Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Reader J. Peach took this picture at today’s “Glenn Beck Restores America” poetry slam and cookout. Apparently, all of this man’s racist shirts that actually make sense were in the laundry.
Update: The mystery of Weird Racist T-shirt Guy deepens!
Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck hosted a rally in Washington D.C. today that more closely resembled a religious revival than a political rally. Beck urged the large crowds at his “Restoring Honor” event to “turn back to God” and return America to the “values on which it was founded”. I was fairly certain that freedom of religion was one of those values. I am also quite certain that freedom of religion includes freedom from religion.
In a bout of religious rhetoric, Beck told participants at the rally “Something beyond imagination is happening… America today begins to turn back to God. For too long, this country has wandered in darkness.” Empty words, from a political opportunist who presumes to speak for America. I for one say that if Beck were to be the face of the American Citizenry, I would proudly stand-up and sing “Oh Canada”.
Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" Rally resembled a religious revival
The rally rightfully drew fire for its timing and location.
People filled the park by the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool, on the anniversary of the most pivotal civil rights address in America’s history — the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, which was delivered at the same location 47 years ago.
Although he denied it, and denied that the rally was political in nature, Beck clearly tried to usurp the day for his own political gain. The Rev. Jesse Jackson was quoted by CNN saying Beck was mimicking King and “humiliating the tradition.” Beck insults the intelligence of all of us if he expects us to believe he is absent minded enough to have picked this date purely coincidentally.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, perhaps the perfect antithesis for Beck & certainly an intellectual equal, and his “National Action Network” gathered nearby with a “Reclaim the Dream” rally. Participants in this rally marched from a high school in northwest Washington, D.C., to the site of the future Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, just a few blocks from the Lincoln Memorial.
Beck said the site of his rally was appropriate to reflect on the legacy of King, “the man who stood down on those stairs and gave his life for everyone’s right to have a dream.”
Beck repeatedly claimed his rally was nonpolitical and its mission was to honor American troops. But as a veteran of Iraq & Afghanistan, and an open atheist, I can tell you this rally did little for me other than make me ashamed of the direction our country appears to be heading. I was saddened to see how many people actually rallied to support this mad man.
Beck struck a spiritual tone throughout the day, saying his role was to wake America up to the backsliding of principles, values and most importantly, faith. Earlier, he said “God dropped a giant sandbag on his head” to push him to organize the event.
Beck, keenly aware of his critics, opened the rally shortly after 10 a.m. with the national anthem and immediately drew attention to the large crowd that stretched for six city blocks from the Lincoln Memorial along the parks surrounding the reflecting pool.
“I have just gotten word from the media that there are over 1,000 people here today,” Beck said sarcastically.
“We are humbled that you are here,” he said. “The reflecting pool holds about 200,000 people. This field back here holds about 250- to 300,000 people. They are not only full here, they’re full in that field, they’re full behind me, and they are now across the street approaching the Washington Monument.”
Tea Party activists from across the country attended the event. Turning out in what was surely one of the most manufactured and insincere events ever held in this historical location.
Speakers included former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who said she came to speak not about politics but as “something more” — as the mother of a soldier. She said America’s men and women in uniform exemplified the virtues and values of America.
“Say what you want to say about me, but I raised a combat vet and you can’t take that away from me,” she said to a crowd that broke out in chants of “U.S.A! U.S.A!”
She also noted the anniversary of the famous civil rights speech, saying, “We feel the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Beck had been heavily promoting the event on his Fox News Channel program and on his radio broadcasts. He claims that the timing of the rally wasn’t intentional. But that seems like a pretty big coincidence to me…
“Whites don’t own Abraham Lincoln. Blacks don’t own Martin Luther King. Those are American icons, American ideas, and we should just talk about character, and that’s really what this event is about. It’s about honoring character,” Beck said.
Lenny McAllister, an African American Republican, was asked by the Tea Party to speak at Saturday’s rally but declined. He said the rally was disrespectful to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I cannot sit on stage and co-sign on this irresponsibility,” he said. “I made sure I wore my elephant pin today. I am a proud Republican but I am also a proud African American man.”
I for one think anyone who honestly believes this rally was not political in nature is deluded. It’s no coincidence Sarah Palin was there, this is all apart of her build up towards her 2012 campaign. It’s just sad to me that people like Palin and beck will stoop so low as to use the troops as a back drop for their political aspirations, and tarnish the anniversary of such a pivotal moment in civil rights history.
I don’t agree with the folks at illuminatitv about much, but I think the host manages to make some very good points in this video. What do you think? Please let us know in the comments.
Looks like the construction of the Mosque at Ground Zero in New York City was approved recently, despite outcries from the community. Which is a major disappointment. How is it that 10 years after 9/11 the World Trade Center still has not been rebuilt, but we are preparing to build a Mosque there?
Perhaps we should start a movement to get the building declared a historical landmark?
Guest Post by Emily Goll
Sarah Palin has had a busy life since Senator John McCain plucked her out of obscurity during the 2008 election. Fortunately for us, the majority of this has been filmed and preserved as a now essential part of American history that we can relive over and over again on YouTube (thank you?). From interviews to speeches, here are the funniest, most outrageous and totally absurd Sarah Palin moments caught on tape thus far.
In her very first televised interview during the 2008 campaign, Charles Gibson asked Palin if she “agreed with the Bush Doctrine.” Uh oh. With obvious confusion, Sarah first tries to dodge the question and then when asked pointblank how she interprets the Bush Doctrine she responds (with obvious trepidation) that the Bush Doctrine is President Bush’s “world view.” Wrong. This interview was America’s first glimpse of why the governor of Alaska was simply not ready to be President of the United States.
2. Sarah Palin: “What does a VP do?”
In this clip, Sarah famously confesses on CNBC during the 2008 campaign that she has no idea what the vice president does. Yikes. The exact quote reads as follows: “As for that VP talk all the time, I tell ya, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me, what exactly is it that the VP does every day?”
This Quebec comedy duo pranked Sarah during their radio show in 2008. Using nothing but French accents, they managed to convince the governor that she was speaking to France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy. Together, they discussed Nicolas’ beautiful wife, hunting, and promoting a special American advisor named Johnny Hallyday (a French singer). Sarah bought the prank up until they revealed themselves at the very end of the clip. An embarrassed Palin quickly got off the phone.
Immediately following Sarah’s pardoning of a turkey on Thanksgiving in Alaska, Sarah proceeded to give an interview right outside of a turkey slaughter house. While discussing her career and “getting her message out,” we are given a clear view of turkey’s being killed directly behind her. Given the circumstances, you can’t help but laugh.
Even Palin’s own camp admitted that her interview with Katie Couric went horribly, but this clip made headlines everywhere. When asked what newspapers specifically she read to keep informed, Palin responded, “Um…all of them.” Really, Palin? You read all the news? The media had a field day with this response and Palin ended up using it as an example of “gotcha media.” It was, after all, a pretty tricky question.
In this clip, Couric questions Sarah on citing Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of her foreign policy experience. Trying to redeem herself, Palin speaks nonsensically for about a minute on how this affected her duties as governor: “We have trade missions back and forth…it’s from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there…they are right next to our state.” I’m sure Putin was shivering in his boots with Palin on watch!
7. Palin: Okay, I Didn’t Quite Say That
In September 12, 2008, Charles Gibson interviewed Sarah Palin and questioned her on her flip flopping stance on “The Bridge to Nowhere.” Gibson says, “It’s now pretty clearly documented that you were for that bridge before you opposed it.” Oops. This clip shows Sarah Palin trying to back pedal her way out the subject…and failing.
Apparently September 2008 was not a great month for Palin. Here is a clip (courtesy of CNN) showing Sarah trying to answer an audience question at a campaign rally on her foreign policy experience. She tells the audience that she “has that readiness and if you want specifics with specific policy or countries, go ahead and-and you can ask me. You can even play stump the candidate.” Yes! That’s great! We would love to play stump the candidate…but sadly, this is about where John McCain jumped in and took over the answering of questions. Lame.
9. Palin: No Second Guessing Israel’s “Security Efforts”
Here we see Palin’s interesting take on Israel. According to Palin, the United States should never “second guess” Israel, even if they choose to take action against Iran. She sums everything up very succinctly by saying that in a situation where Israel took action against Iran, “It seems obvious to me who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.” I had no idea foreign policy was so black and white!
10. Palin Declares War on Iran
When talking about what she and McCain will do in their first 100 days in office, Palin accidently said, “We’ll get this economy back on the right track and really sure up the strategies we need over in Iraq and Iran to win these wars.”What? We’re at war with Iran? Not Afghanistan? Better get to the nearest bomb shelter, stat!
Emily Goll is the editor of My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on online courses for Guide to Online Schools.
Thankfully, most of us emerged unscathed from the scariest pandemic of all time,swine flu. The real heroes were the pharmaceutical companies that told governments to stockpile their products. But now, $260 million worth of expired vaccines will be destroyed.
That nasty swine flu shit was even worse than SARS, the other crazy virus that almost made humans extinct. Luckily, we had big pharmaceutical companies’ “experts” telling the World Health Organization to stockpile as many of the flu’s vaccines as they could possibly handle, and then some, because yesterday about 40 million of them ($260 million worth) expired. Jerry Weir, a vaccine researcher for the Food and Drug Administration, told the AP, “It’s a lot, by historical standards.”
And the Department of Health and Human Services backs up the government’s overstocking of the vaccine:
“Although there were many doses of vaccine that went unused, it was much more appropriate to have been prepared for the worst case scenario than to have had too few doses,” said Bill Hall, spokesman for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
About 30 million more vaccines are set to expire soon. The doses that have already expired will be incinerated. Money and resources well spent!
[Source: Gawker]
Help Stop the Stoning of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani…
If you do nothing else. Please take a moment and sign the Petition.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/stop…
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/s…
Contact information for e-mailing the White house.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
And the President of Iran
http://cp.president.ir/en/
Currently there are only 427 signatures on the petition site. I am sure there are other Petitions out there. I think making people aware is the most important thing. That and voicing our condemnation of this sentence. Reason must prevail.
This woman needs to be released if anyone is ever to think reasonably of Islam.
It was 1977 in Miami (Dade County) when former beauty queen and singer Anita Bryant launched her infamous “Save Our Children” campaign to repeal a local anti-discrimination ordinance.
Her successful religious and political crusade against gays and lesbians led to repeal of Dade County’s non-discrimination provisions, and later that same year led to the Florida legislature’s passage of a ban on “homosexual” adoption.
Once her anti-gay campaign went national, Bryant helped set a nasty, narrow, prejudiced tone for the entire anti-equality backlash movement, which widely publicized quotes such as:
“As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduced children; therefore, they must recruit our children” and “If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters.”
Her efforts were not without backlash as she famously took a pie in the face during a TV interview.
But she was also quite effective. Her rhetoric and viewpoints are still cited today in political “debates” not only in Florida but nationwide. In fact, the roots of modern political homophobia and the foundations of the campaigns to ban same-sex marriage can all be traced back to Bryant.
And after years of self-imposed seclusion, Anita’s back on the national anti-gay stage – this time helping headline a “Reclaiming America for Christ” rally in Oklahoma with Focus on the Family, the Liberty Council and even former Colonel Oliver North.
Anita’s re-emergence as a icon of bigotry has prompted us to ask you – who would be the best national leader to refute the Anita Bryant types?
Despite the apparent deficit-cutting solidarity that emerged from the recent G-20 meeting in Toronto, it is clear that the great powers of the industrialized world have not been this philosophically estranged since the end of the Cold War. Ironically, in this new contest, the former belligerents have switched sides – the capitalists are now the socialists, and vice versa.
We now are witnessing a struggle between two new factions that some might call the “Stimulators” and
the “Austerians.” Both seem warn that a worldwide depression will ensue if governments now make the wrong choices: the Stimulators say the danger lies in spending too little and the Austerians warn that the true danger lies in spending too much. Each side also has their own economic champion: the Stimulators follow the banner of Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, while the Austerians are forming up behind the recently reformed former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. (It is cold comfort to witness “The Maestro” belatedly returning to the hard-money positions that characterized his earlier years.)
In a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, Greenspan argued that the best economic stimulus would be for the world’s leading debtors (the United States, UK, Japan, Italy, et al.) to rein in their budget deficits, a strategy dubbed “austerity” by the press. Greenspan explains that because lower deficits will restore confidence, diminish the threat of inflation, and allow savings to flow to private-sector investment rather than public-sector consumption, the short-term pain will lead to gains both in the mid- and long-term. Rather than redistributing a shrinking pie, this approach allows the pie to grow. Greenspan’s Austereian view has been echoed loudly in the highest policy circles of Berlin, Ottawa, Moscow, Beijing, and Canberra.
Meanwhile, in several articles for his New York Times column, including one recently, Krugman has argued that those who push for austerity in the face of recession are either doing so for political expediency or out of a “crazy” fealty to archaic economic views. Krugman has apparently judged inadequate the trillions of dollars worth of deficit spending unleashed by the United States and European governments in the last 24 months. He believes our only remedy is to spend more – no matter how much debt results. Absent this, he claims, millions of workers “will never work again.” Unfortunately, Washington has clearly aligned itself with Krugman and the Stimulators.
Reading straight from the Keynesian playbook, Krugman argues that cutting government spending now will simply send the economy back into recession. He asserts that by flooding the economy with money, i.e. “stimulus,” governments can encourage consumers to spend. Once the spending creates better conditions, so the argument goes, the economy will be better positioned to withstand the spending cuts, tax hikes, and higher interest rates necessary to address the staggering deficits left behind.
Krugman proposes an enticing argument that is nevertheless built on rubbish. Economies do not grow because consumers spend; consumers spend because economies grow [for a detailed explanation of how this works, read the book: How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes
Any money spent by governments is not available to the private sector to invest. The Stimulators don’t make this connection because they believe money grows on trees and that a printing press is a legitimate creator of wealth. However, printing money merely encourages people to spend their savings now rather than wait for it to lose value through inflation. This is okay to Stimulators, because stimulating “demand” by any means necessary is the only goal they can see.
What really grows an economy is not more demand, but more supply. The Austerian argument is that reductions in government spending will allow the private sector to generate the additional supply of goods and services. Europe seems to understand this; unfortunately, the US does not. Judging by the recent weakness of the dollar – not only against gold, but other fiat currencies, including the pound and the euro – the markets are coming to the same conclusion.
As sovereign-debt worries initially spread throughout Europe, the dollar benefitted. However, now that Europe has demonstrated a willingness to reduce its debts, while we have committed to make ours even larger, the sovereign-debt worries are moving west.
If Greenspan and the Austereians are correct, the stimulus will fail and leave us in a much deeper hole. As long as governments create bigger deficits, we will never have a sustainable recovery. Instead, we will be chasing our tail, and wearing ourselves out in the process. When we finally realize the folly of this approach, the austerity measures that we will then be forced to adopt will make those currently proposed by the Europeans seem relatively painless.
My guess is that before the end of Obama’s first term, our stimulus-induced recovery will falter, prompting Obama and Congress to administer even more stimulus. After all, the Stimulators have no other answer. However, given the adverse reaction this will produce in the currency and debt markets, this next jolt will likely vindicate the Austerians, as the world witnesses its greatest power careen into an inflationary depression.
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