New York Residents and Businesses Starting to Fight Back... Sort of

As the Zuccotti Park squatters - otherwise known as Occupy Wall Street - log two months of unsanitary protesting, business owners and residents are starting to express their anger and frustration. The woman you see wearing a mask in this news report looks like one of the protesters but she is not; she is fed up with the protests but afraid to show her face or give her name for fear of a backlash. Keep mayor Michael Bloomberg in mind as you listen to business owners describe how they come in every morning to human waste all over businesses. Some business owners say they may have to close their doors because they just can't make it with this collective public nuisance driving their customers away.

Remember, Bloomberg went against the sentiment of his city and the country when he backed the Ground Zero mosque. Now he's actually backing protesters who are responsible for adversely affecting businesses and taking money away from his own city's pocket. His sanity should start being questioned.

At some point, people need to start asking why mayors all across the country are allowing derelicts to destroy their cities. Jean Quan in Oakland is a prime example; she invited protesters back and encouraged city employees to take the day off and join them. It took a man getting shot and killed for the camp to get shut down.

Speaking of Bloomberg, he makes a cameo in this report and he is a disgrace.



h/t Hapblog

Supreme Court Justice Applauded Passage of Obamacare

For those who believe that the integrity of the Supreme Court decreases the further away it gets from unanimous decisions, this should have steam coming out of your ears. It also helps to explain why the future of the country often comes down to the decision of one judge. As SCOTUS prepares to hear the case brought by several states to strike down Obamacare, it is learned that on the day of Obamacare's passage, a woman who would become Obama's second Supreme Court nominee - Elena Kagan - actually cheered its passage in an email.

Via CNS News:

On Sunday, March 21, 2010, the day the House of Representatives passed President Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, then-Solicitor General Elena Kagan and famed Supreme Court litigator and Harvard Law Prof. Laurence Tribe, who was then serving in the Justice Department, had an email exchange in which they discussed the pending health-care vote, according to documents the Department of Justice released late Wednesday to the Media Research Center, CNSNews.com's parent organization, and to Judicial Watch.

“I hear they have the votes, Larry!! Simply amazing,” Kagan said to Tribe in one of the emails.

The Justice Department released a new batch of emails on Wednesday evening as its latest response to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by CNSNews.com and Judicial Watch. Both organizations filed federal lawsuits against DOJ after the department did not initially respond to the requests. CNSNews.com originally filed its FOIA request on May 25, 2010--before Elena Kagan's June 2010 Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

Aside from the fact that this should remove any and all doubt that Kagan should recuse herself from the case, it serves as the quintessential example for why the Obama administration attempted to issue a rule - which it ultimately pulled back after an intense political backlash - that would give it the right to refuse any FOIA request it didn't like.

h/t Drudge

Video: Is Journal-Sentinel Interview Herman Cain's 'Rick Perry' Moment?

Two unfortunate and noteworthy gaffes from Herman Cain here. In much the same way that Rick Perry's gaffe in last week's debate was made worse because of his reputation for not doing well in debates, the way Cain seemed to draw a blank in response to a question about Libya was made worse because of his reputation for not having a firm grasp on foreign policy issues. In this exchange with Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reporters, Cain has two painful moments. The first comes right off the bat when he's asked whether public sector employees should have the right to collectively bargain. He actually answered, "yes." Frankly, it doesn't matter what was said after that. The fight in Wisconsin showed that the issue of public sector unions is a very sensitive one for the conservative base that Cain needs passionately in his camp to secure the nomination.

As for the Libya question, I got the sense in watching this that it wasn't so much about Cain not having an opinion about how Obama handled the removal of Gadhafi as it was a matter of his wanting to be overly careful about how he expressed his opinion. At the beginning, one is left to conclude one of two things. Either Cain is exhausted and the sexual harassment allegations are wearing on him OR he doesn't have a coherent position on Libya. Toward the end of this clip, he does lay out some issues of concern but he avoids associating the rebels there with either the Muslim Brotherhood or al-Qaeda. Cain knows of these entities quite well, which leads me to believe he decided to be too safe with his answers instead of saying what he believed.

When pressed about what he would have done vs. how Obama handled it, Cain could have drawn a clear line of distinction by saying that the removal of Gadhafi led to the planting of an al-Qaeda flag atop the Benghazi courthouse. Instead, he came across as ignorant or unwilling to express a strong view.

This was not good.



Here is the entire interview:



h/t Hot Air