The Irony Of Being Liberal

Open Hillel at Vassar Because ‘Israel Haters Are People Too’ The Open HIllel campuses refuse to bar speakers who demonize Israel, who advocate legal or economic warfare against the Jewish State, or who believe Israel shouldn't exist as a Jewish State. By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus Published: February 20th, 2014 

: Facebook As went Swarthmore College, so goes Vassar, two tiny liberal arts colleges located in lower Northeastern portion of the United States. Both are incredibly expensive, competitive and uber-liberal. As of Tuesday, Feb. 18, the Vassar Jewish Union became an Open Hillel.

 It should not have come as a big surprise to anyone that Judaism and the Jewish State are not at the top of the list of priorities for the Jewish Union at Vassar College, which is located in Poughkeepsie, New York. The self-description for the VJU Twitter account and on its Facebook page states that it is “an open and welcoming space for all religious backgrounds and interests to come together!”

 So why the need to specifically distance itself from Hillel, given it had already chosen not to use the name? Like the Swarthmore “Jewish” group on campus, the Vassar Jews felt the need to shout from the rooftops, or at least on their website and twitter feeds, that “identification with Israel is not necessarily an integral part of every individual’s Jewish identity, and that Hillel International has certain standards for partnership which the VJU find unacceptable.”

 What can’t the VJU abide? Prohibiting speakers who: “(1) deny the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish and democratic state with secure and recognized borders; 2) Delegitimize, demonize, or apply a double standard to Israel; 3) Support boycott of, divestment from, or sanctions against the State of Israel; and 4) Exhibit a pattern of disruptive behavior towards campus events or guest speakers or foster an atmosphere of incivility.” 

So VJU refuses to bar the door to those who believe the Jewish State should be annihilated, or who insist Israel should be held to a standard that differs from the one to which any other country is held, or who support economic and or legal warfare against the Jewish State. In response to the prohibitions in Hillel International’s standards, 

VJU repeatedly states in its press release announcing its conversion to an “Open Hillel,” that it is non-partisan, will not advocate any particular political opinions, and “will welcome open discourse concerning Israel, Palestine, and any other relevant and critical issues, and will not exclude on the basis of political opinion.” What will happen when someone from the Zionist Organization of America asks to speak at the Vassar Jewish Union? Or someone from a Tea Party group?  Or a Catholic ardent anti-abortion rights advocate? After all, VJU is supposed to be an “open and welcoming space for all religious backgrounds and interests to come together.” 

Lawmakers Are Stupid--Did Raising Drinking Age to 21 Stop Underage Drinking? Nope! If You Don't Believe Us, Go To Any University!

Two States Look to Raise Legal Smoking Age to 21

Friday, 21 Feb 2014 08:35 PM

Share:

A    A   |

   Email Us   |

   Print   |

   Forward Article  |

   Get Short Link

• inShare

Lawmakers in Utah and Colorado are promoting legislation to raise the legal age for tobacco use to 21, a higher standard than imposed by any other state, saying they want to discourage young people from picking up a lifelong smoking habit.Supporters say keeping tobacco out of the hands of young adults will save thousands of lives, even as critics complain that Americans who are old enough to vote and serve in the military should not be deemed too young to decide on their own if they should smoke.
In a dramatic display of the risks of smoking, lawmakers in Utah, a heavily Mormon and conservative state, hosted a wheelchair-bound and oxygen-tank-dependent 86-year-old longtime smoker at a committee hearing this week.
"I think a picture is worth a thousand words. I'm that picture," Betty Lawson, who suffers from smoking-related pulmonary disease, told a Utah Senate health committee on Thursday.
"Nineteen-years-old, I picked up my first cigarette. It's a creeping, insidious thing that has you before you know it and you can't turn loose," she said.
A Utah bill to raise the smoking age to 21 advanced from a committee hearing in the state Capitol on Thursday and now awaits consideration by the full Senate. If passed and signed into law, the legislation would take effect on Jan. 1, 2016, to allow smokers now ages 19 or 20 to turn 21.
A House committee on health, insurance and environment in outdoor-oriented Colorado also advanced its proposed legislation on Thursday with Democratic support. Republicans voted against it.
The Colorado legislation would grandfather-in current tobacco users between ages 18 and 21.
The legal age for the use, purchase or possession of tobacco in most states is 18, including in Colorado. A handful of states — Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey and Utah — have set the smoking age slightly higher at 19.
Last year, New York City and Hawaii County in Hawaii each raised the smoking age to 21, although no state has set the legal smoking age that high.
Data from the Atlanta-based federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate 42 million people, or about 18 percent of all adults, are smokers.
Utah, where many residents are active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints which discourages tobacco use, had the lowest smoking rate in the country in 2011 at about 12 percent. Colorado's smoking rate was about 18 percent that year, CDC data shows.
Utah health data has shown the years between 19 and 21 seem to have significant impact on smoking rates, Heather Borski, director of the state's bureau of health promotions. About 6 percent of Utah 12th graders say they use tobacco, but the number doubles to nearly 13 percent by age 21.
"Nineteen and 20 appear to be a critical transition period," she said.
Opponents of the legislation in both states do not dispute the health concerns that arise from smoking, but argue it is unfair to position the proposals as youth protection bills when those targeted by the legislation are legal adults.
"At what point do we as adults become qualified to make what may be bad decisions?," asked Dave Davis, a lobbyist for Utah's food industry and retail merchant associations.
Colorado state Representative Beth McCann, a Democrat, countered that smoking is a public health matter. "Joining the military and voting are privileges, but smoking is going to kill you or cause health problems and that adds to healthcare costs."
McCann's bill is now set for consideration by a finance committee. Legislative staff estimate that if her proposal became law, the state would lose $5.6 million annually in taxes from tobacco and tobacco-related product sales. Utah fiscal analysts predict a loss of about $2.7 million in taxes.
© 2014 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

Will Republicans Gambit Corner Obama? Doubtful!

House Republicans Set To Take On Emperor Obama’s ‘Pen And Phone’

February 21, 2014 by Sam Rolley 

 75 33

 

 4 251

Based on the context of emails from GOP leadership, House Republicans are poised to launch an offensive against President Barack Obama’s regulatory-laden imperial Presidency in coming weeks.

House Majority leader Eric Cantor recently sent an email to his GOP colleagues calling on the lawmakers to fight to “restore the balance of power created by our Founders.”

“President Obama has provided new clarity as to what constitutes an imperial presidency,” Cantor wrote. “Declaring that he has a ‘pen and a phone,’ he has acted to effectively rewrite the laws of the United States.”

Cantor told the lawmakers that the House GOP leadership’s main focus over the course of the next three weeks will be undoing Obama’s “excessive and burdensome” regulations, which, according to studies cited by the lawmaker, cost small businesses more than $10,000 per employee and in excess of $7000 per employee for larger firms.

“The cost of excessive and burdensome Washington regulations means fewer jobs and reduced salaries for those with a job,” Cantor wrote.

The Hill offers a rundown of three anti-regulation bills set to hit the House floor next week:  

Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte’s (R-Va.) Regulatory Accountability Act topped Cantor’s list, because it would require federal agencies to write regulations that have the smallest economic impact on businesses.

Cantor also mentioned the ALERT Act, introduced by Rep. George Holding (R-N.C.), which he says would require federal agencies to provide timely information about the status and cost of new regulations it is considering. This would prevent “regulators from hiding the ball,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act, introduced by Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), fights what Cantor calls an “abusive” practice where federal agencies will settle lawsuits with liberal groups by agreeing to impose stricter regulations on businesses.

The House GOP also plans to introduce a bill to roll back a portion of Obamacare that requires companies with 50 or more employees to provide healthcare coverage to those working at least 30 hours each week.

“Our plan is to reduce the middle-class squeeze; create an environment for economic growth and job creation; reform our health-care system to one of patient-centered care and lowers costs; and ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to get ahead by accessing a quality education,” Cantor wrote.

FCC Project To Control The News Via In-Station Monitors Is Shelved....For A While.

FCC Backs Away From 1st Amendment-Infringing Plan To ‘Study’ Newsrooms

February 21, 2014 by Ben Bullard 

 27 9

 

 8 80

Facing massive backlash from the public over its announced plan to place government contractors in the newsrooms of TV stations and print media to “study critical information needs,” the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it would abandon the idea only one day after the plan was made public.

The FCC billed its “Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs” as a hands-off way to gauge “perceived station bias” and “perceived responsiveness to underserved populations” by placing monitors at news outlets to observe the degree to which news organizations rely on input from the communities they serve.

But the FCC has absolutely zero authority to regulate print media, and it would introduce unConstitutional infringements by extending the scope of its regulatory practices over broadcast services to include government scrutiny of content and content creation.

“No one’s that stupid – we know exactly what they’re trying to do,” said Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Thursday in an interview with Ajit Pai.

Pai, himself an FCC commissioner, was among the earliest and most vocal critics of the plan. He described its methodology this way:

First, the agency selected eight categories of “critical information” such as the “environment” and “economic opportunities,” that it believes local newscasters should cover. It plans to ask station managers, news directors, journalists, television anchors and on-air reporters to tell the government about their “news philosophy” and how the station ensures that the community gets critical information.

The FCC also wants to wade into office politics. One question for reporters is: “Have you ever suggested coverage of what you consider a story with critical information for your customers that was rejected by management?” Follow-up questions ask for specifics about how editorial discretion is exercised, as well as the reasoning behind the decisions.

The FCC caved today, releasing a statement that tried to control the damage by minimizing the eventual scope of the project and admitting that the study, in its present form at least, reaches too far:

By law, the FCC must report to Congress every three years on the barriers that may prevent  entrepreneurs and small business from competing in the media marketplace, and pursue policies to eliminate those barriers. To fulfill that obligation in a meaningful way, the FCC’s Office of Communications Business Opportunities consulted with academic researchers in 2012 and selected a contractor to design a study which would inform the FCC’s report to Congress. Last summer, the proposed study was put out for public comment and one pilot to test the study design in a single marketplace – Columbia, S.C. – was planned.

However, in the course of FCC review and public comment, concerns were raised that some of the questions may not have been appropriate. Chairman Wheeler agreed that survey questions in the study directed toward media outlet managers, news directors, and reporters overstepped the bounds of what is required. Last week, Chairman Wheeler informed lawmakers that that Commission has no intention of regulating political or other speech of journalists or broadcasters and would be modifying the draft study. Yesterday, the Chairman directed that those questions be removed entirely.

To be clear, media owners and journalists will no longer be asked to participate in the Columbia, S.C. pilot study. The pilot will not be undertaken until a new study design is final. Any subsequent market studies conducted by the FCC, if determined necessary, will not seek participation from or include questions for media owners, news directors or reporters.

Any suggestion that the FCC intends to regulate the speech of news media or plans to put monitors in America’s newsrooms is false. The FCC looks forward to fulfilling its obligation to Congress to report on barriers to entry into the communications marketplace, and is currently revising its proposed study to achieve that goal.

ObamaCrapCare Job Claims Nearly Shot Down By The CBO Report

Hope And Change Explained!

Is There More To The Legalization Of Pot Than Meets The Eye? Do You Agree With Soros?

George Soros, Barack Obama and Eric Holder find yet another way to destroy this country

Read More About: Get the whole country on marijuana food stamps paid unemployment and whatever sexual proclivities that suit your fancy

Share This Post

 2

Soros Bankrolls Pot Legalization
By Art Moore, News Editor
Whistleblower Magazine
February, 2014

LEFTWINO billionaire activist George Soros has been a prime proponent and funder of marijuana legalization in America.
He has been behind most of the successful medical marijuana initiatives in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington since 1996.

And last year, his money was a major factor in the passage of the first laws in the nation allowing recreational use, in Colorado and Washington state. In Washington, backers of the marijuana law outspent their opponents 400 to 1, thanks mostly to Soros and Progressive Insurance Chairman Peter Lewis. Soros’ Drug Policy Alliance and Lewis’ Marijuana Policy Project gave a combined $3.54 million of the $6.2 million raised by New Approach Washington, which led the effort to pass Washington states Initiative 502.
Opponents, meanwhile, raised only $15,995. Soros’ Drug Policy Alliance also gave $1.4 million to the legalization campaign in Colorado.

Meanwhile, New Approach Oregon, a group that hopes to legalize marijuana in Oregon next year, already has reported a $50,000 contribution from Soros’ Drug Policy Alliance, Willamette Week in Oregon reported. The funding is significant, said the paper, nothing that a legalization measure in the state failed in 2012, in part due to lack of funding. “Soros’ deep pockets mean that funding should not be a concern now,” Willamette Week said.

New Approach Oregon is trying to persuade state lawmakers to pass a legislative measure, but also is prepared to launch a ballot-initiative campaign. When Soros donated $1 million to support legalization of recreational marijuana use in California in 2010, he wrote a commentary published in the Wall Street Journal to explain his position on the issue.

“Laws banning marijuana, said Soros, are clearly doing more harm than good.” (HUH!) “The criminalization of marijuana did not prevent marijuana from becoming the most widely used illegal substance in the United States and many other countries ” he argued. “But it did result in extensive costs and negative consequences.”

Endorsing California s Proposition 19 – which was defeated later that year by voters, 53.5 percent to 46.5 percent – Soros said law enforcement agencies spend billions of taxpayer dollars annually “trying to enforce an unenforceable prohibition

He pointed out that the roughly 750,000 arrests made each year for possession of small amounts of marijuana represent more than 40 percent of all drug arrests. And he urged individual states to repeal laws against marijuana use, just as the process of repealing national alcohol prohibition began with individual states.

Soros acknowledged in a Reuters interview in 1997 that he had tried marijuana and enjoyed it. But, he said, “it did not become a habit and I have not tasted it in many years.”

Ethan Nadelmann of the Soros-funded Drug Policy Alliance said at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Denver last October that the world has hit a “tipping point on marijuana” because of what Colorado and Washington did and what Uruguay is going to do,” wrote Accuracy in Media’s Cliff Kincaid. Nadelmann was referring to Uruguay’s decision to legalize marijuana cultivation and distribution. The president of Uruguay, Kincaid pointed out, is a former Marxist-Leninist guerrilla.

Why Are We Not Hearing About This Travesty Or Is It Not PC? Will The Trend Get Worse? We Think So.

BLACK VIOLENCE STRIKES FROM BATON ROUGE TO BROOKLYN

February busy month for victimizing whites, sometimes fatally

Published: 13 hours ago

 COLIN FLAHERTY About | Email | Archive

  Subscribe to feed

• 
• Text smaller
• Text bigger

     207

(Editor’s note: Colin Flaherty has done more reporting than any other journalist on what appears to be a nationwide trend of skyrocketing black-on-white crime, violence and abuse. WND features these reports to counterbalance the virtual blackout by the rest of the media due to their concerns that reporting such incidents would be inflammatory or even racist. WND considers it racist not to report racial abuse solely because of the skin color of the perpetrators or victims.) Videos linked or embedded may contain foul language and violence.

It just won’t stop, this black on white crime. Not even during Black History Month.

This time in Baton Rouge: Another old white dude is dead. His name is John Bannon. The 53-year sports fan moved to Baton Rouge from his native Indiana so he could be close to his beloved LSU Tigers football team.

And his Harley too: He kept it in his living room because he did not have a garage. Can’t do much Harley-riding in Indiana in the winter.

It was 9:30 on a Friday night in early February. Bannon was a few blocks from his home when witnesses say he encountered 19-year-old Windall Lavel Herring and a 15-year-old accomplice. They punched him in the face. His head hit the ground. He lingered for a few weeks, then died.

The Advocate in Baton Rouge says the two teens attacked Bannon in an attempted robbery, or to see who could hit harder or possibly for another reason, police spokesman Cpl. L’Jean McKneely said.

Like lots of other victims of black on white crime, Bannon had a family. And yes, they are trying to figure out why their grandfather, father, brother, uncle and friend is dead.

This is hardly the first black on white violent attack in Baton Rouge. Last May, a black mob attacked a white family who had stopped for gas at a convenience store near a freeway.

The police report describes how one of the attackers “approached the white male victim. The defendant told him he was in the wrong neighborhood and he was not going to make it out.” The victim said that’s when he “was punched and knocked to the ground.”

His wife got out of the car and ran to help her husband. “He continued to struggle with the defendant and was eventually knocked unconscious.” His wife told police, “after running to help her husband, she remembers falling to the ground and (being) knocked unconscious.”

Then the attackers beat the couple’s teenage daughter. The man suffered a broken eye socket, a broken nose and several cuts on the face.

February has been a busy month for black on white violence around the country. Some fatal. A smattering of violence from the last month:

A few days before the attack on Bannon, a group of black people attacked, stabbed and robbed an 86-year-old veteran at his home in Chickasaw, Ala. Like Bannon, he lingered for a few days, then died. Three black people with long criminal histories have been charged in connection with the attack.

Black mobs routinely terrorize cities across the country, but the media and government are silent. Read the detailed account of rampant racial crime in “White Girl Bleed A Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It.”

In Stamford, Conn., a black mob attacked a school administrator and left him with a broken neck and other injuries. In Detroit, a father and son and one other person were tortured and killed and robbed. Then set on fire. Four black people have been arrested.

In Philadelphia, police released a video of five black people who stabbed and robbed a convenience store owner: He lived. This is just one of several robberies of convenience stores caught on video in the Philadelphia area in the same week.

In Minneapolis, 69-year-old Thomas Sonnenberg thought he was helping a black man and his girl friend escape from people who were trying to hurt him. They shot him instead. He died.

In New Orleans, a group of black people ambushed a bike rider and hit him in the face with an aluminum bat. They fractured his skull. This was the second such attack that evening in that area. The first victim suffered a shattered jaw and missing teeth. They lived.

In St. Petersburg, three bicyclists were attacked over a one week period on a popular bike trail. They lived. All the suspects are black.

In a suburb of Indianapolis, police are looking for “four black males who got out of a white SUV and started knocking on windows and doors, trying to get inside” a car belonging to Kyle Jobin. They shot him dead.

In Johnson City, Tenn., witnesses say a group of black people attacked Matthew Brookshire and left him unconscious and bleeding. He lived, but he is in critical condition.

In St. Cloud, Minn., Jesse Smithers received a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty in the killing of Colton Gleason. Smithers was part of a group of six black people who stopped a car, got out and attacked Gleason. Smithers will be eligible for release in five years. Lots of Gleason’s friends still cannot get over it and they remember him on a Facebook page.

In Brooklyn, the site of widespread attention for the dozens of examples of black mob violence directed against Orthodox Jews – many documented in “White Girl Bleed a Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It” – the latest case of the Knockout Game received scant notice outside of the Jewish press. But the Israel National News covered it:

“A young yeshiva student was attacked as he was on his way home. He was attacked just a few feet from the entrance to his home. He struck the Jewish man several times on his head, without saying a word, the student said later. Eventually the student lost consciousness and fell down on the sidewalk. He regained consciousness to find himself lying face down on the cold sidewalk. Amazingly, his attacker was still there.”

In Macon, Ga., 30 black people assaulted five white people, including a mother and infant. They lived. One of the TV news stations called it “a fight.” One of the locals said race had nothing to do with it: “People get jumped everyday,” said Jon’Shea JS Jenkins on his Facebook page. “The fact that there (sic) white means nothing.”

In Baltimore, two black people are under arrest for killing Kimberly Leto with a knife during a burglary. One of the suspects was charged with the burglary six months before in the same house. Just a few days before Leto’s death, an editor for the Baltimore Sun was assaulted in the same neighborhood. His skull is fractured. Ten teeth missing. One black man arrested. John Fogg will live. Probably.

In Cleveland, a black mob attacked a disabled army veteran. They first saw him on a bus, then followed him when left it. They kicked him, punched him, and knocked him down – all the while saying “Knock that boy out! White boy. Cracker. Knock that white boy out.” He lived.

The Hudson Reporter published an account of a a white man in Hoboken who was “struck once on the left side of his face by a man he could only describe as African-American and 5 feet 10 inches tall, said the police report. Another man was with the alleged perpetrator. The victim fell to the ground, and apparently asked his attacker why he had assaulted him, to which the assailant only said, ‘What are you going to do about it?’” He lived.

In Waynesboro, Va., five black people and one white woman have been charged with abducting and killing police captain Kevin Quick.

In Chicago, three black people tried to rob an off duty police officer. The video shows them approaching the cop and pulling a gun as he pumped gas. He turned over his wallet with one hand, and with the other, pulled his gun and shot the assailant in the face. He died.

This does not count other, large-scale episodes of black mob violence in Tampa, Rochester, Indianapolis, Troy (New York), Kansas City and Austin. Plus more assaults in Philadelphia, New Orleans and Los Gatos.

Meanwhile, at Black History Forums around the country, many spoke of the recent conviction of the white man Michael Dunn in the killing of black teenager Jordan Davis for playing his music too loudly.

The liberal stalwart Salon website summed the anger at white violence towards black people: “Michael Dunn and open season on black teenagers: The onslaught of white murder.”

This is not a complete list of racial violence during Black History Month. We still have a week to go.

Black mobs routinely terrorize cities across the country, but the media and government are silent. Read the detailed account of rampant racial crime in “White Girl Bleed A Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It.”

See a trailer for “White Girl Bleed a Lot”:

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/02/black-violence-strikes-from-baton-rouge-to-brooklyn/#C6dtmu3ESIoUYWjQ.99