He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named?

“HE-WHO-SHALL-NOT-BE-NAMED?”

This is referring to “Larry in USN,” isn’t it?

Needless to say, It’s been an interesting two weeks.  I’ve been out of the country, and see not much is new around this blog. 

One thing I’ve noticed is that “Larry” has gone suddenly silent.  Did he choke on his oatmeal at the nursing home when they brought him the morning paper on November 5th?

Don’t worry Larry, I voted for Barack Obama by absentee ballot before I left.

Can’t say Obama’s name? ACLU opens investigation
By Jimmie E. Gates, Clarion Register
November 15th, 2008
The American Civil Liberties Union in Mississippi is investigating more than a dozen complaints of students allegedly disciplined or warned not to say President-elect Barack Obama’s name at school. 

Also, some employers are discouraging political discourse on the job in the wake of the election of the nation’s first African-American president.

“We think it’s a violation of First Amendment rights,” said Nsombi Lambright, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi. “It’s also a shame that students can’t discuss a part of their history.”

Several school officials said they were unaware of the incidents the ACLU is alleging. Some also denied the incidents had occurred.

The ACLU plans to send a letter to the state Department of Education and local school districts across the state asking that any form of discipline for students saying Obama’s name or discussing the election be eliminated, Lambright said.

State Department of Education spokeswoman Caron Blanton said the department has not put out any directive because it hasn’t been notified of any problems by school districts.

Lambright said complaints to ACLU include:

# A student in Calhoun City paddled twice at school for uttering Obama’s name and his campaign slogan: “Yes, we can.”

Superintendent Mike Moore couldn’t be reached for comment, but an official in his office said the district didn’t know anything about the alleged incident.

# A student in Pearl River County suspended for two days for saying Obama’s name at lunch time.

Pearl River County Superintendent Dennis Penton said the incident didn’t just involve saying Obama’s name. It involved a derogatory comment, he said.

# Students at a Madison County school and a Rankin County school being told they couldn’t wear Obama items to school or talk about the election.

Madison County School Superintendent Mike Kent said the district has no policy that students can’t say Obama’s name or talk about the election as long as they aren’t being disruptive.

Kent said no principal has reported any problem. He said it appears adults are the ones stirring the issue more than students.

Rankin County School Superintendent Lynn Weathersby said the district has used the presidential election as an educational tool.

“At no time has discussion of the electoral process or the candidates been prohibited or limited,” Weathersby said in a statement.

# Two students allegedly put off a bus in Lincoln County for mentioning Obama’s name.

“That’s a bold-face lie,” Lincoln County Superintendent Terry Brister said. [Continued]

Brister said the district encouraged students to be actively engaged in political discussions leading up to the election, but now that it’s over, teachers are encouraging students to put their focus back on their education and upcoming testing.

“We need to get back to normal,” Brister said.

Last week, a bus driver and a coach with the Pearl school district were disciplined for allegedly telling students not to saComment:y Obama’s name.

“It is unfortunate that some employees mishandled this situation, but they have been disciplined, and I have spent the day clarifying our policies,” Superintendent Greg Ladner said last week in a statement.

Ladner said at no time will children be disciplined for saying Obama’s name.

Last weekend, a postal employee in Jackson said he was sent home from the downtown Medgar Evers postal facility for wearing an Obama T-shirt.

U.S. Postal Service spokesman Joseph Breckenridge said in a statement that, “Though no offense was intended, we recognize that many have been offended by this incident and for that, we offer our sincere regret. While we respect the entire range of political opinion, we also believe that the workplace is a place for work, not political controversy.”

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has put out an advisory that it doesn’t regard wearing a campaign T-shirt or displaying the candidates’ pictures after Election Day as activity directed at the success of a candidate, therefore it doesn’t violate the federal Hatch Act law for a federal employee to do so on duty or in the federal workplace.

The Hatch Act, enacted in 1939, prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity.

Wal-Mart, in response to reports that it had banned employees from speaking Obama’s name while at work, said it is discouraging its employees from engaging in certain political discourse on the job.

“One of the basic beliefs of our company is respect for the individual,” Wal-Mart corporate spokeswoman Ashley Hardie said in an e-mail statement.

“We are a bipartisan company and our associates reflect the wide range of attitudes and political diversity of this country. We prefer to maintain a politically neutral working and shopping environment in our stores,” Hardie said. “As such politically charged discussions are discouraged in order to ensure individual beliefs are respected."~~~~~~~~~WakeUp WalMart~~~~~~Note: Is it just coincidence thatMississsippi’s Governor, Haley Barbour, is one of three Southern Governors, deemed leaders of the GOP ,at last week’s Governors Conference in Miami? Or, that years ago he was a lobbyist partner to Jack Abramoff on K Street? Remember Tom Delay(Jack and Haley’s friend) and the sweatshops in the Marianas Islands?

I’m not DEFENDING anything, but as they say, “If the shoe fits” and everyone has the right to his opinion!! ~RDS~~~~~NOTE: IT appears that RDS AGREES with the ACLU.Who knew?

Screwedby,

“It’s been an interesting two weeks.  I’ve been out of the country”

Where have you been?  Have you been out of the country working on a new ‘flop’ for Brave New Films?  Perhaps down in Mexico, stirring up your Mexican brothers against Wal-Mart!!

Well the article is complete crap or just an isolated store because there were a lot of people at my store that were discussing how great Obama was and nothing happened to them.  Personally I thought we had enough welfare people coming in on the first of the month when their cards get reloaded, but apparently these people felt that we needed more so they voted for Obama.  You can never have enough handouts I guess.  I’m not sure where the money getting handed out is going to come from when the rest of the businesses that can move over seas do so because of higher taxes.  I guess they’ll have to tax the retailers to death to make up for it.

Or tarriff the hell out of the imports walmart brings into this country from third world sweatshops.  I believe the last number I saw was 1 out of every 25 containers that comes into the US is destined for walmart.  The other number is walmart imports a container every 45 seconds.  Sound like a lot of lost American jobs to me.

Wal-Mart start paying,

“I believe the last number I saw was 1 out of every 25 containers that comes into the US is destined for walmart.”

Wouldn’t that mean, that 96 out of 100 containers are destined for companies other than Wal-Mart?  Or, ONLY 4% of containers go to Wal-Mart?  Where do you think the other 96% goes?

rds

Are you implying that walmart has a 4% share of all sales in this country?  If not then the 4% is proportionally high.  I will not argue that we import way too much into this country.  My arguement is that walmart for market share imports way too much.

Wal-Mart start paying,

“Are you implying that walmart has a 4% share of all sales in this country?”

No, I was just clarifying what YOU said!!

“If not then the 4% is proportionally high.”

Really, you think that 4% is HIGH, for the ‘largest’ retailer in the country?  I would think it is LOW, considering the ‘volume’ of sales they have compared to the other ‘retailers’!!  That would mean, that ‘retailers’, other than Wal-Mart, sell 96% of all the foreign imported products sold in this country!!  So, why are people blaming Wal-Mart for ‘foreign made’ imports, when they are just a ‘tiny’ percent of the TOTAL?

if you consider that sheet metal and metal tubing, refridgerators, freezers, bulldozers, graders, levelers, transformers, tractors and parts, automobiles are imported in great numbers just to name a few items, all of which arent sold at walmart and take up much more room therefore requiring more containers, I would say 4% is grossly high.  Especially considering you can only fit 4 to 5 cars to a 20’ container.  By those numbers it would take 20-25 containers to stock an average size import lot.  How much product could walmart fit in those same containers?  Could 100 people buy the product of all those containers, as is the case of the cars?  You are implying that all containers are equal.  This just simply isnt the case.  While there is alot of wasted space with the cars, you can bet the ones with boxes of clothing, televisions, computers, camerea, and anything stackable is packed to the hilt.