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On Sept. 27, US Rep. Majorie Taylor-Greene warned about the ramifications of a strike in a tweet. Rep. Greene claims, “It’s very important to understand how critical this is given that America is now in a $36 billion dollar food trade deficit for the first time in our nation’s history. Also, the Biden-Harris administration and congressional out-of-control spending have driven inflation so high that many Americans can’t afford quality of life. I think this situation is serious and, depending on whether they strike and how long it lasts, could be a crisis going into the election, holidays, and winter.

In his zealous letter penned in 1049, famously titled The Book of Gomorrah, St. Peter Damian admonishes bishops to stamp out the "epidemic of sodomy among the priests of Italy," which was part of a "plague of sexual perversion" and a "larger crisis of moral laxity in the priesthood" of his time. In his letter, St. Peter decried the silent bishops who failed to take action against clerics immersed in the grievous moral perversion of sodomy: Listen, you do-nothing superiors of clerics and priests. Listen, and even though you feel sure of yourselves, tremble at the thought that you are partners in...

WATERLOO, N.Y. The Cayuga Indian's 25-year-old land claim will not get a second look from a federal appeals court. Seneca County Attorney Steven Getman says today's decision by the Second U-S Circuit Court of Appeals is another victory for property owners. The Cayuga Indian Nation of New York and the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma had asked for a rehearing after the court's split decision in June. The decision said the tribe was not entitled to a 248 (m) million land claim judgment awarded by a lower-court jury. Today's decision cited an earlier U-S Supreme Court ruling in a separate case...

Supreme Court To Consider Another Case On Racial Bias In Hiring Chicago firefighters say they were illegally discriminated against through test scores. A lawyer calls it the flip side to last year's case involving white firefighters in New Haven, Conn. By David G. Savage February 20, 2010 Reporting from Washington - The controversy over racial bias, testing and firefighters that blew up at both the Supreme Court and the Senate last year returns Monday, this time as the justices decide whether blacks who were not hired in Chicago because of their test scores are due damages for years of lost...

WASHINGTON – A rarely seen 400-year-old map that identified Florida as "the Land of Flowers" and put China at the center of the world went on display Tuesday at the Library of Congress.The map created by Matteo Ricci was the first in Chinese to show the Americas. Ricci, a Jesuit missionary from Italy, was among the first Westerners to live in what is now Beijing in the early 1600s. Known for introducing Western science to China, Ricci created the map in 1602 at the request of Emperor Wanli.Ricci's map includes pictures and annotations describing different regions of the world. Africa...

Fr. Matteo Ricci Related articles: Paul's Missionary Journeys & Last VoyageThursdayThursdayThursday Venice, Italy, Sep 12, 2009 / 06:13 pm (CNA).- A new documentary on the life of Fr. Matteo Ricci, a pioneering Jesuit missionary to China, was screened at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday. The film is part of a revival of interest in Ricci, whom Pope Benedict XVI has called a model for a “fruitful meeting” between civilizations.The movie, directed by Italian filmmaker Gjon Kolndrekaj, was shot in China and Italy.Political and religious dignitaries from both countries attended the screening, ANSA reports. They included the Patriarch of...

After the Ricci ruling, President Obama said that any hiring or school admissions practices based solely on race are unconstitutional, and he condemned the use of quotas. the nation's first black president stressed that the Supreme Court did not completely "close the door" on affirmative action, if properly structured and in certain circumstances, but he conceded that the court had moved "the ball" away from such efforts. Obama also asserted that affirmative action "hasn't been as potent a force for racial progress as advocates would claim," ... Essentially, Obama delivered a eulogy for affirmative action. Of course, efforts to breathe...

Lindsey Graham is going to feel awful lonely on the Republican side of the Judiciary Committee dais during next week's Sonia Sotomayor confirmation vote. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who admitted he was very conflicted over his vote, has just declared that he will oppose Sotomayor's confirmation. None of these Republican "no" votes will make a difference, as Sotomayor still may get upwards of 70 votes for confirmation before the full Senate. Hatch just issued a long statement, but here's the key passage: "After thoroughly reviewing Judge Sotomayor’s record and being able to hear her testimony and responses during the hearing...

CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWSJuly 16, 2009 – 5:42 p.m. Firefighters to Senatos: ‘We Were Devastated’ By Seth Stern, CQ Staff Two firefighters whose reverse discrimination claim was rejected by Sonia Sotomayor criticized her handling of the sensitive case on Thursday.“Americans have the right to go into our federal courts and have their cases judged based on the Constitution and our laws, not on politics and personal feelings,” said Frank Ricci, the lead plaintiff in the case, Ricci v. DeStefano, at Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Ricci was joined at the Senate Judiciary Committee witness table by Ben Vargas, both whom...

Here is video of New Haven, Connecticut firefighter Frank Ricci, of the Ricci Supreme Court Case, beginning his testimony today before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the confirmation hearing for Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Sotomayor ruled against Ricci in a lower court decision that was recently overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. . . . . . (Watch Video)

Firefighters involved in the Ricci case are about to appear before the Senate committee.

Supreme Court nominee returns for a third and final day of questioning Thursday, having avoided saying much on a range of hot-button issues, including guns and abortion.As witnesses prepare to take the stand Thursday in Sonia Sotomayor's last day of confirmation hearings, the chairman of the Senate Juduciary Committee said their testimony will matter little. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Wednesday that he may not ask any questions of the witnesses present at the Supreme Court nominee's hearing. Among the witnesses requested by the committee to testify are New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Connecticut firefighters whom the federal...

At the beginning of the film, The Paper Chase, the somber professor tells his classroom of first year law students that they would have to learn to think like lawyers. He meant the need to cultivate the skill of analytical thinking that is required to understand legal issues. Understanding basic contract or tort law isn’t the great struggle in law school. Figuring out how to spot an issue, understand the rule of law and apply it to a given set of facts is the mission. Next is grappling with the Weltschmerz of not being the smartest one in the room...

Firefighter Ricci protected from discrimination; “that totally misses the point” says group organizing smear campaign

LIVE THREAD, AND ONE PERSON IN THIS STORY HAS A CONNECTION TO FREE REPUBLIC!!

No doubt the liberal Journo List of bloggers, reporters, and columnists thought this up. It's just their speed - smearing a private citizen who gets in the way of their agenda. In this case, the victim is firefighter Frank Ricci from New Haven, CT who sued after he was denied promotion when test results were thrown out because no minority fire fighter passed. This case was going to be a prime topic of testimony during the upcoming Sotomayor confirmation hearings and the liberals want to make sure that Ricci can't damage the far left judge's chances.

People for the American Way, the left-wing smear machine, is (In the words of McClatchy press service) quietly targeting Frank Ricci, the Connecticut firefighter whose successful lawsuit for racial discrimination has proven to be so inconvenient for Judge Sotomayor. Specifically, People for the American Way, along with other such drive-by hit artists, is urging reporters to scrutinize Ricci's allegedly "troubled and litigious work history." So far, the lefty blogosphere, at least, has taken up the call. Ricci is on the list of witnesses Republican Senators will call at Sotomayor's confirmation hearing. But does this make his "litigious work history" an...

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's backers are reportedly urging reporters to probe what one called the "troubled and litigious work history" of New Haven firefighter Frank Ricci.

WASHINGTON — Republicans may have a window of opportunity to turn public opinion against President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, but a new poll finds that such a campaign could hurt their party's already weak standing with Americans, especially Hispanics, the nation's fastest-growing voter group. Fully 55 percent of Americans said they hadn't yet heard enough about Sonia Sotomayor to have an opinion of her, according to a new McClatchy-Ipsos poll. That could be the opportunity that Republicans can exploit by attacking her. Even so, 54 percent said the Senate should confirm her, while only 21 percent said it...

Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are quietly targeting the Connecticut firefighter who's at the center of Sotomayor's most controversial ruling. On the eve of Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearing, her advocates have been urging journalists to scrutinize what one called the "troubled and litigious work history" of firefighter Frank Ricci. This is opposition research: a constant shadow on Capitol Hill. "The whole business of getting Supreme Court nominees through the process has become bloodsport," said Gary Rose, a government and politics professor at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. On Friday, citing in an e-mail "Frank Ricci's troubled and...