Tag Archives: rights

Innocent Man Executed?

10 Replies

Shoot first and ask questions later is bad police policy. Just ask the Brits. Obviously, Jean de Menezes handled the situation poorly and brought unnecessary trouble upon himself. However, that hardly justifies two cops holding him down while a third puts five bullets in his head. This isn’t a case of an innocent suspect being accidentally killed while being subdued during criminal acts. This isn’t like the cases of children with water guns or paintball guns being killed by frightened cops. This was an execution. A man whose guilt in anything had not been established – they merely knew he was "suspicious", belligerent, and fleeing – was caught, immobilized, and executed. There is a fine line between protecting citizens and acting as judge, jury and executioner.

I pray this never happens again.

I’m not holding my breath.

Keeping an Eye on Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania Government

11 Replies

Readers in my state and/or city might find these interesting:

Open Pittsburgh

The current crisis in Pittsburgh didn’t happen overnight. It’s from more than a decade of bad policy and mismanagement by both the Mayor and City Council. As a result, City residents must now suffer and pay for something which was largely perpetrated behind their backs.

But how could this happen? It’s because there is currently no effective mechanism for city residents to learn for themselves what is really going on inside their government and they have been unable to give their informed consent or hold their public officials accountable.

What can we do about it? The best answer is to pass the proposed Open Government Amendment to the Pittsburgh City Charter, but to do that we must first place it on the November 8, 2005 ballot and that requires collecting over 15,000 signatures from Pittsburghers between June 21st and August 7, 2005.

Learn more about the Pittsburgh City Charter Open Government Amendment.

Operation Clean Sweep

Operation Clean Sweep is aimed at one simple goal: cleaning house in the Pennsylvania General Assembly by defeating every single incumbent officeholder up for re-election in 2006.

The current members of the General Assembly have slapped taxpayers in the face by awarding themselves a huge pay increase. While some members did vote "no" on the increase, it is common knowledge that all votes were pre-arranged to protect vulnerable seats.

Operation Clean Sweep is not a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Constitution or Green Party issue. It’s us vs. them. The governed vs. the government. The taxpayers vs. the tax spenders.

Are you outraged at the recent legislative pay raise? Are you fed up? Are you genuinely ready to make a real change in Pennsylvania? If so, this is your chance to set things straight.

In 2006, all 203 members of the House of Representatives and 25 of our 50 Senators must face re-election. With your help, we can give them all a run for their money by seeking out qualified candidates – in non-partisan fashion – to challenge the incumbents in both the Primary and General elections.

These incumbents are betting you will forget this pay raise before the next election. We’re betting you won’t. Together, we can do more than just get mad – we can get even!

Please, join us now…

 

…because taxpayers are not sheep!!!

 

Related news story: Pay raise anger starts boiling over

No Work, No Pay

2 Replies

‘No Work, No Pay’ Law Must Stay on the Books, Taxpayer Group Says

A taxpayer watchdog group is fighting to preserve a “No Work, No Pay” law that requires members of Congress to forfeit their pay when they are absent from Congress – unless they or a family member are ill. It’s an obscure law but still valid – but now the Senate is trying to get rid of it, the National Taxpayers Union warned.

If I didn’t do the job I’m paid to do, I’d probably be fired. If not, I’d at the
very least my pay would be docked. The same is true for just about every other hard-working average Joe taxpayer in this country. Why,
then, do we allow politicians to get away with it? Politicians are public servants. Therefore, they work for the American people. It’s high time we start acting like responsible employers.

Don’t Eat the WMD

2 Replies

Voices for Animals is presenting a film about alleged deceptions about WMDs in Iraq and participating in an anti-war march. Did we blow up a lot of wildlife over there or is this just comical mission creep? This reminds me of some of the shenanigans at the anti-war rally and march just before the war in Iraq. A war protest is not the appropriate time and place to make a fuss about GLBT rights or abortion.

Crimethink?

3 Replies

A couple weeks ago I heard about 11 Christians who were arrested while peacefully
protesting Outfest in Philadelphia. I waited for a few MSM outlets to report it,
but they didn’t. Here are two WorldNetDaily articles about it. I wish I had some
less obviously conservative sources. Any suggestions?

11 Christians arrested at homosexual event
Demonstrators spend 21 hours in jail, charged with felonies

Homosexuals planned Christian harassment
‘OutFest’ organizers announced efforts to block protesters now facing prison

More about crimethink:

Criminalized thoughts?
By Amy Doolittle, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Jokes about political correctness have been around for more than a decade, and many Americans now take for granted conflicts over manger scenes on public property and Christmas carols in public schools. Hostility toward religious expression is no joke, however, to advocates concerned that “hate crimes” laws could be used to rob Americans of religious freedom, which they say is already the case in some parts of Europe.