This past weekend, in Oakland, CA, four police officers were murdered by something that went by the name of Lovelle Mixon. I use the term “something” to describe this murderer because I cannot classify him as human. The instinct is to call him an animal; but that would be an insult to animals. Animals don’t kill for pleasure. They kill because it’s what they must do to eat. The word “monster” sounds a bit trite, but it is a more accurate term.
Story on the incidents surrounding the murders
Burning in hell?
The only happy news to come out of this story is that this monster was eventually killed as a result of his own actions when he fired upon the police that had stormed the apartment he was using as a refuge. It is not up to anyone here on earth to decide who gets to spend an eternity in hell. That choice is only for the Lord Himself to make. But if Lovelle Mixon’s immortal soul is not currently residing with Lucifer, then I don’t know what you have to do to get in there.
History of violent crime
This monster was no stranger to violent crime. His criminal record includes participation in a violent carjacking where the victim was viciously beaten and the commission of several rapes including the rape of a 12 year old girl!
Accounts of Mixon’s other past crimes
Some people will never be rid of violent crime
Perhaps the most sickening part of this whole story is the reaction of the people who lived in the East Oakland neighborhood where Mixon and his family lived. According to the article:
Why East Oakland will never be rid of violent crime
Outside the apartment that SWAT officers stormed, a memorial for Mixon had flowers, candles and balloons. Notes read, “RIP Vell,” ” Money$” and “We gone miss u big cuzn.” A plainclothes police officer went up to it at one point, stared at it for a second and then walked away, shaking his head.
Remember, the subject of this “memorial” was a multiple murderer and rapist. He was a carjacker. He was a vicious and violent criminal who had no regard for anyone other than himself. Meanwhile, the woman who tipped off the police to the killer’s location has to hide in anonymity for fear of retaliation from neighborhood thugs!
In a decent community, the female tipster would be hailed as a hero and the death of Lovelle Mixon would be looked upon as having made the neighborhood just a little bit safer. People will never be rid of violent crime until they can manage to be outraged at the actions of the criminals instead of the actions of the police when they catch those criminals.
This story about the AIG executives and their bonus payments has me outraged. Only my outrage isn’t directed at anyone from AIG. No, my outrage is directed at Congress. We have Senators and Representatives whining and grandstanding in front of cameras talking about how they are going to do everything they can to get that money back. They are threatening to pass a special tax targeting those bonus payments. The plan is to confiscate most of the money. Just the very thought of congressmen openly proposing a 90% or higher tax rate must have the President and his left wing buddies in Congress almost buckling at the knees as the feeling of arousal overwhelms every nerve in their bodies. I’m sure that the tingle has returned to Chris Matthews’ leg!
It’s a Bill of Attainder
There’s one huge problem with this plan: it is a blatant violation of the Constitution. Such a tax would constitute a Bill of Attainder. That is a law which specifically targets a certain individual or group. A good case could be made that this AIG Bonus Tax is also an ex post facto law. That is a law passed after the occurrence of an event or action which retrospectively changes the legal consequences of the event or action. (My thanks to the ‘Lectric Law Library for that definition: lectlaw.com)
What does the Constitution say?
Article I, Section 9, Clause 3 of the U. S. Constitution states:
No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 of the U. S. Constitution states:
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
Does the Constitution matter?
I doubt if the constitutional prohibitions will prevent Congress from taking the actions they threaten. Reading a bill that tells corporations how much they can pay their employees and imposes immorally high tax rates has the same affect on a Democrat member of Congress as good pornography has on a normal man. [The McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act is a blatant violation of the First Amendment, but nobody seems to care about that, either.] I think we might still have enough Supreme Court Justices who understand the Constitution well enough to strike down this tax as a Bill of Attainder. But perhaps not.
Yet another foot in the door
The really scary part of this is that the Democrats will use this issue as yet another justification to impose more of their socialist agenda. An important part of that agenda is a punitive and confiscatory tax system. This country seems to be willing to allow us to head down that dangerous path. I don’t understand the thinking there. When we hit a patch of rough economic times, we decide to implement policies that are surely guaranteed to prolong and worsen the situation.
I fear that I am witnessing the events that will ruin this country for at least the rest of my lifetime. I can only hope that my children or, more likely, my grandchildren will be able to bring the country back. But as I stated in an earlier post, once you implement socialism, it is very difficult to recover from that.
Everybody is going insane over Rush Limbaugh’s statement that he hopes that President Obama fails. There is indignation and outrage over this. They talk as if he were hoping for the country to sink into ruin. The reality is that nothing could be further from the truth.
Let’s first take a look at the things that President Obama wishes to accomplish:
America’s fundamentals don’t need a transformation
He wants to “fundamentally transform America”. He said those exact words during his campaign. America is the best nation on the planet. It does not need a fundamental transformation. It would be in the best interest of the nation if the President fails to achieve that objective.
Socialism will wreck this economy
He wants to implement policies that will transform this nation into a socialist type of democracy. Socialism is a proven failure and will do harm to this country and its economy. This is the worst possible time to try such an experiment. If the President fails in his attempt here, the country will be in much better shape.
Congress is supposed to make the laws
He wants to appoint judges that will impose their own will upon this nation without regard for what the law says or what is in the Constitution. Failure in this arena will slow down the grip that the judiciary has already usurped over the people of this nation.
Gitmo is the best place for terrorists
He wants to shut down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This is a brilliant move! [heavy sarcasm] What better location to house some of the most evil and dangerous people on the planet? This is a U. S. military installation located on an island! Its perimeter is being guarded by two different armies. Success in this maneuver will make for a more dangerous world.
Funding Hamas is wrong
He wants to provide funds for a terrorist organization. I realize that the $900,000,000 that is being pledged to Gaza is officially intended to help rebuild the area. There are two problems with this plan:
Again, failure in this area would be a victory for the country and for the good people of the world.
Obama’s success spells America’s failure
There are a whole host of changes in the planning stages that, if implemented, would cause harm to this country. Raising taxes to immorally high levels will do more damage to the economy. Lifting the embargo on Cuba will send the wrong message about communism and will only add fuel to an already smoldering fire regarding the President’s sympathies in that area. Announcing to al-Qaeda how long they have to hold on until we give up the fight in Iraq gives our enemies a light they can see at the end of that tunnel.
You see, if President Barack Obama succeeds, then the country will be in far worse condition. If he achieves his objectives, the world will be a more dangerous place. I don’t want to live in a socialist country. If I did, I would have moved to Europe years ago. I don’t want to make the lives of al-Qaeda terrorists easier. I don’t want them to leave Gitmo. I don’t want them transported to the mainland United States.
Like Rush Limbaugh, I hope that President Obama fails – which is to say that I hope the United States of America succeeds and prospers!
Hey, Hey, What can I say? I guess, maybe, sorry World, for unleashing the dumbest bunch of people you have ever seen.
Here is the latest installement on Obama’s wave of stupid government officials: This one is from Breitbart. I will publish the text of their entire article below. I couldn’t make this up if I wanted it.
Here is the net-net: Secretary of State Clinton, in order to show that the new administration is willing to give in to the Russians, they brought a “Reset Button” ala Staple’s easy button. Well, the idiots did not properly check the spelling in Russian, and instead, the goverment said “OVERCHARGE”. Fitting…
From Breitbart:
Russian media has been poking fun at US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after she gave her Russian counterpart a “reset” button with an ironic misspelling.Clinton’s gift to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at their meeting in Geneva on Friday evening was meant to underscore the Obama administration’s readiness to “to press the reset button” in ties with Moscow.
But instead of the Russian word for “reset” (perezagruzka) it featured a slightly different word meaning “overload” or “overcharged” (peregruzka).
Daily newspaper Kommersant put a prominent picture of the fake red button on its front page and declared: “Sergei Lavrov and Hillary Clinton pushed the wrong button.”
A correspondent for NTV television called it a “symbolic mistake,” pointing out that US-Russian ties had become overcharged in recent years due to discord over such issues as missile defence and last summer’s war in Georgia.
“The friendly US gesture was upturned by a small amusing incident,” the news website RBC.ru wrote in an article posted late Friday evening.
“Yet this curious episode did not stop Clinton and Lavrov from pushing the button in front of television cameras.”
US Vice-President Joe Biden spoke of pressing the “reset button” on relations between Moscow and Washington during a speech in Germany last month. It has since been repeated in various forms by both US and Russian officials.
Where the heck are the adults? You have to ask yourself if the people in the new administration are really truly as dumb as they have acted so far, or they are just so overwhelmed that they can’t think. OR, maybe, the color of their tatoos are starting to come thru their Brook Brother’s business shirts.
While the Obama administration has done an adequate job at cozying up to our enemies in the muslim world by giving his first interview (even before us here in the US) and first foreign dignitary call to President Mubarak in Egypt, they seem to be ignoring and insulting our best friends.
Take the visit by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Here is a nation and a government that has backed us wholeheartedly thru thick and thin. It’s a nation that is on the trenches with us, and a nation that defends our great efforts for liberty and democracy globally.
During a state visit, especially the first time you meet a new leader, there is an exchange of gifts that give meaning to the relationship. According to the UK newspaper, The Telegraph, “Mr Brown handed over carefully selected gifts, including a pen holder made from the wood of a warship that helped stamp out the slave trade – a sister ship of the vessel from which timbers were taken to build Mr Obama’s Oval Office desk.”. What did Obama give him back? You are just not going to believe this… He gave him a set of DVDs from “classic” American movies. WHAT???? According to the Telegraph: “Mr Obama’s gift in return, a collection of Hollywood film DVDs that could have been bought from any high street store, looked like the kind of thing the White House might hand out to the visiting head of a minor African state.”.
So, it actually gets worse from here. Of course, our British brothers were upset. Of course their media questioned our government officials. But our idiot government officials did not only not have the right response. They were down-right rude. Again, according to the Telegraph: “The real views of many in Obama administration were laid bare by a State Department official involved in planning the Brown visit, who reacted with fury when questioned by The Sunday Telegraph about why the event was so low-key. The official dismissed any notion of the special relationship, saying: “There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.“”
“THERE IS NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT BRITAIN?” How stupid can you be, Mr. Administration official? Holy crap. This can only mean one of three things:
Can this story get any worse? Yes it can. On the way out, President Obama returned a statue of Winston Churchill that they gave us right after 9/11 to symbolize the great bond that we have (as PM Churchill’s mother was an American). These morons TRIED TO GIVE IT BACK.
What’s amazing is that this was not widely reported by the news media. Could you imagine if Bush would have made that mistake? When do the passes end?
So, to Prime Minister Brown, to the Honorable British Ambassador, and to the people of Great Britain, please accept our apologies on behalf of the American people. We are not all rude incompetents and most of all realize that we have a special friendship and a brotherly bond.
I don’t know how else to state it. Stunning. Stunning how quickly the Obama administration has backed out on so many of its campaign promises. Stunning on how badly they have approached the economic crises, creating a huge slide in the markets and consumer confidence. Stunning on how far the actual policies are from the promises. Stunning.
I can still hear Obama promising, during the campaign, that earmarks would not be allowed in his administration. Well, his party controls both chambers of congress, he controls the floor, and yet they just passed an Omnibus bill worth $490 BILLION that has over 9000 earmarks. Yes, 9000 earmarks. And the changes introduced in that bill are astonishing. They get rid of choice of schools for poor kids in DC, and instead give that money to Planned Parenthood and forced abortions in China. They get rid of initiatives to get reprocess spent nuclear fuel. They cut the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to minimal amounts. There are hundreds of other examples. Yet, they found room for 9000 earmarks. With this kind of change, we will be financially and morally bankrupt in four years. Stunning.
They also seem to have forgotten $140 barrel of oil costs. In late June of last year, oil was at $142. Candidate Obama was promissing to help the industry, to help production, etc. They complained that the industry was “not doing enough” because they would not drill in every single one of their leases. The argument back was that sometimes is just not financially feasible to drill. Well, they are making drilling even less financially feasible. The already most taxed and most regulated industry of all, outside of Nuclear, is about to get hammered again in new Industry Taxes:
The democrats actually expect the Oil industry to continue to invest in production here in the US, where they are being taxed to death, just because they are American companies. That is not going to happen. You will not see a total pullout from production in the US, but you will not see new investments. The majority of new work is going to be in Africa and South America (Brazil, Columbia, and Argentina). This is going to be worth billions of dollars and thousands of jobs to American manufacturers, who seem to be the big losers again and again. For example, as American Oil companies, already small in comparison to their Nationally Owned competitors, will not invest in longer term payouts in the US, will just focus on the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), and will buy the infrastructure required in international markets. Stunning.
Another area where they are changing things up is in charitable contributions. They are phasing out chartitable contribution deductions for people earning over $250K. That includes LLCs. Why? Becasue they understand that this would kill faith based programs, making socialist programs run by the government the default. Stunning.
So, to make a long story short, the CHANGE that Obama has offered is definite change: Incent domestic companies to do work overseas, increase taxes in areas that need investment, take opportunity away, and basically destroy the might of the US. That’s change that only the most liberal amongst us can believe in. STUNNING.
Andy Roddick has lived a blessed life. He is engaged to one of the most beautiful women in the world, and is undisputably one of the top Tennis players of our current era. He dated Mandy Moore for a while. Andy has been known to be a joker, a guy that loves a joke and a smile, and one that definetely enjoys the fruits of his hard work. He has never been known to be overly political and he is certainly not a politician. Andy Roddick is a Christian. Andy just won (22 Feb) the Memphis open. Andy Roddick won the Dubai last year and is defending champion. But Andy Roddick was not there this year, and it was not due to physical injury. It’s all about Andy doing the right thing.
Andy Roddick announced that he would not participate in the WTA Dubai Tennis classic because they were not allowing a tennis player to play just because she is Jewish and from Israel. Andy called BS on that.
As in the previousl post by Mike, you can parlay the outrage that banning a black person, an arab, or just about anyone else just because of their beliefs or skin color. President Obama, the whole US congress, and every dang politician throughout the globe would have been screaming bloddy murder. Massive demostrations would have been the order of the day in front of that country’s embassy. Remember South Africa during the bad all days? People were rightfully outrage at the discrimiation of that Goverment. Yet, very few cared about the overly racist gesture from the Dubai government.
Andy Roddick did. Outside of his love for Tennis and the sport, he has no direct connection to this player. He just saw wrong that had to be righted. He knew that by passing up the tournament, that he was passing up not just a chance to repeat as champion, but untold millions of dollars. Yet, he did the right thing.
In the age of Obama is rare for anyone to stand up to do the right thing when that right thing is to stand up for Israel. As a fellow Christian, I am very proud of the stance that he took and hope that more people take principled stands for the right thing. Andy, from the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU!