Saturday, November 17, 2012 6:26:32 AM
Bill O'Reilly: Romney 'Gifts' Comments 'Right On The Money'
11.15.2012
Sabrina Schaeffer on FOX New's "O'Reilly Factor". The Fox News host said that Obama was winning because people wanted "stuff" and "things" and the president was more prepared to give it to them than Romney, the defender of "traditional" values, was.
Speaking on his Thursday show, O'Reilly defended Romney, and implied that the governor had drawn inspiration from him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgmcB-KfcMw [also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8PdqRwE7lM ; more/portion embedded at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/bill-oreilly-mitt-romney-gifts_n_2143607.html (with comments)]
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It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Best of Times
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Thursday November 15, 2012
Bill O'Reilly celebrates America's greatest tradition -- a fevered ruling class lamenting the rise of a diverse new class that will destroy the American experiment.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-november-15-2012/it-was-the-best-of-times--it-was-the-best-of-times
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Derrick Belcher, Man Behind Alabama Secession Petition, Mad About Losing Topless Car Wash (VIDEO [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO1nraXgL2c (next below, same video embedded)])
Posted: 11/16/2012 9:14 am EST Updated: 11/16/2012 11:26 am EST
Meet Derrick Belcher, a 45-year-old from Chunchula, Ala. Belcher is a truck driver, knife collector, "absolute Libertarian" and previously owned a topless car wash -- that is, until the government shut down his business, he claims.
According to Alabama.com, Belcher is so upset with the government, he's petitioning [ ] for Alabama to secede from the United States.
“I don’t think any one state can stand alone. But if we’ve got 20 of them, then that starts to be something,” Belcher said of the secession movement [ http://blog.al.com/live/2012/11/alabama_secessionist_says_work.html ]. “If you look at a map of the red states, we have all of the oil and we produce all of the food. We’re the ones that are carrying the rest of the nation.”
The Alabama native blames the federal government for shutting down his topless car wash, Euro Details, which he claims was successful for a decade in Mobile, according to Alabama.com. In 2001, Belcher was arrested and charged with obscenity. “The government ripped my business away, and now they’re choking America to death with rules and regulations,” he said.
Alabama enacted its anti-obscenity law [ http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-03-12/news/0103120210_1_nude-dancing-nude-entertainment-platinum-club ] in 1998, prohibiting private businesses and clubs from allowing breasts, genitalia and buttocks to be shown for entertainment, the Chicago Tribune previously reported. Although legislators claimed the law was instituted to stop nude dancing, "opponents argue the statute is so broad that it could be used to censor any type of entity that shows nudity," the Tribute explained.
Belcher's topless car wash fell under this umbrella.
So, last Friday, he started the Alabama secession petition [ http://www2.wkrg.com/news/2012/nov/12/man-starts-petition-alabama-secede-ar-4955025/ ] in hopes that his state will be granted the right to secede from the Union, according to WKRG, a CBS News affiliate. Petitions to secede from the U.S. have been filed in all 50 states.
“The American people are being mistreated by the federal government and there is absolutley no reason why we shouldn't end this treatment from the federal government,” Belcher told WKRG. “And I guess there is a part of me that is angry because my government has mistreated me year after year after year and I am fed up with it and I know there are several other people in this state and all across the country that are fed up with it as well.”
As of this writing, the Alabama secession petition [ https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/peacefully-grant-state-alabama-withdraw-united-states-america-and-create-its-own-new-government/2TvhJSSC ] had garnered 29,113 signatures on the White House's "We The People" online petition tool. According to the petition, 25,000 signatures are required for the White House to review it.
[h/t Gawker [ http://gawker.com/5961046/guy-who-started-alabamas-secession-petition-mostly-just-wants-his-topless-car-wash-back ] for the find.]
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/derrick-belcher-alabama-secession-petition-topless-carwash_n_2143456.html [with comments]
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Texas Nationalist Movement President Outlines Secession Goals
If we consolidate our numbers into a specific location then we can truly create our own destiny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcqfpVDxfzM
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Conservatives, don't despair
President Barack Obama speaks to the media about the "fiscal cliff" in the East Room of the White House on Friday.
By David Frum, CNN Contributor
updated 3:32 PM EST, Tue November 13, 2012
Editor's note: David Frum, a CNN contributor, is a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast. He is the author of eight books, including a new novel "Patriots" and his post-election e-book, "Why Romney Lost." Frum was a special assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2002.
Washington (CNN) -- The mood among American conservatives is now one of apocalyptic despair.
Having convinced themselves that this election arrayed freedom against tyranny, they now must wonder: Did their country just democratically vote in favor of tyranny?
On Fox News election night, Bill O'Reilly explained the meaning of the election: The "white establishment" was now outnumbered by minorities. "The demographics are changing. It's not a traditional America anymore." And these untraditional Americans "want stuff. They want things. And who is going to give them things? President Obama. He knows it, and he ran on it."
O'Reilly's analysis is echoed across the conservative blogosphere. The (non-white) takers now outnumber the (white) makers. They will use their majority to pillage the makers and redistribute to the takers. In the process, they will destroy the sources of the country's wealth and end the American experiment forever.
You'll hear O'Reilly's view echoed wherever conservatives express themselves.
Happily, the view is wrong, and in every respect.
America is not a society divided between "makers" and "takers." Instead, almost all of us proceed through a life cycle where we sometimes make and sometimes take as we pass from schooling to employment to retirement.
The line between "making" and "taking" is not a racial line. The biggest government program we have, Medicare, benefits a population that is 85% white.
President Barack Obama was not re-elected by people who want to "take." The president was re-elected by people who want to work -- and who were convinced, rightly or wrongly, that the president's policies were more likely to create work than were the policies advocated by my party.
The United States did not vote for socialism. It could not do so, because neither party offers socialism. Both parties champion a free enterprise economy cushioned by a certain amount of social insurance. The Democrats (mostly) want more social insurance; the Republicans want less. National politics is a contest to move the line of scrimmage, in a game where there's no such thing as a forward pass, only a straight charge ahead at the defensive line. To gain three yards is a big play.
Whatever you think of the Obama record, it's worth keeping in mind that by any measure, free enterprise has been winning the game for a long, long time to this point.
Compare the United States of 2012 with the United States of 1962. Leave aside the obvious points about segregation and discrimination, and look only at the economy.
In 1962, the government regulated the price and route of every airplane, every freight train, every truck and every merchant ship in the United States. The government regulated the price of natural gas. It regulated the interest on every checking account and the commission on every purchase or sale of stock. Owning a gold bar was a serious crime that could be prosecuted under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The top rate of income tax was 91%.
It was illegal to own a telephone. Phones had to be rented from the giant government-regulated monopoly that controlled all telecommunications in the United States. All young men were subject to the military draft and could escape only if they entered a government-approved graduate course of study. The great concern of students of American society -- of liberals such as David Riesman, of conservatives such as Russell Kirk and of radicals such as Dwight Macdonald -- was the country's stultifying, crushing conformity.
Even if you look only at the experiences of white heterosexual men, the United States of 2012 is a freer country in almost every way than the United States of 1962.
Obama has changes in mind that conservatives and Republicans will oppose. He will want to raise taxes; he will want to sustain social spending at a permanently higher level; he has in mind new regulations over health care, energy production and banking. He'll win some; he'll lose some. To the extent that his wins prove injurious, future Republican Congresses and administrations will struggle to undo them. That's politics: a contest that never ends and in which the only certainty is the certainty of constant change.
The Republican challenge next is to reassemble a new coalition for limited government and private enterprise. That coalition must include Americans of all ethnicities. To assume from the start that only certain ethnicities will contribute, and that others aspire only to grab, is not only ugly prejudice; it is also self-destructive delusion.
People of all backgrounds want to create, save and contribute to society. A party of the center-right should make them all feel at home, regardless of how they pronounce their last name, the complexion of their skin or the way in which they express love and build family.
The Roman Catholic Church deems despair a mortal sin. To abandon hope is to reject the reality of goodness and to forswear future action. The United States is a great and good country, and it remains great and good even when we do not get all our own way politically. The United States is a tolerant and free country, which means that there are no "tipping points" beyond which it becomes impossible to correct mistakes.
Fifty years ago, Marxism was still a live intellectual force in British universities. Marxists taught that human society must inevitably evolve into a socialist dictatorship of the proletariat. The great British conservative historian Hugh Trevor-Roper scoffed at this arrogance. He said, "When radicals scream that victory is indubitably theirs, sensible conservatives knock them on the nose. It is only very feeble conservatives who take such words as true and run round crying for the last sacraments."
We need more sensible conservatives. As for the feeble conservatives, they should take a couple of aspirin and then stay quietly indoors until the temper has subsided and they are ready to say and do something useful again.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Frum.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/12/opinion/frum-conservatives-despair/index.html [with comments]
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Arizona Gun Store Ad: Obama Voters 'Not Welcome'
11/16/2012
WASHINGTON -- Supporters of President Barack Obama aren't welcome at the Southwest Shooting Authority [ http://southwestshootingauthority.com/ ], a gun store in Pinetop, Ariz. which took out an ad in the newspaper to protest Obama's reelection.
The ad, published in the White Mountain Independent on Nov. 9, reads, "If you voted for Barack Obama, your business is NOT WELCOME at Southwest Shooting Authority. You have proven you are not responsible enough to own a firearm."
Store owner Cope Reynolds told The Huffington Post in a telephone interview Friday that the ad, which cost roughly $250, has "little to do with gun control."
"It is about the direction that this country is going and the direction it's been going for the last four years, and I feel like the people that voted for him are by and large the ones that are on the many entitlements and free stuff that they've been getting," Reynolds said.
He added: "If someone really believes that this country can get any stronger and do any better under the leadership of Barack Obama, then I don't feel like they're responsible enough to own a gun."
Reynolds said he's gotten a tremendous amount of support in response to the ad, which KPHO reported on Friday. He said some people had made the five-hour drive from Tucson to his shop in order "to shake our hand, get a picture," before returning home.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/arizona-gun-obama_n_2145125.html [with comments]
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Gun Shop Owner Says "Obama Could Be The Gun Salesman Of The Year!"
November 14, 2012 Current TV News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4a6UkfuhdU
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Oklahoma Judge Sentences Teen to Church for 10 Years
(Image Credit: KTUL)
By Christina Lopez
Nov 16, 2012 3:49pm
Anybody who knows Oklahoma District Court Judge Mike Norman probably yawned at the news that he’d sentenced a teen offender to attend church as part of his probation arrangement, and that the judge’s pastor was in the courtroom at the time.
Not only had he handed down such a sentence before, but he’d required one man to bring the church program back with him when he reported to court.
“The Lord works in many ways,” Norman, 69, told ABC News today. “I’ve done a little bit of this kind of thing before, but never on such a serious charge.”
Norman sentenced Tyler Alred, 17, Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in August for killing friend and passenger John Luke Dum in a car crash.
Dum died on impact in December after Alred crashed his Chevrolet pickup truck, ejecting Dum. Alred was 16 at the time of the crash and had been drinking prior to the deadly accident.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol issued a Breathalyzer at the time, and although Alred was under the state’s legal alcohol limit, he had been drinking underage.
The judge could have sent Alred to jail but, instead, taking into account his clean criminal and school records, sentenced him to wear a drug and alcohol bracelet, participate in counseling groups and attend a church of his choosing – weekly. He must also graduate from high school.
To avoid jail time, Norman gave Alred a maximum 10-year deferred sentence.
He’d never passed down the church-attendance requirement for someone as young as Alred, said Norman, who has worked as a district Judge in Muskogee for 14 years.
“It’s not going to be automatic, I guarantee you,” Norman said of the church sentence on future manslaughter charges. “There are a lot of people who say I can’t do what I did. They’re telling me I can’t legally sentence someone to church.”
Alred’s lawyer is not among the critics. “I usually represent outlaws and criminals,” defense attorney Donn Baker told the Muskogee Phoenix. “This is a kid that made a mistake. I think he’s worth saving.”
In the courtroom this week, an emotional scene between the victim’s family and Alred played out after statements from Dum’s mother, father and two sisters were read during the sentencing. Dum’s father and Alred stood up in court, turned toward each other and embraced one another.
“At that moment, it sure became a reality to me that I would sentence this boy to church” to help set him on the right path, Norman, a member of First Baptist Church in Muskogee, said. “There’s nothing I can do to make this up to the family.
“I told my preacher I thought I led more people to Jesus than he had but, then again, more of my people have amnesia. They soon forget once they get out of jail.”
After completing the rest of the requirements in his sentence, Alred will have the charge removed from his record.
“Only time will tell if we’ve saved Tyler Alred’s life,” the judge said.
Copyright © 2012 ABC News Internet Ventures
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/11/oklahoma-judge-sentences-teen-to-church-for-10-years/ [with comments]
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Mike Ritze, Oklahoma Lawmaker, Erects Ten Commandments Monument With Spelling Errors
By Sarah Bufkin
Posted: 11/16/2012 12:49 pm EST Updated: 11/16/2012 3:45 pm EST
An Oklahoma state lawmaker oversaw the installation of a 2,000-lb. granite block depicting the Ten Commandments [ http://newsok.com/ten-commandments-monument-is-installed-at-oklahoma-state-capitol/article/3728824 ] on the grounds of the state capitol Friday, amid fears that the monument will spark a costly legal battle over its constitutionality.
But before state Rep. Mike Ritze (R), who sponsored the initial bill and whose family donated $10,000 to fund the project, worries about fielding a suit from the state’s American Civil Liberties Union, he first needs to deal with spelling errors, The Oklahoman reports.
The rose-stone block reads “Sabbeth” instead of “Sabbath.”
And at its base, the tenth commandment reads, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidseruent.” It should read "maidservant."
“It's a simple fix,” Ritze told The Oklahoman. “Scrivener's errors or misspellings are not uncommon with monument manufacturing.”
Ritze pushed for the installation of the Ten Commandments on the lawn of the state capitol because they represent a strong moral and religious symbol for Oklahomans, he explained.
“The Ten Commandments found in the Bible, Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21, are an important component of the moral foundation of the laws and legal system of the United States of America and of the State of Oklahoma,” the original bill to establish the monument stated [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/11/06/128505/oklahoma-ten-commandments/ ], according to Think Progress.
But Ryan Kiesel, the executive director of the ACLU’s state chapter, sees the monument as an exclusionary marker that could violate the constitutional guarantee of a separation between church and state [ http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=336&articleid=20121116_16_A1_CUTLIN728895 ].
“[The state capital building] ought to be a welcoming environment for all faiths and those of no faith,” Kiesel told The Tulsa World. “When legislatures set up a monument that seems to put one faith above others, it creates an environment where some visitors will feel like second-class citizens. ... I think under the very best of circumstances, it is of questionable constitutionality.”
He said that the ACLU had not yet decided whether to file a lawsuit challenging the monument on constitutional grounds. If Oklahoma does in fact face a legal challenge, either from the ACLU or another group, Ritze says the Liberty Legal Foundation [ http://libertylegalfoundation.org/ ] -- which has led legal challenges to President Barack Obama's eligibility to run for president [ http://libertylegalfoundation.org/certification-class-action/ ] on the grounds that he was allegedly born in Kenya -- has agreed to take on the defense at no cost to the state [ http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=336&articleid=20121116_16_A1_CUTLIN728895 ].
The placement of monuments glorifying a particular religion on state government property has long been a contested issue. Notably, in 2003, a U.S. district judge ordered the removal [ http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/08/27/ten.commandments/index.html ] of a 2.6-ton, granite monument engraved with the Ten Commandments from the Alabama state judiciary building in Montgomery, Ala., which eventually led to the dismissal of the state’s chief justice, Roy Moore, after he refused to comply with the order.
In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that Kentucky’s display of the Ten Commandments violated the Equal Protection clause and had to be removed. But the court also found that a similar monument in Texas could remain, as the memorial had a historical and secular value [ http://web.law.duke.edu/publiclaw/supremecourtonline/commentary/vanvper ] in additional to a religious character.
But as Kiesel sees it, the Supreme Court's argument in the Texas case reduces the Ten Commandments to a historical footnote [ http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=336&articleid=20121116_16_A1_CUTLIN728895 ].
"Frankly, I think the people of Oklahoma that include the Ten Commandments in their worship should be offended these individuals seek to discount the Ten Commandments to some secular, historical symbol," Kiesel said.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/mike-ritze-oklahoma-ten-commandments_n_2145122.html [with comments]
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Drug Test Rick Perry, Says Texas Democrat
Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst visit an East Austin glass company on Tuesday, Nov. 13, to discuss reforms to welfare and unemployment insurance programs.
(AP Photo/Statesman.com, Laura Skelding)
By Arthur Delaney
Posted: 11/16/2012 9:56 am EST Updated: 11/16/2012 3:59 pm EST
If Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) wants the poor and jobless to prove they're not on drugs in order to receive benefits, then Perry should have to pee in a cup, too, says a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives.
State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio) told HuffPost he got his idea from the Bible.
"The Bible talks about not judging others," Martinez Fischer said. "If the governor wants to sit in judgment, then we’re going to judge everybody by the same standard."
On Tuesday, Perry proposed drug testing [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/13/rick-perry-drug-testing-poor-jobless_n_2125053.html ] for Texans who seek unemployment insurance or benefits from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, better known as welfare. Perry didn't say that unemployed and poor Texans were spending their benefits on drugs; he just said the state should make sure it doesn't happen.
"Texas taxpayers will not subsidize or tolerate illegal drug abuse," he said.
Lawmakers in more than 30 states [ http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/11/DrugTesting/ib.shtml ] have proposed drug testing for welfare benefits in recent years, but only Florida has followed through with blanket testing of welfare applicants. A federal court suspended the effort, citing the U.S. Constitution's protections against unreasonable searches by the government, but not before several months of testing proved the scheme a remarkable failure [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/welfare-drug-testing-georgia_n_1440167.html ]. The program cost the state more than it saved, and people applying for TANF benefits turned out to be less likely to use drugs than the general population.
The likelihood of a constitutional challenge hasn't stopped Perry or other lawmakers from pushing forward with testing requirements. Democrats in several states have responded with bills to drug test lawmakers and governors [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/07/unemployment_n_1189989.html ]. After all, Martinez Fischer explained, the governor lives on public funds.
"He’s the largest recipient of government subsidies in the state of Texas," Martinez Fischer said of Perry. "His subsidy for his mansion is no different from someone else’s Section 8 voucher [ http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/topics/housing_choice_voucher_program_section_8 ]."
Martinez Fischer also said Perry "has yet to come clean with his association with painkillers [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/03/rick-perry-painkillers-debates-book_n_1399401.html ] during the presidential campaign."
Perry's office declined to comment on Martinez Fischer's proposal.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/drug-test-rick-perry_n_2143349.html [with comments]
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Dems pick up House seat in California, expand net gain to five
Posted by CNN Political Unit
November 16th, 2012 02:19 PM ET
(CNN) - Republican Rep. Brian Bilbray conceded Friday to Democrat Scott Peters in California's 52nd congressional district, giving Democrats a net gain of five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In a statement conceding the race, Bilbray congratulated his opponent and thanked his supporters.
"This was an expensive and hard-fought campaign that drew national interest," Bilbray wrote. "I appreciate the spirited dialogue that often accompanies campaigns like this one. While Scott and I differ sharply on how to handle the issues facing our nation, now is the time to put those differences aside and find common ground to address our country's many challenges."
The latest results from the California secretary of state show Peters leading Bilbray by 2,660 votes.
Democrats maintain a slight lead in each of the three additional House races that remain too close to call.
A fourth unresolved House race in Louisiana will pit two Republican incumbents against each other in a December 8 run-off election.
The balance of power now stands at 234 Republicans, which includes the winner of the Louisiana race, and 198 Democrats. Before the election, Republicans held 242 seats and Democrats had 193.
The remaining races are Arizona's second district between Republican Martha McSally and Democratic incumbent Rep. Ron Barber; Florida's 18th district between Republican incumbent Rep. Allen West and Democrat Patrick Murphy; and North Carolina's seventh district between Republican David Rouzer and Democratic incumbent Rep. Mike McIntyre.
–CNN's Robert Yoon contributed to this report.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/16/dems-pick-up-house-seat-in-california-expand-net-gain-to-five/ [with comments]
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Christie On Romney Excuses: "When You Lose, You Lost"
NJ Gov. Chris Christie reacts to Mitt Romney losing and his conference call where he blames his election loss on President Obama giving "gifts" to his base.
"I always think this is kind of scapegoating after elections," Christie said on Morning Joe Friday. "When you lose, you lost."
"So someone the other day asked me 'why did Romney lose?' I said it's because he got less votes than Barack Obama. That's why," Christie added.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyu4a0S0JD8
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Published on Nov 16, 2012 by Joe Bunting
11.15.2012
Sabrina Schaeffer on FOX New's "O'Reilly Factor". The Fox News host said that Obama was winning because people wanted "stuff" and "things" and the president was more prepared to give it to them than Romney, the defender of "traditional" values, was.
Speaking on his Thursday show, O'Reilly defended Romney, and implied that the governor had drawn inspiration from him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgmcB-KfcMw [also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8PdqRwE7lM ; more/portion embedded at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/bill-oreilly-mitt-romney-gifts_n_2143607.html (with comments)]
===
It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Best of Times
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Thursday November 15, 2012
Bill O'Reilly celebrates America's greatest tradition -- a fevered ruling class lamenting the rise of a diverse new class that will destroy the American experiment.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-november-15-2012/it-was-the-best-of-times--it-was-the-best-of-times
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Derrick Belcher, Man Behind Alabama Secession Petition, Mad About Losing Topless Car Wash (VIDEO [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO1nraXgL2c (next below, same video embedded)])
By Cavan Sieczkowski
Posted: 11/16/2012 9:14 am EST Updated: 11/16/2012 11:26 am EST
Meet Derrick Belcher, a 45-year-old from Chunchula, Ala. Belcher is a truck driver, knife collector, "absolute Libertarian" and previously owned a topless car wash -- that is, until the government shut down his business, he claims.
According to Alabama.com, Belcher is so upset with the government, he's petitioning [ ] for Alabama to secede from the United States.
“I don’t think any one state can stand alone. But if we’ve got 20 of them, then that starts to be something,” Belcher said of the secession movement [ http://blog.al.com/live/2012/11/alabama_secessionist_says_work.html ]. “If you look at a map of the red states, we have all of the oil and we produce all of the food. We’re the ones that are carrying the rest of the nation.”
The Alabama native blames the federal government for shutting down his topless car wash, Euro Details, which he claims was successful for a decade in Mobile, according to Alabama.com. In 2001, Belcher was arrested and charged with obscenity. “The government ripped my business away, and now they’re choking America to death with rules and regulations,” he said.
Alabama enacted its anti-obscenity law [ http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-03-12/news/0103120210_1_nude-dancing-nude-entertainment-platinum-club ] in 1998, prohibiting private businesses and clubs from allowing breasts, genitalia and buttocks to be shown for entertainment, the Chicago Tribune previously reported. Although legislators claimed the law was instituted to stop nude dancing, "opponents argue the statute is so broad that it could be used to censor any type of entity that shows nudity," the Tribute explained.
Belcher's topless car wash fell under this umbrella.
So, last Friday, he started the Alabama secession petition [ http://www2.wkrg.com/news/2012/nov/12/man-starts-petition-alabama-secede-ar-4955025/ ] in hopes that his state will be granted the right to secede from the Union, according to WKRG, a CBS News affiliate. Petitions to secede from the U.S. have been filed in all 50 states.
“The American people are being mistreated by the federal government and there is absolutley no reason why we shouldn't end this treatment from the federal government,” Belcher told WKRG. “And I guess there is a part of me that is angry because my government has mistreated me year after year after year and I am fed up with it and I know there are several other people in this state and all across the country that are fed up with it as well.”
As of this writing, the Alabama secession petition [ https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/peacefully-grant-state-alabama-withdraw-united-states-america-and-create-its-own-new-government/2TvhJSSC ] had garnered 29,113 signatures on the White House's "We The People" online petition tool. According to the petition, 25,000 signatures are required for the White House to review it.
[h/t Gawker [ http://gawker.com/5961046/guy-who-started-alabamas-secession-petition-mostly-just-wants-his-topless-car-wash-back ] for the find.]
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/derrick-belcher-alabama-secession-petition-topless-carwash_n_2143456.html [with comments]
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Texas Nationalist Movement President Outlines Secession Goals
Published on Nov 16, 2012 by plasterman91
If we consolidate our numbers into a specific location then we can truly create our own destiny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcqfpVDxfzM
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Conservatives, don't despair
President Barack Obama speaks to the media about the "fiscal cliff" in the East Room of the White House on Friday.
By David Frum, CNN Contributor
updated 3:32 PM EST, Tue November 13, 2012
Editor's note: David Frum, a CNN contributor, is a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast. He is the author of eight books, including a new novel "Patriots" and his post-election e-book, "Why Romney Lost." Frum was a special assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2002.
Washington (CNN) -- The mood among American conservatives is now one of apocalyptic despair.
Having convinced themselves that this election arrayed freedom against tyranny, they now must wonder: Did their country just democratically vote in favor of tyranny?
On Fox News election night, Bill O'Reilly explained the meaning of the election: The "white establishment" was now outnumbered by minorities. "The demographics are changing. It's not a traditional America anymore." And these untraditional Americans "want stuff. They want things. And who is going to give them things? President Obama. He knows it, and he ran on it."
O'Reilly's analysis is echoed across the conservative blogosphere. The (non-white) takers now outnumber the (white) makers. They will use their majority to pillage the makers and redistribute to the takers. In the process, they will destroy the sources of the country's wealth and end the American experiment forever.
You'll hear O'Reilly's view echoed wherever conservatives express themselves.
Happily, the view is wrong, and in every respect.
America is not a society divided between "makers" and "takers." Instead, almost all of us proceed through a life cycle where we sometimes make and sometimes take as we pass from schooling to employment to retirement.
The line between "making" and "taking" is not a racial line. The biggest government program we have, Medicare, benefits a population that is 85% white.
President Barack Obama was not re-elected by people who want to "take." The president was re-elected by people who want to work -- and who were convinced, rightly or wrongly, that the president's policies were more likely to create work than were the policies advocated by my party.
The United States did not vote for socialism. It could not do so, because neither party offers socialism. Both parties champion a free enterprise economy cushioned by a certain amount of social insurance. The Democrats (mostly) want more social insurance; the Republicans want less. National politics is a contest to move the line of scrimmage, in a game where there's no such thing as a forward pass, only a straight charge ahead at the defensive line. To gain three yards is a big play.
Whatever you think of the Obama record, it's worth keeping in mind that by any measure, free enterprise has been winning the game for a long, long time to this point.
Compare the United States of 2012 with the United States of 1962. Leave aside the obvious points about segregation and discrimination, and look only at the economy.
In 1962, the government regulated the price and route of every airplane, every freight train, every truck and every merchant ship in the United States. The government regulated the price of natural gas. It regulated the interest on every checking account and the commission on every purchase or sale of stock. Owning a gold bar was a serious crime that could be prosecuted under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The top rate of income tax was 91%.
It was illegal to own a telephone. Phones had to be rented from the giant government-regulated monopoly that controlled all telecommunications in the United States. All young men were subject to the military draft and could escape only if they entered a government-approved graduate course of study. The great concern of students of American society -- of liberals such as David Riesman, of conservatives such as Russell Kirk and of radicals such as Dwight Macdonald -- was the country's stultifying, crushing conformity.
Even if you look only at the experiences of white heterosexual men, the United States of 2012 is a freer country in almost every way than the United States of 1962.
Obama has changes in mind that conservatives and Republicans will oppose. He will want to raise taxes; he will want to sustain social spending at a permanently higher level; he has in mind new regulations over health care, energy production and banking. He'll win some; he'll lose some. To the extent that his wins prove injurious, future Republican Congresses and administrations will struggle to undo them. That's politics: a contest that never ends and in which the only certainty is the certainty of constant change.
The Republican challenge next is to reassemble a new coalition for limited government and private enterprise. That coalition must include Americans of all ethnicities. To assume from the start that only certain ethnicities will contribute, and that others aspire only to grab, is not only ugly prejudice; it is also self-destructive delusion.
People of all backgrounds want to create, save and contribute to society. A party of the center-right should make them all feel at home, regardless of how they pronounce their last name, the complexion of their skin or the way in which they express love and build family.
The Roman Catholic Church deems despair a mortal sin. To abandon hope is to reject the reality of goodness and to forswear future action. The United States is a great and good country, and it remains great and good even when we do not get all our own way politically. The United States is a tolerant and free country, which means that there are no "tipping points" beyond which it becomes impossible to correct mistakes.
Fifty years ago, Marxism was still a live intellectual force in British universities. Marxists taught that human society must inevitably evolve into a socialist dictatorship of the proletariat. The great British conservative historian Hugh Trevor-Roper scoffed at this arrogance. He said, "When radicals scream that victory is indubitably theirs, sensible conservatives knock them on the nose. It is only very feeble conservatives who take such words as true and run round crying for the last sacraments."
We need more sensible conservatives. As for the feeble conservatives, they should take a couple of aspirin and then stay quietly indoors until the temper has subsided and they are ready to say and do something useful again.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Frum.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/12/opinion/frum-conservatives-despair/index.html [with comments]
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Arizona Gun Store Ad: Obama Voters 'Not Welcome'
11/16/2012
WASHINGTON -- Supporters of President Barack Obama aren't welcome at the Southwest Shooting Authority [ http://southwestshootingauthority.com/ ], a gun store in Pinetop, Ariz. which took out an ad in the newspaper to protest Obama's reelection.
The ad, published in the White Mountain Independent on Nov. 9, reads, "If you voted for Barack Obama, your business is NOT WELCOME at Southwest Shooting Authority. You have proven you are not responsible enough to own a firearm."
Store owner Cope Reynolds told The Huffington Post in a telephone interview Friday that the ad, which cost roughly $250, has "little to do with gun control."
"It is about the direction that this country is going and the direction it's been going for the last four years, and I feel like the people that voted for him are by and large the ones that are on the many entitlements and free stuff that they've been getting," Reynolds said.
He added: "If someone really believes that this country can get any stronger and do any better under the leadership of Barack Obama, then I don't feel like they're responsible enough to own a gun."
Reynolds said he's gotten a tremendous amount of support in response to the ad, which KPHO reported on Friday. He said some people had made the five-hour drive from Tucson to his shop in order "to shake our hand, get a picture," before returning home.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/arizona-gun-obama_n_2145125.html [with comments]
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Gun Shop Owner Says "Obama Could Be The Gun Salesman Of The Year!"
Published on Nov 14, 2012 by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
November 14, 2012 Current TV News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4a6UkfuhdU
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Oklahoma Judge Sentences Teen to Church for 10 Years
(Image Credit: KTUL)
By Christina Lopez
Nov 16, 2012 3:49pm
Anybody who knows Oklahoma District Court Judge Mike Norman probably yawned at the news that he’d sentenced a teen offender to attend church as part of his probation arrangement, and that the judge’s pastor was in the courtroom at the time.
Not only had he handed down such a sentence before, but he’d required one man to bring the church program back with him when he reported to court.
“The Lord works in many ways,” Norman, 69, told ABC News today. “I’ve done a little bit of this kind of thing before, but never on such a serious charge.”
Norman sentenced Tyler Alred, 17, Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in August for killing friend and passenger John Luke Dum in a car crash.
Dum died on impact in December after Alred crashed his Chevrolet pickup truck, ejecting Dum. Alred was 16 at the time of the crash and had been drinking prior to the deadly accident.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol issued a Breathalyzer at the time, and although Alred was under the state’s legal alcohol limit, he had been drinking underage.
The judge could have sent Alred to jail but, instead, taking into account his clean criminal and school records, sentenced him to wear a drug and alcohol bracelet, participate in counseling groups and attend a church of his choosing – weekly. He must also graduate from high school.
To avoid jail time, Norman gave Alred a maximum 10-year deferred sentence.
He’d never passed down the church-attendance requirement for someone as young as Alred, said Norman, who has worked as a district Judge in Muskogee for 14 years.
“It’s not going to be automatic, I guarantee you,” Norman said of the church sentence on future manslaughter charges. “There are a lot of people who say I can’t do what I did. They’re telling me I can’t legally sentence someone to church.”
Alred’s lawyer is not among the critics. “I usually represent outlaws and criminals,” defense attorney Donn Baker told the Muskogee Phoenix. “This is a kid that made a mistake. I think he’s worth saving.”
In the courtroom this week, an emotional scene between the victim’s family and Alred played out after statements from Dum’s mother, father and two sisters were read during the sentencing. Dum’s father and Alred stood up in court, turned toward each other and embraced one another.
“At that moment, it sure became a reality to me that I would sentence this boy to church” to help set him on the right path, Norman, a member of First Baptist Church in Muskogee, said. “There’s nothing I can do to make this up to the family.
“I told my preacher I thought I led more people to Jesus than he had but, then again, more of my people have amnesia. They soon forget once they get out of jail.”
After completing the rest of the requirements in his sentence, Alred will have the charge removed from his record.
“Only time will tell if we’ve saved Tyler Alred’s life,” the judge said.
Copyright © 2012 ABC News Internet Ventures
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/11/oklahoma-judge-sentences-teen-to-church-for-10-years/ [with comments]
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Mike Ritze, Oklahoma Lawmaker, Erects Ten Commandments Monument With Spelling Errors
By Sarah Bufkin
Posted: 11/16/2012 12:49 pm EST Updated: 11/16/2012 3:45 pm EST
An Oklahoma state lawmaker oversaw the installation of a 2,000-lb. granite block depicting the Ten Commandments [ http://newsok.com/ten-commandments-monument-is-installed-at-oklahoma-state-capitol/article/3728824 ] on the grounds of the state capitol Friday, amid fears that the monument will spark a costly legal battle over its constitutionality.
But before state Rep. Mike Ritze (R), who sponsored the initial bill and whose family donated $10,000 to fund the project, worries about fielding a suit from the state’s American Civil Liberties Union, he first needs to deal with spelling errors, The Oklahoman reports.
The rose-stone block reads “Sabbeth” instead of “Sabbath.”
And at its base, the tenth commandment reads, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidseruent.” It should read "maidservant."
“It's a simple fix,” Ritze told The Oklahoman. “Scrivener's errors or misspellings are not uncommon with monument manufacturing.”
Ritze pushed for the installation of the Ten Commandments on the lawn of the state capitol because they represent a strong moral and religious symbol for Oklahomans, he explained.
“The Ten Commandments found in the Bible, Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21, are an important component of the moral foundation of the laws and legal system of the United States of America and of the State of Oklahoma,” the original bill to establish the monument stated [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/11/06/128505/oklahoma-ten-commandments/ ], according to Think Progress.
But Ryan Kiesel, the executive director of the ACLU’s state chapter, sees the monument as an exclusionary marker that could violate the constitutional guarantee of a separation between church and state [ http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=336&articleid=20121116_16_A1_CUTLIN728895 ].
“[The state capital building] ought to be a welcoming environment for all faiths and those of no faith,” Kiesel told The Tulsa World. “When legislatures set up a monument that seems to put one faith above others, it creates an environment where some visitors will feel like second-class citizens. ... I think under the very best of circumstances, it is of questionable constitutionality.”
He said that the ACLU had not yet decided whether to file a lawsuit challenging the monument on constitutional grounds. If Oklahoma does in fact face a legal challenge, either from the ACLU or another group, Ritze says the Liberty Legal Foundation [ http://libertylegalfoundation.org/ ] -- which has led legal challenges to President Barack Obama's eligibility to run for president [ http://libertylegalfoundation.org/certification-class-action/ ] on the grounds that he was allegedly born in Kenya -- has agreed to take on the defense at no cost to the state [ http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=336&articleid=20121116_16_A1_CUTLIN728895 ].
The placement of monuments glorifying a particular religion on state government property has long been a contested issue. Notably, in 2003, a U.S. district judge ordered the removal [ http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/08/27/ten.commandments/index.html ] of a 2.6-ton, granite monument engraved with the Ten Commandments from the Alabama state judiciary building in Montgomery, Ala., which eventually led to the dismissal of the state’s chief justice, Roy Moore, after he refused to comply with the order.
In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that Kentucky’s display of the Ten Commandments violated the Equal Protection clause and had to be removed. But the court also found that a similar monument in Texas could remain, as the memorial had a historical and secular value [ http://web.law.duke.edu/publiclaw/supremecourtonline/commentary/vanvper ] in additional to a religious character.
But as Kiesel sees it, the Supreme Court's argument in the Texas case reduces the Ten Commandments to a historical footnote [ http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=336&articleid=20121116_16_A1_CUTLIN728895 ].
"Frankly, I think the people of Oklahoma that include the Ten Commandments in their worship should be offended these individuals seek to discount the Ten Commandments to some secular, historical symbol," Kiesel said.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/mike-ritze-oklahoma-ten-commandments_n_2145122.html [with comments]
===
Drug Test Rick Perry, Says Texas Democrat
Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst visit an East Austin glass company on Tuesday, Nov. 13, to discuss reforms to welfare and unemployment insurance programs.
(AP Photo/Statesman.com, Laura Skelding)
By Arthur Delaney
Posted: 11/16/2012 9:56 am EST Updated: 11/16/2012 3:59 pm EST
If Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) wants the poor and jobless to prove they're not on drugs in order to receive benefits, then Perry should have to pee in a cup, too, says a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives.
State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio) told HuffPost he got his idea from the Bible.
"The Bible talks about not judging others," Martinez Fischer said. "If the governor wants to sit in judgment, then we’re going to judge everybody by the same standard."
On Tuesday, Perry proposed drug testing [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/13/rick-perry-drug-testing-poor-jobless_n_2125053.html ] for Texans who seek unemployment insurance or benefits from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, better known as welfare. Perry didn't say that unemployed and poor Texans were spending their benefits on drugs; he just said the state should make sure it doesn't happen.
"Texas taxpayers will not subsidize or tolerate illegal drug abuse," he said.
Lawmakers in more than 30 states [ http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/11/DrugTesting/ib.shtml ] have proposed drug testing for welfare benefits in recent years, but only Florida has followed through with blanket testing of welfare applicants. A federal court suspended the effort, citing the U.S. Constitution's protections against unreasonable searches by the government, but not before several months of testing proved the scheme a remarkable failure [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/welfare-drug-testing-georgia_n_1440167.html ]. The program cost the state more than it saved, and people applying for TANF benefits turned out to be less likely to use drugs than the general population.
The likelihood of a constitutional challenge hasn't stopped Perry or other lawmakers from pushing forward with testing requirements. Democrats in several states have responded with bills to drug test lawmakers and governors [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/07/unemployment_n_1189989.html ]. After all, Martinez Fischer explained, the governor lives on public funds.
"He’s the largest recipient of government subsidies in the state of Texas," Martinez Fischer said of Perry. "His subsidy for his mansion is no different from someone else’s Section 8 voucher [ http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/topics/housing_choice_voucher_program_section_8 ]."
Martinez Fischer also said Perry "has yet to come clean with his association with painkillers [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/03/rick-perry-painkillers-debates-book_n_1399401.html ] during the presidential campaign."
Perry's office declined to comment on Martinez Fischer's proposal.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/drug-test-rick-perry_n_2143349.html [with comments]
===
Dems pick up House seat in California, expand net gain to five
Posted by CNN Political Unit
November 16th, 2012 02:19 PM ET
(CNN) - Republican Rep. Brian Bilbray conceded Friday to Democrat Scott Peters in California's 52nd congressional district, giving Democrats a net gain of five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In a statement conceding the race, Bilbray congratulated his opponent and thanked his supporters.
"This was an expensive and hard-fought campaign that drew national interest," Bilbray wrote. "I appreciate the spirited dialogue that often accompanies campaigns like this one. While Scott and I differ sharply on how to handle the issues facing our nation, now is the time to put those differences aside and find common ground to address our country's many challenges."
The latest results from the California secretary of state show Peters leading Bilbray by 2,660 votes.
Democrats maintain a slight lead in each of the three additional House races that remain too close to call.
A fourth unresolved House race in Louisiana will pit two Republican incumbents against each other in a December 8 run-off election.
The balance of power now stands at 234 Republicans, which includes the winner of the Louisiana race, and 198 Democrats. Before the election, Republicans held 242 seats and Democrats had 193.
The remaining races are Arizona's second district between Republican Martha McSally and Democratic incumbent Rep. Ron Barber; Florida's 18th district between Republican incumbent Rep. Allen West and Democrat Patrick Murphy; and North Carolina's seventh district between Republican David Rouzer and Democratic incumbent Rep. Mike McIntyre.
–CNN's Robert Yoon contributed to this report.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/16/dems-pick-up-house-seat-in-california-expand-net-gain-to-five/ [with comments]
===
Christie On Romney Excuses: "When You Lose, You Lost"
Published on Nov 16, 2012 by NewsPoliticsNow2
NJ Gov. Chris Christie reacts to Mitt Romney losing and his conference call where he blames his election loss on President Obama giving "gifts" to his base.
"I always think this is kind of scapegoating after elections," Christie said on Morning Joe Friday. "When you lose, you lost."
"So someone the other day asked me 'why did Romney lose?' I said it's because he got less votes than Barack Obama. That's why," Christie added.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyu4a0S0JD8
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"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
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upon the Right of Election, 1790
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