Archive for the ‘public’ Category
Jamaican drug king’s father found fertile ground in 1980s Miami.
It was 1988 and Lester Lloyd Coke’s Shower Posse — a notorious Jamaican drug gang — was deep into gun and drug running. He was wanted in a South Florida courtroom to answer to murder and drug charges, but never made it to Miami to stand trial.
Now, two decades later, another Coke is accused of running the Shower Posse.
It’s Lester’s son, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, the man wanted for extradition by the U.S. on drug and weapons charges and the object of a manhunt that has touched off a bloody battle between Jamaican authorities and his supporters in Kingston. The government announced last week that the violence had claimed 73 lives.
“All of this old stuff is coming up again,” said Len Cartor, a former Miami-Dade police sergeant who worked in the department’s warrants bureau and arrested the father, also known as Jim Brown, in the 1980s.
Though the father has been dead for 22 years, there’s still a painting of him in Tivoli Gardens, where some of the fiercest fighting between government troops and gunmen loyal to Christopher Coke took place this week. It reads: “Legend Jim Brown, don of dons.”
The violence now erupting in Jamaica has its roots in 1980s Miami, when Jamaicans and Colombians were the soldiers in the cocaine wars, say those who worked to put them behind bars.
Under Lester Coke, the Shower Posse — so-named because it rained bullets down on rival gangs — was centered in Jamaica but its tentacles reached far into the United States.
“It seemed like Miami was their secondary base of operations,” said retired Miami-Dade police Sgt. Kevin Dougherty, who tracked Coke while working with MDPD’s Warrants Bureau.
Coke was well-known to Jamaican law enforcement and was an activist in the Jamaica Labour Party long before he was indicted in 1988 along with dozens of others by a federal grand jury.
“It was a whole gun running and drug running operation going up and down the East Coast,” said Andrew Reich, an assistant U.S. attorney who handled the case. “Coke was one of the lead players.”
Then, as now, the gangs enjoyed backing from political parties on the island.
“Tivoli Gardens residents looked to Jim Brown for leadership,” said David Rowe, who represented Vivian Blake, a Shower Posse leader indicted with Coke. “He was a well-known and notorious enforcer and that reputation followed him. He was always hounded by federal authorities when he was here. Once they became aware of the activities of the Shower Posse, Jim Brown was always under some degree of scrutiny.”
Rowe, who never met father or son, said there appears to be a difference in leadership styles between the two men.
“The father was a little more abrasive, prominent individual,” said the Jamaican-born Rowe, an adjunct law professor at the University of Miami and extradition expert. “The son is a better educated person, and he’s quiet.”
In the summer of 1985, a U.S. Marshals task force was out searching for dangerous fugitives in the Miami area. The Jamaican government had put out wanted fliers for Lester Coke, sought in the “mass murder” of 12 in May 1985 in Kingston. He was also sought in two other shootings.
That July 17, Doughtery got a tip that led authorities to a house in the Norland neighborhood in Northwest Miami–Dade County. A morning drive by the house revealed that a 5’10, 240-pound man believed to be Coke was inside.
The Special Response Team broke down the door and Coke, along with 10 others, was arrested on marijuana trafficking charges. Officers seized more than 100 pounds of marijuana.
“He was just a quiet guy,” Doughtery said. “He was in the company of some other really bad people. None of these `dons’ were ever overtly aggressive to us.”
The charges against Coke were later dropped after another man said the marijuana was his.
A year or two later, Coke ran into some of the very officers who arrested him. Doughtery was eating in The Ham & Eggery on 167th Street when in walked Coke.
Coke was personable, he said, and even posed for Polaroid pictures with the officers.
In 1987, Coke was deported back to Jamaica despite his efforts to remain in the U.S. Jamaican authorities had accused him of the 12 murders but later dismissed the charges.
On Sept. 28, 1988, Coke was indicted by the U.S. government along with 33 others accused of being members of a violent gang, described in a Herald article as the “largest and most powerful” of 40 Jamaican gangs.
The indictment, which spanned 1984 to 1986, said the gang was directed in Miami by Vivian Blake, now deceased, and from Jamaica by Coke. It blamed the gang for two murder cases in November of 1984, including a quintuple homicide.
It marked the first time the federal RICO law was used in an indictment against Jamaican gangs.
“The leaders of the Shower Posse were very entrepreneurial,” said Lee Stapleton, a former assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Blake after he was extradited. “They realized not only that Miami was a great staging area for their drug business, but it was a great market and a comfortable place for them to live.”
Coke died before he could return to the U.S. to face charges. He was awaiting extradition in 1992 when there was a fire in his cell block. Officials at the Kingston hospital where his body was taken said he suffered severe burns.
But the father’s legacy lives on in the son — and his alleged criminal enterprises.
“The `parent’ Shower Posse limited most of their violence to drug disputes within the organization and among competitors,” said Stapleton. “The progeny Shower Posse that `Dudus’ has has taken the violence further. . . . the second generation of the Shower Posse seems like the parent Shower Posse on steroids.”
Said Bruce Udolf, a former federal prosecutor who worked on the Coke case in the late 1980s: “They were a very deadly group. We had thought that they had been effectively dismantled. . . . It’s curious to see that there’s another generation out there operating under that same name.”
Miami Herald Staff Writer Jim Wyss, reporting from Kingston, contributed to this report.
The Miami Herald
Posted on Mon, May. 31, 2010
By JENNIFER LEBOVICH AND TRENTON DANIEL
jlebovich@MiamiHerald.com
Jamaican drug king’s father found fertile ground in 1980s Miami.
Read more:
http://vlemxkeepinformed.blogspot.com/2010/05/jamaican-drug-kings-father-found.html#ixzz0pY6xPkFN
United States Senator Mel Martinez answers my question on drilling
Thank you for contacting me regarding the expansion of domestic drilling in our nation. I appreciate hearing from you and would like to respond to your concerns.
The United States faces a fundamental need for increased domestic energy supply in the face of increased global demand to reduce energy prices. I share your concerns with the high price of fuel and its effects, particularly the unprecedented wealth reallocation resulting from our nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
I helped design the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (S. 3711), which was passed into law in 2006. This bill opened 8 million acres of the Outer Continental Shelf in the western Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas exploration while securing environmental protection for Florida’s beaches. Although this opened OCS area contains trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and millions of barrels of oil, no new production has begun. Production in this area is the most immediate option we have for a large-scale increase in domestic energy supply. We must take advantage of this available asset before considering expanding coastal drilling that may jeopardize our beaches.
In order to increase domestic energy supply, I have consistently supported an environmentally responsible approach for oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). I have also promoted coal-to-liquids technology, the development of cellulosic ethanol and other non-food-based renewable fuels, tax incentives for renewable energies, and the extraction of vast oil shale deposits in America’s West. To reduce demand, I have consistently supported increases in fuel efficiency standards and investment in mass transit. I am committed to both increasing domestic supply and decreasing domestic demand of energy in order to alleviate these factors that contribute to high fuel prices.
I am working closely with the Administration and my colleagues in the Senate to ensure that Florida’s voice is heard as we address the need for increased domestic energy supply. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any additional comments or questions. For more information about issues and activities important to Florida, please sign up for my weekly newsletter at http://martinez.senate.gov.
Sincerely,
Mel Martinez
United States Senator
Caller to the Rush Limbaugh Show, recounts meeting McCain-Palin
September 9, 2008
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Kurt in Pittsburgh, hello, sir. Nice to have you on the EIB Network, and how about the Steelers defense?
CALLER: How about those Steelers, huh?
RUSH: How about that?
CALLER: Hey, listen, Rush, longtime listener, first-time caller, one of those Bible, family, gun clingers from western Pennsylvania.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: And I wanted to share a story with you. A week ago last Saturday we went to the Palin-McCain rally in Washington, Pennsylvania, and we have a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and we made a sign that said: ‘We Love Kids with Down Syndrome.’ So when they pulled in in their bus the sign did catch their, McCain and Palin and the rest of their family, it caught their eye, we could tell, they gave us a thumbs-up from the bus, so we were all excited just by that –
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Who gave you the thumbs up, McCain and Palin?
CALLER: McCain, Palin, Cindy McCain, we could see them from the bus. We were in a position where we had eye contact with them –
RUSH: Oh, cool!
CALLER: My wife was holding our daughter.
RUSH: Very, very, very cool.
CALLER: It was really cool, Rush. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s awesome,’ because I love Governor Palin and so I thought that’s really neat. So then we moved around as the bus was getting ready to pull out, we kind of positioned ourselves so we could just wave them on and a Secret Service agent came up to us and said, ‘Hey, can you come with us?’ I was like, ‘Do we have a choice?’
RUSH: (laughing) You shouldn’t have worried. It’s not the Clinton administration.
CALLER: Right. So we accompanied them up the hill, we went right to the bus, where it was, and Governor Palin, Senator McCain, Cindy, Todd Palin, they’re all standing there. We’re in this inner circle with just us and them, and the Secret Service agent, and they came right up to us and thanked us for coming out, said they loved our sign, and Governor Palin immediately said, ‘May I hold your daughter?’ and our daughter Chloe, who’s five, went right to her, and I have some pictures I’d love to send you maybe when I’m done here, but Governor Palin was hugging Chloe, and then her little daughter brought their baby Trig who has Down syndrome from the bus, he was napping, and Chloe went right over and kissed him on the cheek, and my son Nolan who’s nine, he thanked her.
RUSH: This is amazing.
CALLER: I will send you all the stuff, Senator McCain was talking to my son, and we thanked him for his service, and he asked my son if he wanted to see the bus, and we were hanging out and it was very surreal. I felt like we could have had a pizza and a beer with them, they were so warm.
RUSH: You know what? I want to put you on hold. I want Snerdley to give you our super-secret, known-only-to-three-people here, e-mail address.
CALLER: I will send you everything, Rush.
RUSH: And then could you send us these pictures? Would you mind if we put them on the website?
CALLER: I would be honored, and my main thing is they are warm, kind, genuine people, and they represent the best of this country.
RUSH: That’s right. And when you send these pictures, make sure you identify them. I mean, we’ll know Palin and McCain, of course. Identify yourselves.
CALLER: I will, I will identify everybody in the picture, Rush, and God bless you for being a beacon of hope and truth in this country.
RUSH: Oh, no, no. It’s nothing, it’s nothing. You’re doing the Lord’s work.
CALLER: Well, we’re very blessed and I want people to know what a blessing it is to have a child with Down syndrome. These kids, they’re angels.
RUSH: That’s the thing. There’s always good to be found in everything that happens. It may be a while before it reveals itself.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Right, and when she hugged my daughter I said, here’s the difference, this candidate embraces life and all its limitless possibilities.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: That’s what she is.
RUSH: Terrific, okay, I gotta run here, but I’m going to put you on hold.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you, Kurt. I really appreciate it.
END TRANSCRIPT
McCain a Bush clone? These numbers dispute that
John R. Lott Jr. is a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland
Does John McCain represent a third Bush term? The Obama campaign claims the two are almost indistinguishable. It was the mantra during the Democratic convention, and it is the theme of new ads Barack Obama is running. The ads claim that McCain is “no maverick when he votes with Bush 90 percent of the time.”
This week Obama has begun a constant refrain that there is “not a dime worth of difference” between Bush’s and McCain’s views. It is a consistent theme of Democratic pundits on talk shows.
Is this the same McCain who drove Republicans nuts on campaign finance, the environment, taxes, torture, immigration and more? Where has McCain not crossed swords with his own party?
As it’s being used, the 90 percent figure, from Congressional Quarterly, is nonsensical. As Washington Post congressional reporter Jonathan Weisman explained, “The vast majority of those votes are procedural, and virtually every member of Congress votes with his or her leadership on procedural motions.”
Obama might want to be a little careful with these attacks, as the same measure has him voting with Democrats 97 percent of the time.
Fortunately, a number of organizations on the left and right provide useful evaluations on how congressmen and senators vote each year. These conservative and liberal groups pick the votes they care about most and figure out how often lawmakers match up with their positions.
Well-known organizations that rank congressional voting include the American Conservative Union on the right, Americans for Democratic Action on the left, and the nonpartisan National Journal in the middle. The League of Conservation Voters also ranks politicians from an environmentalist position.
These groups’ rankings from 2001 to 2007 paint fairly similar pictures, putting McCain to the left of most Republican senators and to the right of most Democratic senators – though usually much closer to the average Republican.
The American Conservative Union finds that the average Republican senator voted conservatively 85 percent of the time, and that the average Democrat voted conservatively 13 percent of the time. McCain voted conservatively 74 percent of the time.
Although it’s at the opposite end of the political spectrum, Americans for Democratic Action essentially agreed. It found that the average Republican senator voted liberally just over 12 percent of the time, and the average Democrat voted liberally 89 percent of the time. McCain voted liberally 24 percent of the time – twice as frequently as the average Republican.
McCain missed too many votes campaigning in 2007 to be included in the National Journal ranking for that year, but it found that he voted conservatively 59.4 percent of the time from 2001 to 2006.
According to the League of Conservation Voters, John McCain is the ultimate centrist. While the average Republican supported liberal environmentalist positions 13 percent of the time, and the average Democrat supported them 76 percent of the time, McCain’s 44 percent put him in the middle.
Another way to look at these numbers is to see how many of the 99 other senators voted more conservatively than McCain. In 2006, these four groups ranked McCain as the 47th, 46th, 44th and 51st most conservative member of the Senate, respectively. Surely, McCain is not nearly as liberal as the typical Democratic senator, but rankings from the left, middle and right find he is more liberal than the vast majority of Republicans in the Senate.
What issues put McCain well to the left of the average Senate Republican? The American Conservative Union lists a number of specific votes on which he differed from most other Republicans, including:
Taxes. He opposed reducing capital-gains tax rates, eliminating the inheritance tax and lowering income-tax rates.
Environment. He opposed drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, supported compliance with the Kyoto global-warming treaty, supported requiring businesses to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, favored stricter mercury-emission rules for power plants, and supported stricter fuel-efficiency standards.
Other regulations. McCain consistently supported stricter campaign-finance regulations and voted to mandate that handguns be sold only with locks.
A number of these votes were closely contested. Some of McCain’s votes led to a 50-50 deadlock in the Senate, requiring Vice President Cheney to break the tie.
In contrast to the very liberal ratings given to Obama, the interest groups find that there are about as many senators to McCain’s right as there are to his left. This might not endear him to many conservatives or liberals. But it is a real distortion to claim he is a Bush clone.
E-mail John R. Lott Jr. at jlott@umd.edu.
America in a Romanian Newspaper
We rarely get a chance to see another country’s editorial about the USA .
Read this excerpt from a Romanian Newspaper. The article was written by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title ‘C’ntarea Americii, meaning ‘Ode To America ‘) in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentulzilei ‘The Daily Event’ or ‘News of the Day’
~An Ode to America ~
Why are Americans so united? They would not resemble one another even if you painted them all one color! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations and religious beliefs.
Still, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart.
Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the Army, or the Secret Service that they are only a bunch of losers.
Nobody rushe d to empty their bank accounts.
Nobody rushed out onto the streets nearby to gape about
Instead the Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand.
After the first moments of panic, they raised their flag over the smoking ruins, p utting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in ev ery place and on every car a governmen t official or the president was passing. On every occasion, they started singing:’God Bless America !’
I watched the live broadcast and rerun after rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who gave his life fighting with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that could have kill ed other hundreds or thousands of people.
How on earth were they able to respond united as one human being? Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put into collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which no money can buy.
What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way?
Their land? Their history? Their economic Power? Money?
I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace, I thought things over, I reached but only one conclusion… Only freedom can work such miracles.
Cornel Nistorescu
Report: Murder Suspect Was Protected By SF Sanctuary Policy
Presidential Elections 2008
Arab-American Activist Says Obama Hiding Anti-Israel Stance – Politics & Government – Israel News – Arutz Sheva
Obama: ‘Outrageously wrong’ to reprint Hamas manifesto
OBAMA
“On one end of the spectrum, weve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that its based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, weve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as Im sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.”
Now after everyone has either read or heard this speech, this writer has drawn a conclusion.
On March 18, 2008 Mr. Obama said the following to Major Garrett on FNC:
Garrett: I want to ask you a set of basic, sort of threshold questions about your faith experience at Trinity United Church of Christ because I think they will help Americans understand the story. So, the first question: How long have you been a member in good standing of that church?
Obama: You know, I’ve been a member since 1991 or ’92, and… but I’d known Trinity even before then when I was a community organizer on the south side helping steelworkers find jobs, and we were organizing with churches and trying to recruit folks to get involved in that process. Trinity was one of the churches that we tried to get involved in some of these community projects.
Garrett: As a member in good standing, were you a regular attendee of Sunday services?
Obama: I won’t say that I was a perfect attendee. I was regular in spurts because there were times where… For example, our child had just been born, our first child, and so we didn’t go as regularly then.
Garrett: When you attended, sir, when you attended did you donate frequently?
Obama: Yes.
Garrett: OK. Were you and Michelle married there and did Rev. Wright preside?
Obama: Yes.
Garrett: Were your two daughters baptized there and did Rev. Wright preside over the baptisms?
Obama: That is correct, Major.
Garrett establishes that Obama has a long, close connection with Wright and his church.
Wright and that church is an integral part of the lives of Obama and his family.
Obama gave money to support Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ.
Garrett: Very good. I wanted to talk to you about your statement released this afternoon because earlier today when I contacted your campaign and I asked them if there was any way the campaign felt the need to add further context, add further distance between yourself and the statements of Rev. Wright, the one word answer I received was ‘No.’
Then late this afternoon, you have a statement that says, ‘I vehemently disagree,’ ‘strongly condemn.’ I’m trying to understand the evolution between this morning and this afternoon. I’d like to know specifically, Senator, what you vehemently disagree with and what you strongly condemn.
Obama: Well, Major, I gotta confess that as you know I was voting in the Senate all day yesterday, so I wasn’t following this story as carefully as I could have been and then I flew back to Chicago. When I saw these statments, many of which I had heard for the first time, then I thought it was important to make a very clear and unequivocal statement.
None of these statements were ones that I had heard myself personally in the pews. One of them I had heard about after I had started running for president and I put out a statement at that time condemning them.
The other statements were ones that I just heard about while we were… when they started being run on FOX and some of the other stations. And so they weren’t things that I was familiar with. Once I saw them I had to be very clear about the fact that these are not statements that I am comfortable with. I reject them completely. They are not ones that reflect my values or my ideals, or Michelle’s; and that had I heard them, had I been sitting in the church at the time that they were spoken, I would have been absolutely clear to Rev. Wright that I didn’t find those acceptable.
The excuses are priceless.
Obama saying that he was voting all day on Thursday so he didn’t know about this is an absolute joke.
It’s impossible to believe that he didn’t know there was a controversy. It’s inconceivable.
It is conceivable that Obama is lying and doing a bad job of it.
I think it’s interesting that Obama says Wright’s statements don’t reflect his values and they don’t reflect Michelle’s values. Obama went out of his way to do damage control for Michelle. That was no accident.
Wright and Michelle sound like they’re on the exact same page, divisive and angry and down on America.
Garrett: Sir, would you have quit the church had you heard them personally?
Obama: You know, I guess, keep in mind that just to provide more context, this is somebody who I’d known for 20 years. Pastor Wright had been a pastor for 30 years. He’s an ex-Marine. He is somebody who is a Biblical scholar, has spoken at theological seminaries all across the country from the University of Chicago to Hampton. And so he is a well-regarded preacher, and somebody who is known for talking about the social gospel.
But most of the time when I’m in church, he’s talking about Jesus, God, faith, values, caring for the poor, family. Those were the messages that I was hearing. And so, you know, I think that the statements that have been strung together are compiled out of hundreds of sermons that he delivered over the course his lifetime. But, obviously, they are ones that are, from my perspective, completely unacceptable and inexcusable.
And if I had thought that was the tenor or tone on an ongoing basis of his sermons, then yes, I don’t think that it would’ve been reflective of my values or my faith experience.
Obama says, “Most of the time when I’m in church, he’s talking about Jesus, God, faith….”
“Most of the time”? What about the rest of the time? What has Obama heard Wright say?
Obama points out that Wright is an ex-Marine. How lame!
That doesn’t matter. Wright spews hate. He’s divisive and racist and says outrageous things about America.
Who cares that he’s an ex-Marine? That doesn’t give him a pass to preach such ugliness. Given Wright’s remarks, it’s hard to imagine that he was a Marine and served our country.
Obama notes that Wright is a Biblical scholar. Really? He must be a bad one. The things Wright says don’t sound very Christian. He sounds like he’s trying to incite a riot.
On what planet is the hateful Wright a “well-regarded preacher”?
He talks about Jesus and the poor. Fine. He also talks about God “damning” America.
Garrett: So quick yes or no, if you had heard them in person you would have quit.
Obama: If I had heard them repeated, I would’ve quit. I mean obviously, understand that, understand that, this is somebody who is like an uncle, if you have…, to me. He’s somebody who helped me find Christ. And somebody who always talked to me in very powerful ways about relationship to God and our obligations to the poor. If somebody makes a mistake, then obviously, you recognize I make mistakes. We all make mistakes. If I thought that that was the repeated tenor of the church then I wouldn’t feel comfortable there, but frankly that has not been my experience at Trinity United Church of Christ.
The old uncle stuff again — good grief.
We know the tenor of the Trinity United Church of Christ.
We also know that Obama has felt comfortable there for 20 years.
Garrett: In the time we have remaining, you said that in your statement today, ‘When I first heard these I was beginning my campaign,’ yet you did not begin your campaign on December 4, 2007, when in a press release your campaign announced that Rev. Wright was a part of a, quote unquote, African-American religious leadership committee. I’d like you to try to help me understand the inconsistency there, because obviously if you knew about them at the beginning of your campaign and you put him on this committee later you would have been aware.
Obama: No, no. Wait, wait, Major. I didn’t know about all these statements. I knew about one or two statements that had been made and as a consequence, as I said, if it was just a function of one or two statements, then that’s not something that would lead me to distance myself from either my church or my pastor. And if I was gonna have a committee talking about faith issues, which we’ve been very active in doing all across the country, reaching out to evangelicals and talking to the church communities all across the country, it would not make sense if my own pastor wasn’t on that committee.
——– Now I will keep to this statement:
“None of these statements were ones that I had heard myself personally in the pews. One of them I had heard about after I had started running for president and I put out a statement at that time condemning them.” Says Obama
This writer’s conclusion is that Obama is a liar throughout his statement.
And that we should only vote for him because he is black. Thereby stopping or putting to an end the racism he sees in America.
David A. Paterson
Did you know:
Is legally blind,
The first non-white legislative leader in New York’s history,
New York’s first African-American lieutenant governor.
Paterson is a proponent of embryonic stem cell research.
In February 2008, a U.S. District Judge denied a motion to dismiss a $1.5 million racial discrimination lawsuit naming Paterson. A former staff photographer claims that in 2005 Paterson’s office replaced him with an African American because he is white. According to the New York Post, Paterson’s chief of staff “denied the claim… Paterson, in his deposition, countered that the decision… was simple politics – [the photographer] was a holdover from former Minority Leader Marty Connor, who was ousted by Paterson in 2003
What a world!
‘Dream Ticket’ Is Anything But For Principals
Plainly irritated by the suggestion that he might need, or accept, a favor from his rival, Obama said Monday, “I don’t know how somebody who’s in second place (in delegates and popular votes) is offering the vice presidency to somebody who’s in first place.”
Send them both back to the Senate!
Soft Power
Election ’08: A radical foreign-policy adviser to Barack Obama — flushed from the shadows after calling Hillary a name — speaks volumes about her enigmatic boss and his worldview.
Samantha J. Power, a Harvard professor and author, was in line to be Obama’s national security adviser or secretary of state before calling Clinton a ruthless “monster.” The “gaffe” led to her resignation from his campaign. While she may be gone (for now), her ideas have left an indelible imprint on Obama.
Obama can pick them.
Power, like Obama, believes America will be more secure in the world and face fewer threats if it practices “human security.” Voters should be warned: That means turning the war on terror into global social work.
The Al-Qaida Caucus
Obama, whose foreign policy consists of talking to our enemies while bombing our allies, told the assembled veterans at the VFW Convention in Kansas City last year, “All our top military commanders recognize that there is no military solution in Iraq.”
Except, of course, for Gen. David Petraeus.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=290041110746868
Iran fomenting violence in Iraq, U.S. says – Los Angeles Times
Thought of the day
Islam spelled backwards is Malsi=Mal = Evil in Latin, Spanish, and a couple other languages.
si=yes in spanish
Coincidence – House Democrats Get Letters With Picture Of Recruiting Station Before New York Bombing : Homeland Security National Terror Alert – Homeland Security News
Radio host Michael Savage’s suit against Islamic group in court
Breitbart.tv » ‘Why Are You So Angry?’: McCain Gets Testy Over NYT Reporter’s Inquiry
Breitbart.tv » ‘Why Are You So Angry?’: McCain Gets Testy Over NYT Reporter’s Inquiry
Not angry but right!
Local girl makes unexpected appearance in Hillary ad | Top Stories | KING5.com | News for Seattle, Washington
Hugo Chavez?
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Would you believe it if we told you that the U.S. House of Representatives voted to raise the price you pay for gasoline at the pump and — at the same time — give a huge tax break to that America-hating dictator Hugo Chavez?
In common parlance, we call that a “twofer” and as unbelievable as it may sound, Pelosi and company have yet again proved that they have never met a socialist tyrannical despot that they did not like! Here’s what happened.
Investor’s Business Daily put it this way in an editorial on Friday titled, “Tax Cut for Hugo:” “It goes to show that Congress is more willing to empower dictators than to get serious about America’s energy supply.” You remember Hugo Chavez. He’s the mouth-foaming dictator of Venezuela who came to New York City not too long ago and called the President of the United States “El Diablo” (Translation: “The Devil”). Here’s exactly what he said when speaking at the United Nations: “And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here. [performs the sign of the cross] And it smells of sulfur still today.” “Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the President of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world. “I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday’s statement made by the President of the United States. As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world .” [Emphasis Mine] And Pelosi and company have basically bestowed favor upon this anti-American dictator and they’re bestowing this favor on the backs of American businesses and average American taxpayers like you and me. We must act quickly… and act together… to stop this ridiculous legislation before Pelosi’s liberal colleagues try to sneak it through the Senate. Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent and personalized 50 Blast Fax messages to President George W. Bush and the 49 Republican Members of the United States Senate. Tell them in no uncertain terms that the American people do NOT want tax breaks to go into the greasy pockets of that tyrannical America-hating despot Hugo Chavez. Time is of the essence because Pelosi’s liberal allies and fellow travelers in the Senate may try to fast-track this bill to avoid a filibuster. http://www.cfiflistmanager.org/hugotaxbreakbe.html AOL Members Use This Hyperlink If the above hyperlink does not appear to function you can copy and paste it into the address bar of your browser.
There Is Not A Moment To Lose! Monisha Bansal of CNS News tells us: “Senate Democratic leaders have indicated they would fast-track the bill to try to avoid a Republican filibuster.” That’s why there’s not a moment to lose!
Here’s a short biography of Hugo Chavez:
Once in office, he began the systematic repression of any and all opposition.
Most recently Chavez launched a referendum that would have allowed him to remain Dictator for life. Chavez is also wildly anti-Semitic and frequently unleashes hysterical diatribes against Israel and the Jewish people. He even disturbs the New York Times, which once hailed Fidel Castro’s ascension as a triumph of democracy and agrarian reform.
And perhaps for something even much more chilling… Read on.
Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent and personalized 50 Blast Fax messages to President George W. Bush and the 49 Republican Members of the United States Senate. Tell them in no uncertain terms that the American people do NOT want tax breaks to go into the greasy pockets of that tyrannical America-hating despot Hugo Chavez. Time is of the essence because Pelosi’s liberal allies and fellow travelers in the Senate may try to fast-track this bill to avoid a filibuster. http://www.cfiflistmanager.org/hugotaxbreakbe.html AOL Members Use This Hyperlink
If the above hyperlink does not appear to function you can copy and paste it into the address bar of your browser. But That’s Not The Worst Part… If liberals in Congress were living under the idiotic delusion that Chavez was a benign figure when they passed this legislation, they could hardly maintain that delusion after Monday’s news.
For more than 40 years, Colombia’s legitimate government has been fighting a group calling itself the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) — the military arm of the Colombian Communist Party.
On Saturday, Colombian military forces pursued FARC’s second in command, Raul Reyes, into Ecuador and killed him and at least 16 of his men — the biggest defeat in FARC’s history.
He strutted and postured before the press, sounding just like what he is — a banana-Republic dictator — a character out of a Hollywood farce. On Sunday, during his weekly radio address he bellowed: “Mr. Defense Minister, move 10 battalions to the border with Colombia for me, immediately — tank battalions. Deploy the air force. We don’t want war, but we aren’t going to permit the U.S. empire, which is the master [of Colombia] … to come divide us.” [Emphasis Mine] Addressing the president of Columbia he said: “This could be the start of a war in South America. If it occurs to you to do this in Venezuela, President Uribe, I’ll send some Sukhois.” [warplanes the Russians recently sold to Chavez] Now you might be tempted to laugh at this posturing, but there’s more to this story.
By Monday evening, TV networks were carrying a more disturbing story: Columbian’s had captured documents revealing that Hugo Chavez had given FARC $300 million. Question: Where would the dictator of a starving country get that kind of money? Answer: Oil revenues. Now you see why Pelosi and company’s H.R. 5351 is a betrayal of our country and why it has to be stopped! You have the power to stop this bill in the Senate RIGHT NOW!
Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent and personalized 50 Blast Fax messages to President George W. Bush and the 49 Republican Members of the United States Senate. Tell them in no uncertain terms that the American people do NOT want tax breaks to go into the greasy pockets of that tyrannical America-hating despot Hugo Chavez. Time is of the essence because Pelosi’s liberal allies and fellow travelers in the Senate may try to fast-track this bill to avoid a filibuster. http://www.cfiflistmanager.org/hugotaxbreakbe.html AOL Members Use This Hyperlink If the above hyperlink does not appear to function you can copy and paste it into the address bar of your browser. Some Leaders Are Disgusted. At least some Republican leaders are disgusted by Pelosi and company’s willingness to pass a law guaranteed to feed both inflation at the pump and Hugo Chavez’s appetite for power. House Minority Leader John Boehner said: “Middle-class families and small businesses are feeling the squeeze from rising costs for gasoline, food, and other costs of living…” “[H.R. 5351] actually carves out tax breaks for Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez — courtesy of American taxpayers. This is unacceptable, and the Democratic leadership is irresponsible for bringing the bill to the House floor. “I am disappointed that the Majority voted down a Republican proposal to eliminate the tax relief for Hugo Chavez and give it to those who need it most: middle-class American families.” This bill is a giant step in the wrong direction; and as an extra twist of the knife, Pelosi and Company are deliberately trying to give Chavez a big edge and are making hard-working U.S. taxpayers foot the bill. If we don’t kill this bill, it may cost us more than the tax revenues Pelosi and her colleagues will spend on boondoggles and pork before the lightning bugs show up this summer. The Senate may take up this bill at any time. You and I can beat this obscene legislation — if we act immediately. Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent and personalized 50 Blast Fax messages to President George W. Bush and the 49 Republican Members of the United States Senate. Tell them in no uncertain terms that the American people do NOT want tax breaks to go into the greasy pockets of that tyrannical America-hating despot Hugo Chavez. Time is of the essence because Pelosi’s liberal allies and fellow travelers in the Senate may try to fast-track this bill to avoid a filibuster. http://www.cfiflistmanager.org/hugotaxbreakbe.html AOL Members Use This Hyperlink If the above hyperlink does not appear to function you can copy and paste it into the address bar of your browser.
Yours In Freedom,
Jeff Mazzella P.S. Please help us reach as many concerned Americans as possible by forwarding this e-mail to at least 10 of your friends and family members. The CFIF Action Alert is a service to the conservative community. If you would like to subscribe please go to www.cfif.org/signup. Center for Individual Freedom CFIF is a 501(c)(4) not-for-profit constitutional advocacy organization with Contributions to CFIF are Powered by GrassTopsUSA Please read: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h5351/show Revises tax rules relating to foreign oil and gas extraction income and foreign produced fuel used or sold outside the United States.
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Jackson: Trailblazer, not Obama’s mentor – Yahoo! News
Did you Know?
Obama And FARC
Terrorism: The March 1 death strike by the Colombian army against FARC warlord Raul Reyes broke open a trove of contacts in his computer. So why did the name of Barack Obama turn up there?
Admittedly, it pales compared with other material from the dead thug’s computer — such as FARC efforts to obtain uranium or Hugo Chavez’s $300 million support.
But the little Obama reference within the 15 FARC letters released by the Colombian government signals a disturbing pattern of contacts with rogue actors. It’s not the first time, and Obama has yet to distance himself.
In a Feb. 28 letter, FARC chieftain Raul Reyes cheerily reported to his inner circle that he met “two gringos” who assured him “the new president of their country will be Obama and that they are interested in your compatriots. Obama will not support ‘Plan Colombia’ nor will he sign the TLC (Free Trade Agreement).”
Aside from some interesting possibilities about who these “gringos” are — a congressional delegation did visit Ecuador and an international leftist “congress” was held in Quito around this time — the real question is why anyone secretly consorting with FARC would be able to speak for presidential candidate Obama.
Obama hasn’t said a whole lot about Colombia other than to criticize President Bush’s good relations with President Uribe. With this correspondence suggesting that FARC knows what he thinks, maybe the American voters have a right to know what he thinks, too. Five questions come to mind:
1. Is it true Obama would cut off Plan Colombia military aid to our ally, which would serve the terrorist group FARC’s interests?
2. Does Obama still oppose a free trade agreement for Colombia, even though that puts him on the same side as FARC in the debate?
3. Does Obama know or care that one of his staffers or supporters is claiming to disclose his positions in secret meetings with FARC terrorists outside government channels?
4. Can he tell us why his supporters would pass on such information to terrorists, and what he or she could gain from it?
5. Will Obama, as president, treat FARC as the serious terrorists they are, given that they still hold three Americans hostage?
These aren’t idle “gotcha” questions, by the way. Based on his campaign so far, Obama favors meeting and negotiating with rogue leaders without preconditions, passing secret messages to foreign countries at odds with his public positions and tolerating Che-flag wielding leftists among his supporters who advance a radical agenda in his name.
Now that FARC seems to have an inside line to Obama’s campaign, maybe he ought to come tell voters what he really stands for.
Now you don’t have to believe me–look it up yourself:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-&p=obama%20%2b%20farc&type=
Barack Obama routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the racially-charged South Carolina primary
What does this mean.
Does not this election remind you of 1968—Radicals against society.
About half the voters were black, according to polling place interviews, and four out of five of them supported Obama. Black women turned out in particularly large numbers.
All I heard in his victory speech was, more and more taxes for a more and more entitlement society. Run away from Iraq and let everyone in this country who gets here. Anyone who makes money will be more heavily taxed. and the U.S.A. should be more like a third world country.
Elect someone with no experience. Elect someone because he is black.
This writer believes this could happen. Face it, blacks will vote for him, minorities will vote for him and whites will vote for him because we had enough and “white Guilt”.
The Obama campaign has taken advantage of our so called societal problems.
We should not be concern with our economy, the war, extremist or anything else.
Just vote Obama to say you are politically correct.
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First Lady Of Gaffes
Election ’08: After revealing she had never been “really proud of my country,” Michelle Obama damns business as “the money-making industry.” By contrast, she says, the Obamas are in “the helping industry.” Bad omen.
Visiting a day-care center in Zanesville, Ohio, America’s would-be first lady advised the assembled women not to “go into corporate America.”
“Become teachers,” she counseled. “Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the moneymaking industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.”
No disrespect to teachers and nurses, but there are problems with those remarks.
First, when she says “move out of the moneymaking industry into the helping industry,” she speaks volumes. Apparently, well-paid people in all kinds of profitable fields are, in the Obama worldview, just idle, scheming splinter-collectors who help only themselves.
On the other hand, the social workers who make sure the cash flows from the various elements of the massive government bureaucracy are the great and noble helpers.
However, the oil CEO who invests billions of dollars of his firm’s profits in the research and development of new technologies that bring hitherto unreachable deposits of fuel to the cars and homes of millions of Americans is very much in “the helping industry.”
So is the pharmaceutical executive who uses her business skills and scientific knowledge to decide to spend billions on R&D for new drugs that lengthen the lives of millions.
The real, productive jobs in the private sector help people in ways government can’t. A president who does not understand these things will kill the geese who lay the golden eggs — kill them with high taxes and onerous regulations and ultimately adverse economic conditions.
Second, did the Obamas really make a tough choice to give up high-paying jobs to work in community service? The University of Chicago Medical Center reportedly pays Michelle more than $300,000 a year for her services as “vice president of community and external affairs.”
Her husband made a big splash last year with a bill to curtail lavish executive compensation. If he could incorporate that concept into his health care plan and stop hospitals from overpaying their public liaisons, it might go a long way toward cutting health costs.
We doubt, however, that Michelle would find that very “helpful.”
