Liberty and Justice for All!

My mom once taught me that you should never give in to whining children. When you so so, you teach them the lesson that they will always be able to get what they want if they whine enough.

The people protesting against the building of the Cultural Center two blocks away from “ground zero” are acting like spoiled childish whining babies. The absolute worst thing that we could do is give in to them and allow them to get their way. That will just encourage them to continue to act that way. For their own good, we need to ignore the whining babies.

Here is a map of the site of the proposed Cordoba House. (Not a mosque, but a cultural center that will include a place to pray.)

Here is a map of an existing Mosque in New York City.  It is called Masjid Manhattan.

Notice something? Masjid Manhattan is 2 blocks away from the site of the proposed Cordoba House. Now, if you oppose the building of the Cordoba House now that you know that an existing mosque is just two blocks away… I really have to question your intelligence.

The punditry commenting about these investigations into Waters and Rangel are all backwards and crazy on what party should be suffering by this.

See, when Tom Delay had his ethics scandal, the Republicans voted to weaken ethics rules to protect Delay. Our Governor, Bobby Jindal, was one of those Republicans who voted to weaken those House ethics standards.

When Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters are accused of unethical behavior, the Democrats bring ethical charges forward and pursue them.

If the DNC, Obama, and anyone else on the left had proper wordsmiths, they would be showing the differences between the parties and how they react when one of their own is accused of ethical problems.

Those Democrats and/or Liberals who do not embrace these ethics investigations, and who instead claim that there is some sort of racist witch hunt going on, are really missing the boat.

There was a lot of campaigning going on by members of the left who wanted to make sure that Fox News did not get the seat previously held by Helen Thomas. They wanted NPR to get the seat.

They partially succeeded because the AP moved to that seat from their previous front row position. However, Fox News then got the old AP seat that is in the front row.

Now, some liberals may wonder what is going on with this and why the White House would reward Fox News for their biased “journalism”. I have no problem with Fox getting the seat and here is why. By putting them closer and perhaps giving them more of an opportunity to ask questions because they are in the front row, the White House is giving Fox News just enough rope to hang themselves.

There is a fight in Congress about extending unemployment compensation. While I have blogged about this before, the absolute morons at the Heritage Foundation are at it again, suggesting that extending unemployment benefits extends the time that people are unemployed.

Unemployment benefits are typically extended in a bad economy. It seems obvious to me that in a bad economy, jobs would be harder to come by. So the need to extend benefits would only exist in a time where jobs are harder to find and more people would be unemployed for longer periods of time.

Basically, the Heritage Foundation are suggesting that the cause of the longer durations of unemployment is the extension of unemployment benefits. It is extremely more likely that the cause of longer durations of unemployment would be the bad economy.

But as i said, common sense doesn’t seem to be very common any more.

Republican Senators have been holding up immigration reform because they clam that we cannot do that until we “secure the border”. I have a couple questions.

A) It is impossible to prove that everyone who is crossing the border is crossing legally. You cannot guarantee that the border is 100% secure. All you can do is set up security measures. What level of security measures will satisfy the Republican Party that we have a “secure border”?

B) When you say that you want the border secured, you seem to always talk about the border with Mexico. Do you think that people who cross the border with Canada less dangerous?

More importantly…

C)  WHY are we incapable of increasing troops and technology on the border in order to make it more secure WHILE we also put into place comprehensive immigration reform that deals with the millions of people who are already here? I mean, this is America. We are capable of doing anything we set our minds to. The idea that we cannot accomplish comprehensive border polices that include increased border security is both laughable and unAmerican.

Republican Senator John Boehner is against the moratorium. Although…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

One problem Senator Boehner… this pause you speak of IS WHAT THE MORATORIUM IS FOR!

Moron.

In a previous post I discussed the conspiracy theorists of the Birthers and Deathers and Passers. Now, the conservative right wingers are attacking President Obama for him not going to Arlington National Cemetery this year. Never mind that he went last year. Never mind that he is attending this year at Lincoln National Cemetery. Never mind that Joe Biden is attending this year in his place, just like Dan Quayle did for George H. W. Bush and Reagan’s DEPUTY Secretary of Defense did for him.

The Wreathers will not let those facts get in the way of their attacking this President on ever piece of faux outrage they can manufacture. Perhaps by the end of Obama’s first term we will have a wacko group for every letter of the alphabet.

Aliou Niasse, an immigrant from Senegal who happens to be a follower of Islam, was the first to notice the smoking car in Times Square and made sure it was reported to the police before anyone could get hurt.

To all those who are so willing to lump all of Islam in with terrorists, I hope you have learned your lesson.

Just sayin…

Louisiana AG Buddy Caldwell defended his reasoning for joining the previously all Republican attempt to overturn the new healthcare legislation via a lawsuit with the given excuse:

 As Attorney General, I am duty bound by my oath of office to pursue a request by the Governor of the state of Louisiana for legal assistance, so long as it has substantial legal merit. (emphasis mine)

Now, we could argue if the case actually has any legal merit (I doubt it) but that is not the point. As it has been explained in the media, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal allegedly threatened the AG with the loss of some staff positions if he did not comply with the Governor’s request that he join the lawsuit.

In a subsequent address to employees of his office, the Attorney General said the decision was made more out of the necessity of saving jobs in his agency than any real hope—or desire—of overturning the health care law.

One employee said Caldwell, in a candid admission, claimed that a deal was made with Jindal. Under terms of that agreement, the governor would not make additional cuts in the attorney general’s budget if Caldwell joined in the litigation. Caldwell agreed to be the “token Democrat,” he said, so that he might save additional job cuts by an administration whose state goal is to reduce the number of state employees by as much as 5,000 per year over three years.

 

Now, many are calling this a threat and others are calling it a bribe. You can argue the semantics of what it is all day but there is an important aspect of this that needs to be addressed.

The Louisiana Attorney General is an elected position.  As such, one would think that he would have the autonomy to pursue (or not pursue) whatever he felt was necessary in the course of his service to the State of Louisiana.

The Constitution of the State of Louisiana confirms this.

Section 8. There shall be a Department of Justice, headed by the attorney general, who shall be the chief legal officer of the state. The attorney general shall be elected for a term of four years at the state general election. The assistant attorneys general shall be appointed by the attorney general to serve at his pleasure.

As necessary for the assertion or protection of any right or interest of the state, the attorney general shall have authority (1) to institute, prosecute, or intervene in any civil action or proceeding; (2) upon the written request of a district attorney, to advise and assist in the prosecution of any criminal case; and (3) for cause, when authorized by the court which would have original jurisdiction and subject to judicial review, (a) to institute, prosecute, or intervene in any criminal action or proceeding, or (b) to supersede any attorney representing the state in any civil or criminal action.

The attorney general shall exercise other powers and perform other duties authorized by this constitution or by law.

There doesn’t seem to be any constitutional requirement for the AG to do the bidding of the Governor.

However, while the assistant attorney generals serve at the pleasure of the AG, other staff does not serve at his pleasure and those positions can (apparently) be eliminated when the Governor sees fit.

Apparently, Governor Jindal feels that staffing levels in the Department of Justice should be set  by how subservient the AG is willing to be when it comes to the demands of the Governor and not by the total money available in the state budget or the needs of the Attorney General to do his constitutionally mandated job.

This  leads me to question the autonomy that Caldwell, or any AG, will have under Bobby Jindal. If anybody in the Jindal Administration comes under scrutiny and needs to be investigated, will Caldwell do his duty and investigate the appropriate people and do his job? Or has Bobby Jindal effectively neutered the ability of the AG to investigate the political allies of Governor Jindal with the threat of departmental cuts if Jindal’s bidding is not done.

Jindal has now managed to turn the AG into his puppet while removing one more avenue to investigate the Governor’s office.

And to all the remaining Jindal apologists, how does manipulating the AG to do your bidding with the threat of reduced staffing levels fall under the “gold standard of ethics” promised by Governor Jindal?