RSSBaggy Pants Trip Up Robbery Suspect
COVINGTON, La. (Jan. 25) - Police said they caught a 16-year-old robbery suspect who had eluded authorities on several previous occasions when his baggy pants fell down, causing him to stumble as officers chased him.
“We literally caught him with his pants down,” Lt. Jack West of Covington police said.
Suspected of robbing a man at gunpoint and stealing another man’s car after beating him with a brick, the teenager had run away from police several times in recent weeks, West said.
An officer spotted the teen standing on a street corner Monday, called in for two backup officers, then tried to make an arrest.
“They all converged on him from different directions,” West said. “He started to run, but his low-riding pants fell down and he stumbled to his knees.”
Obama Tries His Stand Up Routine
When politics no long suits him, Barack Obama has a promising career as a stand up comic.
WASHINGTON - Although he frequently makes a point of finding something charitable to say about his opponents’ arguments, Sen. Barack Obama almost always ends up voting liberal.
“The arguments of liberals are more often grounded in reason and fact,” the Illinois Democrat wrote in “The Audacity of Hope,” a memoir published last year.
Ok, once again the challenge is STILL open to you liberals that think this.
For example, liberals believe that the “general Welfare” clause should be interpreted very loosely to give the government the right to do whatever it wants in terms of taxing and spending. This is despite the FACT that the founding fathers argued exactly the opposite (see Federalist 41) and won based on that argument.
Anyone want to try and disprove me? I’m up for a laugh.
I guess for Barack Obama it all depends on what your definition of “facts” are.
Black Activist Takes Issue with School Choice Opposition
For Release: January 31, 2007
Contact: David Almasi at (202) 543-4110 x11 or dalmasi@nationalcenter.org
Black Activist Takes Issue with School Choice OppositionProject 21 Fellow Suggests Senator Kennedy’s Antipathy
to “No Child Left Behind” Voucher Provision Reveals
Liberal Elitism and Allegiance to Big Labor
“When public schools are failing our children, parents should have accessible school choice options to meet their child’s educational needs,” said Project 21 fellow Deneen Borelli. “To deny children the opportunity they need in order to preserve the status quo is something Senator Kennedy and his colleagues should be ashamed of doing.”
With No Child Left Behind up for congressional renewal this year, last week Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings outlined changes the Bush Administration would like to make to the policy. These changes include making schools accountable for science test scores, improved gathering of data on graduation rates, publication of school test results and a more vocational bent to some math and English curricula.
The key revisions would allow students at “chronically underperforming” schools - schools that fail to meet defined standards for a period of five years or more - to be given vouchers worth thousands of dollars that they could use to attend other public or private schools. Underperforming schools could be turned into charter schools and union contracts could be overruled to move teachers to other schools. In an interview with The Washington Times, Secretary Spelling said, “We’ve given [these schools] a chance, we’ve given them resources and it’s time for us to say [the law] is a real promise and other options have to be brought to bear.”
A bill to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind policy is expected to be introduced in March or April.
In response to the school choice revision, Kennedy, who now chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that will conduct hearings on the reauthorization bill, said: “I am disappointed that the Administration has once again proposed siphoning crucial resources from our public schools - already reeling from increased requirements and budget cuts - for a private school voucher program. I’m also disappointed that the Administration has proposed circumventing state law with respect to worker protections and other issues. We need to focus on how to help public schools improve and not use this reauthorization to push an ideological agenda that detracts from this goal.”
Reg Weaver, the president of the National Education Association teachers’ union, similarly criticized the proposal for allegedly trying “to strip collective-bargaining agreements.”
“Our educational policy should be focused on the children, but it seems that Senator Kennedy wants to rename this policy ‘No Union Member Left Behind,’” said Project 21’s Borelli. “We must remember that Senator Kennedy is the son of privilege. In his formative years, he went to the Fessenden School - the alma mater of Howard Hughes and Senate colleague John Kerry. He also attended the Milton Academy, a school that today boasts a $150 million endowment and a 125-acre campus for less than 700 students. He effectively had school choice because his family could afford to enroll him in the best schools. Now, however, as a lawmaker, he wants to force less fortunate students to stay in underperforming government-run schools so that unionized teachers can maintain the status quo. It’s a classic case of do as I say, not as I do.”
Project 21, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research, has been a leading voice of the African-American community since 1992.
Porker of the Month: Seven Freshman Senators
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named freshman Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) Porkers of the Month for voting to table, or kill, an amendment to strengthen earmark provisions in the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007 (S.1). Unlike their three other freshman colleagues - Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), and Jim Webb (D-Va.) - the seven Porkers voted for the status quo and against transparency and accountability. For failing to live up to campaign promises to reform earmarks and eliminate corruption and attempting to preserve a giant loophole in earmark reform legislation, CAGW names the seven freshman senators who voted to kill Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) earmark amendment (S.Amdt.11) its Porkers of the Month for January 2007. Read more about the Porkers of the Month.
http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=wA-njX65917YkSmDd7vBog
Obama Continues To Push Unconstitutional Spending
Barack Obama could potentially be even scarier as a presidential candidate than Hillary Clinton. The man continues to push for unconstitutional spending … but hey when has whether or not Congress actually had the power to spend money on specific programs mattered to the left?
Obama urges speed in New Orleans aid
Independent Florida AlligatorAP. NEW ORLEANS - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama toured hurricane-scarred New Orleans on Monday after criticizing the White House for the slow pace of recovery from storms that hit the Gulf Coast almost a year and a half ago.
The challenge continues to anyone that wants to take it up. Where in Article I is Congress granted the power to tax and spend for “disaster relief”? Remember, the entire argument FOR the Constitution put forth by the Federalists who wrote and supported it was that the powers with regard to spending were clearly limited and strictly defined (see Federalist 41). So before you try the open ended definition of “general Welfare” argument just keep that in mind.
Seems like the leftists always clam up when I ask this question. But they are more than happy to defend communists when I talk about Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro!
Border agents arrest rape suspect and sex offender, seize several marijuana loads
A Mexican national, accused of raping a child, and a registered sex offender were arrested in separate incidents Sunday by Border Patrol agents, officials said. Numerous drug seizures were also made by federal officers along the border in the past several days. Diego Figueroa-Martinez, 21, is wanted on charges of rape in West Valley City, Utah, said Gustavo Soto, a patrol spokes-man. Agents arrested Figueroa-Martinez near the village of Topawa southwest of Tucson. He was taken to the Pinal County jail to await extradition to Utah, Soto said. Agents also arrested Jose Tenorio-Gonzalez, a registered sex offender in Illinois, on Sunday morning on Arizona 83 southeast of Tucson, Soto said.
AZ: 22 people taken into custody at suspected immigrant drophouse
PHOENIX — Nearly two dozen people believed to be illegal immigrants, including a pregnant woman, were taken into custody Monday evening after an assault victim led authorities to a suspected drophouse. At least one of the 22 people taken from the home was a suspected smuggler of the immigrants, said Sgt. Andy Hill, a Phoenix police spokesman. Hill said police responded to a 911 call Monday afternoon that a man was beaten by three other men who then fled in a truck. The victim later led police to the nearby drophouse and said there were a number of people inside including two men with weapons, according to Hill.
Even Al Franken Gives Up On Air America
Looking across the board, liberal talk radio has struggled almost everywhere it has been tried. On the other hand when the evil right wingers whom are supposedly so far out of the mainstream start up a wall to wall conservative station the ratings go through the roof. Now Al Franken has apparently finally come to the realization that liberal talk radio which diverges so far from discussing any topic based on facts and reasoned opinion simply will not work.
Air America Radio was rescued from bankruptcy yesterday, but still faces the impending loss of Al Franken, its most popular talker.
The liberal network will be sold to Stephen Green, a Manhattan real estate investment mogul with heavy Democratic ties, including his brother Mark Green, who ran for mayor against Michael R. Bloomberg in 2001. The sale of the network — deemed a “personal investment” by the two brothers — will be completed in mid-February for an undisclosed sum.
Mr. Green is intent on bringing solvency to Air America, which has been troubled by flagging ratings, cash deficits and management turmoil since it was founded almost three years ago as a foil to popular conservative talk radio.
The network was often called “Err America” by critics.
“In the long run, content is king,” said Mr. Green, vowing to stabilize the network’s finances, beef up the talent roster and extend the Air America “brand” into other marketing or broadcast opportunities. The network’s weekly audience has been stuck at just under 2 million since the beginning — about one-tenth the number of listeners who tune in each week to conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh.
Mind you that is ALL of Air America versus just a single conservative talk show host. Start looking at all the “right wing” talkers out there and it gets even worse.
It’s like I keep reminding everyone. I live in Pittsburgh and two of the most listened to station are WPGB (104.7 FM) and KDKA (1020 AM). Both are definitely right leaning when you look at their programming from top to bottom. What station are the liberals on? Stations like WPTT (1360 AM) which considers a 1.5 share a good quarter!
Did I mention that I was in Pittsburgh? A city bought and paid for by liberal Democrats?
Is Socialized Medicine Better?
“E” (name withheld by request) asks:
I heard some guy on Sean Hannity’s show say that America was way behind other nations who have socialized medicine in life expectancy and child mortality rate? Is this true? Is socialized medicine better than the free market health care?
Response:
Dear “E”:
I am not sure how one draws a direct correlation between how good the health care of one nation is compared to another based on these two stats. “Health Care” implies the quality of care one receives when one is sick or injured but there are many factors that affect average life expectancy of a population far beyond this one.
For example, if there is a high rate of violent crime where people die before they are able to receive “health care” (i.e. what my nurse wife refers to as DRT – Dead Right There), no matter how good the nation’s “health care system” is or how it is managed it will not matter. Also there are life style choices that can affect life expectancy as well such as what percentage of a populace smoke and develop inoperable cancer. Again, if it is “inoperable” it does not matter how good the “health care” is. You can generate a lengthy list of such conditions other than the type of health care system if you like to prove this to yourself.
Put simply there are too many variables. Then there is the issue of standard deviations and errors. You know, like when you see a poll and you say results are +/- 3%? That means that any result where one option is not outside of this margin of error is considered a “wash”.
Looking at average life expectancies I see from some data that #1 is Andora (source http://www.os-connect.com/pop/p1.asp?sort=lepop) at 83.46 years. I don’t know about their “health care” system. According to this same data the United States is #42 at 77.12 years. That is about 92% of “#1” I do know however that Canada has socialized health care and this chart lists their life expectancy in the Great White North as 79.43 years. The United States is about 97% of that in terms of life expectancy which, depending on the sample (and I highly doubt they included ever person in the country that died) can well be within a margin of error.
I think you can see the point being made here. Such a comparison is statistically flawed on so many levels.
There are other things to consider as well. Every day, for example, people flock to the United States in order to obtain surgery and medical care that they cannot get in their own countries. Heck, Fidel Castro in his communist paradise of Cuba had a doctor come in from Spain to treat him for the love of Pete! American health care and cannot suck that bad and socialized medicine cannot be so great just knowing this.
The same can be said about infant mortality. What factors are causing that rate to not be the best in the world for the United States have to be considered but rarely are in order to try and make a point which cannot be made by the simple direct comparison of statistics.
As someone who has worked with statistics on almost a daily basis I can tell you for certainty that I can make numbers say almost whatever I want them to by selective inclusion and exclusion as well as other manipulation of the sample.
This is often the tactic that those who are desperate to make a point will take. They will take a presumption, find something that they think that they can make support their presumption and then run it through what is best described as a “black box analysis” to claim they have found proof.
The problem is that in that “black box analysis” no one can reasonably say what is going on.
So is socialized medicine better? Ask yourself this. Has communism and socialism every lasted in the long run anywhere that it has been tried without either utterly collasping and leading to misserable citizenry? No it has not.
Black Activists Criticize Nagin
For Release: January 30, 2007
Contact: David Almasi at (202) 543-4110 x11 or dalmasi@nationalcenter.org
Black Activists Criticize Nagin’s Convoluted Comments to Senate Committee
New Orleans Mayor Uses Unfounded Race and Class Allegations to Obscure Own Failings
Washington, D.C. - Calling his testimony a “smokescreen” to cover up his own failings at the outset of the Hurricane Katrina crisis, members of the black leadership network Project 21 are criticizing the racially-charged rhetoric of New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin (D) before the Senate Homeland and Government Affairs Committee yesterday.
“Mayor Nagin continues to do everything to deflect blame from himself,” said Project 21 member Darryn “Dutch” Martin.
At a January 29 Committee field hearing that was held in New Orleans, Mayor Nagin complained that President George W. Bush did not mention the rebuilding efforts in the Gulf region in his State of the Union address on January 23. He further criticized the Bush Administration for not making enough aid available to the region, claiming that the White House is more interested in rebuilding Iraq than New Orleans. He testified: “I look at what we’re doing in Iraq and how we spend money at an unprecedented level there, how we can set up temporary hospitals and designate money to rebuild their economy, and we have this dance going on in New Orleans.”
Nagin says that aid to New Orleans is not being delivered quickly enough. While the federal government has allocated $334 million for repairing the infrastructure of the city, state officials controlling the flow of money through agencies such as the Louisiana Recovery Authority have only released $145 million. State officials cite a lack of proper budgetary documentation on the part of city leaders, which is something Nagin has called “cumbersome.”
Nagin further implied that a hold-up in the flow of aid is due to discrimination. He said: “I think it’s more class than anything, but there’s racial issues associated with it also.”
“In playing the race and class cards in his whining to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is singing the same old anti-Bush tune touted in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,” said Project 21’s Martin. “Evidently, Mayor Nagin will never own up to the fact that, with ample time to prepare and get the most vulnerable citizens out of harm’s way before Hurricane Katrina struck, he and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco failed miserably. Nagin should be ashamed of himself for taking political cues from rapper Kanye West by insinuating that the Bush Administration and other government entities are inherently racist. It’s all just a smokescreen to hide his own failure.”
“It seems Mayor Nagin wants the money with no accountability. That is not how things should work with public monies,” added Project 21 member Geoffrey Moore. “While cumbersome bureaucracy is never a good thing, there do need to be safeguards against the fraud and mismanagement that New Orleans has become known for. To blame race and class is ridiculous.”
Project 21, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research, has been a leading voice of the African-American community since 1992.
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