« Howard Dean Calls GOP The ‘White’ Party | Home | More Than 60 Jihadists Killed in Afghanistan »

Selected News For Week Aug 16 - Aug 22

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news items themselves.

In order to make the articles as readable as possible, please try to stick to the format described in the first of these weekly editions here.

Of course articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread should be posted there. As always, remember to excerpt heavily and to provide a link to the original source.

Related Articles:

This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, August 16th, 2008 at 12:01 am. You can leave a response.

59 Responses to “Selected News For Week Aug 16 - Aug 22”

BillK
August 16th, 2008 at 2:30 am
The new mantra Pelosi is using over and over: drilling is a hoax.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Pelosi won’t limit vote to offshore drilling

By Carla Marinucci

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday firmly rejected the idea of a House vote solely on the issue of offshore oil drilling, calling it “a hoax on the American people” backed by oil companies.

Instead, she said, she wants Congress to tackle a compromise comprehensive energy plan that would include alternative energy sources and curtailing tax breaks for oil companies.

“You want to drill? We want the royalties for the American people, and we want that to pay for renewable energy resources” the San Francisco Democrat said in an interview for KQED television’s weekly news show, “This Week in Northern California.” “We want to connect all that together.”

Pelosi also said she supports a roll-call vote at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this month. Supporters of former presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton had been pressing to have her name put into nomination to recognize the millions of votes she received during the primaries.

Clinton and presumed nominee Barack Obama agreed to do that Thursday, but the mechanics of a roll-call vote are still to be worked out. Pelosi argued that the roll call is a tradition and would be good for the party.

And Pelosi also said she hopes U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein runs for governor of California in 2010, predicting that she would be an excellent chief executive for the state.

“She’d be great. I wanted her to run during the recall,” Pelosi said of the 2003 special election. “I didn’t succeed.”

Still, she noted, “Sen. Feinstein is in position right now in the Senate - she’s chair of the rules committee. … It would be hard to see her walk away from that, because she’s certainly a respected leader in our country.”

Pelosi appeared on the show as part of a tour to promote her new book, “Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters.”

Pelosi was heckled and interrupted later Thursday at an event at the Cowell Theater, where she was being interviewed by KQED talk show host Michael Krasny. About 100 protesters advocating impeachment of President Bush interrupted the speaker, who remained calmer than many angry listeners who shouted down the hecklers. Several people were removed, but there were no arrests.

Pelosi said she wants to end what she called the failed energy policies supported by “two oilmen in the White House,” referring to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, former oil company executives.

“They want us to do more of the same,” she said. “So they’ve come up with this gimmick, this hoax” that says if drilling is allowed in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore, “it’s going to bring down the price at the pump.”

“Ten years, 2 cents,” Pelosi said, arguing that 10 years would be the time needed to reap a small benefit to most Americans. “Even the president has said it isn’t a quick fix. … I can’t allow a hoax to come to the floor.”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....12BC0J.DTL

Hmmm - “You want to drill, you’ve got to pay us.”

Pelosi’s the biggest hoax this nation has ever seen.

You think ten years is too long? How long do you think it would be before any of the touchy-feely technologies you want to force oil companies to fund offsets any use of fossil fuels?

Meanwhile, Bush’s overturning of the presidential edict against drilling arguably helped burst the inexorable run-up in oil prices.

If you can’t allow a hoax to come to the floor, that means no more Global Warming talk in Congress, that’s for damn sure.
BillK
August 16th, 2008 at 2:37 am
From the San Francisco Chronicle:

S.F. homeowners want property values reduced

By Wyatt Buchanan

Homeowners are flooding City Hall with so many requests to reduce their property values that the tax assessor said Wednesday his office may not be able to meet the demands.

So far, Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting’s office has received about 1,000 requests for informal re-evaluations - three times the number filed last year. Friday is the deadline to request an informal property re-evaluation from the assessor.

“I’m worried that because we have such a huge influx we’ll not be able to get back to everyone,” Ting said. So far, San Francisco assessors have responded to informal requests from 285 property owners.

The requests come as the number of home sales and housing prices continue to fall in many San Francisco neighborhoods. The city’s median home sale price fell nearly 12 percent between May 2007 and May 2008, according to the city controller.

Despite those decreases, Ting announced Wednesday that the city’s overall property values, including commercial and residential properties, increased by $11.4 billion, or 8.7 percent, from 2007 to 2008.

He said the assessed value of homes continue to increase largely because of Proposition 13, which severely limits how much assessors can charge in property taxes each year. So while home prices may decline, they are still well above the assessed value of many homes, he said.

But the number of requests for re-evaluation shows many homeowners are questioning how the city is determining the worth of their property. One San Francisco law firm has sued the state on behalf of a city homeowner, seeking $2.6 billion in refunds for allegedly overcharging homeowners.

Another San Francisco homeowner, Emily Flores, said she and her family are strongly considering leaving the city after the Outer Sunset fixer-upper home they bought in 2006 increased $90,000 in assessed value even though home values in the neighborhood dropped.

Flores, whose husband provides the sole income for the family of five, said their taxes are set to be $1,500 higher than what they paid in 2006. She and her husband have filed one of the informal requests for re-evaluation.

“For us, what we’re feeling now is if we’re going to pay almost all our monthly income for housing, we want it to be in a location where property taxes are actually paying for something,” said Flores, 28. “To look outside and see all these potholes and the schools are iffy at best, it’s crazy to stay here. What’s happening to us is not unique. It’s probably what most families with kids are feeling.” …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....12AFOD.DTL

Funny, isn’t it always the hard left that states paying taxes is your civic responsibility?

Yet they want their taxes reduced?

Hmmm…
BillK
August 16th, 2008 at 2:43 am
Not shocking, but nice to see the press admit it.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

S.F. Democrats take a sharp turn to the left

By Heather Knight

The San Francisco Democratic Party has veered dramatically to the left, telling voters that on Nov. 4 they should elect a raft of ultra-liberal supervisorial candidates, decriminalize prostitution, boot JROTC from public schools, embrace public power and reject Mayor Gavin Newsom’s special court in the Tenderloin.

That’s just what some party members feared after Supervisors Aaron Peskin, Chris Daly and Jake McGoldrick along with others who billed themselves as “The Hope Slate” were elected to the Democratic County Central Committee in June.

The powerful, 34-member panel worked late into Wednesday night deciding endorsements that could play a big role in how the overwhelmingly Democratic city votes this fall.

Peskin, the group’s chairman, said Thursday that the progressive endorsements are in step with the priorities of San Francisco’s voters and are geared toward making the party bigger and stronger after some left-wing members broke off to join the Green Party.

“We saw over the last many years disenchantment by Democratic Party activists who felt the past policies of the local party were out of step with San Francisco’s Democratic values,” he said. “We’re reaching out to people who were turned off, but we’re not alienating people who have been party stalwarts for decades.”

The central committee rejected just about every candidate and measure endorsed by Newsom, who enjoyed support of the committee up until June. Nathan Ballard, the mayor’s press secretary, said the committee’s endorsements are out of whack with Democratic values.

“Democrats in San Francisco care about health care, education and public safety - they don’t care about these lunatic fringe issues,” Ballard said. “People in San Francisco are smart, and they know better than to follow Chris Daly’s advice.”

The meeting stretched over five hours, including two hours of public comment - mostly from high school students wanting JROTC to remain in their schools and sex workers who were divided on whether to decriminalize their trade.

“That’s the beauty of the Democratic Party,” laughed Scott Wiener, the former central committee chairman. Wiener is a part of the group’s more moderate faction and lost the chairman post to Peskin last month.

But the meeting turned contentious when the group took up endorsements for seven supervisorial races.

The group endorsed incumbents Carmen Chu and Sean Elsbernd and made no endorsement in District Five where Ross Mirkarimi faces no real challenge, but is a member of the Green Party.

In the four wide-open races, the group picked ultra-liberal candidates Eric Mar in District One, David Chiu in District Three, David Campos in District Nine and John Avalos in District Eleven.

Many of the progressive central committee members support the city’s new system of ranked-choice voting, in which voters can pick their first, second and third choices to avoid a costly runoff. Yet, in all but one case - District Three, where Denise McCarthy got a second-choice endorsement - the group declined to back a second or third candidate.

Selecting additional candidates in the other districts would have meant choosing a member of the moderate wing of the party, and Peskin said there simply weren’t good candidates to choose as backups in most districts.

Wiener said Peskin and his allies displayed tribal politics at its worst.

“There’s a litmus test that some people try to apply that if you don’t agree with us on every single issue, you’re not progressive,” he said. …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....12BBFN.DTL

For anyone who had any doubts as to how the left really operates.

Seriously - I’m sure this group will endorse Sheehan as well.
BillK
August 16th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Just for fun, an article not from TIme or Newsweek but actually from Pravda:

It is time USA should call a spade a spade

A new national defense strategy has been exposed in the USA. Defense Secretary Robert Gates directly referred to Russia and China as potential foes. However, the USA is not going to wage any wars against the world’s two biggest countries.

In spite of the fact that the Pentagon has not officially published the National Defense Strategy yet (the document was approved in June), several copies of the new document have been sent to the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Pentagon’s press secretary Geoff Morrell said that the document contained the content of Robert Gates’s speeches which he had delivered during the recent several months. The minister wrote that he considered his document to be a recipe for success for the next US administration.

Strategy has been an issue of paramount important for Robert Gates since the end of 2006, when he chaired the Pentagon. The concept of the strategy says that the United States must attract both military resources and the “soft power” to defeat a complex, transnational foe.

The document also contains appeals to develop non-standard warfare methods instead of focusing the USA’s strength on conventional armed conflicts with other states. Gates also recommends developing partnership with China and Russia to blunt their rise as potential adversaries and hedge against their increasing military capabilities.

Robert Gates points out India as an ally, which, as he hopes, will claim large responsibility as a country interested in the international system. However, the official sees the struggle with al-Qaida and other terrorist groups to be the prime goal for the USA during the forthcoming decades.

Even victories in Iraq and Afghanistan would not put an end to the long-standing war with armed extremist groups, Gates believes.

“For the foreseeable future, winning the ‘Long War’ against violent extremist movements will be the central objective of the U.S.,” the strategy paper said, adding that Iraq and Afghanistan “remain the central fronts in the struggle.”

But, it added that the U.S. “cannot lose sight of the implications of fighting a long-term, episodic, multi-front, and multidimensional conflict more complex and diverse than the Cold War confrontation with communism.”

The 23-page document asserted: “Success in Iraq and Afghanistan is crucial to winning this conflict, but it alone will not bring victory.”

Gates uses the term ‘long war’ introduced by his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld. The official uses the term to assimilate the war against terrorism to Soviet communism and German Nazism. Gates turned down the idea of giving the first priority to the preventive use of military force. He urges the current and the future US administration to cooperate with other countries to exterminate terrorism and conditions that lead to its development.

“The use of force plays a role but may be less important than measures to promote local participation in government and economic programs to spur development, as well as efforts to understand and address the grievances that often lie at the heart of insurgencies,” the document said.

To put it in a nutshell, Robert Gates believes that the USA should wage war by proxy. …

http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/106002-0/

Aside from the fact that Gates’ statement is the exact one President Bush made the night of September 11, 2001, I’ll leave the question of how Pravda obtained a document which has not been released but of which “several copies” were “sent to the House of Representatives and Senate” as an exercise for the reader.
BillK
August 16th, 2008 at 3:08 am
A little reassurance from the authors of Left Behind.

From Christian Newswire:

Left Behind Authors Speak Out on McCain Ad ‘The One’

John McCain’s campaign ad “The One” has generated a lot of buzz regarding the “Left Behind Series.” Political commentators are comparing McCain’s portrayal of competitor Barack Obama with the blockbuster apocalyptic series’ depiction of the antichrist. But even the series authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins don’t think Obama is the antichrist. What may have been created as a farce has generated a firestorm of controversy on the internet.

LaHaye and Jenkins take a literal interpretation of prophecies found in the Book of Revelation. They believe the antichrist will surface on the world stage at some point, but neither see Obama in that role. “I’ve gotten a lot of questions the last few weeks asking if Obama is the antichrist,” says novelist Jenkins. “I tell everyone that I don’t think the antichrist will come out of politics, especially American politics.”

“I can see by the language he uses why people think he could be the antichrist,” adds LaHaye, “but from my reading of scripture, he doesn’t meet the criteria. There is no indication in the Bible that the antichrist will be an American.”

Jenkins and LaHaye don’t take McCain’s commercial or the antichrist speculation over Obama too seriously.

Pundits have pointed out that there are similarities between the “Left Behind Series” character Nicolae Carpathia and Obama. Other than some vocabulary and charisma, Carpathia, a young Romanian politician who eventually oversees a one-world government, and Obama don’t have much in common. “If even the people who created the character Nicolae Carpathia don’t see the comparisons as warranted, then perhaps this is overblown,” says Jenkins. …

http://www.christiannewswire.c.....67426.html

Well that’s reassuring. Sheesh.

Needless to say, the MSM loves this press release and treats it as an example of how stupid “those Christians” are…
BillK
August 16th, 2008 at 3:15 am
Just one more from Pravda.

Mr. Bush, Enough!!

So you have the colossal audacity, Mr. Bush, to “warn” Russia to pull back? As the wanton, perverse war criminal under whose watch the world saw the crime known as “shock and awe” committed, I’d say you were well out of your mind to suggest that Russia should pull back.

What’s a little shock and awe among inferior people we want to rob and destroy, eh?

What do human beings need an infrastructure for?

Why do they need clean water? Why do they need electricity?

What’s a little torture?

What’s a little regime change? Don’t recall when that was a goal of yours?

What’s a little deviant, perverted sexual experimentation and humiliation?

What’s a few secret detention camps?

What’s wrong with destroying an environment for 4 billion years and generations after generations of people? After all, they’re just rag heads, aren’t they Mr. Bush?

Perhaps when Russia even begins to match your tremendous feats of glory can you speak about pulling back you fool of the worst kind.

You can also tell your number two man to shut up. Cheney said “Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States.”

So how do you plan to answer this erroneously termed “aggression”? He says this will “worsen” relations with the United States? Buddy, relations with the United States could hardly be any worse than they are now.

The United States shows no respect for Russia. The United States shows no respect for any other country weaker than itself, much less a rival as you perceive Russia to be. How about your NATO? Today the west, tomorrow the world, eh? America uber alles!

How about your missile shield breathing down the neck of the Russian nation? There to protect Europe from Iran? The most totally absurd thing that only a moron would believe.

How about your deliberate breaking of your agreements regarding Serbian Kosovo? UN Resolution 1244 which your country agreed to, is the ink dry…you deliberately went against it and recognized Kosovo in total disregard and in violation of that agreement.

And you expect your words to be heeded or even listened to? You are joking! It is said when Caligula went mad he heard laughing.

Do you hear people laughing at you Mr. Bush? …

http://english.pravda.ru/opini...../106094-0/

Or is it Daily Kos or HuffPo?

Without the attribution, I know I would never be able to tell.

Once again, and I hate to sound repetitive about this, in addition to all the Democratic talking points, once again they’re afraid of the missile shield US scientists say will never work.

Why isn’t anyone in either party willing to note that?
learner
August 17th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Here is a story that ties to Bill K story of “Pelosi won’t limit vote to offshore drilling”.

From Bloomberg News:

Soros hedge fund invests $811m to buy Petrobras stake

Bloomberg
Published: August 15, 2008, 23:58

London: Billionaire investor George Soros bought an $811 million stake in Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) in the second quarter, making the Brazilian state-controlled oil company his investment fund’s largest holding.

As of June 30, the stake in Petrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based oil producer is known, made up 22 per cent of the $3.68 billion of stocks and American depositary receipts held by Soros Fund Management, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Petrobras has since slumped 28 per cent.

Soros hedge fund invests $811m to buy Petrobras stake

Bloomberg
Published: August 15, 2008, 23:58

London: Billionaire investor George Soros bought an $811 million stake in Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) in the second quarter, making the Brazilian state-controlled oil company his investment fund’s largest holding…

http://www.gulfnews.com/busine.....37597.html

I expect to see a lot of underhanded tricks being played by democrats when they come back from vacation. Anything to delay or kill domestic oil drilling because as this article points out with the drop in oil prices the democrats master is likely to lose his as*.

[Moved to its own thread.]
BillK
August 18th, 2008 at 9:52 am
McCain nails Obama on class envy!

No, just kidding, his campaign apologizes for it.

From the LA Times:

Who’s rich? McCain and Obama have very different definitions

To Pastor Rick Warren’s question, Obama says someone making more than $250,000. McCain gives a figure of $5 million per year. His campaign says he was joking.

By Greg Miller

WASHINGTON — The rich may be different for John McCain and Barack Obama.

On almost every issue, the two presidential candidates have staked out opposing positions. Their contrasting views on wealth surfaced during their back-to-back appearances in Southern California on Saturday night when each was asked to define “rich.”

Obama didn’t hesitate. “I would argue that if you are making more than $250,000, then you are in the top 3, 4 percent of this country,” he said. “You are doing well.”

McCain took a far more discursive approach to answering the question but ultimately settled on a dramatically higher figure: “I think if you’re just talking about income, how about $5 million?”

The Arizona Republican quickly added that he was “sure that comment will be distorted,” and his campaign said Sunday that he was joking.

Even so, the remark highlighted the candidates’ disparate outlooks. Analysts who study income distribution said the answers appeared to reflect shifting political calculations more than economic reality.

Economists said in interviews Sunday that neither candidate was wrong because there are no agreed-upon definitions for the terms that describe income segments.

“To be fair to both of them, ‘rich’ is an adjective,” said James P. Smith, a senior economist at the Rand Corp., a nonpartisan think thank in Santa Monica. “Economic science is not going to tell you that ‘this’ is the cutoff point.”

Yet the $5-million level, Smith said, includes “almost nobody. Experts said that of all the households in the nation, fewer than one-tenth of 1% had an annual income of $5 million or more.

Ken Goldstein, an economist for the Conference Board, a business-research group based in New York, said he would define rich as income about $500,000 or more. “If you set the bar at half a million, you’re talking about the top 1% of taxpayers. If you think about the last eight years, those are the folks who have benefited the most.”

Other economists said they would have gone with a lower figure. Even the moderator who asked the question of the candidates, Pastor Rick Warren of Orange County’s Saddleback Church, did not seem to anticipate a reply beyond the lower six figures, urging each man to “give me a specific number . . . is it 100,000 [dollars], is it 50, 200?”

Most ordinary Americans tend to massage the definitions of such terms in an attempt to crowd themselves into what many consider the least offensive category.

“If you do surveys, 95% of people think they are middle class,” said Len Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan group that has analyzed the candidates’ tax proposals. “This is including people who are objectively quite poor and people who are objectively quite rich.”

Burman added: “I guess it says something nice about America that rich people don’t want to act like they’re better than anybody else and poor people don’t like complaining about how tough it is to pay their bills.” …

http://www.latimes.com/news/po.....3584.story

So remember, if you’re “doing well,” Obama wants to put a stop to that.

Of course it’s curious just how many of Obama’s friends fall into McCain’s “rich” camp.

Not just George Soros, but of course all of Obama’s Hollywood friends.

Note also how Mr. Goldstein had to get in that dig about “you’re talking about the top 1% of taxpayers. If you think about the last eight years, those are the folks who have benefited the most.”

Of course (and unfortunately) most Americans define “rich” as “people having more than you do.”

Unfortunately, there are the “a little rich” and the “massively rich.”

So for example, Obama’s plan will stick it to the small business owner who reports business income as personal income.

McCain’s plan would largely hit Obama’s friends like Scarlett Johansson, who made $14 million last year.

Tax rates? Who cares, just sign another endorsement deal, I’m sure those small business owners can do the same…
BillK
August 18th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Who’s responsible for the conflict in Georgia?

Of course, Bush!

Fron the Los Angeles Times:

Georgia-Russia conflict a blow to Bush foreign policy

The president’s reliance on diplomacy based on personal relations with leaders such as Putin and his push to establish democracies from the top down has proved not so viable.

By Julian E. Barnes

WASHINGTON — In the last week, two major pillars of President Bush’s approach to foreign policy have crumbled, jeopardizing eight years of work and sending the administration scrambling for new strategies in the waning months of its term.

From the earliest days of his presidency, Bush had said spreading democracy was a centerpiece of his foreign policy. At the same time, he sought to develop a more productive relationship with Russia, seeking Moscow’s cooperation on issues such as terrorism, Iran’s nuclear program and expansion of global energy supplies.

And in pursuing both these major goals, Bush relied heavily on developing what he saw as strong personal relationships with foreign leaders.

The recent setbacks to the president’s approach were all the more unsettling because Georgia had appeared to be one of the few success stories in the administration’s effort to nurture new democracies that could advance U.S. interests.

Efforts to create multiethnic, democratic regimes in Iraq and Afghanistan have run into repeated difficulties. And the American push for Palestinian elections in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip ended in victory for the radical group Hamas, complicating an already formidable task of reaching a Middle East peace accord.

Since the Georgia conflict erupted, Bush has repeatedly cited that nation’s progress toward democracy as he promised American support. “The people of Georgia have cast their lot with the free world, and we will not cast them aside,” he said.

Faced with a massive deployment of Russian military power, however, the U.S. response was confined to condemning Moscow’s actions, pushing for humanitarian aid and pressing Georgia to accept a cease-fire agreement brokered by France that would leave Russian troops still inside Georgia’s two breakaway enclaves.

“What freedom strategy?” asked David L. Phillips, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of a report on Georgia. “It is scorned worldwide. Afghanistan is backsliding. The bar has been set low in Iraq. Georgia is in ruins.”

The damage may not be confined to Georgia, many analysts believe.

The U.S. had intended to renew its push for expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into Georgia and Ukraine in December. But with its military action, Russia has signaled its categorical opposition to further expansion.

And several Western European nations are likely to be reluctant to expand the alliance, though German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday during a visit to Georgia that the path to membership was still open to the former Soviet republic.

“This action is a real challenge to the idea of building a Europe whole, free and at peace,” said Stephen Flanagan of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

And Moscow’s violent intervention in Georgia may put democratic movements in Ukraine and other nearby countries at risk, in the view of Leslie H. Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Bush administration should not “jeopardize these nascent democracies by letting them think that they can put themselves in this kind of situation and survive,” Gelb said. “You are not just putting democracy on the line in Georgia, you are putting all of these places in that neighborhood on the line.” …

http://www.latimes.com/news/pr.....9331.story

See? That idiot Bush endangered all these countries by having them become democracies!

If they would have just stayed under the Soviet Russian thumb and brought their complaints to the UN, just think how much better the world would be today.

I hope Bush learned his lesson; I mean you won’t find Obama upsetting the Russians.

And rather than focusing on individual leaders, critics say, the administration should have put more effort into building up a middle class and bolstering civil institutions, a slower process.

Yep, feed the poor and build a powerful government. That’s the ticket.

Of course the number one thing is to keep talking with the Russians:

Gates has advocated engaging with Russia in meaningful strategic dialogues. But meaningful negotiations with Moscow will be difficult in the wake of the Georgia conflict, analysts agree.

On Thursday, Gates said Russia’s military action had “called into question the entire premise of that dialogue and has profound implications for our security relationship going forward,” Gates said.

Still, many experts believe that Washington must try to talk to Russia on a broad number of issues, including U.S. plans to install a missile defense system in Europe and Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“Russia is more dangerous if it is marginalized,” Flanagan said. “Its potential for mischief and disruption is even greater.“

Or, don’t install that missile defense system (that “won’t work anyway”) and the Russians will calm down.

What’s wrong with that?
BillK
August 18th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Wow, there are actually some California Republicans who remember what Republicans used to stand for?

From a depressed Los Angeles Times:

Republican lawmakers kill California budget proposal

In a rare Sunday-night Assembly session, a Democratic plan to close the state’s $15.2-billion budget shortfall by raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations failed to get a single GOP vote.

By Evan Halper

SACRAMENTO — - Assembly Republicans on Sunday blocked a proposed spending plan that would have closed the state’s $15.2-billion shortfall with the help of tax hikes on the wealthy and corporations.

The failure of the Democratic plan means the state will continue to operate with no budget more than a month and a half into the fiscal year, heightening uncertainty for schools, healthcare providers and other services.

The move by GOP lawmakers came as little surprise on the Assembly floor since Republicans have long said they would vote against the tax proposal. But as public pressure mounted on lawmakers to take action on the budget, and back-room negotiations continued to falter, Democrats decided to bring the measure to the floor Sunday night.

The Assembly heard nearly four hours of debate during which 49 members spoke. In the end, the plan garnered a 45 to 30 plurality, but fell short of the 54 votes, or two-thirds majority, it needed. No Republican voted for it.

“The bottom line is we cannot solve a $15-billion deficit without new revenue,” said Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles).

Republicans, almost all of whom have signed a pledge not to raise taxes, said the proposal would do irreparable damage to the state economy.

“This budget runs the risk of putting California on the brink of bankruptcy,” said Assembly Budget Committee Vice Chairman Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks). “It is time for Democrats to take their heads out of the sand.”

The Assembly held its first Sunday session since 2003 to vote on the bill.

The plan would have raised the income tax rate for families earning more than $321,000 to 10% and those earning more than $642,000 to 11%. Both groups currently pay 9.3%, one of the highest rates in the country. Earnings above $1 million carry a 1% surcharge.

The proposal also included plans to raise the corporate tax rate from 8.8% to 9.3% and suspend a tax break for businesses that allows them to deduct losses.

The tax hikes proposed by the Democrats would have covered about half of the budget shortfall. The remainder would have been closed with program cuts, borrowing and accounting shifts.

In private negotiations, Democrats had shifted their focus away from income tax hikes but reverted to the proposal for the floor vote after Republican lawmakers refused to consider any tax increase at all.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the only Republican who has signaled flexibility on taxes. Democrats are close to an agreement with him on a plan that would temporarily raise sales taxes by one cent per dollar. The governor has yet to line up any other Republicans in support of that plan.

Democrats had hoped to get Republican support for the proposed tax increases by offering constitutional spending restraints, long a priority for the GOP. The restraints would limit how much the Legislature could spend when the state is flush with revenue, forcing the state to sock money away so it would be available when the economy falters.

But GOP lawmakers Sunday dismissed the spending restraints offered by Democrats as insubstantial. The plan would have forced the state to bolster its rainy-day fund and limit when and how often the Legislature could raid it. Republicans want the constitution to be changed to prohibit spending from growing any faster than population growth and inflation, regardless of how well the economy is doing and how much cash arrives in Capitol coffers.

“What we get instead of real reform is phony reform pushed by our Democratic friends,” said Assemblyman John Benoit (R-Palm Desert). He said the Democratic spending restraint proposal “will do nothing to help us live within our means.” …

http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....3185.story

I doubt California Republicans will be able to withstand the full blast of the MSM today as they inevitably show innocent children who will go hungry due to the mean ol’ Republicans and how millions of Californians will die because they can’t afford their medications, but for now they get a big bravo and salute for not causing Reagan to spin a few more times in his Simi Valley grave.
BillK
August 18th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Hmmm, how could this be?

From the Los Angeles Times

No signs of Russia claim of genocide by Georgia in South Ossetia

South Ossetia’s capital, Tskhinvali, slowly emerges from shell shock, but the damage doesn’t appear to be on the scale Russia claimed. Residents blame the bloodshed on Georgia and regard Russia as savior.

By Megan K. Stack

TSKHINVALI, GEORGIA — A visit to this war-strafed city Sunday turned up no proof of Russian claims that more than 2,000 people died here. Nor were there any ready signs of what Prime Minister Vladimir Putin referred to as “genocide.”

The downtown of Tskhinvali, the capital of Georgia’s breakaway republic of South Ossetia, sustained heavy damage in a five-day barrage of rockets and missiles as Russian troops and their local allies battled Georgian forces, and dozens of deaths have been documented. There is still no running water in the city, and residents are tremulous and shellshocked.

Tskhinvali Regional Hospital had confirmed the deaths of 40 people as of Sunday, though the number was expected to grow, said Tina Zakharova, an Ossetian doctor who showed The Times a log of deaths. That figure included both civilians and combatants: people who died at the hospital, whose bodies were brought to the hospital or whose families reported burying their dead in villages.

It has been more than a week since Georgia launched a military operation in South Ossetia, to bring the pro-Russian rebel region under the control of the central government. Instead, Georgian soldiers met a humiliating defeat in an overwhelming Russian counterattack.

South Ossetian authorities are still laboring to figure out how many people died in the battles for the capital, Zakharova said. The task was complicated because some families simply buried their dead in their yards, unable to bring the corpses to the hospital to be registered. “There will be more,” she said.

Russian officials have claimed that the city was flattened, comparing the wreckage to the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II. Leaders in Moscow have repeatedly used the term genocide, and spoke of thousands of corpses.

Burned-out tanks remain scattered on the streets of Tskhinvali, but the city’s roads and bridges remain basically unscathed. Many buildings had windows shattered and roofs destroyed; some appear to have caught fire and burned to charred shells. The streets around the government center seem to have borne the brunt of the fighting, but few walls appear to have fallen in the assault.

“You can’t explain how it felt. It was horrible,” said Soslan Borisovich, a vice colonel with the breakaway republic’s militia, who fought alongside Russian troops and manned a checkpoint at the southern edge of Tskhinvali. “For two days, the ground was shaking nonstop.”

Many Ossetians spoke with anger about the Georgian troops who had battled their way into Tskhinvali, only to be driven back by the Russians.

“They were the closest to us before the war, and now they are the most frightening enemy,” said Evelina Kulumbekova, 49, who holed up in the basement of her apartment building during the fighting. “It feels like your own brother has cut off your head.”

The question of how many people died here is significant in part because Moscow has used the shocking death toll to justify its overwhelming military response. Russia sent troops pouring over the border, unleashed airstrikes and seized control of wide chunks of Georgia outside South Ossetia and another breakaway republic, Abkhazia, shutting down the country’s main road and severing transportation links between the capital and the Black Sea coast.

The Kremlin has come out heavily in support of independence for Georgia’s breakaway republics, a move that would redraw the borders of the post-Soviet Caucasus region. Critics accuse Russia of trying to engineer a de facto annexation of the neighboring lands, a charge Moscow firmly denies. …

http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....1598.story

So the story to watch will be whether there was indeed “genocide” occurring, or if the Russian press services have studied the tactics of the Palestinians whenever they are attacked by Israel (or Afghanistan after a US-led airstrike, for that matter.)
BillK
August 18th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Why is this news when China does it but not when our public school administrators do?

From a “what’s the big deal?” AP:

China confiscates Bibles from American Christians

By Gillian Wong

A group of American Christians who had more than 300 Bibles confiscated by Chinese officials when they arrived in China is refusing to leave the airport until they get the books back, their leader said Monday.

The group arrived in the southwestern city of Kunming on Sunday as China hosts the Summer Olympics in Beijing, its capital.

Pat Klein said he and three others from his Vision Beyond Borders group spent the night at the airport after customs officers took the Bibles from their checked luggage.

“I heard that there’s freedom of religion in China, so why is there a problem for us to bring Bibles?” said Klein, whose Sheridan, Wyoming-based group distributes Bibles and Christian teaching materials around the world.

The Bibles were printed in Chinese, he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Last year, false media reports claimed Bibles would be banned from the Olympic Games. The state-run China Daily reported last month that 10,000 bilingual copies of the Bible would be distributed in the Olympic Village, which houses athletes and media.

In China, Bibles are legally printed at just one plant — the world’s largest — run by a Communist government-backed Christian association, and are available in many bookstores. But the officially atheistic government prohibits proselytizing and is worried that if the spread of religion goes unchecked, believers might ultimately challenge the Communist Party’s authority.

A woman on duty at Kunming airport’s customs office confirmed over the telephone late Sunday that 315 Bibles were found in the passengers’ checked baggage.

The officer, who would only give her last name, Xiao, denied confiscating the Bibles. She said authorities were just “taking care” of them and provided no further details. She later said she was not authorized to speak to the media and referred questions to the national customs headquarters in Beijing, which did not answer phones on Sunday.

On Monday morning, Klein said Chinese officials had shown the group what they said were regulations that banned bringing Bibles into China, but that the documents were in Chinese. “We are waiting for them to come back with the law in English,” he said.

Chinese officials had asked the Christians to leave the room at the airport where they spent the night, but Klein told the officials they did not want to go without the Bibles.

Klein said the customs officers had told him that they could each have one Bible for personal use, but no more than that. He said the officers had videotaped them and were insisting that they leave the airport.

“We don’t want to go without taking those books. It cost us a lot of money to bring them here,” Klein said. “They’re saying that it’s illegal to bring the Bibles in and that if we wanted to, we had to apply ahead of time for permission.” …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....729D87.DTL

I’m sure the Democratic Party is drooling at China’s actions and wondering how they could implement similar policies in the United States.

Then again, once they get the Bible banned as “hate speech” (”Hey, that Leviticus is just plain invective and has no place in a civil society”) it won’t be an issue.
BillK
August 18th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Some interesting science from the Los Angeles Times:

Shroud of Turin stirs new controversy

A Colorado couple researching the shroud dispute radiocarbon dating of the alleged burial cloth of Jesus, and Oxford has agreed to help them reexamine the findings.

By DeeDee Correll

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. — The tie that binds John and Rebecca Jackson is about 4 feet by 14 feet, woven of herringbone twill linen. It once led to their romance; years later, it still dominates their thoughts and fills their conversations.

It brought Rebecca, an Orthodox Jew, to the Catholic Church; it led John to suspend himself from an 8-foot-tall cross to study how blood might have stained the cloth. Together, the two have committed to memory every crease, scorch mark and unexplained stain in their years-long pursuit of the mystery:

Is the Shroud of Turin — which allegedly bears the image of a crucifixion victim — the burial cloth of Jesus?

In 1988, science seemed to put that question to rest.

Radiocarbon dating by three separate laboratories showed that the shroud originated in the Middle Ages, leaving the “shroud crowd” reeling. Shroud skeptics responded, “We told you so.” The Catholic Church admitted that it could not be authentic. Many scientists backed away.

But John Jackson, one of the shroud’s most prominent researchers, was among those who insisted that the results made no sense. Too much else about the shroud, they said, including characteristics of the cloth and details in the image, suggested that it was much older.

Twenty years later, Jackson, 62, is getting his chance to challenge the radiocarbon dating. Oxford University, which participated in the original radiocarbon testing, has agreed to work with him in reconsidering the age of the shroud.

If the challenge is successful, Jackson hopes to be allowed to reexamine the shroud, which is owned by the Vatican and stored in a protective chamber in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy.

Jackson, a physicist who teaches at the University of Colorado, hypothesizes that contamination of the cloth by elevated levels of carbon monoxide skewed the 1988 carbon-14 dating by 1,300 years.

“It’s the radiocarbon date that to our minds is like a square peg in a round hole. It’s not fitting properly, and the question is why,” he said.

On that point, Christopher Ramsey, head of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, seems to agree.

“There is a lot of other evidence that suggests to many that the shroud is older than the radiocarbon dates allow, and so further research is certainly needed,” says a statement on his website. “Only by doing this will people be able to arrive at a coherent history of the shroud which takes into account and explains all of the available scientific and historical information.”

Steven Schafersman, a geologist who maintains a website skeptical about the shroud, dismisses the effort as one that’s bound to fail.

“He’s had other ideas, but they’ve all been shot down, and this one will be shot down too,” he said of Jackson. “Ordinary people know this is just a relic.” …

http://www.latimes.com/feature.....0965.story

Thankfully this is just about Jesus and not evolution or the UC scientist would be the subject of derision for merely suggesting a scientific test be performed.

This one will be fun to follow, even if it also turns out to indicate the shroud is 1,000 years too young.

Of course, even if it does date to the proper age, Jesus was just a “good teacher” anyway…
BillK
August 18th, 2008 at 10:35 am
More union shenanigans.

From the Los Angeles Times (who actually investigated a union!)

U.S. investigates L.A.-based union’s election

The SEIU local allegedly made it nearly impossible for others to compete with the slate of leader Tyrone Freeman, whose financial dealings have drawn scrutiny.

By Paul Pringle

The election of a Los Angeles union leader under fire for his labor group’s spending practices is the subject of a government review that could force a new vote because of complaints that the contest was unfair to challengers.

The U.S. Labor Department is investigating allegations that Tyrone Freeman’s union local made it nearly impossible for candidates not on his slate to qualify for the ballot, according to people familiar with the probe.

Freeman’s local, a chapter of the giant Service Employees International Union, has denied that the election rules were tilted against challengers. Freeman and his slate won by default because no challenger gathered enough signatures to make the ballot.

The dispute comes as the SEIU has begun rooting through Freeman’s books because of a Times report on the local’s finances, SEIU spokesman Steve Trossman said Friday.

Freeman’s local is called the United Long-Term Care Workers. Trossman said he hoped to have a preliminary report soon.

A source close to the union said Trossman was informed six years ago of allegations involving Freeman’s finances and personal relationships. It is unclear whether a review was undertaken at that time; Trossman said that the SEIU might have performed an audit of the local because of the allegations, but that he couldn’t be sure.

The source, who asked not to be identified because he feared retribution, said Trossman helped develop a strategy in 2002 to keep the allegations from embarrassing the SEIU at a time of epic membership growth.

Trossman’s efforts succeeded, the source said. Freeman’s local continued to expand as part of SEIU President Andy Stern’s much-celebrated campaign to organize entire industries state by state. The local and an affiliate ended up representing about 190,000 workers, most of them in the field of home healthcare.

Last week, Trossman said, “I don’t remember exactly what happened” in 2002.

Trossman said that he did remember a Times reporter calling him then about the allegations and that he believes he referred the inquiry to the local. Trossman said he did not talk to Freeman about the accusations, and does not recall whether Stern was informed.

The source, who told of discussing the allegations with Trossman, said they included complaints that Freeman fathered a child with a staffer, Pilar Planells, who later became his wife.

“Many people complained” that Planells was placed in a key administrative position after she started a relationship with Freeman, the source said. The source also said there were accusations that Freeman arbitrarily increased worker fees to pay the local’s bills, and that he spent too much money on perks such as cars for himself and favored lieutenants.

In an e-mail, Trossman said the union was “reviewing records and conducting interviews” at the local but offered no details.

A Freeman spokesman said in an e-mail that all the complaints about his spending practices and Pilar Planells were false.

Earlier this month, The Times reported that the local and a related charity had paid at least $405,700 since 2006 — not counting any outlays this year — to firms that Freeman’s wife and mother-in-law operate at their homes. The union also spent nearly $300,000 last year on a Four Seasons golf tournament, restaurants such as a Morton’s steakhouse, a Beverly Hills cigar lounge and William Morris Agency, the Hollywood talent house.

Freeman did not file any disclosure forms revealing the 2006 and 2007 payments to his wife’s video company, as required by federal law, until after The Times began inquiring about them last month, U.S. Labor Department officials say. …

http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....1444.story

Note the SEIU is the union that derives much of their dues from the largely immigrant (illegal and not) workforce cleaning California’s airports and office buildings for $14/hour or less.

Sounds like business as usual, and I hope they enjoy seeing what their union leadership actually does with their money.
BannedbytheTaliban
August 18th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
More good news from California and the AP:

Former Marine decries trial in civilian court

By Chelsea J. Carter - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Aug 18, 2008 10:13:55 EDT

IRVINE, Calif. — A former Marine sergeant facing the first federal civilian prosecution of a military member accused of a war crime says there is much more at stake than his claim of innocence on charges that he killed unarmed detainees in Fallujah, Iraq.

In the view of Jose Luis Nazario Jr., U.S. troops may begin to question whether they will be prosecuted by civilians for doing what their military superiors taught them to do in battle.

Nazario is the first military service member who has completed his duty to be brought to trial under a law that allows the government to prosecute defense contractors, military dependents and those no longer in the military who commit crimes outside the United States.

“They train us, and they expect us to rely back on that training. Then when we use that training, they prosecute us for it?” Nazario said during an interview Saturday with The Associated Press.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t think I should be the first tried like this,” said Nazario, whose trial begins Tuesday in Riverside, east of Los Angeles.

If Nazario, 28, is convicted of voluntary manslaughter, some predict damaging consequences on the battlefield.

“This boils down to one thing in my mind: Are we going to allow civilian juries to Monday-morning-quarterback military decisions?” said Nazario’s attorney, Kevin McDermott.

Others say the law closes a loophole that allowed former military service members to slip beyond the reach of prosecution. Once they complete their terms, troops cannot be prosecuted in military court.

Scott Silliman, a law professor and executive director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University, says it has little to do with questioning military decisions and everything to do with whether a service member committed a crime.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.co.....al_081708/

“”This boils down to one thing in my mind: Are we going to allow civilian juries to Monday-morning-quarterback military decisions?” said Nazario’s attorney, Kevin McDermott.”

The left as opened up another front against our soldiers and military. No doubt that most of these “trials” will be politically motivated as opposed to an actual infraction of the law. At best this kind of stunt by the left is double jeopardy, and at worst, treason. I would suggest those concerned visit the website http://www.defendthedefenders.org.

When is that earthquake due to hit California again?
BillK
August 18th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
everything to do with whether a service member committed a crime

Well of course! This soldier may have murdered an opposing “civilian,” or at the very least deprived him of some illusory “civil right.”

That can’t be allowed.

Obama has decreed that negotiation solves all.
JohnMG
August 18th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
BannedbytheTaliban; …..”When is that earthquake due to hit California again?…..”

Not soon enough!
BillK
August 19th, 2008 at 1:39 am
JohnMG, I know we’re being facetious here, but can you imagine the tax increases that will go along with the hundreds of billions of dollars in cash that will be given to Californians post-quake?

Recall most Californians choose not to carry earthquake insurance, so after a few weeks of stories in the press about how people can’t afford to rebuild their homes, Congress will inevitably “act.”
BillK
August 19th, 2008 at 2:28 am
From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Bay Area airports expect Labor Day downturn

By George Raine

Many Americans will choose a backyard hammock over an airline flight during the long Labor Day weekend this year, according to a report released Monday by a trade association representing major U.S. carriers.

In yet another indicator of a sputtering world economy, the Air Transport Association of America forecasts that 16 million passengers will travel globally on U.S. airlines from Aug. 27 to Sept. 3, a decline of 5.7 percent from the 17 million passengers estimated to have traveled on U.S. airlines one year ago.

The reasons for the dip are all too familiar: a conspiracy of high energy prices, rising airfares, airline schedule cuts and a steep economic downturn.

“Economic uncertainty and the heavy hit from sky-high energy prices mean that many vacation and business travelers are choosing to stay closer to home - if they go at all,” said James May, president and chief executive officer of the Washington-based association.

Airlines are decreasing capacity and trimming jobs as they struggle with the price of jet fuel, which, although it has declined somewhat this summer, has averaged $160.47 per barrel this year, a 79 percent increase from the $89.82 it cost last year during the same time.

The projected decline in passengers represents a 6.5 percent drop in domestic travel and a 1 percent increase in international travel, according to the trade association.

A similar story is playing out in the Bay Area: Passenger traffic at Oakland International Airport will drop 10 percent compared with last year’s end-of-summer holiday weekend because of the loss of three airlines in April - Aloha, ATA and Skybus.

The three airlines carried 10 percent of the 14.6 million passengers who used Oakland in 2007.

The falloff at Oakland International - where a 10-year run of growth is ending this year - will worsen Sept. 3 when American Airlines and Continental Airlines pull out of Oakland, both discontinuing their three daily departures, along with TACA, an airline that had three weekly flights to El Salvador.

The decline “is the result of us losing air service because of the airlines dealing with high fuel costs and the downturn in the economy,” said airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes. “Our focus continues to be talking to airlines, either existing ones or those who do not serve Oakland, about opportunities here to expand or begin service.” …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....12D9BO.DTL

But I thought a reduced number of flights was a good thing - less carbon emissions and all that.

Then why all the hand wringing?
BillK
August 19th, 2008 at 2:33 am
No big surprise from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Panel defies mayor’s reversal on sanctuary

By Jaxon Van Derbeken

A San Francisco city commission has taken a defiant stand against Mayor Gavin Newsom’s directive on young immigrant felons by urging officials to permit the offenders to remain in the city and help pay for their housing, job placement services and immigration lawyers.

Newsom announced last month - in an attempt to quell a growing controversy involving San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy - that the city would no longer shield young illegal immigrant felony offenders from federal authorities for possible deportation.

Three weeks later, the city’s little known, 15-member Immigrant Rights Commission, approved a resolution that ran counter to the mayor’s directive, urging the city to let young immigrant offenders stay in the city. The commission advises the Board of Supervisors and mayor about issues involving immigrants.

It called on San Francisco to pay nonprofit community groups to screen juvenile offenders to determine whether they should be entitled to city-paid immigration attorneys who would help them seek asylum as victims of abandonment, trafficking or abuse.

It also urged the city to provide adequate resources for placing the youths in “culturally appropriate” community programs approved by the juvenile court system, a policy that federal prosecutors have said was akin to harboring illegal immigrants.

And it advised the city to develop and expand safe housing, jobs and other opportunities for unaccompanied immigrant youth “because these youth are extremely vulnerable to exploitation by adult criminals.”

The three-page resolution, which was sent to the mayor and the Board of Supervisors for possible action, did not mention Newsom’s new policy.

Newsom spokesman Nathan Ballard said the mayor appreciated the commission’s input but “has directed the juvenile probation department in no uncertain terms” to turn over juvenile felons to federal immigration authorities.

“Ultimately, the decisions must be made by the mayor, and that is where the buck stops,” Ballard said.

Newsom announced his new policy July 2 after The Chronicle reported that federal officials had warned the city that it was illegally providing offenders free flights home and paying for them to live in group homes outside the city in lieu of deportation and that several had fled from unlocked group homes.

Two days earlier, Newsom said he had no direct authority to order the change but then reversed course as the controversy grew. Since then, according to Newsom’s aides, the mayor’s office has been doing a “top-to-bottom” review of San Francisco’s practices and programs under the sanctuary law. …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....12C0LH.DTL

Wow, weren’t you surprised to see San Francisco’s “Immigrant Rights Commission” wants the city to pay to keep illegal immigrants protected in town?

I’m shocked, just shocked…
BillK
August 19th, 2008 at 2:40 am
More fun from the California courts:

State Supreme Court says doctors must treat gays and lesbians

By Bob Egelko

Doctors in California must treat gays and lesbians the same as any other patient, regardless of religious objections, the state Supreme Court ruled today.

In a unanimous decision, the court rejected a San Diego County fertility clinic’s attempt to use its physicians’ religious beliefs as a justification for their refusal to provide artificial insemination for a lesbian couple.

Guadalupe Benitez sued North Coast Women’s care in Vista and two of its doctors, saying they told her in 2000 that because she was a lesbian their Christian beliefs prohibited them from performing intrauterine insemination for her. The doctors later claimed they would have refused the treatment for any unmarried couple.

They referred Benitez to another clinic for the insemination. She did not become pregnant then, but since has borne three children and is raising them with her partner of 18 years.

Today’s ruling, three months after overturning California’s ban on same-sex marriage, strengthened the state’s law that prohibits businesses, including medical clinics, from discriminating against customers because of their sexual orientation, as well as their race, sex or religion. The court said religious beliefs do not excuse discrimination.

The law “furthers California’s compelling interest in ensuring full and equal access to medical treatment irrespective of sexual orientation,” said Justice Joyce Kennard in today’s ruling.

In language that would apply equally to abortions, Kennard said doctors who have religious objections to a particular procedure or treatment can refuse to perform it for any patient, but can’t selectively reject gays and lesbians. She said they also have the option of referring a patient to someone else at the clinic who will perform the procedure, an option that wasn’t available in this case.

Kennard cited the court’s 2004 ruling requiring Catholic Charities to abide by a state law that compels company-sponsored health plans for employees to offer contraception for women. The court said Catholic Charities, which serves and employs many non-Catholics, did not qualify for an exemption that the law provides for religious employers.

In today’s ruling, the court also rejected the doctors’ claim that their freedom of speech was being violated, saying they remain free to criticize the anti-discrimination law as long as they comply with it.

The ruling means the doctors cannot use their religious beliefs as a defense to Benitez’s claim that they discriminated against her because of her sexual orientation when her suit goes to trial. They can still argue, however, that they had religious objections to providing the infertility treatment to unmarried couples, whose rights under the anti-discrimination law were not clearly established when Benitez visited the clinic.

Benitez, now 36, said the ruling isn’t just a victory for lesbians.

“Anyone could be the next target if doctors are allowed to pick and choose their patients based on religious views about other groups of people,” she said.

Kenneth Pedroza, lawyer for the doctors and the clinic, said they would decide shortly whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. He said the high court may be ready to reconsider its 1990 ruling that upheld states’ authority to enforce laws that restrict religious practices even though they were not aimed at stifling religion. That ruling allowed Oregon to deny unemployment benefits to two people who were fired for using peyote in a religious ritual at a Native American church. …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....12D6H4.DTL

Anyone else waiting for the first religious discrimination suit to come along when a militant Muslim doctor is “forced” to treat a Jew?
BillK
August 19th, 2008 at 2:49 am
See, Democrats are tolerant at all levels.

From the AP:

Calif. Dems kick rep out of Capitol for disloyalty

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A Democrat in the California legislature has been kicked out of her Capitol office for not supporting the party’s state budget proposal.

Assemblywoman Nicole Parra of Hanford said Monday she wasn’t surprised about being punished but was “a little taken back” by Democrats’ decision to move her out of the Capitol.

When she abstained from Sunday night’s budget vote, the bill fell nine votes short of the two-thirds majority needed. Parra was the only Democrat present who didn’t vote for it.

She represents a farm-heavy district in the Central Valley and says she wants a water bond package approved before she’ll vote for the budget.

Her new office is in another state building across the street. …

http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/s.....menu1362_2

Not at all unexpected.
BillK
August 19th, 2008 at 3:06 am
Pelosi says Obama is a gift from God.

From Politico:

Obama: ‘I will win’

A confident Barack Obama raised an extraordinary $7.8 million Sunday at three California fundraisers, most of it in large checks to a Democratic Party committee.

“I will win. Don’t worry about that,” he said to the crowd of about 1,300 at his third event of the evening, according to the pool report.

He was warmly received by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who called him “a leader that God has blessed us with at this time.”

Obama echoed some of the themes he discussed when he described Pennsylvanians as “bitter” and stoked controversy three months ago, but did so much more adroitly.

“Now, you want to win. And saying it doesn’t make it so,” he told the crowd. “It would be nice to think that after eight years of economic disaster, after eight years of bungled foreign policy, of being engaged in a war that should never have been authorized and should never have been waged, that cost us a trillion dollars and thousands of lives, that people would say, let’s toss the bums out. Toss the bums out, we’re starting from scratch, we’re starting over. This is not working.”

“So I understand why a lot of folks are saying, this should just happen. Why are we having to run all these television commercials? Why do we have to raise all this money? Just read the papers. These are the knuckleheads who have been in charge. Throw ‘em out. But American politics aren’t that simple,” he said.

“The fact of the matter is, at a certain point, when government has not been serving the people for this long, people get cynical. They tune out. And they start saying to themselves, a plague on both your houses. They are willing to consume negative information more frequently than positive information, for good reason. They’ve seen how promises haven’t been kept,” he said.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/.....l_win.html

Ultimate egotism from Obama, and Pelosi dares invoke the name of God?

As usual, no one in the MSM will call either of them on any of this.

Meanwhile, who’s better at not serving their constituents while lying about it than Democrats?
sheehanjihad
August 19th, 2008 at 6:28 am
completely off topic….but the tropical storm hit just 15 miles south of me….pretty intense for a bit. I blame global warming. I want compensation! Now excuse me while I go downtown to loot some big screen TV’s and beer…..and then set up another bogus relief fund….I am going to call it Kamp Kasey IV…..now where is the Snag’s number…..?
BillK
August 19th, 2008 at 8:06 am
SJ, from what I know there’s some pretty good looting to be had in Naples. :D
BillK
August 20th, 2008 at 10:41 am
See! He said he wasn’t a Republican.

From a jubilant AP:

Toby Keith Throws Support Behind Obama

Country Star Says Democratic Candidate ‘Best’ Since Clinton

LOS ANGELES — Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama is getting a little bit of support from one of the big names in country music.

Toby Keith said that he’s backing the Illinois senator and fellow Democrat.

Keith is best known among non-country music folks for his post-Sept. 11 song, “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.”

The song features lines aimed at the Taliban in Afghanistan like, “We lit up your world like the Fourth of July.”

But Keith has said the song was more of a patriotic tune than a pro-war song.

The county music star said that he was impressed that Obama visited Afghanistan to learn about the region.

Keith, a self-described Democrat, said Obama is “the best Democratic candidate we’ve had since Bill Clinton.“

http://www.wisn.com/entertainm.....etail.html

Keith is impressed Obama went to learn about the region? Shouldn’t someone running for President already know?

The best since Bill Clinton? I guess it’s always good to keep your standards low.

The entertaining thing is Keith’s defense of being anti-Kerry in 2004 was that you shouldn’t change leadership mid-stream during a war.

Now he’s advocating full retreat.

Pity, I liked Keith’s music.
BillK
August 20th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Note, you will not find the word “Democrat” mentioned once in this piece. Big surprise.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Federal probe focuses on wife of L.A. City Atty. Delgadillo

Investigators are seeking information about her consulting business and taxes, sources say.

By Phil Willon and David Zahniser

Federal authorities investigating Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo and his wife are seeking information about her consulting business and taxes, according to sources familiar with the inquiry.

Federal prosecutors and FBI agents have expressed interest in at least two firms that hired Michelle Delgadillo — California Litho-Arts, a printing company based in Los Angeles, and Diane Castano-Sallee & Associates, according to sources familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

A separate source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said one area of federal interest is whether Delgadillo’s wife paid taxes on the income earned from her business.

The president of California Litho-Arts, Helen Mars, recently told The Times that her firm had received a subpoena.

California Litho-Arts had city contracts totaling $36,945 between 1993 and 2002, with the vast majority of those contracts expiring before Rocky Delgadillo became city attorney in 2001.

Castano-Sallee’s business has received more than $350,000 in contracts with the city attorney from 2001 to 2004. Two weeks ago, her husband told The Times that Castano-Sallee had not received a federal subpoena. Asked Tuesday whether his quote was still accurate, he said: “Don’t use that.”

Agents and prosecutors met with City Controller Laura Chick, who audits city departments and agencies, two weeks ago to talk about Delgadillo, Chick said Tuesday.

Delgadillo said that neither he nor his wife had been contacted by authorities or knew anything about an investigation, according to his spokesman, Nick Velasquez. Delgadillo knows of no allegation of wrongdoing and said he would cooperate with any inquiry, Velasquez said.

Last year, The Times reported Michelle Delgadillo’s home-based consulting business, C.R.D. Inc., had failed to file state tax returns and operated for years without a required city tax registration certificate. The state Franchise Tax Board suspended the business in 2005 for not filing returns.

Michelle Delgadillo also made headlines when The Times revealed that she had dented her husband’s city car while driving with a suspended license.

Velasquez says a “political agenda” lies behind any allegations made against Delgadillo, who is said to be interested in seeking statewide office when his term expires next year.

“Any allegation of wrongdoing is nothing more than garbage being shoveled by the city attorney’s political opponents hiding behind the cloak of anonymity,” Velasquez said in one such comment. “This is a classic political smear.” …

http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....full.story

Gee, do you think just because the investigation centers on his wife, the word “Republican” would have been left out of any story regarding the spouse of an (R)?

Didn’t think so.
BillK
August 20th, 2008 at 10:52 am
How could this be, without Government help?

From the Los Angeles Times:

Southern California home sales jump 13.8% in July

The year-over-year increase, spurred by falling prices and foreclosures, is the first since September 2005. Los Angeles County sees a slight drop in sales.

By Annette Haddad

Southern California home sales rose last month for the first time in nearly three years, as steep discounts lured buyers back into a market where values have tumbled 31% over the last year.

Sales volume was up 13.8% overall from a year earlier, with Riverside County leading the way with a 48.6% jump, MDA DataQuick reported Monday. Los Angeles County was the exception, posting a 3.2% decline.

The rise is being driven in part by buyers like Andre and Jody Ocampo, who attended an auction of 250 foreclosed homes at the Riverside Convention Center on Sunday, looking for a bargain.

After just three minutes of bidding, they became buyers of a Lake Elsinore home — offering $385,000 for a house that had been appraised just a couple of years ago at nearly $700,000.

The Ocampos said they weren’t worried that prices would continue falling, as most real estate experts predict, because they plan to live in the home and not resell it for a quick profit.

We’ve been building our nest egg and waiting for the right opportunity,” Andre Ocampo said. “Our goal is to move in and make it our home, and wait out the market.”

Overall, 20,329 homes in the six-county region closed escrow last month, MDA DataQuick said, for the first increase in Southland sales since September 2005.

G.U. Krueger, an economist with Irvine-based real estate advisory firm IHP Capital Partners, said the uptick was evidence that the “price mechanism is working” — that is, lower prices are bringing buyers back into the market. …

http://www.latimes.com/busines.....1063.story

Wow, you mean the market works and that falling home prices may not necessarily be a bad thing?

Will wonders never cease?
BillK
August 20th, 2008 at 10:58 am
You knew they’d find a story like this.

From the Los Angeles Times:

The son of illegal immigrants, American wrestler hoists his flag with pride

Henry Cejudo had a ragged upbringing. Now he has a gold medal in the 55 kilogram freestyle.

By Bill Plaschke

BEIJING — He has shared everything for most of his scuffled life, from twin beds to sofa cushions to last bites.

It only made sense, then, that when he stunningly won an Olympic gold medal in freestyle wrestling Tuesday, the Los Angeles-born son of undocumented Mexican immigrants would also share.

With his most beloved piece of cloth.

The American flag.

That flag gave a chance to a kid who paid for wrestling by selling tamales on the street. That kid now held it tight as he dropped to the mat and dissolved in tears.

“I’m living the American dream,” said Cejudo, 21. “The United States is the land of opportunity, and I’m so glad I can represent it.”

The flag gave his mother a chance to raise six children on menial wages in countless apartments from Los Angeles to Las Cruces, N.M., to Phoenix. The son now flapped it across his back like a cape, as if showing the world how it had enabled him to fly.

“The U.S.A. is the best country in the world because it allows you to express yourself in whatever you can do best,” said his brother Alonzo, watching from the stands. “Wrestling is just Henry’s way.”

That flag gave a high school education to a kid too poor to celebrate Christmas, then gave that kid a chance to become an Olympian even after he finished 31st in last year’s world championships. The kid now wore the flag around the gym like an expensive new coat, and later refused to take it off.

“I don’t want to let it go, man,” Cejudo said about an hour after his 55-kg victory over Japan’s Tomohiro Matsunaga. “I might just sleep with this.” …

http://www.latimes.com/sports/.....ull.column

Perhaps if his mother really loved him, she wouldn’t have broken the law to get him here.

Now that we know who he is and who is Mother is and the fact she’s an admitted illegal alien, I hope the INS will be paying her a visit to start deportation proceedings.

Somehow, I doubt it.

The article is supposed to be so heartwarming, with quotes like:

His mother, Nelly Rico, was not in the Beijing Agricultural University Gymnasium stands, because she does not have a passport.

“If you ask my mom, she will tell you she is American,” he said, later adding, “This gold medal is hers.”

A collection of family and friends did show up, and with such vigor, they were nearly ejected. During his match, the Cejudo clan refused to sit down despite repeated admonitions from frustrated security people.

“We didn’t want to get thrown out but, if your little bro is down there, what are you going to do?” Alonzo said. “After a while, [the guard] just got tired of it.”

Awww, his mother taught her sons complete disrespect for authority. How nice.

I do hope someone in the LA INS offices realizes that such flagrant violations of the law can’t go unpunished; after all if you substituted “thief” or “drug dealer” for illegal alien, would the story go unnoticed?
BillK
August 20th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
No surprise, but the Cold War worked so well for them the first time…

Russia Says Response to U.S. Missile Shield Deal With Poland Will Go Beyond Diplomacy

MOSCOW — Russia’s Foreign Ministry says its response to U.S. missile shield development will go beyond diplomacy, adding that the U.S. plan is part of an “extremely dangerous bundle” of military projects.

Earlier Wednesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Polish counterpart signed a deal to build a U.S. missile defense base in Poland, an agreement that prompted an infuriated Russia to warn of a possible attack against the former Soviet satellite.

Rice dismissed the blustery comments from Russian leaders who say Warsaw’s hosting of 10 U.S. interceptor missiles just 115 miles from Russia’s westernmost frontier opens the country up to attack.

Such comments “border on the bizarre frankly,” Rice said, speaking to reporters traveling with her in Warsaw.

“When you threaten Poland, you perhaps forget that it is not 1988,” Rice said. “It’s 2008 and the United States has a … firm treaty guarantee to defend Poland’s territory as if it was the territory of the United States. So it’s probably not wise to throw these threats around.”

The deal, which Washington sought as a way of defending the U.S. and Europe from a hypothetical threat of long-distance missiles from Iran, has strained relations between Moscow and the West. Those ties were already troubled by Russia’s invasion of its former Soviet neighbor, U.S. ally Georgia, earlier this month.

Speaking to reporters traveling with her, Rice said, “the Russians are losing their credibility.”

Rice and Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski signed the deal Wednesday morning.

“It is an agreement which will help us to respond to the threats of the 21st century,” she said afterward.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the agreement came after tough but friendly negotiations.

“We have achieved our main goals, which means that our country and the United States will be more secure,” he said.

After Warsaw and Washington announced the agreement on the deal last week, top Russian Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn warned that Poland is risking attack, and possibly a nuclear one, by deploying the American missile defense system, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.

Poles have been shaken by the threats, but NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop dismissed them Tuesday as “pathetic rhetoric.”

“It is unhelpful and it leads nowhere,” he told reporters at a NATO meeting in Brussels, Belgium.

On Wednesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the U.S. missile shield plans are clearly aimed at weakening Russia and that Moscow’s response to their further development will go beyond diplomacy. …

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,407262,00.html

Once again, for the nth time, Why are the Russians so afraid of a missile defense system our own scientists daily tell us can never work?

Is it perhaps that our scientists aren’t idiots and that even if the system doesn’t get them all, some is better than nothing?!?!
BillK
August 20th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
More on Cold War II from the AP:

Norway: Russia Plans to Cut Military Ties With NATO

OSLO, Norway — Russia has informed Norway that it plans to cut all military ties with NATO, Norway’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

The Nordic country’s embassy in Moscow received a telephone call from “a well-placed official in the Russian Ministry of Defense,” who said >b>Moscow plans “to freeze all military cooperation with NATO and allied countries,” State Secretary Espen Barth Eide at the Norwegian ministry said.

Eide told The Associated Press that the Russian official notified Norway it will receive a written note about this soon. He said Norwegian diplomats in Moscow would meet Russian officials on Thursday morning to clarify the implications of the freeze.

“It is our understanding that other NATO countries will receive similar notes,” Eide said.

Russian officials were not immediately available to confirm the report, and the Russian ambassador to NATO did not reply to messages left on his cell phone.

Officials at NATO headquarters in Brussels said Moscow had not informed the alliance it was taking such a step.

Washington described the reported move as unfortunate.

“If this indeed is the case, it would be unfortunate. We need to work with Russia on a range of security issues, but we are obviously very concerned about Russian behavior in Georgia,” U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.

On Tuesday, NATO foreign ministers said they would make further ties with Russia dependent on Moscow making good on a pledge to pull its troops back to pre-conflict positions in Georgia. However, they stopped short of calling an immediate halt to all cooperation.

Eide said he hoped NATO and Moscow would get back on track with dialogue and cooperation but said that Russia would first have to comply with a cease-fire in Georgia.

“I regret the situation has come to this,” he said. …

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,407321,00.html

So we’re basically headed into a head-to-head showdown with Russia now, and we’ll have Jimmy Carter II in the White House.

Is there any doubt that in the face of events, Obama will immediately halt the construction of any missile defense system in Poland and will remove anything already there?

Heck, why not uh, #$@! Poland again?
BillK
August 20th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
This won’t come as a shock to anyone who’s almost been hit by a Prius in a parking lot.

From the AP:

Calif. says green cars need more noise pollution

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Electric and hybrid vehicles may be better for the environment, but the California Legislature says they’re bad for the blind.

It has passed a bill to ensure that the vehicles make enough noise to be heard by visually impaired people about to cross a street.

The measure would establish a committee to study the issue and recommend ways the vehicles could make more noise.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles says more than 300,000 of the vehicles are on state roads. Officials say they don’t keep statistics on pedestrian accidents involving those vehicles.

The bill has been sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has not taken a position.

http://climate.weather.com/art.....82008.html

Note that some in Europe have suggested the cars have external speakers that emit an engine noise.
BillK
August 20th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Science?

Bah - ask the Premier of Niue, he knows all!

From a giddy AP:

Climate change creating havoc in Pacific islands

By Makarita Komai

ALOFI, Niue (AP) — Climate change is wreaking havoc in the small island states of the South Pacific and assistance is needed for those already hit by rising seawater and severe storms, an islands leader said Wednesday.

Pacific Islands’ Forum chairman and Niue Premier Toke Talagi said the frequency of severe cyclones and rising sea levels meant the challenge of climate change is no longer a matter of scientific theory.

“The evidence is quite clear that climate change is already wreaking havoc here,” he said as he opened the annual summit of 16 nations.

Rising waters have forced villagers inland on four low-lying island groups in the region — Vanuatu, Kiribati (where two uninhabited islands disappeared under water in 1999), Tuvalu and the Cantaret Islands in Papua New Guinea.

Two people died when powerful winds from Cyclone Heta hammered Niue (NEE’-oo-ay) in 2004 and waves swept through villages perched atop 165-foot (50 meter) cliffs, wrecking homes, the local hospital and other buildings.

“We shouldn’t wait until a worse human catastrophe occurs before acting,” Talagi said.

The international attention now focused on climate change “presents an opportunity for the region to negotiate and secure tangible assistance for people already affected by climate change,” he said.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that the U.N. and the Pacific state of Samoa are working to establish a Climate Change Center to coordinate support for Pacific Island countries to combat the impact of global warming in the region. …

http://climate.weather.com/art.....82008.html

It seems like a joke, but of course it’s not.

Natural cycles? Analysis of data?

No - personal experience says climate change must be occurring.

Silly me.
BillK
August 20th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Proving once again that there’s nothing like Government to destroy jobs.

From AP:

States push laws to require paid sick days

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - For school bus driver Jamille Aine, a cold is more than an inconvenience. His employer does not offer paid sick days, so if he can’t shake the bug, he may not be able to pay his bills.

Some 46 million U.S. workers lack paid sick days, but lawmakers in 12 states - including California, Connecticut, Minnesota and West Virginia - have proposed legislation in the past year that would require businesses to provide them.

Dale Butland of Ohioans for Healthy Families, an advocacy group pushing a November ballot initiative that would require employers to offer paid sick days, said the effort picked up steam in Columbus and other state capitals because federal legislation has stalled.

“This is the next frontier in assuring workplaces are safe,” said Kate Kahan, director of the work and family program at the Washington-based National Partnership for Women & Families, which lobbies on paid sick leave and other workplace and health care issues.

Businesses - especially small companies - argue that forcing them to offer paid sick days hinders their ability to provide a flexible array of benefits, such as a mix of vacation and personal days that also may be used by employees when they are sick. And they say it’s a costly new mandate for businesses already struggling through a contracting economy.

Bills requiring paid sick days were rejected or allowed to die in several state legislatures. Maine lawmakers rejected a paid sick leave bill. And for the second consecutive year, legislation died in the Connecticut House of Representatives after the state Senate passed it, leading a Senate sponsor to say she’s lost hope.

“Unless some kind of miracle happens, I don’t see it,” said Sen. Edith Prague, a Democrat from eastern Connecticut.

In several other states - Alaska, Minnesota, Vermont and West Virginia - legislation failed when lawmakers refused to take up paid sick leave bills before legislative deadlines passed, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families.

Nearly all large companies already offer paid sick leave to at least some of their workers, but state and federal mandates could require them to expand the benefit.

Kahan and other workers’ advocates believe paid sick time should be an employment standard, like the federal minimum wage.

Advocates say the benefit is particularly needed for employees who handle food or work with children.

Aine, who drives

Buzz

Articles

Links

S & L

Selected News For Week Aug 16 - Aug 22

59 Responses to “Selected News For Week Aug 16 - Aug 22”