Sorry

Haven't been updating the blog as much. Been hanging out on Facebook with old friends. I have blocked some of the folks from here so don't even try.

"Can you imagine, if what's going on with the tea party rallies, if they were a group of black people,waving guns, coming up armed, talking about how you might have to take matters into your own hands if the government doesn't do what you want, you think the reaction in this country would be similar to what it is now?"
-- Bill Maher, telling the truth again,

40 Years Ago Today May 4, 1970 Kent State Shootings

It saddens me that there are people that think the murders at Kent State and Jackson State were justified. Don't believe me? Follow the link to this video. Edward R Murrow once said "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it."

Why Aren’t Tea Partiers Protesting Arizona’s Big Government Overreach On Immigration?

From Think Progress

Tea Party activists go out of their way to insist that they’re not partisan, racist, or filled with hate; they’re just patriots who want to stop a “socialist” government machine from controlling their daily lives.

The new immigration law in Arizona should be ripe for the Tea Parties to take up. SB-1070 is the “broadest and strictest immigration measure in generations,” giving police unprecedented power to detain anyone they suspect of being an undocumented immigrant and making “the failure to carry immigration documents a crime.” Even traditionally far-right figures like former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee have worried that the law might lead to racial profiling abuses by the government.

But as the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson notes, this Tea Party support hasn’t materialized:

Activists for Latino and immigrant rights — and supporters of sane governance — held weekend rallies denouncing the new law and vowing to do everything they can to overturn it. But where was the Tea Party crowd? Isn’t the whole premise of the Tea Party movement that overreaching government poses a grave threat to individual freedom?It seems to me that a law allowing individuals to be detained and interrogated on a whim — and requiring legal residents to carry identification documents, as in a police state — would send the Tea Partyers into apoplexy. Or is there some kind of exception if the people whose freedoms are being taken away happen to have brown skin and might speak Spanish?

Not only are Tea Partiers not speaking out against SB-1070, they’re actively supporting it. The Arizona Tea Party Network called on its members to support Brewer’s big government. In fact, the sponsor of SB-1070 is state Sen. Russell Pearce (R), a Tea Party backer.

According to a new survey directed by University of Washington political scientist Christopher Parker, white Tea Partiers tend to be “predisposed to intolerance,” pointing to a possible reason the movement has been reluctant to join with immigration reform activists:

For instance, the Tea Party, the grassroots movement committed to reining in what they perceive as big government, and fiscal irresponsibility, also appear predisposed to intolerance. Approximately 45% of Whites either strongly or somewhat approve of the movement. Of those, only 35% believe Blacks to be hardworking, only 45 % believe Blacks are intelligent, and only 41% think that Blacks are trustworthy.Perceptions of Latinos aren’t much different. While 54% of White Tea Party supporters believe Latinos to be hardworking, only 44% think them intelligent, and even fewer, 42% of Tea Party supporters believe Latinos to be trustworthy. When it comes to gays and lesbians, White Tea Party supporters also hold negative attitudes. Only 36% think gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to adopt children, and just 17% are in favor of same-sex marriage.

Also, if Tea Partiers really do feel like they’ve been taxed enough already, they should support immigration reform. As Andrea Nill has reported, “In January, the Immigration Policy Center and the Center for American Progress found that legalizing undocumented immigrants through comprehensive immigration reform would generate $4.5 to $5.4 billion in additional net tax revenue within three years. The study predicted that ultimately the benefits of immigration reform would go beyond pure tax revenue and would yield at least $1.5 trillion in cumulative U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years.”

Crosby shares goal-scoring title

In an interview last night, President Obama responded to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s criticism of his nuclear weapons policy, saying, “the last I checked, Sarah Palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues” “If the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff are comfortable with it, I’m probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin,” said Obama.

In West Virginia, Coal Miners' Slaughter

by: Michael Winship, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: ChuckHolton, designshard)

The high cost of energy in America was paid in human lives this week, with the deaths of more than two dozen miners in a massive explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia. It's the worst mine disaster in a quarter of a century.

Upper Big Branch is owned by Massey Energy Company, which operates 47 mines in central Appalachia. According to the Los Angeles Times, it employs nearly 6,000 and in 2009 reported revenues of $2.3 billion, with a net income of $104.4 million.

At the center of this week's catastrophe is Massey's president and CEO Don Blankenship, a man so reviled nowadays he had to be escorted away by police when he and other company officials tried to address a group of distraught family and friends outside the Upper Big Branch mine in the early morning hours after the explosion. The crowd hurled invective - and a chair.

Blankenship hates unions (Upper Big Branch is a non-union mine), thinks global warming is a figment of our imaginations and that those who do believe in climate change are crazy; supports destructive, mountain-top-removal mining; serves on the board of the conservative, free market U.S. Chamber of Commerce and now, lucky us, shares his pearls of right-wing wisdom via Twitter. "America doesn't need Green jobs," he tweeted pithily last month, "but Red, White, & Blue ones." David Roberts of the environmental magazine Grist described him as "the scariest polluter in the U.S. ...The guy is evil and I don't use that word lightly."

Just one example of Massey Energy's earlier history of environmental malfeasance was described in a May 2003 issue of Forbes Magazine: "In October 2000 the floor of a 72-acre wastewater reservoir built above an abandoned mine in Kentucky collapsed, sending black sludge through the mine and out into a tributary of the Big Sandy River. The sludge killed fish and plants for 36 miles downstream. Water supplies were shut down in several towns for a month. In total, 230 million gallons spilled out, 20 times the volume of the crude oil from the Exxon Valdez. Lawns nearby were covered in as much as 7 feet of muck...

"... The reservoir had shown signs of leaking right before the accident and Massey failed to report that fact to regulators as required, according to the U.S. Mine Safety & Health Administration. The cleanup has cost $58 million so far."

This week's Upper Big Branch mine disaster is the latest in a string of environmental and safety-related calamities linked to Massey and Blankenship. In 2008, the company paid a $20 million fine to the Environmental Protection Agency, and that same year, a Massey subsidiary, the Aracoma Coal Company, pled guilty to safety violations and agreed to $4.2 million in civil penalties and criminal fines connected to the 2006 deaths of two miners in a fire.

According to The New York Times, "After the fire broke out, the two miners found themselves unable to escape, partly because the company had removed some ventilation controls inside the mine. The workers died of suffocation. Federal prosecutors at the time called it the largest such settlement in the history of the coal industry."

The Upper Big Branch mine has a long history of violations. Last month alone it was cited by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration for 53 safety violations, many of them for inadequate venting of dust and methane and improperly maintained escape passages. Last year, the Times reports, "the number of citations against the mine more than doubled, to over 500, from 2008, and the penalties proposed against the mine more than tripled, to $897,325." So far, only $168,393 of those fines have been paid.

Blankenship's response? "Violations are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process," he told a radio interviewer. West Virginia and federal laws were toughened after the Sago mine disaster in 2006 that killed 12 men. But as the number of safety citations has increased, so, too, has the number of appeals by the mining companies, and while that long bureaucratic process unfolds, it's business as usual.

Blankenship and Massey Energy play our political system like a country fiddle, a system corrupted by money and influence. A certified public accountant (he's actually in the national CPA hall of fame - I'm not kidding), Blankenship apparently sees the world as one big balance sheet, with human life an expendable commodity and - especially if they're judges or other officials - something to be bought and sold. The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics says that since 1990, those associated with Massey and its political action committee have given more than $300,000 in campaign contributions to federal candidates. And in 2006, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, Blankenship spent more than $100,000 trying to elect pro-business candidates to the West Virginia state legislature.

But it's in the courthouse that Blankenship has really tried to spread the wealth. In 2008, photos were published of him wining and dining West Virginia Supreme Court Justice "Spike" Maynard along the Riviera. They were popping corks in Monaco as Massey Energy was before the court appealing a $50 million judgment that had been won by smaller mining companies charging Massey with fraud. Subsequently, Maynard recused himself from the case and was defeated for re-election. Now he's running for Congress.

Blankenship had better luck when he went on the offensive against West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Justice Warren McGraw, creating a PAC called "And for the Sake of the Kids." He contributed $3 million and created campaign ads described by USA Today as "venomous." They made particular hay with a case in which Justice McGraw was part of a majority that voted to free a mentally disturbed child molester, who got a job as a school janitor.

McGraw was defeated by Blankenship's candidate, Brent Benjamin. When the appeal of the $50 million came before the court, ABC News reports, "Justice Benjamin refused to recuse himself from the case and twice provided the deciding vote in Massey's favor. The jury verdict against Massey was overturned."

So egregious were Benjamin's actions that even the current United States Supreme Court, so heavily pro-business in its recent decision-making, was appalled. It ruled that the judge and Blankenship were out of line. Even so - and even with Benjamin finally recusing himself - on a third vote, Massey again won its appeal.

When you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. Meanwhile, miners working for Massey Energy and Blankenship continue to risk their lives deep below the earth, digging out the fuel that helps keep our lights burning at the price of never knowing if the tiniest of sparks will ignite the next fatal explosion.

Now and Then - Not much difference

Death, Lies and Videotape

[Caution: graphic video not suitable for work or children. Full-length version here.]

from crooks and liars 

By nonny mouse

On the fifth of April, WikiLeaks released a classified US military video from an Apache helicopter gunship as it killed over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad in 2007, including two Reuters new staff, as well as seriously wounding two young children. One of the journalists, gravely wounded in the attack, was then shot in a second barrage as he tried to crawl away, and his body run over by a Humvee. Since the attack, Reuters had been attempting to obtain this video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success. Now it is public for the first time.
Wikileak’s organisers were given the footage by an unnamed source, which they then decrypted and posted on-line. So far, the Pentagon has had no response. The high-quality video, according to BBC’s Adam Brookes in Washington, appears to be authentic, and includes the recording of the pilot’s radio transmission and troops on the ground. Wikileaks has also published a statement from Reuters news editor-in-chief David Schlessinger saying that the video was ‘graphic evidence of the dangers involved in war journalism and the tragedies that can result’.
Wikileaks has complained of surveillance and harassment by the US and other governments, primarily for their role in leaking documents on sensitive subjects, from the assassination of human rights lawyers in Nairobi, photos of murders committed in Tibet followed by a mass attack on Swedish servers by Chinese computers in retaliation, threats by the head of Germany’s BNP of prosecution over a report of CIA involvement in Kosovo,and more. This tiny blogsite, which won Amnesty International’s 2009 media award, is nearly broke and has depended on donations from human rights groups, journalists, technology experts and simply concerned individuals for survival, a ludicrous game of David and Goliath of the internet.
But it seems someone within the DoD or US Army Counterintelligence or CIA or somewhere still believes in the public’s right to know what our elected government is up to. According to documents leaked to Wikileaks, even our own government has conspired to shut down the organization, including exposing sources and identifying whistleblowers and retaliating by termination of employment, criminal prosecution, defamation of the organization to weaken its credibility. The lessons of Valerie Plame and the Freedom of Information Act be damned.
Be warned. This video is not for the faint-hearted. I watched the whole thing. It made me feel ill, but I watched it all. It's the least I could do for those people who lost their lives. At one point you can even see one of the men from the van trying to rescue the wounded journalist looking up at the helicopter, he knew it was there. He knew what he was risking, and tried to help anyway. The bravery of that man is astounding. And he died. If it were left up to our own government, he would have died without you or I or anyone else ever knowing, our ignorance the biggest weapon in any military arsenal. If this ungodly, horrible war is ever to end, it is not only the public’s right to know what we have done and are still doing in Iraq, and Afghanistan, it is our responsibility to demand to know.
What truly bothers me is the absolute callousness of the conversation going on in the Apache helicopter. Beyond the 'fucking prick' and the 'bastards' comments, it's the laughter, particularly during the shooting as if it's all just a video game, cheering each other on as the wounded journalist crawls on the ground, willing him to reach for a ‘weapon’ so they can shoot him again, laughing when his body is run over by a military truck. The comment when the crew realized children have been wounded was shocking: ‘Well, it’s their own fault for bringing their kids to a battle.'
Bringing their kids to a battle? Those children live there! This wasn't a 'battlefield' - it was just an ordinary neighbourhood that got pasted by an American helicopter, twice. We brought the war to them. Where the hell were the kids supposed to have been? Loma Linda? Ann Arbor? Tampa?
Continue reading »

Happy Easter

Large Hadron Collider A Success—And We're Still Alive! (We Think)

The scientists at CERN momentarily forgot how to speak like, well, scientists, and got a little carried away on Twitter after they successfully saw particle collisions for the first time. [CERN] <-click on this link for video
from Gizmodo

More from AP

The world's largest atom smasher has set a record for high-energy collisions by crashing two proton beams at three times more force than ever before.

The $10 billion Large Hadron Collider directed the beams into each other Tuesday as part of its ambitious bid to reveal details about theoretical particles and microforces.

The collisions start a new era of science for researchers working on the machine below the Swiss-French border at Geneva.

Scientists at a control room at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, broke into applause when the first successful collisions were recorded. Their colleagues from around the world were tuning in by remote links.

Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.
Saul Alinsky 

Lou Reed - Dirty Boulevard

Sara Palin "Real Americans cling to their religion and guns"
Wolf  "I guess I'm not a Real American"

Update Going Green

I've had the Surge for a week now and it works great. It adds a little weight to the Ipod Touch but fits comfortly in your hand. There haven't been that many sunny days so it takes a while to get a full solar charge. It doesn't take long to get charged when hooked upto my PC using the supplied USB cable. No problems sincing to Itunes. Only problem is that the hole for the auto out plug is too small. Works only with my earbuds but not with my earphones or external speaker. No problem when using Bluetooth or WiFi, in fact I am posting this using the Blogger app over WiFi. My rating for the Surge is 4 stars out of 5 cause the phone plug hole is too small.

Quinnipiac poll on Tea Parties confirms yet again that they are arch-conservatives

By John Amato crooks and liars

My inbox is a full-time job all of its own, but I do get a lot of useful information passed on to me. Quinnipiac released a new poll about the Tea Party movement and the results are everything C&L has been saying about them.

Looking at voters who consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement:

• 74 percent are Republicans or independent voters leaning Republican;
• 16 percent are Democrats or independent voters leaning Democratic;
• 5 percent are solidly independent;
• 45 percent are men;
• 55 percent are women;
• 88 percent are white;
• 77 percent voted for Sen. John McCain in 2008;
• 15 percent voted for President Barack Obama.

A total of 19 percent of American voters trust government to do the right thing "almost all of the time" or "most of the time," compared to only 4 percent of Tea Party members.

While only 33 percent of all voters have a favorable opinion of Sarah Palin, 72 percent of Tea Party members have a favorable opinion of her.

The Teabaggers are essentially an extension of the conservative movement -- only, Fox News needed to tap into the body politic as far right as they could go to energize it. And in that Ailes-directed task, they were very successful. I laugh when I hear the MSM try to explain them to their audiences. They refuse to tell the truth about them in any detail or even admit the fact that they were cultivated with great care by Fox News.

And if you hear people trying to tell you that they are angry Independent voters, well, use this poll, our articles and, of course, Digby.

The Hard Core Right

In case anyone's still thinking that the teabaggers are "independent" middle of the road types who disdain both the right and the left equally,this new Quinnipiac Poll should finally put that to rest.

Ed Kilgore summarizes:

...the Tea Party folk [are] basically, very conservative Republicans determined to pressure the GOP to move to the right or suffer the consequences--in other words, a radicalized GOP base.

The alternative explanation has been that the Tea Partiers represent independent voters who are fed up with government and will join with Republicans to create a stable majority in this "center-right nation" if and only if Republicans stop talking about cultural issues and focus on lower taxes, smaller government and the economy. Nothing in the Quinnipiac poll supports that proposition. On question after question, self-identified Tea Partiers (13% of the total sample) are much closer in their views to self-identified Republicans than to self-identified independents. Most notably, the approval/disapproval rating for the Republican Party is 60/20 among Tea Partiers and 28/42 among indies. Among those voting in 2008, Tea Partiers went for McCain by a margin of 77/15; indies split down the middle (going for McCain 46/42). Tea Partiers have a favorable view of Sarah Palin by a 72/14 margin (significantly higher than among Republicans), while indies have an unfavorable view of her by a 49/34 margin. Tea Partiers self-identify as Republicans or Republican-leaners by a 74/16 margin. These are not the same people by any stretch of the imagination.

The poll doesn't ask enough questions to get at the details of Tea Party ideology, but it also doesn't supply any ammunition to the common perception that Tea Partiers are libertarians at heart, and/or that they are displacing the Christian Right within the conservative coalition. Actually, 21% of self-identified white "born-again" evangelicals consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement, well above the 13% figure for all voters. And the the two categories of voters share a rare positive attachment to Sarah Palin (white "born-agains" approve of her by a 55/29 margin, Tea Partiers by a 72/14 margin).

At some point, the more questionable assumptions that pundits are making about the Tea Folk--they are right-trending independents, they are hostile to the Christian Right--need to yield to empirical evidence. Now would be a good time to start.

Considering the media just figured out that some of the opposition to the bill over the past few months was from liberals who wanted a public option or single payer, I'm not holding my breath on that.

But it really doesn't take a poll to see that these tea partiers are ill-informed, Beck watching right wingers. All you have to do is read their signs and listen to what they say. They are the hardcore GOP base. And they are very, very sore losers. It's one of their defining characteristics.

The media will fight this fairly accurate assessment of them tooth and nail, but they'll see starting in the 2010 midterms if the teabaggers are a real third party. Sarah Palin and Karl Rove have been begging the Tea Partiers not to form their own party, but I really doubt they need them for that. There will be a few groups that break off and do their own thing, but if I had to put a number on it, then I'd say about 88% of them will join the GOP in the end.

My Ipod Touch

I've had my ITouch for a few years and I love it. As of this moment it has 628 songs, 4 Videos and 161 Apps with 1.1 GB left over in it's 16 GB Memory. I have AirStash a Wireless Pocketable Media Server on Pre-order and that will add up to 32 gigs. This little machine is a great portable computer as well as a cool game machine.

Here are some of the Apps and Games I like.

Every ITouch comes with these basic Apps.

Apples Safari Web Browser - I've tried other browsers but so far Safari is the best

An E-mail Program for multi accounts - Google, AOL, Hotmail on mine

Calendar

Clock

Contact List that can be used with e-mail and Apps

Stocks

YouTube

Maps

Voice Memos - You need earbuds with a mic

Notepad

Calculator

Weather - I use The Weather Channels App instead

Itunes

App Store

Settings

Photos - for got to tell yins I have 470 photos

Video

My favorite Apps

Twitter - Twittelator - I've tried most of them but this one is the best for me

WiFi Get Plus - Finds Hot Spots

Bing - The MS search app

Taptu - Another search app

MySpace - Better than the one on my Blackberry but not as good as

Facebook - Great Free App

iGift4u - Add on for FB Lets you update staus, has quotes, jokes, news, Youtube plus more

Live Cams

PA Traffic Cams

Google Earth

Google App - does everything google

Skype - Voice or txt only

Meebo - all txt chat programs in one

NASA

Kindle - Yeah I use it a lot to read my Kindle books

Wikipedia

Pandora - net radio

IMDB

Amazon

Yahoo -everything Yahoo

White House - yeah The Pres. loves the net

Quakewatch

NPR News

Call tacker

Those are just a few of the apps I like

Games and other stuff

Flick Fishing

Flick Bowling

IBeer

Zippo Lighter

Atomic Fart

Ask Ozzy

Family Guy

Avatar

Star Trek

Sims 3

C64 - Commodore C64 Emulator - waiting for Elite to come out for it

Snood

Doodle Jump

Scoops

Myst

6 diff car racing games

Bejeweled 2

4 diff pinball games, I like The Deep

FaceFighter put your own pics and fight them (bush is cool)

NCCA Live - all the games live

LED Football

4 diff snowboard games - Shaun White is best but no 1/2 pipe

Madden NFL 2010

Tiger Woods

3 diff poker games, play the same one I play on FB

3 Tarot, 1 Rune, 1 IChing and 2 horoscope apps

6 music apps Rock Band and Metalica Taptap used the most

2 Bird Watching apps

Plus many more

I am often asked When are you gonna get an IPad. My answer for now Never! Why? Because 1. you never by the 1st version of any high tech gadget. 2. Pissed at Steve Jobs for causing the price of e-books to go up. 3. Waiting for version 4 ( I have V2) of The Touch.

Republicans Block Bills Ensuring Continuation Of Military Health Care

From ThinkProgress

As ThinkProgress reported earlier today, some military families have been concerned about how the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will affect their health care. Fears about the legislation have been fueled, in part, by lawmakers like Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA), who has claimed that “now their programs are going to beadministered like welfare programs, rather than earned military benefits.”

There is another piece of misinformation floating around that’s important to clear up. The new law has an individual responsibility requirement, meaning that every person must have health coverage (or receive an affordability waiver), otherwise he/she will be subjected to a fee. The Affordable Care Act doesn’t explicitly state that TRICARE — the military’s health program — will meet the individual responsibility requirement. So on Saturday, lawmakers — out of an abundance of caution — passed separate legislation affirming that TRICARE will not be affected. As House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) stated when the legislation was unanimously approved:

While beneficiaries of these programs will already meet the minimum requirements for individual health insurance and will not be required to purchase additional coverage, the TRICARE Affirmation Act would provide clarification by changing the tax code to state it in law.

In the Senate, Jim Webb (D-VA) has introduced a companion bill to Skelton’s, and Daniel Akaka (D-HI) has put forth similar legislation on a related matter. Last night, Webb asked for unanimous consent to approve both measures. While Akaka’s would have to head back to the House for a vote, Webb’s — which has attracted six Republican co-sponsors — could go straight to the President for his signature, since the House already passed the Skelton bill. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) objected, however, saying that Republicans wanted them attached to the reconciliation bill as an amendment sponsored by Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), which would then have to go back to the House:

WEBB: Mr. President, I would suggest to my colleague from North Carolina and to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that if you really want to fix this problem, we can fix it right now and we should fix it right now.We should not allow this issue to be tied up in the separate melodrama of the moment here. [...]

COBURN: We’ve got this — we got this a minute and a half ago to see the language. You have an amendment on the floor that actually accomplishes everything you want to do, and why are we doing this? Because you don’t want to mess up a package that’s clean. It has every application, the Burr amendment, to this. With that and the fact that this is exactly the kind of shenanigans the American people don’t want, I object.

WEBB: Let the American people understand the Republicans objected to a matter that could have been fixed by law tomorrow.

Webb brought his legislation up on the floor again today, around 4:30 p.m., saying that he would be working with Republicans to “attempt to clear these today.”

Republicans had been trying to attach all sorts of “poison pill” amendments to delay the reconciliation legislation, including one to ban all federal funding for the group ACORN, which has already announced that it is shutting down. Since their attempt failed, and the reconciliation bill is already back in the House, the TRICARE legislation needs to pass the Senate as a stand-alone bill, as Webb had tried to do yesterday.

Even though Bilbray and all other House Republicans voted for this measure, they’re now trying to argue that it doesn’t go far enough. Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) has another piece of legislation on the issue, which has attracted 32 co-sponsors — all Republicans. Bilbray spokesman Fritz Chaleff wrote to ThinkProgress that Skelton’s legislation says only that “TRICARE meets the minimal standards of coverage,” while the GOP bill “carves out TRICARE from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” However, Democratic aides on Capitol Hill told ThinkProgress that the the Skelton legislation is more than sufficient and the other bill is political grandstanding.

Everyone from military and veterans organizations to the chairs of relevant House committees to Veterans Affairs officials have confirmed that TRICARE will not be affected by the new health care law.

GOP lawmaker shrieks ‘baby killer’ at pro-life Democrat Rep. Bart Stupak.

Stop the hate!

When House Republicans tried to use a motion to recommit to send the reconciliation package of health reforms back to committee to essentially kill the bill, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) gave a passionate speech urging his colleagues not to fall for the ploy. Stupak said that Democrats have moved a pro-life bill in every way, by restricting taxpayer funds to abortion and by providing millions of Americans will quality health insurance. However, CNN is reporting that as Stupak gave his speech, a Republican lawmaker yelled “baby killer” at him. Murmurs were heard from the Democratic side of the aisle, and a Democratic lawmaker shouted “who said that?” No Republican answered.

CNN’s David Gergen observed that Republicans had joined rowdy, and at times vulgar, tea party protesters all weekend in rallying against the bill. He warned that the heavy influence of the tea parties, Rush Limbaugh, and other extreme right-wing voices is dangerous for the Republicans politically.

Tea Baggers Call Congressmen "N****rs" and "F****ts" At HCR Protest. Hate Rules The Day

Thanks to Crooks and Liars

By John Amato

The tea party crowd have a hard time controlling their hate and racism and it was on display big time today.

The Hill:

Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) claimed Saturday that health care protesters at the Capitol directed racial epithets at Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) as he walked outside.

Carson, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus along with Lewis, told The Hill that protesters called Lewis the N-word.

Tea Party protesters held a rally outside the Capitol on Saturday, which included speeches by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and actor Jon Voight, and then proceeded into the halls to lobby members at the 11th hour.

Lewis was one of the leaders of the civil rights movement alongside Martin Luther King. Jr. Asked if racial epithets were yelled at him, Lewis responded, "Yes but it's OK. I've heard this before in the 60s. A lot of this is just downright hate."

Many of these people were hiding in the shadows until FOX News promoted the tea party movement. They aren't just a sliver of the make-up of the crowds. They ARE the crowds. And it's not limited to name-calling either. A staffer for Rep. James Clyburn said that protestors spat on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. HuffPo got a statement from Clyburn:

Clyburn was downright incredulous, saying he had not witnessed such treatment since he was leading civil rights protests in South Carolina in the 1960s.

"It was absolutely shocking to me," Clyburn told the Huffington Post. "Last Monday, this past Monday, I stayed home to meet on the campus of Claflin University where fifty years ago as of last Monday... I led the first demonstrations in South Carolina, the sit ins... And quite frankly I heard some things today I have not heard since that day. I heard people saying things that I have not heard since March 15, 1960 when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus."

"It doesn't make me nervous as all," the congressman said, when asked how the mob-like atmosphere made him feel. "In fact, as I said to one heckler, I am the hardest person in the world to intimidate, so they better go somewhere else."

Asked if he wanted an apology from the group of Republican lawmakers who had addressed the crowd and, in many ways, played on their worst fears of health care legislation, the Democratic Party, and the president, Clyburn replied:

"A lot of us have been saying for a long time that much of this, much of this is not about health care a all. And I think a lot of those people today demonstrated that this is not about health care... it is about trying to extend a basic fundamental right to people who are less powerful."

And if that's not disgusting enough, Barney Frank was called a "f****t," today too.
Gay.AmericaBlog:

Everything you needed to know about this hateful movement is expressed in this one story. It wasn't just one bigot. The entire crowd of teabaggers erupted in laughter. Hell of a movement Dick Armey has created - after all, he called Barney Frank the same thing, "fag," back in the 90s.

Rep. Barney Frank got an uglier version of the treatment. Just after Frank rounded a corner to leave the building, an older protestor yelled "Barney, you f****t." The surrounding crowd of protestors then erupted in laughter.

At one point, Capitol police officer threatened to throw a group of protestors out of the building but that only seemed to inflame them more; and apparently none were ejected.

Meanwhile the gun freak teabaggers are threatening to shoot people if health care is passed.

Tea Party activists have gathered on Capitol Hill today for a “Code Red” rallyagainst health care reform. Speakers at the event included Republican Reps. Steve King (IA), Michele Bachmann (MN), and Mike Pence (IN). The gathering was organized by Tea Party Profiteer organizations like FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity. ThinkProgress attended today’s rally and spotted a sign threatening violence if health care passes. The sign reads: “Warning: If Brown can’t stop it, a Browning can,” referring to Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) and a Browning firearm

Just wait. We will see violence like our generation hasn't seen in many a decade. Anyone thinking of joining up with them go right ahead at your own risk. They will never sign on to anything that is remotely liberal. Ever.

And yet A READER has the BALLS to call ME a HATER! - WOLF

Going Green

With NOVOTHINK’s hybrid solar charger case, you can now powerup your iPod literally anywhere under the sun. Our solar panel technology enables you to be part of the solar energy solution.

A few years ago a friend of mine gave me an Ipod Touch. It's a great machine. It not only plays music and videos but lets me get on the web with some great apps for Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. When at home I use a small program on my laptop called Connectify (Windows 7 only) to make my Dell Mini 10 into a hotspot. When I'm out and about I use an App to find the nearest WIFI hotspot and there are a lot of them.

I just got this solar charger for it and it seems to be working great. I'll update yins after I've had more time with it. Probably post to the blog with an App.

Yes I Hate Bigotry, Racism and Brainwashing!

Wow you have a deep seated hate for fox news.This hatred may be a detrament to you. Fox is the most watch news programw on cable. Why let these fools upset you so .How dose what they say and do stop you from loving the creator and being of sevice to youe fellow man - anonymous

As the old saying goes; If 6000 people jumped off a bridge would you follow? Don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters, you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Bob Dylan said that. Anger is a Gift - 1st heard that from RATM. The only thing that upsets me readers are that people can't think for themselves anymore. I'm done with service to my fellow man, time for me now - Thats advice from a friend when I retired. My advice to you - Get a damm spell checker. As for your creator, I love both mine and thats between me, Her and Him.

As John Lennon once said All I Want is the TRUTH!

StopBeck.com is a nonpartisan effort focused on holding Glenn Beck accountable for preying on racial anxieties, employing vitriolic rhetoric and disseminating distortions. Our purpose is to urge sponsors to stop supporting Glenn Beck’s brand of hate with advertising dollars.

StopBeck began on July 2, 2009. It was and remains primarily a Twitter effort. From - @stopBeck

So far Beck has lost 120 Advertisers

Nonsensical tirades that prey on racial anxieties, like the one Glenn Beck delivered on March 9 about the census underscore part of the reason why 119 advertisers fled his show and why the broadcast of his show in the UK has been without any advertisers for over a month now.

Glenn Beck urged people not to fill out the race question on the Census because it’s an attempt to increase modern day slavery (emphasis added):

He also trashed Woody Guthrie as well as his song This is Your Land.

From News Hounds

Beck Smears 11Year Old For Speaking Out For Health Care Reform

Reported by Ellen - Wed 2:35 PM

As Media Matters noted, Glenn Beck was just one of several right-wingers who attacked 11 year-old Marcelas Owens and his family after he spoke at a press conference with Senate Democrats in support of health care reform. But unlike Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin or NewsBusters, Beck works for a news operation that could have investigated the inflammatory “questions” Beck raised about Owens’ mother’s death after losing her health insurance. But even if Owens had been a complete fraud (and Beck never offered any real evidence that anything Owens said had been untrue), it says a lot more about Beck and Co. that they would seize upon attacking a child and the family of a dead woman rather then focusing on advocating against health care reform on the merits. So who’s really exploiting whom?

Fox Nation Discussion Advocates Armed Revolution. Is That Not Treason?

Fox Nation, the website that boasts about its goal of "strengthening our diverse society by striving for unity," has nevertheless allowed in its moderated comments a prolonged, open discussion about armed revolution. It's impossible to believe that the Fox Nation editor, Jesse Watters (the ambush guy) didn't know something like this would come up when he posted the inflammatory article, Rep. King Calls For Revolution In The Streets. Its first sentence is, "Rep. Steve King (R-IA) is calling for a new procedural solution to stop the health care bill: Have an angry mob of citizens storm Washington and prevent Congress from acting, in imitation of the Velvet Revolution that overthrew communist rule in Czechoslovakia!" Yet while one commenter complained about hus comments being blocked (shown in the last screen grab), we found at least 7 in favor of armed revolution. Each were posted more than 24 hours ago - more than enough time for any moderator to consider and remove any material deemed inappropriate. Is this not treason?

Hannity’s Bigoted Pal Says He’s Changing The Name Of The White House To “Big Mama’s House”

Reported by Ellen - Sat 1:24 AM

Sean Hannity welcomed back his bigoted pal, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, last night (3/19/10). You probably recall that Peterson is the African American who can’t seem to face a Fox News camera without accusing other African Americans of racism. In some of his noteworthy prior appearances, he characterized “most blacks” in Tennessee as racists and, in a later appearance announced, “I think we all agree that Barack Obama was elected mostly by black racists and white guilty people.” Despite such inflammatory, anti-African American rhetoric, Peterson keeps getting invited back. Last night, Peterson topped off a slew of racially-tinged, anti-Obama rhetoric by declaring, "I have changed the White House from being the White House to Big Mama’s House." Kudos to Professor Caroline Heldman for calling him on his racist remark.

Bill O’Reilly Advances Christian Right Attack On Girl Scouts & Planned Parenthood

Reported by Priscilla - Fri 1:07 PM

It’s no secret that the Christian right does not like Planned Parenthood and because they don’t like Planned Parenthood, they aren’t too happy about the Girl Scouts. In 2004, a Girl Scout troop ,in Texas, was attacked by members of the American Taliban (whoops, conservative Christians) because the local groups had given a “woman of distinction award” to a Planned Parenthood executive. Pro-Life Waco was also pissed because the Girl Scout organization had, for years, endorsed a Planned Parenthood sex ed program in which boys and girls were taught about (gasp) homosexuality. A call for a boycott of Girl Scout Cookies was declared. It’s 2010 and the Girls Scouts are, again, in the crossfire of far right Christians who are making a scurrilous and unsubstantiated accusation against the Girl Scouts. So are we surprised that this would be a subject for Bill O’Reilly who, like his religious fellow travelers, isn’t a fan of Planned Parenthood? But in advancing the unsubstantiated smear of Planned Parenthood, he’s also advancing a smear of the Girl Scouts and that’s not very nice!

Fox News Uses Sex To Race Bait

Reported by Ellen - March 11, 2010

If Fox Nation's recent headline, "Study: White People Have Less Sex" wasn't a deliberate attempt to race bait, then why did it allow the blatantly racist comments on its moderated threads? Screen grabs of some of the bigotry that "civil," "tolerant" Fox Nation deems appropraite after the jump. (H/T phourdythrea.blogspot.com)

Not only Me!

so you say but you have been wrong alot.Yeah A Sadam and his sons were better right - anonymous

Iraq War = Horrible Mistake.

So says Republican Member of Congress Dana Rohrabacher (via the Cato Institute):

In a Thursday panel at Cato on conservatism and war, U.S. Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) and John Duncan (R-Tenn.) revealed that the vast majority of GOP members of Congress now think it was wrong for the U.S. to invade Iraq in 2003.

Rohrabacher (who voted for Authorization to use Military Force in 2002) is even quoted as saying:

I will say that the decision to go in, in retrospect, almost all of us think that was a horrible mistake.

Their party is still filled with birther/tenther crazies, but at least some of them now recognize that the war in Iraq was a. horrible. mistake.

Will they be apologizing anytime soon to the 4300+ families of the servicemen and women who died for their horrible mistake?

Will dubya?

Of course not.

from 2politicaljunkies