Hey, Boston: Leave Chick-fil-A Alone

by Michelle Malkin

It's one thing for Hollywood moppets and television Muppets to protest Chick-fil-A over the fast-food chain president's support for traditional marriage. They're private citizens and entities. But when an elected public official wields the club of government against a Christian business in the name of "tolerance," it's not harmless kid stuff. It's chilling.

This week, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino declared, "Chick-fil-A doesn't belong in Boston." He recklessly slandered the company by accusing it of "discriminat(ing) against the population." And he warned ominously: "If they need licenses in the city, it will be very difficult -- unless they open up their policies."

Drawing on the city's history, he railed against the restaurant empire's plans to build a franchise near a famed path: "We're an open city. We're a city that's at the forefront of inclusion. That's the Freedom Trail. That's where it all started right here. And we're not going to have a company, Chick-fil-A or whatever the hell the name is, on our Freedom Trail."

Poverty is on track to rise to the highest nationwide levels since the 1960s. Boston's jobless rate has been stuck at 6 percent. The city's May employment numbers were revised downward for the second month in a row; in June, the city shed 2,600 jobs. Chick-fil-A employs some 50,000 workers across the country at 1,500 outlets in nearly 40 states and the District of Columbia. The company generates more than $2 billion in annual revenues and serves millions of happy customers looking for affordable food in a family-friendly setting.

Menino must have a darned good reason for meddling with government licensing decisions and turning away one of America's most successful private employers, right?

Wrong. Menino's beef with the beloved chicken sandwich supplier is as full of holes as Chick-fil-A's trademark waffle fries. It's Menino who is engaging in blatant viewpoint and religious discrimination against an out-and-proud company whose leadership embraces biblically based principles and values.

In an interview with the Baptist Press last month, Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy talked about his personal support of traditional family values and fidelity. "(Guilty) as charged," he told the reporter. "We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that."

As I reported last year, the Cathy family's commitments to "glorify God" and "enrich the lives of everyone we touch" have made them public enemies of the progressive left. Never mind that the company's community service initiatives have supported foster care, summer camp scholarships and marriage enrichment. Never mind Chick-fil-A's family-strengthening and faith-enhancing decision to forgo profits and close every Sunday to give workers a day of worship and rest.

Anti-Christian organizers have been staging boycotts and smear campaigns against "anti-gay" Chick-fil-A for the past year. An activist lesbian reporter for The New York Times poured fuel on the fire. The proprietors of The Muppets are just the latest to take a public stand.

It's their right. It's also the right of Chick-fil-A supporters to organize social media campaigns, exercise their free speech and exercise the power of their pocketbooks to back the company.

What's disturbing is the flippant schadenfreude with which Tinseltown starlets such as actress Eliza Dushku are cheering Menino's threat to Chick-fil-A's First Amendment rights. "That's right, B!" she tweeted along with a link to Menino's attack. What's galling is the self-serving smugness of PC police such as Menino, who defended his vendetta against Chick-fil-A by bragging, "We're a leader when it comes to social justice and opportunities for all."

Social justice and economic opportunity "for all" -- as long as you hold the proper political and social views. This is ugly repressive civility enforced with government brass knuckles. Boston's Founding Fathers must be steaming in their graves.

Obama vs America

by Joel B. Pollak 18 Jul 2012

As the Obama campaign and the media continue to press Mitt Romney to release more of his tax returns, and to suggest--without a shred of evidence--that he is a “felon,” it is worth noting how much critical information Barack Obama has withheld from view--both as a candidate in 2008, and during his term in office. Here is a Breitbart News top ten list of things that Obama has refused to release (a complete list would fill volumes):

10. State senate papers. In the 2008 primary, Obama criticized Hillary Clinton for not releasing papers from her eight years as First Lady--but failed to produce any papers from his eight years in Springfield. “They could have been thrown out,” he said.

9. Academic transcripts. His supposed academic brilliance was a major selling point, but Obama (by his own admission) was a mediocre student. His GPA at Occidental was a B-plus at best, and his entering class at Columbia was weak. Can he prove his merit?

8. Book proposal. Obama’s literary agent claimed he was “born in Kenya”--for sixteen years. His original book proposal exists--biographer David Maraniss refers to it--and seems to have embellished other key details of his life. Yet it has never been released.

7. Medical records. In 2000, and again (briefly) in 2008, GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain released thousands of pages of his medical records. Obama, who had abused drugs and continued smoking, merely provided a one-page doctor’s note.

6. Small-dollar donors. In 2008, the McCain campaign released the names of donors who had contributed less than $200, though it was not required to do so. But the Obama campaign refused, amidst accusations it had accepted illegal foreign contributions.

5. The Khalidi tape. In 2003, Obama attended a party for his good friend, the radical Palestinian academic Rashid Khalidi. The event featured incendiary anti-Israel rhetoric. The LA Times broke the story, but has refused to release the tape--and so has Obama.

4. The real White House guest list. Touting its transparency, the Obama White House released its guest logs--but kept many visits secret, and moved meetings with lobbyists off-site. It also refused to confirm the identities of visitors like Bertha Lewis of ACORN.

3. Countless FOIA requests. The Obama administration has been described as “the worst” ever in complying with Freedom of Information Act requests for documents. It has also punished whistleblowers like David Walpin, who exposed cronyism in Americorps.

2. Health reform negotiations. Candidate Obama promised that health care reform negotiations would be televised on C-SPAN. Instead, there were back-room deals worth millions with lobbyists and legislators--the details of which are only beginning to emerge.

1. Fast and Furious documents. After months of stonewalling Congress, Attorney General Eric Holder asked President Obama to use executive privilege to conceal thousands of documents related to the deadly scandal--and Obama did just that.

In addition to the above, Obama and his campaign have lied about many facts about his past--his membership in the New Party; his extensive connections with ACORN; and his continued relationship with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright, among other examples. Obama’s own memoir is filled with fabrications. And now he is lying about his opponent’s honorable record in business. He--and the media--have no shame.

Hussein Obama and Jobs

President Obama seems to have just given up on the economy. He hasn’t convened a meeting with his jobs council in six months, but has held more than a hundred fundraisers for his campaign. The only job he is interested in saving is his own.

It should be Palin time at the Republican Nation Convention

Posted by Judson Phillips on July 17, 2012 at 4:46pm in Tea Party Nation Forum

Why isn’t Sarah Palin being invited to speak at the Republican National Convention?

There are a couple of reasons.  They are both bad.

What are they and why should she have a prime time speaking slot at the convention?

The first reason Sarah Palin is being excluded is simple payback.  Anyone remember the day Mitt Romney officially kicked off his presidential campaign in New Hampshire?   Do you remember what else was going on that day?

Sarah Palin rolled through New Hampshire on her bus tour.  It rained on Romney’s parade.  Whether she did it on purpose or it was just one of those things that happened is subject to debate.  The people who know aren’t talking and it is in the past so there is no reason to talk about it now.

While payback is certain a major consideration, there is another reason why the Romney campaign does not want Sarah Palin at the convention.

What ever else you want to say about her, no one denies she is an electrifying speaker.  She lights up an audience.  She did it in 2008.  She overshadowed John McCain with her speech and if she is given the prime time speech she deserves in Tampa, she will blow Romney away.

Romney and his people do not want someone overshadowing the nominee.  It is a good point.  However, the fact that Romney is not a charismatic speaker is his problem.

Denying Sarah Palin a speaking role at the convention creates another problem.

No other major figure has been as associated with the Tea Party movement in the last three years than Sarah Palin.  From her first speech at the National Tea Party Convention in 2010 to her speeches at CPAC and at the Tea Party Express rallies, she is identified with the Tea Party movement.

The Tea Party movement is something Romney does not want to deal with.  He ran his campaign specifically ignoring the Tea Party.  He has given no nod to the Tea Party.  His team has not reached out to any of the major Tea Party groups.

Someone needs to remember where we were four years ago.  Four years ago, the Republican Party was on the endangered species list.  It had been killed in the 2006 elections and was about to be destroyed in the 2008 elections.

Who was the person who lit up the Republican Presidential campaign in 2008?

What group has revitalized the Republican Party?  Here’s a hint, it was not the Romney campaign.

There are only a few prime time slots available at the Republican Convention.  The Republicans need to show some gratitude to the Tea Party movement for saving it.  There are a lot of ways they can show some appreciation.

One of them is to give Sarah Palin a prime time speaking slot.

Cuban Blog - The Self-Employed and the “Mules”

 

Yoani Sánchez

Generation Y is a Blog inspired by people like me, with names that start with or contain a "Y". Born in Cuba in the '70s and '80s, marked by schools in the countryside, Russian cartoons, illegal emigration and frustration. So I invite, especially, Yanisleidi, Yoandri, Yusimí, Yuniesky and others who carry their "Y's" to read me and to write to me.

The Self-Employed and the “Mules”

The pepper is of carved wood and a seasoning container on the table says “Sedano’s” in green letters. The private restaurant waits for the supplies that will arrive this Saturday in an enormous delivery transported by a “mula” — a mule. If the delivery is even a day late, many of the items offered on the menu might not be available because a good part of “the pots, the condiments, the supplies for the tables, the cream, and even the coffee” comes from Florida, according to what the owner of the place tells me. Since they opened the doors they have been sustained thanks to a flood of food and supplies coming in through the Havana airport. “It’s not that we don’t like domestic products, it’s that there isn’t a steady supply of them of the necessary quality. So we have to go with what is safe,” the Chef tells me, while opening a package of imported pasta.

The alarm extends among the small private businesses created in recent years. Of the 387,275 self-employed workers as of the end of May, it’s difficult to estimate how many of them depend on what travelers carry in their luggage. But the number must be very high. The manicurist needs the nail polish and the polish remover sent by a relative in Miami and the man who organizes children’s parties receives balloons and candy from his brother living in Orlando. Now, this semi-alternative commercial network is in danger from new customs regulations. The first of them went into effect on June 18, and reinstated the taxes on food imports. A common measure in many countries around the world, but one that puts a brake on small business development in a nation marked by shortages, the absence of wholesale markets, and the high price of food products. If we have seen a flourishing of snack bars on the central streets of the capital, and yellow pages filled with ads, it has been, to a great degree, thanks to the package services from the north.

The situation will become more difficult once the new regulations announced Monday go into effect; starting on September 3 a tariff will be levied on personal items whose value exceeds 50 Cuban pesos, about two dollars. A tough blow to the self-employed and also for all Cubans who have managed to improve their diets and wardrobes with these foreign products. If the measures are focused on raising as much cash as possible through customs and legally regulating what was working outside its control, the government will probably achieve its objective. But it will also have an immediate and extremely negative impact on the development of the private sector. It won’t be unexpected if, within days, we hear from the mouths of the self-employed phrases such as “we can no longer do this work because the package of raw materials hasn’t come yet,” or “we used to prepare this dish when the mulas came more often.” And only then will we perceive the real importance of this commerce — incalculable and vital — that travels inside suitcases.

—————-

If the concept of “mule” is taken in the rest of the world as someone who transports drugs, in Cuba it refers to those who — particularly from the United States — carry packages that almost always contain such things as clothing, shoes, non-perishable food, small appliances, food mixes, medicines and household items. The mula is paid for this messenger service and often the cost of the ticket to the island is paid for as a part of the agreement with the agency that hires them.

Only 3 Times. . . Only 3

In all the years since D-Day 1945, there are three occasions when a president failed to go to the D-Day Monument that honors the soldiers killed during the Invasion. Only Three Times.

The occasions were:
1. Barack Obama 2010
2. Barack Obama 2011
3. Barack Obama 2012
For the past 68 years, all presidents, except Obama, have paid tribute to the fallen soldiers killed on D-Day.

This year, instead of honoring the soldiers, he made a campaign trip on Air Force 1 to California to raise funds for the upcoming election.

Mitt Romney

8 Reasons to Dislike Romney
A lot is being said in the media about Mitt Romney not being "likable" or that he doesn't "relate" well to people. We struggled to understand why...he is after all, drop dead handsome, has a beautiful wife.....isn't that enough to ensure popularity for most Americans?
So after much research, we have come up with a Top Eight list to explain this unlikablility.

Top Eight Reasons To Dislike Mitt Romney
1. Successful, self-made businessman. (Dad didn't give him a hand-out; he and Ann had to make it on their own)

2. Been married to ONE woman his entire life, and has been FAITHFUL to her.

3. No scandals or skeletons in his closet. (How boring is that?)

4. Has pots of money (made it all himself) and since nobody else in this country has any desire to have pots of money....we don't like him!!!

5. Has a family of great boys....none of them are in drug rehab.

6. Doesn't smoke (even in secret), drink alcohol, or do drugs (not even in college, where other people were NOT inhaling)

7. Represents an America of "yesterday", where people believed in God, went to Church, didn't screw around, worked hard, and became a SUCCESS! (We can't relate to such an anachronism)

8. Oh yes.....he's a MORMON. That horrible religion that teaches its members to be clean-living, patriotic, fiscally conservative, charitable, self-reliant, honest, upright and MORAL!

And one more point.....pundits say because of his wealth, he can't relate to ordinary Americans. I guess that's because he made that money ALL BY HIMSELF.....as opposed to marrying it (as in John Kerry) or inheriting it from Dad (as in Jack, Robert & Ted Kennedy.) We didn't understand that actually working at a job and earning your own money made you un-relatable to Americans.
Strange.

Punting Against America

Punting against America.

• Posted by Judson Phillips on July 12, 2012 at 8:08am in Tea Party Nation Forum

Just in case you missed it, America is a nation that was designed by geniuses and is now run by idiots.   We can also add that our nation is run by gutless, self-centered cowards too.

What is going on that requires stating the obvious?

The gutless cowards we call the Senate and Congress are now working a plan to punt the so-called sequestration for another year.

First, the sequestration was a horrible idea.  John Boehner, instead of standing and fighting, he raised his freshly laundered white flag of surrender and gave us sequestration.

Sequestration is the process of automatic budget cuts if the Congress could not agree on a specified amount of budget cuts. 

Barack Obama and the Party of Treason loved sequestration because half the cuts if sequestration were invoked would come from the Department of Defense and one of Obama’s long standing goals has to destroy America as a military superpower.

The budget is out of control.  While members of Congress are now seriously looking at ways to avoid the catastrophic defense budget cuts, they are not serious about cutting spending.

We have hundreds of billions of dollars in waste in the Federal Budget.  When is the government going to cut the waste?  We have hundreds of billions of dollars in spending that exists only to help get politicians reelected.  When is that going to be cut?

Oh wait, according to the politicians in Washington think that is more important than minor details such as defending the nation.

Now the pressure is building in congress, including among Republicans for new “revenues” for the government.

So here is the thirty-five cent question.  Are the politicians in Washington going to listen before or after we have an economic collapse?   My money is on after the collapse because so many of these politicians do not even have a room temperature IQ.  Most of them don’t have an IQ that could thaw ice.

John McCain and Lindsay Graham are leading the charge on punting sequestration.

One thing is certain.  You know when Graham and McCain get together on something, anything, you can oppose it just on general principles and probably be right.

Graham and McCain are believers in the P.T. Barnum School of politics, believing there is a sucker born every minute and they are all voters.   The so-called “offsets” or cuts are going to be non-existent.  They are going to be numbers made up by the Congressional Budget Office.    The CBO is the Indianapolis Colts of politics, except the Colts have a better chance of winning than the CBO has of getting anything right.

The numbers will exist on paper.   It will be the equivalent of me taking my bank statement and adding a couple of zeros to my account balance.   It might make me think I am rich, but the reality will be I am just as broke as I was before I took my pen to the bank statement.

The real danger is the pressure in Republican circles to raise taxes.

The Taxpayer Protection Pledge of Americans for Tax Reform is the standard by which Republican anti-tax beliefs are measured.  Most Republicans have signed the pledge.

Yet within Congress, a number of Republicans have turned their backs on the pledge not to raise taxes.  Even more Republicans are threatening to go squishy and raise taxes.

The problem is not revenue.   It is spending.

In a hearing in 2011, the GAO could not even identify the number of welfare programs the government had, how much money was being spent or even whether the programs were effective.

Instead of gutting defense spending, which is something the Constitution mandates, why don’t we cut wasteful government spending?

With hundreds of billions of dollars of identified government waste, why aren’t McCain and Graham out making those cuts?  The answer is, they are clueless Washington politicians.

Killing, not punting sequestration is a good idea.  Even Leon Panetta, the Secretary of Defense says the cuts in defense spending would be devastating. 

We need real budget cuts.  We need to eliminate the programs that are wasteful or that have just completely failed.

Unfortunately with McCain and Graham leading the charge what we are going to end up with are phantom budget cuts along with real tax and fee increases.

In short, America is sinking faster than an Italian cruise ship and Graham and McCain simply want to order more lasagna.

Being Liberal means being a Hypocrite