Thursday, August 26, 2010

the Palin/Beck/Gingrich army

i wonder if those on the far right will continue stoking the Anti-islam fires until someone gets murdered. Palin, Newt and the rest should be proud that they can bring out this behavior in their minions.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Sad day in America

While we all know that far right fringe that is running the GOP these days has long since abandondend any sort of adherence to the Constitution (save Amendment #2), but it was shocking to see the hatred expressed over weekend in NYC by the anti-Islamic groups (anti-freedom is more like it). Did it not remind you of protests in the south in the late 1950s? Those times in the fifties are looked back on with shame by most Americans and this anti-muslim/intolerance/abondonment of Bill of Rights rhetoric will also be a source of shame in years to come. But for now, it seems ok that that's even more shameful (Did you know...Gov. Faubus was included among the "Ten Men in the World Most Admired by Americans", according to the Gallup Poll for 1958...per Wikipedia).

Sarah Palin and her ilk will be looked on with the same shame in coming years. Shame on her and shame on Fox news for stirring up this hatred of all Muslims...Shame. Our forefathers, the real Tea Party, are rolling over in their graves right now at this dispicable use of their cause and their name to justify this intolerance.

Monday, August 16, 2010

If only reality was part of the right wing's knowledge base

I know the basic fundamentals of the issue are not known to the right wing nuts, so I thought I do him the service that Sarah Palin’s Facebook posts and Glenn Beck aren’t doing.

Prayers have been going on at this site for nearly a year…

and

The "Ground Zero Mosque" that we have been and will be hearing so much about is not exactly a mosque, nor is it at Ground Zero. Here's why: you can't see Ground Zero -- the former site of the World Trade Center -- from the future site of the Cordoba House.

From 45 Park Place, the former Burlington Coat Factory building that will make way for the Cordoba House, it's two blocks, around a corner, to get to the WTC site. Park Place doesn't lie between the construction site and any mass transit stations, so you would need to go out of your way to have it offend you.

In addition, the building planned for 45 Park Place is a cultural center with a prayer room -- not a single-purpose house of worship for Muslims, which is probably what we should reserve the word "mosque" for. As Haberman also explains, "That it may even be called a mosque is debatable. It is designed as a multi-use complex with a space set aside for prayer -- no minarets, no muezzin calls to prayer blaring onto Park Place."
The 92nd Street Y, on which the Cordoba House is explicitly modeled, has a whole host of Jewish events take place inside of it, but no one calls it a synagogue. There's no good reason why Cordoba House should be misleadingly called a "mosque." I've been guilty of using this word too, in conversation and in writing, but it's inaccurate. Muslims already read the Quran and pray at 45 Park Place, but that does not and will not turn it into a "mosque."
There's one more catch for the opponents of the so-called Ground Zero mosque: by the same logical leap you can call the Cordoba Center a "mosque," you can also call Ground Zero as it already exists a giant, open-air mosque. Muslim prayers are already taking place right on the edge of the construction site, and not for world domination. Families are going there to pray -- for the souls of the dozens of innocent Muslim victims who died on September 11.

Friday, August 06, 2010

White, Straight, Christian Males are apparently the ONLY group in America that has never shown any bias

Just proves again (from the bashing from the right wing nuts) that anyone who is not White, Straight or Male has to "explain" or prove that they will overcome their "inherent bias' in not being Straight, White and Male. Straight White Males (and Christian too) are not asked to prove that they won't favor their own demographic in their rulings, but everyone else is (Can you imagine if a Muslim was nominated for the Supreme Court???). When Sotomayor was being confirmed she had to prove she wasn't biased toward hispanics because of her heritage, while Sam Alito was praised for his Italian heritage during his confirmation.

As we all know Straight White Males have never had any biases in the history of America.

It just shows how this country still believes that straight white and male is the "normal" state of things and anything else MUST be explained.

Why wouldn't a straight judge be biased toward his own sexuality? A question that would NEVER even be asked, but for a gay judge...





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gay judge has proven record of impartiality
ON U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE VAUGHN WALKER
February 09, 2010
Vaughn Walker almost lost his chance to reach the federal bench because of claims that he was anti-gay and hostile to civil rights. Two dozen House Democrats, led by Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, opposed his nomination because of his alleged "insensitivity" to gays and the poor. His first appointment, from President Ronald Reagan in 1987, stalled out in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
His nomination was renewed by President George H.W. Bush in early 1989.
Back then, Walker struggled to assure skeptical liberals that, as a judge, he could rule with impartiality even though he had represented the U.S. Olympic Committee in its successful effort to prevent an athletic competition in San Francisco from being called the Gay Olympic Games. He was harshly criticized for putting a lien on the home of a gay-games leader who was dying of AIDS. Walker insisted that he was not anti-gay and was only doing his best to serve his client.

Walker also was under fire for his membership in San Francisco's all-male Olympic Club. He resigned during the nomination process, which helped cement his confirmation.
Those who understood the distinct roles of lawyer-advocate and judge recognized that a person of ethics and fidelity to the law could separate his or her personal views and experiences from professional duty.
Today, at age 65, Judge Walker is presiding over the challenge to Proposition 8, which may well determine how quickly gays and lesbians achieve full marriage equality in this country. We now know what Walker never bothered to reveal when he was being castigated as anti-gay: He is gay, which changes neither his legal history nor his fitness for this assignment.
A judge's sexual orientation does not inherently shade his ability to read and interpret the U.S. Constitution with clear-eyed wisdom. Assuming this case advances on appeal, no matter how Walker rules, there almost certainly will be jurists who will need to set aside their religion's teachings - and, quite likely, the impact of their ruling on close friends or even a family member - as they do their utmost to uphold the meaning of the Constitution.
Walker did not think his private life was relevant to his ability to preside with fairness in the Prop. 8 trial. There is nothing in his long and laudable career to suggest otherwise.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Why doesn't the media's love affair with Palin include some actual Journalism?

I know we all just love to her about how the great Alaskan quitter has witty quips about Obama or tells us that the AZ governor has balls (is there a citizen without a radio or tv show in America that gets more positive press than this woman? The right wing media even turned her into hero for being the parent of an unwed teenage mother), but why do we never see any journalism investigating some of her claims?

http://www.politicususa.com/en/palin-steals-500-million

Palin’s Phantom Pipeline Steals $500 Million from Taxpayers

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Some of that pesky truth you'll never hear on Fox

Deportations have soared under Obama administration

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38548026

Statistics put together by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University show that more illegal immigrants were removed from the United States during the first nine months of this fiscal year than during the same period in 2008. That is when Republican George W. Bush was in the White House and his administration controlled Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In fact, the number of those ejected from the country between Oct. 1, 2009 and June 30 of this year is nearly twice as much as it was in the same period ending June 30, 2005.



During the first nine months of the fiscal year, TRAC, using Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, figures that 136,714 "criminal aliens'' were deported. That same figure in 2008 was 85,334.



Did you also know that when Brewer first decided the Immigration was going to be her go-to relection issue she DEMANDED Obama send 250 additional troops to the AZ border, Obama responded by sending 524 plus additional border agents. THEN she has continued to have the balls to get on Obama for not doing enough, even though he did TWICE as much as she wanted.