Why Don't They Drug Test Politicians? Obviously They Always Engage In Drunken Behavior! | The Republican Culture War: Drug Testing Welfare Recipients!

ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge temporarily blocked Florida's new law that requires welfare applicants to pass a drug test before receiving benefits on Monday, saying it may violate the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.

Judge Mary Scriven ruled in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of a 35-year-old Navy veteran and single father who sought the benefits while finishing his college degree, but refused to take the test. The judge said there was a good chance plaintiff Luis Lebron would succeed in his challenge to the law based on the Fourth Amendment, which protects individuals from being unfairly searched.

The drug test can reveal a host of private medical facts about the individual, Scriven wrote, adding that she found it "troubling" that the drug tests are not kept confidential like medical records. The results can also be shared with law enforcement officers and a drug abuse hotline.

"This potential interception of positive drug tests by law enforcement implicates a `far more substantial' invasion of privacy than in ordinary civil drug testing cases," Scriven said.

The judge also said Florida didn't show that the drug testing program meets criteria for exceptions to the Fourth Amendment.

The injunction will stay in place until the judge can hold a full hearing on the matter. She didn't say when that hearing will be scheduled.

More than two-dozen states have also proposed drug-testing recipients of welfare or other government assistance, but Florida was the first state to enact such a law in more than a decade. Should any of those states pass a law and face a court challenge, Scriven's ultimate ruling would likely serve as a legal precedent.

The law's proponents include Gov. Rick Scott, who said during his campaign the measure would save $77 million. It's unclear how he arrived at those figures. A spokesman for the Florida Department of Children and Families deferred all comments to the governor's office.

"Drug testing welfare recipients is just a common-sense way to ensure that welfare dollars are used to help children and get parents back to work," said Jackie Schutz, a spokeswoman for Scott. "The governor obviously disagrees with the decision and he will evaluate his options regarding when to appeal."

Earlier this year, Scott also ordered drug testing of new state workers and spot checks of existing state employees under him. But testing was suspended after the American Civil Liberties Union also challenged that policy in a separate lawsuit.

Nearly 1,600 applicants have refused to take the test since testing began in mid-July, but they aren't required to say why. Thirty-two applicants failed the test and more than 7,000 have passed, according to the Department of Children and Families. The majority of positives were for marijuana.

State officials said Monday that applicants previously denied benefits for testing positive or refusing the test could reapply immediately. The Department of Children and Families will also approve all pending applications that await drug test results.

Supporters had argued applicants skipped the test because they knew they would have tested positive for drugs. Applicants must pay $25 to $35 for the test and are reimbursed by the state if they pass. It's unclear if the state has saved money.

Under the Temporary Assistance For Needy Families program, the state gives $180 a month for one person or $364 for a family of four.

Those who test positive for drugs are ineligible for the cash assistance for one year, though passing a drug course can cut that period in half. If they fail a second time, they are ineligible for three years.

Lebron, who is the sole caretaker of his 4-year-old son, said he's "happy that the judge stood up for me and my rights and said the state can't act without a reason or suspicion."

The ACLU says Florida was the first to enact such a law since Michigan tried more than a decade ago. Michigan's random drug testing program for welfare recipients lasted five weeks in 1999 before it was halted by a judge, kicking off a four-year legal battle that ended with an appeals court ruling it unconstitutional.

Like There's Not Enough Anti-Black Videos And Forums Online!

Digital Hate: Report shows bigots' influence on Internet

Exposing bigotry on Facebook, YouTube and other social media

Bigots have ramped up sharply on Facebook, YouTube and other social media, with very anti-social aims -- including racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and Islamophobia -- according to a new report on the topic.

"They come for all the reasons everyone else does," Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said during a recent visit to South Florida. "For bigots, it's a way to reach the mainstream with its message."

Cooper was sharing the results of "Digital Hate," an annual report issued by the Los Angeles-based center.

The 13th annual report analyzes the spread of prejudice over blogs, message boards and other new media.

The rabbi was in South Florida to share the material with religious leaders, alerting them on what to watch for.

He plans to return in mid-April to brief law enforcement officers and political leaders, he said. And he has plenty to share.

The current report counts 14,000 sites, up from 11,500 just last year. They're run by everything from Klansmen to neo-Nazis to radical Muslims to Bulgarian, Japanese and other nationalist extremists.

And they're increasingly using otherwise legitimate sites like Twitter, MediaFire, even eBay. The report says "Arrahmah.com" uses the Flickr.com photo-sharing site to post free wallpapers, or desktop computer pictures, glorifying the three terrorists who bombed a nightclub in Bali in 2002.

They even spoof or imitate other sites, the Wiesenthal researchers have found. "Real Zionist News" looks like a Jewish newsfeed, but the articles instead say Jews control the White House and are attacking Christianity worldwide.

That's a standard theme of anti-Semites: that Jews control nations from behind the scenes. "800 Pound Gorilla," which uses the Wordpress blogging site, blames Jews for the terrorist attacks of 9-11. The site also denies the Holocaust and connects Kaballah with Freemasonry.

Bigots also have their own music stars. Alcoholocaust is best known for its black-hating and Jew-hating song "Joo Slaughter," posted on YouTube. People Haters produced "Day of the Rope," which adds gays to the death-wish list -- to a background of giggling children.

The "subculture of hate," as the Wiesenthal Center calls it, includes hate games. "Ethnic Cleansing" lets a player hunt blacks, Jews and Hispanics. And in an Iranian version of the old game "Snakes and Ladders," the snakes bear British and Israeli flags and Obama's face, the Wiesenthal report says.

Distortions even creep onto otherwise legitimate sites. Answering-christianity.com, which tries to persuade Christians to become Muslims, says the whole United States is the Antichrist. The site also argues that the 9-11 terrorist attack was an "inside terrorist job" of the U.S. and the Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.

The Wiesenthal report also notes a rise in online attacks against religious and ethnic communities.

"Bulgarian National Union" is an anti-immigrant, anti-gypsy and homophobic group, the Wiesenthal Center says. "Zaitokukai" focuses Japanese resentment against Koreans, Chinese and Christians in Japan. The group has grown almost purely through the web, Cooper says.

And the hate often goes beyond words. Several sites offer instructions for making poisons, explosives and cell phone detonators. "Black Tearful Days," a posting in December on several jihadist sites, has diagrams showing how to place bombs in a vest and an SUV.

"If you believe in religious freedom, you're committed to a world in which families should be able to go to prayers and return to their homes without fear of intimidation or violence," Cooper said.

Computers themselves become weapons. Members of a group based in Algeria, Turkey and Morocco say they hacked several Israeli websites, including jerusalemonline.com, the Wiesenthal report says. Reposting on the Al Qassam forum, they showed pictures and propaganda that they'd planted.

Cooper shares the "Digital Hate" report not only with local groups, but also the FBI and Homeland Security.

The group's website, wiesenthal.com, also sells the CD to the public for $20.

Finally, the Internet can police itself, the rabbi says. Social site managers can ban users who violate terms-of-service-agreements, which usually cover bigotry.

Once alerted, Facebook took down "Burn a Jew Day," "Kill a Jew Day" and "Kill a Jew Year." The site has also removed pages by Canadian neo-Nazi Kevin Goudreau. Each time, however, Goudreau simply starts another page -- more than 20 times thus far.

Cooper smiles. "Facebook is our biggest problem and our biggest ally."

Matt Drudge has cool new white supremacist fans!

The neo-confederate Council of Conservatives Citizens notes that the Drudge Report looks like their site these days 

By Alex Pareene 

 

AP Matt Drudge

Remember how news aggregator Matt Drudge has basically turned his site into a one-stop shop for news about black people being scary? ThinkProgress has found some people who are really excited about this development. They are, of course, the white supremacists of the Council of Conservative Citizens.

ThinkProgress and the Southern Poverty Law Center report that the neo-confederate CCC recently crowed on their website that Mr. Drudge's famous report looked remarkably like their own work.

"Drudge Report currently resembles CofCC.org," goes the headline.. (Heads up: link goes to neo-confederate white supremacist site!) "The extremely popular news aggregate Drudge Report appears to be the only major news outlet bringing up the astronomical amount of black crime taking place." And then there is the link to Drudge's list of all the "melees" and "chaos" that happened during a holiday weekend when lots of drunk revelers across the nation sometimes get rowdy (and are sometimes shot dead, by police officers).

So: Nice new friends you have made, Matt.

You know how every so often the lamestream media publishes or airs a bunch of stories about how influential and important Matt Drudge is? And it's proper "news" when he hires right-wing journalists to help him "cover" the elections or even when he simply promotes a friend's book? How come no one besides a couple commie liberal bloggers has actually said anything about Matt Drudge's impossible-to-ignore habit of blatant, shameless race-baiting, exactly?

Ohio: Racist Fliers Distributed Where Teen Shooting Deaths Occurred!

Kareem Elgazzar/Staff photographer Amy Hosier, 35, of Deerfield Twp., shows one of the many fliers she picked up off of cars in her neighborhood, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011. "If I saw (the fliers), I threw them away, " she said. There's never a reason any of it should happen." 
 
By Denise Callahan and Gin Ando, Staff Writers 6:21 PM Tuesday, August 9, 2011

DEERFIELD TWP. — A national organization has targeted a neighborhood here to pass out raciest fliers pertaining to the Aug. 3 shooting deaths of two teenagers.

The National Alliance placed the racist letters on car windshields, telephone poles and on doors in the area of the Four Paws Grooming and Kennel on Landen Road.

Four Paws is where Troy Penn, an 18-year-old black Kings High School senior, and shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, 17-year-old Amanda Borsos, with a shotgun. He then fled the scene and staged a brief standoff in his nearby home before killing himself with the same gun.

The letter is addressed to “White Parents” and warns “Don’t let your daughter date blacks, it might be a matter of life and death.” The two-page diatribe attacks blacks and those of Jewish faith and refers specifically to the murder-suicide.

Warren County Sheriff Larry Sims said nothing in the fledgling investigation into the murder-suicide points to a racial motivation. He said it looks as if the incident was over a breakup.

Sims’ office is investigating who is passing out the fliers.

“On the surface we don’t know that there is anything criminally wrong, but they certainly are inciting,” he said. “The language in there is certainly very disturbing, we’d like to know the motivation behind it. There is no indication at all this homicide-suicide was racially driven.”

Sims said the flyers began appearing on cars and telephone poles, and one was even posted on the day care sometime after midnight on Tuesday.

The National Alliance is located in Hillsboro, W. Va., according to the group’s website. The group is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks such organizations. The National Alliance was for decades the most dangerous and best organized neo-Nazi formation in America, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

A neighbor who lives near Penn’s home, Amy Hosier, has been collecting and disposing of the “offensive” messages.

“If I saw (the fliers), I threw them away. There’s never a reason any of it should happen,” she said.

“Anytime they can get their pedestal and soapbox, they do.”

The owner of Four Paws, Rob Ashe, who was Borsos’ boss, said his staff was upset when they arrived to work.

“The staff came in this morning and they were disgusted,” Ashe said.

Sims said it will be a couple weeks before they are finished with the shooting investigation, including where Penn got the shotgun.

Borsos was buried on Saturday and funeral arrangements for Penn have been kept private.

CREDIT! Charge it to the Republicans.

HATERS GONNA HATE - 
OSAMA BIN LADEN EDITION

I am starting to notice this pattern of what goes on in the mainstream press. The very fact that one president accomplished a difficult mission with success, his critics want to blame him for not crediting the predecessor.

President Barack Obama successfully order the capture or kill of a major terrorist. He succeeds in ordering Navy SEALs to find Osama bin Laden in a town outside of Islamabad, Pakistan. Although the official analysis of the mission is still being detailed, many of his critics felt that former president George W. Bush and his administration deserves most of the credit.

Republicans in less than 24 hours crediting Bush for the negligent interrogations and torture of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Military Base prison. The conservatives fault President Obama for giving a proper burial of bin Laden and not releasing the graphic photos of the dead. Potential presidential candidates are trying their best not to credit Obama for the mission's success.

Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee give praise to the mission, but avoid thanking President Obama for the mission's success.

And even as Rasmussen Polls say no significant bump and the Drudge Report goes forth with the usual race-baiting stories, conservatives are really desperate overlook the fact that a major headache to the United States is no longer among us.

President Obama gets a strong bump in his handling of terrorism, foreign policies and national defense. But still low marks on economy and job production. The Republicans look forward to paint the economy to Obama's domestic polices.

Salon has written an article to the narrative the credit issue.
http://www.salon.com/news/osama_bin_laden/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/05/03/osama_reactions_guide

Expect these talking points from either a conservative or a Republican 


This was all thanks to George W. Bush
This was also thanks to torture
Liberals (and Obama) are not happy enough about bin Laden's death
Bill Clinton is responsible for 9/11
Osama bin Laden wasn't such a big deal anyway
Burying him at sea is a slap in the face to 9/11 victims 
Full-on conspiracy theories - The beginning of the Deather Movement, continuation of the 9/11 Truthers, and the Birther Movement.

Eni, Meeny, Miny, Birther....

Why can't Obama ever show his long-form birth certificate?

He spent millions of dollars trying to hide this!

No matter what [liberals/fact-checkers/Barack Obama] says, he still hasn't provided evidence to prove he's a natural born citizen!

He never showed his college transcripts from Occidental College. His grandma says he was born in Kenya. His legal name is Berry Soetoro. He's actually a Muslim who masquerades a Christian. Of course, he attended a Black Liberation Church with an anti-American racist pastor named Jeremiah Wright!

Expect this from a conservative viewer.

The notorious Birther Movement is alive and well.

CBS/New York Times Poll states that nearly a quarter of Americans believe that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Among all Republicans, 45 percent believe he was born in another country, as do 45 percent of Tea Party supporters, the poll shows.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20056061-503544.html

Even with the amount of evidence to debunk the claims, conservatives refuse to believe that the President Of The United States is legitimate.

Jan Brewer: Will Not Satisify Birthers!

Republican governor who recently called upon citizens for civil discourse is finally seeing sanity. The controversial governor vetoes a law that requires those who run for president to produce proof of United States citizenship. Jan Brewer also vetoes a law that would require gun owners to carry on public institutions and colleges. This may have pissed off the Tea Party with this one.

Brewer Vetoes Birther Bill In Arizona

Eric Kleefeld | April 18, 2011, 10:28PM Talking Points Memo

Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ), who has been a darling on the right for her battles with the Obama administration over illegal immigration, health care and other issues, has now taken a potentially bold step against the Tea Party base: She has vetoed a "birther bill" -- a piece of legislation motivated by conspiracy theories about President Obama place of birth, requiring candidates for public office to submit proof of U.S. citizenship to the state Secretary of State before they could appear on the state's ballot.

"I do not support designating one person as the gatekeeper to the ballot for a candidate, which could lead to arbitrary or politically motivated decisions," Brewer said in her veto message, the Associated Press reports. Brewer herself is a former Arizona Secretary of State.

"In addition, I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for president of the greatest and most powerful nation on Earth to submit their early baptismal circumcision certificates' among other records to the Arizona secretary of state. This is a bridge too far."

Earlier, Brewer had foreshadowed her decision with skeptical statements about the bill: "I think my big concern probably, just shooting a little bit from the hip, is the fact that I don't know if we regulate federal elections."

It should be noted, however, that the bill had previously passed the legislature with margins that would potentially be veto-proof: 20-9 in the Senate, and 40-16 in the House. The question, then, is whether Brewer's veto would take the wind out of the bill's sails or if its backers will try to override the veto and be able to hold on to their numbers.

If You Were A King, Who Would You Vote For? (Part 1)

REPUBLICANS AND MARTIN LUTHER KING

I made a video denouncing Republicans lame attempt to court Black voters with this "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Was A Republican" campaign. Also took a parting shot at NPR and Fox News commentator Juan Williams.

if you are annoyed with Republicans and conservatives pushing this "Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican", tell them the Democratic Party can claim the first black president and first woman House Speaker. Barack Obama was endorsed by Bernice King and Martin Luther King III, the leaders of the SCLC.

No matter how hard, France Rice and her Black Republicans tried, they failed in bring Blacks to the Republican Party. Just 12% of Blacks support the Republican Party.

The treatment of Michael Steele also shows that the Republicans have no patience for people who don't fit the agenda.

Conservatives whether they are Democrat or Republican harbor bigoted views towards, Blacks, Hispanics, Middle Eastern American, GLBT, and women.

Even though many who were close to the preacher claim that King was nonpartisan, this rumor was spewed on the internet by Rice and a former SCLC worker by the name of
Alveda King who was the niece of Dr. King.

Francis Rice her organization the National Black Republican Association tried to murky the Democratic primaries by present the tired Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican. Thankfully this woman and her group were properly dismissed by many including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

The National Black Republicans Association (NBRA) is a Florida based group of African American conservatives. NBRA is led by Dr. Frances Rice, a staunch conservative who is an African American. Rice was former lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force, by my account. Her group is funded by the Heritage Foundation and has at most over 100 members. http://nbra.info/

Lynn Swann, Michael Steele and J. Kenneth (Ken) Blackwell were the first Republican African Americans from their home state to run for higher political office. Swann lost in a race for Pennsylvania governor. Steele lost in a U.S. Senate race in Maryland, then later ran for the National Republican Chairman's position. Blackwell lost in a race for governor for Ohio. So far the only achievements in the Congress since J.C. Watts, Jr. are freshman Tea Party Republican Congressmen Allen West of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina.

I can't say much about Michael Steele, these days. He embroiled in a major scandal right now and is at the verge of being fired by Republicans. He stumbled by apologize to Rush Limbaugh, spending on his book tour and lavish parties. Steele, a moderate Black Republican claims he's a conservative.

Did anyone remind these clowns on the right that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was nonpartisan?

Did anyone remind these clowns on the right that, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King were considered liberal for their views on civil rights, human rights, stance against the Vietnam War and concerns for poverty?

Did anyone remind these clowns that 1960s New York Congressman Emanuel Celler, Democrat drafted the bill? By the way, he was a White Jewish man who pushed for equal rights.

Did these clowns on the right happen to mention that the 88th and 89th United States Congress was controlled by Democratic Party?

Did anyone remind these clowns about Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, Arizona Senator Berry Goldwater, both Republicans and their stances on civil rights?

Did anyone remind these clowns on the right about J. Edgar Hoover's attempts to label Dr. King a "communist" and "socialist"? It's kind of like today's modern conservatives are attacking President Obama by labeling him as such!

Did anyone remind these clowns about current West Virgina Senator Robert Byrd, denouncing his past and endorsing then-senator Barack Obama for president?

Can someone remind the Republicans that non-whites (Black, Hispanic, Arab, Asian, and Native Americans) have very little support for the party today! In the 2006 Midterm Elections, the GOP won 51% of white votes, 37% of Asian votes, and 30% of Hispanic votes, while winning only 10% of Black votes.

Can someone remind the Republicans, that the Democratic Party can claim the first Black president?

I'm just saying!

Today's Republican Party is embolden in the divisive politics once practiced 50 years ago. They have no concerns about Civil Rights! They are not reaching out to non-white voters. And sure the Republicans this year won the midterms with gains and least members of Congress who are non-white, their positions are setbacks to the achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Anyone who harbors conservative views, whether they are Democrat, Republican or Independent are single issue voters who have a bigoted view of Blacks, Hispanics, Arab Americans, Native Americans, women and GLBT.

I am not a race-baiter or a Democrat. I am an independent voter who is socially liberal, fiscally conservative. Pretty much a moderate. I don't follow groups and you are not my brother. I have a sister.

Tea Party Comics

The conservatives are standing far away from this outrageous comic produced by some underground comic book artist. This person attracted a lot of attention due to the fact the depiction of President Obama in blackface and racial stereotypes seems to be the outlet of the comic.

Oh, I return on Friday the 13.