Politics Blog

Check out the naked hottie reflected in his sunglasses:

Or maybe not.

P.S. Anybody think he looks a little like Beavis?

Five Egyptian men sentenced to prison for being gay

In case you had any doubts that the Clintons are liars:

Former President Clinton has added to the falsehoods surrounding his wife’s tale of her trip to Bosnia 12 years ago. In Indiana on Thursday, Bill Clinton defended his wife’s mistake in claiming that she landed under sniper fire in Bosnia, accusing the media of treating her like “she’d robbed a bank” for confusing the facts.

The New York senator had repeatedly described a harrowing scene in Tuzla, Bosnia, in which she and her daughter, Chelsea, had to run for cover as soon as they landed for a visit in 1996. Video footage of the day instead showed a peaceful reception in which an 8-year-old girl greeted the first lady.

Hillary Clinton has acknowledged that she got the facts wrong in retelling the tale.

…

“A lot of the way this whole campaign has been covered has amused me,” Bill Clinton said in Boonville, Ind. “But there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated and immediately apologized for it, what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995.

“Did y’all see all that? Oh, they blew it up,” the former president continued. “Let me just tell you. The president of Bosnia and Gen. Wesley Clark — who was there making peace where we’d lost three peacekeepers who had to ride on a dangerous mountain road because it was too dangerous to go the regular, safe way — both defended her because they pointed out that when her plane landed in Bosnia, she had to go up to the bulletproof part of the plane, in the front. Everybody else had to put their flak jackets underneath the seat in case they got shot at. And everywhere they went they were covered by Apache helicopters. So they just abbreviated the arrival ceremony.

“Now I say that because what really has mattered is that even then she was interested in our troops,” he said. “And I think she was the first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone. And you would of thought, you know, that she’d robbed a bank the way they all carried on about this. And some of them when they’re 60 they’ll forget something when they’re tired at 11 o’clock at night, too.”

THE FACTS:

Bill Clinton has many of the facts wrong.

His wife didn’t make the sniper fire claim “one time late at night when she was exhausted.” She actually told the story several times, including during prepared remarks on foreign policy delivered the morning of March 17.

It’s also not true that she “immediately apologized for it.” Clinton has never apologized for the comments and only acknowledged that she “misspoke” a week after the March 17 speech when video of her peaceful tarmac reception emerged.

p>Substitute teacher to the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy has reported that the Charter school, funded by Tax payer money, has been teaching religion:

A Star Tribune newspaper column has prompted a state investigation into a charter school. A substitute teacher said a school in Inver Grove Heights is blurring the line of separation of church and state.

Being a charter school Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, or TIZA, is supported by tax dollars. The teacher told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS the presence of religion she observed at the school took her by surprise.

TIZA Executive Director Azad Zaman insisted the school follows with state and federal laws.

What did the teacher observe?

The questions came after substitute teacher Amanda Getz taught at TIZA last month and told the Star Tribune about things she observed that day that shocked her.

“I’ve been in a lot of schools and I’ve never been in a school where they had washing rituals, or they had prayer, or where they had a room where you had to take your shoes off,” Getz said.

Where’s the flag?

State law requires the school to fly an American flag during school hours, however no flag flies outside of TIZA Academy.

Zaman told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he didn’t know how to work the flagpole.

No one really believes that excuse, do they? Obviously, this school is a front, the sponsors of this school and where the school is housed really validate the complaints of this teacher. The question is what will the Board of Education do about it?

In a post from yesterday that talked about a 13 yr. old student who claimed to have been jumped for carrying a anti-Illegal Immigration sign for a class project, it appears the girl lied about the incident:

DALLAS (AP) – An eighth-grader lied when she claimed a mob of angry students assaulted her for making a poster that read, “If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration,” school administrators in Texas say.

Surveillance cameras at Athens Middle School show the 13-year-old student purposefully making scratch marks on her face and arms in a hallway after a classmate took her poster in a “snatch-and-grab” style, school superintendent Fred Hayes said Wednesday.

The student had told administrators she was clawed and hit after about 20 students, livid over the poster message she chose for a class project, swarmed around her and wrested away the sign.

Hayes said the school is pursuing misdemeanor criminal charges against the girl for making a false report.

The girl’s parents apologized for their daughter in a written statement. They did not return requests for comment.

“I see that my daughter was not assaulted and put the marks on her body,” Shera Bowers, the girl’s mother, wrote.

J.R. Bowers, the girl’s father, wrote in the statement that he agreed with the charges expected to be filed against his daughter.

The alleged scuffle led to the suspension of three Hispanic students.

The students returned to class Wednesday, but Hayes said their punishment remained appropriate because they were involved in taking the poster. Hayes said he apologized to the parents of the suspended students because they were “cast in a negative light.”

News of the alleged attack - and the suspension of the three Hispanic students - touched off a flurry of comments on the Internet and to the Athens school district. Hayes said the district received messages from people well outside Athens, a city of 12,000 about 70 miles south of Dallas. He described some of the messages as “irrational.”

While the sign was still taken from her, there was absolutely no reason to create a story that led to students getting into trouble for something that never happened.

Former President Jimmy Carter, probably one of the top 3 worst president’s in our history and continues to be one of the more despicable human beings out of office, will be meeting with the leader of the terrorist group Hama:

Former president Jimmy Carter plans to meet next week in Damascus with Khaled Meshal, the head of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in a direct rebuke of the Bush administration’s campaign to isolate it.

The disclosure of Carter’s plans by the Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat and subsequent confirmation by sources familiar with his itinerary instantly placed the campaigns of Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in a political bind.

The campaign of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican nominee, was quick to blast Carter’s plans and called on both Obama and Clinton to condemn the meeting with what the State Department lists as a terrorist group.

It goes without saying that the McCain campaign immediately condemned the move, but what about the Democrat candidates:

Both Clinton and Obama issued statements with milder language, saying they “disagreed” or did “not agree” with Carter’s plans.

Phil Singer, a Clinton spokesman, said, “Hillary respects former president Carter but disagrees with his decision,” adding: “She would not meet with Hamas without coordinating with Israel.”

Spokesman Tommy Vietor said Obama “does not agree with President Carter’s decision to go forward with this meeting because he does not support negotiations with Hamas until they renounce terrorism, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and abide by past agreements.”

Jimmy Carter continues to show his anti-Israel bias and has become just a distraction in world affairs since leaving office, actually, WHILE he was in office as well. Perhaps the State Department should revoke his passport while he is out of the Country and he can stay with Hamas.

Today, the Sparxx family visited Washington, D.C. and my son Cole had the opportunity to meet Utah GOP Congressman Chris Cannon. Congressman Cannon has taken aninterest in Cole’s condition and the fight he faces against Hydrocephalus.

This year the annual Hydrocephalus Association’s National Conference will be held in the Congressman’s home State of Utah during the month of June.

Congressman Cannon also spent some time with me to discuss various issues facing the Country, including the fight against Illegal Immigration, the SAVE Act, and other critical legislation. Congressman Cannon is one of a small few House or Senate members who actually understand blogs, in fact, Congressman Cannon maintains his own Congressional blog.

In an attempt to get Ron Paul convention speaking time, Ron Paul supporters scoreda big win in Minnesota with securing delegate seats at the GOP National Convention in September:

Over the weekend, they captured six of a dozen GOP national convention delegates elected at congressional district meetings. The rebellion has left local party officials crying foul, even as state leaders downplay the importance of the unexpected result.

“They’ll be national delegates, but at the end of the day, that doesn’t change anything because John McCain is going to be our nominee,” said party spokesman Mark Drake.

But Marianne Stebbins, who has headed the Texas congressman’s Minnesota campaign for several months, called the victories a tactical triumph designed to bring Paul’s libertarian message to the broadest possible audience.

“If we get enough delegates,” she said, “we’ll be able to get [Paul] speaking time at the convention.”

I’m sure the establishment GOP is just thrilled with this news in MN:

“We knew they were coming and they were willing to lie, cheat and steal – maybe not steal, but they were willing to say anything,” Andy Aplinkowski, the district’s vice chairman, said of the Paul supporters.

The delegate candidates were asked to answer whether they supported John McCain. The Paul supporters were elected under false pretenses, Aplinkowski said.

Not so, said Rob Baert, a part-time teacher from Sauk Rapids who was elected a delegate. “McCain’s not even nominated yet,” he said. “But if he is, I’ll support him, and that’s what I said.”

Making unfounded accusations is to typical of the establishment when things don’t go there way. After accusing the Paul supporters of lying and cheating, this Aplinkowski character pulls his own shenanigans:

Realizing that the Paul supporters were rolling to victory, Aplikowski made a motion that would bind the delegates to McCain at the national convention. It was approved, but he said he doesn’t know if it’s legally enforceable.

That pretty much says it all about the GOP establishment and how they operate, as they try to hold on to power any way they can. The Ron Paul movement is not only alive and winning in Minnesota, but also in Texas, where Ron Paul supporters were winning seats at the Texas State Convention to get Paul’s message heard and have input in crafting the Texas GOP’s agenda and platform.

A 13 yr. old girl taking part in a class project on political activism was jumped by students protesting her ‘Stop Illegal Immigration’ sign:

DALLAS — A teenager who took a sign reading “If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration” to school said she was hurt after being swarmed by angry classmates, and administrators said Tuesday they have suspended three students involved in the scuffle.

Hayes said she was showing the sign in the hallway when a group of students tried wresting it away.

J.R. Bowers, the girl’s father, said Melanie suffered scratch marks along her neck, face and arms. He said she also had a swollen jaw.

Bowers said as many as 20 students surrounded his daughter in the hallway, and Hayes said others may have hurled verbal insults. The poster was ultimately destroyed by other students.

Who were the attackers and what happened to them?

The three students given in-school suspension are Hispanic, Hayes said. Bowers is white. Although the school has video surveillance, Hayes said the incident occurred in a blind spot out of camera range but no punches were thrown.

Hayes said that since local media first reported the story in Athens, a city of 12,000 about 70 miles south of Dallas, the district has received e-mails from far away.

Won’t be doing this class project again:

Bowers agreed that the project shouldn’t have been given to an eighth-grade class.

“The night before she had this due, she started telling me about this assignment,” Bowers said. “I looked at her and said, ‘This is a bad idea. This is going to go south real quick.’”

Hayes said the class project was not appropriate for middle school students. He said the immigration issue has become so politicized and polarizing that “it’s much more than illegal now. It just becomes sinister and evil.”

As opposed to teaching elementary students about alternative lifestyles and abortion, those issues aren’t polarized, I guess.

Paul Volcker, the greatest Fed chairman ever and the man who got us out of Jimmy Carter’s stagflation 70’s, tells it like it is:

“You don’t have to predict it. We’re in it.” Thus did Paul Volcker respond to a question Tuesday about whether he still predicted a “dollar crisis” in the coming years. […]

On the dollar, Mr. Volcker’s blunt talk of crisis is a welcome tonic to the devaluationist consensus that now dominates Washington. The world has been staging a run on the greenback, with damaging results if it continues. Mr. Volcker noted that when “concerns about recession are rife,” the central bank will be tempted to “subordinate the fundamental need to maintain a reliable currency” to the impulse to shore up a flagging economy. The danger is that you lose both battles, as the U.S. did in the 1970s, and wind up with stagflation.

The present climate, Mr. Volcker told his audience, reminded him of nothing so much as the early 1970s. Then as now, certain commodity prices were rising fast – he cited oil and soybeans as two examples. Then as now too, these were explained away as speculative price run-ups and not as a harbinger of a broader inflationary trend. […]

Mr. Volcker also argued Tuesday that the Fed’s strenuous efforts on behalf of the housing market risked looking “biased to favor particular institutions or politically sensitive constituencies,” in this case the housing industry. He did not argue that no government intervention was warranted – the crisis was, he said, “too threatening” for the government to stand aside.

But the Fed has a particular duty to defend the integrity of the “fiat currency” in its charge. And exchanging dollars for “mortgage-backed securities of questionable pedigree” both raises the specter of moral hazard and potentially undermines the world’s faith in the integrity of the Fed’s balance sheet. Unless the Fed can shut the door it opened with its guarantee of $29 billion worth of Bear Stearns paper – which “seems highly unlikely,” in Mr. Volcker’s words – it will have to take on oversight of the institutions it is now implicitly back-stopping.

Imagine the sadness of a titan like Volcker seeing his office debauched by imbeciles like Greenspan and Bernanke. It’s like Led Zeppelin seeing the Backstreet Boys on top of the charts.