As George Takei points out Vancouver still has facilities available to host the Olympics.
Shorter URL: http://bit.ly/18km3nQ
Shorter URL: http://bit.ly/18km3nQ
How Do You Feel about this?
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Friday, August 9, 2013
Lawrence O'Donnell Questions NYT Reporter Charlie Savage on His Revelations of NSA Spying on Emails
First of all, man does Mr. Savage look tired. His probable long lesson in patience in school due to his last name, must have served him well yesterday. He probably was on every news show beamed from New York -except FOX which doesn't deal with facts only allegations and innuendos. I think this discussion explains and demystifies the latest NSA outrage, and explains the latest revelations in a straight forward manner. It doesn't seem so awful to me. And I helps me forgive the NYT for Judith Miller's trolling for the Bush administration (probably inspired by a need to "make a name for herself" rather than GOP dollars or promises, but still).
Shorter URL: http://bit.ly/15mgxx1
Shorter URL: http://bit.ly/15mgxx1
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Video: Obstacles Rosa Parks Faced in Registering to Vote and Texas Actions After SCOTUS Decision Shows Why the Voting rights Act Was and Is Still Needed.
As soon as the pre approval section of the Voting Rights Acts was ended by the SCOTUS this year, Texas dropped plans to redo a redistricting scheme that disappeared minority districts into white ones a clear violation of the act itself. Also, before the VRA, poll taxes and other hurdles made it difficult for minorities to get registered before the Voting Rights Act was signed into law.
Short URL= http://bit.ly/14q1S7S
Short URL= http://bit.ly/14q1S7S
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
American Right Wing Media Also Shown to Have Been Involved in Inspiring Boston Bombing
Remember how we noted on the day of the attack that the day was not only the hated "Tax Day" but also "Patriots Day"?
Excerpts:
Extremist U.S. newspapers and other publications found in the apartment of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev reveal a broad interest in far-flung conspiracy theories, well beyond the Islamist radicalism authorities allege motivated the attack...
The papers included The First Freedom, an Alabama-based newspaper that espouses "equal rights for whites" and whose websites features a Confederate flag. Another was The Sovereign, a New York-based publication that alleges the U.S. is under the sway of Israeli lobbyists, and that Israel and the Department of Homeland Security were "deeply involved" in the Boston bombings. Neither paper returned requests for comment....
Mr. Tsarnaev got his own subscription to American Free Press, a paper that the Southern Law Poverty Center said promotes anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. A spokeswoman for the paper denied it had such an agenda, saying the paper publishes "news that the established media won't."
Terror experts said extremist U.S. literature and Islamist readings may reach vastly different audiences but the themes are largely the same. Both suggest wide-ranging plots by the U.S. and Israeli governments; that time is running out before an intended apocalypse, and heroes must act before it is too late.(Excerpt consistent and below allowed as detailed in statement by District Court in Democratic Underground v Righthaven -- less than 10% of original article)
Luckily white right wing radicalism hasn't been shown to have inspired terrorism in the past. Oh wait. Waco, OKC, Oregon bank bombing.
To read report you can:
Click on link below if you have a WSJ digital account or will purchase one immediately.
Boston Bombing Suspect Was Steeped in Conspiracies
Or go to Google News (or possibly other news search) and search on the title as shown in link above.
Publications must offer a small number of visits to money-locked articles per day to non-subscribers if they want to be included in the service. That's how I was able to read it.
Kudos to the reporter who noticed the name of the subscriber to the older publications while being shown Tamerlan's apartment.
Picture above is widely available on the Internet
Shorter URL for this post = http://bit.ly/16xZ0GP
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Ohio GOP Group Investigated by IRS Helped Fat Cats Stop Fair Redistricting, and Enslave The State's Citizens
The GOP is having a tantrum over supposed illegality of investigating their "Social Welfare" groups in Ohio. But Social Welfare groups are actually classified as "charities". That is why they are to be given a tax exempt status and protection from donor disclosure.
Now charities for say feeding poor women and children, might want to stretch their effectiveness by working to get the local, state, or federal government to kick in to feed the downtrodden folks as well, and therefore maximize their efforts to actually get a decent diet for such citizens. God knows it's needed and it has been done for many decades, in fact since FDR. Before that, we got by by letting many of the poor get weak and succumb to diseases or die of starvation outright.
So, to increase fairness the Eisenhower administration changed the 501(c)4 groups to be "primarily" social welfare (charity) groups.
Later political pressure from big money people brought that down to 51% of work of the 501(c)4 needing to be charitable. That's hardly a good definition of primarily, but it still had some control.
But the political groups that created copious right wing 501(c)4 groups in Ohio and then did little but political actions, and no charity at all, are now having tantrums about not being able to have donor masking and tax exemptions, and much of the news system is refusing to explain why they are wrong to do so.
This is an extreme example of the he said/she said wimpiness of "The Press".
But lets examine what one group, the one who worked to defeat an mandate for new and fair redistricting in the state of Ohio, caused to not happen. The above picure shows the results of the 2012 election for US House representatives form Ohio.
Excerpt USA Today report (which is linked near bottom of this report):
Protect Your Vote Ohio was never incorporated in the state, according to the Ohio Secretary of State's website. Yet it was a big contributor in the campaign to defeat Issue 2, the 2012 ballot initiative that would have given a citizen's panel the ability to draw congressional districts in Ohio.Let's compare the results of the 2012 House elections in the state with the 2012 presidential election which isn't cut up into districts.
Of the 16 districts 12 went to GOP candidates 4 went to Democrats.
That means people voting for Democrats for House seats won 25% of the districts. But comparing that number with the presidential election (because 2 House votes were for 1 candidate elections and for ease) Obama and Romney each won nearly 50% of the state vote. So suddenly a Democratic vote for a US House Representative becomes half as valuable as a 1 to 1 comparison.
Your vote for in state representation is likely to be no more fairly treated than that for US House races. I don't have the numbers on that right now though.
To compare your voting status in Ohio it to a slave's status before the civil war, if slaves were worth 3/5ths of a person and a full citizen is worth 5/5ths of a person. A Democratic vote in Ohio US House races is worth 2.5/5ths of a person. Less than an antebellum slave.
Republicans' votes are worth no more than Democrats' though because if you can't change your mind without losing half your rights, you don't have those rights to begin with.
Everyone in Ohio is worth less than a slave.
That's why an initiative was started to break that gambit of enslaving Ohioans by allowing the citizens of the state to vote for better representation in November 2012.
I'm guessing the money flowed though to the group in question which paid for ads and media exposure to confuse the people of Ohio, and now this political group wants it's donors to be able to give tax free non-disclosed donations as if it is a social welfare group ie a charity.
2.5/5ths of a person, Ohio. Does that sound good to you? I'd hate it. I like being a full person, and am happy that I live in California where we passed citizen enabled redistricting.
You should work on your own state passing such a proposition in the next election cycle, if you don't want to be worth less than slaves to the Koch brothers and other wealthy individuals who are reaping the rewards of Gerrymandering out of your hard work.
The leader of the US House Investigations and Government reform committee is GOP Congressman Darrell Issa who represents CA49 North San Diego and South Orange Counties including Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, etc. He has been adamant in defending such groups as I have written about in this article who are pretending they are charities, but are political activism groups without any charitable activities.
Info on GOP group that helped stop fair redistricting found at USA Today: Ohio groups targeted by IRS spin web of connections
A short URL for this post is: http://bit.ly/18Xq7vl
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Chris Christie Vs Rand Paul. National Defense Vs Gimmee Gimmee Gimmee States
Guess who comes from the real "Gimmee!" State. Lawrence O'Donnell spells it out for us in the video above. Will the timid DC press dare squeak out a question for Rand Paul about this? Or will it be business as usual?
Try "Hey, Senator, if you are so hot on national defense then why do you call for the end of NSA surveillance? The Bush 43 administration tried that for 7-8 months in 2001 and then BOOM! There went the World Trade Center. Get it?" Or maybe try "Why do you say that New Jersey is a gimmee state, when it's a net donor to the nation and your state is a net taker?" You can always ask the other question second.
Try "Hey, Senator, if you are so hot on national defense then why do you call for the end of NSA surveillance? The Bush 43 administration tried that for 7-8 months in 2001 and then BOOM! There went the World Trade Center. Get it?" Or maybe try "Why do you say that New Jersey is a gimmee state, when it's a net donor to the nation and your state is a net taker?" You can always ask the other question second.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Feugelsang and Guest Explain George Zimmerman's Neighborhood Watch
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Short URL: http://bit.ly/12YRlxd
I hope I didn't mislead with the title above. I don't think that anyone can explain George Zimmerman's Neighborhood Watch because there wasn't one. It was apparently all about him chasing African Americans around the neighborhood trying to catch a thief (and never actually coming up with a crminal).
I hope I didn't mislead with the title above. I don't think that anyone can explain George Zimmerman's Neighborhood Watch because there wasn't one. It was apparently all about him chasing African Americans around the neighborhood trying to catch a thief (and never actually coming up with a crminal).
Friday, July 26, 2013
Master Explaner Ezra Klein Gives a Clearer Picture of the Justice Departments Actions Over Texas Redistricting and Voter ID laws.
Texas actually disappeared the districts formerly won by Minorities.
With that and with Texas and other states' restrictive Voter ID laws, the federal government needs to take the actions it is enacting to save Civil Rights.
With that and with Texas and other states' restrictive Voter ID laws, the federal government needs to take the actions it is enacting to save Civil Rights.
Justice Department Petitions Federal Court to Again Subject Texas, North Carolina Election Tampering to Mandated Pre-Clearance
We've seen that entirely fall through before after more powerful people swear they have the power to fix it themselves. I dunno why our leaders demand to be allowed to go it alone, but it's best that we stay engaged, keeping them and everyone else on alert that we are noticing what is happening.
Video: Why Pension Destruction is Not Needed For Detroit.
The truth is that Republicans from the governor to the legislature are scamming another American city in the take over of Detroit.
I'd like people to look into the eyes of those folks whose pensions are about to be flushed down the toilet by GOP grabbing the goods and selling them off to fat cats.
But I'll let the lady in this video explain why taking away pensions is not the answer to Detroit's problems.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
John McCain Calls for Review of "Stand Your Ground" Laws
Shorter URL: http://bit.ly/1302kFb
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
The Last Word on The Great Reverse Socialism Scam in the GOP Crafted Farm Bill
Also, what does it mean to leave out food stamps (SNAP). Surely not to stop their distribution at the end of the fiscal year (I hope for those who need them), but does inflation get used as a basis for their increase, is there going to be no increase? Or is the food stamp program to be dealt with tied to a more incongruous bill -- one that Democrats want so much they will vote to cut the SNAP program.
The ultimate result of SNAP is that farmers get paid more and people eat, so it is a perfect match for the Farm Bill, but the GOP never lets sense get in it way of harming the working class and helping rich people.
I guess we'll learn later.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
News Sources are Finding Many Problems with the Zimmerman Prosecution.
I have a clip of another video that shows a very clear precise reason Jurist B37 should never have been seated on this trial. She did show bias and hey... well you'll just have to wait for a few minutes until I get it up. It will be just above this if, by the time you read this I have done so. (If on a single post page click on title.)
Well, the second video was edited to take out the allegation that B37's husband knows Mark O'Mara other than by name, being an attorney. Other people made the jump to Mark NeJame who has two daughters. NeJame has indeed hosted a fund raising event with O'Mara. He was also hired as an analyst at CNN and his connections with the first judge on the case caused her to recuse herself. I doubt that NeJame would endanger his paycheck from CNN to get his wife on the jury. One Twitter user says that NeJames' daughters are 20 years younger than B37's (which I think I remember as being in mid to late 20's and living in other states).
A short URL for this piece is http://bit.ly/1bltcZq
Well, the second video was edited to take out the allegation that B37's husband knows Mark O'Mara other than by name, being an attorney. Other people made the jump to Mark NeJame who has two daughters. NeJame has indeed hosted a fund raising event with O'Mara. He was also hired as an analyst at CNN and his connections with the first judge on the case caused her to recuse herself. I doubt that NeJame would endanger his paycheck from CNN to get his wife on the jury. One Twitter user says that NeJames' daughters are 20 years younger than B37's (which I think I remember as being in mid to late 20's and living in other states).
A short URL for this piece is http://bit.ly/1bltcZq
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