School bus monitors, I had never heard of them. Do not condone the behavior the the students involved. However I ask what is a sixty-eight year old hard of hearing woman doing being paid to ride around in school bus? Ms Klein does not appear to be capable of monitoring anything. If Ms Klein had any authority, she appeared unable, or unwilling to exercise any of it.
Eric, these are your tax dollars at work.
From 13 WHAM:
Greece, N.Y.- At a press conference Thursday, Greece Police said school bus monitor Karen Klein does not want to file criminal charges against the four students accused of bullying her on the school bus Monday.
A 10 minute-long video recorded by a student Monday includes vulgar and often vicious remarks aimed at 68-year-old Klein.
In the press conference Thursday, Greece Police said the four students involved are all seventh graders at Greece Athena Middle School.
Greece Police Captain Steve Chatterton said in New York State in order to charge someone under the age of 13, the action must rise to the level of a crime and they are still trying to detemine if a crime occurred.
video:
Sleep well, your government is at work.
Over at the Daily Caller, Senior Editor Vince Coglianese reports:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called out the White House Friday for maintaining a long-standing relationship with Media Matters for America, despite the liberal group’s attempts at “driving [conservative] voices clear out of the public square.”
“It’s hard to imagine a more broadly-accepted proposition than the fact that Americans are free, above all else, to speak their minds openly and freely without fear of punishment or reprisal from government authorities,” McConnell said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. “Human nature being what it is, however, I think we would all have to admit that there will always be a temptation, particularly among those in power, to muffle one’s critics.”
During the speech, entitled “Growing Threats to Our First Amendment Rights,” McConnell emphasized what he views as a continuing effort by the Obama administration and its surrogates, like Media Matters, to “muffle” free speech by exposing “critics to harassment and intimidation, either by government authorities or third party allies, and that should concern every one of us.”
Well, no kidding.
It seems to me no secret that this effort is being driven by the White House.The what I find both distressing and interesting at the same time is that the press is unwilling to even say anything about it, much less go after this white house as “Woodstein” did, years ago, in the case of Nixon. This president is busy making Nixon look like a schoolboy by comparison. The mainstream press for their part is running interference. if there’s anything about this that’s amazing, it is that so few are saying anything about it.
Here’s a fellow Rochester Native, Lou Gramm in a double header. The first is a tune you probably know… From his first solo LP, “Midnight Blue”. This one ROCKS, bigtime.
a
The added one tonight is from when his first big band, “Black Sheep” were still together.
We hired them, at one point to play at the Greece-Ridge Tennis courts, outside Rochester, back in 1973…. and back then the gate was $1.50/singles, $2.50/couples. You can imagine, we packed them in, that night. Lou lived just a short shot away… about a 10 minute drive, if I recall rightly. I was managing the stage… no small feat, given the crowd. Lou seemed a great guy, for the brief time we chatted. It’s a night I’ll always remember. This is one of the songs they were playing, that night. It’s called “Payin’ Yer Dues”.
You’ll notice Lou’s voice was unmistakable, even then.
Dim Won. a/k/a Dumbo, b/k/a Barack Obama is invoking “Executive Privilege” to cover all Fast & Furious documents under subpoena from the House, an operation Dim Won claims to have been unaware until he heard about it in the news, from Fox News, via Weekly Standard:
President Obama has granted an 11th-hour request by Attorney General Eric Holder to exert executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents, a last-minute maneuver that appears unlikely to head off a contempt vote against Holder by Republicans in the House.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is expected to forge ahead Wednesday morning with its meeting on the contempt resolution anyway.
If the vote proceeds, Republicans have more than enough votes on committee to pass the resolution. However, Holder would not be considered held in contempt of Congress unless and until the full House approves the measure
Reax Doug Mataconis, Outsde the Beltway:
From the White House’s point of view, it’s rather odd that they would assert Executive Privilege over documents that were requested some eight months ago and which, as recently as twelve hours ago, the Justice Department said that it was willing to provide the Committee access, at least under limited circumstances. From a political point of view, it seems to reinforce the idea that they were withholding the documents because they contained damaging information about the ongoing scandal. This is especially true since Executive Privilege has generally only been asserted in cases where the documents involve communications with the President and his staff. Up until now, the Justice Department and the White House have both said that the White House was not involved in the Fast And Furious operation or in the internal investigation that occurred after it started to fall apart. Does the assertion of Executive Privilege now mean that is true?
The more important question, though, is exactly what the President is asserting is covered by the privilege. It’s not generally acceptable to point to a pile of documents and claim that they are privileged without providing a specific basis for why they are so privileged. This typically requires creation of a Privilege Log that details what documents are being withheld and the reason that they are being withheld, something that the Justice Department itself has yet to do despite the fact that the subpeona is eight months old. So far, the White House has not sent any communication to the House or to the Committee asserting the privilege and detailing the documents that it asserting the privilege over. It would seem rather absurd for the privilege to be claimed over all 11,000 documents that have been withheld, so one would think that the White House will document its privilege claim soon so that it can be evaluated, by an independent body if necessary.
The best for which the Obami can hope to run the clock out till after the election. Call it the Richard Nixon strategy.
Dim Won is either lying about his knowledge of Fast & Furious, or else he is extending “Executive Privilege” to cover the entire Executive Branch.
Here’s a couple guys from our 50th state… Cecilio & Kapono. This is from their second album, which would make this about June of 1975. I’ve never understood why these guys didn’t go farther than they did.
Glenn Reynolds says;
HOW’S THAT ARAB SPRING WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? Egypt’s Liberals: We Were Duped. “We met with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces on Feb. 14, and they were very cute. They smiled and promised us many things and said, ‘You are our children; you did what we wanted to do for many years!’ Then they offered the same smiles and vague promises the next week, he said, and the next month after that.”
Over here, we use the term “rubes,” but “dupes” works just as well. . . .
Yes, will the phrase, “useful idiots” works just as well.
And what shall we say of the US administration that handled it so poorly, and arguably intentionally worked towards its failure?
The Occupy movement started out pathetic and went downhill from there. It is easy to feel sorry for the last remnants, like the Caravaners, who have nothing better to do than to drive across the country pretending to be involved in some kind of political activism so as to keep their sponsors’ cash flowing. Such natural sympathy, however, shouldn’t be allowed to obscure what a malignant phenomenon the dying Occupy movement has been.
John Hinderacker, Powerline.
Yes, I saw David Plouffe Doing the rounds over the weekend. I’ve had a chance to review some of the video. All of them should contain the title “incoherency”.
White House senior adviser David Plouffe said on Sunday Republicans want “huge tax cuts for the wealthy, more war, more debt.”
“They want to return us back to the same policies that caused the recession — huge tax cuts for the wealthy, more war, more debt. And independent economists last week just said the Romney congressional agenda would cause us harm in the short term economically and slow down the recovery. So that’s the wrong direction,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Host George Stephanopoulos pressed Plouffe on his statement, asking “more war? Where are the Republicans calling for more war?”
“Well, listen, the point is, George, our opponent and many in Congress criticized our decision to end the Iraq war,” Plouffe said. “I think Gov. Romney called it a tragic mistake, oppose a timeline in Afghanistan. So — and, by the way, you know, that also has fiscal and economic consequences, because we have to focus on rebuilding this country. And that’s what the president wants to do, is take half the money from ending the wars and focus on rebuilding this country.”
first of all, the exit timeline from Iraq was not dictated by the Obama administration. I’ve told you several times in the past that the only successes in foreign policy that Obama has ever had, involved in the extension of Bush administration policies. Arguably, this move in terms of removing the U.S. from Iraq was less than successful as evidenced just the other day. But to claim credit for something that the bush administration did whilst trying to blame everything on Bush seems disingenuous at best.
As for the democrats not wanting more war, another incoherent claim from Plouffe, perhaps someone should refer him to the voting records of those sitting on the senate intelligence committee like Dianne Feinstein who voted for the Iraq and Afghanistan war approval. And who is it, I ask, who has escalated the drone attacks in the region? The Obama administration itself. And these are undeclared wars. Which, were there a republican in the white house, and particularly a conservative republican, the democrats in Congress and the press would be raising holy hell about it right now.
Of course Plouffe is suggesting that the White House released no classified information. that, of course, it is an easily detectable lie on its face. The amount of dancing he did on that subject on Fox over the weekend should be the stuff of legend very shortly. See for yourself.
The only way I can see Plouffe being able to look at itself in the mirror and the morning is that like most liberals, the man has no shame whatsoever. Which of course makes him a perfect spokesman for this administration.
Hunter Walker lets his politics get in front of his brain, from Politicker:
Mitt Romney made a speech via satellite at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Saturday morning in which he reiterated his view that children are better off growing up with hetereosexual parents.
“We need to strengthen the commitment that exists in this country to family. I hope to be able to talk to young people and tell them how important it is to get married before they have children because the opportunity for a mom and a dad to help guide the life of a child gives them such an enormous advantage in their lives going forward,” Mr. Romney said.
The Politicker reached out to the Romney campaign to see whether they felt a child could equally benefit from the guidance provided by a gay couple. Ryan Williams, a spokesman for Mr. Romney, said it is the candidate’s long held belief children are better off with straight parents.
“This is what he’s been saying forever,” Mr. Williams said. “He’s always said that the ideal setting to raise a child is with the mom and the dad.”
Mom and dad refer to a child’s biological parents, of which every person has exactly two, one father and one mother. By definition, and by design, a child raised by a same-sex couple can not be raised by both his mother and his father.
Homosexuality is a life style which can not beget children. I find it amusing the advocates for a barren lifestyle still clamor for children. Go figure. Maybe they don’t teach biology in alternate lifestyle school?
Here’s a tune you all should know. It’s Bob James, who after having Lord only knows how many albums under his belt, joined with the Jazz Supergroup “Fourplay”… in one of his earlier efforts… (I dunno, what, about 17 or so albums in?) called “Angela”.
It eventually became the theme from the TV show “Taxi” which itself is a real gem. That’s Bob on the Fender Rhodes piano, with Jazz greats Eric Gale on guitar, and Ralph MacDonald on percussion.
Several different mixes of this song came out conventionally, but this was the first one. It’s also in my opinion the best.
And just for completeness, let’s add a little blip from Taxi… a classic bit… funny stuff.
From Doug Ross:
Michelle Obama rips ‘corporate’ work and ‘fat paychecks’ that actually pay for her lavish lifestyle including $600,000 vacations in Spain
The First Lady, who is well known for her hard work and spartan lifestyle, is in the news for decrying the very system that allows her and her husband to live in the lap of luxury.
Translation, Moo-chell does feel obligated to earn any money. Rather she only feels entitled to spend it. She also never missed any meals.
Just a thought, here; with Obama granting illegals work permits, several points come into very sharp focus.
I suppose we now have at least some idea why the Democrats are always so keen on not insisting on identification for voting. Clearly this moveis designed to kowtow to a potentially large voting block… Illegals. and of course, the only way they can vote as if they’re not identified as such.
Politico is reporting Obama has now played his 100th round of golf.
But remember; he’s just one of the 99%. Right?
Oh… and um… cue David Axlerod… You may recall Axelrod had quite a bit to say when the target was W. Of course these days, silencio.
I offer the late Mr. King no eulogy, but bear him little malice. The lame stream media tried to conflate King, the career petty criminal, with Martin Luther King. Well did share a common last name and skin pigment. Like the Duke lacrosse players and now George Zimmerman, the more wrong headed the lame stream narrative, the louder they beat the drums.
Or well we could. What the Obama administration likes to call news, is Dim Won, b/k/a President Barack Obama reading a written statement, having so-called reporters sit there like potted plants and taking no questions. We could do that. Can we afford a potted plant. The plant would be just a capable of asking a question as almost any member of the White House Corespondents Association.
Lots more, William A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection:
Exactly why were the reporters there?
Certainly not to take video — television gave us a better recording.
And certainly not to ask questions. That’s why the President stands there, reads a statement, and walks away. It’s not a press conference.
And certainly not to report. What exactly would these reporters be reporting?
That the President read a statement, the text of which was released by the White House Press Office? Duh, even bloggers munching Cheetos in the basement could figure that out.
Hat tip and reax: Karen, the Lonely Conservative.
Oh, the Horrors! A Reporter Asked the President a Question!
I’d accuse the White House reporters of acting like they are dumb, but I am not sure, it is not an act.
