MUST-SEE: BLACK WOMAN RIPS COUNCIL OVER ILLEGAL ALIENS

LOS ANGELES — Chanell Temple, a black woman originally from Huntington Park, delivered a strident, politically incorrect speech against illegal immigration on Monday evening at the local city council meeting.

Temple, who now lives in the Hawthorne area of Los Angeles, was protesting the council’s recent decision to appoint two illegal aliens to city commissions. She told Breitbart News she had not intended to speak at the meeting, but was offended when someone compared illegal aliens to slaves. She added that she supports Donald Trump “a hundred percent.”

Here are her full remarks (in video and transcript below):

…undocumented illegal immigrants who have been assigned to the position of commissioner.

The Huntington Park City Council is being paid with taxpayers’ money to do a job within rules and regulations. According to your board behind you, it says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” I want to paraphrase that and say: Where there is no law, the people perish.

In the U.S. we have one rule of law. I also want to talk about the Fourteenth Amendment, which was added to the Constitution in regards to blacks being given birthright citizenship because blacks helped build this country, including the White House—twice.

(Interjection: Right on!)

Please do not tarnish the name of black slaves by comparing them to your plight. There’s no comparison. None.

Black slaves did not break into this country, okay. They were brought here against their will. Also, black slaves are not immigrants. Immigrants are people with a choice, they come here by choice. Black slaves didn’t have choice.

That’s offensive to me because I’m a descendant of a black slave. And trust me, Ancestry.com works and I can trace my people back from when they landed here on the boat. I know the village where my people came from in Africa, OK? So please, do not try to get away with using that. That’s very offensive.

This country has been good to illegal immigrants. You have been given jobs, houses, tax money, free tax money, welfare, Social Security, they open up business for you guys, et cetera.

None—I don’t know of any illegal aliens who have been hung from a tree. I don’t know of any of them illegal aliens who have dogs been sicced on. So that’s very offensive for you to sit up here and allow these people to say that and get away with it. Things that people are going to feel sorry for. That’s very offensive, OK? Do the right thing.

My people get three strikes. I have a nephew in jail now–22 years!–for something he didn’t do.

My people commit a crime, they go to jail. You people commit a crime, they get amnesty. It is wrong…

(Cheers, applause)

And we’re not going to have it. We’re not going to have a set of laws for you people and a set of laws for us.

And if you can’t follow the law, talking about “perish,” your job needs to perish.

You get paid with taxpayers’ money and you are misappropriating taxpayers’ money when you pick up your check.

(Cheers, applause)

In an interview Tuesday morning, Temple explained further:

I grew up in the Huntington Park area. I was raised in that area. I live in Hawthorne now. That area over there has been a Latino area for decades, for a long time. They witnessed racial tension in that area. My mother was a property owner over in that area.

What I said last night was not my intention. What kind of disturbed me is when someone got up and talked about slavery. There is no comparison. They need to stop pretending like they are being mistreated. They have pushed and disturbed the community. They have 95% of the jobs and they still act like they are mistreated.

Yes I am black, but I’m an American. They are getting away with murder. I was in Sacramento recently, and I protested about Kate Steinle. Then they get a get-out-of-jail-free card, and my nephew is in jail. They release them–30,000, if not more–every year. They put them right back on the street and it’s not right.

The black community–we’re tired of them citing civil rights because of people like Al Sharpton. They are being treated better than American citizens with our tax money.

I’m just tired. I lost my job. I was told I did not speak Spanish and I was terminated from my job. Even now it’s difficult to get a job. They told me I was fired for not being able to speak Spanish. I applied to McDonald’s and they told me that they don’t hire blacks–and it was a black owner. I filed with EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). I have my documentation. I was denied a job….But they didn’t do anything. They are putting illegal immigrants before blacks. I applied for three jobs with the County of L.A. and they didn’t give me a job, and when I filed a complaint they called me a racist. I ended up homeless.

We have a rule of law. Why can’t they obey the law? Little do they know they are making us [Americans] closer. We are standing as Americans, as all races and colors. They want to throw out the race card. We are tired of being abused, and it’s got to stop.

Our politicians are giving them the power in the fight against us–the people using our tax money, writing these laws and using them against us….

Yes, black lives matter, but if we had jobs we wouldn’t be put in these situations to be attacked. A lot of parental rights have been restricted and are being taken away. There’s a lot in the black neighborhood that needs to be worked on. We need to get our house in order first and we need to get jobs back to get back on track.

We have no recourse. We are not being represented. Now we’re in the shadows, we are being buried in the shadows.

 Via: Breitbart

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Obama's Toxic Environmental Pollution Agency by Michelle Malkin

Here in my adopted home state of Colorado, orange is the new Animas River thanks to the blithering idiots working under President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency.

It's just the latest man-caused disaster from an out-of-control bureaucracy whose primary mission is not the Earth's preservation, but self-preservation.

As always, the government cover-up compounds the crime — which is why the agency's promise this week to investigate itself has residents across the Rocky Mountains in stitches. Or tears.

After the EPA and officials and their contract workers accidentally spilled three million gallons of pent-up toxic sludge on August 5 from a defunct mine in San Juan County that hadn't operated since 1923, EPA apparatchiks delayed notifying residents for more than 24 hours. They vastly underestimated the volume and spill rate of gunk. Then, while refusing to release data, EPA head Gina McCarthy flew to the glowing river to fecklessly declare that the water "seems to be restoring itself."

The cleanup costs for the Colorado spill alone are estimated at $30 billion. Small farmers, ranchers and tourist-related businesses will be reeling for years to come — yet the EPA is simultaneously pushing forward with Draconian ozone regulations (based on cherry-picked junk science) that will punish the state's residents with no discernible health benefits.

If only Mother Nature could help wash away the institutionalized corruption that has been leaching from Obama's EPA headquarters since Day One:

—BP oil spill data doctoring. Former White House Director of the Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy Carol Browner and the EPA suffered no consequences after they repeatedly lied and cooked the books in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010. Browner, who pulled the puppet strings of then-EPA head Lisa Jackson, misled the public about the scope of the disaster by falsely claiming that 75 percent of the spill was "completely gone from the system." Then she falsely claimed that the administration's initial report on the disaster was "peer-reviewed."

The Interior Department inspector general also singled out Browner for misrepresenting the White House's blue-ribbon science panel, which opposed a six-month drilling moratorium, and exposed how she butchered their conclusions to justify the administration's preordained policy agenda.

Browner, an inveterate left-wing crony lobbyist/activist, left office without so much as a wrist slap. Brazen data doctoring and destruction are her fortes. As EPA head during the Clinton administration in the 1990s, she was held in contempt by a federal judge after ordering a staffer to purge and delete her computer files. Browner had sought to evade a public disclosure lawsuit by conservative lawyer and author Mark Levin's Landmark Legal Foundation.

—Email evasion and transparency trouncing. While Browner was doing her dirty work as Obama's unaccountable eco-czar, Jackson busied herself creating sock-puppet email personalities to circumvent public disclosure rules as the agency crafted radical climate-change policies in secret. She learned the tricks of the trade from Browner. Jackson admitted to using the pseudonym "Richard Windsor" on one of at least two separate secret government accounts. Competitive Enterprise Institute fellow Christopher Horner discovered the elaborate ruses in 2012. The agency had stonewalled Horner's FOIA requests on the use of alias accounts at the agency; CEI sued to force the administration to comply.

In December 2012, Jackson resigned amid multiple investigations. Not a wrist slap. Not a scratch. In March of this year, a federal judge blasted the agency for avoiding a separate FOIA request by Levin's Landmark Legal Foundation related to sock-puppet email accounts created by Jackson and others "who may have delayed the release dates for hot-button environmental regulations until after the Nov. 6, 2012, presidential election."

Apple Computer hired Jackson in 2013 (and all of her multiple personalities). Two months ago, the company proudly announced that it was promoting Jackson to "vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives" and head of the company's "global government affairs and public policy teams."

—Enabling sex predators and porn addicts. Last month, the EPA inspector general finally testified on Capitol Hill about the agency's chronic mismanagement of alleged sexual perverts on the payroll. One employee "engaged in offensive and inappropriate behavior toward at least 16 women, most of whom were EPA co-workers," the IG reported. Supervisors "were made aware of many of these actions and yet did nothing."

Well, not exactly "nothing." The employee was actually promoted to assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Homeland Security — a position he used to harass six more women.

Two other EPA workers were caught binging on porn during work hours; one was observed getting his X-rated fix by a minor who was at the office during Bring Your Child To Work Day. EPA allowed one perv to retire with full benefits; the other is still on leave collecting a $120,000 yearly salary.

Double standards. Data destruction. Imposition of radical job-killing regulations. Law-breaking with impunity. Only in Washington does a rogue government agency with an $8 billion budget get away with such serial incompetence and criminality in the name of the "public good." Protecting the environment has become a full employment racket for green crooks and cronies.

Via: CNS News

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Unsecured Hillary Emails, Hackers Worry Senate Homeland Security Chairman

Federal officials and Hillary Clinton’s lawyers may not be the only ones with copies of the former secretary of state’s official emails, according to Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson.

Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, told FBI Director James Comey in an August 17 letter that he is “deeply concerned by recent reports that classified information in Secretary Clinton’s email may exist outside of the federal government’s possession.”

The homeland committee chairman wants Comey to explain “whether additional unsecured copies of classified information currently exists.”

Johnson also said he is worried that hackers, foreign governments or other unauthorized persons may have hacked Clinton’s emails. He asked Comey for answers by Aug. 31.

Via: Daily Caller

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Do We Want a Business Model for Our Country?

With the nation polarized and unable to move forward, many people are suggesting that what our country needs is a business model for governing. Forget about the moral issues. Run the nation like a business and everything will come out all right. Find a candidate who gets things done in business and that person will do the same thing for America, Inc. You can’t argue with success.

Such a pragmatic proposal definitely resonates with those who are fed up with government. People are tired of not getting things done. They don’t like running the country in the red. Getting the country on a spreadsheet is an attractive idea.

The problem is we don’t need a business model for governing. We already have one and it’s not working.

Our political system has always had something of a business model built into it. We already find in the literature of the Founding Fathers references to the nation as a “commercial republic,” a union of legitimate self-interest, aimed at providing progress, prosperity and security. American political rhetoric is full of economic references that hold progress and prosperity as the height of well-being. Anyone who strays from this narrative is quickly reminded, as was Bill Clinton in 1992, “It’s the economy, stupid!”

If there is an image that corresponds to our political model, think of a thriving farm co-op or public corporation of shareholders. Citizenship is a kind of a co-op membership full of legitimate benefits with distributed risks, voting privileges, few liabilities, and plenty of entertainment. The key to keeping everyone happy is a robust economic order that ensures that members renew their membership with great enthusiasm.

However, this business model for governing depends upon two important pillars. The first is a great consensus to get along and smooth over differences, which is assured by the outward appearance of prosperity and the promise of the American dream.

The second pillar is a vague moral code that ensures some kind of order and serves as the foundation of trust and confidence that allows business to flourish and the rule of law to prevail. As long as these two pillars stand, the system works well.

But when the economic dynamo stalls or sputters over a long period of time, the glue of consensus no longer holds. When the vague moral code falls into decay, trust and rule of law disappear. What we are witnessing today is the breakdown of this cooperative business model.

That is why everything seems like a free-for-all. Everyone wants to blame the other for the failure of the co-op. Our elections have become like shareholder brawls where the officers are frequently changed. Opinion polls serve as quarterly earnings reports to which all scramble to adapt. Who wins is often the one who promises the most in the least amount of time. Americans are seeing a model that used to work so well now working contrary to their interests by not paying out dividends, but distributing uncertainties that cause anxiety, depression, and stress.

Via: American Thinker

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Fox News' Ed Henry Rattles Hillary at Shaky Press Conference: 'Did You Wipe the Server Clean?'

In a contentious exchange with reporters after a Las Vegas Town Hall event Tuesday, Hillary Clinton insisted anything she did with her email server was "legally permitted" and said the media were the only ones asking about it.

Asked if she had wiped her private email server clean before turning it over to investigators last week, she jokingly told Fox News' Ed Henry, “What, with like with a cloth or something? I don’t know how it works at all.”

Henry pressed the Democratic presidential candidate by pointing out that leadership is about taking responsibility.

“Look, Ed, I take responsibility,” Clinton replied. “In retrospect, this didn't turn out to be convenient at all and I regret that this has become such a cause celebre. But that does not change the facts. The facts are stubborn – what I did was legally permitted.”

Clinton last week handed over to the FBI her private server, which she used to send, receive and store emails during her four years as secretary of state. The bureau is holding the machine in protective custody after the intelligence community's inspector general raised concerns recently that classified information had traversed the system.

Via: Fox News

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[VIDEO] #BlackLivesMatter Activist to CNN: ‘All Lives Matter’ Is a ‘Violent Statement’

A #BlackLivesMatter activist appearing on CNN told host Wolf Blitzer that saying “all lives matter” is actually a “violent statement.”

Activist Julius Jones was invited on to discuss the protest movement’s contentious meeting with Hillary Clinton. “Black lives are actively under attack, and we are in a terrible war with our own country. African-Americans are Americans and we’re not treated like that, we’re not treated as if black lives matter.”

“And when people say ‘all lives matter,’ it’s a violent statement, because the only time that people say ‘all lives matter’ is in opposition to ‘black lives matter,’ and it’s the most violent statement of love that you can do,” he said. “It’s like, ‘all lives matter!’ Yes, we understand that, it’s true, but in this country for the longest time, the United States acts like black lives don’t matter.”

Via: Mediaite

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[BUSINESS] Don't knock Amazon's corporate culture

On a recent trip, a fellow traveler asked if I always felt afraid living in Atlanta. Since this gentleman had never visited a U.S. city, his belief was that encountering gun-toting criminals might be a daily occurrence. As a longtime resident, I assured him this was not the case.

I was reminded of this exchange when I read the scathing New York Times article about Amazon's corporate culture because the authors seem to be unfamiliar with common practices in the business world.

After many years in management and human resources, I have a slightly different take on their observations about Amazon. So here are my reactions to their article.

1. Amazon's "bruising" management practices are really quite routine.

The Times article devotes paragraph after paragraph to "Amazon's singular way of working," yet most of the examples they cite are widespread in the business world. Terms like "ownership," "mission," "dive deep," "bias for action," "think big," and "customer obsession" are highlighted by the authors as though they are somehow unusual, even though they've been around for decades. 

Business practices like performance ranking, confidentiality agreements, business reviews, competitive internal projects and data-based decision-making are hardly exclusive to Amazon. Perhaps most amusing is the description of the Performance Improvement Plan as "Amazon code for 'you're in danger of being fired.'" I hate to tell the reporters, but that "code" is used by almost every large company in the country.

This is not to say that all these practices are without fault — but there is nothing unique about them. And Amazon's Leadership Principles are actually sound operational guidelines.

Read More Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace

2. People do not bloom wherever they are planted.

All managers and recruiters know that "cultural fit" is a key to successful hiring. The applicant who happily settles in at Microsoft may quickly become disgruntled at a 50-person start-up — and vice versa. Someone who enjoys the non-profit world may be miserable in business. Organizational size, structure, expectations, and mission can all affect job satisfaction.

Having worked with many technology companies, I know first-hand that the culture is not for everyone. As a human-resources director, I often told applicants that if they could not handle frequent change or a rapid pace, they would not be happy in our company. I encouraged them to talk with employees and learn about our environment. After assessing the landscape, some made an informed decision to self-select out. 

Amazon apparently takes a similar approach, as evidenced by a recruiting video quoted in the Times article: "You either fit here or you don't. You love it or you don't. There is no middle ground." 

Read More Cramer: Investors will love Amazon more now

3. Unhappy employees usually blame someone else.

About a year ago, a new Amazon hire contacted me for some personal career coaching. "I was excited about the opportunity at first," she said. "But these people work ridiculous hours. And they are really rude." Another way of stating this, of course, would be "I prefer to work a 40-hour week and have people care about my feelings." 

In psychology, there is a field of study called "attribution theory," which looks at how we assign causality. Simply put, when something good happens to us – an award, a promotion – we tend to attribute that result to our own amazing qualities. But when the reverse occurs – a project fails, we lose a job – we quickly blame factors outside ourselves. 

Unsuccessful or unhappy employees almost always attribute the problem to their company, boss, or colleagues, and they eagerly share these perceptions with anyone who will listen. So it is hardly surprising that two reporters found ex-Amazonians who were ready to complain. But like my coaching client, many of them had probably just landed in the wrong place.

Read MoreAmazon's data-driven approach becoming more common

4. Bad managers are everywhere.

The examples of Amazon managers disciplining employees with cancer or sending women on business trips after a miscarriage are appalling and inexcusable. However, as someone who writes a workplace advice column, I can assure you that such egregious actions are not unique to Amazon. Every week, I find emails in my inbox describing similar events. 

In a company with over 100,000 employees, it is statistically unlikely that every manager will be competent, caring, and compassionate and statistically probable that anyone looking for horror stories can find them. But I feel fairly certain that many heartwarming examples could also be found of Amazon managers who made every effort to assist employees with difficult personal or family situations.

5. Even the guy at the top can feel powerless.

I once worked for a CEO who complained about feeling out of control. This was rather amusing to the rest of us, since from our perspective, he controlled pretty much everything. 

What he meant, though, was that he could not guarantee that his intentions for the business would be accurately interpreted and carried out. His passion for customer service had to flow through a lot of layers before reaching those who actually served the customers. Stories about customer mistreatment drove him absolutely nuts. 

Given his rapid response to the Times article, Jeff Bezos apparently shares this frustration. He made it quite clear that this is not the Amazon he knows or envisions, and he invited employees to email him directly about any inappropriate management behavior. So kudos to you, Jeff.

Commentary by Marie McIntyre, a career coach(www.yourofficecoach.com) and the author of "Secrets to Winning at Office Politics." Follow her on Twitter @officecoach.

Via: CNBC

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[OPINION] #BlackLivesMatter Will Continue to Disrupt the Political Process

Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors writes that the Democratic Party has “milked” the votes of African-Americans

The Outrage Machine is a weekly opinion column by voices from the left and right on Washington. Want to write for us? Contact us at powerpost@washpost.com

My morning rituals are typical. I wake up yearning for a few extra moments of rest. I express gratitude to a higher power for the breath in my body and the blessings in my life. I shower. I dress. I eat breakfast. I exchange laughter and words with my beloveds, embracing each other as we say our daily goodbyes. As I stand at the threshold of my home, the liminal space between warmth and safety and the chaos of the outside world, my experience becomes explicitly Black. Everyday before I leave my house, I ask myself, will today be the day I am murdered by the police?

#BlackLivesMatter was created in 2013 after Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman, was acquitted for his crime, and dead 17-year old Trayvon was posthumously placed on trial for his own murder. Black Lives Matter is both a network and a movement. The network has 26 chapters and affiliate organizations globally. The movement is made up of Black folks and allies who are not necessarily a part of the network. We are decentralized — meaning we focus on local leadership and help build the capacity of those most impacted to fight and win victories for their communities. We understand the local is the national and we must utilize our resources as such. We support both international and local action and policy changes that empower the Black community.

On Aug. 8, 2015, as the Black community prepared to collectively mourn the anniversary of the murder of Mike Brown by Ferguson police, members of Black Lives Matter disrupted a Bernie Sanders rally in Seattle.  In the week since that disruption, at least nine Black people have been killed by state-sanctioned violence. Do we know the names of the nine people who faced a trial by fire? Do we know how the loss of their lives has impacted their families and communities? Or are we so collectively focused on the feelings of White presidential candidates that we have missed the essential purpose of the disruption? We as a movement will continue to disrupt the current political process until Black Lives Matter.

Agitating a perceived political ally to the Black community is strategic. For far too long, the Democratic Party has milked the Black vote while creating policies that completely decimate Black communities. Once upon a time, Bill Clinton was widely perceived as an ally and advocate for the needs of Black people. However, it is the Clinton administration’s Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act that set the stage for the massive racial injustice we struggle with in law enforcement today.

Let us recall: Bill Clinton’s 1994 crime bill provisions included $10.8 billion in federal matching funds to local governments to hire 100,000 new police officers over a period of six years, $9.7 billion allocated for the construction of new federal prisons, creation of 60 new death penalty offenses, mandatory minimums for crack cocaine possession and the decision to allow children as young as 13 to be tried as adults. The Clinton administration gave birth to the very era of mass incarceration that current Democrats are renouncing with great emotion and fervor. But these are ardent words with no concrete agenda.

Via: Washington Post

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The Obama White House is reportedly ready for Hillary — not Joe Biden

[VIDEO LINK] CNN's Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta reported Monday that a credible White House source told him the Obama administration is not particularly enthusiastic about a Joe Biden candidacy in 2016. Per Acosta's account, there are "concerns a Biden candidacy would end badly, damaging his image as an elder statesman."

Acosta added that should the vice president run against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "it would be a huge dilemma for the president after appointing a team of rivals, he may have to choose between two of them." Biden is expected to announce a final decision in August or September. 

Via: This Week

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[EDITORIALS] Collection of recent Oklahoma editorials

The Journal Record, Oklahoma City, Aug. 18 - The last wave of Oklahoma students returns to classrooms this week. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, most of them live in a dual-income household with married parents. About 90 percent of married fathers are in the workforce, as are 74.7 percent of married mothers with children between the ages of 6 and 17. The days of one parent waiting for the school bus with a platter of warm cookies and a cold glass of milk - wherever that might have happened - are gone.

Great thinkers have pondered the problems of one calendar for students and an entirely different calendar for workers. Such contemplation gave rise to year-round school calendars that provide the standard 180 instructional days and spread breaks throughout the year, many on a 45-on, 15-off cycle. It also gave rise to all-day schools, where students may attend from 7:45 a.m. to 5 p.m., with late-afternoon classes available in subjects such as music, athletics and cooking, as well as remedial academic tutoring. Proponents contend low-income students spend all that free time on street corners with nothing but trouble for entertainment.

Those in favor cite better academic achievement, especially among underprivileged children. Some of the studies have shown that students from low-income families lose a lot of academic ground in the summertime; students from higher-income families who are more likely to spend their summers at private camps and completing reading challenges do not.

Other scholars decry modified school schedules, arguing that longer days and shorter breaks rob children of their childhoods. They contend that the traditional school calendar fosters valuable learning outside the classroom, providing time for parents to choose their own activities and allow their children to interact with nonclassmates.

Opponents to modified school schedules make one other intriguing claim: The business community would suffer if there wasn’t a pool of cheap, teenaged labor available to fill seasonal jobs.

There is another approach. The traditional school calendar doesn’t work today, and schools should continue to explore alternatives. But they should collaborate with the business community, which should be willing to evaluate work schedules, too. America is not a land of family-friendly workplaces, despite the occasional Silicon Valley outlier, and Oklahoma is no exception.

If Oklahoma’s school and business leaders worked together, we are confident they could devise a coordinated schedule that would result in well-cared-for, educated children and happy, motivated employees who weren’t constantly struggling to coordinate their children’s schedules with their own.

___

The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, Aug. 18 - A judge’s decision declaring an abortion-drug law a “special law” in violation of the Oklahoma Constitution certainly disappointed those opposed to abortion on demand. But the ruling’s implications may extend further, even to the point of hindering efforts to combat drug addiction.

Last week, Oklahoma County District Judge Patricia Parrish overturned a state law regulating use of some abortion drugs. The law required that abortion drugs be administered in accordance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration label instructions. Many of those drugs are now provided in ways that don’t comply with those guidelines. Since the law applied specifically to abortion-inducing drugs, Parrish ruled it amounted to an unconstitutional “special law,” citing a prior decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

This raises questions that extend well beyond abortion regulation. If the Legislature cannot pass laws that restrict the use of specific drugs under certain circumstances, then does that leave other similar laws subject to successful legal challenge?

One example that springs to mind is a law requiring that all pseudoephedrine products be placed behind the counter. That law imposes strict limits on the amount of pseudoephedrine an individual may purchase in a month, and requires tracking of purchasers.

That law treats similar medicines and customers in decidedly different fashion. Nonprescription allergy medicine without pseudoephedrine can be purchased with little difficulty. But that same consumer must jump through several hurdles to buy a nonprescription allergy medicine containing pseudoephedrine. Both products treat the same problem. Both may provide the same benefit to the same customer. But the two products are treated very differently under state law. Does this

Via: Washington Times

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CAUGHT ON TAPE: TEXAS SCHOOL BUS DRIVER BEATEN BY MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS SPEAKS OUT

A Dallas area school bus driver beaten by 7th and 8th grade students is finally speaking out. The assault was captured on surveillance a video that has surfaced from last February. The driver is now, asking officials to press criminal charges and he has hired an attorney.

The security footage is from February 12. It went public because of an unidentified concerned citizen who was upset that no criminal investigation was underway in the vicious attack on Richardson Independent School District (ISD) bus driver George Diaz, 63.

It shows a handful of middle school aged students punching and pushing Diaz backwards down the steps and out of the bus, according to the KDFW-4 video below.

Before the incident, Diaz was on his route, carrying students from Forest Meadow Jr. High School in Lake Highlands. Then, a student threw a Dr. Pepper bottle towards the back of his head. The bottle missed its target but hit the windshield instead. Diaz pulled over and stopped the bus. He then stood at the front of the aisle. All of this was captured on tape.

The security cameras installed on public school buses only provide video. The visibly heated words that were exchanged between Diaz and some agitated students could not be heard in the video recording.

Diaz picked up a two-way radio and appeared to be alerting dispatch to the events. He later told the local FOX affiliate that he was calling for help from his employer, Dallas County Schools (DCS), the transportation company. Diaz said that his DCS dispatcher told him that company police were on the way.

However, seconds later, several male juveniles appeared to rush Diaz, who exchange shoves with one student. That erupted into the student throwing punches at the elderly bus driver and grandfather of six. Other male students jumped in and swung at the driver.

Diaz also swung once and missed, falling backwards down the bus steps. Several of these same students continued to kick, knock and push him through the bus doors and onto the ground. KDFW-4 also reported that other students got out of the bus “jockeying for position trying to get a good view of the violent attack.”

Diaz told the TV news outlet that a woman finally saw what happened and intervened.

Following the altercation, Diaz asked dispatch if he could drop off the rest of the kids on board. DCS police never showed up, he said.

The school district, Richardson ISD, said three students were suspended after they learned of the attack. Diaz told FOX 4, suspension was not enough.

Via: Breitbart

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[COMMENTARY] Co-exist and take business elsewhere

The gay rights movement and those of us who support it have a decision to make now that the Supreme Court has ruled and same-sex marriage is the law of the land.​

One possible course of action: a mop-up operation whereby the victorious forces seek out and eliminate the holdouts, such as conservative Christian bakers who refuse to bake for wedding-bound gay people.

Another course of action — call it “live and let live” — suggests a more finessed approach, one by which same-sex couples take their business elsewhere when that is a practical option, as it so often is.

Here’s a vote for the latter.

It’s entirely understandable if some lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their supporters are not ready for the more peaceable route. Given the treatment LGBT folks have received from some conservative Christians over the decades, retribution might be too tantalizing to resist.

So, too, must we acknowledge the importance of the principle of non-discrimination. Laws and policies that militate against unequal treatment of people on the basis of gender and sexual identity should, if anything, be strengthened. In a similar vein, the instruments of law and government, such as county clerks in the position to dispense marriage licenses, should not be allowed to say “no” to a couple because they disapprove. Religious freedom goes far in this country, but not that far.

And even as Christians complain about restrictions on their rights as bakers or photographers or whatever, a few Christians working in government continue to defy the law. Two clerks in Kentucky are resisting the Supreme Court ruling, and similar efforts are ongoing in Alabama and Tennessee.

These are matters of law and policy. Everyday decisions and conduct are another matter — an area where a little finesse might sometimes be advisable. Unless the no-gays florists are the only game in town, which they might be in smaller or more conservative communities, it is more sensible for multiple reasons to find another service provider — a business that would be delighted to have the opportunity and is worthy of the fee.

C.J. Prince, executive director of North Jersey Pride, has stated that she would welcome the posting of signs in the windows of businesses that have a “no gays” preference — so she can shop at their competitors “and proudly put my money where my allies are.” She goes on to argue in her much-discussed Huffington Post piece, “I do not want to order a wedding cake from a bakery owned by a guy who thinks I'm going to hell. I have no desire to purchase bouquets from a florist who pickets pride parades.”

Window signs are not the way to accomplish this. They evoke too much painful history, and there are other, less crude ways by which people in a given community develop a sense of who’s in and who’s out when it comes to serving LGBT customers.

But Prince makes a valid point about the good sense in spending one’s money at businesses run by people of a non-discriminatory bent — businesses that deserve the opportunity to serve and profit.

Sarah Warbelow, legal director of the Human Rights Campaign, told me that her organization does not support the practice — one that is actually rare, she said — of targeting businesses that oppose gay marriage for the sake of making a point and pressing the principle.

“We are not in favor of baiting,” Warbelow said. “I think our society is in a moment of change. There’s something to be said for having patience and grace with one another.” That doesn’t mean we don’t need laws against discrimination, Warbelow said. But it does argue against “going in just to mess with someone.”

In his dissent in the same-sex marriage decision, Chief Justice John Roberts warns that hard questions lie ahead in the aftermath of the court’s ruling. Yes, they do. But let’s not make this situation harder than it needs to be.

In the many instances where the no-gay die-hards are not the only game in town, steer clear is the way to go. Whether it is done out of spite or crazy kindness, as an informal boycott or an extension of grace, the way to treat them may be a simple as:

Leave them alone.

Tom Krattenmaker is a writer specializing in religion in public life, a member of the USA TODAY Board of Contributors, and communications director at Yale Divinity School. His most recent book is The Evangelicals You Don’t Know: Introducing the Next Generation of Christians.

Via: The Courier Journal

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No One Showed Up for California's Green Jobs Rush ...

In 2012, California voters were peppered with grandiose promises, such that they could not resist approving Proposition 39. The measure, created and backed by wealthy environmentalist Tom Steyer, sought to raise taxes on corporations and use the money to fund green energy projects in schools.

He promised it would create 11,000 new jobs each year. What could go wrong?

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Naturally, it did not work at all. On Monday, the Associated Press reported that the program has "created" just 1,700 jobs in three years — just under 600 jobs per year or roughly five percent of what was promised, at the cost of $175,000 per job. 

Via: Fox News

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Dems start to face reality: Hillary is a terrible candidate

We’ve been pointing that out for months, but Democrats can be forgiven for not taking our word for it. They may not be forgiven for putting all of their eggs in Hillary Clinton’s basket, though, after months of watching the presumed nominee proving that her fumble of a certain nomination in 2008 was no fluke. The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza hears from Democratsthat they’ve begun to see Hillary as an albatross, but with no other options on the horizon, they’re lost as to how to handle it:

Increasingly, Democrats — privately, of course — have begun to wonder whether the problem is not the campaign but the candidate.

“She has always been awkward and uninspiring on the stump,” said one senior Democratic consultant granted anonymity to candidly assess Clinton’s candidacy. “Hillary has Bill’s baggage and now her own as secretary of state — without Bill’s personality, eloquence or warmth.”

That same consultant added that he expected Clinton to easily win the Democratic nomination despite her weaknesses. “None of her primary opponents this time are Obama,” the consultant said. “Each lacks the skills, message and charisma to derail this train unless she implodes.”

But. “The general [election] is another question.”

The latest round of hand-wringing got an adrenaline-panic boost after Democrats watchedHillary’s attempt at stand-up comedy in Iowa. Making cracks about disappearing messages turned out not to be a winner, not even among the cheering sections:

That sentiment was echoed repeatedly in a series of conversations I had over the past few days with Democratic strategists and consultants not aligned with Clinton or her campaign. And it’s evident anecdotally as well. Clinton’s decision to make light of her e-mail problems — she joked that she liked Snapchat because the messages disappear automatically — during a speech at a Democratic event in Iowa over the weekend rubbed lots of people in the party the wrong way.

“The combination of messy facts, messy campaign operation and an awkward candidate reading terrible lines or worse jokes from a prompter is very scary,” admitted one unaligned senior Democratic operative. 

Apparently, none of the Democrats interviewed by Cillizza see Bernie Sanders as a viable option. Why not? He’s pulling massive crowds, not too dissimilar to Barack Obama eight years ago when Hillary tried this the first time. Presumably, they see the dangers of offering a declared socialist as the party’s standard-bearer without any of the mitigating rhetorical and demographic advantages that Obama brought to the party in 2007-8. Sanders might be drawing crowds now, but those crowds are not likely to change election outcomes — and Sanders’ hard-Left ideology will almost certainly lose voters in the middle.

That leaves Democrats with few options, but they’d better not look to Obama administration officials for a rescue. The latest developments from the State Department on Philippe Reines’ e-mails makes it clear that Hillary is not the alpha and omega of cover-ups in this administration,as I argue in my column today for The Week:

This is a really big deal. Until now, the transparency and honesty issue has focused solely on Hillary Clinton. However, by early 2013, Clinton had left the State Department. John Kerry had taken over as secretary of state. If the lack of transparency was limited to the State Department under Hillary Clinton’s direction, then why did it continue under Kerry — and in such an obviously clumsy way?

It is entirely possible, and frankly likely, that the lack of transparency didn’t start and end with Hillary Clinton, although she may have pushed it to the point of damaging national security. Though liberals are loathe to admit it, the Obama administration has too often suppressed transparency, be it the Department of Justice in the Operation Fast and Furious scandal or the IRS or now the State Department.

And because of that, Clinton’s scandal could stick to the two men getting the most mention as possible emergency replacements for her in the Democratic primary. John Kerry’s State Department seemed perfectly willing to hide Clinton’s potential issues from public oversight. How could he take the 2016 mantle from her? And if Joe Biden ran for president, the argument for his candidacy would explicitly rest on continuity from the Obama years — years in which those in power tried to manipulate courts and avoid legitimate oversight.

If this scandal gets any worse, Democrats may have no one left to rescue them from a disaster of their own making.

After the release of the video from this exchange with Black Lives Matter activists, expect that panic to increase exponentially.

Via: Hot Air

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