Thursday, October 31, 2013

David's country is taking shape.

The lazy and sheep like media types in this country have been beating us over the head over the past few weeks about the shortcomings of the ACA. (Obamacare)

If you believe everything you hear from these folks, people are being kicked out of their current plans left and right, and the "evil government" is making the health care system worse, not better, here in America.

Every day we hear a new story about some poor ordinary Joe who will be kicked out of his current health plan, and was subjected to "sticker shock" when he saw how much he will have to pay for one of the Obamacare plans.

These anecdotal stories make for good sound bites and echo chamber nods of approval, but this is far from the norm. I suspect that they all know this but they also know that  "passive consumers" won't question them or do a little research.

If they did, they would realize that behind some of these stories are folks like Ian Hodge.

"For Ian Hodge, 63, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the issue is all about getting the same care from the same doctors. When he learned his policy was canceled his reaction was “surprise and disgust,” he said.
Hodge said he tried 10 times to get information about a new policy on Oct. 1, the day the online federal exchange went live. He’s still trying to figure out his options, he said in a telephone interview.
“The website is not very clear,” Hodge said. “I’m concerned about being able to get affordable health care that’s at least as good as what I had previously.”New Coverage 
Hodge and his wife Sara, who also is 63, paid $1,041.85 a month for a plan offered by Highmark, he said. They like the care, their hospital and the doctors, and they worry they won’t be able to keep them under a new plan. 
“I had heard the repeated assurances by the president and people who work for him that if you have health insurance, don’t worry, you’ll be able to keep your health insurance,” Hodge said in a telephone interview. “Well, that’s clearly not true. I wasn’t allowed to keep my health insurance.”
So, this is just an average Joe getting screwed over by Obamacare.  Or is he?  Let's do some digging on the Google.  

The first thing I find is a LinkedIn profile describing Ian as an Independent Financial Professional with a degree in Political Science from Penn.  OK, a degree in Political Science doesn't necessarily mean you aren't an average Joe.
The next thing I see is information about Ian's home, valued at $481,500 on a three acre lot.  That's nice, but nothing extraordinary.

Next, I found an article from 2012 about a political flap about Ian's appointment to the township planning commission.
Manheim Township Commissioner J. Michael Flanagan wondered out loud during Monday's meeting whether the appointment of township resident Ian Hodge to Manheim Township's planning commission was politically motivated.
and later,
Flanagan said during Monday's meeting that Hodge, a frequent critic of township spending in recent years, donated money to Heck and Kling's campaign last year, when the duo were running for commissioners' seats as a team.
Ok, it seems like Ian is politically active.  That doesn't mean he can't be an average Joe.

Then I found a website of the Republican Committee of Lancaster County.  On this page are listed the 2013 Republican Committee endorsed candidates.  And near the bottom is our friend Ian, now running for Manheim Township Commissioner.  

Ian is not an average Joe.  Ian is a Republican candidate for local office.  That has some relevance to Ian's quotes in the Bloomberg article.  I don't know about the facts Ian quotes, but his surprise, disgust, concern and worry could be politically motivated, don't you think?  Couldn't Ian's run for office have been mentioned in the Bloomberg story?  This is journalism missing the mark, at the very least.

But, then I kept looking.  This isn't the first time Ian has been quoted in a news article.  In Lancaster Online from September 24, "Thousands of Highmark insurance customers in Central Pa. face cancellationsManheim Township man must shop for new policy
Hodge, of Manheim Township, said the letter surprised him. "They're canceling my policy," he said. "That's not something that was supposed to happen under Obamacare."
That article doesn't mention his run for office either, even though it is a local media outlet.

One could naively think that Mr. Hodge just happened to be contacted by two media outlets for his views.  I like to think Mr. Hodge has been contacting reporters, pushing his story.  Evidently, when a reporter is offered a money quote out of the blue, he or she may just run with it.  And that's why I like to Google news articles."

I am not mad at the right. They are doing whatever they can to win the propaganda war. There is a lot of money and power at stake. There is the potential for such a large fundamental shift in how health care services are delivered here in America, that I am quite sure some people are going to do everything in their powers to make sure that it doesn't happen.

You would think that journalist in this country would be talking about the poor children who are going to go hungry because republicans saw fit to vote to cut the food from their dinner tables. The candy and goodies that they get from trick or treating tonight can only go so far. At some point mommy and daddy will have to go grocery shopping. (Did I mention that taking food from children will also hurt the economy ?)

The beauty of being an elected politician who earns over $170,000.00 per year is that you will never have to worry about depending on the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) program or any other program that the government has to offer. This makes it easy for you to look down on the little poor people from your D.C. bubble and tell them how pathetic they are because they haven't been as fortunate as you are in life.

I will leave you with the words of republican representative, Steve Fincher:

"quoting a Bible passage, "Anyone unwilling to work should not eat."

It gets worse.

"Fincher, it should be noted, has collected millions in farm subsidies. Assistance is good enough for him, a person in power, but far be it from the little man to receive their meager SNAP benefits in order to feed their families." [Source]

Kids, don't eat all the goodies tonight. I suspect that you will need some of them soon.











Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Even Klansmen have their angels.

Talk about a moral dilemma. Do you save a man's life, who, if the script was flipped, would not do the same for you? Or, do you let an angry mob give him the beating that he so clearly deserves?

That's the situation Keshia Thomas was faced with back in 1996 when the klan decided to march among a group of protesters in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

"When people are in a crowd they are more likely to do things they would never do as an individual. Someone had to step out of the pack and say, 'This isn't right....' “

To get an idea what Ms. Thomas had to go through, just look at the pictures in this post.

No doubt this was a profile in courage, and this young lady deserves a special shout out for letting her humanity shine through. Honestly, I can't say that I would have done the same thing.

"She put herself at physical risk to protect someone who, in my opinion, would not have done the same for her," he said. "Who does that in this world?"

Thomas, who had previously experienced violence, says that the man did not deserve to be attacked.

“Nobody deserves to be hurt, especially not for an idea."

She has never met the man she protected again, but months later a young man approached her in coffee shop and thanked her. When she asked what he was thanking her for, his reply was simple.

“That was my dad.” [Source]

At least the man's son had the decency to thank Ms. Thomas for literally saving his father's life. I wonder what happened to the father. He must have lost all of his white supremacist cred when he put himself in a situation which caused a black woman to have to save his life.

How do you explain that to the boyz back under the hood?

"I saw that n****r woman pulling you away from the crowd. What the hell happened to you?"

*Awkward*

If the klansman is dead, hopefully he made peace with his maker before he checked out. If he is still alive, he needs to realize that it's not too late.

*Pictures from the New York Daily News.










Tuesday, October 29, 2013

"Play that funky music white boy"

"Yeah, they was dancin' and singin' and movin' to the groovin'
And just when it hit me somebody turned around and shouted
Play that funky music white boy
Play that funky music right
Play that funky music white boy
Lay down the boogie and play that funky music till you die"


I am not going to front; some of the most soulful music I have ever heard came from the mouths of white artists. Please don't tell me that you can't close your eyes and picture folks like Tina Marie, Simply Red, Michael McDonald, or Phoebe Snow being black. Because if you did say that you would be lying.

Which is why I am not feeling what the folks at Hampshire College did to the boys in a little known band called Shokazoba. OK, the name sucks, but if the fellows can jam why in the name of Phil Collins are they being discriminated against?

 "There's still big noise at little Hampshire College after the school pulled the plug on a band's appearance at a Halloween event for being, as one band member put it, "too white." Shokazoba keyboard player James Moses said a group of 30 or so Hampshire students complained to the party's organizers about the Afrobeat band's predominantly white makeup, and a college spokeswoman acknowledged the critics were concerned about "cultural appropriation and the need to respect marginalized cultures." As online debate intensified and grew ugly, the school canceled the gig and paid off the band.."

Not cool. "Cultural appropriation" and "respecting marginalized cultures" has no place when it comes to the boogie. Jamming is universal. If you are a white boy and can get your funk on by all means go at it. Just don't water down the funk or suck at playing it.

Now, to be honest, I have never listened to Shokazoba , but apparently neither did the students at Hampshire College. They should have given them a chance. Judging their level of funkiness based simply on their racial makeup is just wrong. Music is universal.

I remember, as a kid, hearing Tyrone Downie telling my cousin how the Wailers would play sold out shows in Europe and that the only people who were supporting them were white folks. He said that they would "cum a foreign" (play in the United States) and sadly they could count the black folks in the audience on one hand. The reality is that if it wasn't for my friends on the white side showing love for reggae music; Bob Marley probably would not hold the iconic status he now enjoys in the world of popular culture.  

"..Moses said the organizing students blamed the band for increasing tensions. "It was just absolutely a disgusting experience," he said. "It felt like we were demonized."

Let's book these boys at the Apollo as a gesture of kindness from black folks.

James, if you and the boys do happen to get the gig, you just better not suck. [Source]
     

Monday, October 28, 2013

The potato gun affair.

The latest piece of red meat for the black helicopter crowd was thrown by one Audrey Hudson. Audrey is a wingnut journalist (that's an oxymoron, I know, but play along with me) who peddles her craft to wingnut websites and newspapers.

Anyway, Audrey says that the feds raided her home on a flimsy warrant for a potato gun, and they took "sensitive documents" which could compromise her sources.

"...And Hudson didn’t even know they confiscated the files until a month later when whey called her to let her know she could pick them up.
Hudson told Carslon it was “clearly intimidation” and was worried about her sources and the kind of precedent this raid set.
“I needed to let my sources know they could have been compromised,” “I want to make sure this doesn’t happen to another reporter, because we can’t just have the government coming into your house on a minor warrant and walk out with whatever files they please from our work product.” [Source]
Now, as is to be expected, all of wingnutland is not pleased. "OBAMA GESTAPO RAIDS REPORTER'S HOME" they scream from the their blogs. And over at the television and online version of  Der Stürmer, they have given her an audience to talk about what the evil Socialist in chief and his regime are doing to this poor little reporter.

What happened to her reads like every god- fearing, gun loving, wingnuts, nightmare.

 "Audrey Hudson’s husband had just left for work on August 6 when suddenly, her dog began barking. The nationally-known journalist walked over to the curtains and peeked outside to discover her Chesapeake Bay home was surrounded by law enforcement officers wearing full body armor.
The phone rang. It was her husband.

“I’m in the driveway,” he said. “The police are here. Open the door.”

I need a break!

I did a little more digging, and this is what I found out about Audrey and her dear husband-- from a wingnut site no less.

"Flashback: Hudson’s husband was found guilty of “resisting arrest in 1986.” Yes, 1986! It is illegal for him to have a weapon in his home. The search warrant called for confiscation of all weapons and nothing else.
After the search began, Hudson said she was asked by an investigator with the Coast Guard Investigative Service if she was the same Audrey Hudson who had written a series of critical stories about air marshals for The Washington Times over the last decade. The Coast Guard operates under the Department of Homeland Security.
Hudson said that investigator, Miguel Bosch, identified himself as a former air marshal official.
 
There is more about Hudson’s husband, Paul Flanagan and guns and a fearsome Swedish “potato launcher” (he owns a golf ball launcher) in the three-page piece at Daily Caller.  SWAT walked out of the house with weapons belonging to and legally registered to Hudson. I find nothing saying Flanagan is under arrest for illegal possession of firearms, but Hudson has lost her Second Amendment rights via her marriage.
They did, however, confiscate small arms belonging to Mrs. Hudson that she had legally registered with the Maryland State Police as far back as 2005.
 The search warrant allowed for the weapons to be confiscated, and Mrs. Hudson says the agents told her that because her husband had pled guilty to a resisting arrest charge nearly 30 years ago, she was not allowed to possess the guns under state law. The guns she owned were for recreational shooting, she says, as well as for security concerns resulting from many of her investigations. Source: Washington Times" [Source]

It's funny when you read behind the lines and get around all the wingnut spin how easy it is to find the truth.

 Audrey Hudson did have those guns illegally in the state of Maryland, and so it seems that those agents had every right to search her home.

And let's not forget another little thing:

"Agents took Hudson’s records during a search for guns and related items owned by her husband, a civilian Coast Guard employee. They also confiscated her legally registered firearms.."

Yes, that's right, Audrey's husband is a civilian Coast Guard employee, and the story says that the matter was being investigated by the Coast Guard Investigative Service. It looks to me like my man has been running off at the mouth to his co-workers.

 “This really can’t stand,...... You cannot come into a journalist’s home under false pretenses with a bogus warrant and just waltz out with confidential files.” 

Oh please! It stands every day in cities all around you. Average citizens get their co called Constitutional rights trampled on every day for activities that are way less suspicious. Why should you be any different?

"Come one Field, because she is a journalist"

No she isn't. She is a wingnut propagandist.

Anyway, maybe now she will dedicate her writing skills to focus on the injustice those people I mentioned feel at the hands of their government.

Oh wait....that will never happen; she is a wingnut. If the anger and consternation isn't focused on Obama there really is nothing to write about.

Got it.    











  

Sunday, October 27, 2013

No treats for these tricksters.

The fall of the American Empire will not be caused by a Socialist government, or, for that matter, the browning of our population.

What will ultimately cause our downfall is the stupidity of our citizens.

Take for instance the clowns who chose to make Halloween costumes out of a national tragedy.

"Today's REALLY? Halloween costume comes to us from a tipster by way of Quincy, MA where some brainiacs decided to slap on some blackface and dress up as George Zimmerman shooting a bloody Trayvon Martin.
 
The pictures are just starting to circulate online, and the girl who posted the photo has already deleted the photo from her Facebook account and her Instagram. The men in the photograph, on the other hand, are still active on social media. Until this morning, the man dressed as George Zimmerman had set it as his profile photo; he changed it and locked his photos sometime overnight.
 
None of the three pictured have made a public comment about the photo yet.
It's not clear if the woman's costume was intended to be part of the joke; but her costume is sold online as "Robyn da Hood". [Source]
 
Of course we always knew that blackface was all the rage with college kids at their parties. But now it seems like it has become in vogue during Halloween as well.

Poor Julianne Hough didn't get the memo that it's never cool to go with the blackface look. Even during Halloween. The poor child had to take to Twitter to issue a public apology. Unfortunately for Julianne when you are famous and do dumb stuff you can't hide.

 “I am a huge fan of the show Orange is the New black, actress Uzo Aduba, and the character she has created. It certainly was never my intention to be disrespectful or demeaning to anyone in any way. I realize my costume hurt and offended people and I truly apologize.”

You are forgiven Julianne. You are just another clueless American who never bothered to read or try to understand the history of the country of your birth. If you did, you would have realized the ugly and shameful history that this type of behavior represents.

 
 
 



Saturday, October 26, 2013

"White Girl Bleed a Lot". And so do black boys.

"One of the reasons for being glad to be as old as I am is that I may be spared living to see a race war in America. Race wars are often wars in which nobody wins and everybody ends up much worse off than they were before.

Initial skirmishes in that race war have already begun, and have in fact been going on for some years. But public officials pretend that it is not happening, and the mainstream media seldom publish it at all, except in ways that conceal what is really taking place.

For American society, a dangerous polarization has set in. Signs of this polarization over the years include opposite reactions between blacks and whites to the verdict in the O. J. Simpson murder case, the “rape” charges against Duke University students, and the trials resulting from the beating of Rodney King and the death of Trayvon Martin.

More dangerous than these highly publicized episodes over the years are innumerable organized and unprovoked physical attacks on whites by young black gangs in shopping malls, on beaches, and in other public places all across the country today.

While some of these attacks make it into the media as isolated incidents, the nationwide pattern of organized black-on-white attacks by thugs remains invisible in the mainstream media, with the notable exception of Bill O’Reilly on the Fox News Channel.

Even when these attacks are accompanied by shouts of anti-white rhetoric and exultant laughter at the carnage, the racial makeup of the attackers and their victims is usually ignored by the media, and public officials often deny that race has anything to do with what happened.

These attacks have sent many people to the hospital, and some victims have died, but the attacks are often carried out in a festive atmosphere. What are called “troubled youths,” in this and other contexts, are often in fact young people enjoying themselves greatly by creating big trouble for others.
Some of these many attacks are covered in detail in a book titled White Girl Bleed a Lot, by Colin Flaherty. It was a phrase that I recognized immediately from my own previous research.

That phrase was uttered by one of a group of black attackers who descended on a group of whites at a July 4th fireworks show in Milwaukee. But what happened there was not unique, either in itself or in the efforts of police and political authorities to downplay what happened — and to say that race had nothing to do with it.

When the Chicago Tribune was criticized for editing out the race of the attackers in a series of similar organized attacks in Chicago, it replied that race was irrelevant. Yet race is not considered irrelevant when indignantly editorializing on a disproportionate number of young black males arrested and imprisoned.
Sadly, what happened in Milwaukee and Chicago were not isolated incidents. They were part of a pattern repeated in dozens of cities, in every region of the country. Colin Flaherty’s book, which is subtitled “The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It,” reveals this pattern in painful detail.
Other books are emerging that are more clearly a white backlash, in the sense that they attack behavior patterns among contemporary blacks in general.

Perhaps the most clearly “backlash” books are those written by Paul Kersey, whose central theme is that whites have created thriving cities, which blacks subsequently took over and ruined. Examples include his books about Birmingham (The Tragic City) and Detroit (Escape from Detroit).

Kersey even takes a swing at Rush Limbaugh (and at yours truly) for saying that liberal policies destroyed these cities. He says that San Francisco and other cities with liberal policies, but without black demographic and political takeovers, have not been ruined. His books are poorly written, but they raise tough questions.

It would be easy to simply dismiss Kersey as a racist. But denouncing him or ignoring him is not refuting him. Refuting requires thought, which has largely been replaced by fashionable buzzwords and catchphrases when it comes to discussions of race.

Thought is long overdue. So is honesty." [Source]

That was Thomas Sowell, writing about, and apologizing, for black on white people. He did so under the guise of reviewing a book called "White Girls Bleed a Lot" written by a man named Colin Flaherty. (Mr. Flaherty recently sent me an e-mail asking me to promote his book. I am a sucker, because with this article it seems that I am doing just that.) 

I call bull s**t.

Unfortunately, America is a violent place, people are going to be violent towards each other. And, sadly, it is usually people of the same race (and family) committing acts of violence against each other. To try and make it look as if black folks have suddenly become violent towards only white people is ludicrous and disingenuous. It's fear mongering and demagoguery to make a point: That blacks are violent sub human predators. (I wonder if Thomas Sowell looked in the mirror lately.)

Here is the deal, no matter how violent some young black punks act and wild out towards groups of white people--or a single white individual, it will never make up for all the violence that was practiced against people of color throughout this nation's history. So spare me the isolated (and high profile) incidents of horror.

There have been over 200 murders in Philly this year, and I am quite sure that I can count the cases of black on white murders on one hand.

Thomas Sowell and Paul Kersey are one and the same. The tragedy is that Sowell doesn't even realize it. Or, even sadder, maybe he does.
 

Friday, October 25, 2013

Best black friends and "baby shakers."

"Not all republicans are racists, but all racists are republicans".

We have all heard that saying before, and lately it seems that republicans are trying their best to make it true.

Take our friend Don Yelton, the former republican party chairman from North Carolina.

Don got himself in some trouble lately for publicly stating what we know many of his ideological mates say privately. Dude was on Comedy Central, but there was nothing funny about his comments.

"Mr. Yelton – who until Thursday was a precinct chairman in North Carolina’s Buncombe County – talked with “Daily Show” correspondent Aasif Mandvi about a new state law that requires photo identification to vote. Civil rights advocates charge that such laws are intended to suppress minority votes.                                                                                                           
                                     
Asked if he was a racist, Yelton paused, then said he’d “been called a bigot before.”

“As a matter of fact, one of my best friends is black,” he added.

Things went downhill from there. Yelton told "The Daily Show” correspondent that he’d had a caricature of President Obama dressed as a witch doctor sitting on a stump, but that the drawing made fun of the president’s “white half, not his black half.” (Mr. Obama’s mother was white, his father black.) He complained that blacks could use the N-word, but not whites. Only he didn’t say “N-word”; he said the word itself.

“You know we can hear you, right?” Mr. Mandvi said in the on-camera interview.
Yelton went on to say that the photo ID law would “kick Democrats in the butt.”
“If [the photo ID law] hurts the whites, so be it. If it hurts a bunch of lazy blacks that want the government to give them everything, so be it,” Yelton said." [Source]

I would love to meet  Don's "black friend". No doubt one of those conservative Negroes.

Anyway, Don is not apologizing for his bigoted statements about black folks.

"In a Friday interview with WWNC’s The Pete Kaliner Show, disgraced North Carolina GOP precinct chair Don Yelton expressed no remorse over his racially-charged remarks on The Daily Show that led to his resignation.

Yelton drew the ire of his own colleagues after referring to “a bunch of lazy blacks” during an interview with Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi. He tendered his resignation as a result of the controversy and the state GOP publicly distanced itself from his remarks.
But is Yelton apologetic?

“No, I don’t take back anything I said,” he told Kaliner on Friday morning. “Would I do it again? Yes, I would.”

Yelton claimed the show “created an illusion that I was just personally had an agenda against the blacks, tried to make it talking about racism rather than the real issue of illegal voting.” He countered that narrative by claiming “I’ve hired blacks before” and that his “best friend is black.”

Unconvinced, Kaliner noted that “I don’t think anything that the show did through their editing made you look any worse than you made yourself look in that interview.”

“Well that’s your opinion,” Yelton dismissed.
“Was it worth it?” Kaliner repeatedly pressed.

“Yeah,” Yelton eventually conceded. “I found the truth. The truth is, [the GOP's] got no guts.” [Source]

He is unapologetic because he knows that his party, behind closed doors, believes that what he said is true.
 
He is calling them "gutless" because they won't own up, publicly.  
  
Finally, our friend Glenn Beck wants you to know that his family is not "white trash".
 
"Something disturbing happened to Glenn Beck's daughter in the hospital, where she'd just given birth to her first child. The disturbing thing? A nurse suggested that Hannah Beck was poor.
 
That's not what she said, exactly, because we use code words when we talk about groups we don't like. Here's Beck's news website, The Blaze, summarizing the story as Beck described it on his radio show on Thursday.
[T]he nurse proceeded to offer this bone-chilling advice to the new parents: "Look, don’t shake the baby or you’re going to end up on the news."

"I'm sorry, do my children look like baby shakers?" Beck demanded. "So my daughter is having her first breastfeeding experience, with, I don’t know, somebody who lost their heart or something. I don’t know. And everybody has a bad day, but you don’t do that job and have a bad day."
 "Oh, but then she has some advice for them. [menacing voice] 'Look. Don't shake the baby, or you're going to end up on the news.'

"I'm sorry. Do my children look like baby shakers? Do my children look like white trash?"


Here, via Glenn Beck's personal site is a photo of this daughter and her husband, indicated with arrows, at their upstate New York wedding last year. Do they look like baby shakers? Like white trash? You be the judge." [Source]

Nope, that would be the guy standing to the right.

Money can buy you a lot of things, but unfortunately for Glenn, class is not one of them
 

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Profiling spree, and hating to look at the President.

Here we go again, another young black person profiled in America for spending too much money.

"Four plainclothes cops accused a black woman of credit card fraud after the Brooklyn mom bought a $2,500 designer bag from Barneys — stoking a fresh round of outrage against the high-end store.

Kayla Phillips, 21, a nursing student from Canarsie, told the Daily News she had long coveted the orange suede Céline bag. Armed with a cash infusion from a tax return, she took her Bank of America debit card and headed to the Madison Ave. flagship store on Feb. 28.

Phillips made the purchase without incident but says she was surrounded by cops just three blocks away, at the Lexington Ave. and 59th St. subway station.
“There were three men and a woman,” she recalled. “Two of them attacked me and pushed me against a wall, and the other two appeared in front of me, blocking the turnstile.”

The cops started peppering her with questions and demanding to see her ID.

They were very rough,” said Phillips, who has filed a $5 million notice of claim with the city of her intention to sue the NYPD. “They kept asking me what I bought and saying, ‘Show us your card.’ I didn’t know what was happening.”
RELATED: HAMILL: IT'S BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR BARNEYS TO RACIALLY PROFILE

Phillips’ attorney, Kareem Vessup, says an additional civil rights lawsuit against the NYPD and Barneys is pending.

The 5 p.m. confrontation was eerily similar to a clash between cops and 19-year-old Trayon Christian, who filed a discrimination suit this week accusing Barneys and the NYPD of racially profiling him. Christian, who is black, alleged he was followed into the street by undercover cops and accused of fraud after he used his debit card to buy a $349 Ferragamo belt at Barneys on April 29.
The young Queens man was cuffed and taken to the 19th Precinct stationhouse, but released with no charges, his discrimination suit said. [Source]

Now don't get it twisted, I do not in any way condone this young lady dropping $2,500 on a handbag. I get the love some women have for a nice handbag (I see you Mrs. Field), but unless you have Oprah money, $2,500 is a bit much. In my very humble opinion.

Still, having said that, the decision by this young lady (and the young man who purchased the belt) should be questioned by her family and her conscience. It's not up to overzealous "color aroused" police officers and snooty store executives to decide if and how these young people should spend their money.

Finally, I am going to keep it real with you, I have no patience for my political enemies. If I were king they would all be first against the wall.
My loathing for right winnguts and their ilk is well documented.
 
That being said, I am not an elected politician, so I can get away with not  showing love to those who sit on a different ideological fence. Politicians do not have that luxury; they have  to at least pretend to like everybody.
 
This is what makes this latest story out of D.C. so interesting.
 
It involves claims that a politician from Texas came even closer to doing what we all have been predicting will happen one day. (If it didn't already.)  
 
The problem is, of course, like everything else in Washington, the facts are a little murky.
 
"U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin is standing by his allegation that a top Republican told President Barack Obama, “I cannot even stand to look at you" — even though Obama's top spokesman says flatly that it didn't happen.

"Senator Durbin stands by his comments," Durbin communications director Max Gleischman said in a statement a short time ago.

It's the latest surprise twist in a he-said/he-said spat that's been going on all day.

The Internet was abuzz this morning with a startling report from Durbin, the Illinois Democrat and second-ranking member of the Senate, who made the allegation on his Facebook page.

“Many Republicans searching for something to say in defense of the disastrous shutdown strategy will say President Obama just doesn't try hard enough to communicate with Republicans,” Durbin wrote. “But in a `negotiation' meeting with the president, one GOP House Leader told the president: 'I cannot even stand to look at you.'

“What are the chances of an honest conversation with someone who has just said something so disrespectful?”

It was a devastating tidbit, one that seemed to confirm a core Democratic narrative about Republican lack of civility toward Obama. Major online media sites and Twitter spread it far and wide. Progressive bloggers pounced.
But then, in just about the only twist that could be more startling than the original allegation, White House spokesman Jay Carney, when questioned about the alleged comment later in the day, said flatly that it never happened. [Source] 

Hmmm, I sure hope that O isn't covering for his political foes.
*
I am not sure if this story is true or not, although, given the alleged culprit, it's easy for me to believe that it is true. Just consider the alleged source and what he represents. Pete has color coordinated hoods in his closet.

"Oh come on Field, why the hyperbole? 'color coordinated hoods'?

Yes. And why is this such a stretch?

Consider the latest Southern republican tea party candidate to come off that good ole boy assembly line.

"Tea party candidate for U.S. Senate Chris McDaniel hopes to unseat current Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran (R) in the 2014 election. According to Mother Jones magazine, McDaniel addressed a neo-Confederate ball two months ago alongside speakers who called President Abraham Lincoln a “Marxist” and alleged that the “Birther” argument about the birthplace of President Barack Obama “hasn’t really been solved.”

In spite of the tea party’s historic unpopularity with the public at large, McDaniel is hoping to topple Cochran by attacking him as insufficiently loyal to the conservative cause and the values espoused by the tea party.

Cochran has received support from Washington think tank The Club for Growth and an endorsement from the Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee headed by Republican Senator turned Heritage Foundation director Jim DeMint (SC). Mother Jones‘ Tim Murphy marveled that the tea party is embracing a man who has advocated for secession and who consorts with groups and individuals who still maintain that the Confederates should have won the U.S. Civil War." [More]

Nope, not a stretch at all.

* Pic from The Grio








 
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Barneys misses a sale, and "if the hood fits".

Tonight my racism chase takes me to the island of Manhattan.

I don't care if you are the president of these divided states or just a hard working young black man, it's hard out here having to deal with the dreaded extreme color arousal syndrome.

"A 19-year-old college student from Queens says he was handcuffed and locked in a jail cell after buying a $350 designer belt at Barneys on New York's Madison Avenue because he is "a young black man."

Trayon Christian told NBC 4 New York on Wednesday that he saved up from a part-time job for weeks to buy a Salvatore Ferragamo belt at Barneys. 

When he went to the store to buy it in April, he says the checkout clerk asked to see his identification. After the sale went through and he left the store, he was approached by police about a block away, and asked "how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt," according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Officers hauled Christian to the local precinct, where he showed police his identification, as well as his debit card and the receipt for the belt, the lawsuit says.

 Police still believed Christian's identification was fake, and eventually called his bank, which verified it was his, according to the complaint. Christian, who has no prior arrests, was released.

 He told NBC 4 New York that questions were racing through his mind while he went through the painful experience of being handcuffed and taken to a cell.

 "Why me? I guess because I'm a young black man, and you know, people do a credit card scam so they probably thought that I was one of them," Christian said. "They probably think that black people don't have money like that."

He later returned the belt to Barneys because he says he "didn't want to have nothing to do with it."

He is suing the city and the luxury department store for unspecified damages as a result of "great physical and mental distress and humiliation." [Source]

Young man, I hope you win your lawsuit and get enough money to buy a thousand Ferragamo suits.

Finally, the right is upset with democratic congressman, Alan Grayson, who declared in no uncertain terms that the tea party and the KKK was pretty much the same thing. ("If the hood fits")

Over on Fox they are calling it race baiting. Pot meet kettle. Sean Hannity was beside himself with rage. He brought in one of his house Negro friends, Niger Innis (yes, that's his name) to cheer on his hypocritical rant.

Niger must have forgotten about Sean's friend, Hal Turner. But this is what house Negroes do, they go along to get along.

Anyway, I love this commentary from someone named Michelle (Obama) Gardner.

"I wonder if Hannity will ever invite his new colleague Ben Carson onto his show to discuss his long history of race baiting. So, its all fine and dandy when Carson (and the entire GOP for that matter) refer to Blacks Liberals as "slaves" and the Democratic Party as a "plantation" and Obamacare as the worst thing since slavery. Meanwhile, they're indignant at heated racial rhetoric coming from the left? Isn't referring to African Americans as slaves the height of racial insensitivity given the history????
 
Yet Republicans do it all the time, especially Black Republicans.
 
They lash out all the time at the Black community for rejecting them. So, rather than responding to that rejection like mature adults they whip out the slave references and hide behind their skin color to justify such irresponsible rhetoric. They then go on Conservative media and embarrass themselves further by repeating such nonsense amongst people who frankly already have misconceptions about the Black community. They get patted on the head for being "courageous" , "telling it like it is", "thinking for themselves", "not being PC", but primarily for saying what White conservatives think, but could never ever say.
 
What's more is that this type of thing doesn't happen with other groups. Think about it. Most Jews in this country are Democrats. Yet, Republicans wouldn't dare refer to Liberal Jews as having a "concentration camp" mentality or the Democratic Party as being a "concentration camp". Most importantly you couldn't pay a self-respecting, Conservative minded, Jewish person enough money to stand in front of CPAC, or Values Voters Summit, or a Christian Coalition Conference, or Faux Newz and say some crazy shyt like that!!!!
 
I have to wonder myself why black conservatives are always so angry."
 
I know why, they want a bigger house.  
 
 
 
 





Open thread.

Holla at me about some things.

Is Bansey's art real art?

Should the WH have fired datsecwonk?

Does the Oarfish mean earthquakes for SoCal?

Do the Koch brothers pay trolls?

Or anything else you have on your mind.



Monday, October 21, 2013

The math teacher is dead.

"To hear that he was trying to stop that is not surprising by any means," said his sister-in-law Chanda Landsberry.

She added his life could be summed up by his love of family, his students and his country."

Another day and yet  another school shooting in the NRA's America.

This one was in Nevada.

Soon the NRA will get their wish, people will be so afraid to send their children to school that they will support every teacher and school worker being strapped to the teeth.

Of course such a strategy would not work, but it would fit into their agenda of guns, guns, and more guns.

"As you can imagine, the best description is chaos," Robinson said. "It's too early to say whether he was targeting people or going on an indiscriminate shooting spree."

Does it even matter?

I am glad O acknowledged that his website for Obamacare isn't working like it should. He tried to spin it, but the fact that he held a presser to talk about it tells you all you need to know.

"Of course, you've probably heard that healthcare.gov, the new website where people can apply for health insurance and browse and buy affordable plans in most states, hasn't worked as smoothly as it was supposed to work, and the number of people who've visited the site has been overwhelming, which has aggravated some of these underlying problems."

Gee, ya think?

Now, of course, his opponents see an opening. I think every FOX television host and wingnut radio host has called the website to prove what a mess it is. And some folks in the media are in a state of hysteria about the rollout and they have declared that it will put Obamacare into a "death spiral". We will see.

My advice to real people who might need healthcare is this: Chill. You waited years for universal health care; you can wait a little longer for a bunch of tech geeks to get this website fixed.

"But Field, it's the government; nothing the government does ever works" 

I know, we get those social security checks every month courtesy of Wall Street.











 

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Hypocrite Greg, and rollout problems.

From the do as I say but not as I do department comes a Tea Party politician from out West.

The thing you have to understand about wingnuts is that they are very hypocritical. For instance, they will get up on their soap box and scream at the top of their lungs about those "blah" people in urban areas living off of the government, and yet......

''Greg Collett happily calls his political views 'extreme.' But he wasn't prepared for condemnation from his allies after word that all his home-schooled children are on Medicaid became an Internet sensation.

Collett, twice a candidate for the Idaho Legislature in Canyon County, isn't surprised he's been excoriated on left-wing websites including Gawker, BuzzFlash, Daily Kos and Americans Against the Tea Party.

But he's also heard criticism from those who share his anti-government views for having taxpayers foot medical bills for eight adopted and two biological children, ages 4 to 17.

In contrast, Collett and his wife, Kelly, say they will pay the fine rather than buy insurance for themselves under the Affordable Care Act.
   
I attracted all the attention of all the people who hate Republicans and the tea party, said Collett, a 41-year-old freelance software developer and University of Idaho alum. 'I've also attracted the attention of a lot of people in the liberty movement that don't want to see anybody on welfare.'

Things got so bad, Collett said, he had to clean up his Facebook account and remove contact information from his campaign website. "The level of hatred is just absolutely incredible," he said. "Messages on my website, emails, I've even had phone calls. It's been pretty intense."

Online comments have labeled Collett a hypocrite, moron, mentally unstable, immoral and unethical, along with frequently profane epithets. "He should have been sterilized years ago," said one.


Actually, fertility plays a role in the Colletts' story. For five years, they were foster parents. Both underwent fertility treatments. In the same year they adopted five children, they had their first biological child. Three more adoptions followed, then their youngest was born four years ago.

'In our case, we wanted a large family to make us complete,' Kelly Collett told the Statesman in 2009. Seven of the eight adopted children were in foster care: four from a Midwestern state, three from a Southern state. The eighth was a private adoption through LDS Family Services. Three of the eight are Hispanic and some are siblings. The Colletts are white.

Ronalee Linsenmann, of Caldwell, knows Collett from the 2012 campaign, when both were challenging incumbents and the Collett kids were helping their dad.
'His children were the most respectful, well-behaved children you could ever be around," she said. "They obviously have a very, very loving family.'

Collett, who is preparing to run for the Legislature again, wound up in the news because he was one of 1,503 people who answered a Kaiser/NBC poll in September about attitudes about the Affordable Care Act. He told the surveyor he'd be willing to talk to a reporter.

He was the first person quoted in an Oct. 4 NBC story, 'Health care holdouts: uninsured but resisting.' Collett acknowledged the controversial nature of his views. 'There are a lot of people out there that'll cry foul,' he said.

The story was republished on many websites. The next day, Collett posted a 2,900-word response on his campaign site.

'For those of you who insist that I take the kids off of Medicaid, please feel free to get them off by terminating the entire program,' he wrote.

Gawker revived the story on Wednesday. The online community Reddit picked up a Statesman story Thursday, helping drive more than 24,000 hits. Between Tuesday and Thursday, Collett said, 6,000 people clicked on his essay.
'I WOULDN'T HAVE A LIFE'

Collett says he understands those who call him a hypocrite, but says he can't easily escape what he calls an 'evil government' and a 'shadow oligarchy masquerading as a democracy.'

Public schools are 'the granddaddy of all welfare programs' but still, he says, he uses their facilities. He also recreates on public lands and uses public transportation and libraries. Though he opposes them, he carries a driver's license, registration and mandatory auto insurance.

'If I couldn't participate in anything that I didn't agree with that the government was involved in, then I couldn't be married, I wouldn't have kids, I wouldn't own property,'Collett told the Statesman. 'Basically, I wouldn't have a life.'
If it makes 'financial sense' for him to buy insurance under the Your Health Idaho exchange, Collett says he'll do so.

As for enrolling the kids in Medicaid — the federal-state low-income health insurance program that many of his friends call welfare — he said, 'I'm OK taking whatever I can from the government that's available to me. I'm not going to lie and scam the system, but I'm OK with redirecting that money away from morally reprehensible things and direct it towards me.'

Collett cited the 'murder' in funding abortion and 'unjust' wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as examples of things he finds objectionable.

He said none of the children have had major illnesses. 'I qualify for it. Seven of them came with Medicaid cards from foster care. To a large degree it's a matter of practicality."' [Source] 

No, it's a matter of hypocrisy.

Finally, this Obamacare rollout seems to have some glitches where the software to go online and sign up is concerned. (Someone in the know tweeted me that the interface is fine but that there are back end errors with coding.)Of course if you listen to the latest meme from the corporate controlled press here in America, you would think that it's a total disaster and will never be workable.

There are glitches to be sure, but why is this a bad thing? Don't folks have until the end of March, 2014 to sign up? You Americans need to be patient. If it wasn't for Obamacare you wouldn't have any health coverage at all. Besides,the fact that people are overwhelming the system to sign up just means that it's something that has been needed all along.

But, once again, the walking dead among us seem to be missing the big picture: Computer glitches can be fixed, and a bad health- care system like we have been living under here in America needed a serious overhaul.

So, with all due respect to Don Lemon, (Don, see you on FOX, soon) this is just more shouting in the wind from people who can't stand to see change.

Again, computer glitches can be fixed; we can't say the same for people who need cancer treatment with no money. 




Saturday, October 19, 2013

Out of the darkness.

"Frank Meeink grew up in South Philadelphia three decades ago, but he never met a racist skinhead until he visited his cousin in Lancaster in 1989.

He watched his cousin and his friends pound mercilessly on victims at a concert and saw the fear they stoked in others. A vulnerable 13-year-old with a rocky home life, Meeink was drawn into their violent world.

He threw himself into the neo-Nazi scene. By 15, his head was shaved, acts of violence were second nature, and he sported a large swastika tattoo on his neck. At 17, he was jailed in Illinois for kidnapping and torturing a rival skinhead.

"I was primed for hate when I met these guys," Meeink, 38, said in an interview as he prepared to tell his story this week to hundreds of Chester County students. "Now, I think about all the kids out there who were just like me, and how easy it is to be exposed to these ideas."         

Pennsylvania was once believed to harbor more active neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups than any other state in the East, and is still a haven for such groups, advocates say. This weekend marks the annual Philadelphia gathering for Pennsylvania's largest group, the Keystone State Skinheads. The organization celebrates Leif Erikson Day by meeting at the statue next to Kelly Drive that commemorates the Norwegian explorer, believed to be the first European to land in North America.

But these days, teenagers don't have to leave home - the Internet makes it easier than ever for recruiters to connect with potential targets.

The rise of the Internet is also a factor in what advocates say is a resurgence in skinhead activity over the last six years.

The election of President Obama, a troubled economy, a spotlight on immigration issues, and booming antigovernment and militia groups have created a perfect storm for rekindling racist groups, said Anthony Griggs of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil-rights group based in Alabama.
"A few years ago, skinheads would meet in basements or back alleys," he said. "Now they are masters of the Internet in using it to regroup and promote their ideology."

In Pennsylvania, a handful of recent incidents have been linked to hate groups. In August, Ku Klux Klan fliers were distributed in Reading, accompanied by a suspicious object that triggered a bomb scare. A week later, similar leaflets were distributed in an Allegheny County town, said Shannon Powers of the state Human Rights Commission.

This month, a Maryland-based Ku Klux Klan group planned a rally at Gettysburg National Military Park, but it was canceled due to the government shutdown.
Other incidents have highlighted ethnic and racial tensions, such as a 14-year-old student at Perkiomen Valley High School in Montgomery County, who in March was charged with drawing swastikas on another student's papers.

Between 2006 and 2012, violent hate crimes and the numbers of people who identify themselves as racist skinheads rose, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center found that hate groups remained at a near-record level - 1,007 nationwide, 35 with activity in Pennsylvania.

The local groups are not as visible as they once were, Griggs said. Just two known racist skinhead groups are active in the state, he said.

"Pennsylvania has a large population, and a history of manufacturing jobs," he said. "A lot of these guys see themselves as hardworking, blue-collar people. And the current national climate has stirred up a lot of them."

Meeink is still heavily tattooed, but he has had the racist emblems that once adorned his neck and hands lasered off or covered by other tattoos. He has worked with the Anti-Defamation League for close to 20 years, spoken at schools nationwide, authored a memoir as a "recovering skinhead," and founded a hockey program for at-risk youths.

"I was a cowardly person," Meeink told the students at Oxford Area High School, which invited him to speak. "I feared my stepfather, I feared my school, I was afraid of not having enough to eat."

His speech there Tuesday was one of two area lectures. The other was at the National Museum of American Jewish History on Independence Mall.

Meeink said he became a well-known skinhead who recruited other teenagers, sometimes with fliers at schools and eventually with a cable access show in Illinois called The Reich.

When he met his cousin's friends in Lancaster, they were interested to hear he attended school with people of other races.

"My parents never said to me, 'Hey, how was your day?' " Meeink said. "When these guys would ask what Philly was like, it was like someone saying, 'What's your life like?' "

But in prison, Meeink forged friendships with several young black inmates, finding that he had more in common with them than with Aryan gang members. Upon his release about a year later, he was hired for his first job by a Jewish man who encouraged his sense of self-worth and potential.

The final piece fell into place when he started reading about advances in DNA technology, he said, and learned that there were no differences between races.
"I realized, these guys aren't writing this to prove me wrong," Meeink said. "It was all there for me to see - I'd been banging my head against a wall trying to make myself believe this other stuff, believe that these people were my enemies." [Article]

Good for Frank. It took him becoming a skinhead and understanding true hate before he could evolve into becoming a better human being. There are a lot of people in the majority population who didn't actually become skinheads, but their ability and willingness to hate is just as great. At least Frank saw the light.
 

Friday, October 18, 2013

Is this a Hair Club for Men, rally? Nope.

Got a few things to talk about tonight.

First, I will be avoiding certain sections of Fairmount Park here in Philly, tomorrow. If it doesn't rain I will be in the same park with my beautiful wife getting my exercise on, but I will be far out in the Northwest section of the park and as far away from that certain section as possible.

Why? Well, nothing against you skinheads exercising your First Amendment right; you have every right to celebrate your white culture as long as you are not breaking any laws, but honestly, I just don't need the drama.

"ARE YOU A skinhead? Anarchist? Peace-loving hippie? Antifascist? Drag queen? Norse-history buff?

Well, head down to Fairmount Park, where neo-Nazis will clash tomorrow with a contingent of cross-dressing protesters as the skinheads gather for the seventh annual Leif Erikson Day rally.

The neo-Nazi shindig is organized by Keystone United, formerly Keystone State Skinheads, a white-nationalist group whose members will meet at the Thorfinn Karlsefni statue on Kelly Drive to pay homage to the 11th century Icelandic explorer and celebrate their whiteness.

"We feel it is our duty to study our past and never forget the extreme obstacles that our European ancestors fought and died for," said Keystone United member Joseph Phy. "Leif Erikson was a great Norse explorer. His historic voyages led him to be the first European to set foot on North American soil. We can look back on our European ancestors, relearn from them and overcome the great challenges that we face today."

Daryle Lamont Jenkins of the opposing One People's Project, said current challenges include racist skinheads holding rallies in his city.

"The numbers on both sides are going to be amplified. There is no telling what's going to happen," Jenkins said. "We have people coming from all over the country, and they have people coming from all over the country."

Jenkins said the outing is being promoted by hate groups like the California-based American Freedom Party. He said Keystone United has apparently linked up with an international network of neo-Nazis, which could boost the size of tomorrow's event." [Source]

Let's not forget the Tea Party Patriots, I am sure that a few of them will make a cameo as well.

I wonder if they will invite Sarah Palin.

On to the next story:

"Two gym teachers in northern New Jersey have been fired for calling black students "Negroes" while carping to each other in a locker room, a state commissioner said.

Brigitte Geiger and Sharon Jones, who taught for around three decades, were canned and had their tenure revoked after an investigation found they made racially charged comments about black students at Mount Olive High on March 2, 2012, NJ.com reported.

Two students who overheard the pair told school officials Jones was grousing to Geiger in a locker room when she said, "Yea, those Negroes think they are tough (expletive)," NJ.com reported.
"Yeah, that's all they are, just a bunch of Negroes, Negroes, Negroes," Geiger replied.

Office of Administrative Law Judge Tiffany Williams, who handled the case, said both teachers admitted they'd been frustrated with a group of black students in the past.

Geiger, who also coached field hockey, and Jones were placed on limited administrative duty after charges were filed in March.

They didn't return to school this year and were officially fired on Oct. 8.
"It's unfortunate that it occurred," school superintendent Larrie Reynolds told NJ.com.

"This was an unfortunate incident and we had to do what we thought was right." [Source]
I bet the White is Right Council is going to have a problem with this one.

"How dare they fire these poor teachers for using the word, Negro? This is political correctness run amok. Heck they call themselves Nigger all the time, and one of them named their blog Field Negro for crying out loud!

I feel your frustration white people, but these two loofs (that's a backwards fool) had to go. It's all about context. You can't talk about your students and separate and characterize them by their race. YOU ARE A SCHOOL TEACHER!

It's wrong, but  if you must, please feel free to call them all kinds of Niggers on your own time, and in the privacy of your Glen Beck sanctioned underground silo. You can even start your own secret neighborhood klan organization; just don't go teaching children until you get help for your color aroused illness.

Finally, to know why I don't like certain folks here in America, please take a look at this video and the way that Steve Lonegan  (BTW Steve, you might want to give Joe Biden a call and see who did his hair plugs ) treats his own wife, and tell me what kind of senator you think that he would have been for the state of New Jersey.

Thank you Cory Booker, I suspect that if you were married Mrs. Booker would have been treated with the kind of respect that Mrs. Lonegan will never experience.





Thursday, October 17, 2013

"Good golly Ms. Molly!"

I must confess that when I heard the story of some woman going crazy on the House floor I thought it was just Michele Bachmann going through one of her daily spells brought on by Obama derangement syndrome. But alas, I was wrong, it was just some poor stenographer having a meltdown.

 "As the House finished their vote to reopen the federal government and raise the debt ceiling, a House stenographer decided it was a good time to let everyone know her feelings about God, Congress, and the Freemasons.

“He [God] will not be mocked,” the stenographer, apparently named Molly, yelled into the microphone as she was dragged off by security.
 
“The greatest deception here is that this is not one nation under God. It never was. It would not have been. The Constitution would not have been written by Freemasons. They go against God. You cannot serve two masters. Praise be to God. Praise be to Jesus.” [Source]
 
Of course, given the venue, Molly should fit right in. She was, after all, surrounded by members of Congress. I am surprised that she even stood out.
 
Molly is just lucky that she isn't a black woman, because if she was she would have been shot. Just a mental health evaluation and maybe a visit from her pastor and she will live to see another day.
 
Of course, over at FOX News, they have a different take on all of this.
 
"Dianne Reidy, who has been identified as a “longtime House stenographer,” ranted and raved that God “will not be mocked!” as the Congressmen cast their votes to end the shutdown, and security dragged her away.

Reidy, initial reports stated, is a beloved employee, and as we later learned, a very religious person. The New Civil Rights Movement, unlike many outlets, chose to not report on this incident because it appeared to be a case of stress and perhaps an emotional breakdown. Some events shouldn’t be subject to public scrutiny.

Not, however, according to the folks at Fox News.

Fox & FriendsElisabeth Hasselbeck and Steve Doocy this morning defended Reidy’s outburst, and read emails they supposedly received, explaining that Reidy was not suffering from an emotional or mental breakdown, or stress, but rather — as they quoted one pastor saying —  she was performing “an exercise of the gifts of the spirit where she was, she had brought a warning and a message from God regarding the activity, he felt, there in the House.”

No, this was the Lord speaking to Congress, they insisted. Gawker adds that “Fox News believes she was the victim of religious persecution.”

“Amazingly, this religious and obviously a sweet lady gets fed up and speaks her mind, something we all have tried to do,” Doocy read from another email. “She brings up our dear lord and she gets a mental evaluation? I think it should be the other way around.”
 
Still, there might be a silver lining to all of this: thanks to Obamacare Molly will be able to get the mental health evaluation that she so obviously needs.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

"The confederacy's last hurrah"

As we inch closer to a possible deal in Washington, (the wingnuts are still singing funeral songs) it is not a time for poli-tricksters to be patting themselves on the back.

I see dumbocratic senators stepping up to the microphone and thanking Mitch McConnell. I have to wonder why. He (McConnell)is a part of a wingnut cabal that is hell bent on destroying this republic. 

Anyway, it's not over yet. Let's hope that the members of the house come to their senses and vote to save the economic future of their country.

Anyway, there is no doubt that the country is more divided both racially and ideologically than ever. One party, to their detriment, has doubled down and embraced their Southern and homogeneous roots.

They have chosen the flag of the confederacy to represent their cause and to express their disgust with the Socialist in chief.

Now, of course, they are trying to spin their way out of facts. But they can't. Images don't lie.

"....Republicans forced a government shutdown in what many saw as an ill-fated final effort to delay the law. They would fail.

But in the process, many Democrats became utterly convinced that the evils of the Confederacy were again being visited upon Americans.

“Confederates are rejoicing,” Jackson proclaimed on October 9. “They’re winning.”

“It’s confederate. It’s states’ rights,” he continued. “It’s not just health care act, it’s anti-voting. It’s women’s right to self-determination. It’s a whole range of infrastructure issues that made America great the last 50 years.”

Jackson had many supporters but they kept silent at first, awaiting more evidence to confirm their conviction – that Republicans were, in fact, revolutionary and racist – to materialize. They would not have to wait long.

On the second weekend of the government shutdown, a conservative protest took place in front of the White House. Through the fog of that grey day emerged the unmistakable symbol of the Confederacy – the battle flag flown by Generals Lee, Jackson and Beauregard. One man, misguidedly embracing that dubious symbol unfurled in anger for the last time nearly 150 years ago, had provided Democrats with the evidence they needed to confirm their worst suspicions. The floodgates were opened.

“Ghosts of the Confederacy out in force as fringe rules GOP,” declared The Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift.

“You reap what you sow, and Republicans are paying the price for elevating a minority within their party,” she continued. “The standoff coming to a head feels like an existential struggle, and that’s an invitation to the most aggrieved fringe of the GOP to come out in full force.”

Quoting a variety of Democratic sources, Clift confirms that that the Republicans have embraced the insurrectionists within their ranks. “Embracing the confederacy is bad history and bad politics,” one California university professor helpfully reminded Clift’s readers.

“That’s obviously going to undercut what they’re saying,” POLITICO’s Mike Allen observed of the lone protester’s ability to capture the media’s attention and, thus, detract from the Republican messaging. “And does reflect badly, even though there’s no reason it should.”

Some even heard the yips of the rebel yell echoing through history, bouncing faintly along the marbled walls of the Capitol Building. “This is all about a handful of people who got elected as Republicans that want to bring down our government,” insisted Congressman Charlie Rangel, a New York Democrat serving in Congress since 1971.

“The same way they fought as Confederates, they want to bring down the government and reform it,” he added. “Well, I can tell you this, if you look at the states that they control, take a look at the Dixiecrats, see how they went over to the Republican Party.”

These are statements of faith, but the congregants who subscribe to this belief structure are numerous. Some would argue that it is theirs – a devotion to an ideal that delegitimizes their opponents and renders the internalization of their ideas and arguments unnecessary – that is the truly dangerous ideology.
Others would say that this effort on the part of Democrats is part of an elaborate effort to repent for past sins. The Republican Party having been historically the party of emancipation, suffragism, and civil rights.

But these are questions to be resolved another day. Today, the battle is again joined in the minds of many Democrats as they seek to relive the glorious and horrible War Between the States." (Source) 

Noah, it's not just in their minds. Pictures don't lie, and attitudes can't hide. Why do you think that "one man" felt emboldened to raise a contemptible symbol of hatred at that Tea Party protest? It's because he knew that he was among friends.

 "Democratic legislators and their ideological allies determined that attacking Republicans on the substance of their ideas was simply not enough. Some embraced the politically expedient tactic of suggesting, or outright insisting, that their Republican opponents were not legitimate governmental actors. They were insurrectionists, saboteurs, and — perhaps most damningly — racists."

The funeral song the republicans sang was Amazing Grace. How fitting. Since it is, after all, about a man seeking redemption from a wretched soul.