Forti, a key political strategist for both Crossroads GPS and its affiliate American Crossroads. Forti is also a strategist for pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future, which received $20 million from Adelson and his wife Miriam, an Israeli-born doctor.
Earlier in the year, Adelson indicated at different times that he planned to spend about $100 million or “as much as it takes” to defeat Obama and help Republicans in Congressional races. Adelson’s personal wealth has been pegged at $20.5 billion by Forbes [ http://www.forbes.com/profile/sheldon-adelson/ ], making him one of the world’s richest men and enabling him to open his checkbook wide without worrying much about his bottom line.
Adelson’s largess appeared to have an impact on Romney’s campaign strategy. After Adelson publicly suggested that Romney sometimes waffled in his stances and wasn’t as ideologically consistent as his original pick, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, he and Romney met in late May in Las Vegas. Shortly afterwards, the casino owner’s first $10 million donation to Romney’s allied super PAC arrived.
Not long after their meeting, Romney restated his support for one of Adelson’s top priorities -- his fervent backing of Israel’s conservative government and his opposition to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Romney’s first foreign trip after his meeting with Adelson included a late July visit to Israel, which included a Jerusalem fundraiser that Adelson famously attended.
Now after what was largely a disappointing election for Adelson, his Las Vegas Sands casino empire could be facing heightened legal and political headaches. His sprawling operations are still mired in two wide-ranging federal criminal probes. Neither probe is said to be focused on Adelson’s conduct.
The Sands did not return several phone calls seeking comment for this piece.
In one inquiry, federal officials are looking into potential money laundering by two shady high rollers at his Las Vegas casinos. Settlement talks with Justice officials were under way in late October, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The money laundering investigation, led by the U.S. attorney for Los Angeles, is probing whether the casino broke the law by failing to report to the government millions of dollars of potentially laundered funds that two gamblers transferred to its casinos.
One of the two gamblers, Ausaf Umar Siddiqui, is being probed about over $100 million of his transactions through the casinos. Separately, he was arrested in 2009 and pleaded guilty to accepting illegal kickbacks in his job as an executive with Fry’s Electronics in California. He is now serving a six-year jail term.
The other big gambler in the probe is Zhenil Ye Gon, a Chinese-born Mexican-based businessman, who reportedly transferred $85 million to Sands casinos several years ago. Ye Gon was indicted in 2007 for dealing in illegal drugs, but the charges were dismissed in 2009.
Meanwhile, another inquiry by Justice and the SEC has been under way for about two years. It involves allegations that Adelson’s lucrative casinos on the Chinese island of Macau may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by paying bribes to Chinese officials to expand its operations there. The lion’s share of Sands' corporate revenues now come from Macau, the only place in China where casino gambling is legal, and a Singapore casino.
Among the payments that Justice has been probing are $700,000 that went to a local attorney, Leonel Alves, who was hired by the Sands Chinese subsidiary while he was a government legislator in Macau. The Justice probe apparently grew out of a wrongful termination lawsuit by Steven Jacobs, the former president of the Sands operation in Macau who has been cooperating with Justice.
Jacobs' suit alleged that he was fired after numerous clashes with Adelson over "Adelson’s illegal demands." Adelson has flatly rejected Jacobs’ allegations [ http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/13/lasvegassands-probe-idINL2E8JAK6U20120813 ] and has said that "none of what he says is true and he can't prove it."
A Sands spokesman has said repeatedly that the company has been cooperating with Justice and has done nothing wrong.
Ryan Grim contributed reporting
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/sheldon-adelson-2012-election_n_2223589.html [with comments]
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Sheldon Adelson Vows To 'Double' Donations To GOP After Huge 2012 Election Failure
By Nick Wing
Posted: 12/05/2012 10:14 am EST Updated: 12/05/2012 3:56 pm EST
Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson spent nearly $150 million [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/sheldon-adelson-2012-election_n_2223589.html (just above)] on Republicans during the 2012 elections, almost entirely in support of candidates who did not win. But his cold streak hasn't left him at all discouraged, he told the Wall Street Journal [ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323717004578159570568104706.html ] in a recent interview.
"I happen to be in a unique business where winning and losing is the basis of the entire business," Adelson told the Journal. "So I don't cry when I lose. There's always a new hand coming up."
In fact, Adelson, whose personal wealth is estimated [ http://www.forbes.com/profile/sheldon-adelson/ ] at $20.5 billion, says he's ready to literally double down on the GOP when those new cards are dealt.
According to the Journal's report:
Mr. Adelson's 2012 donations were double what he spent in 2008, and looking ahead, he said, he was ready to again "double" his donations.
"I'll spend that much and more," he said in his first extensive postelection interview. "Let's cut any ambiguity."
The GOP's up-and-comers have already begun to position themselves for a share of the billionaire's largess. Politico reported this week [ http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/2016-contenders-courting-mega-donors-84497.html ] that a number of GOP governors thought to be gearing up for potential 2016 presidential bids recently stopped by Adelson's Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas to kiss the ring.
[...]
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/05/sheldon-adelson-gop_n_2244070.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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At UCLA, Racist, Sexist Signs Called Asian Women 'White-Boy Worshipping Whores' (VIDEO)
By Kathleen Miles
Posted: 11/29/2012 2:09 pm EST Updated: 11/30/2012 2:03 pm EST
UCLA police are investigating racist, sexist slurs attacking Asian women that were found on campus this week.
On Tuesday, a student found a sign that read “asian women R Honkie white-boy worshipping Whores” attached to a Vietnamese Student Union sign.
On Wednesday, another student found the handwritten phrase “Asian Women are White-Boy Worshipping Sluts” in the women’s bathroom of the library basement.
The student who found the second message was Antonette Sadile, the community outreach programmer for the Asian Pacific Coalition. “I thought [Tuesday’s incident] was a more personal attack,” Sadile told campus paper The Daily Bruin. “But this is a bigger impact. It is really scary. I didn’t feel safe [ http://www.dailybruin.com/article/2012/11/ucpd-investigate-racial-sexist-slurs-found-on-bathroom-stall-door ]."
UCLA spokesman Steve Ritea said In a statement to CBS, “We share the students’ anger and sadness and condemn this incident.” He also said the occurrence is isolated [ http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/11/28/ucla-police-investigate-alleged-hate-crime-against-asian-women/ ] and has nothing to do with other racially charged incidents reported on campus.
However, it is the pattern of racial slurs that worries Roman Nguyen, president of the Vietnamese Student Union. “It shows this is what some people actually think,” Nguyen told the campus paper.
The Vietnamese Student Union will hold a rally in front of Kerckhoff Hall at noon Thursday to discuss this week’s and prior incidents of racism. The Asian Pacific Coalition also plans to host a forum on Dec. 5 to discuss the recent climate on campus and cultural sensitivity.
Earlier this year, Latino UCLA students living in an off-campus apartment woke up to find the following racial slurs written in black marker [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/ucla-graffiti-racial-slurs_n_1311463.html ] across their door: "you rude ignorant spic c*nts," "dirty Meximelt b*tches," and "go eat some refried beans and shut up."
The incidents follow an infamous racist rant called “Asians in the Library [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/14/alexandra-wallace-racist-video_n_835505.html ]” posted to YouTube in 2011 by UCLA student Alexandra Wallace.
Asians make up the largest ethnic group at UCLA, comprising 34 percent of the undergraduate students [ http://www.aim.ucla.edu/publications/main.asp ], according to the school’s statistics.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/29/ucla-racist-sexist-signs-asian-women-video_n_2212311.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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John Sununu: Democrats Won Thanks To Voters Dependent On Government
By Arthur Delaney
Posted: 12/05/2012 8:41 am EST Updated: 12/05/2012 3:12 pm EST
If Republicans are trying to shy away from the notion that America is divided between productive capitalists and dependent moochers, they forgot to tell John Sununu. The former New Hampshire governor and Mitt Romney campaign surrogate said Tuesday that Democrats and President Barack Obama won reelection by turning out the moochers.
"They aggressively got out the base of their base, the base of their base that’s dependent, to a great extent economically, on government policy and government programs," Sununu said at a forum with two other Republican governors, according to the Concord Monitor [ http://www.concordmonitor.com/news/3140299-95/sununu-base-government-former ].
Sununu's comment recalled Romney's infamous statement during the campaign that 47 percent [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/17/mitt-romney-video_n_1829455.html ] of Americans are dependent on government and would vote for Obama no matter what. The remarks, delivered at a big-donor fundraiser in May, roiled the campaign.
"There are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them," Romney said. "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
As it happens, Romney's former running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), repudiated that notion during an awards dinner in Washington on Tuesday evening.
"Both parties tend to divide Americans into 'our voters' and 'their voters,'" Ryan said, according to Politico [ http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/ryan-rubio-plot-gops-path-84606.html ]. "Republicans must steer far clear of that trap. We must speak to the aspirations and anxieties of every American. I believe we can turn on the engines of upward mobility so that no one is left out from the promise of America."
Romney, for his part, initially defended his "47 percent" comment, then said he had been "completely wrong [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/mitt-romney-47-percent_n_1941423.html ]." But after the election he returned to the idea, saying Obama won by giving "gifts [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/mitt-romney-obama-gifts_n_2133529.html ]" to blacks, Hispanics and young voters.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/05/john-sununu-government-dependency_n_2243343.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Tumblr admits it was hacked by a racist anti-blogging group
Has restored service
By Lee Bell
Tue Dec 04 2012, 16:48
BLOGGING SERVICE Tumblr has admitted that it was hacked by a racist anti-blogging and trolling group that goes by the acronym GNAA.
The INQUIRER won't report what that acronym supposedly stands for because it's racist and nasty.
GNAA previously trolled the campaign website for Barack Obama and US based media firms, but this is the first time it has attempted a cyber attack on a much larger scale.
Even technology news website The Verge said it had been a victim of the attack on Tuesday when it tweeted, "Yes, our Tumblr appears to have been hacked. We're taking care of this - and we recommend staying away from those nasty links."
Tumblr notified its users of the attack via a staff post today [ http://staff.tumblr.com/post/37133597651/this-morning-some-of-you-may-have-noticed-a-spam ]. Tumblr said that the problem had been dealt with.
"This morning, some of you may have noticed a spam post appearing repeatedly on your Dashboard and on the blogs of a few thousand affected accounts. We quickly identified the source, removed the posts, and restored service to normal," Tumblr said.
"No accounts have been compromised, and you don't need to take any further action."
The infected post was a nasty rant starting with "Dearest 'Tumblr' users" and continuing into a tirade against the service and what it called its "emo" users. Tumblr warned users not to click any of the links on a Tumblr page with the post on it, as that would repost onto their own Tumblr feeds.
© Incisive Media Investments Limited 2012
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2229509/tumblr-admits-it-was-hacked-by-a-racist-antiblogging-group [no comments yet]
*
Gay Nigger Association of America
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Nigger_Association_of_America
===
Leah Frei, Adopted Toddler, Must Be Returned To Birth Father She Hardly Knows, Judge Orders
By Lisa Belkin
Posted: 12/04/2012 4:54 pm EST Updated: 12/05/2012 11:33 am EST
Eighteen-month-old Leah Frei must be returned to the father who has met her only twice, a Utah judge has ruled, in the most recent of a series of cases [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/13/AR2010041302445.html ] that accuse adoption agencies in that state of actively deceiving biological fathers.
In an opinion released on Nov. 20, and first reported by the Salt Lake Tribune [ http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55373764-78/achane-adoption-bland-child.html.csp ] today, Judge Darold McDade of Provo, Utah ruled that the girl must be returned by her adoptive parents, Jared and Kristi Frei, to her biological father, Terry Achane, within 60 days, apparently undoing a series of actions by the Adoption Center of Choice that the judge described as “utterly indefensible.”
Achane and his wife, Tira Bland, were married when Leah was conceived, but separated when she was born. (They have since divorced.) In an interview with Tribune reporter Brooke Adams, Achane describes moving to South Carolina to work as a drill instructor at Fort Jackson, thinking he would return to be with his wife when she gave birth. Instead, he said, she agreed to give the baby up for adoption and moved to Utah with the help of Center of Choice.
Why Utah?
The state has a reputation as “a magnet for those seeking to unfairly cut off opportunities for biological fathers to assert their rights to connection with their children,” Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Christine Durham wrote back in 2009 [ http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/who-should-have-custody-of-baby-emma/ ] in a case where a mother in Wyoming lied and told the father she had miscarried, then put the baby up for adoption in Utah. That was one of ten cases around that time in which adoptions went forward in Utah without the out-of-state father’s knowledge or consent.
As reporter Jerry Markon described it in the Washington Post [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/13/AR2010041302445.html ] a few years ago:
Utah is culturally conservative, and lawyers say the powerful Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with its emphasis on family values, has strongly encouraged adoption-friendly laws. “The Utah statutes can be harsh, but they are looking at what’s best for the child: stable placements and two-parent families,” said David Hardy, a lawyer for LDS Family Services, a Mormon Church-affiliated adoption agency that is among the nation’s largest.
In all the previous cases, the mother was unmarried when the baby was born.
Achane told Adams that he attempted to block the adoption of the daughter he calls Teleah as soon as he learned what Bland had done.
In his 48-page opinion, Judge McDade wrote that he was “astonished and deeply troubled” that the agency proceeded with the adoption anyway. "Once Mr. Achane contacted the Adoption Center of Choice ... to let them know he opposed the adoption and wanted his daughter back, that should have been the end of this case," he wrote. "Likewise, when the attorney for the Adoption Center of Choice contacted Mr. Achane and confirmed that Mr. Achane would not consent to the adoptive placement, the very next conversation they should have had was what arrangements the adoption agency would be making to return Teleah to him with all due haste. That did not happen."
Adams, the social justice reporter for the Tribune, has written often on these controversies and is not convinced that this court ruling will be enough to reverse the embedded practice in the state. “Will it change Utah's adoption process?” she said in an email. “I don't know. I have written quite a few stories about the issue and the problems here. There have been some moves to improve the situation (providing a link, for example, on the state Health Department website to forms unmarried fathers must fill out). But as this story shows, there are ongoing issues.”
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/04/leah-frei-utah-adoption_n_2239398.html [with comments]
===
Heaven's above! Retired priest, 80, bites 81-year-old fellow clergyman's ear off in unholy punch up
Father Thomas Byrne, 80, allegedly bit off 81-year-old Father Thomas Smith's ear in a brawl in Perth, Australia; picture [ http://www.gagtics.com/mike-tyson-as-a-baby.html ] posed by model
- Father Thomas Henry Byrne allegedly bit off Father Thomas Joseph Cameron Smith's ear in a brawl over a parking spot in Perth, Australia
- Father Smith picked up the flesh off the floor but only realised it was his right ear when he pulled it out of his pocket later, a court heard
- Father Byrne has been charged with grievous bodily harm
By Richard Shears
PUBLISHED:09:23 EST, 10 November 2012| UPDATED: 04:28 EST, 12 November 2012
A retired priest allegedly had his ear bitten off in an unholy punch-up with another retired clergyman.
Father Thomas Byrne, 80, told Father Thomas Smith, 81, to pick the flesh up off the ground and put it in his pocket after the brawl on Friday in Perth, Australia, according to police.
But it was only when Father Smith returned to his retirement flat and pulled it out of his pocket that he realised it was his right ear, East Perth Magistrates Court heard.
Father Byrne appeared in court charged with grievous bodily harm over the incident involving Father Smith, both of whom share the retirement home with a third retired Catholic priest.
The court was told that a violent brawl broke out at the retirement home complex in the Perth suburb of Dianella over a parking spot.
Police told the hearing that it took some time for Father Smith to realise his ear had been bitten off.
Once he realised that the flesh was his ear, Father Smith is said to have wrapped it in a tea towel and driven to a local medical centre, where staff phoned for an ambulance and police.
He was kept in Perth’s Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital after surgery to try to save the severed ear.
It appeared that Father Byrne had also suffered a bruising in the alleged fight. When he appeared in East Perth’s Magistrates Court he sported a black eye.
Police prosecutor Chris Lawler said Father Byrne did not have a police record but he had concerns for the safety of the victim if bail was approved.
‘They live in the same complex but they are both funded by the Catholic Church,’ Mr Lawler told the court.
Magistrate Greg Benn imposed strict bail conditions on Father Byrne, including an order not to go within 10 yards of Father Smith, nor act in a violent or threatening manner towards him.
A neighbour living in the retirement home told PerthNow he was shocked to hear about the alleged fight ‘because we’re all in our 80s and retired priests.’
Father Byrne is due to appear in court again on December 7 to allow him to take further legal advice.
© Associated Newspapers Ltd
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2230952/Heavens-Retired-priest-80-bites-81-year-old-fellow-clergymans-ear-unholy-punch-up.html [with comments]
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12/02/2012
Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) told a radio host God has "forgiven" him for his scandalous past, including having an affair with a patient and later pressuring her to get an abortion.
"As far as where I stand on pro-life [issues,] I feel I have been very solid in my views," DesJarlais told conservative talk show host Ralph Bristol Saturday. "I don't think, Ralph, that I implied that there was nothing in my past. I didn’t go back and dig up all my personal shortcomings and display them. I went through this divorce a long time ago. I made a very poor decision in my first marriage. I know God's forgiven me.”
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/01/scott-desjarlais_n_2224075.html [with still-image video with the audio of Scott's statements embedded, and comments]
===
Mike Fleck Comes Out: Republican Becomes Openly Gay Pennsylvania Representative [UPDATE]
By Paige Lavender
Posted: 12/01/2012 11:32 am EST Updated: 12/02/2012 10:56 am EST
Pennsylvania state Rep. Mike Fleck (R-Huntingdon) came out [ http://www.politicspa.com/republican-state-rep-mike-fleck-im-gay-2/44597/ ] Saturday.
“I'm still the exact same person and I’m still a Republican and, most importantly, I’m still a person of faith trying to live life as a servant of God and the public. The only difference now is that I will also be doing so as honestly as I know how," Fleck said, according to Politics PA. The Huntingdon Daily News, a subscription-based news service, first reported [ https://huntingdondailynews.our-hometown.com/news/2012-12-01/Front_Page/Rep_Fleck_takes_place_in_history.html ] the story.
Fleck, who was married to a woman for almost a decade, said his Christian faith kept him from coming out for years.
“I wanted to live a ‘normal’ life and raise a family,” Fleck said. “I also believed that by marrying, I was fulfilling God’s will and I thought my same-sex attraction would simply go away."
Fleck was also actively involved with the Boy Scouts of America -- an anti-gay organization [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/17/boy-scouts-gay-ban_n_1679854.html ] -- as an Eagle Scout and then as a district executive for the group.
Despite the GOP's resistance to same-sex marriage, Fleck said he would remain with the party because he's not "a one-issue person."
“The Republican party is all about the government needing to stay out of people’s lives,” Fleck said. “I’m not a one-issue person and it’s not a one-issue party.”
CORRECTION: This story erroneously stated Fleck was the first openly gay lawmaker in Pennsylvania. Brian Sims [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/26/brian-sims-pennsylvania-lawmaker-gay_n_1455485.html ] was actually the first. We regret the error.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/01/mike-fleck-gay_n_2224007.html [with comments]
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Judge temporarily blocks California gay conversion therapy law
State Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, left, and David Pickup, a licensed marriage and family therapist, address lawmakers in favor and opposition, respectively, of a bill to ban a controversial form of psychotherapy aimed at making gay people straight during a hearing at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif.
(AP)
Published December 04, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO – A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked California from enforcing a first-of-its-kind law that bars licensed psychotherapists from working to change the sexual orientations of gay minors, but he limited the scope of his order to just the three providers who have appealed to him to overturn the measure.
U.S. District Court Judge William Shubb made a decision just hours after a hearing on the issue, ruling that the First Amendment rights of psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals who engage in "reparative" or "conversion" therapy outweigh concern that the practice poses a danger to young people.
"Even if SB 1172 is characterized as primarily aimed at regulating conduct, it also extends to forms of (conversion therapy) that utilize speech and, at a minimum, regulates conduct that has an incidental effect on speech," Shubb wrote.
The law, which was passed by the California Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in October, states that therapists and counselors who use "sexual orientation change efforts" on clients under 18 would be engaging in unprofessional conduct and subject to discipline by state licensing boards. It is set to take effect on Jan. 1.
Although the ruling is a setback for the law's supporters, the judge softened the impact of his decision by saying that it applies only to three people -- psychiatrist Anthony Duk, marriage and family therapist Donald Welch, and Aaron Bitzer, a former patient who is studying to become a counselor who specializes in clients who are unhappy being gay.
The exemption for them will remain in place only until Shubb can hold a trial on the merits of their case, although in granting their request for an injunction, the judge noted he thinks they would prevail in getting the law struck down on constitutional grounds.
Complicating the outlook is that another federal judge in Sacramento is considering similar arguments from four more counselors, two families and a professional association of Christian counselors, but has not decided yet whether to keep the ban from taking effect.
"We are disappointed by the ruling, but very pleased that the temporary delay in implementing this important law applies only to the three plaintiffs who brought this lawsuit," National Center for Lesbian Rights Legal Director Shannon Minter said. "We are confident that as the case progresses, it will be clear to the court that this law is fundamentally no different than many other laws that regulate health care professionals to protect patients."
Lawyers for the state argue that outlawing reparative therapy is appropriate because it would protect young people from a practice that has been rejected as unproven and potentially harmful by all the mainstream mental health associations.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/04/judge-temporarily-blocks-california-gay-conversion-therapy-law/
===
WAR on Christmas (Brief history of Christmas)
Published on Nov 19, 2012 by Livelife8072
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M5UzPd4u0U
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Ken Reid, Virginia Official, Calls Atheist Group 'Terrorists' After Leader Criticizes Holiday Display (VIDEO)
By Meredith Bennett-Smith
Posted: 11/29/2012 10:20 am EST Updated: 11/30/2012 9:47 am EST
A Virginia county courthouse is once again at the center of Christmas controversy after an elected official called members of a local atheist group "terrorists."
Ken Reid, a supervisor representing the Leesburg district, was not happy after local atheist leader Rick Wingrove criticized Loudoun County-sponsored holiday displays [ http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/26/leesburgs-christmas-distinctly-american/?page=all ] planned for the Leesburg courthouse lawn, The Washington Times reports.
“None of the religious organizations in the county have had any problem with what we’re doing,” Reid told newspaper in a story published Monday. “It’s strictly this group of terrorists. They’re fanatics who basically want to stamp out religion in all public life and property.”
Tensions about separation of church and state during the holidays [ http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/11/28/loudoun-county-official-calls-atheists-terrorists-for-supporting-churchstate-separation/ ]
One of last year’s evil atheist displays in Loudoun County
have been high in Leesburg for several years, with the lawn of the courthouse at the center of the battle.
Last year, for example, officials allowed nine holiday displays outside Loudoun County Courthouse, including a very controversial skeleton Santa Claus hanging from a cross, a painting paying tribute to the birth of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and a traditional Nativity scene, The Times reports. Several of the displays were vandalized.
This year, in an effort to cut down on the discord, the Board of Supervisors did away with the all-comers approach, banning unattended displays [ http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Traditional-Holiday-Display-Debate-at-Loudoun-County-Courthouse-178003021.html ], according to NBC4. Instead, the Board approved its own selection of displays: a Christmas tree, nativity scene, Santa and a Menorah.
Undeterred by the Board's ruling, however, Wingrove and the American Atheists announced plans for an attended display on the courthouse grounds [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/atheists-plan-attended-holiday-display-in-leesburg/2012/11/13/a5df0e8a-2db7-11e2-89d4-040c9330702a_story.html ], the Washington Post notes.
“The board made it really onerous for everyone but religious groups to put up displays,” Wingrove told the Times. “We will not have the exposure as in the past.”
Furthermore, Wingrove told NBC 4 that the Board of Supervisors was in essence giving "special access for Christian groups," while preventing other groups from having the privilege.
It was comments like those that provoked the outburst from Reid.
Local democratic leaders were quick to condemn Reid's comments [ http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Loudoun-County-Supervisor-Calls-Atheists-Terrorists-181252281.html ].
"We have to be very sensitive here in Leesburg to tossing around words like ‘terrorism’ when there are neighbors who have actually held themselves against the terrorists in the line of battle," Loudoun County Democratic Committee Chair Evan Macbeth told NBC4.
On Tuesday, Reid apologized but added, “I still think they're fanatical.”
According to the Washington Post, the debate over holiday displays in Leesburg has "deepened" since 2009. Wingrove recently told the paper that "if religion is okay on government property, science certainly is."
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/29/war-on-christmas-debate-virginia-officia-ken-reid-atheist-terrorists_n_2207723.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Fox News Fake War on Christmas 2012
Published on Nov 30, 2012 by LiberalViewer
More Fox News Fake War on Christmas videos at http://bit.ly/US0x0X
190+ Fox News Bias videos at http://bit.ly/jdC5ju
It's that time of year again, when Fox News tries to create a false "War on Christmas" to feed the persecution complex of some Christians, this time in several stories about a Santa Monica nativity display lawsuit that Fox News covered using lies, misrepresentations, and bad legal analysis as I show in this video.
The teaser clip I use of Fox News anchor Jon Scott comes from a longer segment of Fox News' November 20, 2012, broadcast of "Happening Now" which I have not found available online
The clips I use of Fox News anchor Rick Folbaum and criminal defense attorney Tom Kenniff come from a longer segment of Fox News' November 22, 2012, broadcast of "Happening Now" available online at http://bit.ly/TmOWtK
The clips I use of Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and Fox News legal analysts Lis Wiehl and Kimberly Gulfoyle come from a longer segment of Fox News' November 20, 2012, broadcast of "The O'Reilly Factor" which I have not found available online
The clip I use of Fox News host Steve Doocy and Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson, Jr., comes from a longer segment of Fox News' November 19, 2012, broadcast of "Fox and Friends" available online at http://bit.ly/SkUCTC
The clips I use of Fox News host and legal analyst Laura Ingraham come from a longer segment of Fox News' November 20, 2012, broadcast of "Fox and Friends" available online at http://bit.ly/V4lmMw
The images I use of my 2010 YouTube video titled "Is National Prayer Day Constitutional" comes from the YouTube player page at http://bit.ly/VjoHYn
The image/text I use of federal judge Audrey Collins November 19, 2012, order in the "Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee vs City of Santa Monica" case comes from a page on my own website at http://www.liberalviewer.com/nativitycaseorder.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rdLMWsB438
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Santa Monica Nativity Scene Lawsuit Dismissed, Judge Urges Churches To Consider Other Options
11/30/12 02:11 AM ET EST
LOS ANGELES -- A Los Angeles federal judge on Thursday dismissed a Christian group's lawsuit to force suburban Santa Monica to reopen spaces in a city park to private displays, including Christmas Nativity scenes.
U.S. District Court Judge Audrey Collins issued the ruling after earlier this month denying an injunction sought by the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee.
Christmastime Nativity scenes had been erected in Palisades Park for decades. Last year, atheists overwhelmed the city's auction process for display sites, winning 18 of 21 slots and triggering a bitter dispute.
The city then banned private, unattended displays at the park.
An attorney for the group says he plans to appeal the ruling.
Collins had said the city was within its constitutional right to eliminate the exemption that had allowed the Nativity at the oceanfront Palisades Park because the change affected all comers – from Christians to Jews to atheists – and provided other avenues for public religious speech.
The coalition of churches that had put on the life-sized, 14-booth Nativity display for decades argued the city banned it rather than referee a religious dispute that began three years ago when atheists first set up their message alongside the Christmas diorama.
In her ruling Thursday, Collins said the coalition has other options.
"For instance, plaintiff could erect displays in some public parks around the city (excluding Palisades Park) as part of a one-day community events permit, or plaintiff could erect attended displays in all of the city's public parks," Collins wrote in her 25-page ruling. "Plaintiff raises several arguments to suggest that these alternatives are not adequate, but none is persuasive."
The trouble in Santa Monica began three years ago, when atheist Damon Vix was granted a booth in Palisades Park alongside the story of Jesus Christ's birth.
Vix hung a sign that quoted Thomas Jefferson: "Religions are all alike -- founded on fables and mythologies." The other side read "Happy Solstice." He repeated the display the following year but then upped the stakes significantly.
Vix recruited 10 others last year to inundate the city with applications for displays and the atheists used half their spaces, displaying signs such as one that showed pictures of Poseidon, Jesus, Santa Claus and the devil.
Most of the signs were vandalized and in response the city ended a tradition that began in 1953 and earned Santa Monica one of its nicknames, the City of the Christmas Story.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/santa-monica-nativity-scene-lawsuit_n_2218540.html [with comments]
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Bill O'Reilly Confronts Rhode Island Governor Over 'Holiday Tree'
Published on Nov 29, 2012 by ThePrincessHira
Bill O'Reilly continued his trademark vendetta against the War on Christmas™ tonight, confronting Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee over his decision to rename the state Christmas tree as a "holiday tree." 'Tis not the first Christmas season that Chafee has earned O'Reilly's ire, but Chafee this time appeared on The Factor to defend his decision.
O'Reilly opened his show by responding to the controversy stirred up by his interview last night with atheist David Silverman, in which O'Reilly asserted that Christmas is not a religion, but a philosophy, and is therefore appropriate to celebrate in federal buildings. O'Reilly mocked the [QUOTE] criticizing him on the internet for challenging his theological fortitude.
At the start of the interview, O'Reilly asked Chafee why he was changing the name of the tree. Chafee explained he was merely following the lead of previous governors in making sure the state is not promoting one particular religion over another. O'Reilly tried to explain to Chafee the origin and traditions of the tree, to which Chafee told O'Reilly he didn't need a "lecture."
Chafee found the controversy analogous to a time when the Lord's prayer was required in certain schools, but after the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional and there was some initial controversy, people ended up accepting it. O'Reilly dismissed the comparison between a religious prayer and a "secular symbol" as a disingenuous one.
When Chafee scolded O'Reilly for trying to stir up controversy, O'Reilly shot back by calling Chafee the controversial one for trying to impose his will on the people of his state. Chafee observed that O'Reilly and his Fox News colleagues "are too angry" about Christmas controversies every year. O'Reilly responded, "I want our traditions to be respected!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvvBv8imuCw [also at e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmXTnWPEs7U , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9_jkVgo9KY and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAA4R8M3Xfo ] [more at "Bill O'Reilly Clashes With Gov. Lincoln Chafee: 'Fox News ... Is An Angry Network'", http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/bill-oreilly-chafee-fox-news-angry-network_n_2217303.html (with video of much of the O'Really/Chafee portion of the segment above the same as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Vw-EV7M8Y embedded, and comments)]
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Bishop Reacts to "Holiday Tree" Controversy
Published on Nov 30, 2012 by WPRI
Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Providence Diocese speaks out about the tree-lighting fiasco at the state house.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCW78PSB13M
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Bill O'Reilly Takes On Priest Over Being 'Angry' At War On Christmas
Published on Dec 3, 2012 by ThePrincessHira
Bill O'Reilly is committed to fighting the good fight in the War on Christmas™, and not nobody, not nohow, is going to deter him from his mission, not even a Catholic priest. Father Jonathan Morris sat down with O'Reilly to defend his comments on Fox & Friends that the Christmas season should not be about anger towards others but about love and brotherhood, leaving O'Reilly to mount a defense of Christmas rage.
O'Reilly admitted that he doesn't really want to be "deal[ing] with assaults against Christmas" ever year, but he continues to be utterly insulted by the way atheists and secular progressives are attempting to subvert the holiday or take the Christ out of Christmas or something. Morris clarified his point to say that of course he agrees with O'Reilly and Christians should speak out against attempts to muzzle the holiday, but suggested that Christmas is not a time for anger.
O'Reilly insisted his quest was a noble one, stating that the "forces of secularism" want to "destroy the Christmas tradition." He said that religion is slowly but surely "losing the [culture] wars" on issues like abortion and gay marriage because church leaders are not being vocal enough. Morris said that leaders have a responsibility to "stand up and to believe and to profess their belief."
Morris also tried to challenge O'Reilly's bizarre insistence that Christianity is a philosophy, not a religion, and O'Reilly promised to have Morris back so they could have that discussion soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5aWZZmcBqA [also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBhQo_mwOqw ]
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The War on Christmas - New HD version
Uploaded by drdduke on Dec 1, 2010
http://www.DavidDuke.com
DON'T LET MY VIDEOS BE CENSORED!
Due to organized efforts to stifle free speech and ban my videos --
YouTube restrictions have led to removal of all comments on this video! My videos are overwhelmingly approved by millions of viewers, and they average higher than 90 percent positive comments and comprise some of the highest rated political videos on the entire Internet. Viewers love these videos! But, the Zionists don't !
The Zionist efforts to block my videos are relentless. They want to keep the world from learning the truth.
The only way you can be sure to find my videos if they are censored is to not only subscribe to my YouTube Channel -- but be sure to SUBSCRIBE at MY WEBSITE as well. Subscribe to News and Updates at:
http://www.davidduke.com
By subscribing on my website, even if my channel or videos are censored or removed -- you can still receive notices of links where you and your friends can see my videos
If the Zionists are successful in banning my channel, then all YouTube subscribers are inaccessible to me -- so you can only be informed about my videos if you are SUBSCRIBED AT MY OWN WEBSITE.
Thank you for your efforts for free speech and your efforts to ensure your Right and Right of everyone to see my political videos and read my articles!
Without your support and efforts my vital work could well be silenced.
Sincerely,
Dr. David Duke
http://www.davidduke.com
How the Jewish extremists are waging war on the Western cultural and religious tradition of Christmas. It shows how Christian Christian symbols are banned on public ground, while Jewish religious symbols are placed even in front of the White House. It compares the love and peace of the Christmas celebration to Hanukkah, which is symbolized by the Menorah. Hanukkah is a celebration of a military victory and massacre against the Greek Syrians whose only crime was to be tolerant to the Jews of Jerusalem and accept them freely. Jewish leaders could not accept this because it posed a danger of assimilation! So in the United States, a nation where are told that assimilation is the American ideal we have thousands of symbols put up on public land promoting Jewish supremacist ideology! It's wacky that this goes on but one thing is for sure, it sure does show who run things in the United States. Sadly, it must be said that the same thing is also going on in almost every European nation as well!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCLnie3HPMg
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Merry War On Christmas!
Uploaded by jsjkim on Dec 21, 2007
All of us at foxattacks.com and Brave New Films would like to wish all of you a merry War On Christmas! Because if the word "Christmas" isn't displayed in stores or by America's supposedly secular government, where else can you celebrate it except your church, your home, with friends and family, parades, and in your mind?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzIoS9_0aA4
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The 12 Days of Conservative Movement Christmas
([linked in] http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=81378664 and preceding and following)
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Secession Theology Runs Deep In American Religious, Political History
By G. Jeffrey Macdonald
Posted: 11/30/2012 9:26 am EST Updated: 12/01/2012 11:11 am EST
(RNS) Corruption has gone too far. The righteous must break away. Hope now rests with a holy remnant that will honor foundational texts.
The message sounds familiar. A church schism? No, mounting calls for secession from the United States.
Since President Obama won re-election, more than 750,000 Americans have petitioned the White House website to let their respective states secede, from Alaska to Iowa to Maryland and Vermont. Those leading the charge are framing it, observers say, in terms that suggest a deep-seated religious impulse for purity-through-separation is flaring up once again.
But this time, it's playing out on a political stage.
"Today's secessionist movements are just the latest example of a long parade of breakaway groups (in American history) seeking to restore some lost ideal," said Peter J. Thuesen, professor of religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. "The problem is that the ideal is invariably a mirage."
Seeking purity through separation has marked American religious history since the Puritans sailed from Holland to establish a holy beacon in the New World. It helps explain why Baptists, Presbyterians and others have splintered into countless subgroups over the years, and why the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church this fall.
The pattern commonly involves one group breaking off to re-establish a holy community by living in fresh accord with sacred texts. Religious purists have the Bible to guide their quest; secessionists look to the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Both insist these centers of authority have suffered neglect and must be restored.
"That's a persistent line of thought," said Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life [ http://www.bc.edu/centers/boisi/ ] at Boston College. "There are people who are disappointed with the direction the United States has taken. ... It's primarily political and economic, and then they just find a religious cover for it (as) they tap into pre-existent religious language."
Dismissing the United States as hopelessly corrupt, secessionists are picking up the breakaway-for-purity motif and running with it. Radio host Alex Jones, whose show airs in 60 markets, alleged on Nov. 15 that "foreign megabanks have hijacked the government" and have made secession necessary.
"We do not want to secede from the Union to destroy the republic, but to restore it," Jones said. "Go to the White House website. Do your own petitions to reinstall the Declaration of Independence. ... It's now time to launch the second American Revolution."
Secessionists, such as Russell Longcore of Marietta, Ga., take inspiration from history. He sees secession as pursuit of God-given liberty, such as when American colonies seceded from Britain in 1776, when Southern states left the Union in the 1860s and when the Soviet Union dissolved into 15 separate states two decades ago.
In his view, petitioning the federal government is "silly" because states don't need permission to secede, but he regards the petitioners' goal as nonetheless serious and moral in nature.
"The moral decay comes from the fact that Washington, D.C., has summarily ignored the Constitution," said Longcore, an insurance claims consultant who blogs at dumpdc.com [ http://dumpdc.wordpress.com/ ( http://dumpdc.com/ )]. He offered the example of unsanctioned wars.
"Article One, Section Eight (of the Constitution) says Congress should have authority to declare war and to prosecute a war," Longcore said. "There hasn't been a declared war since World War II, but we've been in an awful lot of wars."
Other narratives help secessionists, as well as religious isolationists, understand their efforts as part of a noble tapestry. Evangelical groups have for years supported Christians in South Sudan, which broke off from Sudan last year after persistent clashes with Muslims in the north. Some now laud how Sudanese Christians separated and hope American Christians would do similarly by withdrawing at least culturally, if not legally.
Those inspired by such examples include Jim Rawles, an evangelical blogger and novelist who teaches survival skills for the coming day when America's economy collapses. He sees no point in seceding, since the federal government would "hammer" such efforts anyway.
Instead, he's getting more response these days, he says, to his call for Bible-believing Christians, Orthodox Jews and Messianic Jews to relocate to what he calls the American Redoubt: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, eastern Washington and eastern Oregon.
One reason he gives on his website for separation: "Even if God has withdrawn his blessings from our nation as a whole, he will continue to provide for and to protect his remnant."
"It's time to distance ourselves from the vile corruptness that we see inside the Washington, D.C., Beltway," said Rawles, who blogs at survivalblog.com [ http://www.survivalblog.com/index.html ( http://survivalblog.com/ )]. "It is analogous to the Puritan exodus (from Europe). They couldn't fit in and said,'We're going to move to completely virgin territory and start afresh.' ... In effect, we're becoming pistol-packing Amish."
Some scholars still aren't buying it. As Wolfe sees it, calls for secession and cultural withdrawal are just sour grapes.
"It's not religious in inspiration at all," Wolfe says. "It's like in the Old South, where if you gave (secession) a religious cover, you made it sound better. But it's just people who basically have difficulty accepting that we have a two-party system. One party wins. One party loses."
But separatists insist the impulse to flee corruption and live rightly before God is genuine. And if that means clustering in ever more secluded enclaves, then so be it.
"The Bible teaches that the remnant will be small," Rawles said. "People who recognize that they are of the remnant, that they are God's elect, will in increasing numbers choose to vote with their feet."
Copyright 2012 Religion News Service
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/secession-theology-american-religious-political-history_n_2215158.html [with comments]
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Scott Walker's Plan To Eliminate Same-Day Voter Registration Opposed By Wisconsin Poll Workers
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) wants to eliminate same-day voter registration in the state.
11/30/2012
Wisconsin poll workers are speaking out against Gov. Scott Walker's (R) proposal to eliminate same-day voting registration in the state, despite his argument that it would lighten the burden on these overworked officials on Election Day.
In a speech on Nov. 16, in the wake of President Barack Obama's win in Wisconsin, Walker called for the repeal of Wisconsin's same-day registration law.
"States across the country that have same-day registration have real problems because the vast majority of their states have poll workers who are wonderful volunteers, who work 13-hour days and who in most cases are retirees," he said. "It's difficult for them to handle the volume of people who come at the last minute. It'd be much better if registration was done in advance of election day. It'd be easier for our clerks to handle that. All that needs to be done."
But nearly a dozen poll workers who spoke with The Huffington Post all had the same message: Same-day registration is not a problem, and Walker should not eliminate it.
"This whole idea that this is somehow a burden on poll workers is just not true, and I can guarantee you it's not the perception of the vast majority of the people who work at the polls," said Ruth Irvings, 61, who served as a poll worker in Milwaukee this year with her 24-year-old son.
"I've been a poll worker, and I've worked the registration table [in the last three elections]," added Lanore Rusch, 75, a Wausau resident. "We have no problem whatsoever. We aren't overworked. ... For Walker to say that the people who are doing the registration can't keep up is just foolish. He should come down and watch once in awhile."
Kevin Rusch, Lanore's 53-year-old son who has worked at the polls in Wausau for the last year and a half, was more blunt in his assessment of Walker's claim: "That's utter bullshit. I don't know who he's talking to."
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/scott-walker-wisconsin-voter-registration_n_2212941.html [with comments]
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Republicans just don’t get it
(Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
Hours after Stuart Stevens insults most Americans, Tom Davis credits Obama's victory to the "underclass"
By Joan Walsh
Thursday, Nov 29, 2012 10:07 AM CST
On Wednesday I finished my piece on Mitt Romney strategist Stuart Stevens [ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/28/stuart_stevens_delusional_jackass/ ] boasting that President Obama “only” won the votes of Americans who earn less than $50,000 – that’s most people, by the way – and rushed to MSNBC’s “Hardball” to discuss the GOP’s diversity problems with supposedly moderate former Congressman Tom Davis of Virginia.
It was a calm, respectful conversation, until Davis volunteered that Romney lost because of Obama’s voter turnout operation – specifically, his ability to turnout “underclass minorities” and “particularly those who orient toward the city” who were “pulled out of the apartments.” Since we had been talking about the GOP’s problems with women and people of color, I respectfully offered Davis some “free advice” – that it might be time to retire the term “underclass.” It got worse.
Davis mumbled about the term not being “politically correct,” and when I referenced Stevens’s slur against people who make less than $50,000 a year, many of whom are actually middle class, Davis jumped in: “That’s not where the voter turnout came, if you know your voter stats, it was really people who were making even less than that, pulled out of the apartments…groups that traditionally haven’t voted.” (Yes, I caught the condescending “if you know your voter stats.”)
Davis’s “underclass minorities” remark has gotten a lot of attention – Salon flagged it and posted the video here [ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/28/tom_davis_says_underclass_minorities_helped_obama/ ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGZ2nBUNHwg , next below)]
– but I want to spend a moment on his concern about “groups that traditionally haven’t voted.” To be fair, Davis wasn’t accusing Democrats of voter fraud, the way other Republicans have. But he still seemed unsettled by the fact that the president turned out people who “traditionally haven’t voted” – who were “pulled out of the apartments” even! Yes, there are all sorts of hoary racial stereotypes jumbled up in those words, and class stereotypes as well.
Republicans don’t know what to do when “groups that traditionally haven’t voted” turn up at the polls. Because they know they lose. And this is an ancient struggle, predating this country’s founding but embedded in its DNA. We sometimes forget: There once were property requirements to vote in many states. It wasn’t until 1830, more than 50 years after our nation’s founding, that white men had universal suffrage (of course it took a lot longer for black men and longer still for women.) Even after that, we fought a long voting rights struggle against poll taxes and literacy tests and other ways to keep African Americans from voting in the South.
Because Republicans and the powers that be know one thing: If every eligible voter actually voted, we would live in a very different, much more just and more fair world. A world with less economic suffering and much more opportunity. Even allowing for the fact that some working class people don’t vote their own economic interests, whether because of culture or religion or race: If we made sure that lower-income people voted in the same proportion that upper income people do, the GOP would be on an even faster path to extinction than it is currently.
That’s what accounts for the new GOP push for restrictive voting laws. Republicans are no longer talking as much about “fraud,” which has been proven to be virtually non-existent; they’re owning up to the fact that the new laws are intended to suppress the turnout of minorities and poor people who came out to vote in record numbers in 2008 and then again in 2012. Those folks who were “pulled out of the apartments” by the Obama campaign.
I should note that former John McCain strategist Mike Murphy is one of the handful of Republicans that sort of gets it; I’m sure Murphy and I would disagree about exactly how his party can fix its problems, but he certainly sees its problems clearly. Writing in Time today, Murphy laid it out this way [ http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/28/can-this-party-be-saved/ ]:
The Republican challenge is not about better voter-turnout software; it is about policy. We repel Latinos, the fastest-growing voter group in the country, with our nativist opposition to immigration reform that offers a path to citizenship. We repel younger voters, who are much more secular than their parents, with our opposition to same-sex marriage and our scolding tone on social issues. And we have lost much of our once solid connection to the middle class on kitchen-table economic issues.
Sadly, even Murphy doesn’t talk about how his party can reach the poor, or African Americans, a third of whom voted for Richard Nixon in 1960, but who abandoned the GOP over its ongoing opposition to civil rights. Still, Murphy’s diagnosis and prescriptions are a start; he is of course being vilified by the right as I type these words, and my praise won’t make him any more popular.
Finally, a word about the word “underclass.” I chided Davis for using the term, calling it “dated.” It’s more than dated; it’s ugly and divisive. I also talked about how middle class people were getting lumped into Stevens’ and Davis’s stereotypes of low-income Obama voters, but the fact remains that yes, most poor people voted for Obama, and that’s a good thing, for them and for the president. In my effort to be polite, I probably soft-pedaled the point. Dismissing them as an “underclass” is just another way that Republicans blame the poor for their poverty and place them outside the American family.
Copyright © 2012 Salon Media Group, Inc.
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/29/republicans_just_dont_get_it_2/ [with comments]
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Orly Taitz Loses Obama College Records Suit In California Court
By Mollie Reilly
Posted: 12/02/2012 11:11 pm EST Updated: 12/03/2012 11:04 am EST
Orly Taitz, the California dentist and attorney who has gained notoriety for her relentless efforts to prove that President Obama is ineligible for office, suffered another blow last week when an Orange County judge rejected her attempt to retrieve Obama's college records.
As first reported by the school's student paper, the Occidental Weekly [ http://occidentalweekly.com/news/2012/11/28/taitz-loses-court-case-to-occidental-over-obamas-records/ ], Taitz had filed a legal motion to compel Occidental College to release transcripts and other records from when Obama was an undergraduate there in the late '70s and early '80s, alleging that Obama was not born in the United States and is currently using a fake social security number. The private college's counsel, Carl Botterud, pointing to privacy concerns, deemed [ http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/11/barack_obama_orly_taitz_occide.php ] Taitz's case "frivolous" and "without merit." The self-proclaimed "queen of the birthers" then argued that the matter of Obama's alleged foreign birth was important enough to overrule privacy laws.
"Your opposition will constitute Obstruction of Justice, Aiding and Abetting in the elections fraud in forgery and treason in allowing a foreign citizen to usurp the U.S. Presidency with an aid of forged IDs and usurp the civil rights of the U.S. citizens," Taitz wrote in an email [ http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/?p=360759 ] to Botterud ahead of their court date. "At any rate your opposition and your attempt of intimidation and your allegiance or lack of allegiance to the United States of America is duly noted. Just make sure not to forget to bring with you Mr. Obama's application, registration, and financial aid application."
Orange County Superior Court Judge Charles Margines rejected Taitz' argument, citing procedural errors and questioning the quality of her evidence.
“You should know that evidence is not stuff printed from the Internet,” Margines told Taitz, according to the Occidental Weekly.
Margines also ordered Taitz to pay the college $4,000 [ http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2012/11/obama_occidental_records_case_lost_orly_taitz_birther.php ] to cover the resources spent defending itself.
Taitz's birther crusade has taken several hits over the last year. She unsuccessfully attempted to block Obama from appearing on the ballot in Kansas [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/03/orly-taitz-birther-kansas_n_1935190.html ] and Vermont [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/birther-vermont_n_2146210.html ] to no avail. She also ran [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/06/orly-taitz-birther-queen-_n_1572400.html ] for U.S. Senate in California, but failed to place in the top two of a crowded field of candidates.
Despite the string of defeats, Taitz is not giving up. Last month, she announced her plan to file complaints [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/19/orly-taitz-volunteers-addresses_n_2160566.html ] against state officials over Obama's reelection.
"This is really a very sad state of affairs," Taitz wrote [ http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/?p=363228 ] on her website. "I feel that the nightmare of the Soviet Union is back in full force."
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/02/orly-taitz-obama-college-records_n_2229370.html [with comments]
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Bobby Jindal’s school voucher program ruled unconstitutional
Louisiana Gov. Governor Bobby Jindal
(Nati Harnik/AP)
Posted by Natalie Jennings on November 30, 2012 at 4:18 pm
One of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s signature accomplishments, a private school tuition voucher program, was ruled unconstitutional by a Louisiana judge Friday, the Associated Press reports [ http://www.theadvertiser.com/viewart/20121130/NEWS01/121130025/Judge-rules-voucher-program-unconstitutional ]:
State Judge Tim Kelley said Friday that the program improperly diverts money allocated through Louisiana’s public school funding formula to private schools. He also said it unconstitutionally diverts local tax dollars to private schools.
Kelley ruled in a lawsuit backed by teacher unions and school boards seeking to shut down the voucher program and other changes that would funnel more money away from traditional public schools.
Jindal (R-La.), who is frequently touted as a potential contender in the 2016 Republican presidential race [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/jostling-in-the-2016-race-already/2012/11/24/23d61e78-3673-11e2-bfd5-e202b6d7b501_blog.html ], pushed the legislation through the state’s legislature in April. Two statewide teachers’ associations and a group of school boards filed legal challenges [ http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/07/judge_denies_injunction_in_vou.html ] shortly thereafter.
Jindal said in a statement Friday afternoon that he would appeal the ruling.
In addition to the lawsuits, the program was criticized [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/jindals-voucher-program-called-bad-for-religious-freedom-by-interfaith-alliance/2012/08/07/6300f2e2-e0bc-11e1-8fc5-a7dcf1fc161d_blog.html ] for letting students attend religious schools that teach Young Earth Creationism — the belief that the universe is no older than 10,000 years.
“Today’s ruling is wrong-headed and a travesty for parents across Louisiana who want nothing more than for their children to have an equal opportunity at receiving a great education,” Jindal said. “This ruling changes nothing for the students currently in the program. All along, we expected this to be decided by the Louisiana Supreme Court.”
© 2012 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2012/11/30/la-judge-bobby-jindal-school-voucher-program-unconstitutional/ [with comments]
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Louisiana Approves Course Providers, Despite Court Defeat on Vouchers
December 5, 2012
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/charterschoice/2012/12/louisiana_approves_course_providers_despite_voucher_ruling.html [no comments yet]
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Let's Stick to Facts on Evolutionary Theory
By Carl Safina
Posted: 12/03/2012 10:31 am
In a column elevated by erudition but ultimately marred by muddled thinking, Nicholas Wade, writing [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/science/biblical-literalists-clash-with-science.html ] in The New York Times tells us that, because U.S. Senator Mark Rubio answered a reporter's question about the age of Earth with a moronic dodge, scientists should respond by admitting that evolution is a "theory." That will fix things.
Pardon me?
Mr. Wade noted that Rubio said, "Whether the earth was created in seven days, or seven actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries."
Uh-huh. Rubio is a possible Republican contender for the 2016 presidential race. And talk about mysteries: What's the matter with this party?
Mr. Wade discussed how, historically, certain Protestant sects came to assert that every word in the Bible was literally the true word of God. He further noted:
"atheists like the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins beat the believers about the head, accomplishing nothing; fundamentalist Christians naturally defend their religion and values to the hilt, whatever science may say. A scientific statesman, if there were such a person, would try to defuse the situation by professing respect for all religions and making a grand yet also trivial concession about the status of evolution... evolution is both a theory and a fact... no fact is better attested. But... evolution is a theory; no one talks about Darwin's 'fact of evolution.' Unlike a fact, a theory cannot be absolutely true... The theory of evolution, though it has no present rivals, is still under substantial construction."
Well, so is music theory. Mr. Wade waded deeper into this muddle of his making, continuing:
"By allowing that evolution is a theory, scientists would hand fundamentalists the fig leaf they need to insist, at least among themselves, that the majestic words of the first chapter of Genesis are literal, not metaphorical, truths. They in return should make no objection to the teaching of evolution in science classes as a theory, which indeed it is."
I don't get it; do you? How do fundamentalists need permission to insist on what they already believe? And, why would they need to "agree" that evolution -- meaning that life evolves and new species come from common ancestors -- should be taught as a theory rather than as the proven, settled science it is? In many states, that, for them, would be a major coup.
I encourage you to read Mr. Wade's column yourself, because it strikes me as very peculiar coming from such an experienced science writer. But I'd like to focus on just one point: Mr. Wade helped perpetuate a common, major confusion about what's meant by the word, "theory."
The biggest misconception about evolution is that it's "only" a theory. To most people, a theory is an untested hunch. But in science, a hunch is called a hypothesis. If a hypothesis is tested and confirmed repeatedly, and if all the confirmation creates a body of knowledge useful for predicting events, the knowledge is called "theory." That's very different.
Imagine a child sitting at a piano for the first time. They notice that some keys sound dissonant together, and others harmonize. Eventually, the child may know how notes will sound before hearing them played; that's music theory. It's not "just" a theory. It's an understanding of music so thorough that one could compose a symphony despite being completely deaf -- as Beethoven did.
This predictive sense of theory is the same way scientists use the word. Atomic theory predicted that a series of procedures would cause a big explosion. Germ theory predicts that if surgeons wash their hands, fewer people will die of infections. Evolutionary theory can predict, for example, that excessive fishing will create smaller fish. It explains why malaria and insects develop resistance to antibiotics and pesticides. Evolution is as scientifically accepted as gravity. And while we don't quite understand how gravity works, we know a lot about how evolution works -- much more than Charles Darwin, even with all his genius, could have dreamt.
Scientifically, there is nothing to "concede" about evolution. That life evolves is proven, used in agriculture, feared in medicine, and observed in nature. Fundamentalists are not arguing fine points of evolutionary conjecture about kin versus group selection or the genetics of altruism. They are arguing that the world was created in six days and hasn't changed since. How very silly of them. And how embarrassing, and dangerous. Handing people fig leaves doesn't strike me as adequate when they'll need a decent suit if they want to look civilized.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-safina/lets-stick-to-facts_b_2231458.html [with comments]
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Sheldon Adelson Spent Far More On Campaign Than Previously Known
GOP donor and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson
(AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
By Peter H. Stone
Posted: 12/03/2012 12:00 am EST Updated: 12/03/2012 12:35 am EST
WASHINGTON -- Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson vowed to spend as much as $100 million to defeat President Barack Obama and help the GOP take control of Congress. According to two GOP fundraisers with close ties to the Las Vegas billionaire, he made good on that promise -- and then some. Adelson ultimately upped the ante, spending closer to a previously unreported $150 million, the fundraisers said.
Adelson, a fierce critic of Obama’s foreign and domestic policies, has said that his humongous spending was spurred chiefly by his fear that [ http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81588.html ] a second Obama term would bring "vilification of people that were against him." As that second term begins, Adelson's international casino empire faces a rough road, with two federal criminal investigations into his business.
This coming week, Adelson plans to visit Washington, according to three separate GOP sources familiar with his travel schedule. While here, he’s arranged Hill meetings with at least one House GOP leader in which he is expected to discuss key issues, including possible changes to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the anti-bribery law that undergirds one federal probe into his casino network, according to a Republican attorney with knowledge of his plans.
During the election, Adelson told Politico that the Justice Department investigation, and the way he felt treated by prosecutors, was a primary motivation for his investment in Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and other GOP candidates. He put his money where his mouth was. The two GOP fundraisers, both with strong ties to Adelson, said that the casino mogul dished out close to $150 million, including between $30 million and $40 million to the Karl Rove-founded Crossroads GPS and at least $15 million to grassroots efforts with financial links to Charles and David Koch. Among other major beneficiaries of Adelson’s largess were the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which received almost $5 million from Adelson, and the Republican Jewish Coalition, which got the bulk of its $6.5 million budget from him, the fundraisers said.
All of these are non-profit groups, which -- unlike the super PACs that raked in $54 million in funds from Adelson and his wife -- are not currently required to disclose their donors. Adelson’s public spending spree, larger than any other donor's in the last election, was made possible by two high court rulings in early 2010 that allowed corporations, unions and individuals to write unlimited checks to outside groups for political ads and other activities backing candidates
The two fundraisers who provided information to The Huffington Post represented separate groups that each received seven-figure checks this year from Adelson. The fundraisers learned details of Adelson’s spending plans about a month prior to the election: one heard of them in a talk with the casino owner himself, while the other didn’t indicate if his information came from Adelson or a top aide to the billionaire. Both requested anonymity to protect their ties to Adelson and because they were not authorized to speak publicly about his giving.
Adelson’s hefty support for Rove’s GPS made sense, said a third fundraiser who knows both men, because of their long-standing links. Adelson forged good ties with Rove after he served as deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush and this year they bonded further. Rove spent much of the last night of the Republican National Convention hanging out in a skybox suite with Adelson and other politicos and friends, and Rove also provided the casino mogul occasional advice on potential donations -- at least once undercutting another group seeking Adelson funding, said the two GOP fundraisers.
Rove, who also provided advice in 2008 to the Adelson-backed dark money group Freedom’s Watch, was just one of several GOP politicos with shadow party links that Adelson schmoozed and brainstormed with in Tampa. Long known as a hands-on donor who likes to immerse himself in details, Adelson had a crowded convention schedule. For instance, he spent time one afternoon meeting with leaders of several groups that he’d either already helped, or was considering writing more big checks to for their electoral drives.
Among the political heavies Adelson met with that afternoon were Sean Noble, a leading operative for the Koch brothers, and Carl Forti, a key political strategist for both Crossroads GPS and its affiliate American Crossroads. Forti is also a strategist for pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future, which received $20 million from Adelson and his wife Miriam, an Israeli-born doctor.
Earlier in the year, Adelson indicated at different times that he planned to spend about $100 million or “as much as it takes” to defeat Obama and help Republicans in Congressional races. Adelson’s personal wealth has been pegged at $20.5 billion by Forbes [ http://www.forbes.com/profile/sheldon-adelson/ ], making him one of the world’s richest men and enabling him to open his checkbook wide without worrying much about his bottom line.
Adelson’s largess appeared to have an impact on Romney’s campaign strategy. After Adelson publicly suggested that Romney sometimes waffled in his stances and wasn’t as ideologically consistent as his original pick, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, he and Romney met in late May in Las Vegas. Shortly afterwards, the casino owner’s first $10 million donation to Romney’s allied super PAC arrived.
Not long after their meeting, Romney restated his support for one of Adelson’s top priorities -- his fervent backing of Israel’s conservative government and his opposition to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Romney’s first foreign trip after his meeting with Adelson included a late July visit to Israel, which included a Jerusalem fundraiser that Adelson famously attended.
Now after what was largely a disappointing election for Adelson, his Las Vegas Sands casino empire could be facing heightened legal and political headaches. His sprawling operations are still mired in two wide-ranging federal criminal probes. Neither probe is said to be focused on Adelson’s conduct.
The Sands did not return several phone calls seeking comment for this piece.
In one inquiry, federal officials are looking into potential money laundering by two shady high rollers at his Las Vegas casinos. Settlement talks with Justice officials were under way in late October, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The money laundering investigation, led by the U.S. attorney for Los Angeles, is probing whether the casino broke the law by failing to report to the government millions of dollars of potentially laundered funds that two gamblers transferred to its casinos.
One of the two gamblers, Ausaf Umar Siddiqui, is being probed about over $100 million of his transactions through the casinos. Separately, he was arrested in 2009 and pleaded guilty to accepting illegal kickbacks in his job as an executive with Fry’s Electronics in California. He is now serving a six-year jail term.
The other big gambler in the probe is Zhenil Ye Gon, a Chinese-born Mexican-based businessman, who reportedly transferred $85 million to Sands casinos several years ago. Ye Gon was indicted in 2007 for dealing in illegal drugs, but the charges were dismissed in 2009.
Meanwhile, another inquiry by Justice and the SEC has been under way for about two years. It involves allegations that Adelson’s lucrative casinos on the Chinese island of Macau may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by paying bribes to Chinese officials to expand its operations there. The lion’s share of Sands' corporate revenues now come from Macau, the only place in China where casino gambling is legal, and a Singapore casino.
Among the payments that Justice has been probing are $700,000 that went to a local attorney, Leonel Alves, who was hired by the Sands Chinese subsidiary while he was a government legislator in Macau. The Justice probe apparently grew out of a wrongful termination lawsuit by Steven Jacobs, the former president of the Sands operation in Macau who has been cooperating with Justice.
Jacobs' suit alleged that he was fired after numerous clashes with Adelson over "Adelson’s illegal demands." Adelson has flatly rejected Jacobs’ allegations [ http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/13/lasvegassands-probe-idINL2E8JAK6U20120813 ] and has said that "none of what he says is true and he can't prove it."
A Sands spokesman has said repeatedly that the company has been cooperating with Justice and has done nothing wrong.
Ryan Grim contributed reporting
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/sheldon-adelson-2012-election_n_2223589.html [with comments]
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Sheldon Adelson Vows To 'Double' Donations To GOP After Huge 2012 Election Failure
By Nick Wing
Posted: 12/05/2012 10:14 am EST Updated: 12/05/2012 3:56 pm EST
Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson spent nearly $150 million [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/sheldon-adelson-2012-election_n_2223589.html (just above)] on Republicans during the 2012 elections, almost entirely in support of candidates who did not win. But his cold streak hasn't left him at all discouraged, he told the Wall Street Journal [ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323717004578159570568104706.html ] in a recent interview.
"I happen to be in a unique business where winning and losing is the basis of the entire business," Adelson told the Journal. "So I don't cry when I lose. There's always a new hand coming up."
In fact, Adelson, whose personal wealth is estimated [ http://www.forbes.com/profile/sheldon-adelson/ ] at $20.5 billion, says he's ready to literally double down on the GOP when those new cards are dealt.
According to the Journal's report:
Mr. Adelson's 2012 donations were double what he spent in 2008, and looking ahead, he said, he was ready to again "double" his donations.
"I'll spend that much and more," he said in his first extensive postelection interview. "Let's cut any ambiguity."
The GOP's up-and-comers have already begun to position themselves for a share of the billionaire's largess. Politico reported this week [ http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/2016-contenders-courting-mega-donors-84497.html ] that a number of GOP governors thought to be gearing up for potential 2016 presidential bids recently stopped by Adelson's Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas to kiss the ring.
[...]
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/05/sheldon-adelson-gop_n_2244070.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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At UCLA, Racist, Sexist Signs Called Asian Women 'White-Boy Worshipping Whores' (VIDEO)
By Kathleen Miles
Posted: 11/29/2012 2:09 pm EST Updated: 11/30/2012 2:03 pm EST
UCLA police are investigating racist, sexist slurs attacking Asian women that were found on campus this week.
On Tuesday, a student found a sign that read “asian women R Honkie white-boy worshipping Whores” attached to a Vietnamese Student Union sign.
On Wednesday, another student found the handwritten phrase “Asian Women are White-Boy Worshipping Sluts” in the women’s bathroom of the library basement.
The student who found the second message was Antonette Sadile, the community outreach programmer for the Asian Pacific Coalition. “I thought [Tuesday’s incident] was a more personal attack,” Sadile told campus paper The Daily Bruin. “But this is a bigger impact. It is really scary. I didn’t feel safe [ http://www.dailybruin.com/article/2012/11/ucpd-investigate-racial-sexist-slurs-found-on-bathroom-stall-door ]."
UCLA spokesman Steve Ritea said In a statement to CBS, “We share the students’ anger and sadness and condemn this incident.” He also said the occurrence is isolated [ http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/11/28/ucla-police-investigate-alleged-hate-crime-against-asian-women/ ] and has nothing to do with other racially charged incidents reported on campus.
However, it is the pattern of racial slurs that worries Roman Nguyen, president of the Vietnamese Student Union. “It shows this is what some people actually think,” Nguyen told the campus paper.
The Vietnamese Student Union will hold a rally in front of Kerckhoff Hall at noon Thursday to discuss this week’s and prior incidents of racism. The Asian Pacific Coalition also plans to host a forum on Dec. 5 to discuss the recent climate on campus and cultural sensitivity.
Earlier this year, Latino UCLA students living in an off-campus apartment woke up to find the following racial slurs written in black marker [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/ucla-graffiti-racial-slurs_n_1311463.html ] across their door: "you rude ignorant spic c*nts," "dirty Meximelt b*tches," and "go eat some refried beans and shut up."
The incidents follow an infamous racist rant called “Asians in the Library [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/14/alexandra-wallace-racist-video_n_835505.html ]” posted to YouTube in 2011 by UCLA student Alexandra Wallace.
Asians make up the largest ethnic group at UCLA, comprising 34 percent of the undergraduate students [ http://www.aim.ucla.edu/publications/main.asp ], according to the school’s statistics.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/29/ucla-racist-sexist-signs-asian-women-video_n_2212311.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
===
John Sununu: Democrats Won Thanks To Voters Dependent On Government
By Arthur Delaney
Posted: 12/05/2012 8:41 am EST Updated: 12/05/2012 3:12 pm EST
If Republicans are trying to shy away from the notion that America is divided between productive capitalists and dependent moochers, they forgot to tell John Sununu. The former New Hampshire governor and Mitt Romney campaign surrogate said Tuesday that Democrats and President Barack Obama won reelection by turning out the moochers.
"They aggressively got out the base of their base, the base of their base that’s dependent, to a great extent economically, on government policy and government programs," Sununu said at a forum with two other Republican governors, according to the Concord Monitor [ http://www.concordmonitor.com/news/3140299-95/sununu-base-government-former ].
Sununu's comment recalled Romney's infamous statement during the campaign that 47 percent [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/17/mitt-romney-video_n_1829455.html ] of Americans are dependent on government and would vote for Obama no matter what. The remarks, delivered at a big-donor fundraiser in May, roiled the campaign.
"There are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them," Romney said. "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
As it happens, Romney's former running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), repudiated that notion during an awards dinner in Washington on Tuesday evening.
"Both parties tend to divide Americans into 'our voters' and 'their voters,'" Ryan said, according to Politico [ http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/ryan-rubio-plot-gops-path-84606.html ]. "Republicans must steer far clear of that trap. We must speak to the aspirations and anxieties of every American. I believe we can turn on the engines of upward mobility so that no one is left out from the promise of America."
Romney, for his part, initially defended his "47 percent" comment, then said he had been "completely wrong [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/mitt-romney-47-percent_n_1941423.html ]." But after the election he returned to the idea, saying Obama won by giving "gifts [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/mitt-romney-obama-gifts_n_2133529.html ]" to blacks, Hispanics and young voters.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/05/john-sununu-government-dependency_n_2243343.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Tumblr admits it was hacked by a racist anti-blogging group
Has restored service
By Lee Bell
Tue Dec 04 2012, 16:48
BLOGGING SERVICE Tumblr has admitted that it was hacked by a racist anti-blogging and trolling group that goes by the acronym GNAA.
The INQUIRER won't report what that acronym supposedly stands for because it's racist and nasty.
GNAA previously trolled the campaign website for Barack Obama and US based media firms, but this is the first time it has attempted a cyber attack on a much larger scale.
Even technology news website The Verge said it had been a victim of the attack on Tuesday when it tweeted, "Yes, our Tumblr appears to have been hacked. We're taking care of this - and we recommend staying away from those nasty links."
Tumblr notified its users of the attack via a staff post today [ http://staff.tumblr.com/post/37133597651/this-morning-some-of-you-may-have-noticed-a-spam ]. Tumblr said that the problem had been dealt with.
"This morning, some of you may have noticed a spam post appearing repeatedly on your Dashboard and on the blogs of a few thousand affected accounts. We quickly identified the source, removed the posts, and restored service to normal," Tumblr said.
"No accounts have been compromised, and you don't need to take any further action."
The infected post was a nasty rant starting with "Dearest 'Tumblr' users" and continuing into a tirade against the service and what it called its "emo" users. Tumblr warned users not to click any of the links on a Tumblr page with the post on it, as that would repost onto their own Tumblr feeds.
© Incisive Media Investments Limited 2012
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2229509/tumblr-admits-it-was-hacked-by-a-racist-antiblogging-group [no comments yet]
*
Gay Nigger Association of America
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Nigger_Association_of_America
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Leah Frei, Adopted Toddler, Must Be Returned To Birth Father She Hardly Knows, Judge Orders
By Lisa Belkin
Posted: 12/04/2012 4:54 pm EST Updated: 12/05/2012 11:33 am EST
Eighteen-month-old Leah Frei must be returned to the father who has met her only twice, a Utah judge has ruled, in the most recent of a series of cases [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/13/AR2010041302445.html ] that accuse adoption agencies in that state of actively deceiving biological fathers.
In an opinion released on Nov. 20, and first reported by the Salt Lake Tribune [ http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55373764-78/achane-adoption-bland-child.html.csp ] today, Judge Darold McDade of Provo, Utah ruled that the girl must be returned by her adoptive parents, Jared and Kristi Frei, to her biological father, Terry Achane, within 60 days, apparently undoing a series of actions by the Adoption Center of Choice that the judge described as “utterly indefensible.”
Achane and his wife, Tira Bland, were married when Leah was conceived, but separated when she was born. (They have since divorced.) In an interview with Tribune reporter Brooke Adams, Achane describes moving to South Carolina to work as a drill instructor at Fort Jackson, thinking he would return to be with his wife when she gave birth. Instead, he said, she agreed to give the baby up for adoption and moved to Utah with the help of Center of Choice.
Why Utah?
The state has a reputation as “a magnet for those seeking to unfairly cut off opportunities for biological fathers to assert their rights to connection with their children,” Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Christine Durham wrote back in 2009 [ http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/who-should-have-custody-of-baby-emma/ ] in a case where a mother in Wyoming lied and told the father she had miscarried, then put the baby up for adoption in Utah. That was one of ten cases around that time in which adoptions went forward in Utah without the out-of-state father’s knowledge or consent.
As reporter Jerry Markon described it in the Washington Post [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/13/AR2010041302445.html ] a few years ago:
Utah is culturally conservative, and lawyers say the powerful Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with its emphasis on family values, has strongly encouraged adoption-friendly laws. “The Utah statutes can be harsh, but they are looking at what’s best for the child: stable placements and two-parent families,” said David Hardy, a lawyer for LDS Family Services, a Mormon Church-affiliated adoption agency that is among the nation’s largest.
In all the previous cases, the mother was unmarried when the baby was born.
Achane told Adams that he attempted to block the adoption of the daughter he calls Teleah as soon as he learned what Bland had done.
In his 48-page opinion, Judge McDade wrote that he was “astonished and deeply troubled” that the agency proceeded with the adoption anyway. "Once Mr. Achane contacted the Adoption Center of Choice ... to let them know he opposed the adoption and wanted his daughter back, that should have been the end of this case," he wrote. "Likewise, when the attorney for the Adoption Center of Choice contacted Mr. Achane and confirmed that Mr. Achane would not consent to the adoptive placement, the very next conversation they should have had was what arrangements the adoption agency would be making to return Teleah to him with all due haste. That did not happen."
Adams, the social justice reporter for the Tribune, has written often on these controversies and is not convinced that this court ruling will be enough to reverse the embedded practice in the state. “Will it change Utah's adoption process?” she said in an email. “I don't know. I have written quite a few stories about the issue and the problems here. There have been some moves to improve the situation (providing a link, for example, on the state Health Department website to forms unmarried fathers must fill out). But as this story shows, there are ongoing issues.”
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/04/leah-frei-utah-adoption_n_2239398.html [with comments]
===
Heaven's above! Retired priest, 80, bites 81-year-old fellow clergyman's ear off in unholy punch up
Father Thomas Byrne, 80, allegedly bit off 81-year-old Father Thomas Smith's ear in a brawl in Perth, Australia; picture [ http://www.gagtics.com/mike-tyson-as-a-baby.html ] posed by model
- Father Thomas Henry Byrne allegedly bit off Father Thomas Joseph Cameron Smith's ear in a brawl over a parking spot in Perth, Australia
- Father Smith picked up the flesh off the floor but only realised it was his right ear when he pulled it out of his pocket later, a court heard
- Father Byrne has been charged with grievous bodily harm
By Richard Shears
PUBLISHED:09:23 EST, 10 November 2012| UPDATED: 04:28 EST, 12 November 2012
A retired priest allegedly had his ear bitten off in an unholy punch-up with another retired clergyman.
Father Thomas Byrne, 80, told Father Thomas Smith, 81, to pick the flesh up off the ground and put it in his pocket after the brawl on Friday in Perth, Australia, according to police.
But it was only when Father Smith returned to his retirement flat and pulled it out of his pocket that he realised it was his right ear, East Perth Magistrates Court heard.
Father Byrne appeared in court charged with grievous bodily harm over the incident involving Father Smith, both of whom share the retirement home with a third retired Catholic priest.
The court was told that a violent brawl broke out at the retirement home complex in the Perth suburb of Dianella over a parking spot.
Police told the hearing that it took some time for Father Smith to realise his ear had been bitten off.
Once he realised that the flesh was his ear, Father Smith is said to have wrapped it in a tea towel and driven to a local medical centre, where staff phoned for an ambulance and police.
He was kept in Perth’s Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital after surgery to try to save the severed ear.
It appeared that Father Byrne had also suffered a bruising in the alleged fight. When he appeared in East Perth’s Magistrates Court he sported a black eye.
Police prosecutor Chris Lawler said Father Byrne did not have a police record but he had concerns for the safety of the victim if bail was approved.
‘They live in the same complex but they are both funded by the Catholic Church,’ Mr Lawler told the court.
Magistrate Greg Benn imposed strict bail conditions on Father Byrne, including an order not to go within 10 yards of Father Smith, nor act in a violent or threatening manner towards him.
A neighbour living in the retirement home told PerthNow he was shocked to hear about the alleged fight ‘because we’re all in our 80s and retired priests.’
Father Byrne is due to appear in court again on December 7 to allow him to take further legal advice.
© Associated Newspapers Ltd
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2230952/Heavens-Retired-priest-80-bites-81-year-old-fellow-clergymans-ear-unholy-punch-up.html [with comments]
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Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
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