Wednesday, August 28, 2013

South Carolina city makes being homeless illegal


panhandlerSouth Carolina’s capital city is dishing out some southern discomfort following a controversial decision to criminalize its homeless.
On Aug. 13, the Columbia City Council approved a plan that effectively makes homelessness illegal in parts of the city. 

The proposal forces those who sleep outdoors to be sent to a shelter on the outskirts of town. Those who don’t comply will be rounded up and forced to leave or sent to the slammer.

“It’s basically a choice between two kinds of jail,” Jake Maguire, spokesman for Community Solutions’ 100,000 Homes Campaign, told FoxNews.com. “There’s jail and then there’s the shelter.”

He added, “Once you get there, you can’t come and go. You are basically brought to a place where you are expected to stay. If you want to go back downtown, you have to get approval for them to shuttle you back.”
But Councilman Cameron Runyan, the man behind the proposal, believes moving Columbia’s homeless shelter 15 miles from the city’s downtown area can cut crime and draw in more businesses and opportunities.

“If we don’t take care of this big piece of our community and our society, it will erode the entire foundation of what we’re trying to build in this city,” Runyan told the council. “What I see is a giant risk to business.”



MLK ANNIVERSARY SPEAKER COMPARES SUPREME COURT JUSTICES TO KKK

On the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington on Wednesday, the president of a prominent organization dedicated to increasing black civic participation compared conservative Supreme Court justices to KKK members and said Voter ID laws are being enacted to prevent another black president. 

Melanie Campbell, the president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said though black Americans are not threatened by biting dogs and KKK members in white hoods, the "dogs are still biting in other ways" and there is still "racism and inequality."
She said, "Today there are no white sheets, but there are judges in black robes in the U.S. Supreme Court striking down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, opening the floodgates in many states to pass more voter ID laws... with the goal of ensuring we never see a black man elected to the president, or woman, of the United states of America."

It’s personal: Obamas carried $120,000 student loan debt for decades

For President Obama, the student loan crisis is personal.
The Obamas had not repaid all of their $120,000 student loan debts until his election to the Senate in 2004.
In a series of speeches last week, Obama pushed for measures that he hopes would force colleges to control costs for massively indebted students. He also expressed the view that law school should only last two years, rather than three.
These views are likely informed by Obama’s own college debts, which were recently quantified by The Chicago Sun-Times.
Though Obama received a scholarship to attend Occidental College, the money ran out after his freshman year. He paid the rest of his undergraduate tuition through loans and assistance from his family.
Michelle Obama took out loans to pay for college at Princeton University and Harvard University as well. The Obamas carried these debts for the first 25 years of their marriage.
The president and the first lady also racked up $40,000 each attending Harvard Law School. Including undergraduate loans, the Obamas owed a combined $120,000 after college.
They did not settle their debts until 2004, when Obama signed a $1.9 million book deal to write “The Audacity of Hope.” He was also elected to the U.S. Senate that year.
Via: Daily Caller

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Nidal Hasan sentenced to death by military jury for Fort Hood shooting that killed 13

**FILE** This undated photo shows Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage. (Associated Press/Bell County Sheriff's Department via The Temple Daily Telegram)FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — A military jury has sentenced Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for killing 13 people during the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood.

Hasan never denied being the gunman and has said the attack on unarmed soldiers was motivated by a desire to protect Muslim insurgents fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Because he did not dispute the allegations, the trial has been primarily a pursuit of the death penalty.
The same jury that sentenced him to death Wednesday also found him guilty last week in the attack, which also wounded more than 30 people at the Texas military base.

Military prosecutors believed that any sentence short of death would deny.

Before an execution date is set, the sentence will face years, if not decades, of appeals.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

The Army psychiatrist who fatally shot 13 people at Fort Hood will “never be a martyr” and deserves to be executed despite his attempt to tie his attack on unarmed soldiers to religion, a prosecutor told jurors on Wednesday.

Via: Washington Times


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Nationwide day of protest and walkouts by fast-food workers set for Thursday

For about two decades, Bartolome Perez has worked at a McDonald’s in Los Angeles, where he now makes a wage of $10.75 for each of the 25 to 30 hours a week he works.
That is barely enough to pay his family’s $1,000 monthly rent, $220 car payment and $200 food costs, according to the resident of South Central Los Angeles.
Perez, 42, plans to join other fast-food workers and their supporters in a nationwide day of protest and walkouts Thursday to demand a wage of $15 an hour and the right to organize a union without retaliation.
“It was not easy to take that decision because we’re always thinking they’re going to get rid of us, but, in 20 years, this is the first time there’s a movement in favor of the workers like me,” said Perez, a native of El Salvador, who spoke through a translator. “In 20 years, it’s the first time that fast-food workers have the chance to voice their demands and if nobody goes to the streets how is it going to happen?”
This is the first time the Los Angeles area will be included in such protests, which started in November in New York and have spread to other cities in subsequent union calls to action.
The Service Employees International Union, known as SEIU, is leading the fast-food worker protests.
SEIU is calling on fast-food workers across the Los Angeles area to join in protests at large chain restaurant locations including at three McDonald’s. The main protest is scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday at the McDonald’s at 1007 N. Western Ave. in Los Angeles. Union leaders have not released the locations of the other two fast-food restaurants.

California pols could target tax status of Boy Scouts, youth groups over 'discrimination'

Boy Scouts Gays_Forg.jpgCalifornia lawmakers are cruising toward a final vote on a bill that could threaten the tax-exempt status of American-as-apple-pie groups — ranging from the Boy Scouts to Little League — if their membership policies are found to be discriminatory. 

If passed, the bill, SB 323, would remove an exemption from state taxes for any nonprofit youth group that discriminates on the basis of “gender identity, race, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or religious affiliation.” Well-known organizations like Girl Scouts of the USA, Boy Scouts of America, and Little League International Baseball and Softball were cited in the bill, which was introduced in February by Democratic state Sen. Ricardo Lara. 

Lawmakers are not accusing groups like Little League and the Girl Scouts of having discriminatory policies. The bill appears to be aimed more at the Boy Scouts, as Lara pushed the legislation on the heels of the controversy surrounding the Boy Scouts' policy to exclude gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people as scouts or adult leaders. The national organization later voted to allow gay youth membership, but maintained its ban on openly gay adult leaders. 

Lara told reporters earlier this month that the Boy Scouts' decision was not good enough for him, and continued to push the bill.  

Youth groups say they hope they won't be affected. Brian McClintock, a Little League International spokesman, told FoxNews.com on Wednesday that the group already does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, marital status, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

Via: Fox News Politics

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PACs Fundraising Off Defund Obamacare, Abolish the IRS Petitions

APTelevision ads that can be seen on cable news networks promoting petitions to abolish the IRS and defund Obamacare are being used by political action committees to boost their fundraising rolls.
The campaigns against the unpopular health care law and the scandal-ridden tax-collecting agency feature senators talking directly to the camera, encouraging viewers to dial 1-800 numbers, which are used to solicit donations.
The Senate Conservatives Fund and Citizens United have competing online petitions to “abolish the IRS,” and are running nearly identical ads featuring Sens. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Rand Paul (R., Ky.). Both groups provide a 1-800 number to sign their voice petitions, asking callers for donations if they record their names after the tone.
The Senate Conservatives Fund will provide a free bumper sticker with a donation, and additionally asks for a $10 contribution to have a copy of the petition personally delivered to all 100 senators.
Citizens United simply asks, “Can we count on you for a generous donation to help the fight against the IRS?” After 30 seconds of silence the automated voice says, “Thank you, goodbye.”
So far 207,525 have signed the Senate Conservatives Fund petition.
The Senate Conservatives Fund, founded by former senator and current president of the Heritage Foundation Jim Demint, is running similar ads to defund Obamacare. The campaign again features Cruz. Sen. Mike Lee (R.,Utah) also appears in an ad.
When calling a separate 1-800 number, an automated voice conducts a nationwide “poll,” which asks if Republicans should defund Obamacare. Respondents are asked to press one if Republicans should stop the law’s implementation, or two if “Republicans should allow it to be implemented.”

Obama Taps Bill Clinton to Make Case for Obamacare

'The White House believes they need Bill Clinton to do this.'

MSNBC's Chuck Todd reports this morning that the White House has tapped former President Bill Clinton to make the case for Obamacare. Clinton's first speech on the subject will take place next week, September 4, at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas.
"Breaking news from the White House this morning," said Todd this morning. "We can report to you first here, right on the Daily Rundown, that former President Bill Clinton is being tapped to deliver a major policy speech on behalf of the White House defending and explaining the health care law, the Affordable Care Act. He'll do so at his presidential library in Little Rock, Arkansas, next Wednesday, one week from today. President Obama once dubbed President Clinton the secretary of explaining stuff. He actually had another word at the time, but 'stuff' is what's been quoted. 
"And that's what the White House hopes Bill Clinton will do when it's just the one-month mark before the health care marketplaces open up. And think about the setting for Bill Clinton's health care speech on September 4. Yes, it's at his library in Little Rock, Arkansas. But Arkansas. If somehow he can sway the Arkansas electorate, his former electorate, his former home, about health care, and it ends up saving Mark Pryor's Senate seat, that's where you see how the politics of all this falls. And why the White House believes they need Bill Clinton to do this."

Obama To Americans: “I Adore Incompetent People!”

Obama Bloom Off Rose SC Obama to Americans: I Adore Incompetent People!As a candidate, Barack Obama offered to govern as the "“open and honest” administration in history. Sadly, we’ve learned at great expense that these empty words are just another example of the corruption of Obama’s tenure.
I was reminded again of Obama’s dishonest and fraudulent conduct last week when the Justice Department released details of its case against John C. Beale.
Beale is the disgraced deputy assistant administrator in the Office of Air and Radiation at the EPA. He stands accused of stealing $886,186 between 2000 and 2013. You see, Beale had schemed a way to pay himself the nearly one million he stole in the form of salary bonuses.
Beale most recently worked for Gina McCarthy as her top deputy. This is the same Gina McCarthy who was recently promoted by Obama to run the entire EPA.
But you have to ask yourself why McCarthy wasn’t held accountable for her subordinate’s criminal activity. Is it now standard operating procedure to promote managers who can’t spot theft and crime right under their noses?

I’m old enough to remember a time when the top boss was held accountable for corruption within his or her team.

Via: Western Journalism

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