From the Austin legal beat, Antonio Buehler was found not guilty of refusing to obey a police officer’s instructions while filming an arrest on January 1st, 2012.
Chalk up another small but real win for the right to monitor government employees doing their work in public.
Better late than never, Houston Mayor Annise Parker comes to the belated understanding that she was getting her ass handed to her on a plate over her subpoenas of church sermons by enemies of her Transvestite Bathrooms Initiative, and has dropped the subpoenas entirely.
However, the clue-by-four still doesn’t seem to have fully registered:
The move is in the best interest of Houston, she said, and is not an admission that the requests were in any way illegal or intended to intrude on religious liberties.
Snip.
The plaintiffs’ attorney in the lawsuit, Andy Taylor, called Parker’s announcement a “head fake,” and challenged her not only to pull down the subpoenas but to drop the city’s defense of the lawsuit and put the ordinance to a vote. The city last summer ruled opponents’ petition to submit the equal rights ordinance to a repeal referendum fell short of the legal requirements spelled out in the city charter, prompting the lawsuit.
“The truth is she’s using this litigation to try to squelch the voting rights of over a million well-intentioned voters here in the city of Houston,” Taylor said. “It’s very simple why we filed a lawsuit: Because they won’t do what the city constitutional charter requires them to do.”
Ms. Parker is obviously what we call a “slow learner.”
I was about 10 hours ahead of the curve:
The burglary occurred in 1972, the climax came in 1974, but40 years ago this week — May 17, 1973 — the Senate Watergate hearings began exploring the nature of Richard Nixon’s administration. Now the nature of Barack Obama’s administration is being clarified as revelations about IRS targeting of conservative groups merge with myriad Benghazi mendacities.
Snip.
Jay Carney, whose unenviable job is not to explain but to explain away what his employers say, calls the IRS’s behavior “inappropriate.” No, using the salad fork for the entree is inappropriate. Using the Internal Revenue Service for political purposes is a criminal offense.
The IRS was using the information to build an enemies list.
In fact, the Obama Administration’s use of the IRS to harass political enemies, and the threat to do so, has been long-running and pervasive.
The Boston Herald also breaks out the N Word (Nixon):
President Obama’s second-term campaign slogan was “Forward,” but instead we’ve got cover-ups, congressional investigations and the government persecution of political opponents and reporters.
That sounds like “backward” to me. All the way to, say, 1972.
Who would have guessed that just a few months into his second term, President Obama would be compared to Tricky Dick. And by a liberal Massachusetts Democrat — U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano.
Republicans could not even have scripted this one. The agency most hated by voters, the Internal Revenue Service, admits to going on a Nixonian witch hunt against Tea Party and conservative groups during the re-election campaign.
This is a story even the most partisan Massachusetts liberal cannot defend. It’s so bad that even Ed Markey is calling for heads to roll.
The man behind The Pentagon Papers thinks that Obama is worse than Nixon ever was.
The multiple scandals are so obvious that even the MSM is waking up. Jay Carney has spent six months peeing on reporters’ legs and calling it rain. Reporters have finally started waking up. “Hey, wait a minute! I don’t think rain is usually this warm!”
And here’s a nice image from Buzzfeed:
A smattering of news on this and that:
So the reports go that they’ve cut a deal on the anti-free speech DISCLOSE Act. Pelosi and company are besides themselves with joy.
Members might want to contact the NRA at all levels to know this is a very bad idea. You can also call them at 1-800-672-3888.
In celebration of Everyone Draw Mohammed Day, I’ve produced my own artistic contribution to the form. I’ve taken as my subject a particular historical even in the life of Mohammed, the Battle of Badr, in 624 AD, in which Mohammed first promised paradise to his followers in battle. The original was rendered in black ink on an 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheet of laser printer paper. I considered digitally cleaning up mistakes, but thought that would detract from the overall “art brut” feel of the piece.
Below find a thumbnail of drawing. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger version.
In addition to (Wahabbist-defined) blasphemy, this work also commits the sin of resurrecting a two-decades stale Saturday Night Live catchphrase.
I think this drawing goes a long way to explain why I’m a writer rather than an artist…
Previous information on “Everyone Draw Mohammed Day” can be found here and here.