Jonathan Fairbank Declares May 10 "Flag Wear" Day

In support of the four heroic students at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, CA, Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Fairbank declares Monday, May 10 "Flag Wear" Day. Patriots are encouraged to wear shirts displaying the Flag of the United States of America. Staff of the Fairbank Group are REQUIRED to wear the aforementioned attire.

Here We Go Again: American Kids Suspended by Illegal Alien Principal for Wearing Shirts with US Flags

http://www.morganhilltimes.com/news/265447-american-flag-t-shirt-controversy-grabs-nations-attention

Four teens sent home for wearing red, white and blue on Cinco de Mayo have become the focus of national media attention as their story went viral after Live Oak High School officials asked the students to turn their American flag T-shirts inside-out to quell any confrontations.

Bay Area news stations set up camp in front of Live Oak High School Thursday morning as many more students came to school wearing red, white and blue. A firestorm of outrage erupted online and moved to the streets when about 200 Hispanic students walked out of Live Oak and Ann Sobrato high schools to march through Morgan Hill demonstrating their support for Mexico.

"It's disrespectful to do it on Cinco de Mayo," said Jessica Cortez, a Live Oak sophomore. "They can be a patriot on some other day. Not that specific day."

Live Oak parent Greg Hall saw the band of Hispanic students walking down Monterey Road Thursday.

"I think it's utterly and completely ridiculous," Hall said. "I think the assistant principal and principal should be fired. The (protesting) students should be disciplined - suspended or expelled. The fact that these four kids were singled out for wearing American colors is utterly ridiculous."

Hispanic students felt that students wearing American flags were disrespecting the Mexican-American students on Cinco de Mayo - the only day that they celebrate their Mexican heritage.

Students who sported red, white and blue said denying them the right to wear American colors is a violation of the First Amendment. It was originally thought that five students were sent home, but one did return to class Wednesday.

The Morgan Hill Times broke the story first before it hit Bay Area news stations and the national news outlets.

The blowback started after Live Oak students Daniel Galli, Dominic Maciel, Matt Dariano and Austin Carvalho wore red, white and blue T-shirts - some with the American flag and some with flag shorts - were asked to change their clothing or turn their T-shirts inside-out because it could incite a confrontation. The four refused and their parents were called into a conference with Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez and Principal Nick Boden who sent the students home with an unexcused absence, not suspension.

"I just couldn't believe it," said Dominic's mother Julie Fagerstrom Wednesday. "I'm an open-minded parent, but it's got to be on both sides. It can't be five kids singled out."

Dominic Maciel said Rodriguez called the T-shirts "incendiary."

"They said we were starting a fight, we were fuel to the fire," said Dariano, a sophomore.

Morgan Hill Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Wes Smith said that the district "does not prohibit nor do we discourage wearing patriotic clothing."

In a statement, Smith wrote: "The incident on May 5 at Live Oak High School is extremely unfortunate. While campus safety is our primary concern and administrators made decisions yesterday in an attempt to ensure campus safety, students should not, and will not, be disciplined for wearing patriotic clothing. This matter is under investigation and appropriate action will be taken."

Administrators at Live Oak were silent on the issue and would not interview with any news outlet on the matter. School board members declined to comment.

The four students and their parents met with Assistant Superintendent Jay Totter Wednesday evening at the district headquarters and they said Totter said what happened to them was wrong and "(the district) would take care of it." What that means is unclear at this point.

Uncle Sam even set foot onto Live Oak campus Thursday in the form of John Messina, a San Jose resident, who said he was so enraged that he drove 30 minutes to Morgan Hill to protest before school started. He held a sign that read "Patriotism is not a crime" on one side and "Support the 1st amendment fire Rodriguez" on the back.

"I'm terribly upset that these patriotic students were sent home," said Messina, who was inundated with car honks and the occasional yelling from a driver. "I wanted to make a statement. This is absolutely wrong."

William J. Becker Jr., a First Amendment attorney based in Los Angeles, said the students' First Amendment rights were absolutely violated when administrators asked that they remove their T-shirts.

"The student wearing the Old Navy T-shirt with the flag does not shed their First Amendment rights at the school house gates," Becker said.

Administrators cannot ask students to relinquish their freedom of speech and expression due to the fear that something might happen. When a person's right to freedom of speech or expression is restricted to prevent another party from reacting, it's known as the heckler's veto. Becker said this is a perfect example of how heckler's veto was used to displace the students' freedom of speech.

"Every viewpoint has a particular averse viewpoint," Becker said. "That's why the First Amendment is there - to support unpopular expression."

A parent of two Live Oak students, Teresa Casillas, said the American-flag wearing students were yelling "We live in America!" at the brunch break Wednesday. She said her children were upset by their behavior at school, calling it disrespectful.

"We're all offended by it," Casillas said. She said parents of all ethnicities she spoke with felt that way. "Morgan Hill is too small of a community to start any racial wars. This is just bringing it out a little bit more."

Comments left online to www.morganhilltimes.com said that the boys are often seen with American flag patches on their backpacks and Maciel said he's worn the T-shirt he wore on Cinco de Mayo many times before.

"It's just because it was on their day," Maciel said.

One Mexican-American student, freshman Laura Ponce, had a Mexican flag painted on her face and chest, peaking out of her low-cut shirt. She did it because, "it's our day, the only day we can show our spirit." A school administrator took away the Mexican flag she was carrying as she was waiting to go home. Ponce said: "not cool."

"There was a lot of drama going on today," Ponce said. Some were saying "Mexico sucks" while Mexican-American students responded in their second language.

"Some were yelling Spanish to us," said Maciel, who is half-Hispanic. "I couldn't understand it, but it sounded bad."

Curtis Collier, the president of the U.S. Border Watch, a citizens' action group whose mission is to "stem illegal entry into the U.S. from the north and south" called from his Texas office appalled by the news emanating across the Web and on TV.

"That is their constitutional right to wear the shirt," Collier said. "I think the school missed a golden opportunity here and missed having a dialogue between the students and have them talk it out."

America's Litigious Society: a Butt of International Jokes

We’re mastering the oil slick, says BP chief facing flood of lawsuits

(AP Photo/Eric Gay)

A dead Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish floats on the oil in the waters of Chandeleur Sound off Louisiana

Image :1 of 2

Giles Whittell in Washington

• 39 Comments

Recommend? (11)

The British executive at the centre of the Gulf Coast oil disaster hit back yesterday against accusations that BP had reacted too slowly, telling The Times that the company would have a giant steel hood in place over the worst leak by tomorrow.

For the first time since the fatal explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig two weeks ago, Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, claimed that the company was winning the race to contain the spill and indicated that it was ready to fight some of the lawsuits heading its way.

Even as the first pictures emerged of oil breaking through protective booms and pooling round a string of islands off the Louisiana coast, Mr Hayward said the main slick had not yet made landfall “because we’ve contained it”.

He urged the US Government to pursue a policy of “absolute co-operation” with BP. “We will only succeed if we work together,” he said — a day after President Obama’s press secretary promised that the White House would “keep a boot to the throat of BP” to ensure that it fulfilled its responsibilities. Mr Hayward, 53, a geologist, projects a youthful image at the top of Britain’s biggest company. At times, however, he has struggled to appear in full control of the effort to protect hundreds of miles of coastline. But at BP’s Washington offices yesterday he gave a strikingly upbeat assessment of the operation, at odds with forecasts of environmental catastrophe.

Related Links

• Oil threatens sensitive shoreline in America

• Obama must seek blame closer to home

• Britain joins fight to clean up oil spill

“Let’s be very clear,” he said of the slick. “The reason it’s not getting to the beaches is because we’re containing it. We don’t know if we can continue to contain it, but for the moment we are.”

The unprecedented use of dispersant chemicals at the source of the leak a mile under water “seems to be working very effectively”, he said, describing an armada of surface ships working with an “air force” of aircraft spraying similar chemicals. “I’m using military rhetoric because that’s what we’re fighting, a battle, and we’re going to win,” he said.

An army of lawyers has descended on the Gulf Coast, determined to cripple BP with lawsuits on behalf of property owners and fishermen whose livelihoods they say could be ruined. Robert Kennedy Jr, son of the former presidential candidate and a prominent environmental lawyer, is suing BP.

Mr Hayward reiterated a promise that BP “will honour all legitimate claims for business interruption”. Asked for examples of illegitimate claims, he said: “I could give you lots of examples. This is America — come on. We’re going to have lots of illegitimate claims. We all know that.”

BP’s share price fell 3.5 per cent amid estimates that the clean-up bill could reach $16 billion (£10.5 billion). Mr Hayward declined to say whether a US law capping liability in some spills to $75 million would apply. He said: “We’re a big company. We’re absolutely good for the cost of this.”

He dismissed claims that the rig should have activated the blowout preventer at the well head with an “acoustic switch” — they were useless at 5,000ft, he said — and that fire booms should have been used to ignite the slick. “We couldn’t keep the fire alight because the sheen is too thin,” he said.

Toast?

PM Gordon Brown on track to lose the May 6 General Elections, ending 13 years of Labour rule.

Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/elections/news/article/leaders-out-as-tories-edge-forward/N0108001272736823479A

The three party leaders embarked on a whirlwind rush around the country on the final weekend before the May 6 General Election, encountering supporters, hecklers and protests as they battled for votes.

Polls in the Sunday papers suggested that there was still everything to play for in the tightest election for a generation, with Conservatives extending their lead but still looking unlikely to secure an outright majority.

An ICM survey of key constituencies for the News of the World suggested that a swing from Labour to Liberal Democrats in marginals could let the Tories seize the extra handful of seats which would put them within hailing distance of forming a government with the support of Northern Irish unionists. But David Cameron insisted that he was still fighting for outright victory, and was not thinking about the prospect of post-election deals with other parties.

And Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, boosted by the endorsement of the formerly Labour-backing Guardian, said the contest was now a "two-horse race" between his party and the Tories. He declined to say how many seats he was aiming for, declaring only "the sky's the limit".

Prime Minister Gordon Brown admitted he was fighting for his political life as he warned voters that a Tory victory would cost thousands of public sector jobs and cost one million families up to £10 a week in tax credits.

Mr Cameron added the backing of the Sunday Express - which said he offered "a long overdue return to decency and traditional values" - to earlier endorsements from The Times and The Sun. And Tories edged forward in a number of polls for the Sunday papers, recording support of 35%-38%, compared with 23%-29% for Labour and 25%-29% for Liberal Democrats.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Vince Cable denied that "behind the scenes talks" were under way to determine what would happen in the event of a hung Parliament. And Mr Cameron dismissed talk of deals with the Lib Dems.

Mr Cameron - who faced British National Party protests as he visited Stevenage and Romford - launched his "contract" for the NHS, promising to increase health spending by more than inflation every year, fund extra cancer drugs and scrap targets.

Meanwhile, Mr Clegg urged voters to follow their hearts when they cast their ballots, rather than voting tactically for the party which they thought could win in their constituency.

The Independent on Sunday urged its readers to vote tactically against Conservatives in the hope of securing a hung Parliament in which a Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition could usher in electoral reform. But Mr Clegg told voters in Somerset: "Every single vote counts. It's precious. Vote for what you believe in. Vote for the future that you really want."

Racist Houston Cops Beat Chinese Diplomat, Raped Wife during Traffic Stop!!!

Understatement from the State Department: "We're taking this very seriously."

Hey, Thugs with badges, why don't you take on someone your size, like the Chinese People's Liberation Army! Now, you got mud in your new pants. Haha!