Victory for Taser Victims; YOU Can Sue Police Department & its Officers if Taser Use was Deemed Unjustified:

Victory for Taser Victims; YOU Can Sue Police Department & its Officers if Taser Use was Deemed Unjustified:
By Marc Chamot

A cops’ stun gun credo:

"I have the right to stun you. Anything you say or do can, and I will be forced to zap you on your way to jail. You have the right to a hospital bed after I get done stunning you. If you cannot afford a doctor, one will be provided to you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?"

Okay, okay, police officers have the power to arrest you, they carry handguns and they want to zap you with their stun guns unprovoked too?

There is no one more supportive for law enforcements than Marc Chamot. There’s one problem though. I don’t like the way police officers have been using their Tasers on people lately, especially without probable causes.

California, a legal trendsetting state that usually establishes laws, which are then copied all around the nation, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that victims of unprovoked laser zaps from police officers can SUE the department and the officer.

Court said “let the juries decide these cases!” Yes, this is truly a great ruling and I applaud the Ninth for declaring these new Taser standards on law enforcements.

Police will need reasons to believe that a suspect is dangerous before firing a Taser on them.

They cannot use their stung guns simply because the person is disobeying orders or acting erratically. This judicial standard for police will set the wheels in motion for lawsuits from victims who were inappropriately hit by Taser darts by police across California.

“The objective facts must indicate that the suspect poses an immediate threat to a police officer or a member of the public by wielding such items like baseball bats, guns, or knives.” In the 3-0 decision, Judge Kim Wardlaw said, “they inflict a painful and frightening blow,” and must be used only when substantial force is necessary and other options are unavailable.

No more being zapped because you moved too darn slow, or just talked back to an officer, and or just being a hot head. I probably would have been a victim when I was younger too; I was a hell of a hot-head then.

We all have flaring tempers here and there, and those days when an unskilled cop pulls one these things on you, for no apparent reason is pretty much over, especially when they end up being behind multi-million dollars lawsuits over their actions.

This ruling was brought about in a legal action by Carl Bryan against Officer Brian McPherson, who pulled him over for not wearing a seatbelt. Angry, Carl Bryan was swearing at himself, shouting gibberish and banging his thighs when Officer McPherson zapped him with his Taser. Bryan suffered some injuries, like having four teeth knocked out, when he fell flat on his face. Bryan was clearly unarmed and did not warrant this type of police assault.

According to Amnesty International, 334 people have died in the U.S. since 2001 after being hit with Tasers. So yes, Tasers are very dangerous and the police need to be justified in using them, period.

Story:
Police need reasons to believe a suspect is dangerous before firing a Taser and can't use their stun gun simply because the person is disobeying orders or acting erratically, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Monday.

The decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sets judicial standards for police and for people who claim they were victims of excessive force after police hit them with a Taser dart.
"The objective facts must indicate that the suspect poses an immediate threat to the officer or a member of the public," Judge Kim Wardlaw said in the 3-0 ruling.

Though stun guns may offer a valuable, nonlethal alternative to deadly force in defusing dangerous situations, Wardlaw said, they inflict a "painful and frightening blow" and must be used only when substantial force is necessary and other options are unavailable.

"It's a significant use of force, not like cuffing someone or using pain compliance or pepper spray," said Eugene Iredale, a lawyer for a San Diego-area man who was Tasered by a police officer who had stopped him for not wearing a seat belt. "It's not to be used promiscuously or lightly."

The ruling allows Iredale's client Carl Bryan to go to trial in his damage suit against Brian McPherson, a policeman in Bryan's hometown of Coronado. McPherson's lawyers were unavailable for comment. Full Story here: Taser ruling sets standards for police, claims

Incompetence’s & Hypocrisies plaguing 2009 Obama Presidency; Janet Napolitano & Obama Administration Fumbling on Muslim Terrorists:

Incompetence’s & Hypocrisies plaguing 2009 Obama Presidency; Janet Napolitano & the Obama Administration Fumbling on Muslim Terrorists:
By Marc Chamot

President Obama and Janet Napolitano need to worry more about Muslim extremists and terrorists, rather than putting American conservatives on terror lists and giving undocumented aliens amnesties.

Incompetence and hypocrisies is plaguing President Obama’s administration. 2009 was a tough year for a president who did not have the experience, or the qualifications to be an American president.

After railing against Sarah Palin’s lack of qualifications to be a vice president during the presidential campaigns, Obama broke this biblical cardinal rule, 3“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." Matthew 7:3-5

There is no doubt that incompetences and hypocrisies are showing within the Obama administration, and besides himself, it’s also with his choices of people who run some of this country’s crucial departments.

Beginning with the head of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano who is utterly, and unequivocally unqualified for the office as head of Homeland Security.

The attempted Detroit Terror Attacks a few days ago shows her total incompetence’s, and this may have been the last straw that implicates this department as unfit for DUTY, and Janet Napolitano is too incompetent, and too unqualified to manage the security and safety for this country.

Here’s another Muslim terrorism alert fiasco that went unnoticed, where Janet Reno’s departments, the CIA, FBI and others were fully aware of, and were warned by the father of the would be Detroit bomber, that he was a threat for America and Americans. This went largely ignored by the U.S. government, embassies, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab came close to blowing up one of our airliners, over one of our largest cities in the United States.

Only God knows what would have happened if this terrorist succeeded in blowing up the plane during the landing, besides 290 or so on the plane, what kinds of damages to lives would it have done on the ground is unthinkable.

This comes right on the heels of the Fort Hood Muslim extremist and terroristic assaults, which left 13 of our own soldiers dead.

Again Janet Napolitano’s government agencies were asleep at the wheels, and are once again being accused of dropping the ball on intelligences, just like the Nidal Malik Hasan’s massacre of the13 U.S. soldiers in the army base in Texas.

This time around, the father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab of the Nigerian born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had repeatedly warned U.S. officials about his son’s intentions to do harm on Americans; it went largely ignored, just like the Fort Hood Muslim Nidal Hassan situation.

And then recently, this also came up on Janet Napolitano’s watch:

TSA Screening Manual Posted Online
By Russ Niles, Editor-in-Chief

The Transportation Security Administration has confirmed an ineffectively censored copy of its airport screening procedures manual was posted online. It was taken down after the mistake was discovered but not before the unsophisticated redactions of sensitive material were cleaned up and the uncensored version became widely available on the Internet. AVweb has chosen not to make it available on our site. The TSA told ABC News the manual was an outdated version (June 2008) "improperly posted by the agency to the Federal Business Opportunities Web site wherein redacted material was not properly protected."

The 93-page manual details who, what, when and how often hand searches are done, describes the limitations of its equipment and includes sections on how to deal with diplomats, government officials and law enforcement personnel. It also includes samples of identification used by CIA, Homeland Security, Federal Air Marshals and members of Congress. "This is an appalling and astounding breach of security that terrorists could easily exploit," Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security, told ABC. "The TSA should immediately convene an internal investigation and discipline those responsible.

So the hits are still coming, and it’s without a doubt that we’ve got a REAL IDIOT running the Department of Homeland Security and for this president? You make the call?

Detroit terror attack: US aviation security system failed, Napolitano admits
Janet Napolitano, the US Homeland Security Chief, on Monday admitted that America's aviation security system "did not work" in the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack, reversing her claim over the weekend that "the system worked".

Her embarrassing U-turn underlined the government's tepid and confused response to the near-catastrophic incident on board Northwest airlines Flight 253 and came as President Barack Obama prepared to end a three-day silence during his holiday in Hawaii.

"We're now what, 72 hours into this? And the President has not spoken, the Vice President has not spoken the Attorney General has not spoken and Janet Napolitano has now told two different stories in two days," Peter King, a congressman from New York, told Fox News.

On Sunday, Miss Napolitano told CNN that "one thing I'd like to point out is that the system worked" and ABC News that "once the incident occurred, the system worked".
After widespread condemnation of her comments, she told NBC on Monday that she had been quoted "out of context", claiming that she was referring to the system of notifying other flights as well as law enforcement on the ground about the incident soon after it happened.

"Our system did not work in this instance,' she said.”No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way."

Miss Napolitano had also said on CNN that there was "no indication" that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's actions were "part of anything larger", despite reports that he had told the FBI he was linked to al-Qaeda in Yemen and that there were other attackers there who would strike against America.

The Obama administration was increasingly under fire as it struggled to explain how a man on a terrorist watch list who had been reported by his worried father to the US embassy in Nigeria as a potential threat had been able to board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit with high explosives on his body.

"I think there's much to investigate here," said Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, signalling that Republicans would seek to exploit the issue.

Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Democrats but is frequently a thorn in their side, sad: "What happened after this man's father called our embassy in Nigeria? What happened to that information? Was there follow-up to try to determine where this suspect was?"

The Obama administration appeared to be trying to blame officials at the US embassy in Abuja with one telling "The Washington Post" that the report filed after Abdulmutallab's father visited here on November 23rd was "very, very thin with minimal information".
Mr Obama has ordered a review of American no-fly lists after it emerged that Abdulmutallab was entered on a broad terrorist watch-list of 500,000 names after his father's visit but remained off a no-fly list of 4,000 names and was therefore still able to fly from Amsterdam to Detroit with a valid US visa.

This is “Change YOU Can Believe in,” the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Dictatorships in Action; the Undemocratic Back-Room Deals & Bribes:

This is “Change YOU Can Believe in,” the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Dictatorships in Action; the Undemocratic Back-Room Deals & Bribes:
By Marc Chamot

I usually don’t follow or care about Cuban affairs that much. I’ve never been a fan of that mini-dictator, on a worthless island somewhere stuck in the Caribbean.

I never liked Fidel Castro or what he represented. So when anti-American comments are being made from inglorious political hacks in Cuba and from Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, I don’t pay any mind to it, it’s never a big deal to listen to.

But, there is always a first time for everything. Recently Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez, called President Barack Obama an “imperial and arrogant LIAR,” for his conduct during the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen.

Bruno Rodriguez goes on to say, at the summit that arrogant Obama, “who does not listen.” He called the summit a “fallacy, a farce,” where backroom-deals and strong arm tactics to foist on the world a deal, that he labeled very undemocratic.

If it weren’t so shameful, it’s so true, in how Bruno Rodriguez depicted President Obama.

The Republicans in the House and Senate have been screaming about these same shenanigans going on with Democrats in Washington, that’s been hitting on deaf ears.

When President Obama promised us, “change YOU can believe in,” it sure became a dictatorship kind of change, but it's not the right kind for America and Americans.

Obama and his Democratic minions and company, i.e. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are a testament to these Obama types, of dirty and secretly held backroom deals, to pass the very unpopular healthcare reforms, and for future other liberal agenda reforms.

Its dirty politics as usual and Americans are seeing right through it, and we are not amused.

Dirty BRIBES and deals were being made to pass a form of Obamacare, with Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Bernie Sanders of Vermont behind closed doors, CROOKED deals that benefitted their states on Obamacare over other states.

And not only that, it’s coming out that Harry Reid is using another anti-democratic tool in congress. On page 1,000 of the measure, Section 3403 reads, “it shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection.”

If President Obama signs this disaster of a bill, no future Senate, House and president will be able to change or modify Section 3403, regardless of whether future Americans or their representatives want to.

All this and much more, including unauthorized revisions Reid passed through the Senate floor without providing the 72 hours, for the public and media to study the contexts of the Senate’s final version.

This is what we’ve now got with these bunches. So in the end, what Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez said about President Obama is pretty much true. This is the “change that you can believe in,” we were promised by Obama. This is what Americans are to expect from these Democrats and this president from here on, how sad.

Angry White Males lashing OUT in 2010; Americans Souring on Democrats; it Might Just be TOO Late:

Angry White Males lashing OUT in 2010; Americans Souring on Democrats; it Might Just be TOO Late:
By Marc Chamot

Is the Democratic Party a disaster in the making? These are compilations of news stories that came out a few days ago.

The real truths is that we're all screwed as of now.

The news isn’t good for Democrats right now. President Obama’s new poll numbers by Rasmussen have him rated lowest, for a first year president.

BUT, these Democrats don't care if they lose, as long as their DREAM liberal agendas go through. We're pretty much sunk as it is, because they do have the majority, even the more conservative Blue Dogs are in on it.

The bottom line folks, people don’t want a corrupt special interests laden politicians and bankrupt country. As I’ve said before, keep on pushing your gluttonous, greedy and costly agendas on us we'll wipe you out Democrats, unfortunately it will be too late for most Americans.

Wait till immigration, and amnesty debates begins next year. It may boil over for most folks around the country. It seems that the Democrats are so agenda driven that they are using their majorities in the house and senate no matter what our wills are.

I warned you all, two years ago, what would happen to us, if this country voted for a Democrat president, with a house and senate majority. And you’re now seeing the tragic results and they cannot be stopped either.

It’s going to take a majority in 2010 and a new president in 2012 to UNDUE all of these nightmarish things that they are doing now, if they can.

All I can say, is I told you so, sadly. Oh well, it's live and learn, I guess.

"Reporting from Washington - Anger among independent voters about the economy and the direction the nation is taking offer Republicans a significant opportunity to reclaim power in the 2010 midterm congressional elections, according to the results of the bipartisan Battleground Poll released today." See Poll: Dissatisfaction could spell trouble for Democrats in 2010 (Below)

2010 could be 'year of the angry white male' redux
Voters are in a sour mood, which could lead to trouble for incumbents in Congress and statehouses in 2010, bipartisan pollsters say. Will it be a repeat of the 'Republican revolution' of 1994?

By Dave Cook Staff writer posted December 16, 2009

A new Battleground Poll shows that “voters tend to describe themselves as angry, pessimistic, anxious, and depressed,” says Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners, a political strategy firm that works for Democratic candidates.

Ms. Lake and Republican pollster Ed Goeas jointly oversee the Battleground Poll.
Things may get worse for office holders after Christmas, as voters deal with holiday bills and with the effects of layoffs that often come just before the end of the year.

“Whatever mood the voters are in right now, they are likely to be in a particularly ornery mood toward every elected official by January,” Lake says. “And one of the more interesting places they may take this out is less at the federal election [level] and more at the governorships. You may see a record number of governorships change party.”

Democrats in trouble?

With Democrats holding control of both houses of Congress, angry voters could spell trouble for the party in 2010 elections, argues Mr. Goeas, CEO of the Tarrance Group.

“There is a potential for [2010] being a 1994 year of the angry white male,” Goeas says. That year, Democrats lost 54 seats and Republicans took control of the House for the first time in 40 years.

Battleground Poll data shows independent voters now rank 13 percentage points higher than Democrats [77 percent versus 64 percent] in saying they are likely to vote in the next election. “So the pool of angry independents is larger than what you normally see in an off election year…. It is certainly something that is going to be problematic for the Democrats,” Goeas says.
Pollsters Goeas and Lake were guests at a Monitor-sponsored breakfast for reporters on Wednesday. The George Washington University Battleground Poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters nationwide Dec. 6 to 9. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Who Americans trust on the economy
On the issue of turning the economy around, voters still favor Democrats in Congress over Republicans by a margin of 44 percent to 40 percent. But the Democrats’ lead has been slipping.
"We haven’t proven to the voters that we are spending money to create jobs for them. And that is the test,” Lake says. “And we have about an economic quarter to do it in. And either we are going to show that [economic recovery spending] is going to produce results on Main Street in the economy or voters are really going to conclude this is just too much spending for too little results.”

Republican pollster Goeas thinks voters will focus more and more on the issue of federal spending as the economy improves. “The good news for Republicans is we lead” on who voters trust to handle wasteful spending by 44 to 32 percent, he says.
Goeas also notes that a second wave of voter concern on taxes normally follows a focus on spending. And Republicans also lead on the issue of holding down taxes.

The Tea Party threat
A new Rasmussen Poll found Tea Party candidates outpaced Republicans 23 percent to 18 percent in a generic congressional race. Goeas noted that the polling method used in getting this result tends to over count voters with especially intense feelings.

The Tea Party is "a very vocal group out there that have a very good point in terms of what is happening ... but at the end of the day they are going to have to choose between who is the enemy,” Goeas says. “My advice has been ... 'We agree with you, hey let's go get ‘em' as opposed to trying to control them, trying to lead them, trying to be part of them. At the end of the day, it is going to come down to a choice between two” main parties.

Americans Souring on Democrats
Public's Malaise and Insecurity Translate Into Significant Shift in Political Landscape since Start of the Obama Era
By PETER WALLSTEN
Associated Press

President Obama makes a statement on health care after meeting with Senators on Tuesday. From left: Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd; Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus; the president; and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Support for the Democratic Party is slumping amid a wave of public discontent, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

The findings underscore how dramatically the political landscape has changed during the Obama administration's first year. In January, voters were optimistic about the future, the new president enjoyed soaring approval ratings, and congressional leaders were set to swiftly pass his ambitious agenda.

In December's survey, for the first time, less than half of Americans approved of the job Barack Obama is doing, marking a steeper first-year fall for this president than his recent predecessors.
Also for the first time this year, the electorate is split when asked which party they would like to see in charge after the 2010 elections. For months, a clear plurality favored Democratic control.
The survey suggests that public discontent with Mr. Obama and his party is being driven by an unusually grim view of the country's status and future prospects.

A majority of Americans believe the U.S. is in decline. And a plurality now say the U.S. will be surpassed by China in 20 years as the top power—a striking finding, considering most Americans long believed their own country was the undisputed heavyweight champion.

Democrats' problems seem in part linked to their ambitious health-care plan, billed as the signature achievement of Mr. Obama's first year. Now, for the first time, more people say they would prefer Congress do nothing on health care than those who want to see the overhaul enacted.

"For Democrats, the red flags are flying at full mast," said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducts the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. "What we don't know for certain is: Have we reached a bottoming-out point?"

The biggest worry for Democrats is that the findings could set the stage for gains by Republican candidates in next year's elections. Support from independents for the president and his party continues to dwindle. In addition, voters intending to back Republicans expressed far more interest in the 2010 races than those planning to vote for Democrats.

But public displeasure with Democrats is not translating directly into warmth for Republicans. Twenty-eight percent of voters expressed positive feelings about the GOP -- a number that has remained constant through the Democrats' decline over the summer and fall. Only 5% said their feelings toward the Republicans were "very positive."

And in one arena, Afghanistan, Mr. Obama appeared to have some success in winning support for his planned troop surge. Liberals remain largely opposed to the strategy, but in fewer numbers compared with before Mr. Obama made his case in a speech at West Point. Overall, by 44% to 41%, a plurality believes his strategy is the right approach.

Still, the survey paints a decidedly gloomy picture for Democrats, who appear to be bearing the brunt of public unease over joblessness and Washington's economic policies. Thirty-five percent of voters said they felt positively about the Democratic Party, a 14-point slide since February.
"Overall, it's just a depressing time right now," said Mike Ashmore, 23 years old, of Lansdale, Pa., an independent who supported Mr. Obama last year but now complains about the president's lack of action on jobs. "A lot of my friends are either employed and hate it, or are unemployed," Mr. Ashmore said.

Julie Edwards, 52, an aircraft technician for Boeing Co. in Mesa, Ariz., said she voted Democratic in the past two elections but is not sure how she will vote next time. She wonders why Wall Street firms were bailed out when average Americans need help. "We can bail out Wall Street, but everybody else has to suffer in spades for it," she said.

Democratic leaders, while bracing for losses next year, have argued that unlike the 1994 elections, in which Republicans gained 54 seats and retook the House majority, Democrats would survive 2010 in part because they are taking steps to avoid that possibility. Republicans must gain 41 seats to take control.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that she "fully intends to be in the majority" after November 2010, and she was now shifting to "campaign mode" to help candidates. Party officials are leaning on a number of longtime colleagues to fight for their seats rather than retire.

The Journal/NBC survey found Ms. Pelosi's presence on the campaign trail could do more harm than good. Fifty-two percent said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who agreed with the speaker almost all the time, compared with 42% who felt that way about candidates siding with Republican leaders.

For Mr. Obama, who has relied on his personal popularity to retain the political clout he needs to enact his legislative agenda, the survey points to troubling signs.

A majority for the first time now disapproves of his handling of the economy. And the public's personal affection for the president, a consistent strong suit, has begun to fray. Fifty percent now feel positively about him, six points lower than in October and an 18-point drop since his early weeks in office.

Democrats' troubles can be attributed in part to changing feelings among some core supporters. A third of voters 34 and under, a group that turned out heavily for Democrats last year, feel negatively toward the Democratic Party. And just 38% of Hispanics feel positively, down sharply from the 60% in February.

For all of the Democrats' challenges, they can be thankful that they do not have to try to reverse Americans' feelings about golfer Tiger Woods. In the wake of revelations about his extramarital affairs, just 5% feel positive about Mr. Woods. The survey, which was conducted Dec. 11-14, has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

Poll: Dissatisfaction could spell trouble for Democrats in 2010
As President Obama's supporters grow listless and independents grow irritated, Republicans have a greater opportunity to dominate midterm elections, according to findings of the Battleground Poll.
By Mark Silva
December 16, 2009 9:27 a.m.

Reporting from Washington - Anger among independent voters about the economy and the direction the nation is taking offer Republicans a significant opportunity to reclaim power in the 2010 midterm congressional elections, according to the results of the bipartisan Battleground Poll released today.

A lack of passion among President Obama's core supporters and an absence of confidence that the administration's policies and congressional spending are producing sorely needed new jobs also pose a serious challenge to the president's party in 2010.Those are among the findings of a long-established team of Republican and Democratic pollsters, sponsored by George Washington University, which has measured the president's public job-approval rating at a low point for any first-year president in December.

"What a difference a year makes," said Christopher Arterton, dean of the graduate school of political management at GWU.The president's job-approval rating has slipped to 49%, Republican pollster Ed Goeas and Democratic pollster Celinda Lake say. And the percentage of people who strongly disapprove of the president's performance, 41%, outweighs the 37% who strongly approve.

Disapproval of the job that Congress is doing has risen to 68%, "an all-time high," and 77% among independent voters.The problem for the president's party, the pollsters say, is that the most passionate supporters of the Democratic president appear less likely to turn out to vote in congressional elections next year.

And the most angry of the independent voters -- a swing-voting bloc that supported Obama in 2008 -- appear heavily motivated to vote against Democrats."There is a potential for this being the 1994 of the angry white male," said Goeas, pointing to the pivotal year during President Clinton's first term when Republicans gained control of the House.

Because of a struggling economy with widespread job losses, Goeas said, "the pool of angry independents is larger than what you normally see in an off-year election year. It is certainly something that is going to be problematic for the Democrats. . . .

"I've come to the conclusion on independents . . . that what really drives them is, they dislike both parties, and they dislike the party in power more," said Goeas, a seasoned Republican pollster at the Tarrance Group, speaking at a breakfast with reporters to present the findings of the newest Battleground Poll.

The poll, conducted Dec. 6 to 9, surveyed 1,000 registered voters. It carries a possible margin of error of plus or minus 3.1%The challenge for Obama's party, the pollsters say, is presenting policies during the first few months of 2010 that clearly offer the promise of new jobs in an economy in which unemployment has reached 10%.

"It's still the economy," Lake said. "If you ask people how they are feeling about the economy, people are very anxious. . . ."The one most important thing is that Democrats still are winning the vote among people who are most concerned about the economy," said Lake, longtime Democratic pollster at Lake Research Partners.

"The No. 1 thing the Democrats have to do is prove they really have a jobs program and an economic program that is going to sell on Main Street."The economy and jobs rank as the most important issue that Congress should work on among 40% of those surveyed. The cost of healthcare ranks as the top issue among just 15%.

The survey also reveals a "disconnect" between what most voters would like to see in healthcare -- controlling the cost of medical care -- and what they view as the president's priority: insuring the uninsured.

"Only 28% said their priorities match Obama's priorities, and 64% said they do not," Goeas said. "There's a disconnect."Most voters surveyed, 56%, say the country is on the wrong track, with 34% seeing the nation going in the right direction.

In a "generic" contest between an unnamed Democratic candidate and an unnamed Republican candidate for Congress, 42% of those surveyed said they would support the Republican; 40% opted for the Democrat.Among those swing-voting independents: 40% said they would select the Republican; 19%, the Democrat.

The voters most likely to support Republican candidates for Congress are more likely to vote next year, according to the survey.

More than three-quarters of Republicans and independents surveyed said they were extremely likely to vote, with fewer than two-thirds of Democrats extremely likely to vote, including 58% of African American voters surveyed.

The Democratic Party's problem is twofold, Lake said: "the intensity of the anger among the independents and the lack of intensity among the 'Obama surge' voters" who helped elect the president.

Although Obama remains personally popular, the poll shows, his policies have proved less so.Disapproval of the president's job performance is "driven not by the personality of the president, but the policies of the president," Goaes said.

"Obama has done more to improve the image of the Republican Party than anything that we've been able to do for years."Goeas also predicts that, even as the economy improves, deficit spending will become a bigger political problem for the Democrats.

The question of deficit spending translates readily to taxes, he said, and Republicans hold a 55-28 percentage-point advantage on the question of holding down taxes.Regaining control of the Senate will prove more difficult for the Republicans, Goeas said, and the challenge in reclaiming control of the House will hinge on how many incumbents retire next year and how well the GOP recruits new candidates.

The challenge for Democrats, Lake said, is translating all of the spending underway into the promise of new jobs."Spending is rising in people's attention," she said. "If people thought a million jobs were being created by the spending, they wouldn't care about what the spending is.

We haven't proven to voters that we are spending money to create jobs for them. Any challenge for Democrats is to turn those bills" into jobs.The president's party still has an opportunity to regain voter support before the midterm elections, Lake maintains."I think we have quite a bit of control over our destiny," Lake said.

"We have the ability to really aggressively talk about jobs," the ability to get a healthcare overhaul passed, the ability to address immigration reform and the ability to bring troops home from Iraq."We better seize control of our destiny," the Democrat said. "Now we need to present some plans, we need to implement them, we need to set a direction."The Battleground Survey polled 1,000 registered, likely voters.

SF/Bay Area liberals Threaten: Nancy Pelosi’s base demanding, “Its public option, & stop Obama from escalating the war in Afghanistan or Drop Dead.”

SF/Bay Area liberals Threaten: Nancy Pelosi’s base demanding, “Its public option, & stop Obama from escalating the war in Afghanistan or Drop Dead.”
By Marc Chamot

San Francisco-Bay Area liberals, Nancy Pelosi’s base, are demanding her, “its public option and stop Obama from escalating the war in Afghanistan or else.” These threats are being published in some local liberal newspapers around the bay.

These threats are also coming from her hardcore representatives of her San Francisco base, and it doesn’t paint a good picture for the Madame Speaker and President Obama’s futures if they fail to deliver.

Just today, after she got ruffled by her base, she demanded President Obama to explain the troop’s escalations in Afghanistan. See story: Pelosi: Obama 'must make his case' on Afghanistan

If anybody had any doubt about it, it’s Nancy Pelosi’s base that dictates her every actions in the House of Representatives. Without a doubt.

Here what they told her:

Nancy Pelosi is scared. She’s facing her toughest test as Speaker, managing ambitious agendas of a new president, whose popularity is declining, and at the same time trying to avoid losses in the House seats in the upcoming midterm elections.

For the past four years Democrats were soaring, Pelosi’s Party picked up seats in 2006 and 2008, and even in Republican strongholds. They had the Republican Party on the ropes as early as this year. Nancy Pelosi is discovering that it isn’t easy to bring about changes. The wars are still escalating, the bank bailouts failures, continued recession, and the relentless healthcare debates. Democrats no longer seem to have all of the answers.

Pelosi is looking at a potential train wreck next fall, a drop in her majority that will have people questioning her leadership ability as Speaker. Has she taken the time to read a recent poll commissioned by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which shows that as many as a third of Democratic voters in the country will be less likely to go to the polls and support their party’s candidates’ in 2010 if Pelosi, Obama, and Co. can’t deliver a public option for health insurance.

“These numbers are a reminder of just how dispirited the Democratic base is, by the party’s inability to leverage their comfortable majority in support of an agenda built on core liberal priorities.”

See, the real danger for Pelosi and Democrats isn’t the Blue Dogs losing their districts back to Republicans; it’s that millions of Democrats, the young, motivated, idealistic Democrats, who worked their rear ends off get Obama elected, will give up the fight for good.

That will have an impact on key Senate races, key house races, governors’ in dozens of states and so forth. The Party’s activist BASE didn’t just help elect the president last fall; those campaigners and organizers gave Pelosi her powerful majority, and bolstered the Democrat’s control of the Senate.

But we’re unhappy now.

Afghanistan has us wondering what Obama’s idea of change really is. We might not fight so hard next time around, and for YOU, Nancy Pelosi that would be a serious problem.

Feds Adding thousands of $100,000 Paying Jobs to Friends, Families and Buddies of Washington Politicos, While Private Sector Losing Millions:

Government Run Amuck; Federal Government Adding thousands of $100,000 Paying Jobs to Friends, Families and Buddies of Washington Politicos, While Private Sector Losing Millions:
By Marc Chamot

"There's no way to justify this to the American people. It's ridiculous," says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a first-term lawmaker who is on the House's federal workforce subcommittee.

Where's the OUTRAGE? According to USA Today, while millions of Americans have been losing jobs, the Obama and Democrats’ federal government have been a boom for six figures plus salaries for their employees.

While most Americans are facing insurmountable tougher times; our fed employees have been reaping off the good times in government jobs. Those federal employees earning $100,000 or more have jumped from 14 percent to 19 percent during the recession’s first 18 months.

The shocking thing that USA Today discovered, at the start of the recession, there was only one career federal employee worker earning $170,000 annually, at the U.S. Department of Transportation, but 18 months later, during the recession and deficits, 1,800 more have been added at this salary level!

The Federal government has been adding 10,000 new jobs a months, at the time we’re debating on how we’re going to finance all of these left-wing programs, and have grown the federal employment sector by 9.8%, while were at the worst economic crisis in recent times. The private sector during the same time shed over 7.3 million jobs.

It’s also suspected that a lot of these JOBS were filled by family, friends, staff members and allies of the Washington political establishment. It's a typical MO of the corrupt, unethical progressive Democrats' way of using taxpayers' money to take care of their BUDDIES.

The Examiner.com also suspects that the $448 billion appropriations bill approved last week by the House contained more than 5,000 earmarks, mainly benefitting their favored few than the many. This is the same travesty and CORRUPTION that I have witnessed in San Francisco under former Mayor Willie L. Brown, and by the Democratic politicos in Muskogee Oklahoma.

For feds, more get 6-figure salaries
Average pay $30,000 over private sector
By Dennis CauchonUSA TODAY

The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.

The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available.

When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.

The trend to six-figure salaries is occurring throughout the federal government, in agencies big and small, high-tech and low-tech. The primary cause: substantial pay raises and new salary rules.

"There's no way to justify this to the American people. It's ridiculous," says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a first-term lawmaker who is on the House's federal workforce subcommittee.

Jessica Klement, government affairs director for the Federal Managers Association, says the federal workforce is highly paid because the government employs skilled people such as scientists, physicians and lawyers. She says federal employees make 26% less than private workers for comparable jobs.

USA TODAY analyzed the Office of Personnel Management's database that tracks salaries of more than 2 million federal workers. Excluded from OPM's data: the White House, Congress, the Postal Service, intelligence agencies and uniformed military personnel.

The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker's pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.

Key reasons for the boom in six-figure salaries:
•Pay hikes. Then-president Bush recommended — and Congress approved — across-the-board raises of 3% in January 2008 and 3.9% in January 2009. President Obama has recommended 2% pay raises in January 2010, the smallest since 1975. Most federal workers also get longevity pay hikes — called steps — that average 1.5% per year.

•New pay system. Congress created a new National Security Personnel System for the Defense Department to reward merit, in addition to the across-the-board increases. The merit raises, which started in January 2008, were larger than expected and rewarded high-ranking employees. In October, Congress voted to end the new pay scale by 2012.

•Pay caps eased. Many top civil servants are prohibited from making more than an agency's leader. But if Congress lifts the boss' salary, others get raises, too. When the Federal Aviation Administration chief's salary rose, nearly 1,700 employees' had their salaries lifted above $170,000, too.

TeaParty “R”US.blogspot.com; New Political Information /Clearinghouse for the Tea Party Movement, “It's Time to Throw the Bums OUT!

By Marc Chamot

A new blog was begun, called the TeaParty"R"US.blogspot.com this new site will be dedicated solely for the Tea Party Movement, and time has now come to get it going. I realize that just writing and complaining about things may not be enough. The TeaParty “R”US will be kind of like an information center, news and a clearing house for the movement.

All links, photos, schedules, everything to do with the movement that I can find will be posted there. Anyone who wants to participate is welcome. Your blog links are also welcome. My goal will be to target politicians for REMOVAL from office starting with California. Let’s unite and get this country back on track. It’s only YOU, us, and me that can get it done.

In the following weeks, I will be posting the plans about the movement, more on Glenn Beck and so forth.

This country called the United States of America is definitely heading in the wrong direction. I want YOU, my fellow bloggers to push for this movement. We’ve got a lot of work to do before the end of next year, and there’s a whole lot of politicians in Washington that need to go, getting their pink slips from U.S. Charlie taxpayer is what they really deserve.

If anybody has any input, please feel free to holler.

We're coming after you! California & National Tea Party Gearing up for the 2010 Midterms Elections; “It's Time for Real Changes We Can All Believe In:

We're coming after you! California & National Tea Party Gearing up for the 2010 Midterms Elections; “It's Time for Real Changes We Can All Believe In:”
By Marc Chamot

"America has become a government for special interests, it's time to make it in OUR OWN interets."

I have this San Francisco unionized friend at a coffee shop, John; well he's in the elevator’s union. He was crying about being laid-off again. Not only he was demoted due to the economy the first time he got laid off, this time around he was laid off entirely. He’s hoping for the economy to rebound soon, so he can get back to work. But then again he wasn’t sure about it.

I told John, do you know what’s going on in California, with the environmentalists and their politicians, and judges, who are killing jobs and businesses, in their quests for greener and environmental free, from pollutions and so forth? 500 billion dollars were lost from the California economy because of excess pro-environmentalists regulations that have virtually killed manufacturing and other industrial businesses, including farming because of the drought and with their refusal to provide fresh water from the deltas, because the pumps are killing fish.

He told me “I know, I know.” Then I told him to get involved politically, it’s obvious that you cannot depend on your union for what’s going on, to reverse these things, you need to get involved. Get you and your union buddies together, create a political movement, a voice and get involved.

And his reply was? “No I’m not interested in politics, my UNION knows what they are doing and I’ll just sit and wait it out.”

Then I told John, you know that the union bosses don’t care about you. All they care about is holding on to their jobs, even if it means hiring cheaper elevator workers than you. It’s happened before, it’s happening everywhere, where white blue collar Americans like you are being displaced in favor for cheaper labor, so the unions can hold on to these contracts.

Whether you realize it or not, you’re being PHASED out, just like the millions of other former unionized workers who have been before you.

Take for example the San Francisco’s Hotel and Restaurants Union, the HOTEL EMPLOYEES & RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES UNION LOCAL 2. What used to be predominately black and white has now become over 80 percent Latino and Filipino. The expensive workers became, well kind of became expendable. It's EITHER do the job for this amount or we'll get someone else. Having too much faith in unions is killing their reaction times, those workers who lose their jobs in my opinion.

And now these unions have branched out into heavy and underhanded political influence, if it weren't for the economical crisis, we would have never known how badly the unions have our politicians all tied up, mainly the Democrats. There has never been anybody more pro-labor union than I was.

But labor unions have shown their true colors in these economical hard times. Union leaderships pull all kinds of stunts and arm twisting; with undue influence on our politicians just to save their OWN jobs. They even want taxpayers to pay more taxes, so labor union jobs can be saved, as is evident in economical depressed California and San Francisco.

Upon further review, since there are no third parties of choice, I have decided to get more involved. I have decided to take another look at the National Tea Party movement. It seems that the revolt is taking shape in California for the 2010 elections. I will dedicate both of my blogs to Tea Party movement within the next few weeks, and I certainly hope that my fellow fiscal conservatives and moderates begin to do so.

I urge you all to come along FOR the ride. It's time to take America back, and the Tea Party movement is the only way to go at this moment.

Story Courtesy S.F. Chronicle:
Tea Party radicals gear up for 2010 elections
Organizers of the conservative Tea Party movement are forging plans to translate the anger that fueled nationwide anti-tax rallies and town hall protests into an electoral force that can boot incumbents in next year's midterm elections.

Their targets range from big names like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to county assessors.

The East Bay Freedom Fighters, a Tea Party group based in the Pleasanton area, is already vetting 43 Bay Area candidates, many of them first time office-seekers. Other branches in California are gathering signatures for a ballot initiative that would restrict the political clout of unions.

Those sympathetic to the Tea Party and the 912 Project - nine principles and 12 values including God, marriage, freedom, honesty and thrift - trumpeted by Fox News commentator Glenn Beck are forming political action committees and rallying around screenings of the newly released "Tea Party: The Documentary Film."

But the biggest challenge facing the movement is how to organize hundreds of local groups, and dozens of Tea Party leaders nationwide with divergent interests, into a force that can influence elections - and how to fund that effort.

"It's a hard question to answer," said Mark Meckler, a Grass Valley (Nevada County) attorney who is a national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, which claims to reach 15 million people nationwide. "We are a leaderless movement and that's a good thing. I don't think you're going to see a unified movement yet."

Tea Party organizers acknowledge that most people in the movement are conservative but the group is open to supporting candidates of any party - even conservative Democrats - who adhere to their message of limited government.

There is a growing impatience brewing nationally. More people (23 percent) supported a generic Tea Party candidate than a Republican (18 percent) in a Rasmussen Poll released last week, while 36 percent of those surveyed supported a Democrat. The rest were undecided.

GOP reaching out
"Any incumbent is in trouble," said Sharon Ferrell, who chairs the East Bay Freedom Fighters, which claims 150 members.

While the California Republican Party initially distanced itself from the Tea Partiers, it is looking for ways to include them at their convention in March, and plans to meet with local groups in January, state GOP Chief Operating Officer Brent Lowder said.

"If we were arrogant and assumed they were with us, that could be deadly," Lowder said. "We are ready to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them."

Disappointment in race
But there is "zero excitement" in the Tea Party for any of the three Republican candidates for California governor, said Joe Wierzbicki, the Sacramento-based national coordinator for the Tea Party Express, a bus tour that held 90 rallies nationwide.

Next year, the group hopes to raise at least $5 million to focus on 15 to 20 congressional races, particularly on Reid's, Wierzbicki said.

"There are two battles that are going to happen for the Tea Party, and one is over the Republican Party," he added.

While some Tea Party supporters disparage President Obama as a "socialist," and compare him to Adolf Hitler, behind-the-scenes organizers are studying the grassroots training methods of the late Saul Alinsky, the community organizer known for campus protests in the 1960s, and who inspired the structure of Obama's presidential campaign.

"Among younger Tea Partiers, you see more of a libertarian streak," said Nathan Mintz, a 26-year-old engineer and Alinsky devotee who chairs the South Bay Tea Party south of Los Angeles.
Comparison to peace rallies
Mintz, who is pro-choice and favors same-sex marriage, was among several organizers who compared the Tea Party to the anti-war movement in the wake of the 2004 elections.

Although the range of peace groups - including MoveOn and Code Pink - differed on issues and tactics, their drumbeat of opposition to former President George W. Bush eventually blossomed into a coalition that helped Democrats take over Congress in 2006.

But Tea Party organizer Brendan Steinhauser, director of federal and state campaigns for Freedom Works, a Washington, D.C., organization that promoted the movement's early rallies, said uniting factions has "been like herding cats at times."

His group will focus "on four to five U.S. Senate races" next year. "Nobody has the time or resources to organize all of it. And there are a lot of people (in the movement) who don't want to be involved in politics yet."

Palin at national convention
Some Tea Party adherents believe that a national convention scheduled for February in Tennessee will provide some focus for the group. The keynote speaker: Former Alaska Gov. and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

But one Tea Party branch doesn't plan to attend the national gathering.
"It's too expensive for a lot of our members," said Meckler of the Tea Party Patriots. "We're a grassroots organization."

The Bankrupting of America; Nancy Pelosi wants to Increase National Debts Caps to Over 1.9 Trillion Dollars, It'll be Included in Department of Defense bill:

By Marc Chamot

What's Nancy Pelosi proposing now? She wants to increase our nation's debt by some estimates as much as $1.9 trillion dollars! If passed, it would raise the current $12.1 trillion debt by 15 percent. “This is really a big increase,” says economists Phillip Swagel of the American Enterprise Institute.

House Democrats passed a $900 billion debt ceiling increase earlier this year, but was never approved by the senate.

The Democrats want to spend and spend more money. It absolutely absurd folks. What are Democrats thinking about? What is Nancy Pelosi doing? Don't they understand that we're indebted as it is? It's simply asinine, it's just getting worse and worse.

Democrats to seek higher limit on the federal debt

MEASURE TO BE IN DEFENSE BILL
House Republicans vow to block Pelosi's plan

With the national debt projected to soar by nearly $1.4 trillion this year, congressional Democrats are planning a year-end push to dramatically increase the legal debt limit so they don't have to revisit the politically uncomfortable issue before facing voters in November.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that she will include legislation to raise the debt ceiling in a must-pass defense spending bill headed to the House floor next week.

"We need to have a vehicle so that the Senate can vote on it, and it is our intention to have something on the Department of Defense bill," she told reporters at her weekly news conference.

House leaders have not settled on how much to raise the debt ceiling, now at $12.1 trillion. Figures as high as an additional $1.925 trillion are under discussion, aides and lawmakers said.

Republicans vowed to block such a move, despite the potential consequences.

"It will be an opportunity for us to point out the excessive spending that's going on in this Congress," said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio).

Treasury officials have told congressional leaders that they must raise the cap before Dec. 31 or risk running out of money for Social Security checks and veterans' payments due in early January, Democrats said. By law, the Treasury can borrow no more than Congress legally permits.

The House voted this year to raise the debt limit to nearly $13 trillion, but the Senate never acted on the matter. Now, the issue is complicated by the competing demands of moderates in both chambers, who are expressing increasing concern about the nation's rising debt load.

President Obama called this week for a jobs bill to combat the nation's 10 percent unemployment rate. That could add billions of dollars to budget deficits already driven to record heights by the worst recession in a generation and the emergency measures intended to ease its effects.

Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (N.D.) and other moderate Democrats have threatened to vote against a higher debt limit unless Congress creates a bipartisan task force, composed primarily of lawmakers, to address the budget problem. Conrad and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) introduced legislation Wednesday that would invest such a body with broad power to force tax increases or spending cuts through Congress.

"We understand in the short term you add to debt to avert [economic] collapse. We understand that. We also understand at some point you need to pivot to address our long-term debt, because at some point, it's unsustainable," Conrad said Thursday.

Fiscal conservatives in the House known as "blue dog" Democrats say that any plan to raise the debt ceiling should include a new pay-as-you-go law that would prohibit lawmakers from approving tax cuts or spending increases without offsetting the cost elsewhere.

"If we're going to have to take a vote that acknowledges our fiscal irresponsibility, let's add something that changes our habits in the future," said Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho).

The Senate opposes the proposed pay-go rules, and Pelosi opposes giving an independent task force the power to make budget decisions.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and other White House officials met Thursday with Conrad, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and more than a dozen other senators to develop a version of the task force that Obama and Pelosi might accept. One possibility: Obama could appoint a task force by executive order, although that body would be significantly weaker than one created by law. After the meeting, Conrad said he would consider the idea, but only if lawmakers rejected his original proposal.

"The first thing we want is a vote," he said.

Is it Religious hypocrisy? Gay Honor Killing in Turkey Elicits Little Reaction from American Left & Gay Rights Groups:

Is it Religious hypocrisy? Gay Honor Killing in Turkey Elicits Little Reaction from American Left & Gay Rights Groups:
Marc Chamot

American left and gay rights groups have BEEN mum about this incident, why? Is it because it’s another Muslim affair and beating up on Christians and Jews is FAR easier and safer?

Homosexuality is a choice, and I for one, don’t really bother about it. When it comes to gay marriages, I am unequivocally against it, for religious principles. But this doesn’t mean that homosexuals should be used as punching bags, they are human beings just like the rest of us, but killing them for what they are, is so outrageous that this merits a story of its own.

In Turkey, a father traveled 600 miles from his hometown, hunted down his son in Istanbul, and shot him to death for being gay. This is not new among Muslim faiths, they are known for homosexual honor killings, as well as female honor killings.

Ahmet Yildiz, 26 years old was an openly gay man. He was killed 16 months ago, and just now it’s making its rounds into world news. This is the first gay killing in Turkey’s history to surface publicly, sociologists say.

He was shot to death in front of many witnesses and they did nothing to help. His body still remains unclaimed by his family. His father, Yahya Yildiz, is being tried for murder in absentia, because it’s believed that he went to hide in Northern Iraq.

Kaya said Yildiz, a straight-A physics student, who had hoped to become a teacher, was tutoring fellow students so he could make extra money to live independently. But by coming out as gay in a patriarchal tribal family, he had become the ultimate affront to both religious and filial honor, even with parents who adored him.

Here is another example in how the Muslim religion is so warped, and the real outrage is that we’re getting the SAME typical responses from feminists groups, as well as from the left and gay groups.

They always like to criticize, Christians, Jews, violent men, white men, abusers, and mainly those in America. But when horrendous crimes are being perpetrated by Moslems around the world, like women honor killings and homosexual honor killings, because of religion, these groups keep quiet, and silent, they don’t do anything about it.

This is particularly sad for me, because NO ONE has the RIGHT to kill their off springs, innocent ones like Ahmet, and especially if they didn’t turn out the way they expected them to be. The killing of a decent studious man like Ahmet, just because he was gay, should have elicited more furors towards Muslims from these groups. This killing was so wrong, it’s was so damn outrageous, and they know it was.

This is the types of hypocrisy we’re getting from these left-wing groups. I don’t know whether it’s because they fear criticizing Moslems, or what? Maybe criticizing Christians and Jews is far easier, because they DON’T KILL YOU. But I see the DOUBLE STANDARDS here; beat up on Jesus, and why not?

Soul-searching in Turkey after a gay man is killed
By Dan Bilefsky
New York Times

The case, which has caused a bout of national soul-searching, has underlined the tensions between the secular modern Turkey of cross-dressing pop stars and a more traditionalist Turkey, in which conservative Islam increasingly holds sway.

Ahmet Kaya, Ahmet Yildiz's cousin, said Yildiz was the only son of a deeply religious and wealthy Kurdish family from Sanliurfa, in the predominantly Kurdish southeast.

"Ahmet's father had warned him to return to their village and to see a doctor and imam in order to cure him of his homosexuality and get married, but Ahmet refused," Kaya said. "Ahmet loved his family more than anything else, and he was tortured about disappointing them. But in the end, he decided to be who he was."

That clash of values permeates Turkish society. While Turkey's aspiration to join the European Union is pushing the Muslim-inspired government to accept and even promote civil liberties for women and gays, some traditionalists remain ill at ease with a permissive attitude toward sexuality and gender roles.

Until recently, so-called honor killings have been largely confined to women, who face being killed by a male relative for perceived grievances ranging from consensual sex outside of marriage to stealing a glance at a boy.

A recent government survey estimated that one person dies every week in Istanbul as a result of honor killings, while the United Nations estimates the practice globally claims as many as 5,000 lives a year. In Turkey, relatives convicted in such killings are subject to life sentences.

A sociologist who studies honor killings, Mazhar Bagli at Dicle University in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the southeast, noted that tribal Kurdish families that kill daughters perceived to have dishonored them publicize the murders to help cleanse their shame.

But he said gay honor killings remained underground because a homosexual not only brought shame to his family, but also tainted the concept of male identity upon which the community's social structure depended.

"Until now, gay honor killings have been invisible because homosexuality is taboo," he said.
Gay rights groups argue that there is an increasingly open homophobia in Turkey. The military, which is the guardian of Turkey's secular state, regards homosexuality as a disorder.

Last year, a local Istanbul court ruled in favor of disbanding the offices of Lambda, the country's leading gay rights group, after a complaint that it offended public morality. (The decision was later overturned by a higher court.)

Firat Soyle, a human rights lawyer for Lambda, who was advising Yildiz before his death, said that three months before the murder, Yildiz had filed a complaint at the local prosecutor's office that he was receiving death threats from his family. Soyle said the prosecutor's office had refused to investigate or provide Yildiz with protection. The local police and prosecutors declined to comment on the allegation because the case is continuing.

Polls: New Lows for Obama & Democrats With their Healthcare Obsessions; why are we Still Being Ignored?

Polls: New Lows for Obama & Democrats With their Healthcare Obsessions; why are we Still Being Ignored?
By Marc Chamot

Democratic leadership is sinking:

While candidate Obama was campaigning in Pennsylvania he garnered enough support to defeat John McCain 54.7 to 44.3 percent. That was then, this is now, in the Franklin and Marshall Polls his approval ratings in Pennsylvania are around 40%, about seven to nine percent lower than the national average.

Wall Street Journal’s John Fund and Examiner’s Mark Tapscott were absolutely right behind their columns last week.

While most voters are increasingly worried about jobs, or the lack there of, with the state of the economy, and rising deficits, Democratic leaders in congress are obsessed with passing the very unpopular and costly healthcare reforms.

This president and his congressional Democratic cohorts are fueling a growing public frustration and anger with their insistence on authoritarian, bureaucratic, unaccountable centralized government. Scott Rasmussen’s latest poll show 71 percent of Americans are angry and 46% are in rage, with the current policies emanating out of Washington.

Get this folks, 52 percent of Americans are saying that neither Democrats nor Republicans really understand what the nation needs. In other words, American politicians are out of touch with their citizens. 65 percent of Republicans, with 59 percent of Independents are saying this. Only nine percent trust the judgments’ of what these politicians are doing, while a whopping 74% trust the judgments of the people, like you and me.

Rasmussen’s poll also show, that three fourths of Americans see the nation’s capital as a haven for special interests feasting with their friends in government at the public’s expense, and Obama has intensified that perception since becoming president. Now, 68 percent believe big government, and big business work together against the public interests.

Senate Majority Whip, Richard Durbin, when asked about the healthcare bill passing, he said “it must, we have to finish it” no matter what.

This one sided, Democrat partisan bill that they are pushing, aren’t taking the soaring costs, and what it could do to the U.S. deficit, and or even increase peoples premiums into account. That is why Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing it through the meat grinder, regardless that public support for this incredulous bill is at 39.2%, by pollster.com.

The truths are, Democrats are obsessed to pass this bill, because 76% of Democrats back it, while the rest, Republicans and the largest cross sections of American voters, Independents don’t. “Democrats believe that their liberal base expects them to deliver, and will punish them” at the polls if they don’t, says Democratic pollster Doug Shoen.

That FEAR is being backed by a new poll taken for the Daily Kos, the left-wing website; 81% percent are certain to vote Republican, 65% Independents, and only 56% for Democrats in the 2010 midterms, they aren’t happy with their Democratic leaders and with their president. They are still waiting for that change they can believe in.

Harry Reid stuck that “public option” in the senate healthcare measure, to get these liberal left off his back. Democrats have threatened other Democrats, if you don’t vote for this healthcare bill; you will be ostracized from the party.

Democrats are in a big bind, they MUST pay-off their left-wing base, or they are through in 2010.

But the other Democrats, the more conservative Blue Dogs, they are in a pickle too. If they anger and offend their predominant more Democratic moderates, and their Republican conservative districts, they will be through also.

Evidence also showing that bloodthirsty bloggers, like you and me, seem to be putting most of the pressure on congress to do their jobs, and their death marches into never-have-been has just begun, and their dates as political has-beens is coming up very shortly indeed.

Will Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnsons’ Woes, be Obama’s Undoing for 2012? White House Dogged by Allegations of Stimulus’ Abuses and Child Molestations

Will Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnsons’ Woes, be Obama’s Undoing for 2012? White House Dogged by Allegations of Stimulus’ Abuses and Possible Child Molestations Cover-ups:
By Marc Chamot

President Obama has a penchant for black athletes, like Sacramento’s Mayor Kevin Johnson, and Johnson seems to have a penchant for corruptions and attractions for underage girls.

And the mainstreams media have a penchant to cover-up these stories, except for the Sacramento Bee and the Los Angeles Times. Interestingly ENOUGH, the (anti-Sarah Palin’s truth FINDERS), the Associated Press ignored this story, with the Obama connections, and the New York Times ignored it entirely.

It’s a three weeks to months’ old story, but somehow it hasn’t quite resonated among conservatives yet. But hopefully it will, with Independents.

While former President Bill Clinton had his Monica Lewinski moments, this one though we’re seeing the potentials on how an Obama White House can manipulate, fire KEY INVESTIGATORS, and cover-up corruptions emanating from friends and buddies, like Kevin Johnson.

This is definitely NOT the Hope and Changes we were expecting from the Obama administration.
For the Record, here is the complete story; Sources Wikipedia and the Sacramento Bee:

During the summer of 1995, a 16 year old girl alleged that Johnson had fondled her. Johnson apologized to the girl when confronted by her with that accusation during a phone conversation recorded by Phoenix police though he also stated that "what you're saying happened, I'm not entirely agreeing happened."[23]

The Sacramento Bee stated that they had received a copy of a proposed settlement agreement, under which Johnson would have paid the girl's family $230,000.[24] After conducting an investigation, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office declined to prosecute, on the grounds that there was not a reasonable likelihood of conviction.[25]

On April 9, 2009, Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence G. Brown announced that St. HOPE Academy had agreed to pay $423,836.50 over ten years in settlement of allegations that it did not appropriately spend AmeriCorps grants and education awards and did not adequately document spending of grants.[31] The settlement amount represented one-half of the $847,673 in AmeriCorps funds received by St. HOPE Academy over three years from 2004 to 2007.[31]

Johnson, St. HOPE Academy’s founder and former CEO, agreed to pay $72,836.50 of St. HOPE Academy’s $73,836.50 initial payment.[31] In settlement, St. HOPE Academy acknowledged not adequately documenting a portion of its AmeriCorps grant expenditures, and the Corporation for National and Community Service terminated its September 24, 2008 suspension of St. HOPE Academy and Johnson from receiving federal funds, ending questions about Sacramento’s eligibility to receive federal stimulus funds.[31

Kevin Johnson's accuser says he offered to pay her $1,000 a month
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson offered to pay $1,000 a month to one of three girls who had accused him of inappropriately touching her while she was involved in his St. HOPE Hood Corps program, the girl told federal agents during their investigation of Johnson's nonprofit St. HOPE organization last year.

The girl -- unnamed in a newly released report by two ranking Congressional Republicans -- was interviewed by agents Jeffrey Morales and Wendy Wingers with the Corporation for National and Community Service's Office of Inspector General during an investigation of St. HOPE's misuse of $800,000 in federal AmeriCorps grants. Investigators say the girl alleged Johnson had offered to pay her $1,000 a month while she remained in the St. HOPE program, but she refused.

The details of that federal investigation, not previously released, are outlined in a report released today by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, and Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking Republican members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Senate Finance Committee. Their report is critical of the dismissal of Gerald Walpin, the inspector general who directed the investigation into Johnson and St. HOPE.

"The facts outlined in the referral give rise to reasonable suspicions about potential hush money payments and witness tampering at a federally funded entity," the congressmen wrote.

Mayoral spokesman Steve Maviglio vehemently denied the allegations.

"There is absolutely no merit to these politically-motivated allegations," Maviglio said. "They are categorically false. It is sad and unfortunate that the right-wing minority in Congress is playing politics with allegations that have been dismissed by professional prosecutors, the Republican U.S. Attorney, and federal officials at AmeriCorps from both political parties."

Walpin, as inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service, began investigating St. HOPE's use of federal grant money in 2008, when Johnson was running for mayor. St. HOPE, based in Oak Park, runs an array of nonprofit endeavors, including schools, a development company, and Hood Corps, the urban Peace Corps-style program at the center of Walpin's investigation.

In the course of the investigation, Walpin's office accused St. HOPE of numerous violations, including using Hood Corps members, financed by federal grant money, to run personal errands for Johnson and diverting grant money into salaries for St. HOPE school employees.

After reviewing Walpin's evidence, Lawrence G. Brown, who at the time was the acting U.S. attorney for Sacramento, determined there was no criminal wrongdoing on the part of Johnson or St. HOPE, and agreed to a civil settlement in which they would repay $400,000 in federal AmeriCorps funds.

Walpin publicly lambasted the settlement, and Brown sent a sharply worded complaint last April to a federal panel alleging that Walpin had withheld "potentially significant information at the expense of determining the truth" while conducting his investigation and engaged in a media campaign that damaged the image of the AmeriCorps program.

Walpin was subsequently fired. White House officials have said President Barack Obama had lost confidence in Walpin and his dismissal was proper, but some Republican leaders have continued to object to the dismissal, saying it was political.

The report released Friday is the most detailed look to date at the controversy surrounding Walpin's firing and the investigation into the Sacramento mayor.

According to the report, a former St. HOPE official told investigators that Michelle Rhee - at the time a St. HOPE board member and now Johnson's fiancee and public schools chief in Washington, D.C. -- did "damage control" after learning of sexual misconduct allegations against Johnson.

"When there was a problem at St. HOPE, Ms. Rhee was there the next day taking care of the problem," the official, Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez, told investigators.

Wong-Hernandez had told Rhee of an allegation against Johnson and was told by Rhee that she was "making this her number one priority," the report states. Soon after, Wong-Hernandez discovered that Johnson's attorney had contacted the girl who made the allegation.

The agents say the girl told them that the attorney, Kevin Hiestand, a longtime friend of Johnson's, "basically told me to keep quiet."

The congressmen's report, "The Firing of the Inspector General for The Corporation for National and Community Service," describes Johnson as a friend of President Obama and said that he used that relationship "before and after the Sacramento (mayoral) election to enhance his profile."

"The allegations uncovered by the Inspector General were very serious, and they deserved to be fully investigated, not swept under the rug," Grassley said in a statement posted on his Web site. "It seems a lot of people might have been interested in protecting the AmeriCorps program and the Mayor of Sacramento from an IG who was discovering some unpleasant facts. I'm not sure whether the IG was fired for political reasons. The evidence points in that direction, but since the White House is asserting privilege over its decision-making process, we can't be sure."

Reached at his New York home today, Walpin said he had not seen the report and had no immediate comment.

More Bio on Kevin Johnson, courtesy Wikipedia.com: As president and CEO of The Kevin Johnson Corporation, Johnson oversees the operations of several subsidiary organizations specializing in real estate development and management, sports management, and business acquisition. A key component of The Kevin Johnson Corporation includes appearances and public speaking engagements for corporations, academic institutions, and community organizations. Johnson founded the St. Hope Academy in 1989 and served as its CEO until January 2008.

St. HOPE is a nonprofit community development corporation whose mission is to revitalize communities through public education, civic leadership, economic development and the arts.
In 2003, St. HOPE formed St. HOPE Public Schools, a pre-K-12 independent charter school system that provides education to nearly 2,000 students in seven small schools.[7][8][9][10]