Category Archives: Politics

Pensacola, Politics, Race Relations

Being Offended Never Goes Out Of Season

On the subject of Race Relations, there seems to be no shortage of people looking to be offended. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying that there aren’t problems associated with race. Clearly there still are problems. We don’t live in a perfect, color-blind, world yet. A recent incident here in Pensacola, FL comes to mind. But when people of responsibility make accusations that foment racial tension, it just makes the hair on my back (which my wife will attest to) stand up.

Thomas Sowell calls it being belligerent. I agree and for those doing it, I see it as having a chip on your shoulder. Neither of which will earn you brownie points with the police in the course of their duties. It may even lead to you being killed.

Case in point is U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill), from the 7th district in Chicago. He was pulled over by police for what he claims is ‘driving while black.’ He was given a $75 ticket for a moving violation. Davis says . . .Rep. Danny Davis

“I hope that this was some kind of isolated instance, but I know in my heart of hearts, I know that it’s not”

He fails to see that the duties of that officer are to protect himself and others with whom he could have had a head-on collision. Hearken back to former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, who committed battery on an officer for doing his job, keeping the capitol building safe and secure. She said it was because she was black. This, in a building where intruders have come in and shot and killed people. There is no measure of understanding from people like McKinney and Davis, other than, I’m black so leave me alone.

Davis says . . .

“There was just no reason I could conjure up other than the fact that there were four black people in a car.”

Oh really? What about swerving over the center line in the wee hours of the morning? He ought to be thankful he wasn’t given a breath test. Had he been drinking, and there is no evidence that he was or wasn’t, his ticket could have been much worse.

By contrast, Thomas Sowell has his own experience of DWB, Driving While Black.

Twice within the past few years, I have been pulled over by the police for driving at night without my headlights on. My car is supposed to turn on the headlights automatically when the light outside is below a certain level, but sometimes I accidentally brush against the controls and inadvertently switch them to manual.

Both times I thanked the policeman because he may well have saved my life. Neither time did I get a ticket or even a warning. In each case, the policeman was white.

and

Recently a well-known black journalist told me of a very different experience. He happened to be riding along in a police car driven by a white policeman. Ahead of them was a car driving at night with no headlights on and, in the dark, it was impossible to see who was driving it. When the policeman pulled the car over, a black driver got out and, when the policeman told him that he was driving without his lights on, the driver said, “You only pulled me over because I am black!”This was said even though he saw the black man who was with the policeman. The driver got a ticket.

There needs to be some distinction between driving while black and driving while being a jerk.

CBS2 Chicago | Driving While Black | What Color Is Articulate?

Politics

A Political Thanksgiving

On this Thanksgiving, Monica Crowley offers ten reasons to be thankful, politically speaking, thatA political thanksgiving dinner. we live in this time in our nation’s history. I’ll add an eleventh reason to Monica Crowley’s list that we should be thankful. 11. That we live in the United States of America, where our freedom makes it possible to publish a list in the first place.

It’s called Thanksgiving for a reason, so let’s offer our gratitude to the following people, who have made life in America so much richer — and more interesting — over the past year:

1. The men and women of the United States military. Against some rough odds — in Iraq and Afghanistan in particular — our armed forces are doing the heavy lifting of freedom. They are the ones who stand between us and the jihad. And they volunteer to do it. They choose to give up their families, their friends, better paying — and much safer — jobs, and in some cases, their lives to fight America’s enemies and to do everything they can to protect American life and liberty. For your selflessness, sacrifice, bravery, and humility: thank you.

Continue reading A Political Thanksgiving →

Media, Pensacola, Politics, Uncategorized

Thanksgiving Episode of NewsBusted TV

Came across this web TV series just in time for Thanksgiving. I’m guessing that this will be a regular feature here at The Lunch Counter. Should give the folks at goLeftTV1 something to squawk about. It is material like this that tends to bring out the very best in them. Brought to you by NewsBusters.

1 goLeft.tv is a production of Air America radio host and BIG LAW trial attorney Mike Papantonio of Levin-Papantonio, Pensacola, FL.

2008 Election, MRIOTD, Politics, War On Terror

Edwards In Denial Over Iran

As he did in the CNN sponsored debate last week, planted questions and all, Sen. John Edwards feels it is more important to deny that Iran’s Quds Force, also known as the Iranian Guard, are terrorists than to agree with President Bush.

When asked whether he believed the Iranian Guard to be a terrorist organization, Edwards answered instead how he felt about the Senate vote.

“There was no reason for the Senate to vote on the question to begin with,” he said. “I think it was a mistake. I would have voted no had I been in the Senate, and I think it’s very important … to show real strength against Bush and Cheney on this particular issue.”

When a reporter told Edwards that rival Barack Obama has said he would have voted against the resolution even though he believes the Iranian Guard is a terrorist organization, Edwards responded: “I stand by what I said.”

2008 Election, Media, MRIOTD, Politics

More Planted Questions At CNN Democrat Debate

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It must depend on what the meaning of ‘undecided’ is. The so-called undecided Undecided voter is Sen. Harry Reid Staffer voters that Wolf Blitzer introduced turn out to be anything but. Is it any wonder that Democrats won’t debate on a FOX sponsored event? They have a burning need to know the questions before they are asked or know that they won’t be asked a question that they don’t want to answer. Yet they do want to be Commander In Chief.

In a nutshell, CNN’s six ‘undecided voters’ were: a Democratic Party bigwig, an antiwar activist, a Union official, an Islamic leader, a Harry Reid staffer,” who’s not even old enough to vote yet, and “a radical Chicano separatist.”

h/t to Rush for mentioning it and Michelle Malkin for the video research.

UPDATE 11/27/07 :And it gets worse for CNN, getting caught redacting the transcript.

Media, Politics

Federal Election Commission Fines Democrat 527’s

The Media Fund, a Clinton-inspired union-financed group headed by Harold Ickes, former aide to Bill Clinton, played a major role in the 2004 election and has agreed to pay a $580,000 fine after the Federal Election Commission concluded it illegally ran advertising, $53.4 million worth, against President Bush and in favor of Democrat John Kerry. The FEC ruled the advocacy advertising was a violation of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform bill.

In August, another group allied with Democrats, America Coming Together, agreed to pay a $775,000 fine under the same law. America Coming Together is a George Soros (billionaire socialist) and Peter Lewis (Chairman of Progressive Insurance Co.) financed group. America Coming Together is led by Steve Rosenthal, who is the former political director for the AFL-CIO.

Isn’t it odd that this news was ignored by the media? Is there any doubt as to media bias here?

AP link: FEC Fines Groups Allied With Democrats

Politics

William Jefferson (D-La) Gets Two More

Two more allegations of bribery find their way to William Jefferson (D-La) according to Jefferson’s prosecutors. These two charges are separate from and not connected to the bribery charges that Jefferson already faces. But he won’t, at least not yet anyway, be charged with them. Instead, prosecutors intend to use them to show a pattern of corruption by Jefferson.

The government alleges that in 2002 Jefferson, a Democrat, asked a lobbyist for a U.S. oil services company for payments of $10,000 a month for a family member. In exchange, Jefferson said he would help the company promote business in Africa. The lobbyist turned down the request, according to the document.

Jefferson later made a deal to urge NASA to do business with a U.S. rocket launch services and technology company, according to the filing. The company is accused of agreeing to pay Jefferson’s family business and a relative in exchange for his help.

related links: Best defense is a good admission? | Jefferson plays the race card | Congressman Indicted In Washington | Nation’s Capitol Is No Safe Haven For Corrupt Politicians

Politics

Susan B. Anthony Anniversary

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Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady StantonOn this day in 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested for casting a ballot in the election two weeks before. In a letter to another famed suffragist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anthony boasted of having voted for “the Republican ticket — straight.” In 1878, Senator Aaron Sargent (R-CA) introduced the “Susan B. Anthony” amendment, which would become part of the U.S. Constitution in 1920.

More at the Grand Old Partisan.

2008 Election, Immigration, Judiciary, Media, MRIOTD, Politics, Supreme Court, War On Terror

CNN’s Democrat Party Primary Debate Analysis

For those who didn’t see the Democrat debate tonight, after all it was on CNN, here is a recap. It started out with some bickering among the candidates, most of whom took shots at Sen. Clinton’s inability to state a position on giving drivers licenses to illegal aliens. To that and many other questions, Hillary’s response was her usual, ‘the American people know where I stand…’ Oh really? I must have missed it. All of them seemed to be running against Bush, who isn’t running.

On the drivers license subject, some came right out and said, like Gov. Bill Richardson, that yes they should be permitted to have a drivers license. Sen. Barak Obama thought it was a good idea too. Others hid behind the smoke of ‘we need comprehensive immigration reform,’ which is code for amnesty, drivers licenses, and more, but they wouldn’t come out and answer the question whether they should have a drivers license.

All of them wanted out of Iraq, and Iran is also out of the question. The most hawkish on Iran was Hillary who did go so far as to say that we should use diplomacy with Iran but keep the stick. She didn’t elaborate on the stick part. She held true to her belief system which is she hasn’t one. She likes blue ribbon panels to make decisions for her.

Iran brought out the weakness of them all on the subject of the Quds Force, the terrorist-supporting wing of the Iranian military. There seemed to be a consensus that calling them a terrorist organization was not nice, except Hillary. She’s the one who voted in favor of the resolution that labeled them a terrorist organization. She had no where to hide on that one, especially after her drivers license debacle at their last debate.

Wolf Blitzer, host of the debate, joined the ranks of Brian Williams and Tim Russert in qualifying for the Chris Matthews award by not asking or even mentioning the Iranian made 107mm rockets and super penetrating IED’s that are killing ours and Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi civilians. A fair question was again ignored, giving way to their diplomatic story line.

John Edwards’ hair looked good. He had trouble completing a sentence that didn’t have the words Bush, Cheney, and neocons in it. Obviously appealing to the Soros wing of their party, but looking very silly for harping on them.

All of them spoke confidently on raising taxes for this that and the other. And on the subject of taxes, another Chris Matthews moment came up. None of them were asked whether they would make permanent the Bush tax cuts due to expire in 2010, which if elected, would be during their first term. Hold on to your wallet or make your escape plan.

On education, Wolf did ask a relevant question. Should exceptional teachers be rewarded with higher pay or bonus incentives? They were in complete agreement in towing the line of the teachers unions with a NO. It was blatantly obvious that the success of the students were not a priority. Hillary surprised me by saying, no, don’t reward good teachers, just fire the bad ones. Another rather stunning revelation was that they couldn’t agree what made a teacher a good teacher. Joe Biden, whose wife is a teacher with a masters and doctorate degree, believes that a good teacher is one who has multiple and higher degrees than just a bachelors degree. No one, not one of them, thought that successful students were relevant in determining whether a teacher was exceptional. Hillary ignored the students’ success by taking the village format. She said all the teachers in a given school should be rewarded if the school does well. Doing well doesn’t mean that the students do well. Doing well by her standards means teachers who teach in the worst of cities or neighborhoods are the ones to be rewarded with higher pay. More like combat pay. Again, no measure of the success of the students was offered. On the subject of education, it is clear that Democrats don’t give a wit about the success of the students, let alone merit pay for a job well done.

One of the funniest and scariest subjects was that of appointments to the Supreme Court. They all wanted an abortion litmus test for potential appointments to the Supreme Court. Abortion is the holy sacrament of the liberals’ political philosophy. None of them seemed at all interested in a strict constructionist type justice. John Edwards said he didn’t want a constitutional scholar on the bench, he wanted ‘a dog catcher’ on the bench. Literally, no exaggeration. I have to give him credit on at least saying what the others wouldn’t say. Which is, they want the supreme court to be filled with justices who don’t know what it is they are supposed to uphold, and who will uphold whatever the democrats want that they can’t get done through the people, the legislature.

After those grueling two hours, I don’t think it is necessary to see any more of their debates. If you see one, you’ve seen them all.

CNN link

UPDATE 11/19/07: ‘undecided’ voters were plants, activists, and Democrat operatives.