Ah memories. It makes you wonder about the leadership of Portland when you think back to the cavalier way in which the City of Portland, ‘lead’ by Sam Adams, allowed the Occupy Portland rabble to take over the space reserved and paid for by the Portland Marathon.
The City of Portland strong-armed the Marathon folks who sent out an obsequious ‘we love you please don’t hurt us’ press release. But, knowing what we know now about the kinds of people at Occupy, and in light of today’s carnage in Boston, can you imagine a city leader putting all those people who had come for the Marathon at risk?
I was busy with the Boston story all day but blogmate Bruce McCain brought up the specter of the Mohamed Mohamud bombing tonight asking what if he had been successful. Great question.
Mohamud is now in the Federal lock up in downtown Portland awaiting sentencing next month for his plot to blow up the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at Pioneer Courthouse Square in 2010. If he’d been successful at detonating a real bomb, downtown Portland would have looked like the moonscape of lower Manhattan following the 9/11 terror attacks.
Throughout the entire trial I was often stunned at the lack of interest by Portlanders who could have been killed in the explosion at the Tree Lighting Ceremony on November 26, 2010. The only people who bothered to show up much were just a couple reporters and people who thought the bombing plot was the FBI’s doing.
Talk about peoples’ limbs being blown off, killed outright, ball bearings in the bomb? Mo Mo thought his bomb would turn fully two blocks of downtown Portland into powder.
His bomb was made up explosives and diesel fuel secured ensconced in blue 50 gallon barrels which Mohamud had moments before activated with a switch. He then dialed a cellphone–twice–to try to set off the bomb.
FBI agent, “Allahu akbar,” (God is great.) Then to Mohamud: “You ready?”“Ready,” he says.Hussein continues to pray in Arabic: “I bear witness there is no God but God.”He hands Mohamud a cell phone and reads a number, which Mohamud dials on the keypad.The phone rings, but nothing happens.“Hang up,” Hussein orders. “How is the signal?”Mohamud says it’s fine. So Hussein says they should get out of the SUV and try it again.
The result would have been worse than the Boston Marathon explosion, worse, perhaps than the Times Square bombing, the underwear bombing or the shoe bombing.
When it came time for Portland to show up for the trial of this monster or read about the myriad posts I made about it, there was nary the sound of a cricket. Read my posts here.
Portland, this is what Mo Mo would have looked like. Only worse.
Personally I’m pretty sure if you told McKinney that the Bilderberger-Trilateral-Commission-Council-on-Foreign-Relations- plotted the Boston Marathon terror attack in Area 51 AND threw in alien abductions, she’d believe it. Oh, and it’s all George Bush’s fault.
I talked to one of the musicians piping and drumming fans to the Woodshed for the Timbers/Earthquakes yesterday. He told me he saw a large group of San Jose Earthquake fans marauding the streets of Portland yesterday. He told me a cop was following them and trying to keep them in line. And then he told me what they wore: black scarves hiding the lower portion of their faces. I asked him, “Are you sure they weren’t anarchists?”
“Oh no,” he replied, “they were wearing Earthquake logos.”
Great, now we have fans that act like anarchists. Forget the stampedes and melees at European soccer stadia, we’ve got problems here when one group of fans get their fan fashions–and activities–from the Occupy Oakland bunch.
And now we find out they ACTED like anarchists also. From the Cop Shop:
News Release from: Portland Police Bureau PORTLAND POLICE INVESTIGATING ATTACK ON TIMBERS FAN SUNDAY AFTERNOON Posted: April 15th, 2013 10:28 AM
On Sunday April 14, 2013, at approximately 5:30 p.m., Portland Police officers assigned to Central Precinct responded to West Burnside Street and 6th Avenue on the report of a crowd of 70 to 100 people jumping on cars, throwing bottles and being rowdy.
As officers were enroute, other officers reported that he crowd was mostly soccer fans heading to Jeld Wen Field for Sunday’s match between the Portland Timbers and the San Jose Earthquakes.
Officers arrived and contacted a victim, 40-year-old James Decker of Lake Oswego. Decker was seated in his car, a red 2007 Saab 4-door, on the northwest corner of 6th and West Burnside. Arriving officers noted that the windshield was partially caved in.
Decker told officers that he was seated in his car stopped at the red light on West Burnside Street, on his way to Jeld Wen Field when he saw a large group of San Jose Earthquake fans walking towards the stadium. Decker told police that he held up his Timbers scarf and yelled to the group.
Decker told police that a woman in the group ran over to his car and hit him in the face as she tried to grab his scarf. Decker told police that he started to drive away and the woman fell on the ground so he stopped to ask if she was ok. Decker told police that a group of 10 to 12 males then ran over to his car and jumped on the hood and smashed the windshield. Decker told police that one male punched him through the open car window. Decker told police that someone opened the passenger side door of his car and punched him also.
Decker did not need medical attention after the attack.
The suspect that initially confronted Decker is described as a Hispanic female in her 20s, 5’6″ tall, heavy build, wearing a blue “Earthquakes” sweatshirt and dark pants. Most of the other suspects were wearing scarves covering their faces.
Officers canvassed the area with Decker in an attempt to find this suspect but were unsuccessful.
Several witnesses confirmed Decker’s account and stopped to help.
The Portland Police Bureau would like to hear from anyone who has specific information about this suspect and/or who might have pictures or video from the attack.
The let-them-eat-cake Mayor of New York City, America’s Pa Paw, Michael Bloomberg now says if you want to sell your gun to your son then something’s wrong with your family.
“The only thing it would not cover is if you sold a gun to your son, for example,” Bloomberg told radio host John Gambling. “Number one, I don’t know how we would ever enforce that if it were the law. So to make a big deal about that’s carved out, so what? It doesn’t change anything.”
“Number two, I would argue if you want to sell your gun to your son, maybe you have a problem in your family,” he said. “Why don’t you just give—I don’t know if you should have a gun or not, but if you have a commercial transaction of $100 with your son, there’s something wrong in your family.
This is the kind of thing that happens when you ask elitist New Yorkers for information about anywhere else west of Manhattan. They just don’t get it. It reminds me of an interview one time with the editor of Car and Driver, at the time Csaba Cera, and I wanted information about SUV’s. Brock Yates was out doing something else and couldn’t come on the show. I should have waited for him. Cera pretty much said, what do you need trucks for? He lived in New York.
This legislation by U.S. Congressman Dunan Hunter (CA-50), and U.Senator Richard Burr (NC), the War Memorial Protection Act, needs and deserves the active support–emphasis on “active” — of all Americans in general, and veterans in particular. We must stop the abusive lawsuit attacks on our Veterans Memorials by extremist secularists epitomized by the ACLU, which has become the intolerant Taliban of extremist American liberal secularism. Call your Representatives and Senators to urge swift passage of this legislation to protect the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial and all veterans memorials.
The following is a news release sent out by Hunter’s office:
“Across the country, from Mt. Soledad to Arlington National Cemetery, generations of military service and sacrifice are respectfully honored by war memorials of different types,” said Representative Hunter, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Many of these memorials include symbols of religious faith, varying in prominence, but the intent and meaning of these memorials are being blatantly misconstrued to advance an agenda through the courts. The War Memorial Protection Act will reaffirm in federal law the necessary protection for war memorials, ensuring the time honored tradition of honoring our military with accompanying symbols of faith can continue without threat of legal action. I am grateful for Senator Burr’s support and commend his commitment to America’s veterans.”
The War Memorial Protection Act was introduced by Representative Hunter in the 112th Congress and passed the House with unanimous support.
“It is our duty to honor our veterans and their families, and American military memorials around the world stand as testaments to their sacrifice,” said Senator Burr. “Many of our men and women in uniform have strong religious convictions, often finding that their faith has played a role in their service. This bill would recognize their beliefs by ensuring that religious symbols, regardless of affiliation, are allowed to be part of military memorials that commemorate those who served and sometimes paid the ultimate price in service to their country.”
In the Senate, original co-sponsors of the War Memorial Protection Act include Marco Rubio (FL), Johnny Isakson (GA), Mike Johanns (NE) and John Boozman (AR).
Rees Lloyd is a Veterans Activist, former ACLU attorney, civil rights attorney in private practice and nobody’s fool. He is a member of the Victoria Taft Blog Force, a term he coined.
Make no mistake, I’m among those saying people who have been hospitalized for mental illness should be red flagged for gun ownership on a back ground check. Such checks can go too far, however, as we’ve seen in the New York legislation.
I’ve been wondering a lot lately if the latest gambit to take guns from people who may be on medication for anxiety or depression is actually a wholesale way to disarm a bunch of military vets who may temporarily struggle after coming home from a war zone.
And now the Clash Daily website claims to have spoken with (listen here) a New York VA psychiatrist who says he is paid bonuses to grab Veteran’s guns. The key part starts at 17:23.
Transcript of key part which occurs at minute 17:23 of the video:
The way the VA works, as far as paying their physicians is we get a base salary and we get bonuses. And we get bonuses for doing the most, I mean the most ridiculous things that you can possibly imagine. I mean, I get a nice, huge bonus, I could buy a car, if I sit in on a resident and watch a resident do an examinated. …We get more pay off bonuses than we do on our base pay. …For example, I mean, $3000.00 per veteran if I get five veterans to surrender their guns voluntarily or involuntarily that’s $15,000. Now I see ten patients a day. You know what I mean? This is just me. I work in a large VA Hospital with 28 psychiatrists. …This is everywhere. You gotta understand the mentality of the psychiatrists and the mentality of a lot of the physicians is, ‘These people don’t deserve to have weapons. These people are dangerous. These people are…’ the word now is white supremacists. These people are white supremacists. Separatists, I’m sorry, that’s the word we’ve been told to put in the progress notes. White separatists if you live in a neighborhood with no black people, no hispanic people, no Muslim people, you’re considered a white separatist.
I don’t think the guy is a psychiatrist. “Examinated”? Or is that an edit in the tape? If so why is it edited there? I expect there are shenanigans going on at the VA and I wonder if this guy is right, but I don’t peg him as a psychiatrist.
Now that Oregon’s Speaker of the House has shut down real discussion of a fiscal reckoning with her pronouncement that the discussion on PERS reform is over, the Unfortunately-Named-Tina-Kotek and her buddies in the State Senate are now turning their sights to a sales tax. A hearing the sales tax measure, SB 824 and it’s companion SJR 36, is scheduled today before the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee.
Oregon has a $275 million dollar budgetary hole to fill now–with billions in the future–because its government employee pension system is eating away at the state’s income like an aggressive cancer. But no Tina-therapy will come. Kotek has proclaimed one Democrat written PERS and budget bill OK with her (and her union cronies) and that’s where it will stay. No other PERS reform bills will be heard.
So the questions she, Senate Democrats and the Governor are asking are:
‘Do you think we can sell this sales tax snake oil to voters and convince them this will fix our problems?
Do you think they’ll notice we left most of the cancer in the patient and we’ll need more money down the line anyway?
Oregon has spiked a sales tax nine times, but Democrats are hoping to find enough voters who think they can foist tax increases on someone else that they might go for it, who knows? They were dumb enough to have voted for Measures 66 & 67 which only served to further stall the Oregon economy in a recession. Businesses moved out to tax friendlier states. Capital left the state. The U-6 unemployment rate still hovers around 17%.
Heckuva job, Democrats!
So State Senator Mark Hass (rhymes with), egged on by his Democrat buddies has decided to scare even more businesses out of the state with a sales tax. His proposal would be a constitutional amendment put to the voters perhaps as early as 2014. Oregon voters spurned a sales tax in 1993 by a nearly 3:1 margin.
All things being equal, I like the idea of a consumption tax. Always have. But not in this one party rule state. Not with these people in charge.
Oregon has the second highest income tax rate, its fee schedule would choke even California’s Jerry Brown and the property taxes are confiscatory.
Hass says the rate will start at 5%. Do you think it will end there? Exemptions from the sales tax would include food, water (good news Portland!), Grandma’s rascal scooter, other medical equipment, drugs, clothing and utilities. At least this time they’re not even insulting us (yet) by lying and saying the sales tax would be “revenue neutral.”
Did you see this shoot em up display by Kyle Busch at the NRA 500? No?
In the days leading up to the NRA 500 NASCAR race at the Texas Motor Speedway, a US Senator tried called on Fox Sports to censor–black out–the event simply because pro gun people, The National Rifle Association, were the sponsors.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) is asking the Fox network not to broadcast the Sprint Cup race.
Murphy wrote a letter to Fox chief Rupert Murdoch, saying the NRA 500 shouldn’t happen as lawmakers consider gun control laws.
NASCAR told the Senator to kindly go pound sand,
Speedway president Eddie Gossage said this is about racing — not politics.The American public is not engaged in this, but the senator keeps trying to stir it up, and I can appreciate that,” Gossage said. “He’s in Connecticut. We’re in Texas. His values don’t fly here.
But while the Senator did not have get his way, in some fans’ opinions, Fox Sports and boss Rupert Murdoch pulled some punches during their coverage of the NRA 500 on Saturday night. It was especially noticeable by NASCAR standards. Many of the sponsor’s references were erased and even the usual double six gun shoot em up at the end of the race was reportedly not shown on Fox Sports—the network cutting away before the display could be seen. Fox Sports reporters mentioned the Texas Motor Speedway but gave sparse mention of the people footing the bill for this race–the National Rifle Association.
People noticed.
On Sunday night’s Bill Cunningham radio show, callers reported fewer mentions of the sponsor of the event. And for those of you high brows who don’t deign to visit hicksville to dip a little between the cheek and gum have no idea how evident it is when sponsors AREN’T mentioned. The OVERmention of sponsors is a standing joke.
People joke that politicians should wear patches on their suits so we know who bought them off. That joke is funny because NASCAR drivers notoriously fill their driver jumpsuits with the patches of the most bizarre sponsors–a surf shop, really Kyle Busch? Pink? Really, Kyle Busch?
Have you ever seen the end of the race where the winner and losers say thank you to the ‘Fed Ex pit crew who gave their all with their Jimmy Johnson Team of Sears Craftsman wrench wielders brought to you by Go Daddy with the official food M & M’s washed down by Coca Cola while easing my nerves with ibuprofen from Walgreens while driving my Toyota with Goodyears while being glad the good Lord above held everything together with the Moog suspension,’ all said while drinking Gatorade wearing a hat bearing the race sponsor’s logo? Ever notice that?
It’s the NASCAR version of the Red Carpet, “Who are you wearing tonight?”
Well, NASCAR aficionados noticed there wasn’t as much love thrown to the NRA but, oh my! was there a lot of shade.
And their treatment on their website was different from other races, except the Daytona 500 which, if Keith Jackson did the coverage would be called, “The Granddaddy of them all.”
Check out the coverage on Fox Sports’ own web page:
The NRA is the Sponsor of This Race but Not So’s You’d Notice.
When It Positively Has To Be the Sponsor.
Stop Teenage Pregnancy, er, Oh You Know What I Mean!
Don’t Drink and Drive–Unless You’re at NASCAR and Not a Gun Manufacturer
Could NASCAR get bullied again by the PC crowd and have to throw another sponsor under the chassis like they did in 2010 with the tsk tskers from the anti tobacco lobby?
Gee, you know if you picked off one major sponsor of NASCAR every couple of years you might be able to wipe out the entire sport in a few years. Aw, the left would never want to do that, now would it?
Ah memories. It makes you wonder about the leadership of Portland when you think back to the cavalier way in which the City of Portland, ‘lead’ by Sam Adams, allowed the Occupy Portland rabble to take over the space reserved and paid for by the Portland Marathon. 
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