Police Officers Involved in Capital Shooting Are On Duty But Not Being Paid Due to Shutdown: This is WRONG!

The police officers involved in the shooting of a woman who used her car to attack them were on duty, but are not being paid either their wages or hazard pay due to the shutdown of the government.

Those officers are out there risking their lives to protect the Capitol, but that isn’t enough to get paid for their trouble??!   This insanity must end, and Congress owes these brave police officers an apology and back pay for the hours that they’re continuing to work.  And get shot at, and run over by insane people.

Those who refuse to negotiate to do the business of the American people are unfit to serve in Congress or as the President.  Shame on all our politicians, who are continuing to get paid to DO NOTHING!

Federal Treatment of World War II Veterans During Shutdown is DISGRACEFUL: WWII Monument is in Open Air and Should Be Accessible 24/7/365, Regardless of Whether the Government is Open or Not

The government should be ashamed of themselves, erecting barriers around open-air monuments in Washington during the shutdown, especially the World War II memorial. The government shouldn’t get in the way of our veterans paying what could be their final respects to their fallen comrades. 

Most of our surviving World War II veterans are in their 80s and 90s.  It is predicted that all of our veterans from that era will be gone by 2020.  This is no way to treat veterans who simply want to pay their respects at a memorial dedicated to their service, and to their fellow Americans who did not return.

If it was inside a building that required federal workers to be on site, that would be one thing.  But this is outside, where anyone can walk up to it.   It’s RIDICULOUS to erect barricades around them.

The federal government should remove the barricades immediately and welcome our veterans with open arms to a memorial dedicated to their courage and sacrifices, not arrest them for storming a barricade that shouldn’t be there in the first place.

Congressional Pay Should Be Cut Along With the Federal Workers They’ve Laid Off: This is Not Right

Congress is continuing to receive their pay, while many other federal workers are going without pay due to the shutdown of the Federal government.

This isn’t right.  

Congress should face the same financial pain that tens of thousands of others who work for the federal government are currently facing and have their own pay cut, with a possibility of not receiving back pay, like everybody else.

There’s a photo going around on Facebook that addresses this issue in the form of a proposed Constitutional amendment. 

It  reads: “Amendment 28—Congress shall pass no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators or Representatives, and Congress shall pass no law that applies to the Senators or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.”

That’s a GREAT idea.  We’d get more laws that make sense, with no exemptions for Congress.  They wouldn’t be so gung-ho to pass idiotic laws that they are not subject to.  Perhaps we should consider it.

GOP Keeps Moving the Goal Post: One Year Delay of Obamacare is the Latest New Demand in Confusing Series of Twists and Turns

I’m really disappointed with the current Republican party strategy of trying to deal with Obamacare.

They do not have a consistent message about what their goals are.  Are they trying to delay it, overturn it, or something else?  They need to pick their spot, and fight for it, and make their message about their fight clear to the American public.

Now, on the debt ceiling, I wish Congress would just raise it and pay closer attention to the current funding bills which make the debt ceiling debates necessary.  If Congress has a problem with the debt ceiling, they should spend less on pork and make cuts above and beyond sequester levels to the next budget.  That will make future debt ceiling fights in the federal government unnecessary as they’ll have room to maneuver while continuing to pay for what they voted on already.

On the federal government shutdown, the Senate took 1,372 DAYS to pass a budget, so that tells you how quickly Congress moves on passing a budget of ANY kind.   The government should learn to do more with less.  And the possibility of not paying soldiers on time who are fighting in the mountains of Afghanistan?  SHAMEFUL!

Congress needs to get its act together and vote its way out of this mess, or we’ll vote them out of office.  And President Obama needs to start negotiating and compromising on stuff.  President Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neal did.  So did President Clinton and Speaker Gingrich.   Why can’t our current President and current Speaker?  Both sides need to tone it down.

Less Blame on the Shotgun, and More on the Shooter

I came home to news that the madman who shot up the Navy Shipyard in Washington used a Remington Model 870 in his killing spree.

The media is treating the shotgun like it’s the most powerful shotgun ever created, and spent way too much time analyzing how many shells it holds.  I couldn’t help but notice that the media chose to run with pictures of the tactical model of the 870 because it’s scary looking.  Since the shotgun was introduced in 1951, there have been HUNDREDS of variations of this shotgun, in multiple configurations.  There are civilian, police and military models currently in use.

Knock it off, you media idiots!  I use a Remington Model 870 to hunt with.  It’s a nice  hunting shotgun.

The shooter at the Navy yard is 100% to blame, not the shotgun.  He turned it on his fellow human beings, then stole the guns of his victims to continue his killing spree against his former employers. 

We have to understand that if he didn’t have this particular model available, he could have legally bought another type of firearm to carry out his attack.   I’m following my customary rule and not naming the SOB.  He’ll get no free publicity and name recognition here.

Russian Leadership’s Self-Esteem is So Low That They Have to Attack Others to Make Themselves Feel Better: PATHETIC!

Vladimir Putin and one of his firebrand supporters have been attacking Americans over feelings of exceptionalism, and there’s a reason for it.

It’s because their self-esteem is so low that the only way that they can feel better about themselves is if they attack the good in others.  There’s a term to describe this bully behavior: PATHETIC!

What’s more, President Putin’s former bosses instilled the sense of low to no self esteem in Russians and Soviet citizens for decades.   If Russians want to feel better, they should vote his butt out of office, as well as his other KGB lackeys.

The main difference between us and Russia is that in the U.S., we send crooks and corrupt politicians to jail.  In Russia, the crooks and corrupt politicians come to power and lock up the innocent and anyone who disagrees with their government’s point of view. 

Compared to Russia in those terms, are we exceptional?  Heck yes! 

President Putin should keep his opinions to himself

When was the last time we had a president do the kind of RIDICULOUS publicity stunts like President Putin has?  That’s another point…by staging these stunts, President Putin appears to be setting himself up as an exceptional leader, doesn’t it?   That would make Putin a hypocrite too, which is old news to us. 

That’s all the attention that I’m paying to Russian remarks on exceptionalism.  They have no leg to stand on, thanks to people like Vladimir Putin.

Syrian Rebels Are Slaughtering Syrian Christians: President Obama Wants to Turn the Tide of Battle in the Favor of These People?

Syrian rebels are attacking Syrian Christians in a blatant attempt to wipe Christianity out in Syria, under the guise of fighting the Syrian government.  This is more proof that Islam IS fighting a war against Christianity, while they accuse Christians of waging war on helpless Islam.  Hypocrites!

Under no circumstances should we assist these rebels.   President Obama needs to stop trying to change the tide of battle in favor of the rebels; they’re even more undesirable than Assad staying in office.    This smells of al-Qaeda or of Hezbollah. 

I don’t know what we can do to protect Christian villages in Syria.  By the time a course of action is decided on, the body count will be even higher than it is now.   Very frustrating.

Obama Has 22 Likely “Yes” Votes on Military Action Against Syria in Senate: 16 Likely “Yes” Votes in House So Far

Based on early projections, CNN seems to think that President Obama will get a majority of “yes” votes in the U.S. Senate, but the House cannot be predicted as only sixteen Representatives have indicated that they’re likely to vote “yes” on a military authorization against Syria.

Congress is not back in session yet, but the leadership is back in town and already talking about the language in the bill that will be debated, in terms of guarantees that there will be no introduction of ground troops into Syria, the kind of military assets to be used, duration of the conflict, mission creep, etc.

Should be interesting to see what happens.

Should “Porn Revenge” Be Banned? You Mean It Isn’t Already?

“Porn Revenge” has been popping up in the news lately, and it deserves comment.

Porn revenge is where a vindictive person coming out of a breakup of a relationship posts videos of his or her ex having sex or nude photographs from the relationship online, in order to humiliate the ex.

The question has been asked if revenge porn should be illegal.  My question is this: it isn’t already?

People need to understand that when they make pornos, whether they’re public or private, can come back and bite them hard, especially if there’s a breakup of the relationship.  Making home porn just isn’t a good idea to begin with, but to answer the question, my answer is “YES!  Revenge porn should be illegal.”

This sounds like some kind of virtual rape, so there should probably be criminal consequences for posting porn without the consent of the other party.

UK Votes No on Syria Intervention: President Obama Should Back Off Too

The British Parliament put the kibosh on the British military joining in an attack on Syria. 

They seem to be the only country doing it right; Prime Minister Cameron called Parliament back from recess, they debated it after listening to what he had to say on live TV, and the Prime Minister told the British public that he would accept the results of  the vote.  Even though he suffered a political defeat, he still did the right thing.

President Obama doesn’t want to call back Congress for a vote and has indicated that America is willing to go it alone.  I am 100% opposed to this line of thinking.   Unless the Syrians attack the U.S. Navy in the Mediterranean with their Russian-built anti-ship missiles, or attack Israel, we have no cause to break international law and attack Syria.

So far, Assad is the only one who has committed war crimes.  I hope President Obama has enough sense not to join Assad on that platform by taking us into an illegal war.  As despicable as the use of chemical weapons are, we need to know who carried it out before we even consider attacking another nation.

Absurdity: A Driver Who Looks At a Text Message While Driving Is Responsible for Any Accident That Happens, Not Anyone Else

A court in New Jersey has ruled that someone who texts a driver can be held liable if the driver gets into an accident while reading or responding to it.  Here’s why I disagree with this ruling in principle:

The driver consciously makes a decision to take his/her eyes off the road to read/respond to a text message.   He/she can easily ignore the text messages until they safely reach their destination.  Speaking from personal experience, it’s very easy to ignore a text message or hand the phone to a passenger to read it and respond for you.  I’ve done this before.

In the New Jersey case, a couple of teens were volleying text messages back and forth while one of them was driving; he crossed the center line and hit someone one a motorcycle in the other lane while he was distracted.  The people on the bike received severe injuries, survived the accident and sued both texting teens.  They settled with the driver and lost the case against the other teen.

There was an appeal, and the other teen was found liable, but not sentenced to punishment as she was unaware that her texting boyfriend was driving.

The driver is ultimately responsible.   He caused a severe accident, two people lost their legs because of it and all because he couldn’t put his phone down.  This was a stupid mistake that had life-changing consequences for his victims.

The judges were right to not sentence the other teen, though the knowledge that her text conversation had devastating results on two people will be with her the rest of her life.

No winners in this case, just sadness.

Russia and China Have a Lot of Explaining to Do: They’ve Allowed The Syrian Civil War to Continue Unabated By Blocking Every Single Security Council Measure Designed to Bring the Parties to the Bargaining Table While At the Same Time Heavily Arming Assad’s Regime

A lot of blame should go to Russia and China for their unbridled support of President Assad’s side in the Syrian civil war. 

Russia has opposed Western nations sending arms to the rebels, while quietly arming the Syrian government to the teeth with Russian heavy weapons and advanced missiles and aircraft.

The missiles are particularly troublesome.  Syria has tried to transfer the Russian weapons to Hezbollah, and Israel has gone in and blown them up at least twice.  The first time it was Russian advanced anti-aircraft weapons and the second batch of missiles were Russian anti-ship missiles.  

For all the Russian talk of trying to find a diplomatic solution to the Syrian problem, their irresponsible actions are destabilizing the region.    Israel’s already bombing Syrian territory to eliminate the Hezbollah-bound Russian weapons. 

China’s interest in Syria is financial and they’ve opposed sanctions against the Syrian government.  It is currently unclear if China’s been arming Assad.  It wouldn’t surprise me if they were.

All five permanent members of the UN Security Council need to be more flexible in finding a solution to the Syrian problem that they can agree to support and enforce.  If they can’t, or won’t, then shame on all of them!

We Don’t Like the Syrian Government, and We Don’t Like the Syrian Rebels and Their al-Qaeda Friends Either: So Why Are We Getting Involved in Syria?

We’re getting into a no-win situation with Syria and we need to stop. 

I don’t think we should be helping the al-Qaeda-backed rebels at all.  I think they’ve also used chemical weapons for their own advantage against the Assad regime.  We should be really concerned about these rebels AND Syrian regime soldiers picking up experience in using chemical weapons in or on heavily populated areas.   We can’t afford to trust either side.

There’s no doubt that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons too.  He’s used every weapon in his arsenal so far.  So far, he’s had no reason not to.  Consider: 

The ICC has no authority in Syria as it’s a non-signatory to the treaty, and Assad’s Russian and Chinese supporters won’t allow the UN Security Council to pass any kind of punitive measures.  The only thing that can be done against Assad is if his own people bring him to trial. I can’t see that happening at this stage.

We should NEVER ally ourselves to an al-Qaeda backed rebel group.   EVER.  They’ll turn on us.  So will Assad, for his own survival.   We should not support either side, arm either side or fight for either side.   

No more invasions, missile bombardments or drone strikes unless we’re attacked first.  It’s high time to return to traditional thinking about when to launch a military attack on another country.  Regime change?  Out the window.  Intervening on humanitarian grounds?  Out the window.  Imminent threat?  Possibly.  Defending a country we have a treaty with?  YES!  Supporting our allies, like Israel?  YES!

France, the UK, and the US need to back down from military action in Syria.  It’s a fight that the Syrians need to sort out themselves.   The West needs to stay out of there.

UTTER HYPOCRISY: If Missouri Clown Wore a George W. Bush Mask Instead of an Obama One, The People Griping and Complaining Right Now Would Have NOTHING TO SAY!

People really need to shut up about the Missouri clown who was banned for life for daring to wear a President Obama mask.

If he had been wearing a GW Bush mask while W was still in office, the complainers who are currently dominating the news cycles would be silent.  This is sheer hypocrisy that is playing out in front of our eyes.

Do us all a favor, complaining politicians and hypocrites, and GROW UP!

This is the biggest non-story of the year. Surely there are more worthy news stories rather than a clown in Missouri.

Media Reports on CBS “Big Brother” Series Ignore Fact That Companies Who Terminate Their Employees Because of Their Actions on the Show May Be Violating Labor Laws: Is CBS Also Vulnerable to Legal Action?

Season 15 of CBS’s “Big Brother” series is underway, and it’s got more issues this season than any of the prior seasons.   Racial comments seem to be in abundance, and it doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon.

According to published reports, two contestants have been fired from their jobs because of the stupid things they’ve said on the show.  Here’s the catch: the contestants don’t know they are unemployed and won’t until the end of the season because CBS isolates the participants from contact with the outside world until their work for the show is finished.

Last season, one of the participant’s houses burned down and CBS didn’t tell her until she was released from the show.   That was horrifying.  I’d be ready to throttle someone if my house burned down and I didn’t know about it until weeks or months later, or a family member died, or whatever happened and I didn’t know about it for weeks or months.

In the case of these two participants whose jobs were terminated by their companies, their companies have labor laws to contend with, with regards to final paychecks, etc.  For instance, when is the day of termination?  The day the company announced it publicly (also a possible legal problem for the company), or the day that the employee is formally notified that their employment has been terminated?   There will be a legal challenge there.

It would have been better for the companies to announce that they were conducting a review of the employee conduct on the show, and then leave it at that until the employee returned to work, instead of making a political statement and violating who knows how many state and company employee termination procedures.

Now, is CBS vulnerable to lawsuits claiming damages from their contestants for not notifying them of issues regarding home, family, work, etc?  I’m sure CBS requires all contestants to sign waivers up the wazoo, for everything and anything.

Interesting story.

Weiner’s Doing This on Purpose: Look at All the Free Publicity He’s Getting and Name Recognition

If disgraced politician Anthony Weiner wins his election for Mayor of New York, the joke’s going to be on all of us and here’s why: look at all the free publicity he’s getting from all the stupid sex jokes about him.  I’m pretty disgusted by some of the headlines over on Drudge this morning.

I may be off the wall on this, but I think there’s a possibility that this is a carefully crafted strategy by Weiner to defeat his other opponents for the Mayor’s office.  And his wife’s in on it.

Just an off the wall thought, probably wrong.

Department of Justice Should Not Surrender to Mob Mentality Like Florida Prosecutors Did When They Charged George Zimmerman: FBI Didn’t Find Any Evidence of Civil Rights Violations

The Department of Justice needs to stand its ground now, and refuse to knuckle under to political and mob pressure to bring doomed hate crimes charges against George Zimmerman. 

I say “doomed” hate crimes charges because the FBI investigation that they’ve already conducted found no evidence of civil rights violations.  No evidence=no case, unless the DOJ goes forward with an attempt to quell the mob.  

A federal charge would be a victory for mob rule, which is where we seemed to be headed.  

“Jury Delivers Bombshell Decision?” Only to You, CNN

Flipping through the news channels, I couldn’t help but notice the captions at the bottom of the screen.  CNN seems to be taking personal umbrage at the Zimmerman verdict, trumpeting their “Jury Delivers Bombshell Decision” headline with their panel of talking heads, before switching to the “George Zimmerman: Not Guilty” headline.

Truth be told, all the other networks were doing the same thing, but CNN was the only one who seemed to be “shocked” at the decision.   But then again, it’s CNN’s practice to engage in excessive race baiting to the point of rudeness, using labels to divide people and hyphenating to an extreme degree.  And then feigning surprise when their agenda fails in the face of lack of evidence.

And this is the news organization trumpeted as a “news organization” by members of the Obama Administration’s press secretary staff?

OJ Simpson Scenario Likely to Play Out with George Zimmerman: He Won the Criminal Court Case, But Will Likely Lose a Civil Case Against the Family

Assuming that the DOJ doesn’t file civil rights charges against George Zimmerman (which remains to be seen), the next development will likely be a civil suit filed by the Martin family.   I see an OJ Simpson-style scenario playing out, in which Zimmerman will likely be held civilly liable for the death of Trayvon Martin, despite being acquitted of murder and manslaughter.

The evidence needed to win in a civil case is considerably less, and the self-defense argument won’t hold as much weight in that court.

George Zimmerman didn’t do himself any favors in doing interviews with the media prior to his being arrested for the murder charge.

I can’t see how he will win another victory in court.  And that’s if the Department of Justice doesn’t get involved with the hate crimes charges first.  

This media circus isn’t over yet.

Zimmerman Found Not Guilty: Given the Lack of Evidence and the Supremacy of Stand Your Ground Law in Florida, This is Not a Surprise at All

George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter by his Florida jury, so that aspect of the situation is finally over.

Now the other side is screaming about Obama’s Department of Justice to file charges on whether the victim’s civil rights were violated.  Here’s a thought…whose rights exactly?  

I think there’s even less evidence of George Zimmerman violating Trayvon Martin’s civil rights than there was for this murder/manslaughter trial, but TONS of evidence to support a charge against the government of violating GEORGE ZIMMERMAN’S rights.  After all, it’s been revealed through a Freedom of Information Act request that the DOJ was in Sanford organizing anti-Zimmerman rallies.

This DOJ cannot be trusted to act impartially.  It’s impossible for them to do so now.

With regards to the jury decision in Florida, only a few incidents across the country have been reported by the media as protesters took to the street.   As people wake up this morning, and learn the news if they missed it last night, things may still get ugly. The LA riots in 1992 took place over six days, with 53 dead and 2,000+ injured. 

I hope things stay peaceful.