“There were several of us who felt that because of our convictions. about what the Bible says, we couldn’t agree to go along with a generic prayer policy,” said 13-year trooper Rex Carter, who works in Southwest Virginia.
Republican lawmakers in the state concurred, arguing that the new restrictions are a violation of the First Amendment and an attack on Christianity.
“For those of us who understand the importance of religion in American life and value the free expression of religion as one of our essential rights, the Kaine administration’s directive is disappointing and disheartening,” House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said.
“Censoring what these chaplains can say is a violation of their First Amendment right to freedom of expression,” Del. Charles W. Carrico Sr., said.
The former state trooper is currently putting together an online petition to get the police department to rescind the new rule.
When federal judges in San Francisco ruled in 2002 that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was unconstitutional because it included the phrase “under God,” Sarah Palin was not amused. Palin, who at the time was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, quickly drafted a terse letter to the editor of a San Francisco newspaper.
“Dear Editor,” Palin wrote in 2002. “San Francisco judges forbidding our Pledge of Allegiance? They will take the phrase ‘under God’ away from me when my cold, dead lips can no longer utter those words,” Palin wrote.
“…the old fighter jock may be frightened that he’s about to ditch another plane” - Joe Klein, Time-blog.
On Oct. 26, 1967, John McCain was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam, when his A-4E Skyhawk dive bomber was shot down and he was forced to bail out. Badly injured, he was subsequently captured as a prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese. He was held in horrific conditions from 1967 to 1973, experiencing episodes of torture and refusing an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer; his war wounds would leave him with lifelong physical limitations.
Or, perhaps you’d prefer this alternative version, as characterized by TTS earlier this year:
McCain was bombing women in a lightbulb factory (according to Newsweek) when shot down in North Vietnam. He has never failed to defend any illegal or violent war in which the US leaders involved the citizens.
Of course, despicable political commentary has been around for a long time, but, with this latest piece of hateful garbage, Mr. Klein has managed to bring it down to an historical new low. Here are some excerpts from his new post in his appropriately named Swampland:
From Time-blog.com
September 25, 2008 10:32 What Actually Happened Yesterday
Posted by Joe Klein
John McCain faced another crisis yesterday–a political one, not the financial emergency he used as an excuse for his rash actions–and once again he overreacted. This is becoming a pattern (as is his “greatest crisis since…” formulation: yesterday, since World War II; previously–on Georgia–since the end of the cold war), and it is not very reassuring behavior in a potential President…
The political crisis was real. And it wasn’t merely that he was slipping a bit in the polls…
Happily, in the end, McCain did the responsible thing…but he did it foolishly, in a panicky fashion. What McCain didn’t understand was that the legislative crisis was already receding when he made his melodramatic–and somewhat wild-eyed–suspension of campaign activities statement…
In any case, the crisis was receding because the Bush Administration was caving to the Democrats’ modifications In any case, Obama’s cool steadfastness has put him in the driver’s seat on this one…
And that raises an interesting question: Why was McCain so quick to pull out of the debate? After all, with the momentum slightly in Obama’s direction, he needed a game-changer–and foreign policy is, allegedly, his area of expertise. His peremptory actions yesterday was not the behavior of a confident man. It was the behavior of a man uncertain, despite all the macho bluster, about his chances in the most important theater of battle in any presidential campaign, one where gimmicks, diversions and untruths can be directly countered by his opponent. McCain may clean Obama’s clock in the coming debates–but it seems entirely possible that the old fighter jock may be frightened that he’s about to ditch another plane.
Through the eyes of our lovely Mr. Klein and friends, John McCain’s bail out over Vietnam was most likely some kind of a slick political maneuver, and his later courageous refusal to accept early release based on his father’s propaganda importance was just another political ploy. What, I wonder, must it be like to be a Mr. Klein? What must it be like to look at this world of ours through those cynical jaded eyes?
By choosing the interests of his country over the interests of his political campaign, John McCain has once again demonstrated that bravery and loyalty for which he has justly become famous.
And once again, our infamously biased leftist media has demonstrated its unconscionable amorality.
I know, I should be used to it by now. We all should. It was, after all, to be expected and should come as no great surprise. And yet it does surprise me. This utter contempt for truth and fairness from one of our most prestigious publications can still shock me, still make me recoil in disbelief and disgust, can still make me almost physically sick.
I know, we’re not supposed to hate; it’s a negative drain on our psyche. But I’m sorry, I just can help it. I truly despise all of the liars and cheats of this world, and all of those ideologues who put their personal political interests over the welfare of their country and the honor of truth. I despise our Mr. Klein and all the Mr. Kleins of this world. And I firmly believe that sooner or later truth will prevail, it always does, and these despicable cheats and liars will go down in flames just like our honorable candidate’s doomed A-4E Skyhawk. - rg
Title: Mission Accomplished: One Year Testimonies at the MRS
START DATE: Wednesday September 24
TIME: 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Location Details:
MRS (Marine Recruiting Station)
64 Shattuck Square
Berkeley
(On Shattuck Ave just south of University where Shattuck runs one-way and north - also 2 blocks north of downtown Berkeley BART)
Event Type: Protest
Contact Name zanne joi
Email Address mzsam [at] bayareacodepink.org
Phone Number 510-524-2776
Address
CodePINK and our allies have prevailed!
Major protest operations at the MRS have been ended, one year since covert military recruiting operations were first uncovered in Berkeley!
Our coalition is now engaged in dis(as)sembling and deconstructing the U.S. military, making the world safe and secure!
Our city and our coalition are proud of these accomplishments!
Come to our One Year End Recruiting Commemoration Wednesday, Sept 24th noon at the MRS* to honor these courageous Peace Activists!
Share and hear testimonies from the front lines of our most memorable, meaningful, insightful actions, episodes, and occurrences over the past year.
For more information and to participate, just BE THERE or call 510-524-2776.
*The MRS is located at 64 Shattuck Square, Berkeley, on Shattuck Ave just south of University where Shattuck runs one-way and north - or two blocks north of the downtown BART.
The USMC Recruiting Center is still open. Code Pink is packing up and leaving. This means they prevailed?! In what warped reality do these crazy people live in??
I think my favorite line is the one about “covert military operations”. Yes, look at how hidden and secretive it is:
A storefront right on a busy street. Covered in USMC logos and banners. Those damn secretive bastards. Trying to hide things! And again, in what warped reality do they live in that disassembling the United States military makes the world safer? If it weren’t for the United States military, all of Europe would be speaking German right now. We’ve saved the world numerous times from various faces of evil, from fascism to communism and now Islamic terrorism. And in any case, Code Pink must be especially deluded to think that they have even one iota of impact upon our military.
And as for Code Pink’s “victory”? The recruiting center is still open. I called them myself. And they laughed and said, “We don’t pay much attention to them. We aren’t going anywhere.” I then told them that the rest of the country supports them, and they told me thank you and reassured me again that they weren’t leaving. Which means Code Pink lost. Their mission was to get the recruiting center closed, and they didn’t. So how was their mission accomplished?
It wasn’t. The Marines have faced much tougher foes than the measly Code Pink wackjobs, and they’re still standing while the unpatriotic loons are leaving with their tails between their legs, desperately trying to make it seem like they didn’t waste a year in Berkeley.
Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain announced Wednesday that he was suspending his campaign beginning today as he returns to Washington so that he can do the job that he was elected to do. This suspension of his campaign is said to include postponement of his debate with Democrat Nominee Barry Obama if needed. Obama said that he didn’t see a need to postpone the debate and that the next President should be able to multi-task. But what is the real reason why Obama is so anxious to see this debate go off but refused to meet McCain out among the people in town-hall forums around the country? Well I believe that I know the answer to that question.
Barry has been holed-up in Clearwater, FL for days preparing for a moderated debate where he has to be able to give answers without the aid of a teleprompter. He’s been practicing for this debate and any delay might cause the effectiveness of this practice to be diminished.
Here’s the evidence (WARNING VIDEO CONTAINS QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE)…
Barry can ill-afford to be caught like a deer in headlights like he was at Saddleback. As someone who is as staunchly pro-death as he is, he shouldn’t have come across as such a indecisive twit like he did. One of the major attractions for those who confuse articulate rhetoric with the ability to lead has been Obama’s command of the English language. Which if you watched the video was sorely lacking at Saddleback. Why? No teleprompter.
So Barry has been in Florida in an eleventh-hour cram session like a college student preparing for an exam in a subject that he’s weak on. He cannot afford a delay which is precisely why a delay may be necessary in my opinion.
On a related note…
It took an invitation from the White House for Barry to tear himself away from his debate preparation and attend a bipartisan meeting with McCain and President Bush. How sad is that?
Isn’t it ironic that SanFran Nan and the rest of her fellow Democrats including their Nominee for President, Barry O, are blaming the Bush Administration for the down turn in the economy sparked by poor lending practices in the housing market? Isn’t it strangely ironic that in recent days we have found out that the problems stemmed from practices put into place to placate the Senate Banking Committee in 2005? And Isn’t it just a bit more than a coincidence that the current Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Christopher Dodd (D CT) and the Democrat Nominee for President of the United States one Barack Hussein Obama, received the highest amounts in contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? It’s true according to several sources. Most especially Open Secrets.
Dodd received $165,400 from Fannie and Freddie’s PACs and Employees.
Obama received $126,349 from Fannie and Freddie’s PACs and Employees.
On top of these revelations we have also discovered that the Democrat Nominee in 2004, a certain John F. Kerry, received $111,000. That is as of September 8, 2008.
To be completely fair, it seems not many in the House and Senate from either Party are not guilty of taking Freddie and Fannie money. To his credit, Sen. John McCain took contributions from individuals but not Freddie and Fannie’s PACs.
The most interesting fact of these numbers is the fact that Barry O took the second highest amount of money from Fannie, Freddie, and their employees in the shortest amount of time. He has only completed 3 years and just under 9 months of his first term as a United States Senator and did not serve in the House before this term. So in just under 4 years in the Senate, most of which time he has spend campaigning for President, he has taken $31,500 per year in office. That is more than a lot of people make in personal income in a single year.
Bottom line is that those responsible for the current mess are running Congress. Now Congress is willing to take some action on oversight. That is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house after a majority of the hens have been eaten. This could have been fixed in 2005.
Besides FoxNews… Where is the news media? Absent as usual when it comes time to report on Democrat failure.
As most veteran customers know, it takes a pretty thick skin to successfully navigate the Berkeley Bowl, this strident city’s most popular grocery store. Outside, petitioners seeking signatures for ballot measures have come to blows with opinionated residents. In the tiny parking lot, nicknamed the Berkeley Brawl, frustrated motorists have been known to ram one another’s cars. At the checkout, people have thrown punches and unripened avocados at suspected line-cutters.
When one shopper was told she couldn’t return a bag of granola, she showily dumped its contents on the floor. Culyon Garrison, who works at the customer-service desk, recently had a loaf of bread thrown at him.
The produce emporium — one of the nation’s most renowned retailers of exotic fruits and vegetables — creates its own bad behavior. Kamikaze shoppers crash down crowded aisles without eye contact or apology for fender-benders. So many customers weren’t waiting to pay before digging in that management imposed the ultimate deterrent: Those caught sampling without buying will be banned for life — no reprieves, no excuses. (Not even “I forgot to take my medication.”)
Raphael Breines, who was ejected last year for eating on the premises, said he couldn’t decide between two types of apricots, so he sampled both. Security stopped him in the parking lot. “They treated me like a thief,” said the 37-year-old park planner, who was photographed and required to sign a no-trespass agreement. “Technically I was stealing, but I wasn’t trying to hide anything. I was just deciding which type of apricot to buy.” Breines, a longtime customer, sent an apology letter, asking to be reinstated. His request was denied.
Store manager Larry Evans says the policy is a fair response to doctors, lawyers and college professors who help themselves to bags of cookies, nuts and vitamins, stick their fingers in pies and guzzle from bottles of sake, assuming the rules don’t apply to them. “There’s a sense of entitlement to this town,” Evans said. “People think, ‘If I want to do it, I’ll do it, just try and stop me.’ ”
Seven years on the job, he said, has given him insight into the city’s sometimes sharp social elbows. “Berkeley residents are angry — they’re mad at the president, the economy, all kinds of stuff. And this is the place where it seems to get released, the local supermarket.”
Longtime Berkeley residents also think they have a grip on the good life, so being banned from the Bowl is no small matter. On a typical summer day, a shopper at the Bowl is likely to find 20 kinds of apples, eight types of mangoes, half a dozen varieties of papaya, six kinds of garlic, five types of ginger and 40 different tomatoes.
At least since September 8 the extreme left has been pushing a lie that Governor, then Mayor, Sarah Palin “charged rape victims for rape kits” performed upon them in the Alaskan town of Wasilla. The charge stems from a May 22, 2000 article in the local Wasilla paper The Frontiersman and has been spun from a comment made by the Wasilla Police Chief. This comment was somehow made into a Sarah Palin policy. Evidence of the incident, though, shows no involvement by Palin at all. Still, many Old Media outlets continue to keep illegitimately linking this rape kit billing claim to Sarah Palin, even though the truth is easily discovered.
As mentioned first up was The Frontiersman story from 2000. In that story Police Chief Fannon was quoted as standing against legislation that would force local municipalities to pick up the costs of rape kits being performed. In the interview Fannon said that, upon conviction, he favored the criminals being charged for the costs.
The story mentions that Fannon claimed that at the time Wasilla did have a policy that rape victims’ insurance would be charged for the kits being performed but there was no mention that victims themselves were charged and no claim that any ever were. It should be pointed out that The Frontiersman is the local Wasilla paper, so, consequently, the story did not mention what the policy was in any other Alaskan city outside the area the paper covers other than to say that “most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams.” This last phrase has been focused on by Palin’s detractors and spun from “some municipalities” into “all” (except Wasilla) and presented as some sort of proof that she hates rape victims.
After Palin was picked to be VP, on September 8, a blog called Americablog found the old story and brought it up as evidence of “a rather nasty window into Sarah Palin.” Americablog is run by a man named John Aravosis, a Democratic strategist, sometimes gay activist, and Washington D.C. lawyer who once worked for Alaska Senator Ted Stevens before he, Aravosis, formally switched to the Democratic Party.
Later that day The Daily Kos also picked it up and from here it began to morph even further adding false claims to the story. In one of those additions to the story, Kos blogger Steven R claimed that Palin hired Police Chief Fannon because he was in favor of charging rape victims for rape kits. Steven R said he was “Pro-Charging Rape Victims for their OWN TESTS!!!” (bold in original). I cannot find this claim anywhere prior to the meme being picked up by the Old Media echoing this Kos diarist.
According to the Uniform Crime Reports for Wasilla, up until 2000 only one rape had been reported to police in Wasilla. The Kos diarist tried to claim that one rape reported equaled one rape conviction alleging that all the “other” rapes were not convicted. But the report clearly says that it was one rape reported not one rape convicted. The Daily Kos Diarist was trying to make it seem as if there were all sorts of rapes going on that weren’t being reported and, presumably, all sorts of victims being charged for rape kits.
In any case, from here the Old Media began to pick up the charge that Palin had put in place or at least agreed with this charging of victims policy. On September 12, for instance, The L.A. Times repeated the charge.
When Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, the city billed sexual assault victims and their insurance companies for the cost of rape kits and forensic examinations.
The L.A. Times also helped further the warped claim that made it seem that the only Alaskan town that charged victims for rape kits was Palin’s Wasilla.
Then-Gov. Tony Knowles said Thursday that Wasilla was unique in the state in charging rape victims for costs incurred by law enforcement in trying to solve the crime.
This charge then began to appear in all sorts of opinion columns, blogs and in the comments sections of many of the Palin stories in papers all across the country.
On September 21, the Chicago Tribune repeated the tale, as well. The Chi Trib tried to spin this tale into one that made Palin notorious in the Alaska State Legislature over the practice.
While she was mayor of Wasilla, her town was the only one in Alaska that required rape victims to pay for their own forensic tests. Charging victims for the “rape kits” necessary to collect evidence and convict sexual predators was a “cost-cutting” measure that continued until complaints about her administration’s policy prompted the Alaska State Legislature to pass a bill that banned this anti-victim practice statewide.
On September 22, it was CNN’s turn to highlight the charge. CNN also pushed the false idea that out of all of Alaska’s towns only Wasilla insisted on perpetrating this policy quoting former Democratic State Rep. Eric Croft to that effect.
Former state Rep. Eric Croft, a Democrat, sponsored a state law requiring cities to provide the examinations free of charge to victims. He said the only ongoing resistance he met was from Wasilla, where Palin was mayor from 1996 to 2002.
Farther down in the story, CNN does reveal that there are no records and no proof that Palin ever even knew about this charging the victim policy. CNN also finally mentions that Wasilla wasn’t the only town in Alaska that had this policy.
Many other papers also mention that Palin charged victims for their own rape kits. Papers such as Denver Daily and Philadelphia Weekly, for instance. There are far more than the few I mention here.
So, the impression all these stories leave us with is that the town of Wasilla was a major impediment to passage of a bill in the state legislature that would end the policy of charging rape victims for their own rape kits being administered. We are told that “Palin charged rape victims” and we are told that she hired a new police chief because he also wanted to charge victims. One would think that if all this were true, Palin would have been all over Alaska’s news in the year 2000 because of it. But, in reality, none of these charges can be found and Jim Geraghty of NRO has done a little investigative work to prove it.
Geraghty looked to see how often Wasilla and Palin were mentioned in the debates about the rape kit bill. But he finds that there is not one mention of the town of Wasilla in the hearings over the bill. Far from being the mayor that had “complaints about her administration’s policy” (as the Chi Trib says) being the one forcing the state legislature to pass the law, Wasilla is not mentioned at all in the debates about the bill.
The Democratic sponsor of the legislation, Eric Croft, told USA Today recently that “the law was aimed in part at Wasilla, where now-Gov. Sarah Palin was mayor.” Yet in six committee meetings, Wasilla was never mentioned, even when the discussion turned to the specific topic of where victims were being charged.
Geraghty also could not find a single instance of a rape victim ever having been charged for her own rape kit.
To clarify: In preparation to attend a hearing and support the bill, one of the state’s top law-enforcement officials found no case of a rape victim ever being charged. And roughly a month after 30 Democratic lawyers, investigators, and opposition researchers, not to mention reporters from every major news agency in the country, landed in Alaska, we still have no instances to consider.
Additionally, Geraghty found that it was the hospitals in Alaska, not the police agencies, that were passing the bills on to the victims’ insurance companies. And the idea that only Wasilla had such a policy is blasted out of the water by Geraghty who notes that Juneau also had the same policy of charging rape victims for their rape kits.
In fact, at a Finance Committee hearing, Representative Gail Phillips (R., Homer) “read for the record, a statement from a woman in Juneau who had experienced the charges as indicated.” Compare Juneau (population 30,711 in 2000) to Wasilla (population 5,469).
On top of all of that, there are no stories prior to Sarah Palin being offered the billet as VP by John McCain that makes the claim that Palin was informed of or involved in this policy of charging rape victims for rape kits. And, since there was only one rape reported in the city between 1996 and 2000 when the story first came to the papers, it’s no wonder she wasn’t aware of the policy. When would it ever have come up? Does anyone think that any given mayor of any American town is fully cognizant of every single policy or law in their city, especially if it is a law not in use because of a lack of situations to bring it to light?
For her part, Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella has said that the governor “does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test.”
In the end, it seems that this story is a wild exaggeration about Palin’s role in this policy. There is no proof that she ever knew about the policy until long after the situation hit the news, it is untrue that her town was “unique” in blocking the measure, no evidence that she, herself, was notorious for the policy, and no proof that any victims were ever charged for rape kits. In fact, according to the Uniform Crime Report there were only 5 rapes reported in the 6 years she was mayor of Wasilla and four of those happened after the state law in question was passed.
In fact, this whole thing looks like another case where the media has been programmed by the nutroots and Democratic operatives.
Yet, the media still repeatedly bring this false charge up at every possible opportunity. Geraghty is right. The Old Media and the Obama campaign owes Palin an apology.
Aamir Khan has been a real good Mamu. Recently, during the shooting of Imran’s forthcoming ‘Kidnap’, an incident further showed the strong relationship the duo share.
‘Kidnap’ required a stunt scene, which involved jumping off from the 20th floor of a building. Sanjay Dutt, who is Imran’s co-star in the film was observing the stunt from [...] - [Read more]
Aamir Khan has been a real good Mamu. Recently, during the shooting of Imran’s forthcoming ‘Kidnap’, an incident further showed the strong relationship the duo share.
‘Kidnap’ required a stunt scene, which involved jumping off from the 20th floor of a building. Sanjay Dutt, who is Imran’s co-star in the film was observing the stunt from [...] - [Read more]
Manisha Koirala has just split with golfer boyfriend Chris, whom she has been dating over the past one year. The actress made the announcement herself on her Facebook account. Manisha’s status on Facebook has now gone from being In A Relationship to Single.
Our sources reveal that one of the major reasons for the relationship failing [...] - [Read more]
Manisha Koirala has just split with golfer boyfriend Chris, whom she has been dating over the past one year. The actress made the announcement herself on her Facebook account. Manisha’s status on Facebook has now gone from being In A Relationship to Single.
Our sources reveal that one of the major reasons for the relationship failing [...] - [Read more]
In the world of Bollywood its an old thing that whenever a big film is scheduled for release one of the principal artists gets miffed with the maker for not promoting them.
Now we have the buzz that Minissha Lamba is not happy with Sanjay Gadhvi the director of ‘Kidnap’ for not giving her importance in [...] - [Read more]
In the world of Bollywood its an old thing that whenever a big film is scheduled for release one of the principal artists gets miffed with the maker for not promoting them.
Now we have the buzz that Minissha Lamba is not happy with Sanjay Gadhvi the director of ‘Kidnap’ for not giving her importance in [...] - [Read more]
The Big B of Bollywood Amitabh Bachchan has been voted Asia’s sexiest vegetarian male in a survey conducted by animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
Hong Kong’s singer-actress Faye Wong was voted Asia’s sexiest vegetarian female in the poll conducted among members of PETA Wednesday.
Runners-up in the competition included Taiwanese drama [...] - [Read more]
The Big B of Bollywood Amitabh Bachchan has been voted Asia’s sexiest vegetarian male in a survey conducted by animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
Hong Kong’s singer-actress Faye Wong was voted Asia’s sexiest vegetarian female in the poll conducted among members of PETA Wednesday.
Runners-up in the competition included Taiwanese drama [...] - [Read more]
Abhishek Bachchan finally speaks up about his latest film Drona. “It’s my biggest and best film so far,” Abhishek Bachchan says.
Abhishek and Goldie have got together after more than seven years (BAS ITNA SA KHWAB HAI was released in July 2001).
In between, in 2006, Goldie had plans of making a thriller with Abhishek, but decided [...] - [Read more]
Abhishek Bachchan finally speaks up about his latest film Drona. “It’s my biggest and best film so far,” Abhishek Bachchan says.
Abhishek and Goldie have got together after more than seven years (BAS ITNA SA KHWAB HAI was released in July 2001).
In between, in 2006, Goldie had plans of making a thriller with Abhishek, but decided [...] - [Read more]
Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain announced Wednesday that he was suspending his campaign beginning today as he returns to Washington so that he can do the job that he was elected to do. This suspension of his campaign is said to include postponement of his debate with Democrat Nominee Barry Obama if needed. Obama said that he didn’t see a need to postpone the debate and that the next President should be able to multi-task. But what is the real reason why Obama is so anxious to see this debate go off but refused to meet McCain out among the people in town-hall forums around the country? Well I believe that I know the answer to that question.
At least since September 8 the extreme left has been pushing a lie that Governor, then Mayor, Sarah Palin “charged rape victims for rape kits” performed upon them in the Alaskan town of Wasilla. The charge stems from a May 22, 2000 article in the local Wasilla paper The Frontiersman and has been spun from a comment made by the Wasilla Police Chief. This comment was somehow made into a Sarah Palin policy. Evidence of the incident, though, shows no involvement by Palin at all. Still, many Old Media outlets continue to keep illegitimately linking this rape kit billing claim to Sarah Palin, even though the truth is easily discovered.
