Almost Free Speech

Oct. 22 2010

Source http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/school_law/2010/10/court_no_free_speech_rights_fo.html

An epic and somewhat disturbing ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, in Cincinnati states that Teachers while in the classroom are exempted from the rights and privileges afforded citizens under the First Amendment of the Constitution concerning free speech.

Teachers have no First Amendment free-speech protection for curricular decisions they make in the classroom, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday.
"Only the school board has ultimate responsibility for what goes on in the classroom, legitimately giving it a say over what teachers may (or may not) teach in the classroom," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, in Cincinnati, said in its opinion.

The decision came in the case of an Ohio teacher whose contract was not renewed in 2002 after community controversy over reading selections she assigned to her high school English classes. These included Siddhartha , by Herman Hesse, and a unit on book censorship in which the teacher allowed students to pick books from a list of frequently challenged works, and some students chose Heather Has Two Mommies, by Leslea Newman.

This begs a question on how the ruling could be applied in cases where a school district decides to teach Intelligent Design as being an alternate theory beside Darwins' Origin of the Species more commonly referred to the Theory of Evolution.

Will the teacher have the right to actually state that Intelligent Design is not based on proven scientific principals? Or will it also lend a district the right to censor the teaching of credible scientific principles like Evolution and and make the teachers advocate dogma over science?

This Damocleasean ruling sets the stage for even broader range of debate where we denigrate the role of the teacher to an automaton rather than an individual with wide ranging ideals to teach our kids that might not be found in the particular book the school district decides to use or how they decide to approach science vs dogma.

By Proclamation and popular consensus Almost Free Speech happily announces that the recipient of the inaugural Ass Hat of the Week Award will be Alaskan Republican Senatorial candidate Joe Miller. For his many achievements in this election year he has deemed himself mote than worthy of this honor.

By Proclamation:
For your ever eloquent arguments that Social Security, Unemployment, and other federally mandated forms of entitlement being unconstitutional while you and your family partook and were recipients in these same programs.

For furthering the backlogs facing the municipal court systems of Alaska by disputing a lawsuit to obtain you employment records with the Alaskan North Star Council where you by your own admission were discharged for impropriety. For your further suit against the North Star Council seeking monetary recompense for their release of public records concerning your tenure as council.

For you furthering employment to the disadvantaged in Alaska by hiring an unlicensed security firm to breach the laws laid down in the First Amendment of the Constitution concerning freedom of the press and arresting a bonafide journalist for asking you "difficult questions" after you stated you would no longer answer personal questions.

For your equating the United States immigration problem to that of communist Germany and advocating the same solutions that were effected by the Berlin Wall as a solution.

For all of these and every other reason not stated we are proud to name you. Joseph Wayne Miller Ass Hat of the Week for September 22 - 29, 2010.

I will be getting that suitable for framing certificate out to you in the mail today Joe, it will look great on the wall with your West Point Diploma that I paid for and you refuse to disclose information about, as well as the Yale Law degree you apparently slept through the classes for.

Don' forget to vote today for next weeks Ass Hat award recipient.

More on the gift that keeps giving named Joe Miller from Rachael Maddow...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Say It Ain't So Joe

Source: Immoral Minority

Post Date: 10-17-2010

Controversial Alaskan Senatorial candidate Joe Miller speaking at a town hall meeting held at Central Middle School in Anchorage tonight fielded some of the questions that have plagued him recently.

Says attendee Gryphen from the Immoral Minority:

One of those locals, a soft spoken woman, (who) managed to ask Joe about the questions surrounding his military career. Joe did NOT like having that question asked.

"You were at the last town hall meeting, and I saw you with Murkowski about just two days ago , and I understand you are working on that campaign." He responded somewhat angrily.

The lady asking the question denied this was true, but Joe was undeterred and went into his "we are the most disclosed campaign in recent Alaska history" (Oops, forgot about you again Sarah!) and then continued on to list his work history as a magistrate and attorney in Fairbanks, but never really got back to answering the woman's question.

There was another Anchorage person who called Joe a "Welfare Queen" and asked how he could be against the programs that he himself had taken advantage of. Miller said his problem was not with the programs themselves, but rather who was in charge of these programs. (Yeah that answer confused me too.)

In response to another question about the state's ability to take care of itself without Federal dollars Miller responded by saying that "there was EXTREME wealth in this state if only the government would just let people get to it." (I am guessing this was in reference to opening up ANWR.)

However it was a question posed to him by a like minded supporter that provided the most jaw dropping moment of the town hall.

A gentleman ask Teabagger Joe how he felt about the illegal immigrant problem, and made sure that everybody understood he was speaking of "illegal" immigrants.

Joe quickly went through his talking points about national security and the illegal activity engaged in by the people coming over the border from Mexico, and then reiterated that the first priority was to build a fence.

Then things got a little surreal.
In his xenophobic zeal Miller asked how hard could it be to build a fence? After all, and this is a direct quote, "If East Germany can do it, we can do it!"

Audio of this comment :

And

Holy Tea Buggery Batman!!! Did my ears just see what my eyes heard?

Ok, Mr. Miller despite all of the other faux pas statements you have made in this campaign (such as "going house hunting in Washington", "looking at office furniture for new office in Washington","might need to look for name plaque for my new office door", "looking forward to meeting my new colleagues in Washington this weekend" or "I will not comment any further about my background" to name a few). Did you just advocate building a wall and staffing it with armed guards like Kruschev did in the 1960s? The same wall your venerated lord and master you so often invoke, President Regan decried to all of the world "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall"? Didn't you say that you are running for office to put an end to the Socialist ideals of the Obama administration?

The majority of the illegals that come here are not criminals and do not commit crimes while in America. They come here because much of our elitist citizenry are too spoiled to mow their own lawns, cook their own food, clean their own toilets, wipe their own kids asses and/or other menial jobs that they are willing to do to have a better life. Don't believe me? Just ask Meg Whitman, and Joe you just proved you are no better than she is.

So if we build your wall Joe do you also advocate the wholesale slaughter of those who decide to scale it like the Communists escapees did? There is no precise number how many people were killed trying to leave East Germany so it is up to you, name the number of people that it would be OK to kill for wanting to make a better life for themselves or their families.

I agree that something needs to be done but you just showed everyone how little value you would be in making that decision, as well as just how big a prick you are. So hows that candidate thing workin' out for ya JoJo?

Joe listen to me, I will put it in plain English and dumb it down for you so you get the point.

When you run for public office, any office, especially a high profile office like the Senate, people ask questions and expect to be answered. Not with rude statements and accusations let alone something as utterly STUPID as analogizing a border barrier to the Berlin Wall AKA the Iron Curtain.

SPECIAL UPDATE from Alaska Dispatch :

Teabagger Joe's "security staff" placed the founder of the Alaska Dispatch under arrest!

Hopfinger was reportedly pressing Miller on whether the candidate had ever been reprimanded for politicking while working at the Fairbanks North Star Borough in 2008. Alaska Dispatch and other media have sued for the release for records related Miller's time at the borough. Various accounts of what happened next generally agree on this course of events:

* Two or three bodyguards told Hopfinger to stop asking questions and to leave the building.
* Hopfinger continued to ask questions while apparently videotaping the candidate.
* Bodyguards told him that if he persisted they would arrest him for trespassing, but refused to identify themselves to Hopfinger.
* Hopfinger asked why he was trespassing, as the event was at a public school. Seconds later, he was then put in arm-bar and later handcuffed and sequestered at one end of a hallway for at least 30 minutes. He was told, "You're under arrest."
* Anchorage Police arrived on the scene shortly after.

Police were still trying to sort things out as this was written.

[Update, 10/18, 7:08 p.m. AKDT]: Anchorage Police freed Alaska Dispatcher editor Tony Hopfinger from Senate candidate Joe Mlller's body guards at Central Middle School early Sunday evening. Sergeant Mark Rein of the Anchorage Police Department said Hopfinger is not in custody or under arrest. Hopfinger had been trying to ask Miller questions when two or three guards told him to leave or risk being charged with trespassing.

When Hopfinger continued to try to ask questions, one of the guards put the reporter in an arm-bar and then handcuffed him.

Hopfinger was released after police arrived.

The reporter was on public property where a public event was being held at the time of the incident.

Miller has been adamant about his desire to avoid talking to the Alaska media, but no one in the working press in Alaska has ever before seen a candidate to go this length to avoid questions.

SPECIAL REPLY TO SPECIAL UPDATE BY LIL OLE ME:

What do you really want Joe old sod? Nazi or Commie? Can't have it both ways now... "Dontcha Know?" (in my best Palin voice)

I just love playing Jenga..... Kerplunk!

"Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see." John W. Whiteside, Founder, Rutherford Institute

I came across a post and video today on one of the numerous blog and news sites that I frequent ( actually one of my favorites called the Immoral Minority ) entitled "My little girl and the power of tomorrow".

The post was made by the owner of the blog named Gryphen and detailed how his daughter was responsible for his coming to be a blog master some 6 years previously but had never really been interested in the blog itself. He goes on to to mention that she is the one who found this video and insisted he post it.

Generation WE: The Movement Begins... from Generation We on Vimeo

The pride he has in his child, her hopes, dreams and accomplishments resonated very strongly with me as I am also a parent of 2 Generation We children.

I have watched this phenomenon of social responsibility bud very early in my kids as well as others to a degree I didn't think was normal considering I didn't become politically active till I was well in My late 20's or even early 30's. I just really didn't think it was as wide spread as this video depicts.

This got me to thinking. Was this just because of the Nature/Nurture theory that children are products of their environmental support structure? If so it holds that many of our parents did a bang up job raising us so in turn we did even better with our own kids. At least I hope that is the case and if so then I (as Gryphen said) would like to give myself a little pat on the back and my parents a big hug for what they did for me.

No matter what the cause is the effect remains that for the most part kids today are setting goals we could have never fathomed let alone attained. They are beginning young to be politically aware and as they are reaching voting age they are and will increasingly be the deciding factor on how our cities countries and world will be shaped. By all that I have seen the majority of them will do far better than we have done so far and at an earlier age.

So here is where I throw the monkey wrench into the machine and muck it up.

Gryphen points out for just these reasons he made and I also write about here the republican machine and its evil spawn the Tea buggers are running scared thinking their days are numbered.

They are wanting to legislate all areas of the family, in that they want to control a woman's right to choose whether to have children and how she goes about it. We all know that the extreme right tend to have far more kids than the mid to left political minded. Much of the funding for the elections today by the industrial complex are to push back many of these same social reforms that have caused this paradigm shift we see in our own children back to a day of social slavery.

With the degree of fear, greed and narcissistic selfishness prevalent in the political arena how is this affecting the views and opinions of the children whose parents of the extreme right?

When thinking on this the only person that came to my mind was the queen bee her self Sarah Palin. I am not one to often comment on how a person raises their children in public but this issue really needs to be talked about.

All of America and the world has been witness to her rants as well as those of many of the people she supports. The corruption and greed that they vehemently deny, as well as the lies and machinations they spread have to be seen to an exponentially greater degree by her children. Whether they are too young to recognize it or not, it must surely be to a point detrimental to their development.

I think in all honesty this hypothesis is born out by the frequency, level and degree of dysfunctional behavior exhibited in the past.

Does this mean that not just the Palins but many of the like minded families, because of the simple fact that they breed more could usurp much of the Generation We kids momentum to building a better world?

I don't know a whole lot about the Palins in particular but Gryphens' blog is based out of Alaska and I would like to know from some of his posters if they could confirm that the run ins with the law, teen pregnancy and alcohol abuse extend to other members of the family and not just Bristol.

I am hoping that for all of our kids sake I am dead wrong and that even the Palin kids and others like them can rise above their parent hate and prejudices and choose the better angles of their own nature.

Wake Up Sarah. Today seems rosy and dollar filled but if your kids turn out to buck your beliefs and become part of Generation We they might not be so proud of Mommy Warbucks anymore.

But since we cant count on Sister Sarah to do the right thing and be considerate to her kids and ours all we have left is the power of the vote to make sure there are people other than the corporate hate mongers to preserve what is left for Generation We.

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