Wikileaks Must Be Plugged...NOW!!

I don’t know about you, but all of these media morons who print, report and tell information that affects the very life of others and hide behind freedom of speech and the freedom of press need to be dealt with. The latest fiasco is dealing with wikileaks releasing documents detailing military actions, movements, and operations that were deemed classified and that classification hasn’t been changed. They’re justifying their actions by saying what happened here is for the courts to decide. So why then are you posting and plastering it across your website and making it known across the globe. Then you brag that what you’ve released just scratches the surface. What idiots!

Their mind-blowing revelation that civilians have been killed by armed forces during this conflict is pure stupidity. Let me open your eyes to something, when you’re fighting a war ad your enemy hides in areas populated by civilians, disguises themselves as civilians and strategically position civilians between you and them, there will be civilian casualties. This will be the case even if the enemy didn’t do this, it’s the nature of war…someone will die. I’m sick of these whiny, weak, spineless sphincters who didn’t have the testicular fortitude to serve trying to criticize those who are fighting for them to have the right to sit back and whine.

I have an idea…how about we find out the home address, work address, cell and home numbers, email address, facebook and twitter names of everyone involved in releasing this information. From the ‘whistle blower’ to the courier who delivered it, to the editor who edited it, to the writer who wrote captions and stories, to the website host, to the programmers and coders, to Julian Assange, the owner of wikileaks, as well as his wife, their kids and their school…lets release all of their information, thrown in photos too. Then we hide behind the first amendment and freedom of the press. No one would be surprised if something happened to them or their loved ones. Not many would be too broken up about it either. No one reading this would agree with that mindset [author included], so why doesn’t any one bat an eye at media outlets like this when they do what they do? Stories like this only agitate and will ultimately cost someone’s son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, etc their life from some IED, sniper fire, ambush or whatever. I heard one reporter state this morning that the American public has the right to know these things to process and do with as they will. I say if you want this information then you need to suit up, strap up, load up, wheels up and fight the war yourself. Until you get the courage to fight a war you have no right to criticize the actions of those who are fighting that war on your behalf. Until you get this courage shut up, sit on your fat posterior and peck at the keyboard that make you feel so big and bad as you type informaiton and release documentation that detrimentally affects the lives of others.

How about our conduits of information having some integrity and weighing out the consequences of their actions rather than doing something stupid simply for ratings and then acting like they did nothing wrong when someone loses their life, get maimed or hurt simply because they had the right to say, print, quote, or post whatever they did? It goes back to an argument I made in a previous post…sometimes I think we have too many rights.

It's Just My Opinion But I'm Not Wrong

Is This Really What You Want to Fight For?

On my commute this morning I heard Roland Martin doing his commentary on the TJMS and his special guest was the national president of the Black Chamber of Commerce, that in itself is a blog topic, but not this one. He spoke to him about the newest cause that they’re undertaking as a national initiative. They’re protesting and arguing with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about their proposed banning of menthol cigarettes. Yes, you heard it right, the Black Chamber is arguing for menthol cigarettes. What better way to show that your organization has no relevance in the year 2010 than to pick up a cause that really has nothing to do with you and is dumb as hell? Congratulations Harry Alford, you’re a finalist for idiot of the year.
The black chamber has issues like addressing the racial disparity between minority and non minority vendors getting government contracts and they choose to take this up. They should be working to encourage minority vendors to retool their business models for green jobs, but they choose to argue for this. They could even be arguing for minority tobacco farmers to get their fair shake when dealing with cigarette manufacturers, etc but this is what they’re choosing instead. Let me make this perfectly clear, I’m the guy that argues against citywide bans on smoking in restaurants and bars. I’m the one that feels the government has no cause to regulate the use of a legally available product aside from imposing age restrictions. No, I’m not a smoker, I personally hate cigarette smoke, but it’s no more the place of the government (local or federal) to tell a restaurant or bar owner that they can’t allow their patrons to smoke than it is for them to say you can smoke only a certain type of cigarette. Thegovernment needs to make up its mind, is cigarette smoking goin to be legal or illegal. All of these layers of legality just add confusion to the general public and tax funds wasted on enforcement.
Let’s not get it twisted, I’m not in support of the government banning menthol, nor am I against it, my questions here is why does the black chamber care? Their president, in all his intelligence, or lack thereof, says it’s because this is the cigarette of choice of black folks. He goes on to say, once they do this, they'll be going aftre cognac and cigars. How moronic can you be? Let some tobacco special interest group fight this battle. If you're really a proponent of healthy businesses for black folks you MUST be a proponent of healthy black folks. No matter how you slice it, cigarette smoking can and will kill you (it says so on the package). Too often we have minority ‘cause based’ organizations fighting for causes that have nothing to do with them. This basically depletes their credibility so when they actually have a real cause to fight for they’re not taken seriously. This is just as dumb as the NAACP taking up the LGBT cause a few years back.
Stay in your lane folks. If you’re no longer relevant then disband and get a real job like the rest of us. I’m sick of idiots doing idiotic things in the name of black folks and portraying themselves in such a light that they represent us all. Sit down somewhere, evaluate your relevance, and decide where to go from there. Whatever you do, stop making a donkey of yourself and those who support and are represented by you by being pimped by big tobacco. When they bring this crap to you, don't say it's KOOL. You tell them you're not interested and they need to SALEM to a NEWPORT.

It’s Just My Opinion, But I’m Not Wrong!

Why Is Eric Holder an Idiot?

I'm glad you ask the question. Let me start with the whole enforcement of immigrations laws, or the lack thereof. It's common knowledge that we, as a country have the most porous borders in the world. We allow folks to come in, get benefits that are paid for by tax payers, and not pay one cent in taxes. We allow folks to come in illegally and have babies (paid for by tax payers) that we then count as citizens, give free elementary and secondary education (paid for by tax payers), then give them scholarships and government grants (paid for by tax payers) while their parents still live here illegally, don't learn the language, don't acclimate to the culture of this country, work for cash and don't pay income taxes, send most of their money back to their country of origin therefore not stimulating the economy or paying any sales taxes. They call the fire department when they have emergency issues (still haven't paid taxes), they call the police to aide them in matters where laws have been broken (still haven't paid taxes), and they drive on roads paved by tax payer dollars causing wear and tear therefore costing tax payers even more money when they wear out prematurely and need to be repaired or replaced. All of this being true, this moron and his staff at the attorney general's office decided recently to file suit against the state of Arizona for the new statue they have implemented.

Let's examine the new law as it is designed to be enforced. The Arizona measure requires police and other law enforcement officials, while enforcing other laws, to question a person's immigration status upon "reasonable suspicion" that they are in the state illegally. If they aren't then they detain them and turn them over to federal authorities it's then up to the federal government to decide whether they want to accept them, whether they want to detain them, whether they want to remove them to their country of origin or what to do with them. The basis of the suit is that the state is not allowed to enforce federal laws. How stupid is this crap? Now they're saying their options open to sue for racial profiling. This dude is either slow bus special or an idiot all together. I applaud the state of Arizona for enacting the law in order to cover for the inadequacies of the federal government. Ever wonder why California is broke and Arizona and New Mexico are having financial issues? They are trying to do what they were elected to do by the citizens of Arizona. This isn't a priority for the federal government because the lion's share of the costs is burdened by the state governments with the social programs (medicine and education). Not to mention the added stress on the state and local infrastructure. Arizona is spending state and local resources, therefore funds, to assist the federal government in enforcing the laws that it seems they have issue with enforcing. For this assist, they are met with a law suit. I say that Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas ought to send a bill to the federal government for the expenses incurred as a result of their failure to secure our borders.

On the matter of racial profiling, this is laughable. You have a state that borders Mexico and the Attorney General's office is saying they'll investigate racial profiling in enforcing this law. Its simple semantics, I'd be willing to bet 2 weeks' salary that 95% of the illegals in these border states are from Mexico and south America. Suspicion could constitute anything from not knowing English to not being able to establish your identity (state issued ID). Is Holder just trying to waste tax payer money or what? Ok, here's a solution for Arizona. Check the legal citizenship status of everyone you stop for a traffic violation, infraction of the law, or suspected infraction of the law. This way you don't have to worry about Holder and his imbecilic minions filing this idiotic suit and wasting tax payer money. It's bad enough that the federal government is overspending on so many other things, and then you add the litigation of this Arizona statute to the mix…all I can say is WOW. I hope every state that is having issues with overcrowded classrooms, unpaid medical bills and overcrowded state and county hospitals enacts legislation of this nature. Then we can take it a step further and challenge the 14^th amendment once this is all straightened out. (that's a blog for another day)

It's Just My Opinion But I'm Not Wrong

Excuse me…can you pay my taxes please?

I was listening to the news on the way to work this week and heard a story about Google, yes that Google. They have decided to assure that it keeps its name in the news with a little more silliness. Here's what they're doing. They're grossing up the salary of gay employees who have domestic partners to cover the taxes they have to pay because they aren't married. Basically, married folks get an added tax break because they're not taxed on the income they pay for benefits for their spouse and family (or something like that). So Google decided to increase the salary of their gay employees to cover this. What? This is foolish at best and blatant discrimination at worst. I understand they're trying to compete in a very volatile market and keep their best employees, but this is crazy. Why, you ask? Let me elucidate. This move puts them in a position where half of their employees can come in and ask for their salaries to be grossed up to cover taxes for one reason or another ant they will either do it or be sued for discrimination.

Seriously, this is reckless behavior. Let's say for instance, I work at Google and have a male roommate? I can now go into human resources and say, "Excuse me…can you pay my taxes please?" You laugh, but look at it from this perspective. Can you prove that he's not my partner? No? According to law you're not allowed to ask. So, I'd like my salary grossed up as well. Oh, that one doesn't work for you, how about the heterosexual couples who live together and for whatever reason they decided not to get married? They can walk into HR and say, "Excuse me…can you pay my taxes please?" Try and deny grossing up their salaries and wait for the discrimination lawsuit there. If you're giving this benefit to other unmarried couples then you'll have to give it to all unmarried couples? What? We can get married? Yes, but we're committed to one another and don't see a need for marriage. Yea, that's the same thing (on paper) as the homosexual couples have. Deny it and wait for the lawyers. As a matter of fact, if you're gonna do that then you may as well get ready for the couples with no kids? They don't get tax breaks because they don't have kids. They can walk into HR and say, "Excuse me…can you pay my taxes please?" Why not gross up their salary too? They didn't choose not to have kids, maybe he's sterile, or she's got medical issues. I want the tax break too!!! Try denying them and see how long it is before you go to court, or arbitration. While you're at it go ahead and gross up the single guy with no kids? Why doesn't he go in and say, "Excuse me…can you pay my taxes please?" He's not getting tax breaks for being married; gay; having kids; or cohabitating. So let's just gross his salary up to compensate for the marriage he has yet to experience, the kids he doesn't have and the gay/straight lover that hasn't moved in yet?

When does this foolishness end? The laws are on the books, deal with them and move on. If you don't like the laws that are in place, then elect legislators who will change them to what you do like, it's the backbone of democracy. I'm sick of seeing story after story where folks don't like the rules so they do what they want to do and cry foul when the bet pinched. Rules are made for you and you and you too. If you don't like them, then work to change them, stop trying to get around them. Google, and every other employer who skirts tax law like this ought to be fined heavily. Subverting federal tax laws for recruiting purposes is thumbing their noses at the establishment and should not be tolerated. If this is allowed to stand, it's only a matter of time before I walk into my HR office and say, "Excuse me…can you pay my taxes please?"

It's Just My Opinion, but I'm Not Wrong!!!