Tag Archives for USA

CA Assembly Considers Jury Duty For Non-Citizens

Every now and then, the mask slips, and the absolute imperial nature of the American government system is revealed.

For instance:

California would allow noncitizens to serve on juries under a proposal being considered by state lawmakers, potentially expanding a fundamental obligation of American life to millions more people.

The measure, which would apply only to legal residents, would make California the only state to open the jury box to noncitizens who meet all other requirements of service, according to legal experts. The proposal raises the question of what it means to be judged by peers in a state where more than one in seven residents is not a citizen. One of the bill’s authors, Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont), said the proposal would help ensure an adequate pool of jurors, help immigrants integrate into American society and make juries more representative of California.

Juries “should reflect our community, and our community is always changing,” Wieckowski said. “It’s time for California to be a leader on this.” The Assembly passed the bill this week on a party-line vote, with most Democrats lining up in favor and Republicans standing in opposition.

[...]

Legal and trial experts had mixed reactions to the measure, which would open a distinctly American institution to non-Americans. Legal proceedings, particularly civil cases, in many parts of the world are not decided by a jury.

“The real goal is to have people in the community make a determination about guilt or innocence. There could be a value in adding different perspectives into the deliberation process,” said Matthew McCusker, president of the American Society of Trial Consultants. But noncitizens may not have the same understanding of the judicial system, he said.

“Jury instructions are remarkably complex,” McCusker said. “If you add in further barriers, whether it’s language or cultural, you’re adding more difficulties in following the rule of law.”

Niels Frenzen, a professor of immigration law at USC, said he doubted immigrants would have any more trouble handling jury duty than citizens would. “There is not often that great a divide of knowledge between immigrants and …citizens.”

If Frenzen is right, that’s hardly encouraging; it’s more a damning indictment of Americans’ profound ignorance about their own history and their judicial and legal system, today.

Pentagon Spends $100,000 to Find Out: ‘Did Jesus Die for Klingons Too?’

The ultimate in government wastefulness?

An Oklahoma senator has released a report outlining what he believes is some of the Pentagon’s most wasteful spending. Among a number of odd items includes a workshop on how Christianity would be affected if aliens were proven to exist.

Senator Tom Coburn is known to be the “waste-watcher” on Capitol Hill, as he investigates unnecessary spending in various branches of the government. On Thursday, he issued what some consider to be a laughable list of Defense Department expenditures that have nothing to do with defense.

In addition to $1.5 billion being spent on a plan to invent roll-up beef jerky, an iPhone app that helps people schedule their coffee breaks and scientific research on the swimming patterns of goldfish, was a workshop blending Christianity with the existence of aliens.

The event, entitled “Did Jesus Die for Klingons Too?,” focused on “the implications for Christianity if intelligent life were to be found on other planets.” According to the Global Post, actors such as LeVar Burton and Nichelle Nichols were present, and an “intergalactic gala celebration” was included, at which attendees were urged to don “starship cocktail attire.”

Klingons are are a group of aliens from the fictional sci-fi television and movie series Star Trek, which originated in 1966 and continues (at least in movie format) to present day. The series deals with a band of aliens and humans that seek to solve the problems of the universe, tackling topics such as imperialism, class warfare and racism. Some episodes are also said to have addressed sexism, feminism and religion.

Coburn issued a statement along with the list, asserting that the Pentagon needs to cut non-defense expenditures such as these.

Feminist Professor Says Polygamy is the Next Marriage ‘Civil Right’

Just what America needs (not).

A college professor in Vermont has released a book in support of polygamy, explaining why she believes it is the next civil right in America.

Janet Bennion is a professor of anthropology and sociology at Lyndon State College in Lyndonville. Earlier this year, she released a book entitled Polygamy in Primetime: Media, Gender and Politics in Mormon Fundamentalism, outlining her research on the topic and why she supports the idea of a woman or man having two or more spouses.

Recently, Bennion sat down with the Vermont publication Seven Days to further explain her views on polygamy, as she has been studying the lifestyle for over 20 years, and even spent time herself among a polygamist group. Bennion, who said that she does not wish to be a polygamist as she is happily married to one man, outlined that much of her book is based on talks with Mormon women or those involved with the Apostolic United Brethren.

“The groups vary, and some women find that working with other women in the home is beneficial to them,” she told the publication. “One woman described her co-wives as ‘second mothers’ [who do the childcare], so she can go find a job in the community. They have this economical and social network that provides a little bit more freedom than you might see in a monogamous pair bond.”

Bennion said that while most modern Mormons no longer follow polygamist doctrine, there are a number of them who still do.

“[T]he mainstream is made up of people with ancestors who were polygamists,” she added. “You can see that there are some sensitivities there, especially in an election year. Half of my family was for Romney, the other half for Obama. The Romney half was saying, ‘You shouldn’t have that book out there.’”

The professor advised that lesbianism even exists within polygamist relationships. She said that she received “love letters” once from a married woman, and was also invited to dinner by another who wanted to see if she was marriage material.

“There are women in the Utah pioneer days who formed a sisterhood network and allowed for lesbian connections,” Bennion stated. “I talked to at least three women who had formed sexual connections to their sister wives or to another woman in the community.”

She said that she feels that those who oppose polygamous marriages are bigots.

“We need to just step back, get off our high horse, and look at this from a civil liberties perspective. If we’re going to pave the way for alternative sexuality, why not provide liberties for those who choose the polygamy form?” Bennion asked. “As a feminist, I say, ‘Bring it on; let’s legalize it.’”

Twinkies-maker Hostess Brands to Close Down

Not even Washington and Colorado’s recent legalization of pot could save them from the effects of their greedy unions. ;)

The maker of Twinkies, the cream-filled sponge cakes well-loved in the US, has said it will close down the company, leading to the loss of 18,500 jobs.

Hostess Brands said a strike by the bakers union would force it to shut all operations and sell all assets.

It has long been in trouble – emerging from bankruptcy protection in 2009 only to file again in January 2012.

The wind-down also means the closure of 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centres and 570 bakery outlet stores.

“We deeply regret the necessity of today’s decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike,” said chief executive Gregory Rayburn.

“Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders.”

The company is also behind the Wonder and Merita bread brands, as well as Drake’s cakes.

Last week, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on a nationwide strike.

On Thursday, Hostess Brands said it determined that an “insufficient number of employees had returned to work to enable the restoration of normal operations”.

Hostess Brands was founded in 1930 and had revenues of $2bn last year.

The union’s pension fund is its biggest unsecured creditor, and is owed about $944.2m.

Typical Stupid School Administration Over-reaction

Homeschool your kids.

In Robbinsdale, Minnesota, a school bus driver for the Metropolitan Transportation Network saw something by the side of the road. He stopped the bus and asked a 7th-grader to see what it was. It turned out to be a gun, so the driver told the student tobring it to him and continued with his route. When he arrived at school, he told his supervisors about the incident and said he’d take the gun to the MTN central office. School officials sent a letter home with students telling parents what had happened and urging them to discuss the situation with their children.

Journalism Student Suspended For Being a Journalist

That’ll learn him.

Alex Myers is a foreign exchange student attending State University of New York at Oswego (SUNY Oswego).  While attending the school, Myers held an intern position in the school’s Public Affairs Office and everything seemed to be going well for Alex.

Alex was given a journalism assignment in his advanced journalism class to write a feature article on a public figure, so he chose the school’s men’s hockey coach, Ed Gosek.  Following good journalism practice, he sought information from coaches in other schools who had played against SUNY Oswego.  He sent an email questionnaire to the coaches at SUNY Cortland, Cornell University and Canisius College on Oct. 17.  The email read:

“My name is Alex Myers, I work for the Office of Public Affairs at SUNY Oswego.

I am currently writing a profile on Oswego State Hockey head coach Ed Gosek and was hoping to get a rival coaches view on Mr Gosek.

If you have time would you mind answering the following questions.

1. How do you find Mr Gosek to coach against?

2. Have you had any interactions with Mr Gosek off the ice? If so how did you find him?

3. What is your rivalry like between your school and Oswego State?

Be as forthcoming as you like, what you say about Mr Gosek does not have to be positive.”

One of the coaches, Michael Schafer from Cornell wrote back to Alex:

“Saying your comments don’t need to be positive is offensive.”

Alex quickly replied:

“Simply letting you know that this piece I am writing is not a ‘puff’ piece.”

Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with what Alex wrote, but evidently the Cornell coach did and must have complained to the SUNY Oswego administration.

On the evening of Oct 18, a letter from SUNY Oswego President Deborah Stanley was hand delivered to Alex informing him that he had been suspended from the school and that he had to vacate his dorm room by 6 pm the following day.  The letter spelled out the school policies that he allegedly violated and also informed him that he may be facing criminal charges.

The school accused Alex of claiming that he worked for the Office of Public Affairs instead of identifying his investigation as being part of a class assignment.  This was deemed to be ‘academic dishonesty.’  The second charge they made against him was for disruptive behavior.  This second charge could include any or all of the following: “harassment,” “intimidation,” “threats,” “conduct which inhibits the peace or safety of members of the College community,” “retaliation, harassment or coercion,” and it specified that “specifically: Campus network resources may not be used to defame, harass, intimidate, or threaten another individual or group.”

When Alex learned of the charges on Oct. 18, he immediately apologized for misrepresenting himself and explained that he sends out communications for OPA all the time as part of his intern duties.  He admitted that he should have clarified the purpose of the email better than he did.

Teachers Flock to Northwestern University for ‘Marxist Conference’

Interesting.

This Saturday, the Midwest Marxist Conference was held at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. The event was teeming with teachers who spoke about the new found bond between the radical socialists and their Teachers Union. The all-day event, which collected money to support Chicago Socialists and featured a communist bookstore, provided students on-campus along with the radical left community to plan the next phase in their activism.

Becca Barnes, a Chicago Teachers Union teacher and organizer with Chicago Socialists, proclaimed at the beginning of the conference that “the struggle here in the United States has entered a new phase. Nowhere have we pointed the way forward more clearly than here in Chicago with the teachers union strike.”

After the opening plenary, breakout sessions addressed more specific topics like the history of the Democratic party, education, and case studies in Russia. In these sessions, speakers continued to celebrate the use of education as a mechanism to insert Marxism into public institutions. In one session, the idea of targeting their message to students, even over “the working class,” was debated.

A Victory Against Educrats

Still, I don’t know why he doesn’t homeschool his kid(s)…

A Vermont judge has denied an attempt by the Addison Rutland school system to refuse to turn over documents requested by Marcel Cyr under the state’s open records law. Cyr, the parent of a student in the system and a frequent critic of the schools, had filed a request for a letter from a mental health professional that the school relied on to issue a “no trespassing” order against him. Cyr says the order was issued because of his criticism, not because he has threatened anyone.

Pissed Off

Should everyone be who reads this, at the dumbass, tyrannical police officer.

A Piedmont, Oklahoma, police officer gave Ashley Warden a $2,500 ticket for public urination after he spotted her 3-year-old son start to urinate in the family’s front yard. Police Chief Alex Oblein says the officer should have handled the incident differently, but he adds he’ll wait for prosecutors to decide whether to drop the charge.

White Evangelical Asks Black Evangelicals Why They Re-Elected Obama

Because most blacks are beholden to the Democrats.  Duh.

In an open letter to black evangelicals, Michael Brown candidly  asks whether they compromised their beliefs by voting for the re-election of  President Barack Obama.

“Are you guilty, on any level, of blind allegiance to the Democratic party?  And, on Election Day, did any of you compromise your convictions out of racial  solidarity?” the radio show host and author of A Queer Thing Happened to  America wrote Tuesday on Townhall.com.

“I simply do not understand how my black evangelical friends who so staunchly  oppose same-sex marriage and who stand against abortion could cast their vote  for the most radically pro-abortion, pro-gay-activist president in our history,”  he said as a fellow evangelical.

According to exit polls from last Tuesday’s presidential election, 93 percent  of African-American voters backed Obama, a slight drop from 95 percent in 2008.  Still, an analysis by The New Republic concludes that black turnout or support  for Obama “might have exceeded ’08 levels.”

Photographer Found “Not Guilty” in Police-Filming Case

Finally, some good news against the actions of tyrannical police…

The most telling part of my trial yesterday, besides the continuous lies under oath by Miami-Dade Police Major Nancy Perez, was when a frattish looking prosecutor fresh out of law school named Ari Pregen tried to explain to jurors how a “real journalist”was supposed to act.

A real journalist, he explained, was supposed to follow police orders without a second thought. A real journalist would never back talk to police. A real journalist would never question a direct police order as to why he was not allowed to stand on a public sidewalk.

Source: Photography Is Not a Crime. Read full article. (link)

Man Says Police Beat Him During Traffic Stop

I’m not surprised.  Are you?

A Fayette County man is alleging he was brutalized by police following a traffic stop in Roane County late last year.

The West Virginia State Police and the Roane County Commission are named as co-defendants in lawsuit filed by Edward A. Fields in Kanawha Circuit Court.  In his complaint filed Oct. 29, Fields, 32, of Smithers, alleges at least one trooper and two deputy sheriffs without provocation twice beat him into unconsciousness in December after stopping him,\ and a friend while traveling to Jackson County.

Source: West Virginia Record. Read full article. (link)

Four Police Officers Arrested for “Official Oppression”

Where do they find these people?  Oh, I know – police academies!

Four police officers and a police dispatcher were arrested by Texas Rangers and state troopers Tuesday evening when they raided the Socorro Police Department’s substation, officials said Wednesday.

They were identified as Lt. Jose Alvarez, Sgt. Refugio Orta, dispatcher Raul Huerta, Detective Javier Varela and officer Israel Delgado.

Alvarez, Orta, Varela and Delgado are accused of official oppression, but no further details were released. In addition, Varela and Delgado face charges of aggravated perjury and tampering with governmental records.

Source: El Paso Times. Read full article. (link)

Policeman Fatally Shot by Fellow Officer

But the idiots arrest the homeowner whose joint they were casing, holding him somehow responsible naturally.

Authorities say they’ve arrested the owner of the home where a 35-year-old Lakewood police officer was mistakenly shot by a fellow officer.

The homeowner, Joe Anthony Ruiz, is accused of firing gun shots that led to Friday’s deadly police response.

Source: 850KOA. Read full article. (link)

Stupid or Evil, Not Sure Which

I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now, and say stupid.

Poll workers in Boca Raton, Florida, tried to bar a woman from voting in the Nov. 6 election because she was wearing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology T-shirt. Officials apparently believed MIT was the Republican presidential candidate. Local media report they eventually figured out what it does stand for. Meanwhile, a poll worker in Denver called a supervisor when she spotted a voter wearing an MIT sweatshirt. The supervisor assured her that voter was not violating a state law against electioneering near a polling place.

Professor Equates Obama to Jesus in ‘Gospel According to Apostle Barack’

The Obamessiah hath come!

Reports are circulating about a book written by a Florida professor that was released prior to the election, which equates Barack Obama to Jesus and declares that his God-given mission is to bring “heaven on earth.”

The Gospel According to Apostle Barack was written by Florida A&M professor Barbara A. Thompson, who states that she was given a series of dreams by God in which she was able to realize Obama’s purpose as the leader of the free world. She says that after God answered her prayers to heal her son Gibran, who was badly injured in an accident, God told her to “go on a journey with Apostle Barack.”

“His followers needed to re-elect him to a second term so that he could continue to accomplish the promises he made, thus, realizing his vision of America as a more perfect political union or ‘heaven here on earth,’” she writes in her book description on Amazon. “[A]s I began to contemplate ways to assist Barack in his 2012 re-election bid, something miraculous happened. I felt God’s Spirit beckoning me in my dreams at night.”

“Listening, cautiously, I learned that Jesus walked the earth to create a more civilized society; Martin (Luther King) walked the earth to create a more justified society, but, Apostle Barack, the name he was called in my dreams, would walk the earth to create a more equalized society for the middle class and working poor,” she continued. “Apostle Barack, the next young leader with a new cause, had been taken to the mountaintop and allowed to see over the other side. He had the answers to unlock the kingdom of ‘heaven here on earth’ for his followers.”

She said that Obama had provided all of the solutions to the nation’s problems during speeches made from 2007-2009.

“Those speeches or his teachings contained the answers to the middle class and working poor people living in a ‘heaven here on earth,’” she claimed. “For when the answers were unlocked and enacted, Apostle Barack’s vision of America would be realized.”

The 220-page book also outlines the various accomplishments of Obama during his first term in office, calling them the “good news.”

According to the student newspaper at Florida A&M University, just days before the election, Thompson hosted a book signing at the university’s Southside Arts Complex, where she was greeted by an estimated 100 supporters.

“I know this book will be inspiring,” Jeema Richardson, a senior English student from Jacksonville, Florida told The Famuan at the signing. “I picked up my copy today and I’m eager to start reading about her revelations.”

LA City Council Declares “Meatless Mondays”

Stupid progressive Californians.

The Los Angeles City Council has declared every Monday to be a so-called ‘meatless Monday,’ and is urging all residents to participate in the weekly day of vegetarianism.

NBC Los Angeles reports that with the vote Los Angeles has become the largest city to embrace the Meatless Monday campaign, a nonprofit with the goal of cutting down on meat consumption for health and environmental reasons.

H/T Res Publica Americana

Source: Fox News. Read full article. (link)

So, Angelenos who obey their city council, and presumably the city councillors themselves, won’t get to enjoy this:

Or this:

Or this:

Or this:

Or this:

Tonight.

And if you’re vegetarian, never again.

No more bacon.

Mmm, bacon.

Hey, vegetarians, remember that?  Remember the smell of it frying in the morning, waking you up better than any alarm clock, making you want to jump out of bed and devour some?

You know you miss it, and you want it, so bad…

Go ahead; sneak some.  I won’t tell!

‘This Sucks’

Pictures of the Noreaster that added insult to injury, hitting Hurricane Sandy-afflicted areas…

I think the New York Daily News said it best with their front-page headline, simply: “this sucks.”

New York and New Jersey were blanketed in snow yesterday, adding insult to the very big injury that was Hurricane Sandy. According to New York Times, at least 100,000 homes lost power in New York and New Jersey. With those new outages, there are 715,000 homes still without power in the tri-state area. Train service was also interrupted on the Long Island Rail Road, and more than 1,200 flights were cancelled.

Many without power were forced into shelters or their families’ homes. According to MSNBC:

“It’s like a sequel to a horror movie,” said James Alexander, a resident of the hard-hit Rockaway Peninsula. “Here we are, nine days later — freezing, no electricity, no nothing, waiting for another storm.”

But it could have been worse. Again, according to the Times:

Yesterday’s northeaster set the recovery effort back only about 24 or 36 hours in New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday morning, striking a relatively hopeful tone.  “’Believe it or not the snow was helpful,” Mr. Christie said. “Because it wasn’t rain, it helped on the flooding side.” Virtually no significant flooding was reported in the state.”