Judge Sotomayor meets the senators: What they said, what they meant

Ron Fournier, AP’s Washington bureau chief, writes an entertaining interpretation of the political lingo being used in the pre-confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor.

Read his piece here.

Politics of personal destruction used to elevate Sotomayor

Opposition research to undermine plaintiff: firefighter Frank Ricci

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s advocates are pulling out all stops in their efforts to have her sail through her upcoming confirmation hearing. As an example, the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way is urging reporters to scrutinize what they called the “troubled and litigious work history” of Frank Ricci, the Connecticut firefighter at the center of Sotomayor’s most controversial ruling.

“To go after so sympathetic a plaintiff as Frank Ricci . . . is a new low in the politics of personal destruction,” said Roger Pilon, the director of the libertarian Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies. “If they were smart, they’d keep a low profile.”

The 35-year-old Ricci was the lead plaintiff in the case Ricci v. DeStefano, challenging New Haven’s refusal to promote white firefighters after black and all but one Hispanic firefighters failed to score high enough on a promotion exam.

Sotomayor and a majority of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the city’s claim that it was justifiably concerned about a potential civil rights suit being filed by the black firefighters.

Last month, however, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 2nd Circuit by a 5-4 vote.

Read the complete McClatchy news report here.

An overwhelming majority of Americans oppose the position that Sonia Sotomayor took on the affirmative action case — with 71 percent favoring the promotion of the white firefightersand the one Hispanic, who scored well on the test. Only 19 percent side with the city — and Sotomayor — in abandoning the test and awarding no promotions.

In addition, a strong public majority — 55 to 36 percent — favors abolishing affirmative action entirely, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll.

This brief video explains the 20 firefighter’s reverse discrimination lawsuit.

U.S. Supreme Court reverses high-profile decision by Sonia Sotomayor

In a 5 to 4 vote today, the United States Supreme Court narrowly ruled in favor of white firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut, who said they were denied promotions because of their race. The decision reverses a decision by Judge Sonia Sotomayor and others that has come to play a large role in the consideration of her nomination for the high court. The Washington Post reports.

An overwhelming majority of every ethnic and gender demographic — 71 percent — in a recent poll of Americans oppose the position that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor took on the affirmative action case.

In the case, Ricci v. DeStefano, Sotomayor sided with the city of New Haven, which threw out the results of a test used to promote firefighters when no blacks achieved a score high enough to merit promotion. Watch this brief video regarding the firefighter’s reverse discrimination suit.

Schwarzenegger looks hopefully at flat tax, says illegals not to blame for staggering budget deficits

Term-limited Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, presiding over the nearly bankrupt state of California until 2010, has donned his Steve Forbes hat, and suggests the current system, based on highly unstable income tax revenue that fluctuates with the economy, “doesn’t work.” 

In an interview with the editorial board of the Sacramento Bee, Schwarzenegger indicated he was hopeful the commission now studying the overhaul of the state’s tax system would not be afraid to propose something like “a 15% straight tax.”

California now faces a $24.3 billion deficit after Schwarzenegger signed an unsustainable $92 billion spending plan in February. Yet in response to dozens of questions submitted by Californians who say the state should deal with the deficit by eliminating services for illegal aliens, the governor said it is a “myth” that illegals are to blame. He said the cost of those services which he says are estimated at $4 billion to $5 billion annually, is merely a “small percentage” of the deficit California faces. The Bee article is available here.

Yet in a November 2004 study, the Federation for American Immigration Reform reported illegal aliens cost the state $9 billion annually, including $7.7 billion on education. Obviously those costs have inflated in the five years since the study was compiled. The full report, detailing the staggering yearly costs associated with education, health care and incarceration, which at that time cost $1,183 per household headed by a native-born resident, can be read here.

Poll: 71% favor firefighters, oppose Sotomayor’s decision

55 to 36 percent favor abolishing affirmative action entirely

An overwhelming majority of Americans oppose the position that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor took on an affirmative action case that will figure prominently in her Senate confirmation hearings, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll of 3,097 registered voters.

In the case, Ricci v. DeStefano, Sotomayor sided with the city of New Haven, Connecticut, which threw out the results of a test used to promote firefighters when no blacks achieved a score high enough to merit promotion. Watch this brief video regarding the firefighters reverse discrimination suit.

Americans oppose that decision strongly; 71 percent favor promoting the white firefighters, plus one Hispanic, who scored well on the test, and only 19 percent side with the city — and Sotomayor — in abandoning the test and awarding no promotions.

McClatchy News reports the survey adds fuel to Republican plans to make Sotomayor’s ruling on the case a political issue during her Senate confirmation hearings.

A majority of every demographic group — Republicans, Democrats, Independents, men, women, whites, blacks, Hispanics — favored the promotion of the firefighters who passed the test. The strongest support for Sotomayor’s decision came from African-Americans. However, a majority, 53 percent, disagreed with it, while 33 percent agreed and 14 percent had no opinion.

“Hate Crimes” bill is a disaster

Janet Porter, who heads the Faith2Action.org Christian ministry calls the bill (HB1913) that has already passed the U.S. House the “Pedophile Protection Act.”

It is now in the Senate, courtesy of Democrat Sens. Ted Kennedy and Patrick Leahy. This bill (S 909) could be voted on as early as today.

The bill would protect all 547 deviancies or “paraphilias” listed by the American Psychiatric Association.

WorldNetDaily carries this important report. We urge you to read it and follow the advice to call your senators  to attempt to derail this dangerous legislation.

Arizona Dist. 2 Congressman Trent Franks correctly said passage of this bill will “end equality in the United States.”  Read Rep. Franks statement on this insidious legislation.

Unearthing Earth Day

 

 

 

 

Earth Day is a holiday created to honor the planet and raise consciousness of man’s mostly negative effect on the environment.

A Philadelphia newspaper, The Bulletin, tells the fascinating saga of environmentalist Ira Einhorn the co-founder of this day so near and dear to the hearts of the self-flagellating “Blame America First” Greenies.

After executing a grisely murder of his one-time girlfriend in 1977, Einhorn found himself a splendid lawyer, Arlen Specter, who finagled his bail down to $40,000 — only 10% of which was needed to free him. Of course, he skipped, and was finally tried and convicted in absentia in 1993. Several years later the Earth Day enthusiast was located in France, living with a new girlfriend. The benevolent French refused to extradite him, fearing he would face the death penalty for his brutality. After promising him a new trial, he was returned, tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison October 17, 2002.

Michael P. Tremoglie writes of the little mentioned paradox about the Einhorn saga: Ira Einhorn was arrested for murder March 28, 1979, the day the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident occurred. Ira Einhorn, environmentalist, was charged with murder during the same period as one of the greatest environmental accidents in United States history..

But the real irony is that more people died in the apartment of Ira Einhorn, co-founder of Earth Day than at Three Mile Island. The environmentalist killed more people than the so-called environmental disaster.

Does this evidence matter to the Obama administration?

The Central Intelligence Agency told CNSNews today that it stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of “enhanced techniques” of interrogation on al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) — including the use of waterboarding — caused KSM to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles.

After he was subjected to the “waterboard” technique, KSM became cooperative, providing intelligence that led to the capture of key al Qaeda allies and, eventually, the closing down of an East Asian terrorist cell that had been tasked with carrying out the 9/11-style attack on Los Angeles.

Read the complete article here.

According to this AP report, President Obama is still considering prosecution of Bush administration Department of Justice lawyers who wrote legal arguments that waterboarding and other methods of extracting necessary information to protect American lives could be legally used by interrogators.

Joseph Farah’s column is a worthy refresher course

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened.”

- Norman Thomas, American socialist

We urge you to read Farah’s The day socialism comes to America.

McCain aide warns GOP to stay clear of being known as the “religious party”

Steve Schmidt, a top advisor to John McCain’s failed presidential campaign is sounding a warning of severe perils facing the Republican party if it becomes known as the “religious party,” citing opposition to same-sex marriage as his prime example.

And wouldn’t you know he made his pronouncement at the Washington, D.C., convention for the Log Cabin Republicans — a GOP homosexual stronghold.

He urged Republicans to endorse civil unions and stop using the Bible as rationale for gay-marriage opposition, FOX News reports.

“If you put public policy issues to a religious test, you risk becoming a religious party,” he said. “And in a free country a political party cannot be viable in the long-term if it is seen as a sectarian party.” He added that the GOP will be increasingly marginalized if it sustains that opposition long-term. “If the party is seen as anti-gay, then that is injurious to its candidates” in Democrat-leaning and competitive states, he said.

We’ll stow that bit of important information. Thanks, Steve.