Cain and groping and other thoughts

As I wrote earlier on the Cain issue.

Let me say up front that I do not “know” if Herman Cain is innocent of the charges brought against him.

But I am sure of one thing. The way we have chosen to punish and prevent sexual harassment is wrong. Why?

Because if a person decides that they have been sexually harassed then they deserve to have their day in court. And the person accused of sexual harassment decides they are not guilty then they deserve to have their day in court. Or, if both agree, they can have a hearing and settle on a result.

Snip

Others will claim that a private settlement saves time and money because going to court is expensive and in too many cases sexual harassment is “he said – she said” and “you had to be there.” That’s true enough, but if everyone knew a public trial/settlement might be the result then people would be more careful in what they say and do. And people would be more careful in what they claim.

Yes, Virginia. There is a Santa Claus and some people make things up for a variety of reasons. Especially if they know a quick and private cash settlement is on the way. And I am not including the ladies involved in the Cain matter.

But to return to Cain, the ladies involved have been released from the confidentially agreement. One has declined to comment. Cain has said that what he did was note that the lady was the same height as his wife, placing his hand just under his chin.

You can call that what you like. But based on the lack of other information I don’t call it sexual harassment. And based on the public’s response, the majority of Americans join with me.

Are we right? Are we wrong? It appears we will never know.

Link

So when I first heard that a fourth woman had come forward I just nodded and said, “As it was with Clinton I like the man but this shouldn’t be. But unlike Clinton the press won’t defend him and the Left will gut him. He’s gone. And whether he is innocent or guilty he will be an example for all black men to not leave the reservation.”

But, based on the bare outline of the claim, I couldn’t say he was innocent.

But then I found out she had hired Gloria Allred to represent her. And I thought, why? Allred is known for many things. And chief among them is that she is no friend of any Republican. And she seems a bit spendy for someone of Ms Bialek’s means. So I would say she is working for free. Or at least she won’t be paid by Ms Bialek. So that bothered me.

And then this morning I watched her being interviewed on Fox. Attractive and articulate she made a good case. She had decided only to go public so that Cain could confess.

Huh?

Fourteen years and then only after Cain has gained a great deal of traction as a Black man who would pull a fair amount of Black support from Obama. So that bothered me.

Now this bothers me more.

By MICHAEL SNEED msneed@suntimes.com November 8, 2011 12:30AM"

The Cain Encounter ...

They hugged each other backstage in a full embrace like old friends.

She grabbed his arm and whispered in his left ear.

She kept talking as he bent to listen, and he kept saying “Uh, huh. Uh, huh.”

Huh?

“I don’t know if what she was giving him was a sucker punch, but he didn’t put his arm down while she was talking to him,” said the Sneed source.

Make that a double huh. I don’t know about you, but if someone had groped me 14 years ago, even if I remained quiet because I didn’t want the hassle of charging him, there would be no hugs and no “full embrace like old friends.” Maybe a knee to his crotch and full hand slap to his face.

But to continue.

◆The “he”... is GOP presidential contender Herman Cain, who has been accused of sexual harassment by several women.

◆The “she”... is Chicagoan Sharon Bialek, who held a news conference Tuesday as the only woman to PUBLICLY accuse Cain of sexual harassment.

◆The Sneed source ... is WIND radio co-host Amy Jacobson, who tells Sneed she witnessed the Cain/Bialek encounter a month ago while backstage at the AM 560 WIND sponsored TeaCon meeting in Schaumburg Sept. 30-Oct. 1 at the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center.

◆Quoth Jacobson: “I had turned on TV to find out who was Cain’s accuser, and I almost fell over when I saw it was Sharon Bialek accusing Cain of groping her genitals.”

“I was waiting for Herman Cain’s ‘Accuser No. 4’ to surface — and up pops Sharon!”

“I couldn’t believe it. I was shocked.”

“I recall Sharon was hell bent on going backstage at the TeaCon convention — where she cornered him,” said Jacobson.

“I was surprised to hear she claims she did not know Cain was going to be there. Cain was expected and was late.” (Emphasis added.)

Bialek told the media on Monday: “I went up to him and asked him if he remembered me. I wanted to see if he would be man enough to own up to what he had done 14 years ago.”

◆The encounter: “It looked sort of flirtatious,” said Jacobson. “I mean they were hugging. But she could have been giving him the kiss of death for all I know. I had no idea what they were talking about, but she was inches from his ear.”

◆The introduction: “It all began when I took a convention break and joined my pals at the hotel bar. Sharon was drinking Mimosas with them. She said she was a Republican, a Tea Party member, (emphasis added) had once dated [White Sox sports announcer’ Steve Stone] and had worked at WGN radio.”

◆The rendezvous: Sharon also said she was anxious to meet Cain again and had once gone to an after party with him and her boyfriend years ago. But she never mentioned he had sexually harassed her.”

◆The upshot: Bialek has since applied for employment in sales at WIND radio and is scheduled for a second interview Thursday.

Hmmmm, a Tea Party member and a Republican......who just now appears with a Democrat lawyer to try and destroy a black man who can hurt Obama if he's on the ticket....yeah.... that works for me. No doubt what so ever.

And did I mention that she lives in the same building as Axlerod? Axlerod of the Obama supporter???

But she doesn't really know him. I mean, as Obama said of Ayers, he of trying to blow up the Pentagon..... He's just one of the guys in the neighborhood.



"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt

"Logic. There is little logic among the cultural elite, maybe because there is little omnipresent fear of job losses or the absence of money, and so arises a rather comfortable margin to indulge in nonsense." - Victor Davis Hanson

Take that subpoena and shove it! I don't intend to cooperate anymore

As if he had in the past.

So now Obama has told Congress to take their subpoena and shove it. Solyndra went belly up and the tax payers got screwed twice. First when Obama loaned the $533 billion and again when the tax payers were put in second place for a payback.

Despicable. Disgusting. Crony capitalism at its worst yet Obama defends it as necessary if we are to “compete with China.”

One of the major problems of the Left is that it fails to understand the difference between building infrastructure, which the government does well and technology birthing which the government can do well and picking what companies to support which is known as crony capitalism and as Solyndra showed, the government is lousy at.

Notice that I moved from the affirmative “does” to the possible “can” to “the government is lousy at.”

I brought up the Internet for a reason. Government sponsored much of the early research in the name of national defense. (I guess all you peaceniks didn't like that!) Government was also instrumental in establishing worldwide standards and protocols.

At that point private industry took over... you may have heard of IBM, Microsoft and Apple (among others)… and developed hardware and software that did what people wanted.

The next question was, how do we connect all these computers to each other?? Again private industry took over and developed SONET lightwave transport, then DWDM systems and fiber optic cable to carry the signals. You may have heard of ATT, ITT, Northern Telecom (Nortel) and Ciena among others. Then we had the local telephone companies, GTE, ATT, Continental, PTI and the inter city transport companies, Level 3, Quest, ATT also among others.

At the same time the government expanded their previous deregulation of the network with the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and there was an explosion of capability and capacity and a lowering of prices unprecedented in the modern world.

The Internet, made possible by Government assistance, was made affordable by private industry. Many companies were started. Many failed. But the market was successful in allocating enough money to allow enough companies to succeed that I now can get local service, long distance voice service and 1.5 MB Internet service for around $65/month.

Cellphone service was also impacted because if you could set at your desk and talk to the world... Then you needed to be able to talk to your customers while waiting to board a flight at the airport. And as technology expanded, you also needed Internet access.

Was some of the above painful? Yes. The world changed and some people became rich and successful. Some became just successful (I put myself in that bracket.) Some people lost nice secure jobs and they didn't make the leap.

That’s life in the fast lane, boys and girls. What we have to decide is if we want 4% unemployment and a lot of new millionaires… or 9% unemployment and a lot old millionaires being taken care of by the government.





"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt

"Logic. There is little logic among the cultural elite, maybe because there is little omnipresent fear of job losses or the absence of money, and so arises a rather comfortable margin to indulge in nonsense." - Victor Davis Hanson