What’s interesting in the news today?
Open thread, so what have you got?
UPDATE!
Maj. Nadal Hasan has been found guilty on all counts in the Ft. Hood shooting trial.
Can’t find a link yet, but I’ll get it up when one’s available.
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First up, a scathing rebuke for the Obama admin and DoJ.
From JudicialWatch “That kind of whipping from a federal judge has got to hurt though it’s unlikely to deter the administration from spending more taxpayer dollars to file frivolous lawsuits against employers who use the checks to screen job applicants. Judicial Watch wrote about this a few weeks ago when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that enforces the nation’s workplace discrimination laws, sued two large companies that screen criminal background records claiming that the checks disproportionately exclude blacks from hire.
That violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, according to the Obama administration, which has pushed hard to deter companies from using criminal background checks to screen job applicants. Of interesting note is that the EEOC conducts criminal background checks as a condition of employment and credit background checks for most of its positions. For some reason, it’s not discriminatory against minorities when the agency does it.”
“In a scathing 34-page opinion published this week, U.S. District Court Judge Roger Titus lambasted the administration’s expert data, writing that it was “laughable”; “based on unreliable data”; “rife with analytical error”; containing “a plethora of errors and analytical fallacies” and a “mind-boggling number of errors”; “completely unreliable”; “so full of material flaws that any evidence of disparate impact derived from an analysis of its contents must necessarily be disregarded”; “distorted”; “both over and under inclusive”; “cherry-picked”; “worthless”; and “an egregious example of scientific dishonesty.”
There are simply no facts to support a theory of disparate impact, the judge writes, further stating: “By bringing actions of this nature, the EEOC has placed many employers in the “Hobson’s choice” of ignoring criminal history and credit background, thus exposing themselves to potential liability for criminal and fraudulent acts committed by employees, on the one hand, or incurring the wrath of the EEOC for having utilized information deemed fundamental by most employers.”
Ouch.
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Next up, the Manning case gets even worse.
From Today “Bradley Manning, the Army private sentenced to military prison for leaking classified documents, revealed he intends to live out the remainder of his life as a woman.
“I am Chelsea Manning. I am female,” the Army private wrote in a statement read on TODAY Thursday. “Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition.”
““I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility),” Manning continued in the statement. “I look forward to receiving letters from supporters and having the opportunity to write back.”
“Coombs said he is “hoping” that Fort Leavenworth “would do the right thing” and provide hormone therapy for Manning. “If Fort Leavenworth does not, then I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure they are forced to do so.”
So publications like HuffPo are happy to play along with his delusions by calling him Chelsea. And he has other supporters too.
From HuffPo “The military policy against providing hormone therapy to prisoners like Chelsea Manning raises “serious constitutional concerns,” an American Civil Liberties Union official said Thursday.
Chelsea Manning, who used to be known as Bradley Manning, announced Thursday she wants to live her life as a woman. But under military policy, it may be impossible for her to begin making the transition from behind bars as she serves a sentence in relation to her disclosures to WikiLeaks.
“The Army does not provide hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery for gender identity disorder,” Kimberly Lewis, a spokeswoman for the Fort Leavenworth, Kan., military prison where Manning is expected to serve her sentence, told NBC News.”
“”In response to Chelsea Manning’s disclosure that she is female, has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and will be seeking hormone therapy as a part of her transition during her incarceration, public statements by military officials that the Army does not provide hormone therapy to treat gender dysphoria raise serious constitutional concerns,” Chase Strangio, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project, said in a statement.”
Constitutional issues? Give me a break. 🙄
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The Obama admin wants the govt. to rate colleges and define what’s a good school and what isn’t.
From CNSNews “Speaking at the University of Buffalo, President Barack Obama today unveiled an ambitious new plan for the federal government to create a national rating system that will define what a good college is and financially reward or punish colleges depending on how they rank in the government’s system.
He said he intends to have the rating system in placed by the fall of 2015 and intends to work with Congress to enact legislation linking federal aid to colleges to the rating system.
As outlined by Obama, this rating system would look at essentially materialistic and financial characteristics of a college as opposed to intellectual and moral ones.”
How about you mind your own business Mr. President? I can’t help but think you have more pressing matters to attend to, like doing your actual job.
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And we’ll finish with this one. Social justice, left leaning Christian style.
From Breitbart “The NAACP of North Carolina has created a handbook for clergy to enable them to use Bible verses to promote what has been called “Christian Socialism.”
The North Carolina chapter of the NAACP is a “lead organizer of the Moral Monday rallies,” and Rev. William Barber, who is reportedly an “organizer and frequent keynote speaker,” has often used the handbook to denounce Republicans in North Carolina’s legislature for “trying to move the state backwards” by supporting issues like Voter ID laws, which North Carolina’s governor recently signed into law.
Their rallying slogan is, “Forward together, not one step back” and the tax-exempt organization advocates a brand of “Christian Socialism.” The handbook suggests using a Bible verse that offers “an alternative paradigm for interpersonal and communal engagement that can serve as a critical rejoinder to the policies of our state government.”
As Pete Kaliner of WWNC pointed out, the handbook also advocates strong central government for socialist policies while criticizing the North Carolina GOP for one-party rule:”
Sounds like a great idea….. 🙄
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Wandering Views 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2400288/Paula-Deen-SHOOTS-Trayvon-Martin-new-SVU-episode.html
Really? All this needs is a rodeo clown in an Obama mask.
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How about you mind your own business Mr. President? I can’t help but think you have more pressing matters to attend to, like doing your actual job.
Come on, AJ. Don’t you know Mr. Obama is the Campaigner-in-Chief? He doesn’t know how to do anything but campaign. So if he did his job there would be no campaign trips any more.
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I’ve liked SVU over the years (though I rarely watch it now), but they were often known to squeeze in more than a few predictably liberal story lines. Audiences are used to it, of course, and the show isn’t alone in pushing a particular political agenda (always the same side, of course).
I suppose audiences learn to discard it — or, if it’s too heavy-handed, they change the channel or simply turn it off. I hate being preached at in these shows. (I believe it was the Law & Order bunch also that threw in some pointed, eye-rolling anti-Bush lines during election cycles.) They really can’t help themselves. 🙄
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And I can’t resist this — “call me Loretta”
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Love Monty Python
Watching Orange is the New Black on NetFlix there’s an interesting side story about medical treatment in federal facilities. One prisoner fights for her right to maintain the needed hormone treatment to stay a woman while an other discusses with a prison counselor why she should get free dental treatment. She tells him her relatives got free dental while in prison and she should to. A not so subtle reference to what may be the best means for a poor American to get free medical — commit a federal crime. Chelsea/Bradley might have nailed the US military twice ….. exposed the US military crimes and then get the US military to pay for medical treatment.
Actually, Obama pushing for changes to higher education is part of his job. And perhaps tying student loans to quality might help insure students get what they pay for and for profit institutions will need to deliver results for their money. Obama’s trying to ensure a bang for federal bucks here.
Christian Socialism (or the Social Gospel) isn’t new and it is/was a great idea. Its partly responsible for the Canadian social democratic party — the NDP and it has a long history in the Catholic church.
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I was just reading on National Review terrible statistics on Black income in the US: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/356505/reagan-obama-and-butler-mona-charen
Perhaps one reason this government office doesn’t want background checks is because, tragically, such a high percentage of Black men have criminal records?
It is so difficult to get any job these days, it must be even harder for someone who has done their time and gotten out. Prison Fellowship talks about this often.
I’m jst so very sorry.
As to Manning–how can a person so confused and mentally unbalanced have been given authorization to handle sensitive material? I haven’t been following this case, but has anyone even tried to answer those questions?
My husband went through plenty of screening before he became a submariner. I can’t believe the military doesn’t have processes in place to watch for suspicious behavior before handing over codes.
But then, Major Hasan wasn’t shy about his opinions and look what happened there.
The world turned upside down, indeed. 😦
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From the story: As outlined by Obama, this rating system would look at essentially materialistic and financial characteristics of a college as opposed to intellectual and moral ones.”
From HRW’s post: Obama pushing for changes to higher education is part of his job. And perhaps tying student loans to quality might help insure students get what they pay for
My fear is that the measure of quality will get tied to some political ideology by whomever is in office at the time, such that politically Liberal colleges (the vast majority currently) will have a higher quality rating than those that lean Conservative now, but when (if) a Conservative is in power the opposite will happen. I know Mr. Obama says it won’t, nut human nature says otherwise.
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Interesting ….
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/getreligion/2013/08/podcast-has-the-gay-movement-peaked/
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If Obama’s proposals help prevent students from taking on massive debt to attend bottom-feeding institutions like ITT, DeVry, University of Phoenix, etc, it will be worth it.
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