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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Philadelphia again scores highest homicide rate among big cities

12/30/11, "Murders are up again this year in Philadelphia, and the city still has the highest homicide rate of the nation's 10 most populous cities, according to stats provided by each city's police department.
  • At the same time, fewer murders are getting solved."...
12/30/11, "Kill-adelphia: Yet again, city tops list of homicide rates," Philly.com. via Drudge

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Friday, December 30, 2011

Rutgers wins Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium v Iowa State

12/30/11, "Fans of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights cheer in front of the wall of retired New York Yankees numbers during the New Era Pinstripe Bowl against the Iowa State Cyclones at Yankee Stadium," getty. Rutgers 27, Iowa St. 13.

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Goose Gossage and Rollie Fingers lead in blown saves-ESPN

4/30/11, "It’s a fact that the top two career leaders in blown saves are in the Hall of Fame. If you don't believe me, take a trip to Cooperstown, and you'll see that both Goose Gossage (112 blown saves) and Rollie Fingers (109) got elected." (item at end of article) Discussion on how to compute historical blown saves since they aren't listed many places:

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Terry Francona 'Best Newcomer' in SI.com 2011 Media Awards

12/28/11, "Media Awards: The best and worst from TV, radio, print, online in 2011," SI.com Richard Deitsch
  • "Best Newcomer"
"THE PICK: Terry Francona (Fox, ESPN)

Filling in for Tim McCarver for the first two games of the American League Championship Series, Francona was insightful and genuinely funny, both valuable commodities in broadcasting. He laughed at his own clichés and was unafraid to question managers' strategy. He drew raves from fans and critics (Yahoo! Sports baseball writer Jeff Passan tweeted, "Is Terry Francona Wally Pipping Tim McCarver?"). Francona won't be Pipp-ing McCarver, but the former Boston manager has been hired by ESPN to replace new Red Sox skipper Bobby Valentine on Sunday Night Baseball. He'll also be seen on Baseball Tonight. Though I imagine he'll be back in baseball sooner than later, Francona has a chance to be very good if he works at the job."

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In December 1992 Greg Maddux left the Yankees standing at the altar

In 1992 Greg Maddux left $15 million on the table from the Yankees who had won only 76 games that year and signed with Atlanta. "The Yankees suffered another dispiriting setback in their campaign to acquire top-flight pitching tonight when Greg Maddux signed with the Atlanta Braves.

Maddux signed a five-year, $28 million contract with Atlanta, a deal that fell a staggering $6 million shy of the offer the Yankees had presented to Maddux. The final proposal to Maddux by Yankees even included a $9 million signing bonus.

Maddux becomes the game's second-highest-paid pitcher per year, behind David Cone, who signed a three-year, $18 million deal with the Royals on Tuesday.

The failure to acquire Maddux meant the Yankees had been utterly shut out in their effort to sign -- they had hoped to stockpile -- the best pitching available in the free-agent marketplace. Cone signed with the Royals; Doug Drabek will pitch for the Astros; Jose Guzman opted for the Cubs. All had been extended offers by the Yankees. Chris Bosio and Greg Swindell, two more pitchers whom the Yankees entertained notions of pursuing, signed with other clubs, as well.

"This one hurts," said Gene Michael, the general manager of the Yankees, who did manage to trade for Jim Abbott on Sunday. "He's the best one out there. I never thought I could say this. But he's a steal at $28 million. He's a steal."...

"The acquisition of Greg Maddux gives us the most formidable rotation in all of baseball," said Atlanta General Manager John Schuerholz.

The Braves, who won the pennant in 1991 and 1992, now are equipped with a starting rotation that includes Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Steve Avery. The Braves are so loaded with pitching that they traded left-handed starter Charlie Leibrandt to the Rangers within a half an hour of their Maddux announcement.

"Greg, above all, wanted to win," said his agent, Scott Boras. "The Braves offered him the most substantial degree of assurity of taking the World Series."

  • A Devastating Reversal

The signing ends months of wild, weird and occasionally bitter negotiating, which included painful relations with the Cubs and a well-chronicled and elaborate showcasing of the New York metropolitan area. Maddux saw Broadway musicals, had conversations with Donald Trump and all the while was considering what would have been the most lucrative contract ever signed by a pitcher. "It was not about using the New York Yankees," said Boras.

The Yankees, though, were devastated by the reversal. For more than a solid week, the organization had poured its energy into its courtship of Maddux. Michael traveled to Las Vegas, Nev., to play golf with Maddux and rekindle the relationship that had begun when Michael was with the Cubs in the early 1980's.

The Yankees then followed up with a proposal for five years and $30 million. In an instant it was inflated to $34 million. On Monday, Michael left the club here and traveled to New York to tour North Jersey neighborhoods with Maddux and then take the right-hander and his wife, Kathy, to dinner at the Post House

  • and a performance of "Miss Saigon."

It wasn't enough, and that fact became clear today over a stretch of six hours. The Yankees, who had been given a counterproposal of $37.5 million on Tuesday only to have Boras tell them within hours that it was not longer binding because of Atlanta's re-emergence in the picture, began today with the intent to redo their offer to make it more appealing.

The Yankees wouldn't go to $37.5, but they would, in a maneuver that followed one used by the Royals to sign Cone, offer Maddux a $9 million signing bonus.

In the end it meant nothing. Boras, who insists his client was prepared to become a Yankee after Michael's sightseeing tour, had extracted a $28 million proposal from the Braves. Maddux would not come to New York, not for the restructured $34 million or the extra $6 million it represented. Molloy's first telephone call back here came within minutes of Maddux's signing....

The Yankees finally made their pitch to the Colorado Rockies to get their third baseman back. The Yankees left Charlie Hayes unprotected for the expansion draft, and the Rockies grabbed him as the third player picked in the draft.

Today the Yankees met with Rockies officials and offered Hensley Meulens, the player the Yankees had hoped one of the expansion teams would have selected. The Rockies' response: Don't be silly, we could have drafted him.

The Rockies countered by asking for Sterling Hitchcock and Sam Militello, two impressive young pitchers, plus Russell Davis, a minor league third baseman. The Yankees said no to all three. The meeting ended shortly afterward." via Jeff Sullivan, sbnation

"The Braves had been to the World Series in both 1991 and 1992. The Yankees had won 71 and 76 games in those years, respectively. Maddux wanted to win, so he gave up guaranteed money to join a proven winner."...

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Arod spotted in Boise over the weekend doing light cardio workout, keeping 'low profile'

"Major League Baseball star Alex Rodriguez was spotted in Boise over the weekend. KBOI-TV anchor Mike Murad spotted him at a local gym in town. Murad saw Rodriguez doing a light cardio workout. Rodriguez didn't tell Murad why specifically he's in town, however, he did say he was trying to keep a low profile while in the Treasure Valley."...

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Monday, December 26, 2011

Lynn Samuels tribute to air Tuesday morning, Dec. 27, 7-10AM on Sirius XM Channel 127

Lynn Samuels tribute: ""Sirius XM will air a tribute to Lynn Samuels on Tuesday, December 27th on Sirius XM Left 127 from 7-10 AM Eastern."According to several posts on lynnsamuels.com, Bennett will return from vacation to co-host with his fill-in for this week, Richard Bey." ... 2 items above from posters on NY Radio Message Board Lynn Samuels thread at Radio-Info.com

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

Wayne Hagin not expected to return to Mets radio booth, possible replacements include Duquette, Sample, Carlin

12/21/11, "Former Mets GM Jim Duquette recently auditioned with WFAN for a spot in the team’s radio booth next season, according to sources. Wayne Hagin, who spent four seasons working alongside Howie Rose, is not expected to return.
  • Duquette currently hosts a baseball show on Sirius XM Radio. Other candidates for Hagin’s seat, according to sources, include former major leaguer Billy Sample, WFAN reporter Ed Coleman and SNY host Chris Carlin." (item at end of article)

12/21/11, "Mets cut Florida farm team," NY Post, Mike Puma, via NY Radio Message Board

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Longtime NY radio host and current Sirius XM host Lynn Samuels passes

Update, Lynn Samuels tribute: ""Sirius XM will air a tribute to Lynn Samuels on Tuesday, December 27th on Sirius XM Left Channel 127 from 7-10 AM Eastern."According to several posts on lynnsamuels.com, Bennett will return from vacation to co-host with his fill-in for this week, Richard Bey." ... 2 items above from posters on NY Radio Message Board"Her body was discovered after she failed to report for her 10 a.m. Saturday show at Sirius XM radio." "Years ago, when she was a left wing host on WABC, Lynn Samuels used to do a change-of-pace Christmas Eve show in which, among other things, she invited listeners to sing Christmas carols.

This year on Christmas Eve, Samuels died. She was 69.

No cause of death was immediately announced. Her body was discovered after she failed to report for her 10 a.m. Saturday show at Sirius XM radio and the company asked police to go to her Woodside, Queens, home.

On the radio, Samuels was exactly what much of the country thinks New York sounds like. She had a city accent she never tried to hide or soften, even when her bosses suggested it would prevent her from ever getting a radio job outside the city.

“This is who I am,” she said.

She was unique beyond words,” said John Mainelli, her WABC program director and longtime friend. “I'm so glad I knew her.”

Samuels was a self-described progressive who often threw curveballs. She was a long-standing critic of President Obama, saying she didn’t believe he ever really had progressive credentials.

Her periodic unpredictability didn’t serve her well in today’s party-line talk radio, but helped give her a long run in the earlier, looser talk era.

Her criticism of conservatives often extended to her fellow radio hosts, but she would add that she liked a number of them personally. She became close friends with conservative host and writer Matt Drudge,
  • serving for a time as his call screener.

Mainelli said he exchanged messages with her on Friday, at which time she said she would be doing both her Saturday and Sunday shows live this weekend.

“I am stunned,Jay Diamond, her one-time WABC colleague, wrote on the New York Radio Message Board. “She sometimes got mad at me, but I loved her, and we were friends to the end. The world of radio, and the world in general, will miss this great talent, and great human being.”

Aside from politics, Samuels would devote long segments to cultural matters like books, music, a movie she saw or the merits and demerits of wearing foundation garments.

Her Christmas Eve show, which she said was not her favorite program, began as an attempt simply to do something fun and different on a night when most people weren’t discussing budget legislation.

Her own politics ran back to the activist movements of the 1960s, about which she often talked. Her radio career began around

  • 1979 with a late-night show at WBAI (99.5 FM).

She moved to WABC in the late 1980s and remained there on different shifts for about 15 years. She was fired three times and rehired twice.

After WABC she struggled at times to stay in the city, taking a job in a laundromat while keeping her hand in radio at Sirius XM.

A very private person off the air, Samuels left no immediate survivors.

But the local radio world was saddened. To the end, said Mainelli, she was “the same as she had always been - lively, full of curiosity, and happy, all existential things considered.”" via Drudge

  • -------------------------------

Ed. note: As a listener of Ms. Samuels from WBAI through WABC, I recall discussion of her laundromat employment which was before and during her WBAI days when she was poor, not after leaving WABC as the article states. She made and saved a lot of money at WABC so wasn't poor after leaving there.

  • -------------------------
A liberal notes Sirius XM banished the liberal Ms. Samuels to a weekend slot because she refused to carry water for Obama:

More NY Radio Message Board remembrances of Lynn Samuels.

  • -----------------------

"Bob Grant, the talk radio host, who was a colleague at WABC, said Ms. Samuels was “funny, smart and original.”

“What I admired about her was, she wasn’t afraid. With all these right-wingers around,” he said, referring to her view of him as well, “she just said what she had to.”"

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Merry Christmas

  • Rockefeller Center a few years ago
Handel: Messiah, For unto us a child is born

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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Star over Bethlehem

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Thursday, December 22, 2011

NBC reporter arrested for drunk driving after attending party at Sandusky lawyer's house

"Jay Gray, the NBC News reporter covering the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal in State College, Pennsylvania, was arrested on drunk driving charges after he attended a drunken football-watching party at Sandusky's lawyer's house, reports say.

The Pennsylvania State Police arrested Gray just before 2am December 12 during a traffic stop.

He was allegedly at the home of Joe Amendola, the eccentric lawyer defending Sandusky against allegations he molested 10 boys over the course of several years.

According to TMZ, Mr Amendola invited Gray and several other reporters over to his house to watch the New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys game.

The reporters, reportedly, were all vying for exclusive interviews with Sandusky, who has only further raised public suspicious about himself in two awkward media appearances, says TMZ. ...

During the party at Mr Amendola's State College house, TMZ claims Gray got 'really drunk.'

Around midnight, he got in his car to drive back to his hotel and was stopped by police.

He was released on bail after his arrest.

NBC has not commented on the case and neither has Gray.

Gray is a national correspondent for the network who has covered stories across the country.

According to a report in the Harrisburg Patriot-News, Mr Amendola wants Sandusky and his wife, Dottie, to appear in an exclusive network interview.

Gray and the other reporters were likely trying to win favors to get them the air time, TMZ says." via RadioDailyNews. photo msnbc via UK Daily Mail

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Yankee fans have donated $206 million to Bud Selig slush fund known as luxury tax over 9 years

"New York has paid the tax in all nine years since it began, $206 million of the $227 million raised under the penalty for high payrolls. The only other teams to pay have been the Red Sox (a total of $18.8 million), Detroit ($1.3 million) and the Los Angeles Angels ($927,000).

The Yankees pay at a 40 percent rate on the amount of their payroll over $178 million, a figure that includes the average annual values of contracts plus benefits. Boston, which exceeded the threshold for the second straight year, pays at a 30 percent rate. For purposes of the tax, New York's final payroll was $212.7 million and Boston's was $189.4 million.

Under the new labor contract, the Yankees' rate would increase to 42.5 percent next year and 50 percent in 2013 if they continue to exceed the threshold, and Boston's rate would go up to 40 percent next season.

But if in any year a team goes under the threshold, its rate decreases to 17.5 percent the next time it pays the tax.

As an added incentive for the high-spenders to decrease payroll, if they get under the threshold they will become eligible to get back some of the money they contribute in revenue sharing. The tax threshold stays at $178 million through 2013, then goes to $189 million in each of the following three years."...

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Monday, December 19, 2011

Steinbrenner High School children forced to hear Islamist political speaker, Soc. Studies teacher Miliziano in charge. Updated: Revised Policy

  • Update #5, 2/29/12, Hillsborough County parents met Tues. night 2/28 with school board about outside speakers in children's classrooms in particular Hassan Shibly who was at the meeting, spoke for awhile, then exited and began prayers with several others visible through windows to parents still in the meeting. Pam reports nothing was finalized about/if Shibly will be allowed access to unformed minds of captive children but the matter will be revisited at a later date.
Update #4, 2/16/12, "Hillsborough County School Board Meeting: CAIR in our classrooms," Laura Rambeau Lee, Examiner.com
Update #2, 2/15/12, "Parents at Hillsborough School Board Meeting Demand Hamas-CAIR Indoctrination of School Children Cease, SIOA Exclusive video," Atlas Shrugs, Pamela Geller
  • Update, 1/7/12, "The main person responsible (at Steinbrenner High School) was Kelly R. Miliziano, a teacher in the Social Studies Department at Steinbrenner. And she announced Wednesday that the school has scheduled additional religious speakers to balance the CAIR operative — a Hindu priest or a Christian pastor.

The problem with that is that (Hassan) Shibly is a political speaker. A Hindu priest or Christian pastor won’t counter the poisonous propaganda that Shibly spews to our impressionable young minds. An informed counter-jihad speaker such as Robert Spencer, Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan or I myself must be given a chance to speak, so as to counter the lies of Hamas-tied CAIR.

Hamas-linked CAIR should not be speaking at all, but if the public school shills insist on presenting jihadi views, they must provide freedom lovers with the same opportunity.

  • Further, political speakers should be off limits on school grounds.

Meanwhile, the email exchanges between CAIR and Steinbrenner High School are revealing. Miliziano wrote this in a November 14 email: “Every year I invite a representative from CAIR to speak to our AP World History Students.” After CAIR-Tampa responded favorably, Miliziano wrote again: “Over the years I have had many speakers from CAIR come to my classes, and it has been such a good learning experience for the students.”

Miliziano said that she “regularly asks” Shibly to speak. This is despite the fact that Shibly has a track record of defending jihad terrorist groups and acting as an apologist for the worldwide jihad and Islamic supremacism. Following the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War, Shibly granted legitimacy to the jihad terrorist group Hezb’allah by characterizing it as a “resistance movement” that provides valued social services to the Lebanese people. “They’re absolutely not a terrorist organization,” Shibly said, and “any war against them is illegitimate.”

Yet Miliziano refused to respond to parents’ requests to vet the notorious Mr. Shibly. Instead, she attacked the parents who complained. She even called parents’ concerns about CAIR “baseless and Islamophobic.” Yet although it presents itself as a civil rights group, CAIR actually has many links to Islamic supremacist and jihad terror groups. CAIR’s cofounders Omar Ahmad and Niwad Awad attended a Hamas planning meeting in Philadelphia in 1993 where they conspired with Hamas operatives to raise funds for Hamas. And several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various jihad-related crimes.

This should be grounds for Miliziano’s immediate dismissal. Freedom lovers should urge Steinbrenner’s principal, Brenda Grasso, to fire Miliziano at once, demand equal time for freedom fighters, while calling upon Steinbrenner High cease and desist from inviting Muslim Brotherhood groups to speak to public school students. Call for Ms. Miliziano’s removal. Demand equal time for freedom fighters. Brenda Grasso’s email is brenda.grasso@sdhc.k12.fl.us.

One parent of a Steinbrenner student, whose child went through Shibly’s indoctrination, wrote me that his daughter told him that Shibly said that “only 4% or 6% of Muslims were terrorists,” and that his presentation was so positive toward Islam as to be “borderline proselytizing.”

This parent went to Steinbrenner the morning of December 5 and spoke to Kelly King, the Assistant Principal for Curriculum. King confirmed that the speaker who addressed his daughter’s class was indeed a representative from Hamas-linked CAIR. “I explained to Ms. King,” wrote the parent, “that I strongly objected to CAIR being involved in the school, and recited some of CAIR’s more infamous highlights. She replied that the presentation was part of a history of religion unit in their history class. I told her that I have no problem with students being taught the history of Islam, but if the school was going to have a speaker do that, they should invite an Imam, not a representative from a religious based political organization, particularly one with such a dubious history.”

In response, King equated “a Christian pastor to a PAC” and ultimately referred the parent to Miliziano, who said that she regularly invited Shibly to give presentations, and “that the statements I had made about CAIR were baseless and Islamophobic,” even though the parent had expressly told her that he had no problem with the school bringing in an imam to discuss the history of Islam. When the parent tried to explain to her that “the school was associating itself with a religious-based political organization that propagandizes for Islam & Sharia, and are terrorist apologists, Miliziano

  • “completely dismissed these concerns.”

And despite Miliziano’s assurances that a Hindu priest and a Christian pastor would address the class, so far only Shibly has done so.

  • This is unconscionable. Freedom lovers must demand equal time."

1/7/12, "Pamela Geller, Big Government Column: Hamas-linked CAIR in Your Kid’s Classroom," Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs

  • ---------------------------------
"Its hard enough for adults to deal with propaganda but its almost impossible for children." "Mass silence led to mass murder."...

"Why is a representative of a terror-linked organization a defender of jihad terror groups and an apologist for Islamic supremacism welcome to speak in public schools?"...

(continuing, Atlas): "However, now we have been able to identify one school -- Steinbrenner High School -- where a representative of CAIR spoke to students. An informed source tells me it was the notorious Hassan Shibly.

Shibly has a track record of defending jihad terrorist groups and acting as an apologist for the worldwide jihad and Islamic supremacism.

Following the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War, Shibly granted legitimacy to Hezb'allah by characterizing it as a "resistance movement" that provides valued social services to the Lebanese people. "They're absolutely not a terrorist organization," Shibly said, and "any war against them is illegitimate" -- more on that here.

Nonetheless, he was welcomed into the school and spoke to several classes throughout the day,

  • including AP World History, World History, and World Religions.

The email exchanges between CAIR and Steinbrenner High School are revealing. Kelly Miliziano, a World History teacher at Steinbrenner, wrote this in a November 14 email:

After CAIR-Tampa responded favorably, Miliziano wrote again: "Over the years I have had many speakers from CAIR come to my classes, and it has been such a good learning experience for the students." She added: "I would prefer to have a speaker for each period of the day so that students can really interact with the speaker and ask questions."

"Every year"? "Many speakers from CAIR"? "Each period of the day"? Hamas-linked groups are regularly talking to high school students? Unindicted co-conspirators in the largest terror funding trial in our nation's history are being given a platform to mislead impressionable teenagers? Miliziano suggested topics that would have given CAIR a magnificent platform to spread their disinformation among the students:
  • Topics can range from :
  • The mission of CAIR
  • Basic beliefs, practices, history of....
  • Confronting stereotypes and misconceptions (a favorite of students)
  • Sharia
  • Why does Islam look differently around the world?
  • Human Rights and Islam
  • Women and Islam in different countries
  • Any other topic you think students should know about.

These are important subjects for students to study, but Hamas-tied CAIR is the last place where they can find out the truth about them. Is this what our public schools are doing with our children -- subjecting them to indoctrination and propaganda? That is child abuse. Where are the counter voices? Where are the voices of freedom?

Steinbrenner High School officials should have known that CAIR is a Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas-linked organization that is dedicated to spreading disinformation about Islam and terror, opposing anti-terror activity, and defaming freedom fighters. CAIR was one of the many Islamic groups that were named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas jihad funding trial. They are in the top five of the AFDI Threats to Freedom Index.

Read more: the rest....

  • Steinbrenner High School - (Rt 2)
  • 5575 W. Lutz Lake Fern Rd.
  • Lutz, FL. 33558
  • 813 792-5131 Ext. 264
  • Kelly.miliziano@sdhc.k12.fl.us
  • 813-792-5131 Ext. 264
  • 813-792-5135 (Fax)
  • Milizano "preferred to have a speaker for each period of the day so that students can really interact with the speaker and ask questions."...

    Hillsborough County Public Schools

    MaryEllen Elia, Superintendent

    901 E Kennedy Blvd P.O. Box 3408 Tampa, Fl 33601 USA

    phone: (813)272-4000

    MaryEllen.Elia@sdhc.k12.fl.us"

    • --------------------------

    12/4/11, "Child Abuse: Hamas-Linked CAIR Poisoning Minds of High School Students," Pamela Geller

    --------------------------

    • Comments to Pamela Geller's article:

    1. In an email to the high school: It seems you've invited "a group with known links to terrorist organizaton, Hamas, to speak propaganda to an entrapped audience. At the very least if world history is important that you invite also a Jewish Rabbi and a Christian...."

    • ---------------

    2. Steinbrenner High School should give equal time to someone else to explain more about CAIR's activities.

    • ---------------

    Comments to Pamela Geller's article on American Thinker:

    • 1. "Harod"

    "Thanks to Pamela for bringing this to our attention, Hamas has no business anywhere near children. Its hard enough for adults to deal with propaganda but its almost impossible for children. USF in Tampa had a professor which resigned to become the president of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Now its my understanding USF is pursuing Arab billionaires to send their kids to their school and donate money and buildings."

    • ---------------------
    • 2. Boston+Harold

    "What are the chances of the school inviting Tim Tebow as a speaker? ...The concept of Orwellian thought police is not too far fetched at all. This crew is good."

    • ----------------------
    • 3. Nina in MA
    "What was this teacher's motive? And why aren't there more christians and jews protesting this? I would be asking when the preacher and the rabbi were coming in. What happened to the separation of church and state that the libs are all hot over? Doesn't this violate that ruling?"
    • --------------------------
    12/29/2009, Thanks to CAIR's influence in the US military, no one could complain about the radical Islamist who eventually murdered 12 unarmed Americans and injured many more at the Ft. Hood army base.
    • ---------------------------

    Tampa/CAIR press release 12/2/11 announcing completed high school presentations:

    (TAMPA, FL, 12/2/11) -- "The Council on American-Islamic Relations of Florida, Tampa chapter (CAIR-Tampa), gave seven presentations on Islam this week to over a dozen different AP world history and world religions public high school classes in the Tampa area. The presentations covered topic such as
    • basic Muslim beliefs,
    • Islamic history,
    • Islam and human rights,
    • religious tolerance and diversity, and
    • popular misconceptions about Islam.

    "Conflict is ultimately the result of hatred resulting from misunderstanding. By learning about each other we can come to appreciate and respect each other. The beauty of American diversity is that we may disagree on issues of politics or faith, yet such differences need not prohibit us from working together for a better society,"

    Shibly also emphasized that the fear-mongering against American Muslims today orchestrated by Islamophobes is no different than the discrimination many other religious, ethnic and racial groups faced as they integrated into the fabric of American Society. "We must value the freedoms, rights and respect for diversity, that distinguishes our nation and never take such freedoms for granted. When one group of Americans lose their rights, we all do."

    CAIR Tampa also lectured this week at one of the world's top Arts College's on Islamophobia and challenges facing American Muslims in addition to lecturing at an Adult Education University on Islamic beliefs and history.

    CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding."

    • --------------------

    "The CAIR-induced mass silence led to mass murder....

    Thanks to CAIR, 42 brave American soldiers were gunned down by an Islamic nut in Texas. That’s right, thanks to CAIR....

    It was the intimidating and ruthless CAIR that almost single-handedly created a climate of fear of reporting any suspicious anti-American behavior on the part of Muslim soldiers like Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, accused of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11....

    CAIR’s lawyers have filed thousands of EEOC complaints and lawsuits since 9/11. They’ve even gone after John Doe citizens who alerted airline crew to Muslim men behaving as menacingly and suspiciously as the 9/11 hijackers. CAIR’s “Flying While Muslim” anti-profiling campaign has had a chilling effect throughout the aviation security industry.

    CAIR gulled non-Muslims into the kind of see-no-evil dhimmitude that allowed Hasan to carry out his alleged terror. Had anyone dared officially protest Hasan’s extremist views, they would have not only risked their military careers but potentially faced a lawsuit sponsored by CAIR.

    Hasan was treated with kid gloves because CAIR demanded it.

    Thanks to CAIR, a dozen soldiers lay dead, along with 29 wounded....

    Thanks to CAIR, the military along with everyone else in government is terrified of associating terrorism with Islam. No one dares utter the M word, lest they be sued for discrimination or branded an “anti-Muslim bigot” or “Islamophobe” by CAIR’s smear merchants."...

    • --------------

    "Federal prosecutors have named three prominent Islamic organizations in America as participants in an alleged criminal conspiracy to support a Palestinian Arab terrorist group, Hamas.

    Prosecutors applied the label of "unindicted co-conspirator" to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, and the North American Islamic Trust in connection with a trial planned in Texas next month for five officials of a defunct charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development....

    The co-conspirator designation could be a blow to the credibility of the national Islamic organizations, which often work hand-in-hand with government officials engaged in outreach to the Muslim community.

    A court filing by the government last week listed the three prominent groups among about 300 individuals or entities named as co-conspirators. The document gave scant details, but prosecutors described CAIR as a present or past member of "the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee and/or its organizations."

    Critics note that several former CAIR officials have been convicted or deported after being charged with fraud, embargo violations, or aiding terrorist training....

    • --------------------

    "More than one in four Muslims (or 26%), aged 18-29, said “Suicide Bombing is Justified.” 2% percent of them say it can often be justified, 13% say sometimes, and 11% say rarely. Add to that, the 5% don’t know/refused to answer this easy, instinctive question, and it’s even worse–for a total of 31%–almost a third of young American Muslims, who support homicide bombings. This younger group of Muslims is the most radical, the study found, and

    Pew Study, 5/22/07, "Muslim Americans"

    10/20/11, "The Lost Decade," Angelo M. Codevilla, Claremont Institute

    "America's current ruling class, the people who lost the War on Terror, monopolizes the upper reaches of American public life, the ranks of those who make foreign and domestic policy, including the leadership of the Republican and Democratic parties. It is more or less homogeneous socially and intellectually. In foreign affairs, the change from the Bush to the Obama Administrations was barely noticeable. In domestic matters, the differences are more quantitative than qualitative. Dissent from the ruling class is rife among the American people, but occurs mostly on the sidelines of our politics. If there is to be a reversal of the ongoing defeats, both foreign and domestic, that have discredited contemporary America's bipartisan mainstream, heretofore marginal people will have to generate it, applying ideas and practices recalled from America's successful past.

    The world of 2011 is even less congenial to America and Americans than it was on September 10, 2001.... The armed forces' moral decline is more serious. The quality of senior officers (as opposed to that of senior non-commissioned officers, who advance through exams) results from advancement via "efficiency reports"—that is, from pleasing superiors. It starts with generals and admirals chosen for compatibility with the ruling class rather than for winning wars.... The occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan proved that our ruling class is capable only of fruitless bloodshed.... "Whatever it takes" Had the Bush team focused on the realities that fed growing images of America as "the weak horse" (to use Osama bin Laden's words), they would have had to consider who were the major contributors to that disrespect, what they and their predecessors had done to incur it, and then to decide what actions would restore it.

    That would have pointed to the Middle East's regimes, and to our ruling class' relationship with them, as the problem's ultimate source. The rulers of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian Authority had run (and continue to run) educational and media systems that demonize America. Under all of them, the Muslim Brotherhood or the Wahhabi sect spread that message in religious terms to Muslims in the West as well as at home. That message

    • indicts America, among other things,

    And indeed, ever since the 1970s U.S. policy had responded to acts of war and terrorism from the Muslim world by absolving the regimes for their subjects' actions. For example, when Yasser Arafat's PLO murdered U.S. ambassador Cleo Noel, our government continued building friendly relations with Arafat, and romancing the Saudi regime that was financing him. Since then the U.S. government has given $2.5 billion to the PLO. Part of the reason was unwarranted hope, part was fear, and part was the fact that

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    12/17, 2007, ""The Boss" expresses gratitude that a new high school in Lutz will bear his name," St. Pete Times.
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    School children are a captive audience, can't get up and leave unless they're willing to be punished and/or ridiculed.
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    Ed. note: Please excuse bright white background behind half of this post. I believe it's my friendly hackers who've been with me for several years.

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    Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal buys $300 million stake in Twitter

    12/19/11, "Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's Kingdom Holding Company has announced a $300m (£194m) investment in social media site Twitter.

    The investment follows "several months of negotiations", a company statement to the Saudi stock exchange said.

    The prince, who is one of the world's richest men, owns stakes in many well-known companies, including News Corporation.

    • He also has investments in a number of media groups in the Arab world.

    "Our investment in Twitter reaffirms our ability in identifying suitable opportunities to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact," Prince Alwaleed said."

    10/12/2001, "$10 Million? NYC Says No Thanks," CBSnews.com

    "A Saudi prince who gave the city a relief check for $10 million, then said U.S. policies were partly to blame for the World Trade Center attack, received a stinging rebuke from the mayor and a rejection of his donation. ... During his visit to the wreckage Thursday, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal called the Sept. 11 terrorist attack "a tremendous crime" and said the suspected mastermind, Osama bin Laden, "does not belong to Islam." "We are here to tell America and to tell New York that Saudi Arabia is with the United States wholeheartedly," he said. But in a written statement handed out by his publicist, the prince said: "At times like this one, we must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack. I believe the government of the United States of America should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause."

    Giuliani, who had attended a memorial service with Alwaleed and accepted his $10-million offer to help victims' families, had a harsh response when he learned about the statement. "There is no moral equivalent for this attack," Giuliani said. "The people who did it lost any right to ask for justification when they slaughtered 5,000, 6,000 innocent people. Not only are those statements wrong, they're part of the problem." Sunny Mindel, the mayor's communications director, told The Associated Press: "We are not going to accept the check — period." The prince, an outspoken member of the Saudi royal family, is a major investor in American companies and was No. 6 on Forbes magazine's 2001 list of the world's richest men, with a worth of $20 billion."...ap photo

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    AAU chief child molestation charges don't make news perhaps because no one's rioting about it

    "The new and hollow standard, “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the kids”...doesn’t cut it." "Does it get any worse than these Penn State and Syracuse assistant coach stories, those making sustained big news?...

    The Bobby Dodd pedophilia accusations story, now a week old, should be as big and as ugly as those unraveling about Jerry Sandusky and Bernie Fine. Bigger, given Dodd’s position in sports.

    But it hasn’t. It has barely made a sound here.

    Are we bored by such stories, or is it that if there’s no big-time sports teams and rooting and perhaps rioting interests in the mix, we don’t care as much, or even at all?

    Dodd, until late last month when he very quietly resigned, was for 19 years the president and CEO of the AAU, a kingdom that does good, and in too many sneaker company-controlled cases, bad, for tens of thousands of sports-playing boys and girls throughout the country.

    Dodd, as of last week, became the latest to be publicly accused of using his position in sports to target, lure, then sexually abuse male children in his charge, starting in the 1980s.

    That’s where ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” enters. So often buried by ESPN in low-viewership time slots, OTL, hosted and steered by Bob Ley, continues to be well worth finding.

    Last Sunday it pursued the Dodd story, providing the on-camera testimony of Ralph West, now 43, who as a kid played AAU basketball in Memphis in a program headed by Dodd. Although West claimed that he wasn’t good enough to make a team that produces college and NBA stars, “I somehow made the team” — Dodd’s team.

    West said that Dodd first went out of his way to befriend him as both a religious and sports mentor, then sexually pursued him, even providing him his own motel rooms during AAU road trips — rooms Dodd would enter to sexually assault him. Eventually, said West, he barricaded himself in his rooms.

    Apparently moved to act by the accusers of Sandusky, West presented OTL an email he sent to AAU’s compliance office, dated Nov. 7,

    • claiming that he knows Dodd to be a pedophile.

    West and a childhood friend who was contacted by OTL, also claimed that while at Dodd’s home as kids, they helped him move a file cabinet they found loaded with child porn and piles of waist-down photos of kids he coached.

    Another former AAU player of Dodd’s testified, anonymously, on OTL to much the same, adding that as a 15-year-old in Dodd’s care, his drink was spiked by Dodd to try to ensure his sexual compliance.

    Dodd, 63, did not return OTL’s phone calls and emails, and would not speak with correspondent Tom Farrey who went to Dodd’s Florida home.

    However, 15 minutes later, according to Farrey, Dodd emailed that he has cancer and that he retired from the AAU on Nov. 29. Yet, no public announcement had been made that the president and CEO of the AAU had retired. And not until OTL called the AAU’s No. 2 man was that confirmed.

    OTL also reported that the AAU, based in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., on Disney World property — Disney owns ESPN — the previous week

    • claimed to be unaware of these allegations against Dodd.

    But on the day after OTL called the AAU about Dodd — and before OTL’s report first aired — the AAU contacted authorities in Memphis to alert them that “serious allegations” have been made against Dodd.

    Thus, the stench of a cover-up — saving face before saving kids from sexual predators — is again on the wind.

    A week later, this story, I figured, would have made significant news.

    • It hasn’t, not even on ESPN beyond OTL.

    We better not become inured to such stories just because there are plenty more where these come from. And the perverse practicality of pedophiles exploiting sports to bait children is far too normal among the abnormal to be disregarded as aberrational.

    And, unless the perps operated within big-time college programs, the depravity of such crimes, alleged or proven, is too great to treat with a shrug or with the new and hollow standard,

    • “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the kids.” That doesn’t cut it."

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    Sunday, December 18, 2011

    Welding inspector says he won't take his kids to new Marlins stadium due to safety concerns

    Jose's hammie minder best check out Marlins stadium for potholes.

    "As if a parking garage tax controversy, an SEC probe, and crimes against typography weren't enough, a former welding inspector at their new stadium says he won't go to there because he's afraid it'll fall down:

    What [Roy] Fastabend said he found shocked him.
    Engineering specifications ignored. Contractors cutting corners to save time and money. He even caught a fellow inspector falsifying records and signing off on welds he never examined.
    "If people knew what was going on there or how they did things, I mean, I won't go to that stadium, I won't take my kids to that place," Fastabend told CBS4's Jim DeFede in an exclusive interview. "Sadly, it looks beautiful but there are questions."

    Marlins execs say that the inspector caught faking records was fired, and the team has now belatedly begun reinspecting all the welds to be sure they're legit. So with any luck, this will pass like the New York Yankees' crumbling concrete controversy, and the only catastrophic failure in Miami in coming years

    12/13/11, "Roy Fastabend has been a welder for 35 years and a certified inspector for the last fifteen. It was his job to make sure the columns and beams connected to the retractable roof at the Marlins Stadium were constructed and welded correctly."

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