Barely a block from a parking lot where Pittsburgh will house protesters of the Group of 20 summit is one of the city’s most eclectic neighborhoods — a strip of mom-and-pop, homegrown grocery stores, restaurants and businesses that exemplify the kind of world the protesters say they want.

However, fears of violent clashes, property damage or simply a traffic nightmare are forcing some businesses in the city’s Strip District to close during the two-day summit — possibly even board up their windows — and miss what they say could potentially be a booming sales opportunity.

“We’re a small mom-and-pop business and I’d rather lose business for two days than risk getting caught in something that could get violent,” said Lisa Karsenic, owner of Two Louie’s Market, a small deli and grocery store less than a block from the parking lot where protesters will gather. …

Thousands of people are expected to flock to Pittsburgh to protest everything from globalization, policies they view to be harmful to the environment, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and even mega-corporations, the types of businesses conspicuously absent in the Strip District. …

Then there are the rumors: shop windows have already been broken; human feces has been left at different establishments; dispersing the crowd in the evening from the parking lot will lead to clashes; protesters have nowhere to go out at night so they will cause trouble. …

Amy Rosenfield, owner of Mon Aimee Chocolat, a shop that specializes in artisan chocolates produced by people who work directly with plantations that grow organic beans, is concerned that broken store windows combined with autumn heat could — quite literally — melt away her inventory.

Moonbat groups have plans to target specific businesses for harassment and destruction for daring to participate in the American way of life. Armed forces recruiting stations are also expected to be hit.

Needless to say, no one felt the need to board up windows in DC, despite a vastly larger crowd of patriots. It isn’t hard to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys.

On tips from Matthew B and B1BBET. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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The California Supreme Court upheld Tuesday a ban on same-sex marriages that state voters passed in November, but it allowed about 18,000 same-sex marriages performed before the ban to remain valid.

The 6-1 ruling was met with chants of “shame on you” from a crowd of about 1,000 people who gathered outside the court building in San Francisco.

“It’s nice that my marriage is still intact, but that’s not the point,” said Kathleen White, who married her partner in 2008.

Sure it is. You folks on the left love the idea of Direct Democracy WHEN it serves your purposes. When you lose, you hate it. Suck it up, buttercup!

Opponents of the ban argued that the controversial Proposition 8, which state voters passed 52 percent to 48 percent in November, improperly altered the California Constitution to restrict a fundamental right guaranteed in the state’s charter.

But the court — which had allowed same-sex marriages in a 2008 decision — found the measure was narrow enough to pass legal muster.

Yeah. Narrow enough that it went 6-1.

IMO, this is a good ruling. It upholds what the People of California voted for, but still leaves the marriages that had occurred prior to remain in effect. No matter what one thinks of gay marriage, to take away what had been legal would be wrong.

Still too early to find reactions from the usual Unhinged Lefties, but, we’ll see some fireworks by the end of the day. Keep an eye on folks like Andrew Sullivan, Pam’s House Blend, and Shakesville, among others.

Yup:

• Taylor Marsh has a hissy fit.
• Alan Colmes throws out the discrimination word.
• Dennis Sanders at The Moderate Voice has mixed feelings, because he doesn’t “feel comfortable with the idea of invalidating a vote of the people even if it is bigoted and went against my wishes as a gay man.” How do you feel when certain groups are given more rights then others, Dennis?
• From earlier today, Shakesville shows the true Lefty feelings: “Technically, this decision is about whether or not Proposition 8 on November’s ballot was constitutional.” In other words, these kinds of votes are “only good when we win.”
• Crooks and Liars: “Indeed. The Courage Campaign has a petition for you to sign calling for the repeal of Prop 8. I think we can count on it being on the next major ballot.” So much for Direct Democracy accepting the wishes of the voters, which is what folks on the left keep telling us on the Right we should do regarding Obambi.

Over to the sane side, Michelle Malkin channels Ahnold.

More: Excitable Andy makes an interesting point

They are the evidence that we are right: that extending the blessings and responsibilities of full family life to gay men and lesbians is a good and conservative and integrating thing. We need now to put these families forward as our core argument. Their lives are our best case. Like mixed-race married couples in another era, they will show that there is nothing to fear here and much to celebrate.

But, he misses the point that those mixed race marriages were between a man and a woman.

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Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich
Photo credit: Daylife

First, a disclaimer: Illinois Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has made it clear in a press conference going on at this moment, that the arrest of Rod Blagojevich does not implicate President-elect Barack Obama.

Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich (D) was arrested today on federal corruption charges, specifically for conspiring to sell or trade Obama’s Illinois Senate seat. The Chicago Tribune post today provides links to extensive reports on Blagojevich’s background:

Updated at 8:57 a.m.: On the issue of the U.S. Senate selection, federal prosecutors alleged Blagojevich sought appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the new Obama administration, or a lucrative job with a union in exchange for appointing a union-preferred candidate.

Blagojevich and Harris conspired to demand the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members responsible for editorials critical of Blagojevich in exchange for state help with the sale of Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs baseball stadium owned by Tribune Co.

Blagojevich and Harris, along with others, obtained and sought to gain financial benefits for the governor, members of his family and his campaign fund in exchange for appointments to state boards and commissions, state jobs and state contracts.

“The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement. “They allege that Blagojevich put a ‘for sale’ sign on the naming of a United States senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to trample

With Blagojevich’s arrest, we’ll be hearing about far more than selling a Senate seat: “The Board Games,” “Pay to Play,” and “The Illinois Combine” will become familiar and repugnant terminology . For an intense look at the key players, with Blagojevich and Tony Rezko, calling the shots, take some time to sit back and read Evelyn Pringle’s reporting on Chicago politics. Links to her series are at the bottom of this post.

On October 13, 2008, I reported Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich was dumped by the Chicago “political mob” as their 2008 U.S. Presidential candidate, in favor of Barack Obama – this is the same “mob” which also help fund Obama’s 2004 U.S. Senate campaign.

This report will show that the same political mob raising money to make Blagojevich president in 2008, also funded Obama’s election to the US senate in 2004…,

Blagojevich expected a healthy run for the Oval Office. Then Obama became a rising star and political winds shifted.

Remember Tony Rezko, the man tied to murky purchase of Barack Obama’s Chicago home, and the man Hillary Clinton referred to as Obama’s slum landlord? Rezko was found guilty on 16 federal charges of demanding kickbacks (influence peddling) and including money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion. He was a major contributor to Rob Blagojevich’s successful Illinois Governor race.

In 2002, Rezko backed Rod Blagojevich for Governor. Back on January 12, 2005, the Chicago Tribune reported that Blagojevich had collected more than $36.4 million in donations in four years. By comparison, it took former Governor Ryan, “once considered a powerful fundraiser, 30 years in public life to raise $40 million,” the report said.

Until Ryan left, Republicans held the governor’s office for nearly 30 years. Democrat Blagojevich took office in January 2003, and between then and when the same US attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, intervened on May 20, 2004, a plan was put in place to bilk roughly $8 million from persons and firms seeking to do business with the state of Illinois.

As discussed previously in this series, Governor Blagojevich was supposed to be the presidential candidate in 2008, not Obama.

The Illinois fingers of corruption reach deeper than can be imagined or learned of in MSM reporting – even reaching all the way to Iraq. Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for OpEd News and an investigative journalist focused n exposing corruption in government and corporate America. Read her reports and prepare to be astonished. Many of those names “paying to play” will be familiar:

Part I – Curtain for Barack Obama

Part II – Curtain Time for Barack Obama

Part III – Curtain Time for Barack Obama – The Final Chapter

Part IV – Curtain Time for Barack Obama

Related summary:
Political Funding and Manuevering in the Time of Obama

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Here’s video of it happening. I gotta warn you…it’s graphic.

New York Daily News:

A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.

The 34-year-old employee, a temporary maintenance worker, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.

Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.

“He was bum-rushed by 200 people,” said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. “They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too…I literally had to fight people off my back.”

The unidentified victim was rushed to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:03 a.m., police said.

The cause of death wasn’t immediately available pending results of an autopsy.

A 28-year-old pregnant woman was knocked to the floor during the mad rush. She was hospitalized for observation, police said. Early witness accounts that the woman suffered a miscarriage were unfounded, police said.

Ed Morrissey:

At some point, that horrible irony should cause people to pause and think about what motivates them in this holiday season. Everyone likes a good deal, but few of us would choose to die for one — and therefore we shouldn’t want to kill for one, either. Retailers won’t like to hear this, but maybe we need to spend a little less and recover our humanity just a little more.

Michelle Malkin:

Reason number 99,999 to shop online.

Guntoting Liberal has a reaction roundup.

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More:

Michelle Malkin: The insane rage of the same-sex marriage mob

Before election day, national media hand-wringers forged a wildly popular narrative: The Right was, in the words of New York Times’ columnist Paul Krugman, gripped by “insane rage.” Outbreaks of incivility (some real, but mostly imagined) were proof positive of the extremist takeover of the Republican Party. The cluck-cluckers and tut-tutters shook in fear.

But when the GOP took a beating on Nov. 4, no mass protests ensued. No nationwide boycotts erupted. Conservatives took their lumps and began the peaceful post-defeat process of self-flagellation, self-analysis, and self-autopsy. In fact, there’s only one angry mob gripped by “insane rage” in the wake of campaign 2008: The mob of left-wing, same-sex marriage activists incensed at their defeat in California. Voters there approved a traditional marriage initiative, Proposition 8, by 52-48.

Instead of introspection and self-criticism, however, the sore losers who opposed Prop. 8 have responded with threats, fists, and blacklists.

Glen Lavy in the San Diego UT: Reaction shows pretense of tolerance is over

As voters heard the arguments, support for redefining marriage eroded. The appeal of those trying to redefine marriage was based on a kind of “live and let live” superficiality. “How,” they asked, “will our getting married harm you?” The answer would come swiftly and dramatically.

Many voters did not see the inevitable conflict between the activist attempt to redefine marriage and religious liberty and conscience, but stories and examples emerged. Firefighters in San Diego were forced to participate in a sexually charged “Gay Pride” parade against their wishes. A first grade class was taken to view their teacher’s wedding to another woman, which the teacher called a “teachable moment.”

Stories arriving from other parts of the country reinforced the issue. When a Christian ministry in New Jersey did not permit two women to conduct a same-sex civil union ceremony on its property, because that was contrary to its beliefs, the women filed a complaint under the state anti-discrimination laws, and the ministry faced a loss of its property tax exemption.

Even as opponents denied any threats to religious liberty or parental rights, two families from Massachusetts, which judicially redefined “marriage,” came to California to prove the denials false. Their children, in first grade and kindergarten, were read, with no parental notification, books like King and King, the story of two men who get married. Worse yet, the parents were told there was no opt out because schools were tasked with teaching the meaning of marriage.

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Hat tip: Gateway Pundit

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After just singing and worshiping God for a while, Roger decided that we should all hold hands in a circle and continue singing. So we did.

Someone (Actually a person who came up and hugged and kissed some of us who he knew from the past) convinced some people that we were there to protest against the no on 8 campaign.

Then some guy who was dressed up like one of the sisters (The sisters of perpetual indulgence is a group of men who dress up like nuns and call themselves the spiritual authority of the Castro.) took a curtain-type thing (Which I think they use to curse people) and wrapped it around us.

Then a crowd started gathering. We began to sing “Amazing Grace”, and basically sang that song the whole night. (At some points we also sang “Nothing but the Blood of Jesus” and “Oh the Blood of Jesus”.) At first, they just shouted at us, using crude, rude, and foul language and calling us names like “haters” and “bigots”. Since it was a long night, I can’t even begin to remember all of the things that were shouted and/or chanted at us. Then, they started throwing hot coffee, soda and alcohol on us and spitting (and maybe even peeing) on us. Then, a group of guys surrounded us with whistles, and blasted them inches away from our ears continually. Then, they started getting violent and started shoving us. At one point a man tried to steal one of our Bibles. Chrisdene noticed, so she walked up to him and said “Hey, that’s not yours, can you please give it back?”. He responded by hitting her on the head with the Bible, shoving her to the ground, and kicking her. I called the cops, and when they got there, they pulled her out of the circle and asked her if she wanted to press charges. She said “No, tell him I forgive him.”

Afterwards, she didn’t rejoin us in the circle, but she made friends with one of the people in the crowd, and really connected heart to heart. Roger got death threats. As the leader of our group, people looked him in the eyes and said “I am going to kill you.”, and they were serious. A cop heard one of them, and confronted him. (This part is kinda graphic, so you should skip the paragraph if you don’t want to be offended.) It wasn’t long before the violence turned to perversion. They were touching and grabbing me, and trying to shove things in my butt, and even trying to take off my pants – basically trying to molest me. I used one hand to hold my pants up, while I used the other arm to hold one of the girls. The guys huddled around all the girls, and protected them.

Even some on the left know this is going too far and hurting their cause. If you won’t listen to us, listen to them.

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These freaks are out of control. They are so stupidified in the passion of their cause they can’t even understand they are hurting their own cause and looking like idiots!

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I feel exonerated and reinvigorated. This message is in response to the latest articles on Radarsite about Obama’s pronouncements on his official website.

Up until now, we have essentially been fighting a shadow war. We have been fighting against illusory and conjectural hypotheticals: This is what may/will happen if you elect Obama. We were voicing our (thoroughly-researched) opinions on what could happen to America in an Obama administration. Obviously, a majority of Americans didn’t believe us, and they ignored our warnings.

But now things have changed. Now we are no longer dealing with hypotheticals, we are dealing with actions and facts. No longer is it just a matter of opinion, it is now a matter of record. As the previous two articles have proven, there are no lengths that they will not go to to squelch dissent. They will cheat and lie and try to intimidate us. They we deny the evidence in front of them, because their truth is the only truth. This demonstration of their intent is what has made me (and hopefully all of you) feel exonerated.

Our enemy is out in the open now. We are no longer fighting shadows. And this development reinvigorates me and gives me strength.

Here is my mandate, and I am convinced that I speak for all of you as well –
We will not be intimidated. We will not be silenced. We have just begun the fight. – rg

God bless America

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No matter who wins Tuesday America is going to be a different country. When the sun rises on November 5, regardless of who the president-elect is, a more un-United States than has existed since the Civil War will wake to dispute the results of the disgusting campaign that has mercifully come to an end.

Whoever the losers, they will believe they were cheated, and will point fingers at those they believe responsible. Almost half the nation will view the winner as illegitimate, and will do everything in their power to undermine his authority as long as he’s in the White House. With this animosity will come a new level of hatred between those of differing political persuasions like nothing our country has experienced in the modern era. Putting it bluntly, and without sounding too much like Rev. Jeremiah “G-d Damn America” Wright, there will be no such thing as Americans anymore.

Instead, there’ll be Democrats and Republicans, Liberals and Conservatives, and encounters between the members of these groups will for years nay decades be at best unfriendly, and at worst quite hostile if not downright violent.

Think this an overstatement? Consider first what Wednesday will look like if John McCain pulls off the upset. To begin with, let’s be very clear about one thing: Democrats believe that if they lose an election it’s because their opponent cheated. It’s never their fault. It’s never because they ran a poor campaign. It’s never because their opponent ran a better one. Heck no! It’s always about voter fraud, disenfranchisement, not enough ballots, faulty machinery, hanging chads, negative advertising, intimidation tactics, campaign finance abuses, you name it.

Such is the legacy of Al Sore Loser Gore: regardless of how many news outlets went to Florida in January 2001 and found that if the counting had continued Bush still would have won, the overwhelming majority of Democrats think that election was stolen….

To make my point, I offer the now overly-discussed Bradley effect and how it relates to exit polls: How many people as they leave the voting booth Tuesday will lie to pollsters about who they voted for? Before you answer, try to imagine the pressures many people are going to feel in certain districts around the country to answer “Obama” rather than “McCain” irrespective of the truth. Also consider the possibility that many McCain supporters will just refuse to answer the question thereby skewing the results…..

Can you imagine the Rodney King-style rioting that might occur as a result, especially when folks like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, and the usual suspects get in front of television cameras blaming Republicans and John McCain for stealing another election, this time from a black man? They’ll be on all the morning shows Wednesday doing what they do best: fomenting hate, and pointing fingers….

On the flipside, although an Obama victory will likely not result in immediate acts of violence, Republicans already feel cheated by this campaign for a number of reasons, and understand full well that they literally have the most to lose in this election; the Messiah, contrary to all his lies on the stump, clearly intends to redistribute wealth, and it sure isn’t Republicans that are going to be on the receiving end of the junior senator from Illinois’ charity….

Once Hillary was tossed aside like so much garbage, media ignored each and every issue that could possibly undermine Obama’s ascendancy while savagely attacking Sarah Palin as well as an Ohio plumber that had the unmitigated audacity to actually ask the Messiah a decent question. Don’t even get me started on how the so-called impartial press overlooked every gaffe and misstatement made by Joe Biden while giving the Messiah a pass for going back on his promise to accept public campaign funds instead opting to raise and spend more money on his presidential aspirations than anybody ever believed possible….

Just imagine the kind of press McCain would have gotten if he had refused public financing, and spent the kind of ad dollars Obama has. Americans likely would have been told virtually 24 hours a day, seven days a week that rich Republicans were trying to buy the election. However, because this is the Messiah, such talk was practically verboten.

Without a doubt, the media playing field this campaign season was as un-level as most Americans have probably ever experienced, or, for that matter ever imagined, and if Obama wins, this is going to leave a bad taste in the mouths of Republicans for many years to come….

And therein lies the real tragedy, for November 4, 2008, could have been a shining moment in American history. After all, a black man is running for president, and might actually win. This should have united the country like never before, and come close to ending the racism that has been one of our nation’s banes since its inception. However, because Obama used race to get himself to this point, while also pitting folks of differing incomes against each other for his own political benefit, it seems far more likely that tomorrow will divide our country like it hasn’t been in over a century ushering back in hatred that will make Martin Luther King Jr. roll over in his grave.

More here

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don’t forget your roundup of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH (2). Email me (John Ray) here

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