Senator Edward Kennedy died after a long bout with cancer late Tuesday night. He was 77. For many people he was the last of the Kennedy brothers & bearer of the torch. To me, he was my senator for most of my life & that is the way I will remember him.
Growing up in Western Massachusetts, the name Kennedy was the only name you ever heard. In fact, when I was younger, I used to hate the Kennedys. Teddy at the time was seen as a buffoon; a lying, drunk, womanizing, bloated rich kid. Mitt Romney almost defeated him in 1994 until Kennedy staged a late election surge. One of the Bostonradio stations, WAAF, had a morning radio guy, Greg Hill, who used to have a Kennedy impersonator as one of his cast of characters. The guy would come on the radio with a thick low “Bah-stan” accent, say things like “eer-up”, then crack open a beer & go into drunken slurred speech. High comedy back in the 70s & 80s in the state.
It wasn’t until I got older that I realized just what Ted Kennedy accomplished. I grew to like, then love, him for what he had done for Massachusetts & the country as a whole. For the state, what he did will never be equaled. He sent so much money for construction projects, schools, homeless shelters, & the like. He authored a lot of legislation; so much so, that he is now known as the most effective legislator in the history of the U.S. Senate. Many laws & programs are enjoyed by all Americans because of Kennedy; from COBRA to Meals on Wheels to the Americans with Disabilities Act to health insurance for poor kids. He did it by reaching across the aisle to republicans & compromising. He didn’t bash people over the head, although he was known as someone you’d never really want to cross in a battle, but he always got the job done. Today’s Congress would be wise to learn from how Kennedy got legislation passed. Unfortunately, they also could learn about civility when someone passes. The conservatives have had a field day today trashing Sen. Kennedy. One, Michelle Malkin, has taken the word bitch to a whole other level with a post on you tube. Very shamefull. If even Mitt Romney can say something nice about Ted, why can't she or at least, shut the f*** up.
There’s already been a lot of talk today about how health care reform will not pass now because Sen. Kennedy is not there to get the legislation through. Maybe now because of his untimely passing, senators will double their efforts & pass health care reform in honor of him; much like civil rights legislation was passed in honor of his brother John after his assassination.
HBO ran a special Teddy: In His Own Words last month. I hope they run it again. If you get the chance, watch it. It’s a great history on what the man went through; from his family’s tragedies to his plane & car crashes to his many triumphs. His was a life well lived. We should all be so lucky. God speed, Teddy. May you finally rest in peace.
I often find it funny that when Republicans are offended by something that someone says, they want to boycott. When one of their own says something offensive, they say it’s freedom of speech. I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again. People can say whatever they want to. That’s the beauty of America. However, this does not mean that I have to financially support companies who advertise with people who say or do offensive things. That’s also the beauty of America.
To that end, I called for a strong response when Glenn Beck said offensive things about President Obama. I blogged a partial list, courtesy of colorofchange.org, of companies that advertised on his show. I’d love to take credit for the response but alas, I can not. Thanks to colorofchange.org & a few other organizations, it looks like we are getting the desired effect. About 20 companies have pulled their advertising from Glenn Beck’s television show http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-rucker/wal-mart-cvs-best-buy-dit_b_261424.html. Plus, it looks like Fox News has told him to take a little time off http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/08/is-the-glenn-beck-boycott-working.html.
It’s Fox’s hope that things will cool down. It is my hope that the pressure will be kept on. We need to let Fox News & advertisers know that we will not tolerate hate speech, whether it’s from a liberal or a conservative. There will no longer be any place for that in our society & if people do it & companies support it, they will pay a financial price for it. Hate speech has gotten completely out of control lately. It’s time to fight back.
I read a really good article about health care today that's written by a doctor. It's a must read that will explain what to watch for & why health care reform WILL pass. Here's the link & a few paragraphs:
From all the attention focused on the rambunctious town hall meetings, ranting about “death panels” and repetitive shrieking against government health care on right-wing radio, one might think health reform is pretty much dead in America. Think again.
Health reform is a lock to pass. The only issue is in what form. You need to look past the noise, fear-mongering, misquotes, inconsistent claims, inaccurate assertions and political gamesmanship and pay attention to what is truly at issue as Congress gets down to the business of reform in the fall.
Why am I so certain reform will happen? Well, August is media silly season. Anything that can get you to look up from your beach or lake reading to watch TV tops the news. That is why creepy Michael Jackson, animal abuser Michael Vick and a few thousand angry old white guys, some packing heat, all yelling at Congressmen, dominate the airwaves. Summer will soon be over, though, and that signals a return to a very different world of politics and media coverage.
Apparently, the crunchy granola world is flustered over the fact that Whole Foods’ CEO wrote an op ed where he said, among other things, that health care wasn’t a right http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32471153/ns/us_news-washington_post/. Why does this shock people? A lot of companies that you might think have a liberal bend have people running them who are extremely conservative. Where do you think all that money for conservative think tanks & operative groups comes from?
For example, for all the talk about how liberal Hollywood is, the fact is that it’s really only the actors who might be liberal. The entertainment industry is run by multinational conglomerates whose boards of directors & CEOs are mainly conservative. Dominos Pizza is run by an ultraconservative who gives the majority of his money to far right causes. That’s why I don’t eat their pizza.
If you really want to find out where your money is going, do some research online. There are many web sites that keep track of who gives how much money to which causes. Then, send these CEOs a message that you will not give money to their companies. People who shop at Whole Foods should not be shocked in the least.
Chavez plans to close golf courses in Maracay and Caraballeda & said it was a rich man's sport. He also said it was a shame that in the middle of the city, there's a golf course with so much land lacking for buildings for the people & that if rich people wanted to play golf, they could build one outside the city. He also called golf a "bourgeous" sport.
Well, thems fighting words for P.J. Crowley. "As the Department of State's self-appointed ambassador-at-large for golf, I wish to protest the unwarranted attack by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on the game of golf. Once again Mr. Chavez, one of the hemisphere's most divisive figures, finds himself out of bounds," Crowley said. "The suggestion by Mr. Chavez that golf, a truly global sport, is bourgeois is a mulligan."
It's so good to see that the State department has time to care about golf. What, with all of the world's problems out there, golf easily comes up in the top 3 things to deal with. I think it's right after worrying about the spread of global reality television & who Brittany, Lindsey, & Paris are doing (oooh..maybe each other!!). If Crowley's so bent out of shape over a golf comment that Chavez made (a comment that, I admit, I find myself agreeing with, unfortunately), I'd hate to see what he would've done to Mark Twain for his "golf is a good walk spoiled" comment. Crowley probably would've had him deported.
Angry crowds, tons of orchestrated protesters, socialism, harsh words. 2009? Nope. 1994's health care debate. The same reactions that are going on today to the Obama health care plan are the same orchestrated reactions to the Clinton health care plan in 1994. According to a new poll released today, the protests are having the same affect the 1994 protests did. They're working against Obama.
There are many people to blame for this. Let's start with the Obama administration & Obama specifically. He said there was a reason why health care reform hasn't been achieved in 50 years. Did he think his popularity was going to let him cakewalk over this issue? Did he think his plan wasn't going to get the same treatment as Clinton's did? Why didn't they see all of this coming? Perhaps, instead of sending Clinton to North Korea last week, Clinton should've gone to Washington to have a discussion on how not to roll out a major program. Obama needs to be more hands on with this. He's beginning to but it may be too late.
What about the democrats? When will they ever learn that the republicans do not play fair? They play dirty & they play to win. They spread disinformation & will use whatever they have to, including racist overtones. Knowing all of that, where are the counterprotests? Where are all the counterprotesters in the town halls? All I hear & see when I'm watching these town hall meetings are people who agree with the wingnuts. I never see people agreeing with the plan.
Where's the NAACP & other groups? When a white cop shoots a black man, they can't find the media fast enough. When a major piece of legislation needs a boost in the black community, they suddenly go silent. They should be out in the community & on tv, educating people that there's no such thing as a death panel & other misinformation. Yet another example of leadership failing the community.
The administration, the democrats, & their supporters better learn the rules to this game fast. Otherwise, the republicans will succeed in defeating what could be very good legislation.
Congress plays this game a lot. They'll make a big deal about how they set aside money to do something but in reality, no mey is actually se aside. The newest example is NASA's program to look for the killer asteroids that are out there. Before you go "yeah right. killer asteroids. don't exist. sci fi", they do exist. In fact, one is supposed to come close in 2028. However, if there are any others, we won't know until it's too late because Congress played games with the money. Here's the link & some of the article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32387796/
WASHINGTON - NASA is charged with seeking out nearly all the asteroids that threaten Earth but does not have the money to do the job, a U.S.government report says.
That is because even though Congress assigned the space agency this mission four years ago, it never gave NASA money to build the necessary telescopes, the new National Academy of Sciences report says. Specifically, NASA has been ordered to spot 90 percent of the potentially deadly rocks hurtling through space by 2020.
Even so, NASA says it has completed about one-third of its assignment with its current telescope system.
NASA estimates that there are about 20,000 asteroids and comets in our solar system that are potential threats to Earth. They are larger than 460 feet (140 meters) in diameter — slightly smaller than a sports stadium in New Orleans. So far, scientists know where about 6,000 of these objects are.
Rocks between 460 feet and 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) in diameter can devastate an entire region but not the entire globe, said Lindley Johnson, NASA's manager of the near-Earth objects program. Objects bigger than that are even more threatening, of course.
Just last month astronomers were surprised when an object of unknown size and origin bashed into Jupiter and created an Earth-sized bruise that is still spreading. Jupiter does get slammed more often than Earth because of its immense gravity, enormous size and location.
Disaster movies like "Armageddon" and near misses in previous years may have scared people and alerted them to a serious issue. But when it comes to doing something about monitoring the threat, the academy concluded "there has been relatively little effort by the U.S. government."
There's a really good article about the problems that the US State Dept has with its Africa Bureau. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-08-10-africa_N.htm Among some of the problems the article points out are:
• Diplomats feel overwhelmed by new demands without additional staff.
• The group in charge of boosting the U.S. image is a "failed office" with no strategic plan and little integration with other diplomats.
• While the United States "helps feed Africa," it should focus more on helping Africans feed themselves — and on preventing HIV/AIDS as well as treating the condition.
• There isn't enough travel money to properly oversee a $2 billion Africa peacekeeping program.
• A new military command in Africa is "stepping into a void created by a lack of resources for traditional development."
• Corruption "receives insufficient attention as an impediment to trade, development and investment."
There's one other main problem that should be addressed & that is Al Queda. The United States & its western allies have ignored & taken advantage of the African continent for centuries. As a result, extreme poverty & corruption have increased dramatically. That's given Al Queda furtile ground to sow. Their results have been staggering. Radical Islamic regimes have popped up in in the northeast countries & are making their way south. Pirating is dramatically up.
The western countries have to stop shoveling money into Africa & get these countries into a survival mode where they can be prosperous on their own. Otherwise, other emerging super powers such as China will start to take over or Al Queda will complete its African domination. Then we'll all be wondering why we're sending troops to Africa to fight, only it'll be our own fault for ignoring a growing situation for far too long.
In one of New York City’s free tabloids, there was a front page headline that said Sweating the Numbers: Obama’s Approval Ratings Drop To 50% Over Economy. First off, I doubt that Obama’s really worrying about the poll numbers right now. Real leaders don’t concern themselves with petty issues like that, especially when there are a lot of problems that need fixing. Second, a little historical perspective is needed here. Ronald Reagan, like Obama, inherited a recession; his from Jimmy Carter. Reagan took 3 years to pull the country out & while he was busy implementing policies, his approval ratings dropped…a lot. In fact, when he ran against Walter Mondale in 1984, he was actually behind in the polls until their second debate. As it turned out, a lot of his policies are beginning to work. All of the economic indicators seem to show that the economy is beginning to bottom out & turn upward. The stock market is up almost 2000 points from its bottom only 6 months ago (so much for antiObama CNBC & the Obama bear market). Even unemployment, usually a lagging indicator, actually dipped downward last month so that's a good sign. When people are trying to fix problems, they will not be popular because eventually, they will ruffle feathers (see health care reform for a more recent example). The real leaders won't stick their fingers up to see which wat the political wind is blowing. They will stand strong & with conviction that what they are doing is right.
Here are the advertisers on Glenn Beck's television show. Please join me & contact them. Let them know that you will no longer give your hard earned money to them so that they can support someone who practices racial politics for ratings. Freedom of speech is something that Glenn Beck is entitled to. However, we as human beings are also entitled to not give our money to companies that give financial support to such hatred.
Here's a letter that I recieved from colorofchange.org. I usually don't print this but I feel it's extremely important that we all do our part to stop people on all sides from playing racial politics for the sake of either ratings or to advance a policy.
Dear friends, As you may know, right-wingtalk show hosts have been bringing race-based fear mongering into the mainstream, but FOX's Glenn Beck just took it to another level. On Tuesday, Beck said:
This president has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seated hatred for white people... this guy is, I believe, a racist.
It's part of a larger argument Beck has been making: that President Obama wants to serve the needs of Black communities at White people's expense. This kind of talk stirs up fear, hate, and it can lead to violence. I've joined ColorOfChange.org's effort to stop Glenn Beck. ColorOfChange is already putting calls into Beck's advertisers, asking them if they want to be associated with this kind of racist hate and fear-mongering. When the advertisers see that tens of thousands of us are behind that question, I believe they'll move their advertising dollars elsewhere, and his show and platform will be history. Will you take a stand and be counted, and invite your friends and family to do the same? It takes just a moment: http://www.colorofchange.org/beck/?id=2188-143376 Glenn Beck is appealing to the worst in America. Of course, some Americans refuse to accept the fact that our president is Black or the idea that he could truly serve all Americans. But the only way these views fade away is if they're not reinforced by mainstream society. Instead, folks like Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Rush Limbaugh are exploiting racism and race-based fear to bump their ratings, stirring up racial discord in the process. The dangers of these tactics are real. We saw the same dynamic during the presidential race: By the end, the McCain/Palin campaign was unable to control the violent energy whipped up by their race-baiting. It resulted in an unprecedented number of threats on Obama's life, a rise in the number of hate groups, and an increase in the number of threats and crimes against immigrants and Black people. FOX has a horrible track record on pushing racist propaganda, but Glenn Beck appears to be taking the network to an even lower standard. He's trying to divide and distract America when we should be coming together and talking about issues that really matter--like health care and the economy. The good news is that we have the power to stop this. All major media is funded by advertising. And advertisers care more than anything what consumers think. If we want to change what's happening and put an end to folks like Glenn Beck having a platform, we can do it. It's up to us, and it can start now. Please join me: http://www.colorofchange.org/beck/?id=2188-143376 Thanks. Here are some links to more info: "Beck: Obama has 'exposed himself as a guy' with 'a deep seated hatred for white people'" http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907280008
Mitt Romney wrote an op ed piece in USA Today http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/07/mr-president-whats-the-rush.html?poe=HFMostPopular about the health care system & Massachusetts's solutions in dealing with it. The piece is entitled "Mr. President, What's the Rush". Romney's two points in the piece is that health care reform doesn't have to happen now & that republicans are not the enemy. Mitt Romney is wrong on at least one of those points. Time is of the essense. There's a reason why it's taken 50 years to get this far with reform. It's because the people who are against it are well funded & entrenched. Every president has started to attempt reform & have been driven back, leaving it to the next person. In the meantime, people die from a broken system that helps the very few get richer & richer. As far as the republicans go, there are some who want to see the system change, while the vast majority want to see the president fail. They want to try to score a victory against President Obama. They could care less about the American people & trying to fix the system. To them, this is a game. Well, the American people need to tell them that this is not a fucking game!!! There are people dying because they either can't afford to get the proper care or they've been turned away due to a cruel system. This has to stop. What better time than now to stop it? The time is now to fix it. There should be no more delays & stall strategies. Peoples lives depend on it.
There was a very interesting opinion piece concerning racial profiling in USA Today
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/07/our-view-on-law-enforcement-eliminating-racial-profiling-remains-a-work-in-progress----though-cambridge-case-is-an-ab.html#more. It’s worth reading the entire opinion but I’ll highlight a couple paragraphs.
In one highly publicized case a decade ago, two New Jersey state troopers wounded three unarmed black men after shooting into their car during a routine traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. In the ensuing uproar, the state found that when blacks and Hispanics were pulled over on the turnpike, they were three times as likely as whites to be subjected to searches. Reversing years of denial, the state attorney general admitted what minorities had contended for years, that disparate treatment was "real, not imagined."
New Jersey's experience, and federal cases in seven jurisdictions from California to Pennsylvania, should have virtually ended racial profiling. But you can't solve a problem unless you admit it exists, and too many law enforcement officials have been in denial. Study after study has documented the same divisive trends. In Illinois, a report this month found that last year, minorities were more likely to be subjected to certain searches than whites, even though police were more likely to find contraband in the vehicles of white drivers. In New York City, a disproportionate number of minorities stopped by police since 2005 were frisked; the yield of weapons or contraband was minuscule.
Now, despite all of those studies that the opinion piece referenced, despite all of that evidence, there is someone who believes that it’s not true. His name is Chuck Canterbury, who is the president of the National Fraternal Order of Police. In his mind, racial profiling just doesn’t happen. Here’s a paragraph from his opposing opinion piece: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/07/opposing-view-profiling-does-not-happen----theres-no-evidence-that-racism-is-a-systemic-problem-in-police-forces.html
Racial profiling is not a legitimate law enforcement tool, and there is no evidence that prejudice is a systemic problem in U.S. law enforcement. Racial profiling cannot exist unless police executives allow it — unless a whole department tolerates it — and that just does not happen today. Unfortunately, because of past injustices, minority group members sometimes assume that any routine stop of a minority is racial profiling, an assumption that a white driver in the same circumstances is unlikely to make.
It's strange that he can't see what's directly in front of his face. Racial profiling does still exist. Ask a black male. Ask an Arabic man. The first thing Chuck Canterbury should do is to acknowledge that the problem still exists. Then, the police can really get to the business of changing the system.
I'm just going to directly lift this from my thinkprogress.org newsletter, since they've said it better than I ever could:
Last Thursday, CNN President Jon Klein sent an e-mail to a handful of the network's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" staffers informing them that he considered one of the stories pursued by the infamously anti-immigrant host to be "dead." On his radio show the week before, Dobbs declared that President Obama needed to "produce a birth certificate," picking up on a thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that claims Obama was not born in the United States, and the birth certificate released by his campaign last year was fake. Dobbs repeatedly pushed the "birther" cause despite the fact that his colleagues at CNN have repeatedly called the story "total bull." In fact, while guest-hosting Dobbs' own show on July 17, Kitty Pilgrim refuted the fringe theory, saying, "CNN has fully investigated the issue, found no basis for the questions about the president's birthplace, but the controversy lives on, especially on the Internet." But Dobbs has persisted, attacking his critics as "limp-minded, lily-livered lefties" who hate him because he has "the temerity to inquire as to where the birth certificate was." As Dobbs continued to air the conspiracy theory, Klein backed off his admonition of the host, telling the Los Angeles Times that Dobbs had handled the issue in a "legitimate" manner and "if there are future news pegs, then we have to take that story as it comes." On Sunday, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz used his CNN show to chastise media outlets that "give the birthers any airtime" to repeat their "ludicrous claims." Kurtz specifically criticized Dobbs for not acting "responsible."
BORN IN THE USA: Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. This date is on the Certification of Live Birth released by the Hawaii Department of Health last year at the request of Obama. Birthers like Dobbs point to the fact that the campaign released the "short form" certification rather than the "long form" -- which is drawn up by the hospital and contains more information -- as the crux of their argument that the President is hiding something. But as FactCheck.org noted when they investigated and debunked claims about Obama's birth certificate, "the Hawaii Department of Health's birth record request form does not give the option to request a photocopy of your long-form birth certificate," and "their short form has enough information to be acceptable to the State Department." Birthers, like conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, claim that the certificate posted by the Obama campaign was "a false, fake birth certificate," but its authenticity has been independently confirmed by FactCheck.org, which examined it in person and declared that "it is real and three-dimensional." Additionally, on Oct. 31, 2008, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii Department of Health, issued a statement saying that he had "personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has Sen. Obama's original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures." Definitive proof of Obama's Hawaii birth has also been found in the archives of two Hawaii newspapers, the Honululu Advertiser and Honolulu Star-Bulletin, which both printed birth announcements days after Obama was born in 1961. Birth announcements in those papers are placed by the state Department of Health, not the family.
RIGHT-WING MEDIA GIVES VOICE: Dobbs isn't the only media personality giving voice to the birthers. As PolitiFact's Robert Farley wrote last month, "the conservative WorldNetDaily.com Web site is the conductor of the Birther train." The far-right outlet, which sells "Where's The Birth Certificate?" bumper stickers, convinced someone to ask White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about the conspiracy in May. The birther theory has also been pushed by bigger names in the right-wing media. Before the 2008 election, radio host Rush Limbaugh speculated that Obama may have gone to Hawaii to visit his dying grandmother to take care of "this birth certificate business." Since then, Limbaugh has joked, "[W]hat do Obama and God have in common? Neither has a birth certificate." Earlier this month, Limbaugh stepped it up a notch, declaring that "Barack Obama has yet to prove he's a citizen." Fox News has also elevated the birther conspiracy, running headlines like "Should Obama Release Birth Certificate?" on its Fox Nation website and running reports on birther-based lawsuits on its news shows. Fox's Sean Hannity has aired claims that "the president is not, in fact, a legitimate citizen by birth" and asked a caller on his radio show if he had "ever seen" Obama's birth certificate.
THE BIRTHER BILL: In March, Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) introduced legislation requiring "presidential candidates to produce copies of their birth certificates and other documentation to prove natural-born citizenship." Posey's bill has gathered nine co-sponsors in the House. Trying to explain why he introduced the bill, Posey issued a statement saying, "This bill, by simply requiring such documentation for future candidates for president, will remove this issue as a reason for questioning the legitimacy of a candidate elected as president." But Posey has undermined this seemingly innocuous rationale for his legislation by outright accusing Obama of hiding something on a right-wing Internet radio show. "The only people that I know who are afraid to take drug tests are the people who use drugs," said Posey. Claiming that he hadn't looked at the evidence, Posey previously told the Orlando Sentinel, "I can't swear on a stack of Bibles whether he is or isn't" a citizen. On MSNBC's Hardball last week, host Chris Matthews challenged one of the bill's co-sponsors, Rep. John Campbell (R-CA), telling him that "what you're doing is appeasing the nutcases...you're verifying the paranoia out there." Asked if he believed Obama was a citizen, Campbell responded, "as far as I know, yes." Matthews retorted, "as far as you know? I'm showing you his birth certificate!" Matthews is correct that many conservative lawmakers are comfortable "feeding the wacko wing." Just today, Politico reported that Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said birthers "have a point." "I don't discourage it," said Inhofe.
There's an article from Chris Parry the Vancouver Sun that's heating up the blogsphere http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Conservative+Free+Republic+blog+free+speech+flap+after+racial+slurs+directed+Obama+children/1782375/story.html. I don't think I can do it justice so I'll just put up part of the article. "A typical street whore." "A bunch of ghetto thugs." "Ghetto street trash." "Wonder when she will get her first abortion." These are a small selection of some of the racially-charged comments posted to the conservative 'Free Republic' blog Thursday, aimed at U.S. President Barack Obama's 11-year-old daughter Malia after she was photographed wearing a t-shirt with a peace sign on the front. The thread was accompanied by a photo of Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that featured the caption, "To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make monkey sounds." Though this may sound like the sort of thing one might read on an Aryan Nation or white power website, they actually appeared on what is commonly considered one of the prime online locations for U.S. Conservative grassroots political discussion and organizing - and for a short time, the comments seemed to have the okay of site administrators. Moderators of the blog left the comments - and commenters - in place until a complaint was lodged by a writer doing research on the conservative movement, almost a full day later. A note on the front of the blog reads, "Free Republic does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government," but one comment on the thread read, "This disgusting display makes me more and more eager for the revolution," while another read, "I never actually wnated [sic] to be a pistol before but..." After attention from other blogs, the thread was suppressed and placed under review, but before long it was returned to the site intact, and attracted a new series of racial slurs when the original complaint email was posted publicly to the site, with the sender's email address intact. "The writer has a point," wrote site owner Jim Thompson sarcastically. "We should steer clear of Obama's children. They can't help it if their old man is an American-hating Marxist pig." "I agree Jim," wrote commenter, by the nickname NoobRep. "The kids didn't pick their commie pinko pansy of a father. Nor did they choose to be put into the spotlight. But Obama/Soetoro is fair game and so is his witch of a wife."
"Freepers, get the word out loud and wide. The Vancouver Sun "journalist" Chris Parry that defamed Jim Robinson and FreeRepublic is none other than radical left blogger "Hollywoodoz" at the Daily Kos. In addition to writting for the Vancouver Sun, Chris is a frustrated and failed internet entrepreneur, having launched many websites and blogs, all of which have virtually no traffic, following, or success. Chris also writes movie reviews, though these are pretty lame. Chris Parry actually advocated attacking "negros" and blaming the republicans for it. See this post at the Daily Kos by "hollywoodoz", who is in reality, as proven below Chris Parry of the Vancouver Sun. See it here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/9/10324/92702 This spells BUSH, CHENEY, BROWN. Now if this is not grounds for losing your job at the Vancouver Sun, I don't know what is."
The blog then goes on to list a bunch of news media contacts so that they can make their case that they're being set up. In order to believe their excuses, you would have to believe that all of those racist quotes came from one person masquerading as many people. You'd also have to believe that they're really not racist people, even though they took the offending thread down & then put it back up. Basically, they kept their offending conversation until they got busted for it. Then, they figured they'd put it back up once the smoke cleared except that they got busted again. It's unfortunate that some conservatives have gotten to the point where they can feel free to spew their racist vile. It's a trend I've been noticing for a couple of years now. Racism's bad enough. However, when you bring a person's young kids into the mix, you've completely crossed the line.
This week, the Senate Juditiary Committee will begin the confirmation hearings to appoint Judge Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here are the two things that you can basically expect: 1. A LOT of long winded speeches disguised as questions. Senators have a time limit & expect them to use ALL of it. 2. Republicans to try to tarnish Judge Sotomayor's reputation. This is the part I find funny. If you speak about how proud you are of your race, you are accused of being racist. If Justice Scalia decided to speak about how proud he is of being Italian, I wonder how many people would complain? Actually, a lot of people. Racial politics is a blood sport. These hearings will just take it to another level. The republicans even have one of the white fire fighters who won an appeal on a case that Judge Sotomayor was judging testifying against her. That's the first time I've ever heard that being done. Republicans will use these hearings as part of their Party of No strategy. They will twist every word that Judge Sotomayor has ever written or said to their advantage. Their reason is simple & twofold. First, it's payback to the democrats for all of the justices that George W. Bush nominated & the democrats tried to disgrace. Second, this is the republicans' only option because they don't have the votes to stop the judge's confirmation. If you enjoy a lot of blowhards bickering with each other & destroying someone's reputation, then this is definitely your week. You hear Sotomayor explain "wise latina woman" so many times, it'll make your ears bleed. It'll keep the cable "news" networks busy & talking about something other than Michael Jackson FINALLY. It'll keep every so-called expert employeed for another week. In the end, though, she'll be nominated unless she didn't pay her social security taxes or something stupid like that. Personally, I think we'd all be better off with a steel cage grudge match between her & the republican senators. My money's on Sotomayor.
I'm not quite sure what's up with congressmen named King this week. First, there was NY Rep Peter King & his verbal attack on Michael Jackson. Now, IA Rep Steve King has decided to enter his name in the Dumbest Guy of the Week contest. Rep. Steve King was the only vote against putting a plaque in the Capital Visitor Center recognizing the fact that the U.S. Capital was built with slave labor. The vote, by the way, was 399 - 1 for placement of the plaque. Rep King's reason for voting against it? It's....well, I'll let his official press release explain it to you:
"In the Capitol Visitor's Center, we agreed to change the name of the Great Hall - which honored the immigrants that came legally to America - to Emancipation Hall to honor the 645,000 slaves and their descendants who were brought to the United States more than two centuries ago."Last night I opposed yet another bill to erect another monument to slavery because it was used as a bargaining chip to allow for the actual depiction of 'In God We Trust' in the CVC. The Architect of the Capitol and liberal activists opposed every reference to America's Christian heritage, even to the extent of scrubbing 'In God We Trust' from the depiction of the actual Speaker's chair in the U.S. House of Representatives. "This is just the latest example of a several year effort by liberals in Congress to scrub references to America's Christian heritage from our nation's Capitol. Liberals want to amend our country's history to eradicate the role of Christianity in America and chisel references to God or faith from our historical buildings."Our Judeo-Christian heritage is an essential foundation stone of our great nation and should not be held hostage to yet another effort to place guilt on future Americans for the sins of some of their ancestors. Christian abolitionists gave their lives by the hundreds of thousands to end slavery. Great American leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. worshipped God just as our Founding Fathers did. We must never forget this important aspect of our heritage or use it as a political bargaining chip."
Yet another bill about slavery? Apparently, Steve's not feeling the love. I'm going to assume that he's in a pretty safe district & that his re-election is assured. Otherwise, he just gave some serious ammo to his opponents. Pretty stupid, Steve. Pretty stupid.
I went online & watched a video of a tea bagging rally. I wanted to see for myself what all the fuss was about. What I saw was something very frightening, but not for the reasons that you might think. The rally started innocently enough. Speaker after speaker went on stage & started talking about high taxes & the need to start trimming them. I’m all for that. I believe the deficit is getting out of control now & we need to start putting restrictions in place in order to bring it down. Then, the rally started turning scary. The speakers started talking about illegal immigrants & the need to kick them out of the country & close the borders. One speaker even started talking about spics & niggers being the main reason for America’s problem, which received great applause. Well, THAT got my attention. The handheld camera started panning the crowd. All white. Go figure. One woman held up a sign that said “Go to hell Owebama (a cute play on the president’s name) & the camel you rode in on”. Interesting. What is evident to me is that when the far right stole a page out of the far left’s playbook with these anti-tax rallies, the idea became perverted. What may have started out as a decent idea has now turned into a kinder gentler version of the Ku Klux Klan.
I know that the Mark Sanford issue has swirled for a week but I've stayed away from it to see what the reaction would be to his press conference. Oh, where to begin? I'm aware that people do make mistakes & that forgiveness is divine, let he who is without sin...blah, blah, blah. The problem is that Mark Sanford was the one who's thrown the most stones in the past at others so it's about time he got some thrown back at him. Let us not forget that when he was a congressman during the '90s, he was one of the main proponents for the impeachment of Bill Clinton for cheating on his wife. When Larry Craig was busted for trying to make a pass at a man in a bathroom stall, it was Mark Sanford who went on television & said that Craig couldn't govern any more & that he would resign. Now, the tables have turned & it is Mark Sanford who finds himself in the infidelity spotlight. Forgive me if I find this extremely humorous. It doesn't help that even after the press conference, he still won't shut up. Three days later, he gives an interview to the associated press professing that he's found his soul mate & it's not his wife but he'd like to get back with his wife & make it work. Bet the Mrs loved to hear THAT little nugget of information put out to the media. I'm sure the public humiliation has made his wife want to reconsider taking back the man who skipped out on his security detail & his kids on Fathers Day weekend so that he could play house with his soul mate in Argentina; I mean, so he could go hiking on the Appalachian Trail. If Mark Sanford had any decency left, he should just put out a press release saying that he's working on getting back together with his wife & for the press to please respect his family's privacy during this very trying time. He should not be giving interviews saying how much he wants to be with his mistress & that it's forbidden love. Do the right thing Gov. Sanford, please & just resign already.
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