kronic's musings

A Tennessee congressman has introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives known as “the Citizen Participation Act of 2009” that would provide protection for people who are sued for exercising their First Amendment rights of petition and speech. If passed, the measure by Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., would become the first federal anti-SLAPP law on the books.

SLAPP is an acronym for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. A SLAPP suit seeks to silence an individual or a business simply because that person or entity has spoken out or exercised First Amendment rights. The filer of a SLAPP suit hopes to stop criticism — even if it is true or concerns an important public issue.

“Civil lawsuits and counterclaims, often claiming millions of dollars in damages, have been and are being filed against thousands of individuals, organizations, and businesses based upon their valid exercise of the rights to petition or free speech,” according to the legislation’s findings. “SLAPPs are an abuse of the judicial process that waste judicial resources and clog the already over-burdened court dockets.”

The bill, H.R. 4364, provides immunity from civil liability for those who petition the government “without knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard of falsity.” It allows a party to file a “special motion to dismiss” 45 days after being served with a lawsuit, seeking to declare the suit a SLAPP. The party seeking to dismiss the SLAPP suit must make an initial showing “that the claim at issue arises from an act in furtherance of the constitutional right of petition or free speech.”

“Rep. Cohen introduced similar legislation in Tennessee when he was a state legislator and is the author of the Tennessee anti-SLAPP law,” said Steven Broderick, communications director for Cohen. “He feels very strongly that there should be similar protection at the federal level.

“People are being sued for their legitimate complaints — for exercising their First Amendment rights — and there needs to be a mechanism in place to provide them some protection,” Broderick said.

The measure has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

I see it as odd, we have right to free speech. Why the hell do we need a law saying we do?

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, College of Education officials recently established the “Race, Culture, Class and Gender Task Group.” It’s charged with helping to devise a new system for training prospective K-12 teachers, because current teachers lack “cultural competence,” a factor officials believe contributes to the poor performance of minority students.
The task force has issued its final report, which the group Foundation for Individual Rights in Education brought to light, and officials from the College of Education are expected to review its recommendations in January.
What’s the task force’s main recommendation? That new teachers be immersed in a liberal political agenda that’s highly critical of American social norms, particularly the notion that all people can positively influence their own destiny through hard work and determination.
The task force “recommended that aspiring teachers must repudiate the notion of the ‘American Dream’ and instead “must embrace – and be prepared to teach our state’s kids – the task force’s own vision of America as an oppressive hellhole: racist, sexist and homophobic,” according to writer Katherine Kersten of the Star Tribune.
“The report advocates making race, class and gender politics the ‘overarching framework’ for all teaching courses at the university,” Kersten wrote. “It calls for evaluating future teachers in both coursework and practice teaching, based on their willingness to fall into intellectual lockstep.”
The task force recommends that prospective teachers begin by confessing their own bigotry. They would have to prepare a report “describing their own prejudices and stereotypes, questioning their ‘cultural motives’ for wishing to become teachers, and take a ‘cultural intelligence’ assessment designed to ferret out their latent racism, classism and other ‘isms,’” according to the newspaper.
More than anything, “future teachers must. . . recognize and denounce the fundamental injustices at the heart of American society,” the article said.
What about those prospective teachers who refuse to fall into “intellectual lockstep?” After all, there’s bound to be a stubborn conservative or two who think America’s a pretty decent place to live, work and raise a family.
For them, the university “must develop clear steps and procedures. . . including a remediation plan,” the report said.
We wonder if the university’s “remediation” program will prescribe years of hard labor, so the unenlightened will have plenty of time to ponder their foolishness.
Silly us. The whole time we thought the problem was that our kids were falling behind in key subjects like science and math.
We never understood that the key to quality education is to teach all youngsters to hate their country, and teach minority kids that society’s cards are impossibly stacked against them, so they might as well go sell crack.
And silly us, we were under the impression that free thought was still allowed in this country, even in the intellectual gulags otherwise known as university campuses.
But back to reality. We think the proposed program at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities is an unbelievable pile of dung, a complete waste of tax dollars, and an insult to university students and the K-12 students they will be teaching.
God help us if this is the prevailing attitude in schools of education across the land.
Now that the good citizens of Minnesota are aware of this nonsense happening right under their noses, we trust they will kill it out before it’s put into practice.

This was written by the Continental Congress 2009, completed November 21st, about 1 month ago. Check out the website at www.cc2009.us

Interesting information…..

“In Defense of a Free People, the time has come to reassert our God-Given, Natural Rights and cast off tyranny…
Let the Facts Reveal: The federal government of the United States of America was instituted to secure the Individual Rights of our citizens and instead now threatens our Life, Liberty and Property through usurpations of the Constitution. Emboldened by our own lack of responsibility and due diligence in these matters, government has exceeded its mandate and abandoned those Founding Principles that have made our nation exceptional;
Our servant government has undertaken these unconstitutional actions in direct violation of its enumerated duties, to the detriment of the People‟s liberty and the sovereignty of our Republic;
Over many years and spanning multiple political administrations, the People who have, in good conscience, attempted to deliberate our grievances and voice our dissent against these offensive actions through both Petition and Assembly, have been maligned and ignored with contempt;
The People of the several States of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming, justly alarmed at these arbitrary and unconstitutional actions, have met as Citizen-Delegates, and sat in a general Congress, in the city of St. Charles, Illinois;
Whereupon we, as these Citizen- Delegates, have gathered in defense of Divine Justice, Liberty and the principles of limited government, now stand in clear recognition of the Supreme Law of the Land – the Constitution for the United States of America;
Therefore, We demand that Government immediately re-establish Constitutional Rule of Law, lest the People be forced to do so themselves; and we hereby serve notice that in the Defense of Freedom and Liberty there shall be NO COMPROMISE to which we shall ever yield.
21 November 2009″

This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!
The year is 1909.
One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some statistics for the Year 1909 :
************ ********* *********
The average life expectancy was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles
Of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

The average wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour.

The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year …

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,
A veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME .

Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!
Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which
Were condemned in the press AND the government as ’substandard. ‘

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used
Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from
Entering into their country for any reason.

Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea Hadn’t been invented yet.

There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
Two out of every 10 adults couldn’t read or write and
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school..

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, ‘Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind,regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health’
( Shocking? DUH! )

Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE ! U.S.A..!

Plus one more sad thought; 95 percent of the taxes we have now did not exist in 1909

OK I have been thinking (I don’t do it much cause it hurts). I’m a tad confused so I thought I would get in put. In normal politics it works like this. We will use a president as our example.

1~~~He runs for election and tells the people exactly what they want to hear so he can get elected. Matters none if he is a dem or a rep.

2~~~Once in office he does what he wants, with little to stop him as he is new and the people want to believe.

3~~~Now its coming to the end of his term, he treads lightly and acts like he is honoring his election promises, he wants to be reelected after all. So it’s a cycle that starts over again each election.

My confusion is this, the senate and congress are about to face reelection , with the public out cry over health care and climate issues, why are they not running scared? The people have made their view known to them but they are ignoring that. I may be a tad paranoid at times but it almost seems like they are not worried about being reelected. Do they know something we don’t ?

http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/obama-orders-1-million-us-troops-to-prepare-for-civil-war/

I’m 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.

I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth” to people who don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.

I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.” Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.

I’m tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China , the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela .

I’m tired of being told that Islam is a “Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family “honor”; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren’t “believers”; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for “adultery”; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur’an and Shari’a law tells them to.

I’m tired of being told that “race doesn’t matter” in the post-racial world of Obama, when it’s all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.

I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.

I’m tired of a news media that thinks Bush’s fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama’s, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush’s military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.

I’m tired of being told that out of “tolerance for other cultures” we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore’s, and if you’re greener than Gore, you’re green enough.

I’m tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don’t think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I **** sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I’m tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.

I’m tired of illegal aliens being called “undocumented workers,” especially the ones who aren’t working, but are living on welfare or crime. What’s next? Calling drug dealers, “Undocumented Pharmacists”? And, no, I’m not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it’s been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I’m willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn’t have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military…. Those are the citizens we need.

I’m tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here’s the deal. I’ll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we’ll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.

I’m tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I’m tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the “Illinois Combine” of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama’s cabinet.

I’m tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

Speaking of poor, I’m tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn’t have that in 1970, but we didn’t know we were “poor.” The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.

I’m real tired of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and actions. I’m tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.

Yes, I’m **** tired. But I’m also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I’m not going to have to see the world these people are making. I’m just sorry for my granddaughter.

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.
__________________

What is it with the people of today ? We have lost not only our way but it seems our humanity as well. At work today I received a phone call from my mother, I left work and went home. My neighbor shot and killed my cat in my own yard because it left foot prints on his car. After admitting this to the local sheriff who did absolutely nothing. Have we descended to such a low level that even a cat life holds no value to us? How in the name of the great maker are we going to stand up against evil and strive for liberty? The people at large will not even stand up for a small creature that harmed no one.
I for one have this to say to the world at large, listen carefully. I will not quit, not now not tomorrow. I will use every legal means I have, I will bombard the local authorities till the next century. I will have my justice. Not only for a small 5 month old kitten but for mine and my family’s freedom. The question is what will you do ?
Will you sit idly by while evil and hatred grow around you? Will you run and hide? Will you say it was only a cat? Where in the hell do we draw a line?
Take a few minutes and think, what if it were your cat or your child or spouse. These people have become so dependant on others they no longer think on their own. They lack the basic compassion that made this country what it is. These people are the ones that will stand and fight us for our liberties. When a man does not work but depends on the government to provide for him he will never stand against that government. Those people are lost to us, we can not save them or convince them their actions are not only illegal but morally bankrupt.
I am not saying use violence against a person but I am saying if they hide behind a veil of legalities than we should beat them about the head with those legalities they hide behind. The best weapon we have is the tool our enemy uses, in this case its their own ideas and actions. Stop sitting there, get out and do something. Do any thing, write a letter or make a phone call. If your not willing to make a stand then don’t fuss when your looking out of barbwire at a detention camp or worse. The few of us that love our country and our liberties won’t help you at that stage, we have been trying for years but you only laughed at us.
I hope there’s enough people out there with the courage to do what’s right not what’s easy, you need to make a decision, you may not have much time left.

Carbon dioxide is poison.

That’s what the EPA says.

The public health is at risk. Carbon dioxide is poison and an “endangerment” edict has been issued and the government is going to run your life.

Even more than it does already.

In one more Obama lurch toward totalitarianism, the administration announced yesterday that the Environmental Protection Agency has determined that carbon dioxide is a threat to clean air and that it, the EPA, claims the authority to impose binding rules across the society and economy to cut American production of CO2.

That’s right, the same CO2 you exhale something like 17,000 times a day.

The same CO2 that’s been a part of the earth’s atmosphere since before some primordial slug bred with a species of puss to produce the first Democrats.

Barack Obama has decided that CO2 is a danger you must be protected from. And on Wednesday, his EPA director, in a European backwater named after a brand of chewing tobacco, will explain to the world exactly how the American economy will be gutted.

And next week, after collecting his Nobel Peace Prize, Caesar Obama will himself stand before the high priesthood of the global-warming cult and share his wisdom.

And you and I will be dirt.

And what we used to know as America will be on the high road to extinction. Without a vote of Congress, without the people being consulted, contrary public opinion and priority, the president’s unelected minions will reshape the very nature of our lives.

Is that an overstatement?

No. It is, in fact, an understatement.

Because carbon dioxide is integral to our lives and livelihoods.

Like driving a car, eating food, having electricity, working our jobs and buying stuff at the store. All of those things – from our diets to our lights – produce CO2. Consequently, an Obama clamp down on CO2 is going to crimp those parts of our lives, making them more expensive and potentially unattainable.

Let’s start with transportation.

Though a single volcano spews forth more CO2 than all the cars in all the countries in all the history of humankind combined, personal transportation is not possible in a carbon dioxide-restricted society.

Translation: Kiss your car good bye.

Even these taxpayer-subsidized alternative energy cars produce CO2, though usually they do it indirectly, through the generation of electricity.

Your car is a huge producer of carbon dioxide. Do you think the government is going to let you keep driving it the way you always have?

And what about trucks?Trucks and trains – which combine to move almost all of American’s consumer goods – both produce high levels of carbon dioxide. That will be capped and taxed, and transportation costs will go up – and you will see that reflected on everything you buy at the store.Especially food.

Because the production of your food puts a lot of CO2 into the air. Vegetables, grains and fruits all require vehicles and processing – from irrigating to canning – that put out CO2. Food production is one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide in the nation.

Especially meat.Various global-warming cultists have said that the American diet – rich in meat and dairy – is the single-largest source of global-warming gasses in the developed world. Many of the global-warming leaders are also vegans and vegetarians.To save the planet, activists say, you have to stop eating meat.

And those activists have a friend in the White House. A friend who, with yesterday’s declaration, now has limitless power.To turn out your lights.Electricity is the foundation of modern life. It affects and enables almost everything we do. It also is a giant producer of carbon dioxide. Through wonderful coal and natural gas production, we have available and inexpensive electricity.But the global-warming people want to change that. With their cap-and-trade nonsense and their loathing of coal – remember Obama saying as a candidate he would bankrupt anybody who tried to open a coal-fired power plant? – the first place the EPA will look is electricity.Then we can all learn what rolling blackouts are, and what sky-high electric bills are.The issue won’t just be the affordability of electricity, it will be the availability of electricity.And nobody uses electricity like business. Factories and stores need it to function. And we need them to earn a paycheck. But as the Obama CO2 witch hunt goes forward, and business is burdened with global-warming costs, your boss isn’t going to be able to afford you.

If he can even stay in business.

All of this has come about without a single vote of Congress. This is not the will of the people as expressed by their elected representatives – as it’s supposed to be in a Republic – it is the dictate of liberal Obama appointees. We are slaves to the bureaucrats.

And there’s nothing we can do about it.Carbon dioxide is poison.

Maybe they’ll fine God for inventing it.

“Can a good Muslim be a good American?

Theologically – no. Because his allegiance is to Allah, the moon god of Arabia .

Religiously – no. Because no other religion is accepted by his Allah except Islam.

Scripturally – no. Because his allegiance is to the five pillars of Islam and the Quran (Koran).

Geographically – no. Because his allegiance is to Mecca , to which he turns in prayer five times a day.

Socially – no. Because his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make friends with Christians or Jews.

Politically – no. Because he must submit to the mullah (spiritual leaders), who teach annihilation of Israel and Destruction of America,
the great Satan .

Domestically – no. Because he is instructed to marry four women and beat and scourge his wife when she disobeys him.

Intellectually – no. Because he cannot accept the American Constitution since it is based on Biblical principles and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.

Philosophically – no. Because Islam, Muhammad , and the Quran do not allow freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist. Every Muslim government is either dictatorial or autocratic.

Spiritually – no. Because when we declare “one nation under God,” the Christian’s God is loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER referred to as heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in The Quran’s
99 excellent names.

Therefore after much study and deliberation….perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country. They obviously cannot be both “good” Muslims and good Americans.”