'We support our troops when they SHOOT their officers" leftist sign at protest

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Sign from kind, tolerant, far left protest in San Francisco, 3/15/2003. (That link is inactive, here is an article that mentions the event in 2003, "Who Calls for 'Shooting Officers'?," 4/3/2003, by Stephen Schwartz. I'll see if I can find another link to the photo.)


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Musician Dr. John spills anger at Obama on BBC Radio

I just heard an interview on BBC radio (between 2:30 and 3:05am ET) with musician Dr. John in Louisiana. He is mentioned in the attached BBC story, however he said something on radio which is not in the lengthy BBC report at this time (3:10am). I happened on the interview in progress and heard approximately the following from Dr. John:

• In this country (US) I consider our 2 political parties the Crips and the Bloods, neither one is worth much. I voted for the current president, but I am disappointed in him. He is not here, dealing with this 'crime scene'.

The BBC mentions nothing about Obama, in its otherwise detailed report about Dr. John and the oil spill. Nor does it say Dr. John says democrats are as bad as republicans ('crips and bloods'). Perhaps they will have an update at some point, but this is the story they have now. Their entire report is about local anger at BP. They title the report, "Dr. John spills his anger towards BP." Dr. John's comments on BBC radio were as interesting as the fact that BBC has so far not put them in print.

Frank Luntz hires himself out to radical left climate profiteers

So-called GOP consultant Frank Luntz hired himself out to a far left political group, Environmental Defense Fund earlier this year for the purpose of telling them

• how to talk "republicans" into falling for cap and trade,

(the greatest fraud against humanity in history). He said don't call it cap and trade, call it 'American jobs' etc. Obama and Nancy Pelosi agreed. So why shouldn't the left's biggest America-haters--who are treated like lifetime representatives of US taxpayers--proceed full steam ahead to smash the last American to bits?

• Per the UK Guardian an angry group including Soros, Larry Summers, and Bob Ward met in March in London to hammer out how to get Americans' money, just really, have to get our money.

3/28/10: "...the task they have been set by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. In effect, the world's top financiers have been told to work out how to raise at least

• $100bn a year for the rest of this decade, cash that will be used to help the world's poorest countries adapt to climate change.

"The prices we pay for our goods do not reflect one key cost: the damage that their production does to the planet's climate system," said Bob Ward, of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the LSE. "We need to find ways

• to extract payment from those who cause that damage and then use that money to fund developing nations
  
• so that they can protect themselves from the worst effects of global warming."

And to raise those funds the Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing has made clear that it will consider everything – from placing levies on international aviation and shipping,

• to enlarging carbon markets, introducing financial transaction taxes and using the International Monetary Fund's special reserve currency.
  

You name it and it will be run up the flagpole – for success in establishing a developing world finance plan is now considered crucial to the success of next December's UN climate change meeting in Mexico.

• "Finance is a prerequisite for a climate agreement," said Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climage Change, on Friday. (Who asked him?)
  

"Developing countries are very sensitive about this. Talks will collapse without strong and secure financing in place.""...

• by Paul Harris, John Vidal, and Robin McKie, "The trillion-dollar question is: who will now lead the climate battle?"

Frank Luntz is a good example of why the business side of the GOP should be considered no differently than George Soros.

Good Fellas and Wise Guys-the end of free market capitalism must be interrupted

• 5/30, J. Grilling: "The crisis-solution scheme is the centerpiece of the Obama policy agenda. Using the now-debunked climate change scare,

Obama has attempted global wealth redistribution through unprecedented "climate reparations."

• Using the cover of "service," a principle revered by most Americans,

Obama has created his own police force. Using hyped up fears of domestic terror,

• Obama has attacked free speech and sought to
• criminalize opponents. Ironically,

• Obama has given real terrorists the precious rights of American citizens while denying these rights to Americans.

And now, President Obama is exploiting the government-caused mortgage crisis to usher in councils of regulators to replace Congress in a host of key policy areas.

• Councils of "wise men" will now rule America. This is an open assault on the Constitution and the freedom of the American people, and it must be stopped.

Using a falsified tale of economic malfeasance, Obama asks us to accept government by councils of wise men. As part of his financial regulatory plan, Obama would create a select group, i.e. the Financial Oversight Council, charged with formulating the regulations that govern the entire financial sector. There is not an area of the economy that theoretically could not fall under the jurisdiction of this elite group.

• Last time I checked, the power to regulate commerce rested with Congress, not a gaggle of unelected bureaucrats.

The irony is breathtaking. Should a financial crisis that was caused by government regulation be solved with more government? "Greed," we are told, caused the economic meltdown. But if this is this case,

• then Obama was at the center of this greed, as were many in his party.

In reality, it is government's heavy hand in the economy that created the conditions for the Great Depression, Part II. Consider these facts:

• Successive financial reforms pursued in the Clinton years exposed lending institutions to litigation if and when community organizations under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) accused lending institutions of discrimination against minorities.

This had the effect of a punitive tax on lending institutions unless they lent to people that could not pay. These toxic loans were called subprime mortgages. Government institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac then purchased these subprimes in droves and marketed them as secure investments on the stock market. This kept mortgage institutions artificially in the black and greased a well-oiled political graft machine. The share of the mortgage market tied up in subprime mortgages increased to 30 percent of the total by 2007. And the share of mortgage-related securities that were government-backed neared the $4-trillion mark. It was only a matter of time before defaults rippled through the system.

• The system was designed to crash.

The answer to this problem, we are told, is to give government more power. And what President Obama proposes is no trivial power-grab, but the creation of a highly detached and unaccountable cadre of wise men to govern the financial sector in place of Congress.

• If wise men can gather and make law in place of elected and accountable representatives, America has ceased to be a free nation. This cannot be allowed to happen.

At stake is not merely the mundane financial regulations governing inside trading, but the financial freedom of the average American citizen.

Part of this intelligentsia is to be called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), which will be empowered to tell Americans what kind of credit card they are allowed to have and what kind of purchases they are allowed to make. Credit will no longer be based primarily on punctuality of payment, but on what private Americans choose to purchase. The advocates of the CFPA argue that this approach is necessary, since "[m]any consumers are uninformed and irrational," leading them to make "systematic mistakes in their choice of credit products and in the use of these products."

• In their view, consumers need to be "behaviorally informed."

This approach has been tried before. Central Committees decided how much wheat to grow and how many toothbrushes to manufacture, and they set wages based on "need." Of course, members of the governing class always seemed to "need" more than anyone else. The system failed miserably, and yet America is quickly remaking itself in this archaic image. As Russia, our former Communist nemesis, passes flat taxes and reaps a whirlwind of economic success, the President of the United States is telling businesses what to make and telling workers what they are allowed to earn. What we are witnessing is not merely a new "New Deal," or enhanced public-private partnership, but the seeds of full-on Totalitarian Socialism,

• with Obama and his team of Czars as the politburo. And Obama is flashing his socialist credentials at every turn, attacking such free-market concepts as
  
• "risk-taking" and "speculation."
  
• What profitable capitalist venture doesn't always involve these two principles?

The president also takes issue with "excessive" compensation, which he says "offends" American values, or at least offends his personal socialist sensibilities. Like Caesar's symbolic refusal of the royal diadem, Obama "reluctantly" accepts the breathtaking and unprecedented power of managing our nation's businesses and dictating wages.

• "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" is now national policy.

This is precisely what Obama intends, pledging to eliminate what he calls this "poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments[.]"

• With an income exceeding $5 million per year, Obama is hardly in a position to judge economic equality.

It appears Obama "needs" more than others.

With the passage of the financial overhaul bill, over half the American economy will fall under some kind of government control after grouping health care, manufacturing, and the lucrative financial sector. The free market will be but a distant memory.

• President Obama's financial "reform" is nothing less than the destruction of individual freedom in America.

If government controls both the means of credit and the object on which it will be spent, it controls people. "We the people" must resist this despotic turn of events while we still can." American Thinker

The "Free Press" is opposite of what its name implies and desperate to eliminate free speech.

Update, 5/27: Obama adds "Free Press" marionette Ben Scott to the public payroll in the State. Dept. "Free Press" is heavily invested in stopping the Comcast/NBC merger.

• Re: Soros funding: 3/28/08, Wash. Post: "Free Press has more than $5 million in funding, in part from major foundations such as the

• Soros Open Society Institute."

• Following article includes 8 quotes with links from Free Press founder McChesney.
  

3/12/10: "The fact is that Free Press and its founder Bob McChesney have been long and consistent advocates for taking

• the private creativity and innovation of others and either arguing it should be controlled by the government or

• dismissing its appropriation by others without regard for compensating the creators.

When it comes to matters of intellectual property they are more about 'Free Lunch' than 'Free Press' as evidenced by their failed defense of illegal file sharing in the MGM vs Grokster case (PDF).

• This is all their privilege and right of course, but let's at least be upfront about what we really believe and stop hiding behind the notion that Free Press is about a free and independent (as in free and independent from government control) media. They're not, and you know it.

And while Free Press postures that they are just taking on big money interests,

• the practical impact of their disdain for property, creativity and innovation from the information economy is

• to deprive individual musicians, songwriters, screenwriters, film producers, journalists and others who create such content
  
• the chance to make an honest living.

The Socialist idea that all content should be common property, available for free to everybody who wants it, demeans those of us who pour our hearts into creating and the businesses that support us. For more on that, you might want to read my recent op-ed in The Hill.

• The bottom line is that Free Press is pretty explicit in their desire to wipe out every significant media business - news, movies, music, cable and telecommunications - and replace them with some sort of government facsimile, all to further McChesney's abstract revolutionary vision.

They say they are for a free press and independent media, but how free and independent can media be

• when the government is paying the bills.

As a longtime advocate of freedom of speech and expression in creative works, I worry greatly about the government becoming too involved in the information, media and creative industries. Don't you?

• But you don't have to take my word for it... Here's a selection of what Free Press has said and written on these subjects - all linked to their original sources, so people can see for themselves the context of their remarks. And notice... very few ellipses.

* "There is no real answer [to the U.S. economic crisis] but to remove brick by brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles." - Robert McChesney, Monthly Review

• * "At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies. We are not at that point yet. But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control." - Robert McChesney, Socialist Project

* "Only government can implement policies and subsidies to provide an institutional framework for quality journalism...The democratic state, the government, must create the conditions for sustaining the journalism that can provide the people with the information they need to be their own governors." - Robert McChesney, The Nation

• * "...any serious effort to reform the media system would have to necessarily be part of a revolutionary program to overthrow the capitalist system itself." - http://www.monthlyreview.org/080915mcchesney.php

* "Our job is to make media reform part of our broader struggle for democracy, social justice, and, dare we say it, socialism." - Robert McChesney, Monthly Review

• * "The government will pay half the salary of every reporter and editor up to $45,000 each ... this would cost the state $3.5 billion annually," - Robert McChesney, cited by Campus Progress

* "If we want to raise funds for critical journalism, we could tax the giant news corporations; we could then re-distribute the wealth to a fund for a journalist co-operative, which would produce a competitive for-profit paper, which then created more jobs for journalists. A second not-for-profit paper, largely funded by the revenues generated by the paper produced by the journalist co-op, then provides a critical news source to the public." - Robert McChesney, Socialist Project (PDF)

• * "Advertising is the voice of capital. We need to do whatever we can to limit capitalist propaganda, regulate it, minimize it, and perhaps even eliminate it. The fight against hyper-commercialism becomes especially pronounced in the era of digital communications." - Robert McChesney, Socialist Project
  

If you want to see more of such nonsense, go here (PDF).

...it's not that I'm in love with big companies or think they always do the right thing. In fact, I have spoken out on occasion about the dangers of too much media consolidation,

• but I would never advocate turning media over to the government as a solution
  
• as Free Press apparently does.

As a songwriter I am a small businessman trying to scratch out a living in a very competitive profession. I know what it is like to invest my life savings in a risky enterprise in the hopes that it will someday pay off and help send the kids to college and keep a roof over my head. I can appreciate the fact that these private companies have invested billions to build and maintain the information infrastructure. And since I live around the corner from a large telco office building of some sort and see hundreds of cars in the parking lot every day, I appreciate the number of jobs they have created for people who live in my community here in Tennessee.

• We should acknowledge that there is a fundamental debate here that goes well beyond net neutrality. On one side, Mr. McChesney and Free Press want to eliminate private ownership of media, entertainment and information and
  
• don't seem to have any respect for the property of individual creators like me either.

On the other side, and that's where I stand, are those who think that intellectual property rights, private innovation and creativity are important, and that if you have the ingenuity, energy and creativity to create something you ought to be able to earn something in return."

• Rick Carnes article from Huffington Post, 3/12/10, "Free Press doesn't mean free lunch"

Socialism has never worked where it's been tried. It's not working today.

Ed Koch (D): 'We have become a laughingstock'

5/25/10: Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch (D): "No wonder North Korea torpedoed that South Korean warship, something they would not have done in all probability if China had not quietly approved. No wonder Brazil and Turkey thumb their noses at us. We have become a laughingstock." via Big Journalism

"I love Daisy Soros."- NYC Mayor Bloomberg, 5/5/10

5/5/10, Bloomberg: ""Daisies," said the mayor. "Because I love [philanthropist] Daisy Soros. She's so generous and has done so many things for New York."...****

• Bloomberg 'fiercely' takes far left view which as always boils down to a combination of suicide and homicide. New Yorkers, Americans, or even human beings barely exist in this Soros type world view.
  

5/29: "In his fiercest defense yet of the mosque proposed near Ground Zero, Mayor Bloomberg declared yesterday that it

• must be allowed to proceed because the government "shouldn't be in the business of picking" one religion over another."...

from NY Post, Seifman, "Bloomberg defends Ground Zero mosque as freedom-of-faith issue" *****

• 5/5/10, Bloomberg: ""Daisies," said the mayor. "Because I love [philanthropist] Daisy Soros. She's so generous and has done so many things for New York."...

NY Observer, Alexiou, "We're nobody, who is Bloomberg?"

• 6/19/07, Bloomberg allies with Soros Open Society and Rockefeller Foundation in aid to poor program similar to that used in third world countries to perpetuate a permanent underclass.

Vicious Obama puts boot on throat of terrorized Arizona residents, sends DOJ hacks to threaten lawsuits against Arizona

Obama agents met face to face with Arizona state executives on Friday, 5/28, 2 days after a closed door meeting in DC with Eric Holder. The AP doesn't mention the Arizona law is no different than existing federal law Obama ignores, instead calling it 'sweeping' and 'new.' It is Obama who should be sued, not the robbed, raped, murdered residents of Arizona. "DOJ, Arizona officials meet over immigration law"

Muslim groups, ACLU dictate White House, Justice Dept. policy, immigration-US Rep. King

• One elected official puts the heinous acts we've seen into words (and thanks again to John McCain for making sure Obama won):

5/28/10: "Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) claimed in a statement on Friday that Muslims and unions had effectively

• infiltrated the Justice Department and were steering its decision to prepare a
  
• challenge to the Arizona immigration law.

From King's statement:

• ""The ACLU, SEIU and the Muslim American Society are calling the shots at the Justice Department. The 'draft complaint' DOJ has prepared to challenge the Arizona law is a 'cut & paste' version of the class-action lawsuit the ACLU filed in United States District Court on May 17th." [...]
  
• No other conclusion could be reached unless Holder releases the Department's 'draft complaint.' But when it becomes public,
  
• all of America will know what I know today.
  
• The ACLU and their radical affiliates are dictating the policy of the White House and the Department of Justice."

King criticized Mexican President Felipe Calderon for his outright criticism of Arizona's immigration law in front of a joint session of Congress last week, saying that "when the President of Mexico speaks out against Arizona law...he's speaking out against

• American immigration law, federal law in its entirety, because
  
• the Arizona law reflects federal immigration law."...

from Huffington Post, 5/28, "Steve King: Muslim groups, unions, 'Calling the shots at the Justice Department'"

BP 'Company man' ordered rig workers to change normal procedure hours before explosion

5/27, wsj, "Heated argument on rig hours before blast:"..."Douglas H. Brown, Transocean's chief mechanic on the Deepwater Horizon rig, said key representatives from both companies had a "skirmish" during an 11 a.m. meeting on April 20. Less than 11 hours later, the well had a blowout, an uncontrolled release of oil and gas, killing 11 workers.

• Mr. Brown said Transocean's crew leaders—including the rig operator's top manager, Jimmy W. Harrell—

• strongly objected to a decision by BP's top representative, or "company man," over how to start removing heavy drilling fluid and
  

replacing it with lighter seawater from a riser pipe connected to the well head. Such pipes act as conduits between the rig and the wellhead at the ocean floor, and carry drilling fluid in and out of the well.

• Removing heavy drilling fluid prior to temporarily sealing up a well and abandoning it is normal, but questions have emerged about
  
• whether the crew started the process without taking other precautionary measures against gas rising into the pipe.

...the rig's primary driller, Dewey Revette, and tool pusher, Miles Randall Ezell, both of Transocean, also disagreed with BP, Mr. Brown said. However, BP was in charge of the operation and the BP representative prevailed, Mr. Brown said.

• "The company man was basically saying, 'This is how it's gonna be,' " said Mr. Brown, who didn't recall the name of the BP representative in question."...

5/26, CBS News: "Eleven hours before the rig on the Deepwater Horizon exploded...there had been an argument over the protective drilling mud that connected the rig to the oil well, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports....

• “I recall a skirmish between the company man, the OIM (offshore installation manager), the tool-pusher and the driller," said rig worker Doug Brown. "The driller was outlining what would be taking place, whereupon thecompany man stood up and said, 'No, we'll be having some changes to that.' It had to do with displacing the riser for later on.”

Brown went on to say that the driller and the tool pusher reluctantly agreed to the change....

• It was not unusual for there to be a conflict between the company that's leasing the rig and oilfield and the drilling operators, Smith testified.

He said the "company man" represents a firm that leases the rig and often pays $500,000 a day to drill for the oil, so is concerned about speed and cost. "...

• Per interview with principal of BiologicalDiversity.org on John Batchelor's show tonight, official logs of events and words in final minutes before the explosion are being withheld by the US Government and/or BP.

Pa. Democrat Governor Rendell praises NJ Governor Chris Christie

5/22/10, Kaminski, wsj.com: "I'm curious what he (Gov. Rendell) makes of New Jersey's new Republican Gov. Chris Christie. He came into office this year and immediately moved to slash the state's spiraling spending. His cuts have enraged unions and Democrats.

• "I admire him," says Mr. Rendell. "And I think he's gotta do the right thing.
  

• People in New Jersey have to get ready for tough love and serious cuts. I did the same thing when I became mayor of Philadelphia.
  

But my message was, and Chris should give this message a little bit more, short-term pain for long-term gain. We have to make cuts and we're going to be a little painful.""...

• from The Weekend Interview: Ed Rendell, "Plotting a Democratic Comeback" via mention on John Batchelor show
  

Who paid for so-called police chiefs to fly to DC meeting with Eric Holder?

5/27: "On Wednesday Attorney General Eric Holder held a closed door meeting with a group of police chiefs from across America (including a several from Arizona). The subject of this secretive meeting was Arizona's new immigration law (SB1070) and the opposition of these select members of the police community....Gee, who paid for these police chiefs to fly into Washington D.C. to meet with Mr. Holder behind closed doors? "

• Update, 6/2/10, extreme left BBC reports: "As recently as last week, a group of US police chiefs held a meeting with US Attorney General Eric Holder warning that

• Arizona's law

• could increase crime when it's introduced at the end of July."... Right. Take a hike. ed.
  

Mass. Senate passes protection for long ignored legal residents

• 5/27, Boston.com: "The legislation also would increase penalties for (illegal aliens) driving without a license...

The measure, which passed on a 28-10 vote as an amendment to the budget, would bar the state from doing business with any company found to break federal laws barring illegal immigrant hiring. It would also toughen penalties for creating or using fake identification documents, and

• explicitly deny in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants." (Horrors!)
  

"The amendment would also require the state’s public health insurance program to verify residency through the Department of Homeland Security, and would

• require the state to give legal residents priority for subsidized housing." ( Multi-millionaire Obama's Aunt Zeituni has long been an illegal alien living in public housing edging out a legal resident. She recently was granted permanent status). ed.
  

"The amendment will now be part of negotiations with the House as part of the entire state budget."...

Map of 4000 active oil and gas platforms in Gulf of Mexico-NOAA

Map as of 2006

Harvard slimed, Obama appointee 'separated' from overseeing oil rig safety

5/27, Appointed by Obama in July 2009, sympathetic USA Today headline says Elizabeth Birnbaum "quit", acknowledges within report some sources say she was fired. "MMS chief Elizabeth Birnbaum quits post"

• "Birnbaum received her Juris Doctor from Harvard University in 1984...She was Editor in Chief of the Harvard Environmental Law Review, Vol. 8." She has had a long career of government bureaucratic jobs related to environment.

Danny Martinez, murderer of Phoenix police officer, had prior criminal record-UPI

As news of a young PHOENIX OFFICER'S MURDER REACHED

• PHOENIX'S POLICE CHIEF, he was in a meeting with Eric Holder and 8 others to

"voice concern about local police enforcement of immigration laws."...

• (When your local police are all dead, you'll have no "concerns." ed.)

• May 26, UPI, Phoenix: "A young police officer with a newborn son was shot and killed early

Wednesday and a suspect found nearby was arrested, law enforcement authorities said.

• The shooting occurred after police tried to stop a Ford Mustang at about 1 a.m., said Trent Crump, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department....

Police were looking for the occupants of the car

• when shots were fired, wounding Officer Travis Murphy, 29, The Arizona Republic reported.

Officers rushed Murphy to a hospital in a police car. He was pronounced dead at about 3:30.

• A tactical team with a police dog found a suspect, Danny Martinez, police said. Martinez, naked, was hiding in a shed.

Police Chief Jack Harris left a meeting in Washington with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and returned to Phoenix after getting news of the killing, KPHO-TV, Phoenix, reported....

• Murphy and his wife have two young children, a girl, 2, and a boy born two weeks ago.

The Arizona Department of Corrections said Martinez was freed in 2009 after serving time for a weapons charge."

• "Phoenix police officer killed" via gateway pundit
  

Rep. James Moran, D-Va., a stockbroker before he was a politician

• Congress is free of checks and balances that inconvenience the average citizen. In this case, a Washington Post puff piece still reveals another mess.

5/25/10, Washington Post: "Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, in 2000...acknowledged borrowing $25,000 from a pharmaceutical lobbyist. The next year, he took a $50,000 loan from an America Online executive. He continued to make options bets, documents show."...

• The Post does things like cite a Moran staff official saying no big deal, nothing new here. I only mention the article as a point of interest. ed. via Michael Savage.com

National What? Guard will be unarmed and not allowed to stop illegals. 'Mexicans think we're nuts.'

• Every time Obama mentions Arizona border problems, more illegals flood over it.

5/26: "Arizona border residents say political dithering is making things worse.

• “Every time our president talks to the Mexican president, or every time the word amnesty comes over the Mexican news, there is a flood of people,” said one resident who wanted to remain anonymous for
  
• fear of retaliation.

She and her neighbors say

• unarmed National Guard won't deter drug smugglers or anyone else.

“There's guys out here with no guns and they're our troops.

• The Mexicans think we're nuts,” says the resident.

But it is not just Mexicans. In 2009 Customs and Border Protection arrested

• 52,000 illegal entrants from countries other than Mexico, known as “OTM’s,” including from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen....

The recently retired head of the Tucson Border Patrol puts it plainly: “The border is porous. We don't have the resources that we need. Somebody who wants to do us harm can get into the United States.”" ***

• As per Calderon's instructions, "US troops won't be used to stop illegal immigration." AFP, via gateway pundit

via gateway pundit

NJ teachers threats get same deference as Islamic terror threats

• A radio music dj who enjoys doing charity events for kids was forced to cancel an unpaid children's music awards event due to a NJ teachers mob threat. Teachers didn't object to the dj per se, but thought his employers sympathized with "republicans" so threatened to protest the event. The radio station caved in and removed the dj from the appearance just to save trouble.
  

A case of self-censorship as took place on Comedy Central and CNN covering certain Islamic-related images for fear of violent reaction.

• 5/25: "An awards show in Red Bank for student achievement in the performing arts

Wednesday won't include New Jersey 101.5 radio

• personality Big Joe Henry, the scheduled, unpaid host until teachers threatened

a protest over political views aired on the station."...

• CNN and Comedy Central recently censored themselves regarding Islamic words or images for fear of retaliation. America is creating a world safe for bullies and mobs and no one else. As Mark Steyn described in Comedy Central's recent action:
  

4/24: "Imperceptibly, incrementally,

• remorselessly, the free world is sending the message

that it is happy to trade core liberties for the

• transitory security of a quiet life.

That is a dangerous signal to give freedom's enemies. So the "South Park" episode is an

• important cultural pushback."...

New Jersey radio station is caving in to threats of violence as Comedy Central did, restricting the life of an employee who has made no known political speech, but merely works for a company some NJ teachers perceive as in agreement with "republicans." The republican party does not even exist in New Jersey. Chris Christie ran on the republican line, but many democrats and independent voters supported him. That's why he won.

Management of the radio station: ""We agreed there was an increasing likelihood there would be some sort of protest, and so Joe offered to step aside if that would help defuse the situation," Saisselin said. "Our position is that this event is a completely inappropriate place for a protest. If someone has an issue with a radio station, they should take it up with that radio station.""...

• 5/25: AP: "A New Jersey radio personality stepped aside as host of a student awards event amid a
  
• threatened protest by teachers.

• Teachers said other personalities (NOT JOE HIMSELF) on Big Joe Henry's station New Jersey 101.5 have supported Gov. Chris Christie's efforts to get educators to accept wage freezes and pay a portion of their benefits.

Freehold Regional High School music teacher Regina McAllen said the station has a

• "Republican agenda" that's "a unified vision that demeans public education and educators.""...

Backing down merely helps the mobs, silences innocent, honest people. It happens all the time and it's got to stop. Hint-just say no.

The mere idea that NJ teachers might protest a radio station caused the station to change a business decision. This accomplishes the same thing as similar moves like the recent change of programming made by Comedy Central for fear of Islamic backlash:

(Mark Steyn, 4/24): "So, in the end, Comedy Central has incentivized Islamic violence and nothing much else.

• Nevertheless, we should be grateful to its jelly-spined executives for reminding us that the cardboard heroes of the American media are your go-to guys for standing up to

• entirely fictitious threats.

• But for real ones? Not so much....

...The obvious lesson from the kid gloves with which Comedy Central strokes Islam. ...

• Let's just threaten to decapitate someone (or hold a protest, ed.).

• You get more respect that way....

All he (the Islamic blogger) was doing, he added, was "raising awareness" – ...

• Faced with this explicit threat of violence, what did Comedy Central do?

Why, they folded like a Bedouin tent. They censored "South Park," not only cutting all the references to Mohammed but, in an exquisitely post-modern touch,

• also removing the final speech about the need
  
• to stand up to intimidation.

Stone & Parker get what was at stake in the Danish cartoons crisis, and many other ostensibly footling concessions: Imperceptibly, incrementally,

• remorselessly, the free world is sending the message

that it is happy to trade core liberties for the

• transitory security of a quiet life.

That is a dangerous signal to give freedom's enemies. So the "South Park" episode is an

• important cultural pushback."

Radio station caves at fear of "protest." How different is this from Comedy Central's changing their program content for fear of reprisal.

5/25/10 "An awards show in Red Bank for student achievement in the performing arts Wednesday won't include New Jersey 101.5 radio personality Big Joe Henry, the scheduled, unpaid host until teachers threatened a protest over political views aired on the station.

Henry hasn't spoken out on the air against the New Jersey Education Association. But other station hosts have — enough of a connection to warrant bouncing Henry from the show, according to Regina McAllen, a music teacher in the Freehold Regional High School District.

• "The company that signs Big Joe Henry's paycheck has a very clear agenda, which is evident from their choice of hosts and the topics that they discuss on a daily basis," McAllen said in a letter to theater officials. "To even suggest that NJ 101.5 is a fair and balanced source of media is ludicrous. Its Republican agenda is consistent and unwavering, with a unified vision that demeans public education and educators."

McAllen works at Howell High School. She could not be reached Monday to elaborate on her comments.

The awards, at Count Basie Theatre, honor Monmouth County high school theater company members. Numa C. Saisselin, chief executive officer of the theater, said the change "wasn't due to pressure" from McAllen and other teachers. Rather, Saisselin said, he and Henry were

• concerned it could distract attention from the purpose of the evening.

"Joe and I mutually decided that the show will be done without a host. We agreed there was an increasing likelihood there would be some sort of protest, and so Joe offered to step aside if that would help defuse the situation,"

• Saisselin said. "Our position is that this event is a completely inappropriate place for a protest. If someone has an issue with a radio station, they should take it up with that radio station."

Eric Johnson, program director at the station, WKXW-FM in Trenton, said, "The station doesn't pick an opinion, though we do hire hosts who have opinions.

• Except Big Joe doesn't get into any of that. He plays music, tells jokes, introduces the traffic report, and he does a countless amount of charity work, going to events where he shakes hands and kisses babies. So it seems to be a stretch to connect him with a position on the teachers union."

Henry could not be reached for comment but in a message posted on the station's nj1015.com website, he wrote: "I offered to step down as host to preserve the integrity of the event. It's about the kids (and) not the political forum that some of these teachers want to make it.

"This is one of the most disheartening, maddening events of my professional career. The narrow-minded, bullying tactics of some teachers disgusts me."

• The radio station on the website also has a "Big Joe Support Page," which includes links to two Facebook groups: "Reinstate Big Joe As Host Of The 2010 Basie Awards" and "Big Joe Henry cares more about kids than the NJEA." The pages combined have more than 580 members.

Former Red Bank Councilwoman Grace Cangemi, who wrote about Henry's departure from the show on the political blog More Monmouth Musings, said in an interview on Monday: "The fact is Big Joe has done so much for children in charity work, and it's disappointing children have to miss out on him being at the awards show. All from what I see as a pretty misguided attempt to politicize this show."

• The awards show begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets at $15 each are available from the Count Basie Theatre at 732-842-9000. A list of nominees is available at countbasietheatre.org."

"NJ radio personality steps down from student awards after teacher protest" by Bob Jordan, Daily Record

via radio daily news

AP, "NJ radio personality backs out of school event after teacher protests" 5/25/10

• Reference: 5/12/10, Re: CNN, "Embracing Dhimmitude," American Thinker by Thomas Lifson:

"What is at stake is nothing less than our liberty. Americans are giving up free speech when the subject is Islam."

Or the NJ teachers union. ed.

Calderon warns US not to enforce immigration laws

Aside from whether any National Guard troops will actually be sent to the US border, Obama's buddy the

• Mexican president warns us not to enforce immigration laws.

"Additionally, the Government of Mexico expects that (US) National Guard personnel ...will not, in accordance to its legal obligations, conduct activities directly linked

• to the enforcement of immigration laws." via Michelle Malkin

(I heard Michael Savage Tuesday at a loss to understand the current US president's behavior, wondering if

• maybe he really is trying to get himself impeached.) ed.

Pa. Teachers Union orders teachers to do 'bare minimum'

5/25, "Pennsylvania's Nashaminy School District is yet another front in the battle

• between the teachers union and the taxpayers....

Keep in mind that Nashaminy educators currently earn more than most other teachers throughout the ...Keystone State (Pa.), but recently, the Nashaminy Federation of Teachers still felt it necessary to send a memo to its membership

• urging teachers to do the "bare minimum" in the classroom

• unless the school board submits to even more generous compensation terms."...(from SaveJerseyBlog)
  

5/23: "A few parents acknowledged the good that teachers do, but were still saddened by the

• work-to-contract document.

The Neshaminy school board has released a teachers union document obtained from a faculty member that outlines a work-to-contract plan for Neshaminy High School.

Considered to be less disruptive than a strike or lockout, working to contract,

• also known as working to rule, is
  

• an action many unions take across the state and country.
  

• Members will do no more than the minimum required to cause a slowdown,
  

raise awareness about a labor dispute, and prove how much extra things they do for which they don't get paid, according to online reports.

In this case, the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers is instructing teachers when to begin and end their day, to not volunteer for anything extra,

• to resign from certain committees, to take down bulletin boards,

• and to not write recommendations or attend events such as proms, according to the document....

Board President Ritchie Webb questioned how the educators' actions will affect children.

"The NFT mantra is that they always support children, yet, this document clearly hurts students in so many ways," he said. "Unfortunately, it is painfully obvious who they are supporting!"

• Many parents said they've already started seeing teachers remove classroom decorations....

Board member William O'Connor said the action would punish students by using them as a way

• to get the public to pressure the board. ...

Recently, it appears the situation is getting more serious as a large number of teachers in the district

• paid to coach sports teams and participate in other extracurricular activities have said they are
  
• not signing new extracurricular contracts to return in the fall."...

from Courier Times, PhillyBurbs.com, 5/23, "Union plan has parents upset," by Canelli and Pietras, via Save Jersey Blog

Obama has given 27 safety waivers to Gulf oil companies since spill, including to BP

Washington, 5/7 — "Since the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded on April 20,

• the Obama administration has granted oil and gas companies
  
• at least 27 exemptions from

• doing in-depth environmental studies of oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico.

The waivers were granted despite President Barack Obama’s vow that his administration would launch a “relentless response effort” to stop the leak and prevent more damage to the gulf.

• One of them was dated Friday — the day after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
  
• said he was temporarily halting offshore drilling

The exemptions, known as “categorical exclusions,” were granted by the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) and included

• waiving detailed environmental studies for a BP exploration plan to be conducted at a depth of more than 4,000 feet and an Anadarko Petroleum Corp. exploration plan
  
• at more 9,000 feet.

“Is there a moratorium on off shore drilling or not?” asked Peter Galvin, conservation director with the Center for Biological Diversity, the environmental group that discovered the administration’s continued approval of the exemptions.

• “Possibly the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history has occurred
  
• and nothing appears to have changed.”"...

(For those who are sensitive, this is not to say other presidents would not have behaved this badly. It is that this one was supposed to be better and he obviously is not). ed. via John Batchelor show, 5/24-5/25/10

• "Since spill, feds have given 27 waivers to oil companies in gulf" McClatchy

Spain admits 'green' economy idea sold to Obama is a disaster

• La Gaceta Spanish newspaper, 5/21/10, via pjm

9/24/09: Washington Post: "But few nations are better positioned -- or motivated -- to fuse the fight against recession and global warming

• than Spain.

The country is already a leader in renewable fuels through $30 billion in public support and has been

• cited by the Obama administration as a model for the
  
• creation of a green economy."...

Protests look like Spain will be the next Greece. Proving again that socialism has failed every time it is tried. photo afp.