Sonia, Sonia, Sonia… You Have Lotsa Splainin’ To Do
Sonia Sotomayor has another interesting court case that involved a teen blogger, a reputation as a bully among her peers, declaring the 2nd amendment is not a constitutional right, and after posting yesterday about La Raza, (in which I made no mention of a connection), we find out that she is in fact a member. La Raza in Spanish means The Race. The very essence of the group is racist.
The teen blogger case is very disturbing, mainly because it was a high school student who was denied the opportunity to run as class president because of a statement she made on the Internet about her teachers and the school administration calling them D* bags. What child doesn’t say nasty things from time to time when they get emotional or upset? Sotomayor’s ruling stated that the female student, who used the term after the school’s battle of the bands was canceled by faculty, would cause a possible disruption, and therefore was unable to run – hello?? Basic 1st amendment? It’s not like she yelled fire in a crowded movie theatre – we are talking about an angry Internet post of a term that is commonly used nowadays when people are upset. Being from Connecticut myself, I’m surprised I didn’t already know about this woman, granted she did not preside over my jurisdiction/county.
Sonia Sotomayor’s peers and co-workers have also made statements after her nomination claiming that she is a bully and quite abrasive in the work environment. Compared to other court justices on both sides of the aisle, most are very well respected and amiable. It’s important in any working environment to feel comfortable and not harassed – it would be very upsetting to learn that she tried to pressure or bully other SCOTUS members in the future, to make a decision to her liking.
Sonia has also ruled that the 2nd amendment was not a constitutional right in the past. I’m not sure why it would be an amendment in the constitution, and the 2nd one at that, if it wasn’t constitutional, but what do I know? It’s also my understanding that our constitution was established based on Jefferson’s Federalist Papers? Federalism did reign supreme in those days and that meant more state power…?
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayorruled in January 2009 that states do not have to obey the Second Amendment’s commandment that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
In Maloney v. Cuomo, Sotomayor signed an opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that said the Second Amendment does not protect individuals from having their right to keep and bear arms restricted by state governments.
The opinion said that the Second Amendment only restricted the federal government from infringing on an individual’s right to keep and bear arms. As justification for this position, the opinion cited the 1886 Supreme Court case of Presser v. Illinois.
“It is settled law, however, that the Second Amendment applies only to limitations the federal government seeks to impose on this right,” said the opinion. Quoting Presser, the court said, “it is a limitation only upon the power of Congress and the national government, and not upon that of the state.”
The final and most extreme issue coming to the forefront is her association with the radically liberal La Raza. I posted yesterday on other details about the SCOTUS nomination and in so doing, also mentioned the organization and provided a link with facts.
There are many immigrant groups joined in the overall “La Raza” movement. The most prominent and mainstream organization is the National Council de La Raza — the Council of “The Race”.
To most of the mainstream media, most members of Congress, and even many of their own members, the National Council of La Raza is no more than a Hispanic Rotary Club.
But the National Council of La Raza succeeded in raking in over $15.2 million in federal grants last year alone, of which $7.9 million was in U.S. Department of Education grants for Charter Schools, and undisclosed amounts were for get-out-the-vote efforts supporting La Raza political positions.
The Council of La Raza succeeded in having itself added to congressional hearings by Republican House and Senate leaders. And an anonymous senator even gave the Council of La Raza an extra $4 million in earmarked taxpayer money, supposedly for “housing reform,” while La Raza continues to lobby the Senate for virtual open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens.
La Raza lies the real agenda of the La Raza movement, the agenda that led to those thousands of illegal immigrants in the streets of American cities, waving Mexican flags, brazenly defying our laws, and demanding concessions.
Key among the secondary organizations is the radical racist group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, or Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan (MEChA), one of the most anti-American groups in the country, which has permeated U.S. campuses since the 1960s, and continues its push to carve a racist nation out of the American West.
Eeeegads we better watch it here!
Democrat Corruptocrats, The Saga Continues
Dodd & Jesse Jackson Jr. have both been involved in some shady dealings over the past couple of years, if not earlier, but as recently as this week.
Senator Dodd, as we all know, has some major corruption and reputation issues to work through, especially after his Countrywide ties and his own dealings with AIG (with his wife and campaign contributions/bonus language in the stimulus), as well as the complete meltdown of the financial industry under his watch and Barney Frank’s!
However, there was a recent investigation into some old lobbying ties of Senator Dodd’s, and of all places this investigative reporting took place on the Huffington Post!
there’s a lobbying group called the Online Lenders Alliance. Fair enough. They’re throwing a conference this week. So far, so good. There’s a bunch of people from Congress involved or speaking, on both sides of the aisle. Fine*. Senator Dodd was one of the scheduled Senators for the event, except when asked about it first his staff, then Dodd himself flatly denied that he was there on OLA’s behalf at all; it was an independent fundraising dinner. Nothing unusu… wait, what?
Inside the restaurant, Dodd staffers said the dinner, which was not open to press, was not even sponsored by the Online Lenders Alliance.
The dinner “is not an OLA event,” OLA spokeswoman Lisa McGreevy said in a subsequent phone interview. But the OLA agenda lists a Dodd dinner — was there a mixup?
“I don’t think there was any mixup,” she said. “There is a fundraiser tonight for Senator Dodd.”
McGreevy added: “There may be some OLA people there.”
Needless to say, the Huffington Post has a contradictory screenshot, presumably from the OLA website. They also helpfully note that Dodd takes the cash from payday loan people, although I don’t know how fair it is to point that out, particularly since 44 grand isn’t that much in the scheme of things. Anyway, it looks like Dodd’s lying to somebody: he’s either using what should have been a perfectly-normal lobbying event to quietly and deniably raise some cash, or he doesn’t want the Left to think that he’s playing both sides of the fence when it comes to credit card ‘reform.’
Poor milk dodd – he continues to speak out of both sides of his mouth and wonders why he is so low in the polls against Simmons.
Jesse Jackson Jr. doesn’t think twice when it comes to funnelling money to his wife due to loopholes in laws that allow her to act as a consultant for political action committees. This is typical of the dynasties set up in Chicago, where people are still poor, crime is still high, and children are being killed on the street at alarming rates… One would think that the reason this continues to occur is due to the political thugacracy and the dynasties that could care less about their constituents. They care more about power and control and remaining atop the “hill.” Ask Obama!
Representative Jesse Jackson Jr.’s congressional campaign organization has paid his wife at least $247,500 since 2001, including at least $95,000 after Sandra Jackson joined the Chicago City Council two years ago, according to federal election records.
Jackson’s political committee also gave at least $298,927 in cash and in-kind contributions to Sandra Jackson’s campaign fund, which bankrolled her races for a city council seat that pays more than $100,000 per year and an unpaid position on the Cook County Democratic Committee.
Sandra Jackson, known as Sandi, received the $95,000 for political consulting after pledging during her campaign to give “my full attention” to the alderman’s post.
Jesse Jackson got a Federal Election Commission advisory opinion in 2001 saying his campaign could pay Sandi Jackson for consulting work without violating a ban on personal use of political donations. Even so, the Chicago Democrat’s fundraising is so entangled with his family’s interests that he’s pushing the limits of propriety, said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit ethics watchdog group.
“Much of this may be legal, but let’s refer back to an old quote: the scandal in Washington often is what’s legal,” said Sloan, whose group in 2007 reported on relatives who profit from their ties to members of Congress. “Mr. Jackson is availing himself of the full range of loopholes by which he can transfer money to his family.”
More Scandal for the Dodds: Wife of Chris Dodd on Board of Directors Associated with Donors
When will the corruption end!? I love how this guy being interviewed tries to okay this. This is just another example of the limousine liberals and the “X for me, but not for thee” philosophy.
Connecticut School Bans Physical Contact
Connecticut on the road to ruin…again!
The latest coming out of the notoriously liberal state is the banning of physical contact at a middle school in Milford, CT. After an inappropriate kick to the groin that sent a child to the hospital, the school’s principle is taking a zero tolerance stand in which everyone is being punished for the bad behavior of one. “One rotten apple spoils a bunch.”
Principal Catherine Williams sent out a letter earlier in the week telling parents recent behavior has seriously impacted the safety and learning at the school.
“Observed behaviors of concern recently exhibited include kicking others in the groin area, grabbing and touching of others in personal areas, hugging and horseplay. Physical contact is prohibited to keep all students safe in the learning environment,” Williams wrote.
Students and parents are outraged. They said the new policy means no high-fives and hugs, as well as horseplay of any kind. The consequences could be dire, Williams warned in the letter.
“Potential consequences and disciplinary action may include parent conferences, detention, suspension and/or a request for expulsion from school,” Williams wrote.
Many think the school’s no tolerance policy goes way too far. Others said it’s utterly ridiculous.
“Now it’s almost as if it’s a sanitized school. Where you have to keep your distance from everybody? And that’s not what school is about,” one father said.
“What if they are out on the playground at recess, or in gym class?” parent Kathy Casey wondered. “You know, gym class is physical.”
Some of these parents just seem too logical – “suck it up parents – the latest liberal establishment will be a school requirement that all children must be in a bubble to attend.”
On the AIG Debacle from an Insider
I will be paraphrasing and placing those elements from a family friend who was an executive at AIG in quotes.
Thank you for contactingn me about the current AIG crisis. I am very worried about my wife and the pressure that she has been under in regards to this situation.
I have not been with AIG since October, but I did receive a retention plan payment (way under the $ 1 million payment though). The vast majority of people working at AIG-Financial Products Division had nothing to do with the transactions that are causing so much trouble. 10 employees out 400 executed and priced those transactions. The rest of us at the company were pretty much clueless in regards to how these products were underwritten. The AIG employees were told that the underwritten securities contained no risk. However, the current AIG-FP employees (those who account for the 390 who had nothing to do with the underwritings) are enduring the most anger from the public.
I can understand why there is anger, however, AIG-FP did not cause the ruin of AIG, that distinction belongs to AIG itself through its security lending program that has lost billion more than AIG-FP. Why is that not being discussed? because it does not fit the class warfare discussion that is going on now. Its not conducive to the “crisis” to say that senior management at AIG was irresponsible and incompetent its much easier to say that and entire division of AIG (AIG-FP) and those greedy employees and credit derivatives destroyed the company.
Now the History:
AIG goes to AIG-FP employees in late March of 2008 (not March of 2009 – these contracts were signed way in advance) with a retention plan because the head of FP is fired for the credit derivatives that are causing so many problems. The employees did not ask for the retention plans and most employees were not very happy about signing them either.
AIG gives us two weeks to decide whether we want to sign these agreements. As an AIG employee, if you did not sign the agreement you weren’t considered a “team-player” and your days at the office were numbered. Yes, we benefited by signing the retention agreements, but the offset is that AIG wants to make sure that its employees do not walk out the door with the specific knowledge they have to deal with these products and the problems at hand. Most of the employees sign the agreements, and most employees work their butts off figuring out how best to get us out of the mess. The problem is that we did not know how bad the mess was and the economy continues to unravel, which exascerbates the problems.
