To Serve And Protect August 31, 2011
Posted by Benjamin Wendell in News Of The Weird.add a comment
Judging by the number of cops in the last few months who’ve been caught on camera while beating the living shit out of one suspect or another, it’s a safe bet that none of them have come to the startling conclusion that their dashboard video cameras do not selectively erase shots containing policemen. Nor have they figured out that the same surveillance cameras in every ATM, at every intersection, and surrounding every downtown building that they use to identify suspects can also be employed to identify police. I’m also guessing that the entrance exams at the police academy are heavily weighted toward physical requirements over intellectual capabilities. Which brings us to today’s story out of New Mexico, where a female motorist demonstrates one way to get out of a speeding ticket:
“Excuse me, officer. Could you tell me again how fast I was going?”
BW
9/11 Remembrance: More Spinning Than An Industrial Washing Machine August 31, 2011
Posted by Benjamin Wendell in Politics.add a comment
I just read the LA Times article from my blogmate’s last post. This is just more of what I was talking about before, the “everything Obama does is wrong” paradigm. If you read the outline for the suggested direction of the commemoration objectively, it doesn’t sound at all outlandish, unpatriotic, or distasteful. We are reminded to remember those who died in the attack but we are urged not to concentrate on revenge, blame, and fear, but to learn from the tragedy and look to the future, to move forward. How in the world are any of these concepts wrong? One can only imagine what the festivities would be if Bush were still president or how they might look under Perry or Bachmann or Palin. First and foremost would be a national day of prayer. Then would come the exhortations of eternal vigilance and warnings over the threats of global Islamism and Sharia Law. Then the F-15 flyover in the “missing man” formation. I’m sure that those things would make a lot of people more comfortable, and maybe that’s a good thing, but the suggestions of the current administration are comforting in a way that speaks to progress and peace, and that’s better still.
BW
I Know What It Is August 31, 2011
Posted by Cory Franklin in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
If the right-wing spin machine hasn’t voraciously jumped on it yet, the next talking point you’re bound to hear on FIX News is what’s going to be called an outrageous remark from Indianapolis’ very own Democratic representative in the House, Andre Carson. He claimed yesterday in a forum of the Congressional Black Caucus that a lot of the new Tea Party members of Congress would like to see him and his fellow CBC members “hanging from a tree”. The righties are almost certainly going to jump on this and make the expected, “We’re not the racists, the left are the racists” claim, but I think Carson makes a good point, and I hope he won’t back down either. The individual members of the Tea Party may not be racist (although I believe a lot of them are), but the policies they advocate have a disproportionately adverse effect on the black and Hispanic communities.
That must be part of that new bipartisan approach the President is urging.
The Federal Family Tells Us How To Commemorate 9/11 August 31, 2011
Posted by Cory Franklin in Uncategorized.add a comment
This Guy Had Better Never End Up In Prison August 31, 2011
Posted by Benjamin Wendell in News Of The Weird.Tags: tattoo, where's waldo
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Because you don’t want Aryan Nation, Crips, and Bloods to suddenly take up finding “Where’s Waldo” as a new hobby.
BW
Taking A Stand August 31, 2011
Posted by Benjamin Wendell in Politics.Tags: Andre Carson, congressional black caucus, hanging, lynching, rick perry, secede, treasonous
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It’s something most of us on the left wish Obama would do, but most of us have stopped holding our collective breath. He may yet be forced to take some kind of stand and draw some kind of line in the sand, but if the president is wary of going too far out on that limb, there are others who aren’t. Say what you will about Rick Perry, but he stands up for what he believes in. He doesn’t retract and he doesn’t spin. When he says something stupid, scary, or truly reprehensible, be it seceding from the Union, telling Texans seriously to pray for rain, or calling the Fed Chairman “treasonous”, and he’s challenged, he doesn’t retract, retreat, or back down. He doubles down. I find it an admirable trait, in a perverse sort of way.
If the right-wing spin machine hasn’t voraciously jumped on it yet, the next talking point you’re bound to hear on FIX News is what’s going to be called an outrageous remark from Indianapolis’ very own Democratic representative in the House, Andre Carson. He claimed yesterday in a forum of the Congressional Black Caucus that a lot of the new Tea Party members of Congress would like to see him and his fellow CBC members “hanging from a tree”. The righties are almost certainly going to jump on this and make the expected, “We’re not the racists, the left are the racists” claim, but I think Carson makes a good point, and I hope he won’t back down either. The individual members of the Tea Party may not be racist (although I believe a lot of them are), but the policies they advocate have a disproportionately adverse effect on the black and Hispanic communities.
The only way we’re ever going to see change in this country is if people of conscience finally do take a stand for what they believe in, whatever that may be, whether ending the wars, or providing health care, or caring for our children, our poor, and our elderly, or watching out for our planet. Back in the sixties, the streets were filled with protesters, and a lot of them went to jail for what they believed in. Arguably, the protests worked. Vietnam was ended. Protest today comes in the most unexpected places and from the most unexpected voices. Yesterday Darryl Hannah proved that she could, in fact, “get arrested in this town”, after protesting the building of a new oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast outside the White House.
As an aside, does that SWAT guy look like the prototypical special forces/SWAT/Blackwater commando, or what? But the point here is that there’s something to be said for standing up for that in which you believe, even if it costs you derision or criticism or even jail time. It’s a lesson I wish our Commander In Chief could learn before it’s too late.
BW
One Campaign Promise He Held Up August 31, 2011
Posted by Cory Franklin in Uncategorized.add a comment
I guess he really did roll the oceans back or whatever that stuff he said was.
The Wind Blows Hard August 31, 2011
Posted by Benjamin Wendell in Environment, Politics.3 comments
But the right blows harder. My blogmate and the rest of the conservative pundits seem trapped in the “everything Obama does is wrong” paradigm. Look, I detested Bush, but even I thought he occasionally got something right. In the case of Hurricane Irene, Obama got it right. Based on the best scientific evidence, there was every reason to believe that Irene was going to be devastating to the East Coast. When the meteorologists saw it turn slightly north after ravaging the Bahamas, there was warm water and no shear winds ahead and they believed Irene could strengthen to a category 3 before making landfall…which didn’t happen. Perhaps contrary to what Michele Bachmann and Pat Robertson preach, their God took pity on an already tottering US and left a message in the form of a gentle nudge instead of a two by four upside the head. Or maybe it was just a random wind.
But there’s really no such thing as “evacuating a day or even two days too early”, not when a lot of areas evacuated have the population density of a Mumbai marketplace and are served by just a few bridges or tunnels. If the storm had been as severe as predicted and if the evacuations had been deferred or delayed, the Monday morning quarterbacks would be insisting that the president had again been too timid as the video showed the body bags being carried out.
Even with this relatively mild hurricane/tropical storm, the consequences for the East Coast and New England have been overwhelming. There is massive flooding in New Jersey and Vermont. There are scores of destroyed bridges and roads. There are still millions without electricity (my son’s in Connecticut was just restored yesterday evening).
This is no product of the liberal media. Obama, for all of his other faults, and I’ve been as brutal on him as anyone on the progressive side, did a great job in mitigating this potential disaster, and his handling of Irene does stand in stark contrast to Bush’s mishandling of Katrina.
BW
It’s Not Easy Being Green August 31, 2011
Posted by Cory Franklin in Uncategorized.add a comment
In 2009, Obama dedicated $7.2 billion of stimulus funds to build “clean tech” jobs. He vowed to create 5 million jobs over the next decade.
So far, that effort has “created or retained” just 7,140 jobs, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s about $1 million per job. The number is actually down from last year, when the EPA claimed 16,605 green jobs.
Audit reports by the Energy Department’s Inspector General Office offer some clues as to why: Trying to comply with federal regulations such as the Davis-Bacon Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Buy American Act has stalled many projects.
THIS IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH AMERICA August 31, 2011
Posted by Cory Franklin in Uncategorized.add a comment
Remember the three biggest lies:
1. The check is in the mail
2. I forget the second one
3. I’m from The Government and I’m here to help you
Well, it’s no longer the Government – it’s your Federal Family. Check this out. I don’t care what you think of the Government- they are not your Federal family. IF they think they are, things are really bad. If you think they are, things are worse.
