Emboldened by recent wins at the polls, House Republicans, led by Rep. Stearns of Florida has demanded 10 years worth of records from Planned Parenthood in order to shut them down.
I thought McCarthyism was over. Congress wastes more time getting involved in football, baseball, steroid use with atheletes and women’s reproduction. They need to work on the economy and creating jobs.
Massive Obama conspiracy? Destroy the 2nd amendment? Cold dead hands?
The rulings are in but the dust is far from settled. Many of us are still trying to sort out what has been allowed and what has not. One thing that remains is particularly troubling– schools will be directed to track the immigration status of school children.
According to Yahoo.com:
U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn sided with the state of Alabama on Wednesday on two key sections of the state’s wide-ranging crackdown on illegal immigrants. Blackburn refused to enjoin a law that will compel elementary and secondary school administrators to demand students provide birth certificates to prove they were born in the United States, and then compile lists of illegal immigrant children in their schools. In theory, schools could begin to ask parents about their children’s immigration status today, though it’s unclear if they will do so, since school has already started.
In the first place, schools require birth certificates having nothing to do with this ruling. Students entering school for the first time present a birth certificate. A birth certificate does not necessarily determine status if not issued in the United States. Students without US birth certificates will be on the ones in the line of fire and who will have to provide status information.
Another one bites the dust. Anwar Al-Awlaki has been killed in Yemen. Yemen is claiming credit but news sources this morning are saying that America drone strikes are responsible.
Anwar Al-laki was b0rn in New Mexico and is considered the number one Al-Qeda boss. He has led a double life and misrepresented himself as an American supporter after 9/11. He is directly responsible for the underwear bomber, the Christmas Day bomber, and the Ft. Hood shooter. This was a dangerous operative.
No one can say that Obama is soft on terrorism.
Today the shofar is most commonly used on the Jewish New Year, called Rosh HaShanah (meaning “head of the year” in Hebrew). In fact, the shofar is such an important part of this holiday that another name for Rosh HaShanah is Yom Teruah, which means “day of the shofar blast” in Hebrew. The shofar is blown one hundred times on each of the two days of Rosh HaShanah. If one of the days of Rosh HaShanah falls on Shabbat, however, the shofar is not blown.
According to the famous Jewish philosopher Maimonides, the sound of the shofar on Rosh HaShanah is meant to wake up soul and turn its attention to the important task of repentance (teshuvah).
It is the eve of Rosh Hashanah, at sundown tonight, Jews all over the world have 10 days to make amends, reflect on the past year, and promise to be a better person. This is the time to ask for forgiveness and give forgiveness. This is the time to be thankful for all that you have and make an effort to help those who are in need.
Tonight we will celebrate with apples dipped in honey in hopes for a sweet year. Our Challah loaf will be round, symbolic of the cycle of life, a cycle that repeats itself generation after generation.
I wish for all my friends, no matter what their faith , that they have a sweet year, full of love and peace.
Amazon released a fleet of new Kindles today. The reader is now $79, and the new Cadillac of the line is the Kindle Fire for $199. It isn’t quite an ipad but it appears to be a pretty impressive device. It is a reader, a web surfer, has its own email client, it has Flash, brings in thousands of Netflix and TV shows, performs other miracles. It is 7 inches and weighs in around 14 oz.
Techies don’t expect it to give the ipad much competition. However, Nook and the rest of the readers out there need to hold on to their wares because the Kindle Fire will be out Novemeber 15. It does not have 3G but what do you want for $199? Jeff Bezos announced the new productsWednesday and made it sound like something everyone wanted. Kindle’s prices are looking good, I might have to trade in my old ancient dinosaur Kindle on one of these new babies. I always said I would resist, but then again, I haven’t met a new gaget I didn’t like. On the other hand, the new iphone 5 is being announced next week. That is where the real dilemma will be. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will have swype or something similar.
Features, Advantages Benefits of Kindle Fire
Are you being tempted by a Kindle? Can a person justify a new Kindle Fire if they already have an ipad, a Kindle 2 and a Droid x phone?
So, once again, Jaimie Zielger, Peter Candland’s wanna be pit bull, is going after me.
When I sent out the pledge for all candidates to sign in late July, what I received back from Peter Candland was a letter questioning the validity of Advocates for the Rural Crescent. I sent a hard copy letter in response immediately. In fact, I was forced to send a hard copy to his campaign address as Mr. Candland did not have the common courtesy to include a direct e-mail or a phone number. Let me add, that a current campaign worker for him has known me for several years.
Here is what was what was said on the not so truthful blog:
The ONLY basis for Ann Wheeler’s claim Peter Candland does not support protecting the Rural Crescent is Candland’s decision not to sign the Rural Crescent Pledge authored by liberal activist Elena Schlossberg-Kunkel. Candland asked for more information from Schlossberg-Kunkel about the organization and the political agenda being advocated by her, but got no response.
But Candland then got smeared with the false claim that he did not support protecting the Rural Crescent.
First of all, I have never smeared Peter Candland, I have simply acknowledged those who signed the pledge and their commitment to the Rural Crescent.
Politics, like life, can be quite convoluted. While reading my favorite Washington Post writer this morning, Dana Milbank, he shared some very interesting historical facts about the loan program that allowed funds to be awarded to the solar company Solyndra.
Since the solar-energy company went belly-up a few weeks ago — leaving taxpayers on the hook for $535 million in loan guarantees — a business that was once the poster child for President Obama’s green-jobs initiative has instead become a tool for Republicans to discredit most everything the administration seeks to do.
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah used Solyndra to argue against worker-training benefits. Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina used it to argue that the federal government should stay out of autism research. Disaster relief, cancer treatments, you name it: Solyndra has been an argument against them.
Yes, Republicans have been using the fiasco of Solyndra as their poster child against, not only the Obama administration as a whole, but more generally, against the use of government funds to promote private business initiatives.
And this week, the government faced the prospect of a shutdown because House Republicans added a provision to the spending bill to draw more attention to — what else? — Solyndra.
“Because of some of the horrible weather we have had over the past several weeks, we have all agreed to add emergency funds we didn’t originally plan in this bill, and Republicans have identified a couple of cuts,” explained Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, including “a cut to a loan-guarantee program that gave us the Solyndra scandal.”
Now just wait, I am about to get to the good part. I had been under the impression that the Obama adminstration had “birthed” (pardon the pun, the use of this word is NOT to be confused with the crazy “birther” movement”)this loan program as part of the stimulus bill. Au Contraire my friends!
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UPDATE: It was reported on Channel 7 news tonight that the principal, Dr. Karen Spillman has resigned her position with Stafford County Schools. That should not come as a surprise. We can assume the resignation was a forced resignation. 9/27/11 11:30
There is a little more to the Banana Man story. After Banana Man was cuffed and headed toward a 10 day suspension, the student body at Colonial Forge came to his defense. Many T-shirts were made up saying FREE Banana Man. The administration at the high school forbid the students to wear the shirts and even confiscated some of them. The ACLU has now come in on behalf of the students of Colonial Forge High School in Stafford and has told administrators in Stafford County that they must allow students to wear their Free Banana Man T-shirts. The students had been forbidden to wear Free Banana Man T-shirts prior to ACLU intervention.
Of course, the school system can choose to ignore the ACLU, if they choose. The principal is Dr. Karen Spillman, former principal in Prince William County. She certainly is not getting community support or the support of her boss, as we shall learn later. In fact, Dr. Spillman has quite a record for stirring things up and turning a 1 into a 10 when there is no need for a 10.
Leaving My Marc Blog tells quite the story. Apparently this isn’t Dr. Spillman’s first brush with controversy. Remember the reporter who was arrested over the ducks at Woodbridge High School a number of years ago? It seems that one Dr. Karen Spillman was involved in that debacle also. Leaving My Marc reports the following from Freedomforum.org: [Editor’s note- the Kelly Campbell story is a number of years old.]
Reporter Kelly Campbell went to school last week to finish up a feature on baby ducks and wound up in handcuffs and cooling her heels at a police station.
Students no doubt will be heartened to see someone besides themselves suffer under “zero-tolerance” policies afflicting the nation’s schools these days. But the reporter’s arrest raises legitimate questions about the ability of the press to perform its constitutional role and about the dismissive attitude of many government officials toward public accountability.
It all started when a photographer for the Potomac News in Prince William County, Va., saw a young person with a duckling at a baseball game last week and took a photo. She found out that the duck was part of a class assignment at Woodbridge High School.
In reporting a story to go with the photo, Campbell learned that biology teacher Douglas Pinion had 100 students take home two-day-old ducklings in an experiment about how they might “imprint” on the humans. She also encountered wildlife experts and some students and parents who expressed concerns about the welfare of the ducks. Her calls to the school to get further information were not returned. So she went to the school, where Principal Karen Spillman invited her into her office for an interview.
Interesting. I would think that the tea party would value free speech. The teacher was on his own time. Yet the tea party wants vengeance. The local school board wisely will take no action against the teacher.
I thought the tea party folks were rude and and strident. I found it especially offensive that the teacher was told not to teach liberal ideas. The kids were brought there as children. The Dream Act is for children who have been schooled in the United States and who are good students. It is simply an investment in America. We need good students to fill our work force.
Those kids are here. We can turn them in to productive students or we can send the message that they are trash and should be gang members. Those tea party folks sent the trash message. I support the government teacher 100%. He showed self control. Nazi was mild compared to what he was thinking.
Seriously, should Mr. Govt. Teacher even be teaching if he thinks all his students should be deported? NO.
Fox News is giving its usual propaganda statement. 🙄
Here is how the scenario might work down the line. Some politician will put the squeeze on the school board to punish Bryant. They will gave and find fault with his style or lesson. Teaching is an art, after all, not a science. They will find a way to mete out some hurt. I would bet money, however, that it isn’t the end.
Watch the full episode. See more Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.
Last week the immigration issue kept creeping back into the conversations on here. Well let’s have at it.
Church leaders in Alabama are suing the state over their new bundle of anti-immigration laws. Why? The churches say that the laws prevent them from doing what churches do–minister to the poor. Some religions leaders say, as the law stands, that they could be arrested for feeding an immigrant or helping in times of sickness. In other words, they feel that the Alabama government in interfering with the separation of church and state.
Alabama has legislated new laws based on the F.A.I.R. model, similar to those first passed in the July 2007 Resolution here in PWC. These might even be more draconian.
Meanwhile, in Hoover Alabama, tea party forces support the new law:
In the words of Ming Ming the Wonderpet duck, “This is serwious folks!!! “
Banana Man has received 10 days suspension from school for running down the sidelines during a football game at Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, Virginia. This story is a perfect example of schools picking their battles wisely. As it turns out, the Stafford County School System has gotten into a pissing contest with not only their entire student body but also the nation. Banana Man has gone viral.
Additionally, Banana Man has autism. Cutting to the chase, his handicapping condition may very well make him impulsive and therefore, not subject to suspension. Banana Man might have the entire nation taking up a collection for the court challenge of his suspension.
If Stafford County were smart, they would give the kid a job and let him run the field during half time every game. They would be the envy of all the other high schools. Mascot Banana Man. As long as this kid is receiving punishment, the school is the enemy.
If anyone has video of some big Bubba sheriff leading the kid away, please post it. These people deal with kids every day. They should know this is one they will not win. Not in a million years. Banana Man is the hero of the hour.
How does a school system save face after this bad of a screw up?
With all the rain in the past month, mushrooms have popped up all over, tempting people to do the unthinkable. Their mothers much not have warned them about touching toad stools. Several people have picked the fungus and stir fried it up, only to get deathly ill. At least 2 area men have avoided a liver transplant. According to the Washington Post:
Physicians offer the cautionary tale of Frank Constantinopla, 49, who after a Sept. 12 rainstorm looked in wonder at his backyard in Springfield, Va. “Oh, there’re so many mushrooms,” Constantinopla recalls thinking. “They look so lovely; I’m so lucky.”
Constantinopla plucked a handful and stir-fried them with noodles.
“They tasted good.”
Problems set in within hours and continued for days. Constantinopla and his wife grew weak, their stomachs ached, they vomited. Two days later, Constantinopla went to a local emergency room and was transferred to Georgetown University Hospital for a possible liver transplant
Doctors broke the news: Those lovely mushrooms were Amanita phalloides, a toadstool commonly known as the Death Cap.
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Jon Stewart proves there is no hope for the Middle East. What do you think it will take to bring peace to Palestine and Israel?
