Zen Master Steele
 

I wasn't sure whether or not to put this in the news thread or the political mythbusting thread but since no one here has (yet) said that the Afghanistan war is one that Obama chose, it'll go here.

See below:

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele expressed an unusual interpretation of the relationship between Barack Obama and the war in Afghanistan at a Connecticut fundraiser Thursday.

"This was a war of Obama's choosing," Michael Steele said at the event. "This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in."

Steele also accused Obama of "demonizing Iraq while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan."

"Well, if he's such a student of history, has he not understood that, you know, that's the one thing you don't do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan, alright, because everyone who's tried over a thousand years of history has failed," Steele continued.


Yes, that's right Barack Obama (or as I like to refer to him as Darth Obama) started the Afghanistan war.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_633730.html

The thing is, I expect that within a week this meme will catch hold in conservative circles.

Cheers
Aj

"You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - the most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia!"

-Vizzini
The Princess Bride

"...only slightly less well known is this, never go in against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line!" HAHAHAHAHA! (collapse)

Cheers
Aj

Fifty bucks says that by the time the 2012 election gets close, 9/11 will have happened on Obama's watch...

In other news, Chicago sends a big fat fuck you to the activist Roberts Court with swift new handgun legislation. All those gun nuts and keep and bear all their arms, but they can't buy them in the city, and they can't walk out their door with one.

Key provisions include:
*Applicants would need a Chicago firearm permit, costing $100 every three years, as well as an Illinois firearm owner's ID card. They would be required to register all their guns with the city, at a cost of $15 per gun every three years.
*Firearm sales would be banned in the city.
*Chicago residents could register no more than one handgun per month for each qualifying adult in a home.
*People who now own firearms illegally would get a 90-day grace period after the new law takes effect to register the guns without penalty.
*Gun training totaling four hours in a classroom and an hour on a firing range is required before getting a permit. But firing ranges are banned, so training would need to be completed outside Chicago.
*To transport a gun, it would have to be "broken down," not immediately accessible, unloaded and in a firearm case.
* Firearms could be possessed only inside the dwelling. It would be illegal to have a gun in the garage, on the front porch or in the yard. Guns also would not be allowed in hotels, dorms and group living facilities.
*Only one firearm per permit holder can be kept in ready-to-fire condition. Other guns must be taken apart or have trigger locks in place. In homes with minors, all guns must be secured when they are not in the possession of the owner.
*Permit applicants must be at least 21 years old, unless a parent signs for someone 18 or older.
*Assault weapons are banned, as are sawed-off shotguns and "unsafe" handguns, as defined by the Chicago Police Department, which will maintain an online list of prohibited guns.

linkyloo

I can listen to the rapture lady longer than I can listen to Boner.........I only last about 10-20 secs with Boner..........

Interesting merging...
 

Barney Frank And Ron Paul Join Hands To Call For Military Budget Cuts


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/barne...#ixzz0t3DIdjO8



In a piece at the Huffington Post, Barney Frank and Ron Paul jointly call for spending cuts to reduce the deficit.

While they may not see eye to eye on much ideologically (although Frank has a libertarian streak that he's not often given credit for), there is one area where they'd both like to see cuts: the military.

It's here that Frank's liberalism, and Ron Paul's non-interventionism align. And beyond that, the military eats up A LOT of our budget, so if you're looking for a juicy place to cut, this is it.

Here's the nut of it:

In order to create a systematic approach to reducing military spending, we have convened a Sustainable Defense Task Force consisting of experts on military expenditures that span the ideological spectrum. The task force has produced a detailed report with specific recommendations for cutting Pentagon spending by approximately $1 trillion over a ten year period. It calls for eliminating certain Cold War weapons and scaling back our commitments overseas. Even with these changes, the United States would still be immeasurably stronger than any nation with which we might be engaged, and the plan will in fact enhance our security rather than diminish it.

To keen observers of the political winds, this is not all that surprising.

The cover story of the latest American Conservative magazine asks whether the Tea Party, and its odd assortment of anti-taxers and Ron Paul-niks are about to turn anti-war. Whereas in the past, it'd be hard to convince rock-ribbed Republicans to push for lower spending, a strong budgetary angle, combined with the core conservative belief that more government intervention in anything usually produces worse results could make for a perfect storm.

Whereas most pundits look to entitlement spending for budget-cutting opportunities, this is something you should pay attention to, especially if a fierce anti-spending crowd wins in November, and if America's disgust with our foreign wars continues to escalate.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/barne...#ixzz0t3DiW4dS

OK, my take on this is that it will be used in Nov. as Demos not supporting the troops- even with Paul as a co-sponsor. Also, I do want to know what others think about this- is it really what this says it is?

I saw a piece on their joint efforts yesterday. Interesting co-conspirators! The military budget in this country is waaayyyy out of line; I'm glad to see folks making this proposal.

Tell Disney: Don't Pay for Sarah Palin's "Nature" Show!
 

i knew you loved my rapture lady.

bwahahahaha.

This is something that caught my attention this morning...It made me sick to my stomach and I hope the police catch this monster...

http://www.wesh.com/news/24178196/detail.html

Zimmy

I signed this petition..Another reason why I dislike the Mouse..

I´m speechless.....
 

Texas GOP Official Platform Calls for Imprisonment of Homosexuals and Supportive Heterosexuals.

http://jaysays.com/2010/06/texas-gop...heterosexuals/

If anyone uses this thread to post anything related to King Jame's announcement tonight, I will throw a fit, a major fit.

Y'all have been warned.

And the Texas GOP can go fuck themselves. Ignorant bunch of hating assholes.

Oscar Grant case verdict-
 

Verdict Oscar Grant
 

"Injustice Anywhere is a threat to Justice Everywhere!" ~MLK~
Sad for his family, justice was not served.

Oscar Grant was Murdered, plain and simple and the value of his life is measured by a system if injustice.
I am disheartened :-(
:praying:

Just out of curiosity, were you watching the local Faux Newz station (KTVU 2)? I expect talk of protests, and given what happened before, of riots; San Francisco has a heavy population of professional protesters, and they all probably jumped on BART to head to Oakland the second they heard a verdict was being delivered. The presumption that it's going to be African Americans sounds likethe racist spin that I would expect from KTVU.

My resident criminal defense attorney can't understand why the involuntary option was even given to the jury. This is akin to an acquittal.

I just got back from downtown Oakland. I have been involved in hundreds of protests and I have a good sense of how they go and of crowd energy. I know what the professional anarchist violence prone asshats look like.

Oscar Grant's grandfather spoke at the rally. He called for peace. This was a long planned rally to occur the day of the verdict. Oakland pastors and priests and community leaders have been holding candle light vigils and calls for peace since the trial started and it's stepped up since the jury went into deliberations on Friday. There are lots of families with children down there, Christian groups, Unitarians. The crowd is mostly black and brown, but plenty of white folk. I missed the little incident with the AC transit bus, but that was settled peacefully and the OPD backed off. They do have the entire area surrounded with police in riot gear, long batons, some with tear gas rifles.....I must have seen about 500 cops in the downtown area.........with hundreds more staged down towards Jack London Square (the cops are from oakland pd, state patrol, sheriffs dept, and surrounding communities). Some of those cops looked a little tense, but most looked and felt ok.

I left because it's getting dark and the number of anarchists (mostly young white men) with faces covered by bandannas and black men with faces covered started increasing. The feel of the crowd was starting to change and the families were starting to leave. Yes it's gonna get ugly down there tonight........probably really ugly because there are some rightfully very angry folks who are going to get violent and will be spurred towards it by the anarchists. I've seen plenty of peaceful demonstrations and civil disobedience actions turn to shit in a hurry once the anarchists start with their crap.

AtLast............you know.........what you said about 'racial rioting'........well that's just flat out racist. You might want to think about why you put the word 'racial' in that sentence.

I have no earthly idea how involuntary manslaughter could possibly be the verdict when the white cop shot and killed an unarmed black kid, in the back, while the kid was face down on the ground. This country just will not convict a cop of murder esp a white cop killing a black kid.

I'm watching Channel 2 news right now......

Of the film they have shown of the 'riot' (which was apparently, the looting of a Foot Locker, a bunch knocked over newpaper racks and papers all over the streets and a whole bunch of folks playing 'catch me if you can' with police) all of the folks shown arrested with the exception of one black man, are white anarchists, probably from SF and Berkeley.

The thing that truly pisses me off about all the media is the inability to see where the violence that happens in organized peaceful civil disobediance/demonstrations/rallies comes from. It is always started by anarchists in my experience and the overwhelming majority of them are white.

It's 10:30 and for right now it's over.....they are re-opening some streets downtown.............however there are still a bunch of folks still on the street. And I am off to bed.


Oh yeah............the jury had no black folk on it, but was majority white, with asian and latino folk filling it out.

I think you misread the post. AtLast didn't 'put' that word in the sentence...she was commenting on what the TV news story had focused on and questioning why Faux Newz emphasized 'racial' rioting....

Yes, T, you did misread my post. I most certainly was talking about the news story and Ch 2/Faux news doing this.

Geeesssuuussss.......!!! Now I will probably get I'm a racist reps!! This isn't funny after the last couple of days with thread situations. Yes, I am upset by this, seriously. Look at some of the stuff that gets started on here due to misreading of posts and flat-out inaccuracy!!

Re-read my my post Toughy- you are mistaken and misread it. IT WAS THE NEWS STATION THAT USED THIS TACTIC AND TERM- NOT ME! In fact, my post was exactly about what you are talking about- how the media was stereotyping African Americans by throwing out riot lines. READ THE DAMN POST!

My apologies to you AtLast....I did misread your post.

The local stations this morning have all have clearly said the police understand the violence was a result of 'outside agitators'. Channel 2 seems to gloss that little fact over. They keep saying 'protestors turned violent'. OPD says about 80% of the arrests were of folks from out of town.

I must say I am impressed (for the first time) with the new OPD Police Chief and Mayor Dellums. The citizens of Oakland got to have their say in a peaceful way.........the police did not interfere in that at all. They had a good plan of action and carried it out.

Thank you, T!

Usually, a misread would not bother me so much, but, lately, things have been rough.

Yes, Msdemeanor asked me what channel I flipped to- it was Ch. 2 (a Faux News affiliate). I was just searching for the verdict reading at the time. This morning, from other TV and radio reports, I am hearing that the violence was from outside agitators. Good that other media sources are getting this out! Oakland does not need more grief with this.

Yes, it looks like the OPD handled this well, thankfully.

My neighbors include two brothers that are both Oakland PD. I had a chat today with the younger one's girlfriend. She said that, out of 78 arrests, 19 were from Oakland, 28 or so from CA, and the rest from out of state.

In all the L.A. Times pictures they show POC looting stores and in supposed conflict with police. It is more than ridiculous the way it is being portrayed.

Kind of reminds you of Katrina when all the black folks were looting and the white folk were just trying to get supplies. Yep there were some black folk looting the Foot Locker......however it was brief and they didn't clean out the store...and that footage gets played over and over......

My question for Foot Locker is why in the hell didn't you board up your windows......everyone knew there was going to be broken windows and most of the stores downtown were boarded up. All the stores around the Fruitvale BART station were boarded up and closed by 3:00pm. That's the BART station where Oscar was killed. Nothing at all happened there.

My little sister called me this morning to check and see if I was OK...........she and her husband are in northwestern Oregon dredging and panning gold. The news she saw was all about riots and nothing about the 2000 or so folks who peacefully took over a small part of downtown Oakland.

At my work we have several firefighters and cops and county sheriffs who bring their precious dogs for daycare/boarding..........I got the same info from them MsDemeanor reported

---------
Susan.........I really am sorry I misread your post......it was entirely my fault.

CNN just reported that Yankee's Owner, George Steinbrenner has passed away. The sports world lost a baseball icon.

My condolences to his family and all Yankee fans.

I am not a die hard Yankee fan. I remember the 1977 World Series between the NY Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. What a series! My team lost but I remember both George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin. Those two men and their charisma opened up some of the magic of baseball to this L.A. hometown kid. Thanks for the memories.

My condolances.

http://s.huffpost.com/images/blank.gif






Disturbing New Report forAnti-LGBT Violence in 2009

Pentagon Mulling Segregation as an Option for Ending DADT