Racism is Alive and Well

And on that note: Haley Barbour can kiss goodbye his chances of becoming the Republican candidate for President in 2010, and of being elected to any office at the national level... thanks to Rachel Maddow.

Ugly Stuff

This is the ugliest, most repulsive thing I have seen in a while.

Here is an an American citizen—and what's more one who is risking his life so that your ass and mine and that of every member of Congress does not have to—having to hide his face and use a pseudonym out of fear of being persecuted—legitimately persecuted—by the system we have allowed to shamefully persist for seventeen years to the detriment of real human beings.

I'm borderline anti-militaristic and I am saying this.

Politics and Bigotry Before Justice

An exposé of the hypocrisy plaguing our Congress and obstructing its legislative process, this time on Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell:

Common Sense ca. 2010

While I am not quite happy with the petty nomination that the Obama administration extended to Elizabeth Warren (for the sole reason that it is not enough), I do think that any bit of her input or influence in the yet-to-come Consumer Protection Agency is undoubtedly welcomed and more than necessary. She is the foremost defender of the U.S. consumer and deserves tangible power in the creation and management of the CPA.

While her voice will be heard, I did also want to hear the arguments coming from any member of Congress against her nomination for the leading position in the Agency. Her advocacy of the middle class is unparalleled and I would welcome any congressman or congresswoman to rise up and state his or her opposition to her nomination. Obama and the Democrats would have benefited from an open debate of this sort. The fact that Obama would face openly and head-on a challenge for a true cause of the left would reassure his base of the support with which he ought to reward them for their votes. Unfortunately, though, he has yet again done something only half-way....

Without any more ranting, here is the common-sense interview Elizabeth Warren gave on The Rachel Maddow Show:

Truth Be Told...

I am glad that at a time when most are discussing America's exit from Iraq (sort of), somebody stops and looks at the reason(s) that got us there in the first place. Those reasons were as fickle as they were false. What we didn't find there, the thousands of Iraqi victims, and the current state of political and social instability also go to show us that the war was in vain. Those dead did die in vain; they died in the hands of leaders who, led by their own reasons, sent thousands of them to fight a useless, unnecessary, unpopular, destructive war.

Revisionism is a Republican philosophy of life. Sadly, many Americans buy into it time after time. Good thing Rachel Maddow is around to shed some light where light is due, and give credit where credit is due.

Bonus clip:

You're Playing With the Adults Now, Billyboy...

Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann have had a back-and-forth exchange of insults for a few years now. While I really do not like Bill O'Reilly, I must say that Keith Olbermann's retorts to 'Bill-o the Clown' are often childish and rely on name-calling more than anything else.

Perhaps weary of his feud with Olbermann, O'Reilly is now taking on Rachel Maddow, oblivious to the fact that she is an adult and will not engage him in name-calling, but rather fact-throwing. And, as long as she is playing that card, Billyboy will be in trouble....

I say get out now. Get out fast and don't look back.....

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They Didn't Ask—He Still Told

Just watch this segment and you will understand how medieval and draconian Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell is. Not to mention costly and detrimental to the government, the army, and the individuals involved.

Fox News's Witch Hunt

Fox News is an expert propaganda machine and, as such, is also good at demonizing people and forcing qualified, decent individuals to resign from their positions of power.

Their latest victim is Shirley Sharrod, an official in the Department of Agriculture under Obama, who has been accused by right-wind groups of racism. That message was reiterated ad nauseam by their cronies at Fox News and, as a result, she had to resign her post.

The truth of the matter is that the speech that led to accusations of racism is nothing more than a well-edited attack on her person. This is not the first time the right wing machine or Fox News have done something of the sort. On the contrary, many organizations and individuals have fallen prey to their smear tactics and have had to eventually resign or, in the case of ACORN, cease to exist.

Yet, we must admit that there is racism in this situation; only, it is not the racism of which they accuse Sharrod: It is a more concentrated and vitriolic form of the 0ld-fashioned whites-are-better-than-blacks racist stance. More concentrated because it is not the sole example in the last year and a half; more vitriolic because we allow it to happen and 'news' organizations such as Fox News propagate it without the slightest modicum of shame in this day and age. I guess I could call it shameful, too, because it feeds whatever latent traces of racism there are in American society, leading them to amplify and reach the public sphere where they are widely tolerated and touted as manifestations of our democracy.

Of course, this is nothing of the sort. I have said it before and I will say it again: a large chunk of the animosity against President Obama and his policies is a direct consequence of racism in this country. It is unlikely anybody can convince me otherwise. The rhetoric, the actions taken, the condescension with which they refer to the President on many media outlets is nothing more than a return to our shameless past when calling blacks 'uppity' and wanting to 'put (or keep) them in their place' was defended as 'American.'

Aren't we in the same crossroads as 40, 50, 140 years ago? And shouldn't we think before we take our next step into the road of peaceful existence, or into the abyss of hatred and bigotry...?

For more info, watch Rachel Maddow's segment on the issue, as well as the Sharrod's full allegedly 'racist' speech.

Loon Watch

Here is the Republican alternative to Harry Reid of the Democrats in Nevada. Now, I'm no big fan of Harry Reid—I think he could have been a tougher majority leader—but this woman has just guaranteed his reelection with her senseless, unrealistic view of the situation in her state and in the nation.

Have the Republicans stopped trying?

Stevens in Perspective

Everybody is talking about the retirement of the Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Rachel Maddow tackles the retirement and puts in perspective the politics and rightward shifting of the Supreme Court.

By contiguity, one can argue that the entire nation has experienced—and, despite Obama as president, is still experiencing—the same shift.

Perspective

Rachel Maddow echoes and puts into perspective what I have always believed about the role of government.

Healthy at Last

Many friends of mine and I rejoiced today because a semblance of the medical protections and assurances that our industrialized peers have had for decades is now available to Americans.

In the face of the misinformation out there, here is Rachel Maddow, redoubtable as ever, listing the benefits that a great number of us will now enjoy, but that Republicans are already moving to repeal.

Republican Disingenuousness

As always, Rachel Maddow is on top of the latest chicanery from Republicans. And, as always, Republicans do not disappoint in showing that they are masters of flagrant prevarication and have the audacity to repeatedly iterate the lie that they collectively agree upon. The lies they propagate, including those statements made today by no one other than McCain, besmirch the whole principle of a democracy. Suddenly, to them, fifty-one votes in the senate do not count as a majority. The normal is now sixty. What's next, Republicans? A two-thirds majority to pass everything? We have never been at war with Eastasia? 2 + 2 = 5?

Stop rewriting history and stop lying to the American people. Sure, a lot of them are misinformed and misled by you and your Fox News propaganda machine, but still... have you no decency, at long last?! Accept that you are in the minority and get to work on trying to regain your majority. Until then, let the majority that has been democratically elected do its work. Let them pass bills through a simple majority, as normal senatorial rules and political, legislative decency dictate. Stop naming things 'nuclear.' The cold war is over.

Just watch. I'm too exhausted to get into the technicalities of it. I said my piece.

Republican Hypocrisy

I wish I had kept count of all posts related to Republican hypocrisy, but alas! I haven't.... I would have lost count long ago, anyway....

Here's the latest from one of the few genuinely journalistic voices on television, Rachel Maddow:

What Republicans are All About

I'm not a Democrat and I hope those of you who don't know me will take my word for it. I am, however, much more in line with their way of thinking and their actions than I am with those of Republicans. Why?

Well, look at the video below and see what they're standing up for. And then skip below the video and see what self-identified Republicans around the country are thinking nowadays.

No, siree, Bob, I ain't no Republican....

A portrait of Republicans across the nation.

On Haiti

Rachel Maddow and her guest make the case for forgiving Haiti's debt. Seems like the most reasonable thing to do at this point, but will it happen?

Hug the Gay Away, Continued

Rachel Maddow interviews Richard Cohen, an unlicensed therapist with no credentials or degrees, other than an M.A., and author of two books claiming that you can cease to be gay (so as not to use the word 'cure,' to be fair to him). His books are being used to promote anti-homosexual legislation in Uganda, whereby homosexuality or knowledge of it with failure to denounce it, would be punishable by anywhere between three years (for the latter) and death by hanging (for 'homosexual acts').

This is a heated interview that, in my opinion, discredits and exposes him for the fraud and money-grubbing hypocrite he is.

And, by the way, I feel sorry for his wife. But then again, she's probably as deluded as he is....

Hug the Gay Away (Or Beat the Parents)

Either works according to a formerly gay loon.

Rachel Maddow reports:

Going Rogue and Palling Around

Despite what her annoyingly frequent and constantly fallacious Facebook posts might suggest (puh-lease! other people write those), Sarah Palin could not put together a coherent, cohesive piece of writing if her life depended on it. Winks and smiles do not translate so well in print. So, how, might you ask, did she write her upcoming book in the space of just a few months? She didn't, of course. Other people did.

And here is a short description of their œuvre.

Relentless Thuggery

Conservatives are behaving like piranhas: they attack a prey and never leave until all that is left are its lifeless bones. And they succeed by virtue of their numerous appeals to the masses and the reactions they elicit, among which are the worst and ugliest of human nature.

ACORN is the conservatives' latest victim (though they still are attacking president Obama and others). Rachel Maddow does a tremendously good job of exposing and unmasking the forces behind the conspiracy against ACORN:

What happened to Republicans' appeal to the 'better angels of our nature,' so vivid 150 years ago?

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

Abraham LINCOLN