It's interesting to see Pres. Obama back-peddling so quickly on the Sgt. Crowley v. Prof. Gates issue. Let's be honest here; Obama made a jack ass of himself by jumping into a small local issue, not knowing the facts, rendering an opinion on the matter -- that the cops "acted stupidly" -- and thinking he would be safe in his position.
You can read the police report for yourself if that helps, but I'll also provide a gracious synopsis since we all know that clicking and reading would be too time consuming for most of us.
So, a nice neighbor of Professor Henry Louis Gates of Harvard called in a possible robbery in progress, also known as "breaking-and-entering" as she noted two men busting down the front door of her neighbor's house. Upon reaching the residence, Sgt. Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department (CPD) was intercepted by Lucia, the neighbor who called in the report, and she told him she saw two black men trying to enter the residence.
Sgt. Crowley then went to the residence, noted then Prof. Gates, and asked for ID to see if there was a correlation to the man in the house and the supposed owner of the place. (Remember, Crowley doesn't know who the owner looks like.) From there, race baiting begins immediately as Gates responds, "Why? Because I'm a black man in America?" He goes on to inform Sgt. Crowley that he "has no idea who [he's] messing with!"
When Crowley asked him to step outside to speak with him, Gates replied, "I'll speak with your mama outside..." Becoming louder and more angry, Sgt. Crowley eventually places Prof. Gates under arrest for disorderly conduct. The charges are quickly dropped, but the media's meat hooks are already deeply in.
Tell me, if you were in a similar circumstance, what would your response had been? If the officer was white, black, brown, or heliotrope? Let's put this into perspective even more: the door to your house is apparently jammed shut. You enlist someone else to help you bust it down. You make a lot of noise, maybe even swear because the friggin' thing won't open, but you finally smash it open. Suddenly, the cops are on the scene because someone reported a possible break-in. And an officer asks you for ID, and you say... Well at least you would be pleasant, right? I mean, it's the cops, with guns, tazers, handcuffs and the ability to haul your butt off to jail where fair beautiful people like me are traded for cheap commodities such as two half-smoked cigarette butts. *shudders*
Why Obama decided to get involved at all is perplexing to me -- it really could have been just a small footnote to an otherwise long day. But, Obama does have reasons to hate the Cambridge police department. While attending Harvard Law, Obama got 17 parking tickets in his 3 years there. He paid only two of them in 1990. He paid, or rather, the state of Illinois paid the remaining 15 a couple of years ago when Obama announced his bid for US President.
But let's get back to the real issue here, and that is one about racism. Prof. Gates had the uncanny luck of running into the police officer in charge of racial training for Cambridge. Not only that, a supporting officer at the scene, who is black, said Gates was acting strangely and that he supports the arrest 100%.
The point is that our president, adrift without facts, made an unnecessary judgment in favor of an apparent racist on an otherwise minor incident and in so doing, made himself out to be a fool now that many of the facts have come to light. Why would someone of paramount example to our nation do such a brash thing? Birds of a feather, perhaps? At first, Prof. Gates said he was going to sue the CPD for racial profiling. Since then, the CPD has come out and said they have the entire arrest on audio file, and not surprisingly, Prof. Gates now isn't so sure about his lawsuit. Not to worry, Prof. Gates, Sgt. Crowley is considering it for defamation.
And despite all this, Obama still hasn't properly back-tracked yet. Instead, he said that both parties may have "over-reacted" to the situation. The CPD says everything was done "by the book" so what more (or less) could have the police have done? Sure, Obama called Sgt. Crowley and invited him and Gates to the White House "for a beer," but this is way too drawn out. A simple, "my bad" would have sufficed -- end of story. And what I find truly odd is that Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson didn't jump on this. Maybe Obama usurped them. I dunno.
You can read an article that holds back no punches on the issue here, that delineates Obama to Gates and ultimately, racism. Worth a glance, if you are looking for a more in depth perspective.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Getting to the real news
Will it ever end?! Seriously, I gave my tribute to Michael Jackson and the whole world should have taken note of my lead and ended it there. But no! Here we are, still going over every tidbit of his life as if we hadn't already lived it over the past +30 years. Let the dead bury the dead.
A few things have been happening in the world that were not covered enough. First and foremost, the US House of Representatives passed the Cap and Trade bill on June 26th. It now heads to the Senate to be voted on in September, and who are currently drafting their own version. What is this bill? Who really knows because it's +1300 pages long, with the last 300 pages added between 12am and 3am that Friday before they voted on it. No one has read the entire bill in Congress! Just like the stimulus bill which was quickly passed which no one had time to read, this bill is in that same boat. I'll tell you what I do know; the Cap-n-Trade is a taxing policy that allows companies to trade carbon credits if they go over their government mandated allowance of CO2. For example, if a certain manufacturer doesn't use up all the carbon credits allocated to them, they can trade them for money (or whatever -- favors?) to, say, a coal burning electric company who would obviously go over their amount. Basically, this would translate to higher electric costs for you, me and every building in this country.
It's a lot more than that as well. Actually, if you want the skinny on it, read this article for a huge enlightenment on this idiotic bill. Do me a favor, at least read the second paragraph of the above reference article. Warren Buffett, the second richest man in the world [worth ~40 billion dollars], who owns Hathaway Berkshire, stated that if this bill passes the Senate, there will be no economic recovery in the US. None. How scary is that? Obama has already promised to sign it into law, but make no mistake, this bill is about control and power-grabbing. Hopefully people will come to their senses before September, but now that Stuart Smalley - or Al Franken - gives the 60th vote in the Senate, there may be little we can do to stop it. Some estimates of the impact it'll have on the people is as little as $175 a year per family of four, and up to $1600 a year for a family of four. Here's my deal: either is bad during a prolonged recession! How is this going to help move the economy along? Obama stumped the day before that this is a "jobs bill" because alternative energy jobs will sky-rocket. Really? Well how many will lose jobs because of "trickle down" taxation? Idiots!
The next thing that happened was a "coup d'etat" in Honduras. The media has deliberately downplayed the real story here, and it is a story about people standing up for democracy. President Jose Manuel Zelaya was serving in his legally elected office when he decided the State Constitution didn't suit him anymore. He wanted to be elected into a 3rd term which is specifically illegal and immutable. The Supreme Court told him as much, as did their congress, and even then, the President does not have the authority to change the Constitution. But, he went ahead and tried to get new ballots printed up with his option. No one in the country would do it, but dictator for life Hugo Chavez of Venezuela was willing and did so, sent the newly minted ballots to Honduras. The Honduran Military got ahold of the shipment and held it captive. The President broke into the warehouse to get them. He then dismissed the head General of the military and started handing out the ballots. It was then that he was removed from office, put on a plane in his pajamas, and sent to Costa Rica. After that, the military immediately handed the officiating powers back to the people and elected officials. Not exactly a real coup d'etat in the strictest sense.
What happened then? The whole world denounced Honduras for standing up to a soon-to-be tyrant, and we [Obama and Sec. of State Clinton] sided with Castro and Chavez that President Zelaya should be reinstated. Ridiculous! The US, the bastion of freedom, chiding a country for upholding their near-identical Constitution to ours, because they over-threw a wannabe tyrant. What's the matter, Obama, afraid we're taking notes from our brave neighbors to the south?
Well, considering it is after 1:30 in the morning (I got up late and then took a nap...) I should probably be heading to bed. I did want to say that this week, gas prices actually went down. Somewhat good news, though the influx of extra money still hasn't flooding in yet either. Sure, that drop was .03 cents around here, and the Oregon congress just passed a bill increasing gas tax by .06 cents, so we'll lose that small perk anyway. Still, good news, and again, hopefully things will turn around so I can stop being an alarmist and go back to criticizing The Little Mermaid, which I saw again today, not surprisingly. Yes, I still hate that little hedonistic redhead. Meanwhile, my daughter adores her.
A few things have been happening in the world that were not covered enough. First and foremost, the US House of Representatives passed the Cap and Trade bill on June 26th. It now heads to the Senate to be voted on in September, and who are currently drafting their own version. What is this bill? Who really knows because it's +1300 pages long, with the last 300 pages added between 12am and 3am that Friday before they voted on it. No one has read the entire bill in Congress! Just like the stimulus bill which was quickly passed which no one had time to read, this bill is in that same boat. I'll tell you what I do know; the Cap-n-Trade is a taxing policy that allows companies to trade carbon credits if they go over their government mandated allowance of CO2. For example, if a certain manufacturer doesn't use up all the carbon credits allocated to them, they can trade them for money (or whatever -- favors?) to, say, a coal burning electric company who would obviously go over their amount. Basically, this would translate to higher electric costs for you, me and every building in this country.
It's a lot more than that as well. Actually, if you want the skinny on it, read this article for a huge enlightenment on this idiotic bill. Do me a favor, at least read the second paragraph of the above reference article. Warren Buffett, the second richest man in the world [worth ~40 billion dollars], who owns Hathaway Berkshire, stated that if this bill passes the Senate, there will be no economic recovery in the US. None. How scary is that? Obama has already promised to sign it into law, but make no mistake, this bill is about control and power-grabbing. Hopefully people will come to their senses before September, but now that Stuart Smalley - or Al Franken - gives the 60th vote in the Senate, there may be little we can do to stop it. Some estimates of the impact it'll have on the people is as little as $175 a year per family of four, and up to $1600 a year for a family of four. Here's my deal: either is bad during a prolonged recession! How is this going to help move the economy along? Obama stumped the day before that this is a "jobs bill" because alternative energy jobs will sky-rocket. Really? Well how many will lose jobs because of "trickle down" taxation? Idiots!
The next thing that happened was a "coup d'etat" in Honduras. The media has deliberately downplayed the real story here, and it is a story about people standing up for democracy. President Jose Manuel Zelaya was serving in his legally elected office when he decided the State Constitution didn't suit him anymore. He wanted to be elected into a 3rd term which is specifically illegal and immutable. The Supreme Court told him as much, as did their congress, and even then, the President does not have the authority to change the Constitution. But, he went ahead and tried to get new ballots printed up with his option. No one in the country would do it, but dictator for life Hugo Chavez of Venezuela was willing and did so, sent the newly minted ballots to Honduras. The Honduran Military got ahold of the shipment and held it captive. The President broke into the warehouse to get them. He then dismissed the head General of the military and started handing out the ballots. It was then that he was removed from office, put on a plane in his pajamas, and sent to Costa Rica. After that, the military immediately handed the officiating powers back to the people and elected officials. Not exactly a real coup d'etat in the strictest sense.
What happened then? The whole world denounced Honduras for standing up to a soon-to-be tyrant, and we [Obama and Sec. of State Clinton] sided with Castro and Chavez that President Zelaya should be reinstated. Ridiculous! The US, the bastion of freedom, chiding a country for upholding their near-identical Constitution to ours, because they over-threw a wannabe tyrant. What's the matter, Obama, afraid we're taking notes from our brave neighbors to the south?
Well, considering it is after 1:30 in the morning (I got up late and then took a nap...) I should probably be heading to bed. I did want to say that this week, gas prices actually went down. Somewhat good news, though the influx of extra money still hasn't flooding in yet either. Sure, that drop was .03 cents around here, and the Oregon congress just passed a bill increasing gas tax by .06 cents, so we'll lose that small perk anyway. Still, good news, and again, hopefully things will turn around so I can stop being an alarmist and go back to criticizing The Little Mermaid, which I saw again today, not surprisingly. Yes, I still hate that little hedonistic redhead. Meanwhile, my daughter adores her.
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