If we just make ourselves more defenseless, Putin will see that we care and turn into a nice guy…..
This is the same nonsense that we have gotten from the far left and leftist academics for years. The left and leftist academics freaked when Reagan called out the USSR as an evil empire and freaked even more when Reagan used the arms race and space based missile defense to bring them to their knees. I was there and saw this first hand.
The policy of appeasement that the far left has repeatedly championed since the end of the Korean War has proved to be foolish time and time again, but as usual elitist leftists believe that the most brilliant leftists (themselves) have not tried it yet. Sean Hannity’s book “Deliver Us From Evil” explains these policies and how wrong-headed they proved to be.
The left has consistently misread the “good intentions” of our “former enemies”. Jimmy Carter and the leftists in Congress were shocked when Russia invaded Afghanistan. They were also shocked when they discovered the true nature of the radical Islamic regime in Iran that the Carter Administration actively helped come to power.
Today, when it comes to the brutality of Hugo Chavez, Castro and Daniel Ortega in the 80’s, the left was well aware that these leftist leaders were killers and thugs and they just don’t care. President Obama’s support of the former President of Honduras who tried to make himself dictator like Hugo Chavez is a prime example and so is his abandonment of US agreements to help provide missile defense for our allies in Eastern Europe to appease Russia…and Obama did this with nothing to show for it in exchange (LINK).
Putin had an agreement about his Georgia invasion that was negotiated by France. Putin stands in gross violation of that agreement to this day.
To put it in Trek terms, Putin like other militant leftist leaders is a Romulan. This means that he exploits weakness, creeps slowly and deliberately, and is predictably treacherous. He was the former head of the KGB after all.
Appeasement reflects the hope that the crocodile will eat you last – Winston Churchill.
Barack Obama has demanded the Pentagon conduct a radical review of US nuclear weapons doctrine to prepare the way for deep cuts in the country’s arsenal, the Guardian can reveal.
Obama has rejected the Pentagon’s first draft of the “nuclear posture review” as being too timid, and has called for a range of more far-reaching options consistent with his goal of eventually abolishing nuclear weapons altogether, [except for Russia's - Editor] according to European officials.
Those options include:
• Reconfiguring the US nuclear force to allow for an arsenal measured in hundreds rather than thousands of deployed strategic warheads. [Making it much easier to take them out with a first strike - Editor]
• Redrafting nuclear doctrine to narrow the range of conditions under which the US would use nuclear weapons.
• Exploring ways of guaranteeing the future reliability of nuclear weapons without testing or producing a new generation of warheads. [Guarantee without a test..I thought this administration opposed junk science - Editor]
The review is due to be completed by the end of this year, and European officials say the outcome is not yet clear. But one official said: “Obama is now driving this process. He is saying these are the president’s weapons, and he wants to look again at the doctrine and their role.”
The move comes as Obama prepares to take the rare step of chairing a watershed session of the UN security council on Thursday. It is aimed at winning consensus on a new grand bargain: exchanging more radical disarmament by nuclear powers in return for wider global efforts to prevent further proliferation.
That bargain is at the heart of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which is up for review next year amid signs it is unravelling in the face of Iranian and North Korean nuclear ambitions.
In an article for the Guardian today, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, argues that failure to win a consensus would be disastrous. “This is one of the most critical issues we face,” the foreign secretary writes. “Get it right, and we will increase global security, pave the way for a world without nuclear weapons, and improve access to affordable, safe and dependable energy – vital to tackle climate change. Get it wrong, and we face the spread of nuclear weapons and the chilling prospect of nuclear material falling into the hands of terrorists.”
According to a final draft of the resolution due to be passed on Thursday, however, the UN security council will not wholeheartedly embrace the US and Britain’s call for eventual abolition of nuclear weapons. Largely on French insistence, the council will endorse the vaguer aim of seeking “to create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons”. [Even FRANCE says this plan is too dovish - Editor]
Gordon Brown is due to use this week’s UN general assembly meeting to renew a diplomatic offensive on Iran for its failure to comply with security council demands that it suspend enrichment of uranium. The issue has been given greater urgency by an International Atomic Energy Agency document leaked last week which showed inspectors for the agency believed Iran already had “sufficient information” to build a warhead, and had tested an important component of a nuclear device.
Germany is also expected to toughen its position on Iran ahead of a showdown between major powers and the Iranian government on 1 October. But it is not yet clear what position will be taken by Russia, which has hitherto opposed the imposition of further sanctions on Iran.
Moscow’s stance will be closely watched for signs of greater co-operation in return for Obama’s decision last week to abandon a missile defence scheme in eastern Europe, a longstanding source of irritation to Russia. [Unilateral move to make us more defenseless against Russian missiles - Editor]
“I hope the Russians realise they have to do something serious. I don’t think a deal has been done, but there is a great deal of expectation,” said a British official. [Translation: Obama is doing this without an agreement or a committment with any verification from Putin... this is tantamount to unilateral disarmament in the face of evil and what has history taught us about that? - Editor]
Russia has approximately 2,780 deployed strategic warheads, compared with around 2,100 in the US. The abandonment of the US missile defence already appears to have spurred arms control talks currently underway between Washington and Moscow: the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, said today that chances were “quite high” that a deal to reduce arsenals to 1,500 warheads each would be signed by the end of the year.
Ed Morrissey at Hotair.com comments HERE. Ed is a truly brilliant man, but I am not certain that he understands the full measure of the impact of what the Guardian is saying here.
Dutch commandos freed 20 Yemeni hostages on Saturday and briefly detained seven pirates who had forced the Yemenis to sail a “mother ship” attacking vessels in the Gulf of Aden, NATO officials said.
In a separate incident, gunmen from Somalia seized a Belgian-registered ship and its 10 crew, including seven Europeans, further south in the Indian Ocean.
“The Pompei is heading slowly toward the Somali coast,” Peter Mertens, a spokesman for a Belgian government crisis center, said. “We have had visual contact from a helicopter of a Spanish navy ship.”
Somali sea gangs have captured dozens of ships, taken hundreds of sailors prisoner and made off with tens of millions of dollars in ransoms despite an unprecedented deployment by foreign navies in waters off the Horn of Africa.
Sounds just dandy right? Now This:
He said the hostages had been held since last week. The commandos briefly detained and questioned the seven gunmen, he told Reuters, but had no legal power to arrest them.
Talk radio still dong well considering the state of the economy, other radio formats are getting hammered. Radio Equalizer, an industry magazine, is calling for talk radio to be divorced from music formats because the business is so different.
Yet ABC’s radio syndication company Citadel is losing money hand over foot, not because it is incapable of bringing in radio, but because of the politically motivated decisions by its CEO and his sheer incompetence at running an enterprise.
Topping the list is Citadel CEO Farid Suleman (right), radio’s poster child for managerial incompetence. How this man could survive beyond Monday in his current position is beyond comprehension. As he speaks of coming “belt- tightening”, cost- cutting that apparently excludes him, why is he unwilling to accept blame for his company’s outright destruction?
While Citadel-ABC Radio was encountering a nationwide ad sales meltdown, Suleman was busy sucking up to Don Imus, wasting months crafting an ego- boosting mega- deal for the elderly fossil- talker. Instead of bringing the best programming minds into the fold to confront the challenges of the future, Suleman micro- managed schedule changes in markets as small as Providence.
Now, Citadel’s stock has fallen so low that the New York Stock Exchange was forced to suspend trading and outright delisting now seems a certainty. Shares (NYSE:CDL) are down 87% in just the last year.
Now Citadel is being booted off the exchange and now will be traded OTC. Citadel’s original ownership made a killing by sticking to the two most popular formats, conservative news-talk and country music…. well read on with more from Radio Equalizer:
Ahead of that undignified exit, Citadel (NYSE:CDL) shares closed today at one penny, down nine cents from Wednesday’s trading. In 2004, it traded as high as $22.
That leaves a total market capitalization of just under three million dollars, despite owning some of the nation’s largest radio stations, including WABC / New York City, WMAL / Washington, WBAP / Dallas – Fort Worth, KGO – KSFO / San Francisco, WLS / Chicago, WJR / Detroit, KABC / Los Angeles and dozens of other music and talk stations across the country, from Albuquerque to Providence and all points in between.
Citadel’s original ownership and management team built a highly-successful firm around conservative talkers on the AM band and country music stations on FM, mostly in medium-sized Sunbelt markets. When subsequent owners acquired ABC Radio and saw their own liberal ideology clash with Citadel’s established internal structure, it began to unravel.
Ridiculous decisions by Citadel CEO Farid Suleman include the firing of popular and profitable KSFO host Melanie Morgan, who’s 527 was making TV ads across the country and was becoming a genuine political force. Suleman has been paid millions while driving the company into the ground at breakneck speed.
Especially shocking: highly- rated KSFO morning host Melanie Morgan was among those let go. Co- host Lee Rodgers, who had already cut his schedule to just four shows per week, will now be expected to carry on alone. This has sent shockwaves through Bay Area media circles, where even longtime entertainment reporter Brad Kava, a leftist, has expressed his alarm.
Suleman was also responsible for bringing Don Imus to WABC with a huge compensation package. How smart of a move was that; well Jay Severin is beating him in ratings.
Here is Citadel’s stock chart for the last five years:
Apparently unhappy with the recently- merged company’s political and business direction, talk radio syndication biggie Sean Hannity is exiting Citadel – ABC Radio (NYSE:CDL) for a yet- to- be- disclosed rival. The move could dramatically reshape programming lineups on a number of major stations.
Syndicated in over 500 markets nationwide, Hannity’s afternoon drive show is said to bring in $35m in annual revenue, which will now be lost as Sean jumps ship. The program is considered to be the second- biggest cash generator in ABC Radio’s network lineup, with his compensation at a reported $5m per annum.
As for ratings, in New York City under the new Portable People Meter system, he pulled an impressive 5.4 12+ share for February. That was just shy of Rush Limbaugh’s blockbuster 5.6. Nationally, Hannity’s audience is second only to Limbaugh’s.
since they took the reins of the merged company, Suleman and Ellis have made a number of peculiar decisions, including an emphasis on the 65+ audience rather than younger, more advertiser- friendly demographics. That has included a mega- deal with talk fossil Don Imus.
Also highly questionable were baffling decisions to remove Rush Limbaugh from WPRO-AM in Providence and fire nationally- known conservative morning talker Melanie Morgan from KSFO/ San Francisco.
The impact of Sean’s departure will be significant for all parties involved: Citadel – ABC loses millions, while his show will be pulled from key ABC Radio stations in some major cities. At the same time, it will have to compete against his new program, most likely to be syndicated by Clear Channel’s Premiere Radio Networks, home to Rush Limbaugh.
The Sean Hannity Show is now co-managed by Clear Channel and Citadel; a deal they worked out to keep Hannity at WABC and so Citadel would not have to compete against him.
UPDATE II – A governmemnt report shows that drug cartel machine guns are coming from FARC/Hugo Chavez – LINK. Mini-Update: The government was lying. The number of guns in mexico that get traced back to the US is 17%……we told ya so.
UPDATE: CNN gives a similar analysis as IUSB Vision:
BUT a few years ago CNN faked the story in much the same way ABC did by calling these guns “machine guns” and NRA’s Wayne LaPierre called them on it and CNN ran a correction.
*****original story******
The Obama Administration already has talking points filled with lies to fool you into accepting this.
Of course, the last time they passed this it made no difference in crime at all and gun buyers eventually found ways around it. Criminals do not prefer expensive long guns, they like cheap guns they can hide.
Obama to Seek New Assault Weapons Ban
Previous Ban Expired in 2004 During the Bush Administration By JASON RYAN
WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2009-
The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today.
“As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons,” Holder told reporters.
Holder said that putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border.
“I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum.” Holder said at a news conference on the arrest of more than 700 people in a drug enforcement crackdown on Mexican drug cartels operating in the U.S.
Mexican government officials have complained that the availability of sophisticated guns from the United States have emboldened drug traffickers to fight over access routes into the U.S.
A State Department travel warning issued Feb. 20, 2009, reflected government concerns about the violence.
“Some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades,” the warning said. “Large firefights have taken place in many towns and cities across Mexico, but most recently in northern Mexico, including Tijuana, Chihuahua City and Ciudad Juarez.”
At the news conference today, Holder described his discussions with his Mexican counterpart about the recent spike in violence.
“I met yesterday with Attorney General Medina Mora of Mexico, and we discussed the unprecedented levels of violence his country is facing because of their enforcement efforts,” he said.
Now here is where the lies come in and its the same as the old lie.
The weapons they are calling “assault weapons” and want to ban are not the low to medium powered, selective fire, automatic weapons see on TV. They are NOT machine guns. Yet those who want to take away your ability to defend your freedom with effective means always TALK about machine guns, and machine guns are what they show on the news when they talk about this, but the guns they want to ban fire ONE bullet with each pull of the trigger and are functionally no different from a 1911 Colt .45. These guns LOOK like assault rifles but they lack assault rifle functionality.
It says in the article that the drug cartels in Mexico have automatic weapons, that means machine guns. American gun stores don’t sell machine guns. That’s right folks, it’s the old bait & switch.
The last time the Democrats did this they got creamed come election time. Bush dared the Democrats to pass it and threatened to sign it knowing that the Democrats would get the blame. Rank and file union members have shown that they will vote Republican in a heartbeat over this issue.
Obama talked over and over how he supported the Heller decision (granted he flip flopped on it but he did say it) and opposed gun bans. No one who supports the Heller decision by the Supreme Court could possibly support any kind of ban of this kind.
UPDATE II - This blog has more on ABC News’ chicanery. This blog HERE has another good explanation.
There are no academic studies by economists or criminologist that find the original federal assault weapons ban reduced murder or violent crime generally. There is no evidence that the state assault weapons bans reduced murder or violent crime rates –and there’s even some evidence that they may have caused murder to actually rise slightly. Since the federal ban expired in September 2004, murder –and overall violent crime rates– have remained virtually unchanged.
If Holder thinks that it is so easy to control drug gangs’ access to guns, one way to show it is by proving that he can stop drug gangs’ access to drugs.
In fact, when the assault weapons ban went off into the sunset in September 2004 there was no explosion of murder and bloodshed as gun control advocates feared. Immediately after the law expired murder rates fell and they fell more in the states without state assault weapon bans than the states with them.
His name is Mike Tracey and he is the VP of the College Democrats at TCNJ. He tried to rush the stage where Ann was signing books….he didn’t quite make it that far.
Editor’s take: Kids don’t leave high school this stupid.
The police report from that night says that Tracey went onto the stage, where Coulter was signing books.
After being advised the stage area was for those with books only, Tracey said he had a piece of paper and wanted an autograph.
“When he was told no, he went around two police officers and approached the table where Ann Coulter was sitting,” Holt wrote.
Holt took Tracey off the stage and into the seating area, then told the student he was not allowed to go back to the stage and had to leave.
As Tracey walked back towards the stage, Holt grabbed Tracey’s coat in an attempt to stop him, but said Tracey spun out of the coat and ran towards the seating area.
Tackling Tracey toward the ground, Holt attempted to handcuff Tracey, but the young man would not put his hands behind his back.
“At that point Michael started to scream and carry on in a manner in which he was trying to draw attention from the crowd,” Holt wrote. “
The legislation, which would send tax credits of $500 per worker and $1,000 per couple, expressly disqualifies nonresident aliens, but it would allow people who don’t have Social Security numbers to be eligible for the checks.
Undocumented immigrants who are not eligible for a Social Security number can file tax returns with an alternative number. A House-passed version of the economic recovery bill and one making its way through the Senate would allow anyone with such a number, called an individual taxpayer identification number, to qualify for the tax credits.
A revolt among GOP conservatives to similar provisions of a 2008 economic stimulus bill, which sent rebate checks to most wage earners, forced Democratic congressional leaders to add stricter eligibility requirements. That legislation, enacted in February 2008, required that people have valid Social Security numbers in order to get checks.
Now this, and judging by what has been reported already I am not surprised. Appearently the government prosecution knew about the affair and decided that the judge and the defense didn’t need to know. Allen is the guy whose word the government took and presented to the jury. He is one of the main guys who did things for Stevens:
Attorneys for former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) have accused an FBI agent involved in the Stevens corruption investigation of having an inappropriate relationship with a key witness in the case.
Based on a complaint by an FBI whistleblower, Agent Chad Joy, the Stevens defense team claims that Mary Beth Kepner, the lead FBI agent on the case, had a personal relationship with Bill Allen, the CEO of an Alaska oil services firm and a witness against Stevens.
Stevens’ lawyers state that Joy’s memo “strongly suggests that the inappropriate relationship was sexual.” Joy stated that Kepner “wore a skirt for Allen” on a day that he was to testify in the case.
Joy also charges that Kepner may have provided secret grand jury information to Allen about other ongoing federal investigations.
Stevens’ attorneys also claim that prosecutors “lied” about being aware of exculpatory information on Stevens’ possessed by the Justice Department.
Stevens’ attorneys charge that the Joy memo, which was provided to DOJ officials sometime before Dec. 2, “shows unmistakably that government representatives lied to the court or stood by silently while other members of the prosecution team represented facts to the Court that simply were not true.”
I’ll never forget what I saw just after everyone cleared off from Dan’s Bake Sale. There was a small army of janitorial people from the city of Fort Collins lined up waiting to pick up trash…
…but there weren’t even cigarette butts in the gutters. All they had to do was empty the trash containers, which were admittedly filled to overflowing (but the ones I saw were actually tastefully arranged, as if a large trash pile was trying to impersonate a flower arrangement).
The shock on the workers’ faces was priceless.
And
In 1997 I attended the Promise Keepers event on the Washington D.C. Mall. There must have been over 1 million of us. When we left at the end of the day, so did our trash. The next day on the local news, the media couldn’t get over how much cleaner the grounds were compared to a July 4th event.
What happens when a poorly written law to stop lead based toys from China becomes so expensive to implement that it raises toy prices and causes small and/or local organic toy companies to pull out or go out of business…..
….well you know what they say; a conservative is a leftist that got mugged and this feel good, Gore/Obama voting, “there oughta be a law” type just discovered her inner libertarian when the unintended consequence of big government mugged her pocketbook.
I saw this at Hotair.com and was so amused by the catch line I had to look. This is a video you will not want to miss:
But one network insider claims it was the book’s theme — a brutal examination of liberal bias in the new era — that got executives to dis-invite the controversialist.
“We are just not interested in anyone so highly critical of President-elect Obama, right now,” a TODAY insider reveals. “It’s such a downer. It’s just not the time, and it’s not what our audience wants, either.”
For the book, Coulter reportedly received the most-lucrative advance ever paid to a conservative author.
The TODAY show eagerly invited the author months ago, for her first network interview on GUILTY.
The exclusive was to air during the show’s 7 AM hour. The cut came Monday afternoon.
MSNBC cancelled her interview too, all this on the day her best selling book is set to release. NBC replaced Coulter with leftist talk host Rachel Maddow.
Talk about a gift from God, now Ann can say that the lefties at NBC are out to censor her and the booking was a sham to keep other shows from booking her on the day of her book release….and she would be right.
HERE is audio from the John Gibson show with Ann’s reaction.
CBS News, understanding that Ann Coulter is a ratings bonanza (even though they hate her too), rushed to book her this morning. Here is Ann intellectually toying with the small minded journalist who was stupid enough to try and engage her with the typical ignorant far left elitist attitude that Ann is a master of destroying:
It has been my experience that elite media journalists, as a demographic, are among the most uninformed people in America. They have certainly demonstrated weaker critical thinking and comprehension skills when it comes to any subjects that brings them into cognitive dissonance and in this interview it really shows.
I particularly like the part where Ann starts pounding the idiot journalist with fact after fact about leftist violence and when he realized he is getting taken apart he starts talking over her by repeatedly saying “take a breath take a breath” – check out the video to see Ann take on that tactic as well.
UPDATE: NBC CAVES – Invites Coulter Back. So it looks like Matt Lauer is going to get his butt kicked by Ann again tomarrow.
We first talked about the legal implications HERE and now the Democratic leadership has pulled the trigger and violated the law to prevent the only black US Senator, Roland Burris, from taking his seat. Their excuse is that they don’t like the Governor that legally appointed him.
The problem, every law book in the country says that Burris is legally entitled to the Senate seat. There is no exception in the law books that says “in case you don’t like the governor that appointed him”. So it’s off to the courts where Burris will win unless the judge is a total hack or a bigot and forces Burris to appeal. The law in this case is a slam dunk and everyone who knows the law understands this.
There are only 3 circumstances in which the Senate can refuse to seat a member.
1. If he is under age 30, not a citizen or does not reside in the state he represents.
2. Is a convicted felon.
3. If an election takes place and the election to select the winner was a demonstrable sham.
That’s it. Ironically the third reason is what stopped Al Franken from swearing in today, because in the “recount” they “found” so many extra votes for Franken that several precincts had more votes for Franken that the said precinct had registered voters.
George Washington started the “So Help me God” tradition and the same guys who passed the Bill of Rights are the same guys who supported laws saying that you could not hold State office unless you were a Christian.
The head of an atheist group that has filed a lawsuit against prayer at Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration says the government is picking a winner between “believers” and “those who don’t believe” and subjecting atheists and agnostics to someone else’s religious beliefs.
Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, has joined with Michael Newdow, who fought to have the words “under God” removed from the Pledge of Allegiance, in a federal lawsuit seeking to enjoin the Presidential Inaugural Committee from sponsoring prayers at the official inauguration.
The 34-page legal complaint similarly seeks to enjoin Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., from adding the phrase “So help me God” to the presidential oath of office.
“We’re hoping to stop prayer and religious rituals at governmental functions, especially at the inauguration,” Barker told FOX News Radio.
A little note called the Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. Thanksgiving was passed by act of Congress as a national holiday by the same people who wrote the Bill of Rights. It is Old English folks, the spelling is correct for the time:
WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houfes of Congress have, by their joint committee, requefted me “to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to eftablifh a form of government for their safety and happiness:”
NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and affign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of thefe States to the fervice of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our fincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the fignal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpofitions of His providence in the courfe and conclufion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have fince enjoyed;– for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to eftablish Conftitutions of government for our fafety and happinefs, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;– for the civil and religious liberty with which we are bleffed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffufing useful knowledge;– and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleafed to confer upon us.
And also, that we may then unite in moft humbly offering our prayers and fupplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and befeech Him to pardon our national and other tranfgreffions;– to enable us all, whether in publick or private ftations, to perform our feveral and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a bleffing to all the people by conftantly being a Government of wife, juft, and conftitutional laws, difcreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all fovereigns and nations (especially fuch as have shewn kindnefs unto us); and to blefs them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increafe of fcience among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind fuch a degree of temporal profperity as he alone knows to be beft.
GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand feven hundred and eighty-nine.
The “good samaritan law”. Most of us have heard of it. It means that if you see a terrible accident or a medical emergency you may take “reasonable action” to help preserve life and limb without fear of being sued for not being able to give top notch medical care in the middle of a crisis.
In most states the good samaritan law is written in statute, but has always been considered a part of “equity law”. That means that judges would protect such people who acted reasonably in the interests of justice.
In California this is no more. A good samaritan who pulled a crash victim out of a likely burning car can be successfully sued for damages an idiotic California court has ruled:
The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a young woman who pulled a co-worker from a crashed vehicle isn’t immune from civil liability because the care she rendered wasn’t medical.
The divided high court appeared to signal that rescue efforts are the responsibility of trained professionals. It was also thought to be the first ruling by the court that someone who intervened in an accident in good faith could be sued.
Lisa Torti of Northridge allegedly worsened the injuries suffered by Alexandra Van Horn by yanking her “like a rag doll” from the wrecked car on Topanga Canyon Boulevard.
Torti now faces possible liability for injuries suffered by Van Horn, a fellow department store cosmetician who was rendered a paraplegic in the accident that ended a night of Halloween revelry in 2004.
The court has sent a signal to the people of California: don’t get involved. If someone’s drowning, don’t jump in the lake and save them. If someone’s trapped in a car that’s about to explode, sit there and watch the show. Just make a phone call, and who cares that it might be several minutes before an EMS team can make it to the scene? If you sit on your hands, no one can sue you for all you’re worth.
Now if the woman pulled the victim out in a state of panic or acted carelessly then the care given was “not reasonable” and she should pay, which may be the case, but to take the “good samaritan” rule and trash it goes beyond all good sense and is just plain stupid.
This little piece of legislation from the Brighton Michigan City Council is a one way ticket to an ACLU lawsuit they have no chance of winning, by banning “annoying speech”.
AP:
BRIGHTON, Mich. -Ticking someone off could get you a ticket in one Michigan city. The Brighton City Council on Thursday approved an ordinance allowing police in the Livingston County community to ticket and fine anyone who is annoying in public “by word of mouth, sign or motions.”
The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus of Howell reports the measure is modeled on a similar ordinance in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak.
A city attorney says there could be situations where the measure would violate freedom of speech, but that those cases will be reviewed by the city. The ban takes effect Jan. 2.
One might think that they have a city attorney who will tell them of what legal terrible things are coming their way. Not only will the city lose any such lawsuit, but since it is a Constitutional Rights violation the city will also be forced to pay court costs and the attorney’s fees of both sides. It is just a matter of time before the Michigan ACLU sends them a nasty-gram to get the process rolling. Hotair.com comments HERE.
Topping the list is Citadel CEO Farid Suleman (right), radio’s poster child for managerial incompetence. How this man could survive beyond Monday in his current position is beyond comprehension. As he speaks of coming “belt- tightening”, cost- cutting that apparently excludes him, why is he unwilling to accept blame for his company’s outright destruction?
