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Saturday, September 12, 2009
Right wing fringe now mainstream GOP - Rachel Maddow
This is from last night - but please watch it! This is all so scary for the well-being of the commonwealth!
Tim Pawlenty's constitutional ignorance
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Teaching Jesus in the Texas public schools
This is derived from an article by Jennifer Riley at christianpost.com.Seems that some so-called "evangelicals" think that our public schools should teach the Bible. The Bible is so important they say. Our founding fathers built this nation on "Christian truths," they say. In fact, these "Christian truths" were of "central importance" to our founding fathers, saith one rightwhitewingnut, Jim Daly, prez of Focus on da Family.
Yup!
Guess which state is in the middle of this muddle? You betcha, Texas! Seems the dimwits on the State Board of Education mandated that the Christian Bible be taught in Texas' public schools.
Oh, but the law says that the Bible courses must observe "religious neutrality." Teachers must be trained, materials must be approved by the state, and the attorney general must determine "curriculum standards."
Heh. Heh.
The article also quotes a few "scholars" who talk about how an educated person should know something about the Bible. It also quotes Chuck Colson, the reformed felon who now runs a fundamentalist prison ministry which, in my opinion, clearly violates the constitutional injunction against meshing church and state. Colson, though, being a devious rightwhitewingnut, thinks that "Texas public schools should teach students, from a (sic) historian's perspective, how Judeo-Christian thinking played a pivotal role in the West."
Huh? Oh, he must be talking about how the so-called "christian" Europeans headed west and killed off all the natives and stole their land and the resources of their land - a process that continues today! All in the name of the white man's god, of course!
What we have here is another sneaky attempt to foist fundamentalism into our public schools. If these idiots read the Bible they're so worried our children won't know about, they'd probably scream that it should never be taught in our public schools!
They might be happy with a six-day creation nonsense, and the mythologies of the patriarchs, and the hokey story about wandering 40 years in the wilderness, which few credible historians accept as fact today. They might think that the students ought to know something about the legendary Jesus, and the creation of the Christian church and how the Christian church tormented the Jews (of which Jesus was said to be one)!
But, I don't think they want to spend much time in Leviticus! You know, that part about stoning to death your children if they don't observe the Sabbath. Or the part where God kills thousands of the Israelites for not giving him the proper respect. Or, where God instructs his people to slaughter and rape another population, bashing the heads of the children against the rocks.
They also might have to excise most of the Song of Solomon. That book is just dripping with sex! And cut out the book or Ruth; nothing religious there. And Ecclesiastes? Omigod! What a loser book. Despair everywhere.
Furthermore, other questions raise their ugly heads: Should the Intertestamental books be taught? Which of the hundreds of "versions" of the Bible should be used? If one is teaching the Bible, then it would seem to be important to use a Hebrew version. Or, how does one teach the fact that the Septuagint is 1/8th shorter than the Hebrew Bible?
Does the teacher start with the notion that the Bible (meaning the version used) is the "infallible" word of the the Jewish god, Yahveh? If so, then what in the world do you do with the notion that the sun stood still, or that the earth is flat, or that witches live in some underground below the earth, or that the firmament is a hard place which holds up the water?
It's all silly as hell. Why can't these "evangelical" morons teach their Bible in the churches? Furthermore, you'd be hard put to find two of them who agree with what the Bible says about anything - well, except for abortion and same-sex marriage - they all know the Bible's agin those thangs.
There is no way on God's green earth that anyone could possibly come up with a "biblical" curriculum that would satisfy anyone other than the person who wrote it! The whole idea is ludicrous and stupid beyond measure.
Furthermore, if these numbskulls are really worried about the children knowing something of a book which they claim has had historical significance, then we also ought to be teaching the holy scriptures of Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, etc. The earth contains more of those "believers" than it does Christians!
Which creates a real dilemma. The "evangelicals" would never agree to that because with them it's never about "learning," it's about indoctrination. That is the sole reason for this push to bring the Bible into the public schools. And for them to claim any other purpose is to expose their blatant hypocrisy and their ongoing ability to lie through their teeth!
Some of the "founding fathers," which these so-called "evangelicals" are always harping about, may have been deists, but their religion was mostly for public consumption. It was something people did; it had no real impact. Some were atheists. Most didn't give a rip about religion or churches or piety! They would laugh at the beliefs of the "evangelicals" of today! The Enlightenment was the source they used for our founding documents.
And that's why they insisted that our founding documents make no mention of a deity of any kind! That's why our constitution contains the famous "separation of church and state" clause. They knew from previous experience in the countries from which they came that any time religious fanatics are put in charge of anything, hatred, persecution, and violence are sure to follow!
The State of Texas, overrun and controlled by christianist wingnut fundamentalists (please don't call them "evangelicals"), is in for trouble. If you have children attending public schools in Texas, you may want to give serious consideration to moving to another state or put them in a private (non-religious) school where they have some change of getting an education that will prepare them for the world in which we live.
Friday, September 11, 2009
More insanity from Sarah Palin - by Keith Olbermann
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Sean Hannity - Worst Person in the World!
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Republicans' small angry tent - Rachel Maddow
If you read nothing of consequence today, or if you watch nothing else today, please watch this video. Then, hopefully, with some knowledge of Germany in the 20s and 30s, let your mind roam back over the events of those years.
If you don't think it can happen here, you're not thinking clearly!
If you don't think it can happen here, you're not thinking clearly!
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Czar Struck - Rachel Maddow
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Mike Duvall - Repugnican "family values" sex artist
Orange County, California, has long been known for it's collection of fruits and nuts. So, it isn't surprising to hear that it was a "family values" Repugnican from Orange County who has joined the long list of family values Repugnicans who have gone down in flames.Mike Duvall was a California State Assemblyman. Not so long ago, durng a legislative hearing up in Sacramento, Duvall, who is a married, rightwhitewingnut family values guy -- you know, a typical Repugnican -- decided to tell a colleague all about his sexual exploits with two women, neither being his wife. One of the women, according to latimes.com, "is a lobbyist for a major utility before Duvall's committee" (he was vice chair of the Utilities and Commerce Committee). The problem, for Duvall, is that a videotape was running and it caught the whole thing, which was later aired on KCAL TV.
Isn't this fun? Duvall received a 100% rating from the Capitol Resource Institute, "a conservative, self-described 'pro-family' advocacy organization ... for his voting record on issues of concern to the group."
Duvall has apologized (unlike one of the other "family value" guys in South Carolina) and he has resigned after, of course, he was stripped of his legislative responsibilities and after an ethics probe was begun.
The moral of this story is that when a Repugnican wearing an American flag in his lapel starts talking about family values, lock away your wife and daughters!
There's more here.
Busing, Bush & Obama in Texas
This material comes from Amanda Terkel at Think Progress.Speaking of Texas, that great loony state, with an educational system that is close to the worst in the world (although it might be better than Florida's), and a state Board of Education ruled by creationist crackpots and christianist morons, there is more news today ...
Up in Arlington (north Texas), 800 miles from common sense, the school district ruled against allowing their darling little kiddos to watch President Obama's speech -- you know, the speech where he urged children to stay in school, work hard, be responsible, etc.
You can hardly blame the Arlington School District. I mean who wants their kids to be subjected to that kind of socialistic/communistic/fascistic/atheistic crap?
Well, the powers that be in the Arlington School District didn't put it quite that way. They said they had some really important lessons to teach their kiddos and they just couldn't possibly justify interrupting these "regularly scheduled lesson plans." [They were probably the plans that explained to science classes that god created everything in just six days, and proclaimed to history classes that the bible is truer than evolution.]
So far, all is good. But now, it turns out that the intelligence-challenged bozos who run the Arlington School District have decided to interrupt their regularly scheduled classes to BUS the students over to the Dallas Cowboys Stadium field on September 21 so the little darlings can listen to - ta, da! - none other than the ethically and morally-challenged former prezident, Georgi W. Bush!
Not only so, but they'll also hear from Laura Bush, "legendary Dallas Cowboy" FOOTBALL players, and "North Texas business and community leaders." How much you wanta bet there will be a few preachers in the bunch?
With pinheads like the ones in Arlington heading up our schools, is it any wonder that the United States is lagging way behind the rest of the world when it comes to educating our children?
One View (on the state of the Union)
This is a guest post by Gene Bocknek.
Jackie Robinson was the greatest base runner I’ve seen in 70 years of watching major league teams. But mention his name and the first thing you will hear is that he was the first black man to play in the majors. Yet he made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame, not because he was black, but because of his incredible ability, honed amidst an atmosphere of the vilest racial prejudice; continual death threats; players and fans who cursed at him; and hotels who refused to admit him. Human progress can be painfully slow.
Worldwide, Barak Obama’s election to the presidency has elevated America’s status immeasurably. But in his own country uncountable numbers of citizens, many of them in positions of political influence and power, have sworn themselves to his defeat. In their eyes he has committed two unthinkable crimes. He convincingly won election against two daunting opponents, first Hillary Clinton and then John McCain. But that triumph of American democracy cannot mitigate his great sins. He is the only black President in American history. And he seeks a better distribution of the benefits of American citizenship among those whose work creates the wealth of the country - our ordinary citizens.
During the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the target of scathing attacks for trying to do what Obama is attempting. Today historians credit FDR with saving the country from Communism, with preventing a Communist takeover by offering hope to a desperate people, hope and ideas for a democratic solution to the same kind of economic disaster we face today. Then as now, the rapacious greed of the few was unregulated; there were no governmental restraints on the “free market”. Under FDR regulations were imposed and for 40 years there were no major recessions.
Thanks to Presidents Reagan and Bush removing those regulations, we can now curse the rapacious greed of another unregulated “free market”. And now the greedy ones mobilize the old racial hatreds, fueled by economic distress, hoping to stifle the needed changes to our system. They tell us we cannot afford to change; what they mean is that money matters more than people. They say it’s not the responsibility of government to care about the health and education of 40 million American children, or the financial well-being of hundreds of millions of American adults.
What matters, say the greedy ones, are corporate profits, which are distributed among public shareholders. They neglect to mention that the largest of these public shareholders are officers of these same corporations, who get millions in options to buy stocks low and sell high. And that’s the game they want us to keep playing .
I began writing this column a few days before Obama’s speech on health care reform. This is what I heard him say and do in that speech. He incorporated a key element of John McCain’s own program (and McCain responded with a warm thumbs up and smile). He adopted Olympia Snow’s (R-ME) advice to delay the public option. He acknowledged the validity of capping medical malpractice suits, a major concern of most physicians. He put a clear halt to the outright lies and distortions being publicized and threatened to name names if any further bogus claims were made. By putting off some of his own most liberal allies and reaching out to responsible members of the GOP, he put his own position into the political center, where most of America traditionally stands. Finally, he repeated his vow to produce a health reform package that would not change anything for those who are currently insured.
But he will make it illegal for health insurance providers to drop people who require expensive medical treatment, or who refuse to insure people with previous illnesses. Obama also challenged the GOP and/or individual members of Congress to come to him with serious alternatives. So far the only “plan” being offered by the GOP as of last night is to wait another year and then begin from scratch, an obvious delaying tactic. Health care reform has been urged since Theodore Roosevelt’s time; the issues and solutions are well understood. The time to act is now.
The Republican Party has mired itself into the party of NO. That is a discredit to America, and to its own mission of being a responsible, loyal opposition. But Obama will also have to contend with Democrats like Max Baucus (D-MO), who accepts 8 million dollars from lobbyists to undermine and obstruct real progress in health care reform. Will Obama have the toughness to enforce what he has asked for? The next few months will let us know.
It may be that the voice of the public, the people who insist on genuine health reform now, will be what's needed to break the 60-year-old deadlock and force the reforms that meet the common good.
Jackie Robinson was the greatest base runner I’ve seen in 70 years of watching major league teams. But mention his name and the first thing you will hear is that he was the first black man to play in the majors. Yet he made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame, not because he was black, but because of his incredible ability, honed amidst an atmosphere of the vilest racial prejudice; continual death threats; players and fans who cursed at him; and hotels who refused to admit him. Human progress can be painfully slow.
Worldwide, Barak Obama’s election to the presidency has elevated America’s status immeasurably. But in his own country uncountable numbers of citizens, many of them in positions of political influence and power, have sworn themselves to his defeat. In their eyes he has committed two unthinkable crimes. He convincingly won election against two daunting opponents, first Hillary Clinton and then John McCain. But that triumph of American democracy cannot mitigate his great sins. He is the only black President in American history. And he seeks a better distribution of the benefits of American citizenship among those whose work creates the wealth of the country - our ordinary citizens.
During the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the target of scathing attacks for trying to do what Obama is attempting. Today historians credit FDR with saving the country from Communism, with preventing a Communist takeover by offering hope to a desperate people, hope and ideas for a democratic solution to the same kind of economic disaster we face today. Then as now, the rapacious greed of the few was unregulated; there were no governmental restraints on the “free market”. Under FDR regulations were imposed and for 40 years there were no major recessions.
Thanks to Presidents Reagan and Bush removing those regulations, we can now curse the rapacious greed of another unregulated “free market”. And now the greedy ones mobilize the old racial hatreds, fueled by economic distress, hoping to stifle the needed changes to our system. They tell us we cannot afford to change; what they mean is that money matters more than people. They say it’s not the responsibility of government to care about the health and education of 40 million American children, or the financial well-being of hundreds of millions of American adults.
What matters, say the greedy ones, are corporate profits, which are distributed among public shareholders. They neglect to mention that the largest of these public shareholders are officers of these same corporations, who get millions in options to buy stocks low and sell high. And that’s the game they want us to keep playing .
I began writing this column a few days before Obama’s speech on health care reform. This is what I heard him say and do in that speech. He incorporated a key element of John McCain’s own program (and McCain responded with a warm thumbs up and smile). He adopted Olympia Snow’s (R-ME) advice to delay the public option. He acknowledged the validity of capping medical malpractice suits, a major concern of most physicians. He put a clear halt to the outright lies and distortions being publicized and threatened to name names if any further bogus claims were made. By putting off some of his own most liberal allies and reaching out to responsible members of the GOP, he put his own position into the political center, where most of America traditionally stands. Finally, he repeated his vow to produce a health reform package that would not change anything for those who are currently insured.
But he will make it illegal for health insurance providers to drop people who require expensive medical treatment, or who refuse to insure people with previous illnesses. Obama also challenged the GOP and/or individual members of Congress to come to him with serious alternatives. So far the only “plan” being offered by the GOP as of last night is to wait another year and then begin from scratch, an obvious delaying tactic. Health care reform has been urged since Theodore Roosevelt’s time; the issues and solutions are well understood. The time to act is now.
The Republican Party has mired itself into the party of NO. That is a discredit to America, and to its own mission of being a responsible, loyal opposition. But Obama will also have to contend with Democrats like Max Baucus (D-MO), who accepts 8 million dollars from lobbyists to undermine and obstruct real progress in health care reform. Will Obama have the toughness to enforce what he has asked for? The next few months will let us know.
It may be that the voice of the public, the people who insist on genuine health reform now, will be what's needed to break the 60-year-old deadlock and force the reforms that meet the common good.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Joe Wilson - Worst Person in the World by Keith Olbermann
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Florida's new senator - A Repugnican hack
[Photo from the Washington Times]It is no secret that the man named by Governor Charlie Crist to replace the quitter, Senator Mel Martinez, in the U.S. Congress, is a political hack, and an old buddy of Charlie with few pertinent qualifications to be a senator.
This hack's name is George LeMieux. He's a lawyer, working for a Tallahassee firm, Gunster Yoakley.
Now, obviously, just being a lawyer doesn't automatically disqualify him from being a U.S. Senator, although some might argue with that. But, there's not a whole lot more in terms of qualifications: He was Crist's former campaign manager and chief of staff. Oh, he was once the chairman of the Broward Country Republican Party. And also served as a Florida Deputy Attorney General, and his law firm has scored big bucks from the State of Florida over the past several years. That's it.
Except for this tidbit. Seems there was a new high rise hotel/condominium to be built in Miami. Seems the builders wanted cheap labor. That means they didn't want to use Americans and/or union members.
So, they went to Gunster Yoakley. Why they did that is an interesting question, for which I have no answer, other than to suggest that Gunster Yoakley knew how to get things done. And so they did. They arranged to bring in Mexican laborers to build this new high rise hotel/condo.
The Miami Herald puts it this way: Gunster Yoakley arranged to "secure visas for the foreign workers who claimed they had skills lacked by their American counterparts at a time of rising unemployment."
I can just see it now: A bunch of Mexican laborers sitting in a room. A lawyer from Gunster Yoakley stands in front. He asks them: "How many of you have skills lacked by your American counterparts at this time of rising unemployment?"
And they all raise their hands. "Okay," says the lawyer. "We'll get you your visas. You understand, of course, that you won't get paid as much as your American counterparts."
They all grin widely and nod their heads. "Si, Si, comprende, de nada!"
Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-FL) saw fit to meet with union workers to talk about this. It turns out most of them were unemployed. "If you have folks coming in from a foreign country when there are people here who have to pay their bills and have to pay their taxes and are overlooked, that's something that we need to work on," said Meek.
You think?
LeMieux, naturally, claimed to know nothing about the details. "I'm sure the legal work was done correctly."
Spoken, as you might note, like a true Repugnican. Nothing about whether it was proper, ethical, moral, a good thing for the country, but just worried about the legalities.
Just what we don't need, however temporary, in the United States Senate.
You blew it, Charlie!
Getting saved in a public school
This comes from Rob Boston, in an article titled, "A Tale Of Two School Districts: How To Deal With Religion In Public Education", which you will find at Talk 2 Action.
I will deal only with the first story, which I'm afraid exemplifies the kind of thing that is taking place in numerous school districts in our country.
The football coach of Breckinridge County High School, in Breckinridge County, Kentucky, one Scott Mooney, invited his players to attend an event he said "would include a steak dinner and a motivational speech."
That was a lie. But Mooney, being a "true" christianist, believes that the ends justify the means. So, on a school bus, he transported 2o players to his church, the Franklin Crossroads Baptist Church, where a "revival" was underway and where they were subjected to an "evangelistic" rant, and where "a number of them were baptized."
Parental permission was neither requested nor granted.
One parent, Michelle Ammons, whose son was baptized, is understandably angry.
The school superintendent, Janet Meeks, is not. No big deal, saith she. She's also, conveniently, a member of the Franklin Crossroads Baptist Church. She "told the Louisville Courier-Journal that even though a school bus was used, attendance was voluntary and another coach paid for the gas."
"'None of the players were rewarded for going and none were punished for not going," said Ms. Meeks.
Where do these pinheads come from and how do they get to be football coaches and superintendents in our public schools?
How would they react if a school where their children attended had a Buddhist football coach who took his players to a Buddhist religious ceremony where they were invited to become Buddhist monks?
In fact, this "salvation" event in connection with a public school is a crime! Both the coach and the superintendent should be fired forthwith!
There's more here. And here.
I will deal only with the first story, which I'm afraid exemplifies the kind of thing that is taking place in numerous school districts in our country.
The football coach of Breckinridge County High School, in Breckinridge County, Kentucky, one Scott Mooney, invited his players to attend an event he said "would include a steak dinner and a motivational speech."
That was a lie. But Mooney, being a "true" christianist, believes that the ends justify the means. So, on a school bus, he transported 2o players to his church, the Franklin Crossroads Baptist Church, where a "revival" was underway and where they were subjected to an "evangelistic" rant, and where "a number of them were baptized."
Parental permission was neither requested nor granted.
One parent, Michelle Ammons, whose son was baptized, is understandably angry.
The school superintendent, Janet Meeks, is not. No big deal, saith she. She's also, conveniently, a member of the Franklin Crossroads Baptist Church. She "told the Louisville Courier-Journal that even though a school bus was used, attendance was voluntary and another coach paid for the gas."
"'None of the players were rewarded for going and none were punished for not going," said Ms. Meeks.
Where do these pinheads come from and how do they get to be football coaches and superintendents in our public schools?
How would they react if a school where their children attended had a Buddhist football coach who took his players to a Buddhist religious ceremony where they were invited to become Buddhist monks?
In fact, this "salvation" event in connection with a public school is a crime! Both the coach and the superintendent should be fired forthwith!
There's more here. And here.
Joe Wilson, representative of Repugnicans
There are some folks, it seems, who resent my use of the term, "Repugnican." It is disrespectful, they claim. Yes, it is disrespectful. And that is why I use it. The Repugnican Party, by and large, has devolved into a class of clowns who deserve nothing less that being called repugnant, for they are, indeed repugnant. Repulsive, even.Joe Wilson, a U.S. Representative from South Carolina, is a prime example of a repugnant and repulsive Repugnican.
As much as I disliked Georgi W. Bush, I would not have approved of any Democrat acting in the manner of Joe Wilson who yelled out "You lie" during President Obama's speech to Congress last evening.
The President was addressing the issue as to how his health care reform package would not cover illegal immigrants. Mr. Wilson, an intemperate man by all accounts, then proceeded to make a fool of himself.
Wilson has been a rightwhitewingnut Repugnican since his election to Congress, touting the usual rightwhitewingnut talking points. So his feelings with regard to a proposal by a Democratic president are to be expected. His so-called "breach of protocol" was not.
The important thing to understand about all of this is not that that Wilson is a hardhead and a fool. I think rather we should understand that Wilson could not control himself because he is racist to the core. We should understand that Wilson, like so many other Repugnicans in Congress and around the country simply cannot accept the idea that a man, half-black, has been elected president, is smarter and more articulate than they can ever hope to be, and who has the gall to suggest that the Congress actually do something to help the citizens of the nation rather than the corporate interests who own Congress, lock, stock and barrel! They literally come unglued at such a notion.
What we heard from Wilson was an echo of what millions of nogoodniks across our fair land were thinking at the time. They will never, ever, accept Barack Obama as president of the United States!
And that's scary! But what's even scarier is that this South Carolina fool has given the racists a blueprint to follow - a blueprint that authorizes them to also disrespect the president of the office of the president.
At the moment, it would appear that this incident may have damaged Wilson's career, an event we would celebrate. There seems to be a strong backlash and a strengthening of his political opposition in South Carolina.
I would guess this is temporary. Although it pains me to say it, racism is rampant across the southland. I think the majority in South Carolina are on the same page as Wilson. Sadly, this outburst may, in the long run, may provide Wilson with the political support he needs to carry on with his nefarious career in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Sean Hannity - Worse person in the world
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Musings on problems and possibilities
This is a guest post by my good friend, Bob Poris.
In the middle of the last century, when I went to college, we studied politics and propaganda, in addition to history, as the cold war was not cold, but still hot. There was agitation in 1946 for a preemptive war with Russia! I sat in class full of other recently discharged veterans arguing over should we, or should or should not go to war before Russia attacked us!
It was quite serious and very possible, as we were still armed and ready for war; we had all the machinery still in place and were flushed with victory, an ongoing draft, etc plus THE BOMB.
Some saw Communists under every bed and in every department of the government. (We had our fools then, too.) In addition, we had people who were strongly anti black, anti Jew, anti- socialist, anti-communist, anti-foreigners, etc. (Today we have added hispanic laborers too) Little seems to have changed EXCEPT WE ARE MORE FULLY AND LEGALLY ARMED IN OUR STREETS, OUR HOMES, OUR POLITICAL RALLIES, ETC. Preachers pray for the death of our new president and parents are afraid to let 6-year-olds listen to his speech. Our politics are more polarized than ever. We are more brain washed than ever. Money dominates politics more than ever, our universities are busy spouting “stuff” and furthering polarization. Instead of discourse, any attempt to compromise and find a middle ground are ridiculed. We use labels instead of logic. We spout bumper sticker slogans as truth, Some seek leaders that are just like them, who know more about drinking beer than they do about scientific efforts to cope with new problems of disease, climate, and world wide terrorism emanating from caves with no borders to restrain them. Others sit back awaiting the Rapture, believing therefore there is no urgency to solve problems that might take a few more centuries.
At almost 83, a veteran, a parent and grandfather etc, I believe we can overcome most of our problems if we remain an open democracy and ignore the one issue pundits from all sides trying to scare us all, so they can continue to get paid for upsetting their particular audience.
We had better learn what our Constitution really says; how it is interpreted by the Courts and why it works. We should know that legislatures make laws, not mayors, governors or presidents. We elect them for many of the wrong reasons. We have veto rights and overrides of vetoes; we have checks and balances that used to work but were ignored for a period of eight years and CAN BE AGAIN, IF WE DO NOT INVESTIGATE AND REINSTATE RULES OR CHANGE THE LAWS.
Congress has rights and responsibilities, but so do we, the voters, the electorate. We have gained ground racially but are not out of the woods socially yet. We have the opportunity to stop wasting talent on labels, colors, religions, lack of religions, etc. Let’s get back to some basics and use the new tools of the internet to replace what we have lost in the role of the media we were accustomed to. Let’s get our schools to compete worldwide or prepare to move to lands that have the new jobs and technology we seem unprepared to teach. Our forefathers came here for the same reasons some might have to leave if we do not get our act together!
This is a great land and should continue to lead the world if we want it badly enough to get down to the work needed. We still have more people seeking to come here than leave. That should tell us something!
In the middle of the last century, when I went to college, we studied politics and propaganda, in addition to history, as the cold war was not cold, but still hot. There was agitation in 1946 for a preemptive war with Russia! I sat in class full of other recently discharged veterans arguing over should we, or should or should not go to war before Russia attacked us!
It was quite serious and very possible, as we were still armed and ready for war; we had all the machinery still in place and were flushed with victory, an ongoing draft, etc plus THE BOMB.
Some saw Communists under every bed and in every department of the government. (We had our fools then, too.) In addition, we had people who were strongly anti black, anti Jew, anti- socialist, anti-communist, anti-foreigners, etc. (Today we have added hispanic laborers too) Little seems to have changed EXCEPT WE ARE MORE FULLY AND LEGALLY ARMED IN OUR STREETS, OUR HOMES, OUR POLITICAL RALLIES, ETC. Preachers pray for the death of our new president and parents are afraid to let 6-year-olds listen to his speech. Our politics are more polarized than ever. We are more brain washed than ever. Money dominates politics more than ever, our universities are busy spouting “stuff” and furthering polarization. Instead of discourse, any attempt to compromise and find a middle ground are ridiculed. We use labels instead of logic. We spout bumper sticker slogans as truth, Some seek leaders that are just like them, who know more about drinking beer than they do about scientific efforts to cope with new problems of disease, climate, and world wide terrorism emanating from caves with no borders to restrain them. Others sit back awaiting the Rapture, believing therefore there is no urgency to solve problems that might take a few more centuries.
At almost 83, a veteran, a parent and grandfather etc, I believe we can overcome most of our problems if we remain an open democracy and ignore the one issue pundits from all sides trying to scare us all, so they can continue to get paid for upsetting their particular audience.
We had better learn what our Constitution really says; how it is interpreted by the Courts and why it works. We should know that legislatures make laws, not mayors, governors or presidents. We elect them for many of the wrong reasons. We have veto rights and overrides of vetoes; we have checks and balances that used to work but were ignored for a period of eight years and CAN BE AGAIN, IF WE DO NOT INVESTIGATE AND REINSTATE RULES OR CHANGE THE LAWS.
Congress has rights and responsibilities, but so do we, the voters, the electorate. We have gained ground racially but are not out of the woods socially yet. We have the opportunity to stop wasting talent on labels, colors, religions, lack of religions, etc. Let’s get back to some basics and use the new tools of the internet to replace what we have lost in the role of the media we were accustomed to. Let’s get our schools to compete worldwide or prepare to move to lands that have the new jobs and technology we seem unprepared to teach. Our forefathers came here for the same reasons some might have to leave if we do not get our act together!
This is a great land and should continue to lead the world if we want it badly enough to get down to the work needed. We still have more people seeking to come here than leave. That should tell us something!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Bill Clinton singing with Singer Liel
This is a beautiful video because it is filled with hope. Bill Clinton is asked to join Liel in song backed up by 40 Jewish and 40 Arabic children. We are all asked to imagine what could be!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Al Franken draws map of U.S. from memory
This is utterly amazing! Most people in this country don't even know how many states they are and could not name them if their life depended upon it.
I know I couldn't begin to draw a map of the U.S.
It's a little slow getting off the ground, but hang in there, 'cause it's worth it!
h/t to Pharyngula
I know I couldn't begin to draw a map of the U.S.
It's a little slow getting off the ground, but hang in there, 'cause it's worth it!
h/t to Pharyngula
The Rachel Maddow Show - Wingnuttery over a speech
Much of this is old news, but it's important enough to review once again.
There are only two conclusions one can come to with regard to these rightwhitewingnuts:
1) They really believe what they are saying. If that's true, then they are incredibly stoopid, ignorant, and lazy, for it would take little effort to determine that their claims are hogwash.
2) They don't really believe what they are saying. If that's true, then they are truly evil people, more concerned with their media "success," e.g. money and fame, then they are about the United States or the children in our public schools.
There are only two conclusions one can come to with regard to these rightwhitewingnuts:
1) They really believe what they are saying. If that's true, then they are incredibly stoopid, ignorant, and lazy, for it would take little effort to determine that their claims are hogwash.
2) They don't really believe what they are saying. If that's true, then they are truly evil people, more concerned with their media "success," e.g. money and fame, then they are about the United States or the children in our public schools.
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Radio rage...
From Crooks and Liars
Here's one for the memory banks from Bill Moyers Journal, September 2008, talking about the rise of hate talk on right wing radio, and Glenn Beck saying he'd like to kill Michael Moore along with some other right wing screechers doing their best to incite violence in the name of keeping their ratings up.
RICK KARR: Michael Savage isn't the only right-wing talk-radio host who launches blistering, even violent, verbal attacks on people and groups he doesn't like. Glenn Beck, for instance, fantasized about murdering a liberal filmmaker.
GLENN BECK: "I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out of him. Is this wrong?"
RICK KARR: Michael Reagan, son of the former president, suggested that people who claim that "nine-eleven was an inside job," a U.S. government conspiracy, deserve to die.
MICHAEL REAGAN: "Take them out and shoot them. They are traitors to this country, and shoot them. But anybody who would do that doesn't deserve to live. You shoot them. You call them traitors, that's what they are, and you shoot them dead. I'll pay for the bullet."
RICK KARR: Neal Boortz went after victims of Hurricane Katrina.
NEAL BOORTZ:"That wasn't the cries of the downtrodden. That's the cries of the useless, the worthless. New Orleans was a welfare city, a city of parasites, a city of people who could not, and had no desire to fend for themselves. You have a hurricane descending on them and they sit on their fat asses and wait for somebody else to come rescue them."
RICK KARR: Muslims are some of Boortz's favorite targets.
NEAL BOORTZ:"It's Ramadan and Muslims in your workplace might be offended if they see you eating at your desk. Why? I guess it's because Muslims don't eat during the day during Ramadan. They fast during the day and eat at night. Sorta like cockroaches."
RICK KARR: Reverend Chris Buice says he's heard that kind of language before.
REVEREND CHRIS BUICE: If you look at the history of like situations like in Rwanda in 1994, the talk radio was a big part of leading to the conditions that created a genocide. The Hutu radio disc jockeys would call the Tutsi cockroaches. There's the sense that these aren't human beings. You know, they're not human beings with children or grandchildren. These are cockroaches. And when you hear in talk radio that liberals are evil, that they are traitors, that they are godless, that they are on the side of the terrorist. That's hate language. You don't negotiate with evil people. You don't live in community with people you consider to be traitors.
RICK KARR: Millions of Americans tune in to right-wing talk radio every day. Rory O'Connor is a media critic and a liberal himself who's written a book on shock-talkers. He says not all of these broadcasters use violent language. But they do all share a predilection for outrage and, he says, they're all practically addicted to constantly cranking up that outrage.
RORY O'CONNOR: Here's the real problem. When you shock somebody, if you come back the next time and you apply the same stimulus, it's not shocking any longer. It's already happened. So you have to ratchet it up a little bit. So how do you cut through? How do you really shock? I think that in order to continue to outrage, you have to constantly be jacking up the pressure. And ultimately, there's gonna be some deranged person out there in that audience who's gonna say, "You know what? That's a good idea. Let me act on that."
GLENN BECK:"The fusion of entertainment and enlightenment."
RICK KARR: Entertainers — that's what a lot of the shock-talkers call themselves. O'Connor says, maybe. But their words can motivate their listeners to act.
RORY O'CONNOR: Now first and foremost, we have to recognize that many of them are employed across multiple platforms. So they may say something on their radio show, but they may repeat it on their television show. They may then repeat it in their newspaper column. They may repackage the ideas into their best-selling books.
Keith Olbermann said he was looking for everything anyone can find on Glenn Beck. Maybe this one makes the list on his show this week.
* * * *
What's most interesting to me is that the radio/TV personalities that emit this filthy insanity over the air waves are also the ones who loudly proclaim their "patriotism" and "love" for America; which merely adds the epithet "hypocrite" to the shingle that hangs in front of their door.
They are destructive, not constructive. Bullies, not leaders. And by pandering to the worst among us, they increase the potential for violence, and, as we have seen on several occasions recently, the reality of violence.
In other words, they are un-American to the core. Caring nothing for the well-being of our common weal, they desecrate the Union to enhance their personas and fill their coffers with filthy lucre.
They are destructive, not constructive. Bullies, not leaders. And by pandering to the worst among us, they increase the potential for violence, and, as we have seen on several occasions recently, the reality of violence.
In other words, they are un-American to the core. Caring nothing for the well-being of our common weal, they desecrate the Union to enhance their personas and fill their coffers with filthy lucre.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Democracy Now! "Republican Gomorrah"
Please watch these in order. You will find the videos to be an excellent introduction to the history of the Christian Right and how that movement has taken over the Republican Party.
I was made privy to these videos by an anonymous writer. I must say, "Thank you," whoever you are!
I was made privy to these videos by an anonymous writer. I must say, "Thank you," whoever you are!
Tim Pawlenty's hypocritical "rule" on winning wars
From Crooks and Liars:
Tim Pawlenty apparently has a new rule. When the United States either goes to war with or invades another country, we or they depending on where you live, never lose. Sorry Tim but reality has a way of biting that sort of revisionist history right in it's ass. I would say why didn't John King bother to point out that obvious fact to you, but we are talking about John King here...lol. That man hasn't found a Republican he couldn't give a softball interview to since he made Wolf Blitzer's show Sunday into more of a joke than it was before he took it over.
KING: Let me move on to another issue, another big issue on the president's plate, where, in Congress, he's largely getting more Republican support than Democratic support, and that's Afghanistan.
George Will, a very influential conservative columnist wrote this earlier in the week, "Forces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy. America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, air strikes, and small potent special forces units concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters."
Is it time for the United States to pull almost all of its troops from Afghanistan?
PAWLENTY: No. I recently returned from my fourth trip to Iraq and my second trip to Afghanistan. The administration has defined the mission in Afghanistan as to to disrupt and destroy the Taliban and Al Qaida and other terrorist forces that represent a threat to the national security interests of the United States.
We need to make sure that mission is successful. And the rule needs to be, when the United States goes to war, the United States wins, and so we need to make sure we do those things to complete that mission successfully, and that includes putting more troops into Afghanistan if needed.
+ + + +
And, another rule should be that when Repugnican lawmakers start mouthing off about wars and rumors of wars, they should be immediately required to join the Armed Forces to help make their wet dreams of combat come true.
Someone give Pawlenty an enlistment form!
Oh, that's right. Georgi Bush skipped out on his commitment, during a war, and Dickie Cheney got five college deferments so he wouldn't have to fight.
An even better "rule" would be one that requires every lawmaker who votes for going to war, or prolonging a war, along with their sons and daughters, to immediately don a uniform and be transported to the thick of the fighting.
Someone give Pawlenty an enlistment form!
Oh, that's right. Georgi Bush skipped out on his commitment, during a war, and Dickie Cheney got five college deferments so he wouldn't have to fight.
An even better "rule" would be one that requires every lawmaker who votes for going to war, or prolonging a war, along with their sons and daughters, to immediately don a uniform and be transported to the thick of the fighting.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Rachel Maddow - A special kind of stoopid in Georgia!
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Keith Olbermann - on Ins. company death panels
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