Surprise! Columbia thugs wrist-slapped for rushing Minutemen during speech; Update: Stiffer punishments for three more students

Here’s an update from Hot Air on the Columbia debacle.  Make sure to click through to Hot and and get all the video. 

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Surprise! Columbia thugs wrist-slapped for rushing Minutemen during speech; Update: Stiffer punishments for three more students

posted at 12:18 pm on March 28, 2007 by Allahpundit

They’re gloating about it, too. Evan Coyne Maloney, call your office.

A number of students who rushed the stage during Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist’s Oct. 4 speech at Columbia received letters yesterday informing them that they would be punished with “disciplinary warnings” for their conduct at the event.

Three students-one of whom received the verdict more than a month ago-confirmed yesterday that they were charged with simple violations of the University’s Rules of Conduct. The resulting warnings, which will be notated on students’ transcripts and remain there until the end of 2008, are the lowest of four possible outcomes for those found to be in violation of the rules. Disciplinary warnings place no financial or academic constraints on the person charged and state “that future violations will be treated more seriously.”

“It’s a light punishment, it’s a slap on the wrist,” Monique Dols, GS, who was given a disciplinary warning, said. “It’s a victory for free speech and anti-racism.”…

[One] student, Andrew Tillet-Saks, CC ‘09 was also found to have engaged “in conduct that places another in danger of bodily harm.”…

“I’m glad they [the Minutemen] are outraged. They get press from whining, but an impression of strength is more important in the long run for a vigilante group which thrives on intimidating immigrants, and this verdict, like the protest, helps subvert that,” Judd said.

The irony is fragrant. Stinnnngs the nostrils.

Thanks to Weasel Zippers for the tip. Below you’ll find the video that started it all. Make sure you watch this clip, too, if you haven’t seen it before, to see what Dols means by “anti-racism.”

Update: Thanks to Alex K. for catching this. Still not exactly a stiff sentence, but it’s a step in the right direction.

The University has censured at least three students for their disruption of an Oct. 4, 2006 protest by Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist, one of the implicated students confirmed Tuesday. The disclosure, which came one day after it was revealed that three students had received lesser disciplinary warnings, signifies the harshest known punishment for any of the protest participants to date…

According to the Rules of University Conduct, censure is a step up in severity from a disciplinary warning. If a censured student is found in violation of the rules a second time, he or she is automatically suspended from the University for at least a semester or, if the violation is serious, is expelled…

In addition to an automatic suspension or expulsion for any future offenses, a censure remains on a student’s record until the student completes a degree or certificate.

Controversy at Digg! over…Iraq insurgents used children in car bombing-Brave Mujahideen Warriors Use Children in Car Bomb

Suppression of the Islamo-Fascist cowardice is everywhere. This story is from Breibart. It was linked up by LGF. For some reason, it’s ranking on digg was suppressed. That story unfolds here. One would think that 400 and some ‘diggs’ would get you a popular rating. Appantly, that may be somewhat content contingent. Needless to say, we will be digging this and a variety of other stories to test the theory. So digg the shit out of this post to see how Digg! responds.

Iraq insurgents used children in car bombing: general

Insurgents in Iraq detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle with two children in the back seat after US soldiers let it through a Baghdad checkpoint over the weekend, a senior US military official said Tuesday. The vehicle was stopped at the checkpoint but was allowed through when soldiers saw the children in the back, said Major General Michael Barbero of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.

“Children in the back seat lowered suspicion. We let it move through. They parked the vehicle, and the adults ran out and detonated it with the children in the back,” Barbero said.

The general said it was the first time he had seen a report of insurgents using children in suicide bombings. But he said Al-Qaeda in Iraq is changing tactics in response to the tighter controls around the city.

A US defense official said the incident occurred on Sunday in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah district, a mixed neighborhood adjacent to Sadr City, which is predominantly Shiite.

After going through the checkpoint, the vehicle parked next to a market across the street from a school, said the official, who asked not to be identified.

“And the two adults were seen to get out of the vehicle, and run from the vehicle, and then followed by the detonation of the vehicle,” the official said.

“It killed the two children inside as well as three other civilians in the vicinity. So, a total of five killed, seven injured,” the official said.

Officials here said they did not know who the children were or their relationship to the two adults who fled the scene. They had no information about their ages or genders.

“The brutality and the ruthlessness of this enemy hasn’t changed,” said Barbero, deputy director of regional operations of the Joint Staff. “They are just interested in slaughtering Iraqi civilians, to be very honest.”

Attacks on Iraqi civilians are down by a third and sectarian murders have fallen by 50 percent since mid-February when US and Iraqi forces began moving into Baghdad as part of a new security crackdown, the general said.

On the other hand, there has been no let-up in attacks on US forces by Al-Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni extremist groups, he said.

The incidence of car bombings and suicide attacks, which are typically carried out by Sunni extremist groups against Shiites, also have gone up even though their effectiveness is down, he said.

“As our checkpoints, and control points have been more effective, as they try to execute these high profile attacks with these vehicle-borne IEDs (improvised explosive devices) in Baghdad, we’re stopping a lot of them at these checkpoints and they are not getting to their intended targets,” he said.

But he said they will change their tactics.

Barbero pointed to the recent use of chlorine bombs as another example of the shifting tactics.

Three trucks with chlorine were blown up by suicide bombers over the weekend in Al-Anbar province, killing two policemen and releasing toxic fumes that sickened an estimated 350 people.

Barbero said Al-Qaeda in Iraq appeared to be resorting to use of chlorine bombs to intimidate tribal leaders that have turned against them in Al-Anbar.

“We assess those as relatively ineffective. However, that is an emerging tactic that we are seeing.”

“We think it will continue to be exercised in Iraq. Chlorine is readily accessible and we’ve had a number of these,” he said.

He said US commanders remain concerned about the Shiite militias led by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, even though US forces are now operating freely in Sadr City and his Mahdi army militia is quiet.

Sadr is still in Iran but in communication with leaders of his movement in Iraq, he said.

“Where we are with the leaders of his movement is at a pretty delicate point, and I probably don’t want to talk any more about his followers, and where we are in our relationship with them,” he said.

Major Food Stamp Scam Uncovered by Feds

Move along people. Nothing to see here. Let’s keep focusing on the funding to keep our troops safe. We don’t have time to worry about the rampant fraud, waste and abuse within our entitlement infrastructure. The welfare state is slow bleeding us to death. But it’s not politically expedient to criticize your core voting blocks.

Major Food Stamp Scam Uncovered by Feds

by Jim Kouri – PUERTO RICO — Thirty-one individuals linked to a $30 million food stamp fraud scheme were arrested here this morning following the culmination of a four-year undercover investigation headed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The investigation revealed that several grocery stores and food markets engaged in a fraudulent scheme to provide beneficiaries of the Puerto Rico Nutritional Assistance Program (PRNAP) with cash in lieu of groceries for a fee. The accused business owners would register false grocery sales for the amount requested by the participants and charged them a fee of 25 percent of the requested cash.

Those arrested today included business owners, employees and food program beneficiaries. All conspired to defraud the U.S. government. It is estimated that this scheme cost the U.S. government $30 million.

The PRNAP receives a grant of approximately $1.5 billion per year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service to provide nutritional assistance to low-income families in Puerto Rico.

“We will continue working with our law enforcement partners to shut down schemes like this where criminals profit at the expense of federal assistance programs designed to help those in need,” said Manuel Oyola Torrres, special agent in charge for the ICE Office of Investigations in Puerto Rico. “Those who defraud the federal government will be caught and will be prosecuted.”

The investigation succeeded thanks to the cooperative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division (IRSCID) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Newt on the Attack! « Axis of Right

These guys are funny.  Check them out.  Good conservative site. 

Newt on the Attack! « Axis of Right
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich stated the obvious with clarity in this New York Post interview: that She Who Must Not Be Named is “nasty,” her campaign “ruthless,” and that she would be the ultimate nominee for the Democrats. He also chimed in on another obvious point: Republicans need to nominate a conservative, for a moderate Republican against SWMNBN will absolutely lose.

If Newt’s running he’ll do it later this year when we’ve gotten fatigued of the current swath of candidates. I have a feeling that Algore is going to do the same. Newt’s my personal favorite right now: he’s the most Churhillian on the War on Terror, he’s got a great record of achievement in the 104th and 105th Congress and he’s a vision-guy. Electable? Who cares! I’m a Republican–if there’s a sword, I’m ready to jump on it!

Group: Gore a Hypocrite Over Power Bill

OK, I’ve tried to be a good boy and resist the cheap shot for two days.  But I just can’ take it anymore.  What can I say?  I’m a weak willed person.

Al! You Magnificently Hypocritical Bastard, you!!! 

Thanks for the easy fodder Mr. Vice President/internet inventor/global climatologist/movie maker.  We anxiously await your next dubious claim to fame. 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Al Gore, a leading voice against global warming, is being criticized by a conservative group that claims his Nashville mansion uses too much electricity. A Gore spokeswoman said the former vice president invests in enough renewable energy to make up for the home’s power consumption. On Sunday, Gore’s documentary film “An Inconvenient Truth,” which chronicled his campaign against global warming, won an Academy Award.

The next day, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research issued a statement saying Gore was not doing enough to reduce his own electricity consumption. The group disputes that global warming is a serious problem.

“We wanted to see if he was living by his own recommendations and walking the walk,” said think tank president Drew Johnson.

Utility records show the Gore family paid an average monthly electric bill of about $1,200 last year for its 10,000-square-foot home.

The Gores used about 191,000 kilowatt hours in 2006, according to bills reviewed by The Associated Press. The typical Nashville household uses about 15,600 kilowatt-hours per year.

The group said that Gore used nearly 221,000 kilowatt hours last year and that his average monthly electric bill was $1,359. Johnson said his group got its figures from Nashville Electric Service.

But company spokeswoman Laurie Parker said the utility never got a request from the policy center and never gave it any information.

Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said: “Sometimes when people don’t like the message, in this case that global warming is real, it’s convenient to attack the messenger.”

Kreider said Gore purchases enough energy from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and methane gas to balance 100 percent of his electricity costs.

Gore, who owns homes in Carthage, Tenn., and in the Washington area, has said he leads a “carbon-neutral lifestyle.” To balance out other carbon emissions, the Gores invest money in projects to reduce energy consumption, Kreider said.

___

On the Net:

Tennessee Center for Policy Research http://www.tennesseepolicy.org

“An Inconvenient Truth”: http://www.climatecrisis.net/

Asian Newspaper Under Fire for ‘I Hate Blacks’ Column

FOXNews.com – Asian Newspaper Under Fire for ‘I Hate Blacks’ Column – Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

San Francisco’s Asian community is up in arms over a newspaper column titled “Why I Hate Blacks” that appeared last week in a weekly newspaper geared to Asian Americans, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday.

In Kenneth Eng’s column for AsianWeek, a paper that bills itself as “The Voice of Asian Americans,” the self-described “Asian supremacist” goes through his list of “reasons” why he believes discrimination against African Americans is OK.

Click here to read the Chronicle’s story.

“The publication of these racist statements is completely irresponsible and damaging to all our communities,” said Gen Fujioka, program director of the Asian Law Caucus. “Not only should there be a retraction but a serious effort to repair the harm caused.”

The Chronicle reported that the offensive column has been removed from the paper’s Web site, though copies of the paper were still available in the city’s news boxes on Monday.

The paper “sincerely regrets any offense caused by the one opinion piece which reflected that author’s personal views,” according to a statement printed in the Chronicle. “We apologize for any harm or hurt this has caused the African American community. AsianWeek has great respect for all that the African American community has done for Asian Pacific Americans.”

Al Sharpton wants DNA test…to boost radio show ratings.

Now I’ve heard it all. Al Sharton is a media whore. And who cares if his great-great grandparents were slave to anybody’s great-great grandparents? We constantly talk about the ‘politics of personal destruction’. When are we going to address the politics of race and class warfare?

“Shocked” Sharpton Wants DNA Test, Potential Slave-Era Link Between Families Prompts Rev. Al Sharpton To Call For More Evidence – CBS News

(CBS/AP) The Rev. Al Sharpton said he wants a DNA test to determine whether he is related to former segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond through his great-grandfather, a slave owned by an ancestor of the late senator.

“I can’t find out anything more shocking than I’ve already learned,” Sharpton told the Daily News, which on Sunday reported the link based on genealogists’ findings.

Sharpton’s spokesman, Rachel Noerdlinger, confirmed Monday for The Associated Press that Sharpton plans to pursue DNA testing, but had no further details.

CBS News Radio correspondent Peter King reports that Sharpton said he will interview the researchers and the reporter on-air and take calls about the topic.

Hundreds of Iraq Vets Are Homeless

How sad is this? Sure, many will say that this young man has to make his way like the rest of us. Some will say he isn’t due ahelping hand or any preferential treatment. I say they are wrong! Patriotism and love of country begin with respecting those who protect the counrty you love. Step it up for as many as you like. But start here.

Hundreds of Iraq Vets Are Homeless – Newsweek The War in Iraq – MSNBC.com

Feb. 24, 2007 – Kevin Felty came back from Iraq in 2003 with nowhere to stay, and not enough money to rent an apartment. He and his wife of four years moved in with his sister in Florida, but the couple quickly overstayed their welcome. Jobless and wrestling with what he later learned was posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Felty suddenly found himself scrambling to find a place for himself and his wife, who was six-months pregnant. They found their way to a shelter for homeless veterans, which supported his wife during her pregnancy and helped Felty get counseling and find a job. A year later, he’s finally thinking his future. “I don’t want to say this is exactly where I want to be—it’s really not,” he says. “But it’s what I can get at the moment.”

Young, alienated and often living on their own for the first time, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans increasingly are coming home to find that they don’t have one. Already, nearly 200,000 veterans—many from the Vietnam War—sleep on the streets every night, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. But young warriors just back from the Mideast—estimated around 500 to 1,000—are beginning to struggle with homelessness too. Drinking or using drugs to cope with PTSD, they can lose their job and the support of family and friends, and start a downward spiral to the streets. Their tough military mentality can make them less likely to seek help. Advocates say it can take five to eight years for a veteran to exhaust their financial resources and housing options, so they expect the number to rise exponentially in a few years. “Rather than wait for the tsunami, we should be doing something now,” says Cheryl Beversdorf, president of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.

The problem is mainly a lack of resources, advocates say. There are only about 15,000 beds available in VA-funded shelters or hospitals nationwide, and nearly every one is taken. In some smaller cities there simply aren’t many places for a homeless veteran to go. And as affordable housing units shrink nationwide, veterans living on a disability check of, say, $700 a month, (which means a 50-percent disability rating from the VA), are hard-pressed to find a place to live. Most shelters require veterans to participate in a rehabilitation program, but a “fair amount” of veterans just go back to the streets once they leave, says Ed Quill, director of external affairs at Volunteers of America, the nonprofit housing group for veterans that helped Felty.

Charles Ommanney / Getty Images for Newsweek Two homeless vets share their stories in the dorm at New Directions in L.A.

The VA says it’s making a concerted effort to reach out to vets before they hit bottom, says Pete Dougherty, the VA’s coordinator for homeless programs. Intake counselors are trained to ask questions, especially of newer veterans, to seek out mental health or other problems that could lead to homelessness. “We’re much more sensitive than we were 40 years ago for signs of problems,” he says. And they have expanded some services. Last week, the VA approved $24 million to boost aid for the homeless, which will allow them to add about 1,000 more beds and increase the number of grants to help the growing population of homeless women veterans and those with mental illnesses.

Much of the work with new veterans is being done one soldier at a time. At New Directions in Los Angeles, a center that rehabilitates homeless veterans, Anthony Belcher, a formerly homeless Vietnam vet who now works at the center, looks out for one particular Iraq veteran who shows up at the center about once a month, filthy, drugged out and tortured by PTSD. “He’s a baby,” Belcher says. “You can see it in his eyes.” So far, the young vet is too wary to accept more than a night’s bed or a hot meal. But as Belcher says, at least he has a place to go. That’s more than many of the thousands of vets on America’s streets can say tonight.

Anna Nicole Smith- Death of a Junkie

I like to think that I’m a reasonable person. That I can be tolerant of others diversions. But after 12 straight hours of non-stop coverage, I can’t take the Anna Nicole drama any longer without throwing in my two cents. So here goes…

Anna Nicole Smith was a stripper. Her only claim to fame. She died unceremoniously, a junkie and a whore, in a casino hotel. Junkie whores with illigitame children die every day in America without comment. So Smith’s death, while tragic and sad, is not very newsworthy once you remove the fact that she was one a thousands who are simply famous for being famous.

Here’s what else happened yesterday…The US and North Korea moved closer to an agreement over Nuclear Power, The Palestinians agreed in principle to move toward a unity governmemt, Violence Erupted at Temple Mount as Muslims protested repair work near the Dome of the Rock. That’s just world politics.

What does it say about our populace that their voracious appetite for a peek into the lives of junkies, prostitutes, drunkards and morons is so strong that it can drive the media to provide this fare ad nausem in leiu of actual news?

A NOTE TO LIBERALS: Many of you like to claim that Islamic hatred of the west is seeded in the interventionist policies of the Republican Admistration. Here’s some food for thought. Perhaps Muslims, devoutly religious, are deeply offended by the debauchery routinely beamed to them by your friends in the media and Hollywood. Simply consider that their attitude toward us may, at least in part, not be based on what we do ‘over there’ but how we live ‘over here’.

NOTE TO CONSERVATIVES: Over the past few years, scores of you have called on ‘everyday’ Muslims to denounce the actions of a few as not representing their beliefs or lifestyle. Anytime someone attempts to defend Islam as not fully radicalized, the cry of “Then why don’t the moderates stand up for what THEY believe, are they cowards?” is resounded. Well, here’s the deal. The perception of the US is perpetuated throughout the world in the images of our lifestyle that the new electronic globalism promulgates. It is a false perception, IMO. So drop the the double standard and do what you challenge others to do. Stand up and declare “This lionization of the ammoral does not represent me.”

Say what you mean and mean what you say!

Air America Fire Sale

God I love free market economics. Let’s face it, if it’s lousy people won’t buy it. And listening to angry liberals whining is pretty damn lousy. Happy Valentine’s Day, Al, you insufferable hack. You’re a Sweetheart.

FEBRUARY 7–Bankrupt and about to lose Al Franken, its marquee star, Air America Radio is set to change hands for the bargain price of $4.25 million, according to new court documents. The sales figure was disclosed in a purchase agreement filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. According to the agreement, the deal between Air America’s owner, Piquant LLC, and a firm controlled by Stephen L. Green, a New York realtor, calls for Green’s firm to repay up to $3.25 million in loans provided to Air America after the liberal radio network filed for Chapter 11 protection last October (the company listed debts of $20.2 million). Green’s company will also give Piquant LLC $500,000 and pay off up to $500,000 in network debts (the bulk of which, $349,000, is owed to the network’s Manhattan landlord). Green’s bid topped by more than $1.25 million the nearest offer received by Air America, according to a motion filed along with the purchase agreement. An excerpt from that motion can be found below. Court documents do not specify how many bids were received for the network, though a filing notes that “more than ten interested parties” signed nondisclosure agreements and were allowed to review confidential network financial and corporate records. While Green controls the corporation purchasing Air America, two of the firms that were pre-bankruptcy investors in the radio network will “collectively own a minority interest” in the Green company. The Air America purchase is expected to be finalized at a court hearing in the next week. Franken, who is planning to run next year for a U.S. Senate seat from Minnesota, is scheduled to do his final Air America show on February 14.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0207071airamerica1.html