Saturday, December 29, 2012
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
BARACK OBAMA RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT 2012 - DEMOCRATS WINS ELECTION - CNN
"Boo hoo. Ba humbug. ha ha ha. eat shit. Obama won. FORWARD! next time stop insulting gays, minorities and women. Angry Old white men and evangelicals wont get you anywhere, they are dying out. and better still if your trying to steal elections with voter suppression, bs id requirements and cutting early voting etc, do it properly. you made it obvious, and the people responded with even more resolve to thwart it. You wont win in the 21st century running 1900s campaign and 1800s "values". sorry."
Complete Third Presidential Debate on Foreign Policy 2012: Barack Obama ...
"Because there are plenty of working class people out there who do bust their ass to make an honest living and its not their fault that they aren't born into money like silver spoon assholes who never had to work hard a day in their lives, and don't know what a student loan is, nor what an electric bill is. The middle class is the heart of this country and asking the wealthy to pay more than 14 fucking percent in taxes is not asking alot."
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Friday, October 5, 2012
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
The true legacy of 9/11
"The true legacy of 9/11 will not be one of fear or hate or division. It will be a safer world; a stronger nation; and a people more united than ever before."
Friday, September 7, 2012
Thursday, September 6, 2012
President Obama Speech Excerpt DNC 2012
“We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what’s in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense.”
| — | Text of Obama’s Address to the Democratic National Convention - Washington Wire - WSJ |
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Michelle Obama at the DNC Convention September 4th, 2012!
Finally, something to be happy about!
The following is from Tumblr, via disciplesofhaute:
Michelle Obama Stuns in Tracy Reese at DNCWell said btw!
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 — Reactions from last nite on my Twitter feed included:
The First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Michelle Obama, truly wowed, as she always does, on the stage of the Democratic National Convention last night. While many looked forward to her speech, fashionistas secretly obsessed over what she would wear. Bottom line: she did not disappoint!
- “This speech is the climax of Michelle Obama’s 8-year political conversion, from reluctant spouse to campaign powerhouse” - @jodikantor
- “Michelle Obama slayed the scene and these chicks WILL deal!” - yours truly @HauteDisciples
- “The doors of the church are now open!” @AshFoster
Wearing a beautiful pink frock (delicate gold foiling throughout) with grayish/purple trim, finished with a pair of pink J. Crew pumps ($245). The look was custom-made by New York City fashion designer Tracy Reese and was perfect for the occasion. FLOTUS looked regal, elegant, and still commanded respect and attention. What a great moment it was!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
US Soldiers Planned Obama Assassination: Prosecutors
(Newser) – Four US soldiers planned to overthrow the federal government and kill President Obama, the Press Association reports. The alleged plot, whose details remain scarce, emerged during a murder case against the soldiers. One of the four, Pfc. Michael Burnett, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and gang charges today in the deaths of an ex-soldier and his girlfriend, 17. The ex-soldier, Michael Roark, was killed because he was aware of the plot, Burnett said. The quartet had purchased $87,000 worth of firearms and explosives; they intended to attack Fort Stewart as well as locations in Georgia and Washington state, the AP reports.
Here is a link to the full article.
http://www.newser.com/
On a side note, glad these traitors were caught before President Obama,
his family or anyone else could be harmed by these evil doers..
Source: AP, Newser and Tumblr
Here is a link to the full article.
http://www.newser.com/
On a side note, glad these traitors were caught before President Obama,
his family or anyone else could be harmed by these evil doers..
Source: AP, Newser and Tumblr
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon, Dies at Age 82
From the NY Times:
Neil Armstrong, who made the “giant leap for mankind” as the first human to set foot on the moon, died on Saturday. He was 82.
His family said in a statement that the cause was “complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.” He had undergone heart bypass surgery this month in Cincinnati, near where he lived. His recovery had been going well, according to those who spoke with him after the surgery, and his death came as a surprise to many close to him, including his fellow Apollo astronauts. The family did not say where he died.
A quiet, private man, at heart an engineer and crack test pilot, Mr. Armstrong made history on July 20, 1969, as the commander of the Apollo 11 spacecraft on the mission that culminated the Soviet-American space race in the 1960s. President John F. Kennedy had committed the nation “to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.” It was done with more than five months to spare.
My favorite part of the article is this:
After news of Mr. Armstrong’s death was reported, President Obama, in a statement from the White House, said, “Neil was among the greatest of American heroes.”
“And when Neil stepped foot on the surface of the moon for the first time,” the president added, “he delivered a moment of human achievement that will never be forgotten.”
Read the rest of the article here:
RIP Neil Armstrong - The NY Times
From Yahoo News:
"A lot of people couldn't figure out Armstrong."
With those words Tom Wolfe introduced Neil Armstrong, the astronaut hero of his nonfiction masterpiece,
"The Right Stuff." Armstrong, of course, was a masterpiece himself: the commander of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission and the first man ever to walk on the moon. Armstrong died Saturday from complications relating to heart surgery. He was 82.
All these decades, Armstrong, the lunar Adam, has represented a code his admirers knew better than to try to crack. Not that, early on, great literary minds—besotted by the baby-faced genius—didn't try.
Wolfe continued: "You'd ask him a question, and he would just stare at you with those pale-blue eyes of his, and you'd start to ask the question again, figuring he hadn't understood, and— click —out of his mouth would come forth a sequence of long, quiet, perfectly formed, precisely thought-out sentences."
So Wolfe warned against understanding Armstrong in "The Right Stuff." And that warning was more or less heeded, somewhat miraculously, until Armstrong's dying day. Profilers kept their mitts off him. Hollywood starlets didn't swoop in to wreck his family. And, most mercifully of all, Carson and Merv Griffin and Dinah Shore and Ali G and Oprah didn't demand that he couch-surf with them."
Read the rest of the story here:
Neil Armstrong Moon Mystery Man
Note: Neil Armstrong is a true American hero.
God Bless him and all.
Peace.
And Godspeed, Neil.
RIP.
Also, I dedicate this video to him from the Foo Fighters,
"Next Year":
Foo Fighters - Next Year - Youtube
Friday, August 24, 2012
The Blame Game...
"Republicans, Democrats...how dumb can you be? Don't you know that Satan is laughing at us all? You bicker and fight and refuse to work together on the things you agree out of spite. How stupid is that? Who wins? Da' Debil. "
Also...
Overheard on Facebook, via liberal friend Rodney B.'s wall:
"Heard an analyst saying it appears these tax return, documents released by Gawker, show offshore accounts, not illegal, but displaying our the wealthy have bought Congress (costing trillions of dollars), to supply them with enough loopholes, they have to pay little or no taxes already. In that case, there will be no more or little revenue for government programs, except for the military and military contracts. Social programs, education, health, safety, banking regulations - deteriorating. And the Republicans blame welfare recipients, illegals, women health programs, school teachers, and unions." -Laura O.
Well said Laura!
Great stuff, guys :)
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Insightful and Brilliant Political Posts and Quotes by liberals and independents, etc. on Yahoo News and Huffpost Political Articles
Overheard (seen) comments on various Yahoo News and Huffpost posts, political in nature, from various posters whom I deem (and are) liberal, independent, middle of the road and maybe some smart conservatives
mixed in as well:
From Huffpost, various commentary and articles:
outlandish
7533 Fans
"I can't fathom Mitt at all; it's like he wants to throw the whole game by being so out of touch that he doesn't realize he has become a parody off all that's wrong with the country.
and public were even bothered paying attention.
It turns out that to save Mitt's America; you have to destroy the culture and access to information that is not controlled by corporations in the form of advertising. Now that is one audacious form of pernicious control of an independent voice, untarnished by the lure of doing or saying anything to pay the bills and turn a profit.
If the warning bells aren't going off at the loss of what should be a given, a voice that is not beholding to those that own every other voice of influence in the US. The other mega savings he wants to make so as to give himself a larger tax breaks, is the accumulated culture of America that makes it America.
The arts are the soul of the nation and ironically a major revenue spinner for the nation, All forms of arts, whether mainstream or fringe are as much a part of the national fabric as consuming, working, eating and breathing.
When you cut funding to culture, you cut the umbilical cord to civilization.
A dull world might be conducive to high work rate and productivity but it isn't a life worth living."
Bronxdude
6572 Fans
"Similar to the Obama Recovery Plan, Clinton raised taxes on millionaires (generating the largest surplus in history - $756 billion), cut middleclass taxes, and created 22 million jobs. But as demonstrated by Reagan (18 million job loss/10.1% unemployment), Bush 41 (13 million job loss/ 8.3% unemployment), and Bush 43 (15 million job loss/8.7% unemployment), deficit creating trillion dollar tax cuts for the top 2% stifles job growth. As a collateral benefit of improved cash flow, jobs are created when middleclass consumers enjoy increased purchasing power derived from increases in disposable income made possible by decreases in payroll, income, and property tax -- provisions Republicans stubbornly oppose for the bottom 98% (according to the Ryan budget, tax cuts for the top 2% are offset by tax increases for the bottom 97%). So when Mitt says he supports tax cuts, he's talking about his buddies teeing off at Sag Harbor, not middleclass Americans -- the lifeline for our economy. Since 2008, middleclass families have received an annual income tax reduction of $3600, while a record number of small businesses have benefited by way of substantial tax cuts (97% of all small businesses earn less than $250,000 annually; in fact, letting the Bush tax cuts expire would lead to a tax increase for less than 3% of small businesses). Extending tax cuts on income of less than $250,000 and letting the top tax rate go from 35 to 39.6% would create 17 million jobs and generate $900 billion in revenue. Under S-corporation loopholes finagled by Wall Street controlled Republicans, cash-soaked leviathans like General Electric, Exxon Mobil, Halliburton, and Koch Industries are allowed to set up hundreds of shell or dummy "small businesses" (i.e., entities that exist only on paper), which then allows the parent company to avoid taxes by having their profits taxed at small business rates, which is why Republicans are always clamoring to protect "small businesses," also known in Republican parlance as the "imaginary job creators." Middleclass Americans cannot allow the economy to be held hostage by the GOP's fealty to the rich."
stopthemadness69
1685 Fans
"So we can gut amtrak, PBS and the arts in order to save 2.15 billion a year, BUT we can't cut the 4 billion per year in tax goodies we give oil, gas, and coal? And what the he!! is the point of redoing the tax code at all, if the plan is revenue nuetral? That's like dad moving the family across the country, uprooting their lives, so he can get a better job, only to have the exact same job after the move. What's the point? I can't believe Romney and Ryan are suggesting that a country that is so poor it must cut food and healthcare for the poor, education for our future generations, air and water and food safety regulations, research and development grants, medicare, medicaid ect, is a country that can afford to give it's highest paid 2% another tax cut? I knew that Ryan was a huge Ayn Rand fan, but didn't know much about her until yesterday, suddenly the Romney Ryan plan makes perfect sense. It's still utter and total greedy BS though. Ayn Rand believed that it is of the utmost importance to have really rich people in a society and that those rich folks must be protected from taxes, and regulations and anything that would in any way hinder their ability to amass more and more wealth. That my fellow americans is the belief of the men running for the whitehouse on the GOP side."
realpolitic
3581 Fans
" And it raised again the question of how his overall tax plan -- which extends the Bush tax cuts, reduces individual rates by 20 percent, eliminates taxes on investment income for middle- and lower income taxpayers, repeals the alternative minimum tax and gets rid of the estate tax -- wouldn't balloon the deficit."
"Of course, it would balloon the deficit. Conservatives who have all of a sudden found fiscal religion with a Democratic president would again ignore deficits as long as they go to serve tax cuts for the rich. Conservatives reflexively vote against their own economic interests. Ryan himself has admitted, that given all the tax cuts for the wealthy inherent in his budget it is dependent on eliminating middle class loopholes to get anywhere near a balance. Now Romney says middle class tax loopholes are off the table. With another Republican in office, it will be deficits as far as the eye can see all to give the rich even more."
peacekitten
3430 Fans
"the right wing will never admit that their economic plans are not in any way, shape or form, designed to either balance the budget or improve society.
they are nothing but s;avage, cro;ma;gnon style social engineering designed to produce an america of an extremely small self-annointed, super-rich class of royalty and serfdom for everyone else.
people forget that RRe*gan once made a joke that the california educational system had to be gutted because it was producing so many educated people that it was nearly impossible to find a decent butler anymore for cheap.
then he proceeded to ruin what was once the best public education system in the country.
they may try to male it seem like they are kidding about these things, but they are not. they are very serious. they place no value on anyone that isn't them, and according to a recent psychological study of the very wealthy, that even includes their own children. they are hoarding money and power strictly for themselves and don't even want to pass anything on to their own progeny.
it's a level of selfishness that's unprecedented and incredibly sad. it has to be stopped."
From Yahoo, various articles and commentary:
anon
"Extreme republicans and extreme democrats seem to be at war already... while the majority of the quieter U.S. "moderates" prefer to go unheard, it seems...
"What an ugly mess," we may say. "What awful noise... I certainly don't want to get caught up in that!"
But do you know what I think? No, no one probably cares, but I'll say it anyway:
Have you ever been in a classroom where the teacher called for silence? Bit by bit, the kids begin to talk... Eventually, each person ends up speaking louder to be heard over the other person until everyone is shouting. What good is a shouting teacher going to do in such chaos? But the voice that is quiet, the voice that is calm and serene... Because it is so hard to hear, the class quiets down, and tries to listen, tries to hear...
We are too offensive, and we put people on the defensive far too often. There are those who would disagree with my views, and then there are those who would beat them to a pulp because it's "not my right" to state my opinion, but heaven forbid I have any contrary, or try to stifle another's views...
What the politicians have failed to do, and what WE AS AMERICANS have failed to do, is to uphold, or even bring back the common virtues upon which this country was founded! Dignity, integrity, common courtesy, common SENSE, the ability to AGREE TO DISAGREE, yet to do so respectfully... It is not about right or wrong, or even parties... It is about the fact that whenever someone opens his or her mouth, he or she can expect a retaliation, an attack, and immediately, we are on the defensive. In our fright, we lash out at others, those who do not share our opinions. When we look back, we'll say, "My, that escalated quickly!" Ultimately, we play the blame game, myself included. What does that gain us?
I have spoken with many an intelligent person who did not share my political or personal views, but they remained RESPECTFUL of my right to carry out a perfectly calm conversation with them, and though I did not agree, I found myself learning, expanding my ideas and learning more as to what I believe, and whether I believe it FOR MYSELF.
I honestly believe, though, that behind all of this, all of the ideals, that any man-made system is destined to fail. However, human pride will now allow us to think that way; we have to be right, we HAVE to be. THAT is our downfall. When we place the importance on parties, on being right, on having the last say, we forget that we are supposed to be living in this country together, that it doesn't necessarily matter "who is right", but rather, that we respect one another's voices and opinions. In an imperfect system, what do we have left when even the foundations of such a system, it's people, begin to crumble?
Abraham Lincoln said it best: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
The issue is not politics, or even personal beliefs... Rather, the problem occurs when we stop acting humanely and respectfully toward others...
I have always said and stand by my statement that my personal views and beliefs govern my political views, not the other way around.
I know there are many who will probably call me ignorant, who will hate me or will leave negative comments on this one. You know what I say to that? Fine. But I'd also like to say this: I HAVE A RIGHT TO MY OPINION! I never said you have to have to agree with it.
I hope all of you (Democrat, Republican, Independent, and other) have a wonderful day, and I can say that sincerely and honestly."
From Robert:
"The only people ignorant of reality are conservatives on the far right side and stop ignoring what Jesus taught, Biblical values, doctrines and principals and learn to stop going to war, owning guns, cutting programs for the sick, poor, needy and disabled and then claiming you are Pro Life. And learn to love and forgive your enemy's, even those you dislike, such as President Obama. Most of my friends in Canada, The UK, Spain, Europe, etc. all laugh at the hypocrisy, nonsense and contradictions that most American conservatives display here."
"Only conservatives do retarded things, like claim rape is a gift from God or can't make you pregnant, take away programs from the poor, needy, sick, disabled, unemployed, elderly, minority's, women, children, blue collar workers, which Jesus taught us to take care of, ignore or misinterpret the Bible, hate your enemy's instead of love them, and want to save the unborn here but destroy it elsewhere through war, cutting programs for the average American and hatred, fear, bigotry, racism and prejudice and many other hypocrisies, contradictions and logical fallacies, etc."
Well said, guys!
Peace out.
mixed in as well:
From Huffpost, various commentary and articles:
outlandish
7533 Fans
"I can't fathom Mitt at all; it's like he wants to throw the whole game by being so out of touch that he doesn't realize he has become a parody off all that's wrong with the country.
Nobody with a functioning set of synapsis and a working central cortex believes that Mitt is on their side and the nearest thing he has to a true believer, is somebody who is either ABO or a nose holding grimaced, habitual Republican voter, moderates are definitely on to Mitt by now and know that he has contradicted every position he's ever held, including one or two that he made up to see if the Media
and public were even bothered paying attention.
It turns out that to save Mitt's America; you have to destroy the culture and access to information that is not controlled by corporations in the form of advertising. Now that is one audacious form of pernicious control of an independent voice, untarnished by the lure of doing or saying anything to pay the bills and turn a profit.
If the warning bells aren't going off at the loss of what should be a given, a voice that is not beholding to those that own every other voice of influence in the US. The other mega savings he wants to make so as to give himself a larger tax breaks, is the accumulated culture of America that makes it America.
The arts are the soul of the nation and ironically a major revenue spinner for the nation, All forms of arts, whether mainstream or fringe are as much a part of the national fabric as consuming, working, eating and breathing.
When you cut funding to culture, you cut the umbilical cord to civilization.
A dull world might be conducive to high work rate and productivity but it isn't a life worth living."
Bronxdude
6572 Fans
"Similar to the Obama Recovery Plan, Clinton raised taxes on millionaires (generating the largest surplus in history - $756 billion), cut middleclass taxes, and created 22 million jobs. But as demonstrated by Reagan (18 million job loss/10.1% unemployment), Bush 41 (13 million job loss/ 8.3% unemployment), and Bush 43 (15 million job loss/8.7% unemployment), deficit creating trillion dollar tax cuts for the top 2% stifles job growth. As a collateral benefit of improved cash flow, jobs are created when middleclass consumers enjoy increased purchasing power derived from increases in disposable income made possible by decreases in payroll, income, and property tax -- provisions Republicans stubbornly oppose for the bottom 98% (according to the Ryan budget, tax cuts for the top 2% are offset by tax increases for the bottom 97%). So when Mitt says he supports tax cuts, he's talking about his buddies teeing off at Sag Harbor, not middleclass Americans -- the lifeline for our economy. Since 2008, middleclass families have received an annual income tax reduction of $3600, while a record number of small businesses have benefited by way of substantial tax cuts (97% of all small businesses earn less than $250,000 annually; in fact, letting the Bush tax cuts expire would lead to a tax increase for less than 3% of small businesses). Extending tax cuts on income of less than $250,000 and letting the top tax rate go from 35 to 39.6% would create 17 million jobs and generate $900 billion in revenue. Under S-corporation loopholes finagled by Wall Street controlled Republicans, cash-soaked leviathans like General Electric, Exxon Mobil, Halliburton, and Koch Industries are allowed to set up hundreds of shell or dummy "small businesses" (i.e., entities that exist only on paper), which then allows the parent company to avoid taxes by having their profits taxed at small business rates, which is why Republicans are always clamoring to protect "small businesses," also known in Republican parlance as the "imaginary job creators." Middleclass Americans cannot allow the economy to be held hostage by the GOP's fealty to the rich."
stopthemadness69
1685 Fans
"So we can gut amtrak, PBS and the arts in order to save 2.15 billion a year, BUT we can't cut the 4 billion per year in tax goodies we give oil, gas, and coal? And what the he!! is the point of redoing the tax code at all, if the plan is revenue nuetral? That's like dad moving the family across the country, uprooting their lives, so he can get a better job, only to have the exact same job after the move. What's the point? I can't believe Romney and Ryan are suggesting that a country that is so poor it must cut food and healthcare for the poor, education for our future generations, air and water and food safety regulations, research and development grants, medicare, medicaid ect, is a country that can afford to give it's highest paid 2% another tax cut? I knew that Ryan was a huge Ayn Rand fan, but didn't know much about her until yesterday, suddenly the Romney Ryan plan makes perfect sense. It's still utter and total greedy BS though. Ayn Rand believed that it is of the utmost importance to have really rich people in a society and that those rich folks must be protected from taxes, and regulations and anything that would in any way hinder their ability to amass more and more wealth. That my fellow americans is the belief of the men running for the whitehouse on the GOP side."
realpolitic
3581 Fans
" And it raised again the question of how his overall tax plan -- which extends the Bush tax cuts, reduces individual rates by 20 percent, eliminates taxes on investment income for middle- and lower income taxpayers, repeals the alternative minimum tax and gets rid of the estate tax -- wouldn't balloon the deficit."
"Of course, it would balloon the deficit. Conservatives who have all of a sudden found fiscal religion with a Democratic president would again ignore deficits as long as they go to serve tax cuts for the rich. Conservatives reflexively vote against their own economic interests. Ryan himself has admitted, that given all the tax cuts for the wealthy inherent in his budget it is dependent on eliminating middle class loopholes to get anywhere near a balance. Now Romney says middle class tax loopholes are off the table. With another Republican in office, it will be deficits as far as the eye can see all to give the rich even more."
peacekitten
3430 Fans
"the right wing will never admit that their economic plans are not in any way, shape or form, designed to either balance the budget or improve society.
they are nothing but s;avage, cro;ma;gnon style social engineering designed to produce an america of an extremely small self-annointed, super-rich class of royalty and serfdom for everyone else.
people forget that RRe*gan once made a joke that the california educational system had to be gutted because it was producing so many educated people that it was nearly impossible to find a decent butler anymore for cheap.
then he proceeded to ruin what was once the best public education system in the country.
they may try to male it seem like they are kidding about these things, but they are not. they are very serious. they place no value on anyone that isn't them, and according to a recent psychological study of the very wealthy, that even includes their own children. they are hoarding money and power strictly for themselves and don't even want to pass anything on to their own progeny.
it's a level of selfishness that's unprecedented and incredibly sad. it has to be stopped."
From Yahoo, various articles and commentary:
anon
"Extreme republicans and extreme democrats seem to be at war already... while the majority of the quieter U.S. "moderates" prefer to go unheard, it seems...
"What an ugly mess," we may say. "What awful noise... I certainly don't want to get caught up in that!"
But do you know what I think? No, no one probably cares, but I'll say it anyway:
Have you ever been in a classroom where the teacher called for silence? Bit by bit, the kids begin to talk... Eventually, each person ends up speaking louder to be heard over the other person until everyone is shouting. What good is a shouting teacher going to do in such chaos? But the voice that is quiet, the voice that is calm and serene... Because it is so hard to hear, the class quiets down, and tries to listen, tries to hear...
We are too offensive, and we put people on the defensive far too often. There are those who would disagree with my views, and then there are those who would beat them to a pulp because it's "not my right" to state my opinion, but heaven forbid I have any contrary, or try to stifle another's views...
What the politicians have failed to do, and what WE AS AMERICANS have failed to do, is to uphold, or even bring back the common virtues upon which this country was founded! Dignity, integrity, common courtesy, common SENSE, the ability to AGREE TO DISAGREE, yet to do so respectfully... It is not about right or wrong, or even parties... It is about the fact that whenever someone opens his or her mouth, he or she can expect a retaliation, an attack, and immediately, we are on the defensive. In our fright, we lash out at others, those who do not share our opinions. When we look back, we'll say, "My, that escalated quickly!" Ultimately, we play the blame game, myself included. What does that gain us?
I have spoken with many an intelligent person who did not share my political or personal views, but they remained RESPECTFUL of my right to carry out a perfectly calm conversation with them, and though I did not agree, I found myself learning, expanding my ideas and learning more as to what I believe, and whether I believe it FOR MYSELF.
I honestly believe, though, that behind all of this, all of the ideals, that any man-made system is destined to fail. However, human pride will now allow us to think that way; we have to be right, we HAVE to be. THAT is our downfall. When we place the importance on parties, on being right, on having the last say, we forget that we are supposed to be living in this country together, that it doesn't necessarily matter "who is right", but rather, that we respect one another's voices and opinions. In an imperfect system, what do we have left when even the foundations of such a system, it's people, begin to crumble?
Abraham Lincoln said it best: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
The issue is not politics, or even personal beliefs... Rather, the problem occurs when we stop acting humanely and respectfully toward others...
I have always said and stand by my statement that my personal views and beliefs govern my political views, not the other way around.
I know there are many who will probably call me ignorant, who will hate me or will leave negative comments on this one. You know what I say to that? Fine. But I'd also like to say this: I HAVE A RIGHT TO MY OPINION! I never said you have to have to agree with it.
I hope all of you (Democrat, Republican, Independent, and other) have a wonderful day, and I can say that sincerely and honestly."
From Robert:
"The only people ignorant of reality are conservatives on the far right side and stop ignoring what Jesus taught, Biblical values, doctrines and principals and learn to stop going to war, owning guns, cutting programs for the sick, poor, needy and disabled and then claiming you are Pro Life. And learn to love and forgive your enemy's, even those you dislike, such as President Obama. Most of my friends in Canada, The UK, Spain, Europe, etc. all laugh at the hypocrisy, nonsense and contradictions that most American conservatives display here."
"Only conservatives do retarded things, like claim rape is a gift from God or can't make you pregnant, take away programs from the poor, needy, sick, disabled, unemployed, elderly, minority's, women, children, blue collar workers, which Jesus taught us to take care of, ignore or misinterpret the Bible, hate your enemy's instead of love them, and want to save the unborn here but destroy it elsewhere through war, cutting programs for the average American and hatred, fear, bigotry, racism and prejudice and many other hypocrisies, contradictions and logical fallacies, etc."
Well said, guys!
Peace out.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Jesus vs Romney and The Money Changers!
Hey guys, thought you might like this pic!
whitehouse.gov Facebook Group
From: Tom Seidel via whitehouse.gov facebook group :)
Thursday, August 16, 2012
President Obama Reacts To Family Research Council Shooting
From the Huffpost News:
"President Obama condemned the shooting of a security guard at the Family Research Council's headquarters on Wednesday, according to press secretary Jay Carney.
Obama, who was notified of the shooting at 1:18 PM ET, expressed concern for a security guard who was wounded by the shooting at the FRC's headquarters in Washington, DC. Obama also professed the belief that "this type of violence has no place in our society," per a pool report."
You can read the full article here:
huffingtonpost.com
Spoken like a true man and President.
Mitt Romney: Slash Amtrak, PBS Funding, But Give Tax Breaks to The Wealthy!
In more insane news from the Romney/Ryan camp that is again out of touch with reality
and most of the American people (as in the 99% I would think) The Huffpost reports
the following:
"Romney's campaign has insisted that they can trim federal spending enough to achieve fiscal balance, but in the Fortune interview, the items Romney pinpointed appeared to be low-hanging fruit.
Romney identified subsidies for Amtrak, PBS, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities as things he would eliminate. The government spends $444 million a year on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (the parent organization of PBS); Amtrak received $1.56 billion in federal funding in 2010, with $1.3 billion in stimulus funds; while the National Endowment of the Arts lists the current level of federal funding at approximately $146 million.
Romney said he would block grant Medicaid and send programs like housing vouchers and food stamps back to the states. This, he argued, would save the federal government "approximately $100 billion a year within four years" (the House GOP budget claims to save $771 billion over 10 years). It would also mean dramatic cuts to each of these programs, as states are already dealing with major budget shortfalls.
Romney also told Fortune that he would reduce the number of federal programs by 10 percent through attrition, while tying the compensation of federal workers to that in the private sector. "That saves about $47 billion a year, by the way," he said.
All told, the savings that Romney identified for Fortune would add up to roughly $750 billion over 10 years (depending on the baseline comparison). On Monday and Tuesday, Romney announced that he would restore roughly the same amount ($718 billion) to Medicare as part of his plan to repeal the health care law President Barack Obama put in place."
You can read the full article here:
huffingtonpost.com
Wow, just wow! How out of touch with reality can Romney get?
Oe the American people, most of them anyway?
I'm at a loss for words right now...
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Mitt Romney Announces Paul Ryan as his pick for Running Mate and VP
How the 42-year-old Wisconsin representative (and now Mitt Romney VP pick) took a leading role in the Republican Party’s budget battle with President Obama:
Three days later, the White House started a livelier debate with Ryan. In a press briefing, Peter Orszag, the budget director at the time, dismantled Ryan’s plan, point by point. Ryan’s proposal would turn Medicare ‘into a voucher program, so that individuals are on their own in the health-care market,’ he said. Over time, the program wouldn’t keep pace with rising medical costs, so seniors would have to pay thousands of dollars more a year for health care. The Roadmap would revive Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security and ‘provide large tax benefits to upper-income households … while shifting the burden onto middle- and lower-income households. It is a dramatically different approach in which much more risk is loaded onto individuals.’ Ryan, who had always had a good relationship with Orszag, later described the briefing as the moment when ‘the budget director took that olive branch and hit me in the face with it.’
But the confrontation enhanced Ryan’s credibility among conservatives. He became the face of the opposition, someone who could attack the President’s policies with facts and figures. Indeed, at the retreat, Obama had mischaracterized Ryan’s Medicare plan, and Ryan politely corrected him. The two men sparred again the next month, at a summit at Blair House, over the President’s health-care plan. The details of Ryan’s proposals and his critiques of Obama’s mattered less than the fact that he was taking on the President.
“Fussbudget.” — Ryan Lizza, New Yorker
More Lizza
Also seen on Tumblr:
“Ryan comes off as nerdier than Romney, but he doesn’t come off as much more human. They seem like two slightly different variants of the classic gladhanding candidate for high-school student-body president. Both would be on the debate team, but the Romney model would also be on the football team, whereas the Ryan model would compete in interscholastic math tournaments. Most kids at my high school didn’t especially like either type. They only voted for one of them because there was no alternative.”
| — | Robert Wright, on Paul Ryan. |
Mitt Romney just announced today (August 11th, 2012) that Paul Ryan will be his running mate
and pick for VP. Oh boy! This will be fun to see how the upcoming election turns out.
I think Mitt and Ryan would make great garbage men (not to insult garbage men)
and I still think that Adam West and Burt Ward would make a great Batman and
Robin or Dynamic Duo anyday over Mitt and Paul.
Stay tuned....
(Pic courtesy of Facebook btw)
Friday, August 10, 2012
Americans are scared, angry and struggling
“Americans are scared, angry and struggling. They used to talk about job satisfaction; now they talk about just holding on to their jobs. No incumbent since FDR has ever won reelection with unemployment numbers remotely resembling today’s. What voters feel about their lives and dreams in the months leading up to an election tends to stick to the president when they enter the voting booth. And right now what’s sticking to Obama isn’t good. But it sure helps to face a candidate as uncomfortable in his own skin, as likely to say by accident what he really means and as wrong for the times as Mitt Romney. In an era when even conservatives are populists, enraged about the favors granted the rich and well-connected, Romney is running as a CEO who thinks his taxes are too high. Voters just aren’t warming up to a guy who enjoys firing people and attempts to woo the people of Michigan by referring to his wife’s “couple of Cadillacs.” If Obama offers what well-paid elites call a “jobless recovery,” Romney offers the only thing worse: a promise to restore the policies that led to the joblessness that made a recovery necessary.” — Drew Westen
President Obama as a child with his grandfather!
Another awesome pic from Facebook of President Obama as a child
with his grandfather, a WWII Army vet.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Happy Birthday President Obama!
Picture of Obama during childhood.
Photo credit: Facebook
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Supreme Court upholds Obamacare! Victory!
Another victory for President Obama and the Democrats! Woo hoo!
"In a victory for President Obama, the Supreme Court decided to uphold his signature health care law's individual mandate in a split decision, upending speculation after hostile-seeming oral arguments in March that the justices would overturn the law. The mandate has been upheld as a tax, according to SCOTUSblog, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the liberal wing of the court. Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSblog says Roberts' vote "saved' the Affordable Care Act.
Twenty six states sued over the law, arguing that the individual mandate, which requires people to buy health insurance or face a fine starting in 2014, was unconstitutional. Opponents cast the individual mandate as the government forcing Americans to enter a market and buy a product against their will, while the government countered that the law was actually only regulating a market that everyone is already in, since almost everyone will seek health care at some point in his or her life.
Before oral arguments in March, polls of Supreme Court experts and scholars showed that most believed the mandate would be upheld as an exercise of Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce. But after justices seemed deeply skeptical of the mandate in oral arguments in March, the consensus flipped, with most experts guessing the court would strike down the law.
House Republicans have vowed to repeal the entire law, though it's unlikely the Democratic-controlled Senate would let that happen.
Though the sweeping, 1,000-page plus law passed more than two years ago, much of it will not go into effect until 2014. That's when states will have to set up their own health insurance exchanges, Medicaid will be expanded by 16 million low-income people, and Americans will have to buy health insurance (for many, with a government subsidy) or pay a penalty of 1 percent of their income to the IRS. Employers who have more than 50 employees and don't offer insurance will also begin to face a penalty. Insurers will no longer be able to turn away people with preexisting conditions, or charge people higher premiums based on their gender or health.
Only about 6 percent of the population will actually be required to buy health insurance or face a tax under the mandate, since most people already have coverage or will get it through Medicare, according to the Urban Institute.
Many of the more popular provisions of the law have already gone into effect, including a regulation saying insurers have to let children stay on their parents' plans until they are 26 years old, which 2.5 million Americans have already taken advantage of. Insurers can also no longer turn away children with preexisting conditions, and sick uninsured people can buy coverage in high-risk pools set up by the government."
Via yahoo news "Supreme Court upholds Obamacare individual mandate as a tax"
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
General Dwight D. Eisenhower Speech - June 6th, 1944 - D Day
“Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory!
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!
Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
—
General Dwight D. Eisenhower - June 6th, 1944
Via Tumblr
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory!
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!
Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
—
General Dwight D. Eisenhower - June 6th, 1944
Via Tumblr
Sunday, June 3, 2012
My message to all the Anti-Obama haters out there...
An honest conservative whom I've known for years on youtube admitted to me that the right wingers (including him) whom often accuse President Obama of many things (without proof of any of their outrageous claims about him or evidence just circular reasoning, lies, misinformation, fiction, conspiracy theories, logical fallacy's, no logic, hateful, evil thoughts about Obama with no basis in logic or reality, etc.) such as "being Anti-American, Muslim, Kenyan, hate filled, unpatriotic, not Christian, not American,, a Communist a Socialist, a Fascist, like Hitler, etc." and other such vitriolic filth, garbage and hate have, the ones he knows of which are dozens, never read any of Obama's books and have never done any research (or little if any) on him or his life nor any research or little on Kenyan culture, Muslim theology, customs or culture, American History and politics, The Constitution and the Bill of Rights, Liberal Ideology and History, Christian theology and History, The Civil Rights Movement, Communism, Socialism, Fascism, etc.
They are racist in thinking that every black or bi-racial person looks angry all the time. They often repeat the same hateful (and sometimes) racist, bigoted, and ignorant filth without knowing why and can not answer why. Example: I've asked anti-Obama conservatives why they call him such names as the ones I've just posted above. None of them have ever really told me why (e.g. Why is President Obama Anti-American? Why is he Angry? Why... You get it) My conservative right wing friend finally broke down and told me that he's called President Obama all those names. Apart from some issues he disagrees on Obama with, he has no idea why him and others call Obama such hateful names and are so often mean spirited towards him for no reason or trivial reasons besides political ones. President Obama is just like any other Democrat and liberal ever elected President of the U.S.A. except for his skin color, being born into a newly incorporated state off the mainland USA and living in Indonesia as a child as well as family background (Americans often have complex family backgrounds with different nationalities marrying each other as well as interracial marriages and interfaith ones, sometimes a combination of the two taking place)
I would guess that racism comes into play and change i.e. progress in society as well as dealing with people who strongly are traditionalists, have never had any non-white friends, are uneducated on many issues in many areas of life and ignorant of reality as well Not to mention, again, racist, bigoted and hateful views of those different from them and the propaganda and rhetoric they read from extreme right wing websites, books and personality's on TV, the internet, print and radio which mainly runs and is fueled by fear and conspiracy theories and mainly lies and fiction about liberals and Democrats and those different from them.
Something to think about.
They are racist in thinking that every black or bi-racial person looks angry all the time. They often repeat the same hateful (and sometimes) racist, bigoted, and ignorant filth without knowing why and can not answer why. Example: I've asked anti-Obama conservatives why they call him such names as the ones I've just posted above. None of them have ever really told me why (e.g. Why is President Obama Anti-American? Why is he Angry? Why... You get it) My conservative right wing friend finally broke down and told me that he's called President Obama all those names. Apart from some issues he disagrees on Obama with, he has no idea why him and others call Obama such hateful names and are so often mean spirited towards him for no reason or trivial reasons besides political ones. President Obama is just like any other Democrat and liberal ever elected President of the U.S.A. except for his skin color, being born into a newly incorporated state off the mainland USA and living in Indonesia as a child as well as family background (Americans often have complex family backgrounds with different nationalities marrying each other as well as interracial marriages and interfaith ones, sometimes a combination of the two taking place)
I would guess that racism comes into play and change i.e. progress in society as well as dealing with people who strongly are traditionalists, have never had any non-white friends, are uneducated on many issues in many areas of life and ignorant of reality as well Not to mention, again, racist, bigoted and hateful views of those different from them and the propaganda and rhetoric they read from extreme right wing websites, books and personality's on TV, the internet, print and radio which mainly runs and is fueled by fear and conspiracy theories and mainly lies and fiction about liberals and Democrats and those different from them.
Something to think about.
Friday, June 1, 2012
More Proof That President Obama is an American
Such as this, which applies to Obama I would think:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1401The following shall be nationals and citizens of the United States at birth:
(a) a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof;
(b) a person born in the United States to a member of an Indian, Eskimo, Aleutian, or other aboriginal tribe: Provided, That the granting of citizenship under this subsection shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of such person to tribal or other property;
(c) a person born outside of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents both of whom are citizens of the United States and one of whom has had a residence in the United States or one of its outlying possessions, prior to the birth of such person;
(d) a person born outside of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is a citizen of the United States who has been physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of one year prior to the birth of such person, and the other of whom is a national, but not a citizen of the United States;
(e) a person born in an outlying possession of the United States of parents one of whom is a citizen of the United States who has been physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of one year at any time prior to the birth of such person;
(f) a person of unknown parentage found in the United States while under the age of five years, until shown, prior to his attaining the age of twenty-one years, not to have been born in the United States;
(g) a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than five years, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years: Provided, That any periods of honorable service in the Armed Forces of the United States, or periods of employment with the United States Government or with an international organization as that term is defined in section 288 of title 22 by such citizen parent, or any periods during which such citizen parent is physically present abroad as the dependent unmarried son or daughter and a member of the household of a person
(A) honorably serving with the Armed Forces of the United States, or
(B) employed by the United States Government or an international organization as defined in section 288 of title 22, may be included in order to satisfy the physical-presence requirement of this paragraph. This proviso shall be applicable to persons born on or after December 24, 1952, to the same extent as if it had become effective in its present form on that date; and
(h) a person born before noon (Eastern Standard Time) May 24, 1934, outside the limits and jurisdiction of the United States of an alien father and a mother who is a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, had resided in the United States.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Conservatives without Conscience
From the book Conservatives without Conscience:
"This section is largely based on a series of books by Bob Altemeyer: Right-Wing Authoritarianism (1981), Enemies of Freedom (1988), and The Authoritarian Specter (1996) (pp. 54-55):
Altemeyer's data provides additional information about the dispositions of right-wing authoritarians. Here are a few examples that provide further perspective. These have not been deliberately isolated as negative characteristics; rather, they are traits that authoritarians believe to be positive:
They travel in tight circles of like-minded people.
Their thinking is more likely based on what authorities have told them rather than on their own critical judgment, which results in their beliefs being filled with inconsistencies.
They harbor numerous double standards and hypocrisies.They are hostile toward so many minorities they seem to be equal-opportunity bigots, yet they are generally unaware of their prejudices.
They see the world as a dangerous place, with society teetering on the brink of self-destruction from evil and violence, and when their fear conflates with their self-righteousness, they appoint themselves guardians of public morality, or God's Designated Hitters.
They think of themselves as far more moral and upstanding than others -- a self-deception aided by their religiosity (many are "born again") and their ability to "evaporate guilt" (such as by going to confession).
It is authoritarian followers who filled churches across the United States on "Justice Sunday" to lobby for right-wing judges in federal courts; who can be seen on C-Span seated at dinner tables, after paying ten times the cost of their meals, to listen to Bill Frist or Karl Rove give a speech at the Federalist Society; who are the well-scrubbed young people who join college Republican clubs, whose parents or grandparents are delegates at GOP presidential conventions. By and large these Americans have never been troubled by the execution of a prisoner, and there has never been a war in which the United States engaged that they did not support."
See here:
http://www.tomhull.com/ocston/books/dean-conservatives.php
"This section is largely based on a series of books by Bob Altemeyer: Right-Wing Authoritarianism (1981), Enemies of Freedom (1988), and The Authoritarian Specter (1996) (pp. 54-55):
Altemeyer's data provides additional information about the dispositions of right-wing authoritarians. Here are a few examples that provide further perspective. These have not been deliberately isolated as negative characteristics; rather, they are traits that authoritarians believe to be positive:
They travel in tight circles of like-minded people.
Their thinking is more likely based on what authorities have told them rather than on their own critical judgment, which results in their beliefs being filled with inconsistencies.
They harbor numerous double standards and hypocrisies.They are hostile toward so many minorities they seem to be equal-opportunity bigots, yet they are generally unaware of their prejudices.
They see the world as a dangerous place, with society teetering on the brink of self-destruction from evil and violence, and when their fear conflates with their self-righteousness, they appoint themselves guardians of public morality, or God's Designated Hitters.
They think of themselves as far more moral and upstanding than others -- a self-deception aided by their religiosity (many are "born again") and their ability to "evaporate guilt" (such as by going to confession).
It is authoritarian followers who filled churches across the United States on "Justice Sunday" to lobby for right-wing judges in federal courts; who can be seen on C-Span seated at dinner tables, after paying ten times the cost of their meals, to listen to Bill Frist or Karl Rove give a speech at the Federalist Society; who are the well-scrubbed young people who join college Republican clubs, whose parents or grandparents are delegates at GOP presidential conventions. By and large these Americans have never been troubled by the execution of a prisoner, and there has never been a war in which the United States engaged that they did not support."
See here:
http://www.tomhull.com/ocston/books/dean-conservatives.php
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Happy 95th Birthday JFK !
Add a great quote I found via Tumblr:
“If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal”, then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.” — John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born 95 years ago today. (via think-progress)
Well said Jack.
“If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal”, then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.” — John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born 95 years ago today. (via think-progress)
Well said Jack.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Happy Memorial Day 2012
God bless all of our troops and keep them safe.
“Heroism is latent in every human soul. However humble or unknown, they (the veterans) have renounced what are accounted pleasures and cheerfully undertaken all self-denials; privations, toils, dangers, sufferings, sicknesses, mutilations, life-long hurts and losses, death itself ? For some great good, dimly seen but dearly held.”| — | Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain |
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Monday, April 30, 2012
Hitler Dead, World War 2 Ends on This Date April 30th 1945
“On this day in 1945, holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in Berlin, Adolf Hitler commits suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. Soon after, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces, ending Hitler’s dreams of a “1,000-year” Reich.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Regarding The Trayvon Martin Case
cognitivedissonance:
Anonymous asked you:
Meg at Cognitive Dissonance:
Yes.
Yes, I have lots of links, info, and outrage.
awaiting a trial hearing. I've heard that Zimmerman also wanted to speak with
Trayvon's parents for some reason, maybe to apologize hopefully and ask for
forgiveness and mercy from them for killing their 17 year old son.
Anonymous asked you:
2012-03-27 11:11
Meg, I really need your help. Do you have links to the Trayvon Martin murder concerning the smear back-lash by certain right-wing outlets? A point-by-point dismantling of this blatantly false and blatantly racist “evidence” would be much appreciated for certain people in my social circle. I like how when the media actually reports on cases like this, the right-wingers call it “manufactured sensationalism”
Meg at Cognitive Dissonance:
Yes.
Yes, I have lots of links, info, and outrage.
Update: Zimmerman was arrested this month, April 2012 and is currently in jailFirst, I’m getting sick of the new meme regarding the media “ignoring” the “black on black” violence. Bernie Goldberg insists if both men were black, we wouldn’t know the name Trayvon Martin. He’s probably right. Why?Just wanted to add, while the police failed to run a drug and alcohol test on Zimmerman, they managed to test Trayvon’s body and HE WAS CLEAN. NO DRUGS. Not an issue, not only because it doesn’t give Zimmerman anymore right to shoot an unarmed person, but also because there were NO DRUGS!!!!!
BECAUSE GEORGE ZIMMERMAN WOULD HAVE BEEN JAILED. No self-defense claim would have flown.
“What about all the dead black kids killed by other blacks?!” wails Heather Mac Donald of The National Review. I’m paraphrasing. Sort of:
Blacks commit 80 percent of all shootings in the city — as reported by the victims of and witnesses to those shootings — though they are but 23 percent of the population; whites commit 1.4 percent of all shootings, though they are 35 percent of the population. Add Hispanic shootings to the black tally, and you account for 98 percent of all of the city’s gun violence. In New York, as in big cities across the country, the face of violence is overwhelmingly black and Hispanic…Screw examining the systemic explanations — let’s just chide people for the “racial storyline” while claiming “the face of violence is overwhelmingly black and Hispanic” because THAT’S NOT WRONG AT ALL. Perhaps examining the unequal criminal justice system, the incarceration rate of minorities, the efforts expounded by police in investigations dependent upon the race of the victim and perpetrator, and interactions with police in minority neighborhoods can shed some light on these statistics.
[T]he racial storyline that has been imposed on the shooting does not fairly represent contemporary America. That storyline is not just wrong, it is dangerous, because it only feeds black alienation and anger. Family breakdown, not white racism, is the biggest impediment facing blacks today, producing such casualties as the 18-year-old gangbanger who fatally shot a 34-year-old mother picking up her child from school in Brownsville, Brooklyn, last October. Sharpton and the national media didn’t show up for that killing, just as they don’t for the thousands of other black-on-black killings each year.
Nah, let’s just throw some numbers out there about scary brown people.
On to the release of Trayvon Martin’s suspension from school for traces of marijuana in an empty plastic baggie in his backpack. First, if the police department did indeed leak this information (and they need to get their pipes checked - lots of leaks lately) they may have violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act [FERPA]. The information in a student’s educational record, including disciplinary record, is not to be revealed without written permission.
Before any conservative naysayers exclaim: “But Meg! It says on the government’s socialist website with ‘free’ information that they can release the record to law enforcement! What about the weed?!” — the AP is on it, confirming Trayvon Martin has no juvenile record. Oh, and these things called facts show white youths are more likely to abuse drugs than black youths but black students, particularly black male students, are much more likely to be suspended and referred to the juvenile system.
Of course, discussion of Trayvon’s maybe drug use fits nicely in with George Zimmerman’s claim he was suspicious and “on drugs or something.” The drug-crazed brown man is an old canard:
Straight from The New York Times in 1914 — the only way to deal with drugs in the black community is to lock up “irreclaimable” users. As for marijuana:
Brown people are getting your kids hooked. Lock ‘em up. Does any of this ring a bell?
None of the alleged drug use matters, though. Zimmerman is not a cop, even if he aspired to be one. He didn’t observe Martin selling or using drugs. He just thought he was suspicious and up to no good. Neighborhood Watch captains are told to not carry weapons, and call 911 to report crime — not to confront alleged perpetrators because they aren’t police. However, Zimmerman thought differently. From the Miami Herald:
The recent shooting raised troubling questions about whether the homeowners association knew its volunteer was armed with a Kel Tek 9mm semiautomatic handgun. Many residents — black and white — question Zimmerman’s judgment and wonder why he would have engaged the teenager at all.Since the beginning of the year, Zimmerman made 46 calls to police. His most frequent calls were to report “suspicious persons” — all of whom were black — including a skinny black male, about 7-9 years old. The Orlando Sentinel reports:
The answer may lie in police records, which show that 50 suspicious-person reports were called in to police in the past year at Twin Lakes. There were eight burglaries, nine thefts and one other shooting in the year prior to Trayvon’s death…
Many of the calls start the same way — Zimmerman mentions the recent rash of burglaries in the area and identifies himself as a member of the neighborhood watch.One of Zimmerman’s African American neighbors, Ibrahim Rashada, discussed his discomfort with Zimmerman’s zealotry in the Miami Herald:
“We’ve had a lot of break-ins in our neighborhood recently and I’m on the neighborhood watch,” Zimmerman said during one call. “There’s two suspicious characters at the gate of my neighborhood, I’ve never seen them before. I don’t know what they are doing. They are hanging out…loitering.”
That day, the “characters” are two black men in a white sedan, Zimmerman tells the dispatchers. An officer is sent to check out the call, but it’s unclear if anything suspicious was uncovered. Another time he calls to report two black teens who match the description of suspects in recent break-in, who his wife saw and identified for police.
[Rashada] does not walk around the neighborhood at all. “I fit the stereotype he emailed around,” he said… “So I thought, ‘Let me sit in the house. I don’t want anyone chasing me.’” For walks, he goes downtown. [Rashada’s wife] listened to her husband’s rationale, dropped her head, and cried.Zimmerman’s neighbors expressed frustration with police response and anger at his tactics. However, Zimmerman is not without his defenders:
Problems in the 6-year-old community started during the recession, when foreclosures forced owners to rent out to “low-lifes and gangsters,” said Frank Taaffe, a former neighborhood block captain.Oh, really? You know this black man was going to burglarize your house? In the neighborhood invaded by “low-lifes and gangsters” no less… Taaffe’s emerged as one of Zimmerman’s primarydefenders. There’s a lot of guilt by association and dredging up the supposed past in order to tarnish Treyvon Martin and black men in general.
“Just two weeks before this shooting, George called me at my girlfriend’s house to say he saw some black guy doing surveillance at my house, because I had a left a window open,” Taaffe said. “He thwarted a potential burglary of my house.”
You wanna play that game?
Let’s play.
Frank Taaffe said George Zimmerman is just like him and a likable guy. Well, Zimmerman and Taaffe appear to have more in common than a pathological distaste for young black males strolling their neighborhood. Taaffe was arrested for Battery, Felony Trespass, andDomesticViolence. He’s also the respondent in multiplecivil cases filed for non-support of children, “repeatviolence,” and DomesticViolence from as far back as 1983, and as recentlyas 2008.
Zimmerman was arrested for domestic violence, resisting an officer with violence, battery on a law enforcement officer, and resisting an officer without violence. His father, a retired judge, insists his son is a good boy. These two men are smearing all people of color as “thugs,” “low-lifes,” and “gangsters.” Again, Trayvon Martin has no arrest record. None. But he’s a “thug.”
Certain elements stand alone. After being told not to pursue Martin by 911 operators, warned not to be armed as a neighborhood watch captain, muttering “these assholes always get away” and a racial slur, instigating a confrontation with an unarmed man, and shooting that unarmed man dead, George Zimmerman is still free and still armed. Witnesses state Zimmerman loudly reassured people it was “self-defense” and set his gun on the ground after shooting Martin. In fact, the lead investigator did not buy Zimmerman’s story, and wanted him charged with manslaughter.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who signed the controversial “Stand Your Ground” law in 2005 said this is not the proper application of the law. Bush said, “Stand your ground means stand your ground. It doesn’t mean chase after somebody who’s turned their back.” Like Zimmerman did.
Bush is not the only conservative to speak out. Columnist and commentator George Will said the law, “Tries to codify a right of self-defense that really confers upon citizens the illusion of these, that they have powers exercised by highly-trained police officers. Mr. Zimmerman says he was acting under this self-defense law, but he is said to have been recorded saying he pursued the person. You cannot be in pursuit and acting in self-defense.” Like Zimmerman.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. even chimed in and said, “We all know there’s a racial component to this, and when the president highlights it, I don’t think it adds a whole lot. But nobody suggests that the president’s insensitive to the 17-year-old if he’d been white. I think the criticism by our guys was a little off-base.”
But it’s not about race, right? The fake photosoriginating from neo-Nazi sites, smearingTrayvonMartin’sname, calling him a thug via his alleged Twitter — that’s not about race, it’s perspective. Attempting to link Trayvon Martin and President Obama to the New Black Panthers isn’t about race, either. It’s not about race or politics when conservative site The Washington Free Beacon loudly proclaims “REGISTERED DEM KILLED TRAYVON” and “guns don’t kill people, Dems do.” And we should feel sorry for Zimmerman because in many ways, “George has lost his life, too.”
No. That would be Trayvon Martin. He’s the one who lost his life. You know, the one armed with Skittles, not a Kel-Tec 9 mm handgun.
Conservative blogger Dan Riehl writes the outrage is the fault of black leaders — not the guy who fired the gun. Seriously: “Said leaders, I use the term loosely, seem only interested in fueling outrage and a mob mentality for political gain. It’s sad to see so many black Americans still falling for it after so many decades. Their minds haven’t been freed, all that’s changed is the owners of the plantation. Too many would be black leaders are too happy to lead them down a path through a cotton field of ignorance and hate ending at the ballot box, before just going on and on with no real end in sight.” Disgusting.
Riehl also claims Obama is leading a “lynch mob” against Zimmerman since the Obama campaign sells hoodies. No word if Mitt Romney is also leading the mob with his fashionable “Believe in America” and logo zip-up and pullover hoodies:
Angry Black Lady rips Riehl (and others) apart on her site, Angry Black Lady Chronicles. And rightly so. Black men are persistently stereotyped as dangerous, hoodie-wearing thugs, even though crime rates among black youth have fallen to record lows. Trayvon Martin’s crime appears to be “Walking while black” — a crime Bernie Goldberg or Dan Riehl will never be accused of, thanks to white privilege. Tommy Christopher writes:
This is the essence of the oft-misunderstood term “white privilege,” which is that even the least fortunate among us take for granted things that black people cannot. These don’t feel like privileges, because they’re really not, they are things that ought not be denied to anyone. It doesn’t feel like a privilege to catch a taxicab, or to walk around a store without being constantly watched and shadowed, or not to fear that any encounter with police could escalate to lethality… or to send your child to the store for a snack, confident he’ll return home without being mistaken for an imaginary criminal.The murder of Trayvon Martin must spark a national conversation and one that must include people of color, for precisely the reasons outlined by Christopher. His fellow Mediaite columnist, Frances Martel, said, “[O]ur broken criminal justice system isn’t a black problem. It’s an American problem.” Until we acknowledge the existence of institutionalized racism, in a system serving liberty and justice for some, and then commit to real reform, Trayvon Martin will not be the last “suspicious person” gunned down for wearing nothing more than dark skin.
I hope this answers your question.
Cheers,
Meg
Note: This case is tragic and George Zimmerman, the killer, must be dealt with by law accordingly.
awaiting a trial hearing. I've heard that Zimmerman also wanted to speak with
Trayvon's parents for some reason, maybe to apologize hopefully and ask for
forgiveness and mercy from them for killing their 17 year old son.
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