Hump Day Hypocrisy Diary

 

Breaking News!  Recent Polls suggest calling someone a republican is insulting.  I wonder why?

The independent political polling company NSON Opinion Strategy [1] recently published the results of a case study in which 250,000 randomly selected American voters were asked a series of questions. The details of how and where the study was conducted have yet to be released but the results are clear: 87% of Americans consider the word “Republican” to be synonymous with greed, racism, and violence.

Bradley Manning exposed war crimes, torture, abuse, soldier laughing as they killed civilians...leaks not responsible for any deaths and is sentenced to 35 years in prison.  George Zimmerman  profiles, stalks and shoots There is more than a whiff of injustice.and kills an unarmed teenager  is walking around free.  And they want us to sing God Bless America?  There is more than a whiff of injustice.

Taxpayers who thought they had guaranteed rights that don't exist in black and white.  So, African American taxpayers  thought they could transfer their children out of predominantly black, underfunded, failing schools, to school non failing public schools, or private schools under the Alabama non Accountability Act, and white taxpayers thought they could take their gun anywhere, anytime,  including schools and athletic events under Alabama's  new gun laws.

  NOT.

In one area, the law says gun owners with a concealed carry permit are allowed to carry weapons to athletic events, regardless of whether they're hosted professionally or by a school. However, the law also gives property owners the right to ban firearms in places where there are strong security measures, such as guards.
The discrepancy has left many asking which part of the law supersedes the other -- are gun owners allowed to carry at athletic events that have additional security measures, like to a football game in Jordan-Hare or Bryant-Denny, or not?
The matter may have to be decided in court.

Since the Alabama courts are controlled by republicans look for the hypocrisy, I mean confusion, to continue.

Long Sigh

Equal Justice Is An American Value (Isn't It?)

Last night on AC360, Martin family attorney, Benjamin Crump, said the importance of the Justice Department review of the Trayvon Martin case and the Stand Your Ground law is so that parents know what to tell their children.

He raised a more chilling question, too. When the next child is murdered in a Stand Your Ground state, what do you think the defendant will say?

In June, right after the Zimmerman jury selection, Attorney Crump said:

"Well, you know, we've said all along this case is about equal justice. Equal justice under the law is not a black value, it's not a white value, it's an American value. And with the make-up of this jury, five white women and one hispanic, it's gonna be the question can every American get equal justice no matter who sits on your jury. And so, they're just praying that they can get justice for their child."

Sadly and disgustingly, we know how that worked out.

In a gut-wrenching chronology, Journalist Charles Blow enumerated the many ways the system failed Trayvon Martin.

Then, he asked what parents are asking, "What do I tell my boys?"

The idea of universal suspicion without individual evidence is what Americans find abhorrent and what black men in America must constantly fight. It is pervasive in policing policies — like stop-and-frisk, and in this case neighborhood watch — regardless of the collateral damage done to the majority of innocents. It’s like burning down a house to rid it of mice.

As a parent, particularly a parent of black teenage boys, I am left with the question, “Now, what do I tell my boys?”

We used to say not to run in public because that might be seen as suspicious, like they’d stolen something. But according to Zimmerman, Martin drew his suspicion at least in part because he was walking too slowly.

So what do I tell my boys now? At what precise pace should a black man walk to avoid suspicion?

And can they ever stop walking away, or running away, and simply stand their ground? Can they become righteously indignant without being fatally wounded?

Laura Murphy, Director of the Washington ACLU Legislative Office, provided these compelling and ludicrous rules of conduct, in her piece "A Mother's Rules for Being Young, Black and Male."

Right now we send our Black children disturbingly contradictory signals on how to conduct themselves so that they are free from discrimination and violence. Here are a few examples:

1) Black boys and men should not walk too quickly or run because that suggests they've done something wrong. They also should not walk too slowly because that suggests they must be looking for trouble.

2) Young black men should not put their hands in their pockets but should instead always keep their hands where others can see them. They should also avoid gesticulating, because others might misinterpret their gestures as aggressiveness.

3) Black boys and men should wear business attire at all times because casual clothes—especially hoodies—suggest they're up to no good.

4) Black youth should never hang out with more than three friends at one time, because large groups are likely to be mistaken for a gang. They should also be careful about walking alone—young men hanging out by themselves, like Trayvon Martin, are suspicious.

5) When shopping, whether at a grocery store or a department store, young Black men should check out quickly in order to avoid suspicion. But they should not check out too quickly, because that means they've pocketed merchandise on their way out.

6) Young black men should never make eye contact with others because it is threatening; they should never avert their eyes because that looks furtive.

7) Black men must be careful about walking, driving, or flying while black, especially in neighborhoods or in destinations where there are typically not a lot of black people. But they should avoid low income neighborhoods, because that is where the police are even more inclined to respond with brutality and arrest.

8) And the most important lesson of all to be learned from this tragedy is that Black boys and men must be careful about defending themselves because, no matter what happens, they will be seen as the aggressor.

She ends with a call to action.

"I simply don't know what to tell my son about how to live his life under these circumstances. I have known for a long time that there is nothing I can do to protect my son from prejudice. But I simply refuse to accept that there is nothing I can do to protect him from violence. This is the current reality that my son and countless parents like me face, but we cannot stop here.

We must call on the Justice Department to update the guidance on the use of race in federal law enforcement, and we must get Congress to Pass the End Racial Profiling Act, for the sake of my son and Black children across the country."

Enough with the Excuses and the Enabling!

  

 Remembering Ana Grace Márquez-Greene, 6, of Sandy Hook, beloved daughter of James S. Greene, Jr. and Nelba (Amaro-Márquez) Greene, passed away senselessly on Friday, (December 14, 2012) during the horrific massacre enacted upon Sandy Hook Elementary School. 

Roland S. Martin writes:   America should see the Newtown carnage

“One of these mothers from Connecticut should do an Emmett Till moment; show the picture of their child dead in the classroom.”
That’s a text I received earlier this week from my TV One show producer. When I got it, a chill immediately went through my body just thinking about the possibility of seeing the carnage in such a photo.
When taping this week’s edition of my show, “Washington Watch,” Sirius/XM Radio host Joe Madison somberly said the same thing. Joe remarked that Emmett’s mother, Mamie, insisted on an open casket for her son so the world could see what was done to him by racists in Mississippi.

Left in Alabama resident's righty Old Prosecutor says the discussion shouldn't be about gun control, it should be about controlling violence, because guns are inanimate objects they don't kill on their own.  Sound familiar?

 Ironically, the discussion in a post calling for "controlling violence" taught me more than I ever wanted to know about assault rifles, semi automatic rifles, folding stock pistol grips, large capacity magazines, Ruger 10/22 rifles, pellet spread, short range weapons,  etc.  Call me crazy, but shooting a real gun at a living breathing animal, or, shooting a real gun at a target of a man/woman and aiming for their head or their heart, is just as violent as video games, movies and music videos.

Funny how we don't have the money to arm teachers with the tools they really need,  but we have plenty of money to train and arm them with weapons of mass destruction.  In the end, arming teachers with guns does nothing but provide false security.

What the Political Parent said;

I cannot keep having the same argument with the same talking points anymore. I do not believe in taking every one's guns away. I do believe we need to have sensible regulations that are enforced. You cannot compare guns with knives or cars or swimming pools. You cannot insist that I am going to be raped and murdered because I think 30 rounds is too much for any civilian. You cannot possibly think that your pistol and your cammo backpack gives you the tools to fight against a fictional tyrannical government. I will continue to fight for what I believe in, by donating to the Brady center, by contacting legislators, by writing letters to editors, etc. What I will not do is continue to waste my time arguing with buffoons who insist that repeating NRA lies and propaganda is the way to have a rational dialogue about safety. Go on the NRA site if you want to brag about your right to have whatever weapon you want and keep on tellin yourself that if someone gets caught in the crossfire somehow its their fault for not being "prepared". Or a video game's fault, or an atheist's fault, or a socialist's fault. I'll find a solution, you keep hiding from one.

How about this, let people keep their guns

Make possession of more than X rounds of ammo a felony. Pay whistle blower rewards for providing the name of ammo hoarders.
Require future ammo produced to go bad after 90 days.
Tax the sale of the new ammo to pay for the program.
There is no right to own ammo.

 The Founding Fathers never intended to for the second amendment to enable individuals to own what ever weapon they desired.

It was certainly not intended to enable groups of individuals to use deadly force against their own government. Instead, it was intended to enable government-led groups of white men to put down slave rebellions and to steal real estate from the Indians.

 Enough excuses.  Enough memorials.  Enough grief.   

 The problem of gun violence in the United States is complex, and as H.L. Mencken observed, "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." Advocating that we arm elementary school principals and kindergarten teachers is not only wrong but insane. We must stop allowing this kind of insanity to prevent us from having reasonable gun control legislation.

Amen and Amen.

It's another sad Sunday in America

Here we go again..another senseless act of domestic terrorism...a Democratic United States Congresswoman fighting for her life...a federal judge, a 9 year old girl are among the casualties...the media spinning the story like top for ratings...regurgitating the same old tired talking points... telling us what they want us to know instead of what we need to know...counting on we the people being too stoopid to realize we're being lied to...again.

The first thing I want to address is the lie the media is pushing that this now makes congressmen and politicians afraid to appear in public. BULLSHIT! This only makes DEMOCRATS fear to appear in public. Selling ads to the Tea Party is more important than the truth. It has gone too far.

Also Mr. Media, which of you will be first to use the correct term "TERRORISM" regarding this?

It's the same with shooting doctors in the back or one of our drones blowing up a wedding party. Americans are incapable of terrorism. Are we going to send Loughner to Gitmo and try him by military tribunal? Yeah right...

There is a clear and compelling case to be made of a pattern of right wing violence, so this "both sides are guilty" meme is another MSM brazen lie. Jill Tubman via JackandJillpolitics writes;

Here at JJP, we’ve been warning about the violent rhetoric of the right wing for sometime. We ain’t been sleeping on this because we continue to believe in the threat to our nation that inflammatory, anti-government, anti-Obama, unpatriotic, birther and secessionist language is creating for all Americans. Both the rhetoric and the violence it has inspired has ramped up considerably with the ascension of America’s first black president. Earlier this year, I shared with you that membership in right wing extremist groups went up by 244% in one year.

The coalition to stop gun violence has compiled a Insurrectionism Timeline which which tracks in compelling, terrifying detail the pattern of right wing threats & attacks since 2008.

Question of the day;

Riddle me this: Why would Jared Loughner be issued a 9mm automatic rifle if he were mentally disturbed?

These folks the media are pulling off the shelves are now coming forward and saying high deranged, strange loughner behaved, how scared they were of him, yet didn't come forward until now. They didn't report his behaviors to authorities if they felt so threatened, why not?

How dumb does the media think we are, watching them parade all these folks out to qualify that murderer as mentally ill is SICKENING.

Would someone please inform the media Americans are Sick of Derogatory Rhetorical BS being perpetrated under the guise of being fair and balanced?

A nine year old child is dead along with a Federal Judge and other innocent people. Congresswoman Gifford is fighting for her life and all because there are some folks like Palin, Beck, Bachmann, and Rush who like to stir up negative divisive BS. Whether they deny it or not they all have blood on their hands.

Politicians are not exempt.

Watching the politicians on the cable news channels is an exercise in disgust. Thy are posturing and voicing their sadness with their droopy eyes and all their bullshit but not one has talked about the fact that this nut case was instigated to do what he did by the angry and nasty political rhetoric that has been getting worse and worse over the past decade.

Let's call it like it is. . . the right uses violent and condemning rhetoric to polarize, scare and generally intimidate the voters. The left lets them get away with it instead of standing up to them and pointing out their recreant behavior by taking the high road.

Lies, damn lies and conservative opinions

The dominant theme amongst the wingnut bloggers is that the shooting in Tucson should not be politicized (not sure how you discuss a political assassination attempt apolitically but...) and if we must politicize it, let's make sure to paint Jared Lee Loughner as a liberal. It's a desperate scramble.

Now they want to be bipartisan.

In the aftermath of the Arizona shooting spree, House Republican leaders have cleared the legislative calendar for next week, which means that for the most part U.S. politics will slow to a crawl. Instead, members -- Democrats and Republicans -- will participate in a joint caucus meeting Wednesday, to be briefed on security precautions in the wake of the shooting.

One good thing that has come out of this tragedy, the gop has postponed it’s idiotic health care repeal vote. Maybe now they realize that it’s just a dumb stunt to make people dangerously angry with the government. But then again, maybe not.

"Well, there's a certain mean spiritness that's out there, not only in Alabama but it's in America. And that makes this election extremely important." ~Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders

Maybe if Anderson Cooper and others had focused on these words instead of the over the top rhetoric, we wouldn't be in this mess.