ALG Launches Ad in Wisconsin Urging Russ Feingold to Reconsider Support of Robert Chatigny for 2nd Circuit Court

View at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ9ters4xcY

Download at http://washingtonalert.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Justic-for-Whom-II-Feingold-ALG1410.wmv

September 3rd, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today announced that his organization would be running a 60-second commercial in Wisconsin urging Senator Russ Feingold to reconsider his support of the nomination of Judge Robert Chatigny to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Robert Chatigny is a man who thought that a confessed rapist, serial killer of eight young women aged 14 to 25, Michael Ross, ‘never should have been convicted’, and yet, Russ Feingold voted for him out of committee,” Wilson said.

Wilson said the ad was to alert Wisconsinites of Chatigny’s controversial actions defending convicted rapist and serial murderer, Michael Ross, and to advise they tell Feingold to urge Obama not to renominate him. The ad is set to begin broadcasting on Monday.

Senate Republicans blocked consideration of Chatigny, sending the nomination back to Obama. Speculation in the nation’s capital is that Obama intends to renominate Chatigny.

Chatigny’s contentious remarks were made at a last-minute hearing in 2005 he had convened wherein he granted a stay of execution for Ross. In that hearing, Chatigny chastised Ross’ attorney, T.R. Paulding, and threatened to have his law license pulled for not more vigorously pursuing Ross’ defense.

Although the hearing was supposed to be examining Ross’ competence to waive his right to appeal, Chatigny opined, “looking at the record in a light most favorable to Mr. Ross, he never should have been convicted. Or if convicted, he never should have been sentenced to death because his sexual sadism, which was found by every single person who looked at him, is clearly a mitigating factor.”

In a letter to the U.S. Senate, Wilson wrote, “Ross had confessed to all eight rape-murders. Of course he should have been convicted. There was no question of his malice and cruelty, either, and yet for Chatigny, this was a mitigating factor that should have blocked the death penalty sentence. That is outrageous enough.”
Wilson’s letter continued, “But if there was any doubt as to Chatigny’s bias and personal interest in this case, the hearing Chatigny was presiding over had nothing to do with sentencing. It had to do with forcing Ross’ attorney to pursue a claim that Ross was not competent to waive his right to appeal the sentence.”
The letter closed, “Chatigny clearly wanted to keep Ross in the system. His bias exhibited in this case calls into question his temperament and impartiality as a judge, and should disqualify him. This nomination should be withdrawn.”

Wilson also cited that Chatigny’s “long history of acting sympathetically toward sex offenders.”As reported by the Washington Times, “[i]n 12 child-pornography cases, Judge Chatigny imposed a sentence either at or more lenient than the recommended minimum - with most downward departures involving sentences less than half as long.”

“In 2000, Chatigny even overturned Connecticut’s sex offender registry law,” Wilson noted.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to report Judge Chatigny to floor on June 10th for a full Senate vote.
Wilson concluded, “Senator Russ Feingold may have voted for Chatigny, but now is the time for him to reconsider his support. He should urge Obama not to renominate this judge, who is nothing more than an apologist for sex offenders. It’s his claim to fame, and is why Obama has attempted to promote him. Chatigny’s conduct is so deeply disturbing to the American people that Feingold has an obligation to defeat this offensive nomination.”

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ALG Statement on Latest Unemployment Figures

Obama’s big government economic solution has failed.

September 3rd, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following status on the worsening unemployment situation in the U.S., with the rate rising to 9.6 percent and underemployment rising to 16.7 percent:

“When the $862 billion ‘stimulus’ passed, Barack Obama falsely promised that unemployment would not rise above 8 percent. It’s been 20 months since Obama took office, and unfortunately, it’s been 16 straight months where unemployment has been at or above 9.4 percent. All of this is evidence that Obama’s big government economic solution has failed.

“After over $2 trillion in fiscal and monetary ‘stimulus’ the economy is stuck in a web. Unemployment is once again rising, growth is anemic at only 1.6 percent, and after three years housing still cannot find its bottom thanks to government propping up the market.

“The American people don’t want excuses, they want jobs. Now they want nothing more than government to get out of the way of the private sector. All the White House has to offer, with the statement of outgoing economic advisor Christina Romer, is ‘more spending’. More debt is not the answer. Expansive government is not producing more jobs, it is misallocating resources away from the private sector, and into government debt.

“Now is the time for enduring tax relief, including reducing the corporate tax rate, now the second highest in the world, and making the Bush tax cuts permanent. Now is the time to begin to reduce and retire the debt, bring an end to the useless paper trade that is costing Americans their livelihood, and get the government out of the housing, health care, and financial sectors of the economy. Government has had its chance. Now it’s time to let the people have theirs.”

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Thank you Gov. Strickland for not executing Kevin Keith!

Posted by: Brian Evans, 

Bucking the opinion of his parole board and conventional political wisdom, Ohio’s governor did something very amazing on Thursday, September 2.

Gov. Ted Strickland intervened to prevent the execution of a man convicted of murdering three people, including a child. This was no small act in a very political season. But Strickland did his job. He carefully reviewed the evidence in a terrible murder case. He recognized that the case is plagued by very serious errors in its investigation and that doubts persist about whether Keith even committed the crime at hand.
Join us in thanking Ohio’s governor for commuting Kevin Keith’s death sentence.

It is the function of executive clemency power to be a check on the judicial process because cases can slip through the cracks. And Kevin Keith’s case, not to mention his life, almost slipped right through the cracks of human error and injustice. Case after case, we see that the U.S. justice system is far too comfortable with doubt, bias and error. How could 138 people wait on death row to be executed only for it to be discovered in time that they were wrongfully convicted? What kind of system allows for such a high error rate when human life is on the line?

Gov. Strickland’s act is a bright spot amidst a continuous and macabre calendar of scheduled state killings. Perhaps authorities in all U.S. states will take notice that our death penalty system is so riddled with problems that abolition is the only true failsafe against wrongful executions.

In the meantime, we urge authorities examining cases where doubts persist and have not been fully resolved to halt executions lest they be complicit in a grave and irreversible tragedy. Certainly the leadership of Gov. Strickland could be very instructional for Georgia authorities in looking at the Troy Davis case, where courts have reviewed his case, yet serious doubts about guilt still persist.

Corporations Fail in America

By Rebekah Rast

“Our federal tax system is, in short, utterly impossible, utterly unjust and completely counterproductive, [it] reeks with injustice and is fundamentally un-American... it has earned a rebellion and it's time we rebelled.”—President Ronald Reagan, May 1983, Williamsburg, Virginia.

The government’s answers to America’s problems are to spend and tax.
It is easy to see the results of those tactics: less productivity, limited competition, fewer jobs and a sinking economy.
These negative results not only affect individual citizens, but America’s corporations as well.

America’s corporate tax rate sits as the second highest in the world at 35 percent; second only to Japan, which is currently in the process of lowering its tax rate.

Though individual taxpayers might not be bothered that corporations in the U.S. face such a high tax rate — in fact, many might be in support of it as some corporations that conduct business internationally pay different rates. But the truth is, the corporate tax rate should be of concern to all American citizens.
After all, who do you think corporations pass their taxes on to?
Get full story here.

Obama’s Labor Board Targets Dana Corp. Ruling that Allows for Secret Ballot

By Kevin Mooney
President Obama’s labor board is now positioned to overturn the landmark 2007 Dana Corp. decision that allows workers to vote out via secret ballot a union that was recognized through the card check process.

This week the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced it has merged two cases, which involve union lawyers with the USW and UFCW who are seeking to overturn Dana ruling that allowed for employees to demand a secret ballot election within 45 days after a union obtained monopoly bargaining status through a card check campaign.

In the USW case, the same Foundation attorneys who originally won the landmark Dana case are providing free legal assistance to Mike Lopez, an employee of Lamons Gasket Company in Houston, Texas, who filed the decertification petition when at least 30 percent of employees in the bargaining unit supported the election. Consequently, there is good reason to doubt that the card check vote accurately reflected workers’ support of the union.

Workers have already used the Dana precedent to demand secret ballot votes and kicked out unwanted unions. Here’s a video report about some Dana Corp. employees in Albion, Indiana who did just that.
Many of the workers say they only signed the cards in response to union organizers visiting their homes not out of a genuine sense of conviction.
Get full story here.

Out of Context, Out of Line

By Robert Romano
You know the campaign season is heated up when politicians resort to the age-old dishonest tactic of misquoting their opponents. Apparently, when the establishment cannot debate challengers on the substance, it instead debates straw men — misleading the American people and wasting everyone’s time.

Take the latest example of Nevada Democrat Congresswoman Dina Titus, whose campaign saw fit to pull out of context the quote of her opponent, Nevada State Senator Joe Heck.

Heck said, “"The role of Congress is not to create jobs, it is to set the conditions under which the private sector creates jobs.” So, government should get out of the way, and let the private sector do what it does best.

Heck continued, further confirming this point, “And you do that through a stable, fair, predictable tax base, you do that by not pursuing onerous regulations on small, medium and large businesses. And that is where we need to get back to, that limited government that sets the conditions for the private sector to thrive.”
But the only part of the full quote that survived the ad that the incumbent Congresswoman used was “The role of Congress is not to create jobs”. The clip stops there, and then the narrator says, “Sen. Heck doesn't get it.”
Get full story here.

“We are but five men…” walking the long and winding road to peace

The Middle East peace talks will resume today amidst renewed hope of a permanent peace, with President Obama last night urging Israeli and Palestinian leaders not to let the chance of peace “slip away” – warning that “this moment of opportunity may not soon come again”.

Isreali prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said there was a real chance for a “secure and durable” peace, “peace that will end the conflict with the Palestinians once and for all, that will last generations”; President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas said: “We do not want any blood to be shed, one drop of blood, on the part of the Israelis or the Palestinians… We want them to live as neighbors and partners forever. Let us sign an agreement, a final agreement, for peace and put an end to a very long period of struggle forever.”

President Obama said:

“We are but five men. Our dinner this evening will be a small gathering around a single table. Yet when we come together we will not be alone. We will be joined by the generations of those who have gone before and those who will follow.
“Do we have the wisdom and the courage to walk the path of peace?”

Adding:

“The purpose of the talks is clear. These will be direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. These negotiations are intended to resolve all final status issues.

“The goal is a settlement negotiated between the parties that ends the occupation which began in 1967, and results in the emergence of an independent democratic and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with a Jewish state of Israel and its other neighbours
“We are under no illusions. Passions run deep. Each side has legitimate and enduring interests. Years of mistrust will not disappear overnight…

“After all, there’s a reason that the two state solution has eluded previous generations. This is extraordinarily complex and extraordinarily difficult. But we know that the status quo is unsustainable.”

However, fears persisit that peace may remain elusive, with the BBC’s Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen explaining:

“President Obama has started what will be an intensive diplomatic push. He will have been pleased by what seemed to be a warm handshake between the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Even so, Mr Abbas is still insisting that Israel must stop building homes for Jews in the occupied Palestinian territories. Mr Abbas has threatened to walk out of the talks on the settlement issue. It’s not clear where the compromise will come from. Warm words alone won’t do it – but perhaps Mr Netanyahu’s were a start.

“There might not be room for many more failures. The conflict is changing. A religious war is now being grafted on what used to be fundamentally a competition for territory between two national movements.
“You can make deals with nationalists. It’s much harder with people who believe they’re doing God’s work.”

And in The Independent, Rupert Cornwell writes:

“The roll-call of place names associated with such efforts since the end of the first Gulf War in 1991 is long: Madrid, Oslo, Wye, Sharm el-Sheikh, Camp David, Taba and most recently Annapolis. One thing, though, they have in common: failure. And so to Washington, September 2010.

“Just 24 hours after formally winding up the US combat mission in Iraq, Mr Obama yesterday began two days of intensive summitry with separate White House meetings: first with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, then with the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas…
“But Mr Obama’s determination is a two-edged sword. Yes, he is acting much earlier in his presidency than his two predecessors but that carries added risks of its own. Already, this president has clashed more publicly with an Israeli prime minister than any of his predecessors.

“But Mr Obama faces what could be a tricky re-election bid in 2012, in which he will not want to have added the powerful American Israel lobby to the list of his opponents…”

Published by Shamik Das,

How Did the Smoking Toddler Quit His Cigarette Habit?

Posted by SunnyChanel

Ardi Rizal of South Sumatra become quit the celebrity for a pretty insane reason. This two-year-old reportedly had a hardcore nicotine habit where he’d puff on about 40 cigarettes a day.  People pretty much everywhere were shocked that this tubby toddler not only had gotten hooked but were surprised that he had the chance to start in the first place. Really, who would give a 2-year-old a cigarette! But the world-wide moral outrage can be put to rest.


The Jakarta Globe has announced on Thursday that little Adri has broken his addiction. He reportedly went through a 30-day rehab program designed to stop his grabbing for cigarettes after he was taken from his family and put into state custody.

A government official has said that, “he has stopped smoking and doesn’t ask for cigarettes anymore.” The official added that, “He needs to be in a smoking-free environment so that he doesn’t start smoking again,” let’s hope he can be put into a smoke free home, either his own families or someone else who will take better care of his life and lungs.

Check out this crazy YouTube video below of him huffing away!

Lindsay Lohan hit a baby with her car

Proving once again that she’s a complete menace and hasn’t changed in any way, Lindsay Lohan hit a stroller with a baby in it while pulling into traffic on Wednesday, then stayed on the scene until help arrived. That last part was a lie of course. She just drove away. Radar says…

The two onlookers identified (Lohan) in her West Hollywood neighborhood around 5pm Wednesday, when she accidentally hit the woman and child after failing to look both ways before turning.
“There was a woman pushing a kid in the stroller, maybe a two or three-year-old, crossing the street,” witness Brayan Jaime (said). “Lindsay took the red light and hit the stroller. It wasn’t super hard, but she made impact and hit them. Lindsay pulled to the right, stopped for two seconds, and then just kept going.”

But don’t just take his word for it…

Radar has also obtained exclusive video taken just moments after the incident occurred in which Lohan’s luxury Maserati can be seen speeding away.
At the same time, the child can be heard crying in the stroller.
The woman in the video is seen looking back at Lohan’s car in disbelief as she continues to cross the street.
“I’m 100 per cent sure Lindsay was driving because I saw her with my own eyes,” Jaime said.

Don’t get me wrong, I hate kids, and I’m all for running them over, but I’m almost positive it would be illegal. At least where I live. Will anything happen to Lindsay? Probably not. If anything the cops will just make her tie a pillow to her bumper from now on.

Brawl in the stands halts play at the U.S. Open

Friday, September 3, 2010

A brawl in the stands at the U.S. Open halted a tennis match between Novak Djokovic and Philipp Petzschner in Flushing Meadows, Queens, a borough of NYC.

The drama unfolded yesterday when two Canadian spectators, a woman in her 40s and her father, took exception to a younger man’s cursing.

After some verbal back and forth, the three spectators appeared to squash their beef. But the guy swore at the older gentleman, who then slugged him in the mouth. The two men toppled down two rows of seats before the daughter jumped in and slapped the guy.

Kudos to the real men in the stands who came to the defense of the lady — even though she had no right to put her hands on the guy. Security handcuffed all three and escorted them out of the stadium to a round of applause. Djokovic went on to beat Petzschner in straight sets to advance to the third round of the US Open.
Source

'Snitches Get Stitches' Mentality Fuels Sorority Lawsuit

I've never understood the attraction of the Greek lifestyle for college students.

I've heard all the reasons from my best friends, girlfriends and others why pledging Q-Dog, Kappa or Alpha would have been a smart move during my college days. They talk about the sense of brotherhood, the lifetime friendships and the community service that pledging a frat can spawn.

I can't argue with any of the that. I guess that for some students, especially those who feel alienated and alone on their campuses, the sense of belonging provided by a brotherhood or sisterhood is a wonderful thing.
But one question I have never had answered to my satisfaction by fraternity supporters is why do you have to go through a beat down to join. If it's all about unity, why do you show it with hostility?

It's likely a question that former San Jose State University student Courtney Howard is asking herself now since filing a lawsuit against four Sigma Gamma Rho sorority members who were convicted of hazing her in 2008 during the pledge process.

Howard said she and other pledges were warned that "snitches get stitches" while they were punched, kicked and paddled during their initiation.

Sigma Gamma Rho sisters Princess Odom, Monique Hughes, Joslyn Beard and Nicole Remble (pictured above, clockwise from top-left) pleaded no contest earlier this year to misdemeanor hazing and were sentenced to 90 days in jail, two years probation and banned from associating with the sorority.
Part of me wants to say that Howard should have known what she was getting into; no frat or sorority hides the fact that pledging will take some mental and physical endurance.

But there's a thin line between tough pledging and abuse - and I don't expect a 17-year-old "Big Brother" or "Big Sister" to always know where that line is drawn.

I will concede that the San Jose State University Sigma Gamma Rho mess is an aberration when it comes to black Greek organizations, which do far more good than harm overall.

But as long as any frat or sorority allows hazing to be a part of their practice, the door is open to abuse, lawsuits and imprisonment.

By Paul Shepard

Back to Google News Chicago gang members criticize 'gang summit'

CHICAGO — Several current and former gang members say an initiative by Chicago's police chief is unfairly targeting them for the city's violence.

About a dozen men spoke to reporters on Thursday at a news conference about a message police Superintendent Jody Weis (WEES) sent recently to gang leaders.
Weis held a so-called "gang summit" with reputed gang members last month and told them if they resort to violence "we'll sharpen our focus on you."

Jim Allen says he's a current member of the Vice Lords gang. He says police can't hold the group responsible for the criminal acts of individuals. He calls the superintendent's initiative "a joke" that won't stem violence.

Read more...

NAACP Ramps Up Race War On Tea Parties

Fox News:

A new website sponsored by the NAACP and left-leaning media operations is seeking videographers and bloggers who will search out “racism” and “extremism” among Tea Partiers.

Teapartytracker.org will feature tweets, interviews with people at rallies, blog entries and a picture of a t-shirt they say someone spotted at a rally that reads “Blacks own slaves in Mauitania, Sudan, Niger & Haiti.”
The site, sponsored by the NAACP, Think Progress, New Left Media and Media Matters for America, will monitor “racism and other forms of extremism within the Tea Party movement. We call on the Tea Party to repudiate extremists among their ranks and join in civil dialogue with all Americans.”

The NAACP and other groups have accused the Tea Party of several instances of racism, including spitting on a black congressman, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., on Capitol Hill as he went to vote for the health care bill.

Whether the spitting incident, which was caught on tape, was intentional remains subject to debate. Nonetheless, the narrative has remained a continuing theme of Tea Party critics.

The site’s logo is also an old aphorism, apparently meant to suggest that monitoring the Tea Party will prevent the group from becoming more effective. “A watched teapot never boils,” it reads.

The site’s success will likely be measured in the “gotcha” moments it can accumulate that aim to embarrass or undermine the Tea Party movement. The submissions will most often come from citizen journalists, who have grown in form and fashion since Sen. George Allen of Virginia was ousted from his Senate seat in 1996 after his “macaca” moment.

At that time, a videographer sent by his opponent’s campaign caught Allen using what critics later explained was an obscure racial slur. Allen’s campaign sank afterward, and his Democratic opponent, Jim Webb, won the seat.

The fear of gotcha moments most recently forced Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to try to close a Tea Party meeting to media in order to allow people to speak freely. But Tea Partiers who attended the 90-minute event Wednesday in North Charleston City Hall told the Charleston Press and Courier that they were fine with media coverage.

“This stuff does happen, and it’s stupid,” Kelly McBride, a senior faculty member with the Poynter Institute in Florida, reportedly said. “Who isn’t a reporter these days?”

Posted By Pat Dollard.

“There Will Be No Speaker Boehner”: AFL-CIO Hits The War Path

Trumka, Obama
Washington Times:
Union leaders will unleash a massive, concerted attack against Republican candidates and their “right-wing agenda” beginning this Labor Day weekend as they rally to stem expected Democratic losses in November’s midterm elections.


The head of the nation’s largest organized labor federation on Wednesday vowed a two-month media and grass-roots campaign to define the election as a fight between Democrats’ efforts for the nation’s workers versus Republicans’ efforts to regain control of Congress for corporate America.

“We either rebuild a fundamentally different economy that values hard work and a strong middle class, or we’ll turn back toward one that puts corporate interests before people,” AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka said.

Mr. Trumka said the federation will play roles in more than 400 races nationwide, promoting its election agenda with a “massive mobilization” in 26 states. It will focus on 70 House races as well as Senate, gubernatorial and state legislative contests.

Republicans dismissed labor’s characterization that they are anti-worker, and knocked labor for supporting Democrats “job-killing agenda.”

“It shouldn’t go unnoticed that the same worn-out message big labor bosses are spinning today is the same message they tried to sell in Virginia, New Jersey and most recently in Massachusetts, but their problem is that voters just aren’t buying it,” said Brian Walsh, a spokesman with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the fundraising arm of Senate Republicans.

Mr. Trumka acknowledged that organized labor was caught flat-footed in elections this year, particularly Republican Scott Brown’s surprise victory in Massachusetts to fill the seat of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Democrat.

While the AFL-CIO routinely spends millions of dollars on get-out-the-vote campaigns aimed at helping Democrats during midterm and presidential election seasons, this year’s campaign has added significance. Well-funded conservatives groups such as the Tea Party Express, which has spent more than $2 million supporting Republican candidates in the past year, are adding pressure to unions and other groups sympathetic to Democrats to amp up their own election efforts.

Adding to organized labor’s sense of urgency is a Supreme Court decision in January that relaxed rules concerning corporate donations in elections, which Democrats fear will give an edge to Republicans.
Mr. Trumka, who for the most part refrained from mentioning candidates by name during his Washington news conference, called out House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, for overseeing a legislative agenda that “would move us right back to the Bush era of corporate agenda.”

“We absolutely believe that when workers get the votes there will be no ‘Speaker Boehner,’ ” said Mr. Trumka, implying that House Republicans will remain in the minority after the November elections.
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel shot back, saying that “rather than spending their members’ hard-earned money to push Washington Democrats’ job-killing agenda - which their members oppose - labor leaders should help the American people, who want to end the spending spree, stop the tax hikes and create jobs.”
The AFL-CIO will begin running television and radio advertisements this weekend in key markets around Major League Baseball games, NASCAR races and college football games, and sponsor more than 200 community events nationwide. The initial ad is not overtly political and doesn’t mention the upcoming elections or either political party.

As a part of its overall election campaign, Mr. Trumka said union volunteers have distributed almost 2 million fliers in a summer mobilization effort at more than 300 work sites - a prelude to a fall push that he promises will be many times bigger.

The labor federation also said it will be a major partner in a scheduled Oct. 2 rally on the Mall in Washington with “One Nation Working Together,” a loose collective that includes unions and trade associations, human and civil rights organizations, nonprofit groups and religious organizations.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker took a shot at the growing conservative “tea party” movement, accusing its leaders of being more beholden to big business than to workers.
“We’re fighting for working families - and the tea party and its corporate backers are not going to get the final word,” she said.

Mr. Trumka said he doesn’t perceive the tea party as a threat to workers and will gladly work with its followers to support workers’ rights. But he added that the movement at times has included hateful rhetoric that poses a “threat to America and democracy.”

“If the tea party people want to constructively try to create jobs with us, we’d welcome that. It wouldn’t be something we’d turn against,” he said. “However, if they want to use harsh language and try to create a polarization, we think that’s the wrong way to go.”

Mr. Trumka declined to say how much the group will spend on its midterm election campaign, though he added, “We’ll have plenty of resources to energize, to mobilize and to activate our members.”

Posted By Pat Dollard

Team USA Beats Iran Easily, 88-51

Looks like the political uneasiness between the two countries had no ill effects on the players attitudes on the court. If anything the quotes from the Iranian team make it obvious they were happy to be playing against some of the best players in the world, regardless of where they come from…
 
The United States won it easily, earning a top seed in the knockout round of the world championship with an 88-51 victory Wednesday in the first meeting between the countries with a history of contentious relations.

The U.S. team, which downplayed the political aspect of the game, methodically pulled away in the first half, wearing down the Asian champions with its depth and athleticism.

“We just respected their basketball team and we just played a basketball game,” U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “There’s no political aspect in my mind in the ballgame.”

Kevin Love scored 13 points and Kevin Durant 12 for the Americans (4-0), who will meet the fourth-place team from Group A in the round of 16.

After playing his starters for most of the second half of a 70-68 victory over Brazil on Monday, Krzyzewski went to the bench early in this one, with the Americans shooting 58 percent and scoring 23 points off turnovers in the easy victory.

Hamed Haddadi scored 19 points for Iran (1-3) and Arsalan Kazemi had 14.
Read the full story via NBA.com

Season over for QB Leftwich?

Things don’t sound too good for Steelers QB Byron Leftwich, who was expected from all accounts to be the starter for the opener with the suspension to Ben Roethlisberger.

Reports say that Leftwich will miss the season as he apparently tore the medial collateral ligament in his left knee after throwing a pass in the second quarter of the teams final preseason win over the Panthers.
The injury throws the team into a bit of panic, as it means that Charlie Batch probably won’t be going anywhere, and who knows, he could be the starter if the team decides to continue to hold back Dennis Dixon.

“It’s unfortunate for Byron what he went through, but this team has to go forward,” Dixon said. “If I am the guy I have to first and foremost take control of the offense. I know the defense will take care of their side of the ball.”

So the buzz now is Batch getting a chance to be the starter for the team, and he has done well in that department when called upon in the past. He won the opener in 2006 beating the Dolphins at home, and stepped in for two games back in 2005 and won both starts before getting hurt vs Cleveland.

“I think it is in good hands,” Batch said of the quarterback position. “We had three solid guys and now we have two. Either way, I’ll be ready to go.”

He’d better be, September 12th vs the Falcons is closer than ever.

NASA plans to send a probe into the Sun's outer corona

SPACE.com: NASA's Solar Probe Plus, scheduled to launch no later than 2018, is designed to study the Sun's outer atmosphere. Five science experiments were chosen from thirteen proposals to fly on the spacecraft, which is being built at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory; the instruments include a solar wind particle detector and a 3D camera. "The experiments selected for Solar Probe Plus are specifically designed to solve two key questions of solar physics: Why is the sun's outer atmosphere so much hotter than the sun's visible surface, and what propels the solar wind that affects Earth and our solar system?" said Dick Fisher, director of NASA's heliophysics division.

Burger King to go private in $4b deal

NEW YORK – Burger King Holdings Inc. shares jumped nearly 25 percent Thursday, rallying as the fast-food giant said it will be gobbled up by investment firm 3G Capital for $24 a share in a deal valued at $4 billion.

The buyout represents a 46 percent premium to the shares’ price before media reports Wednesday that a deal was in the works, the Miami-based company noted. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

TPG Capital LP, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Bain Capital Investors own about 31 percent of Burger King between them, and all have agreed to tender their shares.

“We look forward to partnering with 3G Capital, whose proven track record as an investor, together with its financial and consumer brands experience, will serve to further strengthen the company, our restaurants and franchisees worldwide,” said John Chidsey, the chief executive, in a news release.

Burger King, founded in 1953, isn’t new to private-equity takeovers. In 2002, beverages giant Diageo sold the No. 2 U.S. fast-food company to TPG, Goldman Sachs and Bain.

Grand Metropolitan PLC, Diageo’s predecessor company, acquired it when it bought Pillsbury, now part of General Mills, which had owned the chain since 1967.

It went public in 2006.

The company has been struggling a bit in the face of high unemployment and the general economic malaise.

Last week, it reported a fourth-quarter profit that fell to $49 million, or 36 cents a share, from $58.9 million, or 43 cents a share, in the final three months of fiscal 2009. Total revenue declined to $623 million from $629.9 million, while same-store sales – those at outlets open at least a year – were off 0.7 percent.

“We would view this as an excellent opportunity for investors who have been in the shares to cut their losses (or take some modest gains, depending on when shares were bought),” wrote Mark Kalinowski of Janney Capital, following the first rumors of a sale. “Burger King may actually be better off as a privately held entity at this point in its history.”

The company “faces some large, longstanding challenges that may be better solved out of the public eye,” he added. “One big challenge is the parent company’s strained relations with its franchisees. Another challenge facing Burger King is: How does it best position itself so that it doesn’t come off to fast-food fans as simply another McDonald’s?”

The news also helped boost shares of Wendy’s/Arby’s Group, which has been the subject of occasional buyout rumors, by about 7 percent. 

By WILLIAM SPAIN

Chicago Gang Members Hold Press Conference to Criticize Police

If you live long enough, you do indeed see everything:
Conservative Vice Lords? I’d hate to see the liberal Vice Lords:

At a news conference organized by self-identified gang members Thursday morning, several speakers complained that police and city officials do not respect them, and that the only way to curb violence is to provide jobs and improve their community.
The men who spoke out Thursday morning blamed poverty, drugs and a lack of jobs for the problems in the streets. They also said that Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis’ meeting with so-called gang leaders was a waste of time.

I thought electing Obama was going to put an end to crime and joblessness.
What’s the difference between the street gang press conference and a Pelosi/Reid press conference? The street gang members didn’t lie nearly as much.

Pakistani Minister Calls for Obama to Assume Leadership of Muslim World as “Mullah Obama”

by Glenn Church
Pakistan’s Minister of State for Industries Ayatullah Durrani is doing his part to confuse people over the false rumor that Barack Obama is a Muslim.

Eid-al Fitr, one of the holiest days on the Islamic year, is inconveniently falling on September 11 this year.
Durrani, noting a lack of a singular leader for Muslims, like Catholics have in a pope, is urging Obama to step forward and take the mantle of leadership.

“The coming Eid would expectedly be observed on 9/11, this a golden opportunity for President Obama to offer Eid prayers at Ground Zero and become Amir-ul-Momineen or Caliph of Muslims. In this way, all the problems of Muslim World would be solved,” Durrani said.

For a man as educated as Durrani is, he has a doctorate in physics, to act this ignorant is simply frightening.
Amidst his impressive scientific background, Durrani was also a member of an Islamic Ideology Council in the 1990’s. He should know that a leader of Muslims should be a Muslim. Suddenly, all the Americans who appear confused about Obama’s faith do not look so ignorant and misguided.

“The time is approaching fast. Barrack Hussein Obama must act now. This is a golden opportunity, Muslims badly need it,” explained Durrani. Durrani suggested that Obama should take the title of “Mulla

Publish Post

h Barrack Hussein Obama” or “Allama Obama.”

This is like pitch-laden kindling for birthers and other conspiracy followers’ bonfire. Orly Taitz quickly put it on her website. Others are seeing it as the proof that Obama is a Muslim after all.
All this proves is that ignorance is cross-cultural.

Hillary for President: The Ad

The below clip began running on New Orleans television this week.

A Chicago dentist has launched the 2012 presidential campaign a smidge early by running a pro-Hillary ad on television, reports CNN. The 30-second spot, paid for by William DeJean, says Clinton has "more experience working in and with the White House than most living presidents" and is "one of the most admired women" in America's history. "Let's make sure the president we should have elected in 2008 will be on the ballot in 2012," it says. The $5,000 advertisement has run in New Orleans and may soon hit Washington, New York, and Los Angeles, notes CNN. Clinton, who has said she won't run for president, has not commented on the science fiction-esque spot. As for why DeJean aired it so early, perhaps the ad's final lines are a clue: "Start Now. Where there's a Hill there's a way."

This is pretty much the last news you want to hear coming out of the Gulf. CNN is reporting that another oil rig has exploded off the coast of Louisiana. Details are still sketchy but here’s what they have so far:


Update #2. More facts emerging regarding the rig explosion. A mile-long oil sheen has reportedly been spotted near where the explosion took place. Get ready for the ‘drill baby drill’ debate to shift into high gear. Below Gov. Jindal addresses the press. From the NYT:

All 13 members of the work crew on board Thursday were accounted for, the Coast Guard said, though the injured worker’s condition was not immediately known. The crew were pulled from the water by a civilian boat that had been in the area, the Crystal Clear, and taken to a nearby rig, Coast Guard officials said.

Rescuers, who arrived about an hour after receiving reports of the explosion, took the crew to Terrebone General Medical Center in Houma, La.

It was unclear whether the platform was in danger of foundering, or whether the explosion had set off any oil leaks.

Government officials said the Mariner platform had not been involved in any recent oil and gas production, and that it had been undergoing maintenance work. The platform was not affected by the Obama administration’s recent ban on deepwater oil drilling, imposed in the wake of the BP spill.

Earlier:

An oil rig has exploded 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana, with 12 people overboard and one missing, the Coast Guard said Thursday morning.

Update: U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough tells CNN that all 13 workers involved in the rig explosion are accounted for, but one person is injured.

Rescue attempts are under way for at least 12 people, Coast Guard spokesman John Edwards told CNN. 13 people were on board the rig total, Edwards said, noting 12 have been accounted for, but one person was missing.

The accident took place 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana on the Vermilion Oil rig 380, which is owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy.

The Coast Guard has multiple helicopters, an airplane and several Coast Guard cutters en route. It’s unknown if there are any injuries.

From the AP:

The platform owned by Mariner Energy (NYSE:ME) is in about 2,500 feet of water, the Coast Guard said, and was not currently producing.

by Glynnis MacNicol

Obama Justice Department Sues Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona

U.S. Sues Arizona Sheriff Over Policing Probe

The Wall Street Journal
The Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit Thursday against Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona’s Maricopa County, accusing him and his agency of stonewalling a probe into policing practices that some call discriminatory against Hispanics.

The suit is the latest move in months of legal sniping between the two sides. They are also fighting over whether federal prosecutors improperly contacted employees of the sheriff’s office directly to seek testimony, instead of going through lawyers.

Robert Driscoll, a lawyer representing Mr. Arpaio and the Maricopa Sheriff’s Office, didn’t have an immediate response to the suit.

Mr. Arpaio is the elected sheriff for Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located. He has become a vocal critic of illegal immigration and has carried out operations aimed at detaining immigrants and turning them over to federal law enforcement for deportation.

Civil-rights groups have long called Mr. Arpaio’s policies discriminatory. Soon after Attorney General Eric Holder took office last year, the Justice Department said it was investigating those complaints and looking into possible violations of Hispanics’ civil rights.

The Justice Department suit, filed in federal court in Phoenix, said the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office receives millions of dollars in federal funding and is required to cooperate with federal investigations as a condition of receiving those funds.

"The actions of the sheriff's office are unprecedented," said Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the department's civil rights division. "It is unfortunate that the department was forced to resort to litigation to gain access to public documents and facilities."

Robert Driscoll, a lawyer for Mr. Arpaio and the sheriff's office, said, "I think they're just trying to distract from the fact they have no underlying case. What they don't want to do is to allege that there is any discrimination by the Maricopa sheriff's office, because if they have to prove that they can't."

The two sides met last week to try to work out a deal and evidently emerged with differing views of what occurred. A U.S. official said Justice Department lawyers believed Mr. Driscoll had agreed to the department's document request. But after the Justice Department sent him a letter outlining terms of agreement, Mr. Driscoll responded with a letter laying out certain conditions for cooperation, the official said.

Mr. Driscoll didn't dispute that description of events. "We are never going to agree on everything, but I thought we could go a long way to meeting their requests," he said.

Mr. Arpaio blamed the breakdown on the Justice Department, saying his lawyers tried to cooperate with Washington at last week's meeting.

"They smiled in our faces and then stabbed us in the back with this lawsuit," he said. "The Obama administration intended to sue us all along, no matter what we did to try to avert it."

By Theodore's World

Recovery: Unemployment Rate Up To 9.6%, 54,000 Jobs Lost In The Economy

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Nonfarm payroll employment changed little (-54,000) in August, and the unemployment rate was about unchanged at 9.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Government employment fell, as 114,000 temporary workers hired for the decennial census completed their work. Private-sectorpayroll employment continued to trend up modestly (+67,000).

Worse than those numbers, though, is the long term unemployment picture:

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) declined by 323,000 over the month to 6.2 million. In August, 42.0 percent ofunemployed persons had been jobless for 27 weeks or more. (See table A-12.)
In August, the civilian labor force participation rate (64.7 percent) and the employment-population ratio (58.5 percent) were essentially unchanged.
(See table A-1.)

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) increased by 331,000 over the month to 8.9 million. These individuals were workingpart time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. (See table A-8.)

About 2.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in August, little changed from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally ad-
justed.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-16.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.1 million discouraged workers in August, an increase of 352,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.3 million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding thesurvey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

The spin you’re going to hear from the Obama apologists will be to hype the 67,000 jobs supposedly added to the private sector. While that’s growth, statistically we’re falling behind. In order to keep up with population growth our economy would have had to add about 100,000 jobs.
The 67,000 job number means we’re falling behind.

The point is, our economy still isn’t creating jobs. The “stimulus” deficit spending Democrats passed hasn’t helped. In fact, it’s made things worse even as Obama plans more of the same spending.

Democrats argue that the economy would have been worse without the stimulus. I’d argue that, were it not for all the government mucking about, the economy would already be on the road to recovery.

Br Rob Port

God, Hawking and the Universe By William Crawley

The Stephen Hawking story is front page news today, with radio shows and news programmes also carrying it. But what is the story? If you trust some press coverage, Hawking claims that modern science forces the conclusion that "God did not create the Universe". If you read other press coverage, he has concluded that "It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going." These are two very different claims. The first claim is as difficult to prove (some would say as impossible to defend) as the claim that God did create the Universe; I suspect Hawking is actually arguing for the latter claim. But notice that the former claim is not logically entailed by the latter.

Let's consider the claim that God's existence is not "necessary" to explain the existence of the Universe. Even if Hawking is right -- and it is evidentially too soon to say -- that M-theory can explain the "spontaneous creation" of the Universe, without any assistance from a divine being, it does not follow from that claim that God's existence is "unnecessary". All one could argue is that one can offer a coherent causal explanation for the Universe which does not make reference to God's existence. But God's existence may still be considered "necessary" for non-scientific reasons. I'm not suggesting that God's existence is necessary even at the level; merely that some could mount a coherent case for the necessity of God as a "personal" or "teleological" explanation regardless of the causal implications of M-theory.

Take what Hawking says about M-theory. He writes: "According to M-theory, ours is not the only universe. Instead, M-theory predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing. Their creation does not require the intervention of some supernatural being or god. Rather, these multiple universes arise naturally from physical law."

Set aside the question of why a multiple-universes-ex-nihilo explanation would be more acceptable than a single-universe-created-ex-nihilo explanation. Instead, focus on the physical law that spontaneously gave rise, according to Hawking, to multiple universes. Why those laws rather than some others? Who or what determined that our universe is "governed" by these physical laws rather than some others? This, perhaps, is a variant of the classic philosophical question: Why is there something rather than nothing in the universe? Hawking's answer appears to be a variant of the classic agnostic response: There just is. But people of faith are quite within their epistemic rights in regarding that answer as insufficient. The physical laws which gave rise to the universe (whether a single universe or a muliplicity of universes) are themselves in need of a full and final explanation. Hawking has given no reason at this stage to rule out a religious explanation. That's not to say that a religious explanation is the best possible explanation for the physical laws at work in the universe, but it does mean that these are still open questions. In an excerpt from his book published in The Times today, Hawking confidently dismisses the entire discipline of philosophy as "dead". He might usefully reconsider that brash allegation.