Monday, March 28, 2011

T-Party Republcans pushing fast legislation to control a woman's womb

Another eyesore of ignorance is showcased by screwball Republicans
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If this were the case, every 21 minutes hundreds of potential movers and shakers and laborers are also aborted. Many teachers and doctors are aborted. The list is endless. Right wing screwballs say abortion is genocide. They are overlooking children mills called foster homes, where children live with an assortment of abuses, neglect and death. These are feeling human who are physically aborted by the system and politicians that profess to love them while they are in their mother's wombs.

The above statement is not an indictment against all foster homes. Not all of them are bad. But take time to read news story sometimes. Take time to listen to news stories about children dying at the hands of stepmothers and stepfathers, biological mothers and fathers, boyfriends. Abortions would have relieved these babies and small children of the horrors and pain they suffered before death's mercy claimed them. Some of the babies survived their trauma, but some of them ended up mental cripples for the rest of their lives.

Years ago in my neighborhood a young mother of three stood by, and allowed her boyfriend to kick her two-year-old daughter in her stomach, killing her. Child Protective Services got involved, taking away the woman's other children. She was taken to court and reprimanded by the judge. She was ordered to go to parenting classes for six months, after which her children were returned to her. She moved, getting away from the condemning eyes of parents, namely mothers in the neighborhood. I don't recall what happened to the boyfriend.

Live children are not getting adopted by poster packing, protecting-the-fetus-loving Christians, who shout to the world that no woman has a right to get an abortion. What about the babies that are born and deserted? Born and abused? These protect-the-fetus phonies do not show concern or love for children they can see and touch. I have not seen these fetus lovers staging protests to protect live children who have been abandoned and abused. I have not heard of them adopting children housed in negligent foster care. I have not heard of them adopting children with handicaps or born to drug addicted mothers. 

These neglected children do not make these do-gooders lose one good night's sleep. They would rather keep their heads up a woman's dress to see how pregnant she is. It's all political grandstanding and a hypocritical sideshow for the media and TV cameras. After the kid is born it's baby be damn.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Trump wasn’t the biggest fly in the ointment in the 2009 Gaddafi rent-a-space fiasco

All of America has heard Donald Trump’s schick about “screwing” Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi. Please do not puke on your computer as I repeat Trump’s self-congratulatory “screwing” of Qaddafi. Boasting to Fox and Friends, Trump said, "I rented him a piece of land. He paid me more for one night than the land was worth for two years, and then I didn't let him use the land," Trump boasted. "That's what we should be doing. I don't want to use the word 'screwed', but I screwed him."

 We all know it was pressure that forced Trump to renege on the deal. That was a hoot-and-holler moment for the opinionated kowtows at Fox. Trump got the agreeable snickering that he wanted from his adoring audience on Fox and Friends. Asked why he reneged on the Qaddafi deal, he replied vaingloriously, “. . . because I wanted to.”

As a presidential candidate in 2012, Trump broadcasted to the world how intelligent he is. How business savvy he is. How he knows how to drive negotiations. His present and third wife would make a lovely first lady, he said.

Throwing a hatchet at President Obama, Trump said his classmates still remember him, unlike the school mates of Barack Obama. His regurgitation of the Barack Obama Birther Fairytale was not shocking. Trump may be rich but he is not too lofty and proud to pander for votes, falling in line with Teabegging Republicans.

I am not shocked at Trump’s claim about the Qaddafi rent-a-space deal. I am not surprised at how easily he lied. I remember the brouhaha about the Libyan dictator finding a place to stay in the U.S.  Regarding this situation, Trump has been telling a bald face lie and he knows it. He “screwed” Qaddafi in that he pocketed a great deal of money, but he was not the biggest fly in the ointment. Always the man out front, Trump makes himself the untouchable hero in the art of the deal.

Qaddafi was coming to America to attend the United States General Assembly conference. No hotels were willing to accommodate him. He wanted to pitch his Bedouin style tent on the grounds of the Libyan Embassy in Englewood, New Jersey, but authorities and residents raised the roof by protesting. In steps Donald Trump. He rents Muammar Qaddafi a large parcel of land that he owned in Bedford, New York, 45 miles from New York City.

When the flack caught up with Trump, his spokeswoman explained that Trump and his associates had businesses and associates all over the world. She denied that a deal had been cut with Qaddafi’s people directly. Supposedly Trump was renting land to Middle Eastern partners, and they apparently (unbeknownst to him) transferred their rights to Qaddafi. Go figure that one!

An attorney in Bedford, authorities and residents were having none of this tenting where they lived. A stop order was issued. A city ordinance said it is illegal to build a temporary residence without a permit. The tent was declared an illegal structure.

Americans were still outraged that Qaddafi was responsible for the Pan Am bombing. On the other hand, Trump, the billionaire,  smelled bread in the oven. He was not going to miss getting a slice of it by hook or crook. Apparently he was already predisposed to “screwing” Qaddafi, seeing that no hotels wanted him their establishments; nor was New York city willing to let him to camp on public land.

So Donald Trump, in his egotistical, braggadocios manner, made an easy profit. But he lied through the top of swooped over hair. The media, so far, have neglected to disabuse Trump of this falsehood. Maybe they believe him. Maybe they are amused by him. Maybe they do not want to dirty the water, jumping the gun before Donald Trump officially declares himself a presidential candidate.

Not surprisingly, Trump is boasting that, as president, he will not negotiate with world leaders in an amicable way. He thinks he can shake his finger in their face and simply declare: “I just screwed you! You’re fired! Now get the hell out of here!”

Sunday, March 20, 2011

A rubber-nosed woodpecker, Black youth picking farm crops, and no cash money for the poor and disabled in Minnesota

A New York Congressional candidate wants to bus unemployed inner city youth to farms to pick crops. They won't go to school, so bus then to the fields, is his attitude.

It seems that Republicans are more frustrated than a dog trying to bury a bone under a marble floor.  The apoplectic GOP is taking its anger out on welfare recipients and those on Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI). Republicans want folks on welfare to be poorer than they already are. They see no reason for them receiving public assistance. 

Republicans do not want the government to mail poor people those monthly checks. It's factually known that these deadbeats are only going to cash the checks, go shopping to buy expensive Michael Jordan tennis, go to strip clubs, buy cigarettes, marijuana, alcohol, crack cocaine, and top of the line cut steaks. And you  just know, without doubt, they are going to buy hip-hop music!

Republicans are sick and tired of the free give-away, and they are not going to have more of this high living at the expense of hardworking taxpayers! It's time Black folks work for the free government handouts and monthly checks.

These welfare slugs--all of whom are Democrats and Black--have no idea what it’s like to earn a living; no idea what it means to work hard like White folks, none of whom are on welfare. Why no self respecting Republican voter would be caught waiting for a monthly government check! Every worthwhile Republican in this country own homes, have at least two cars, checking and saving accounts, decent jobs. Republicans voters are doing great! That’s the American way. But those Democrats are a different story. They are the reason America is in the economic shape its in! Democrats are going to send America to hell in a bread basket if changes are not forth coming.

In Minnesota lunatic Michele Bachmann, and Republicans are stretching their attacks on the poor. They are stepping on the necks of disabled people. They want to make it illegal for freeloaders to get “emergency cash assistance.” Republicans want to make it a crime for  disabled and welfare recipients to have more than $20.00 in their pocket during any calendar month! After this proposed legislation becomes law, welfare and SSI recipients will be issued debits cards.

"This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all", writes reporter Ken Layhe.

My guess is if freeloaders, I mean recipients, have utilities and phone bills to pay they can just scratch them off their “luxury items” list. If the welfare bums, I mean recipients, refuse this deal they can get off the government dole and find jobs. There is plenty of work for anybody who wants to work.  Welfare recipients and the disabled folk just have to get off their backsides, look for work and fill out applications. Abracadabra! They will probably get hired on the spot, within a few days.

That easy, huh?

This is elephantine idea is like sending a rubber-nosed woodpecker into a one tree forest, expecting it to peck its heart out, getting no results. After a while the disadvantaged woodpecker realizes it has no good choices in this one tree forest. No all welfare recipients are able-bodied, capable of being productive employees. These are the rubber-noised woodpeckers in a forest to trees.

“So, the poorest families and the poorest disabled adults would be unable to take any of this money as cash, even though poor people by design are kept from having bank accounts or a checkbook, which is why they usually pay bills and rent in cash,” writes Ken Layhe in a piece titled Minnesota Republicans to Outlaw Poor People Having Money.

“House Bill 171 would make it so that families on MFIP – and disabled single adults on General Assistance and Minnesota Supplemental Aid – could not have their cash grants in cash or put into a checking account. Rather, they could only use a state-issued debit card at special terminals in certain businesses that are set up to accept the card,” Layhe writes.

The Layhe article reminds me of a candidate running for congress in New York. His name is Jack Davis, a tea partier. For their own reasons Republicans have refused to endorse him. They won't touch him with a 10 foot pole. Davis says if he is elected he will put Americans back to work! That sounds as good as tasty meatballs on a plate of spaghetti. It's also a good campaign promise minus the taste.

I was loving Davis's idea about putting people back to work until I read more of his platform. He said Mexican farm workers should be deported. He says they can be replaced with unemployed African American inner city youth, all of whom can be bussed to various farms to pick crops! He said they can expect to earn a fair wage, whatever that means. White kids were not mentioned. I guess it's a Black thing only.

I think all of this "let’s get poor folk legislation" is all about 2012, and getting poor folk so mad at President Obama they will switch parties and vote Republican. Republicans are determined to push the poor and disabled further down the well of poverty. They say, when in front of a media camera, “It’s President Obama’s fault. He’s trying to take away your rights. He works for Wall Street not Main Street. He doesn’t share our values. He wants to keep you poor!”

"Blame it on Obama” is the number one hit song on the Republican’s hit parade of favorite lies and other political mess.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Many fools blindly rush into a situation; but wise men prefer to be cautious and analytical

Presidential candidate Paul Pawlenty
Republican Tim Pawlenty, a potential presidential candidate in 2012, is perturbed by President Obama. He thinks the President should take unilateral action against Libya. He shouldn't pull together an international coalition to resolve the bloody battle Muammar Qaddafi is visiting upon Libyans revolting against him.

Pawlenty said in an interview with Politico: “ I’m not overtly concerned with our popularity in Europe or the Middle East.” As the Church Lady on Saturday Night Live might say: “Isn’t that special!” Realistically, it’s not wonderful and Pawlenty should be concerned. The tough guy image he is cranking up for the media and voters is pure buffoonery.

Neocon Republicans like Pawlenty, many of whom have never fought in a real guns and bullets war, are anxious to send others to fight and die while they stay home, sitting on their cushy asses, offering shopworn lip service to whoever will listen. President Obama is correct in using absolute caution about Libya. Only a chest beating fool would rush into Libya with guns blazing and bombs bombing without a flow chart of choices.

That's what Bush did in Iraq. He had already given orders to bomb Iraq, telling the American people 24 hours later. Americans, out for revenge after 9/11, applauded Bush's actions without knowing the facts. No flow charts. No exit plans on the table. Over a million deaths and human injuries later, the world finally learned the truth. There were never any WMDs in Iraq. The preemptive "Shock and Awe"bombings were personal with Bush. He had a long bone to stick up Saddam Hussein’s tokus. Hussein had threatened his daddy and Bush was angry. 

Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld said the Iraqi people would greet Americans with "roses and chocolates." They would shout with joy for being rescued from the hands of an evil dictator. Bush lied and people died. He made a speech on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln with a large backdrop banner simply stating: “Mission Accomplished.” The mission was nowhere close to being accomplished.

Here it is 10 years later and American soldiers have not received roses and chocolates from the Iraqi people. Instead, they are angry and that anger has turned outward on Americans. All of our memories are connected to televised images of death, destruction and misery in the Middle East. We saw families grieving over their sons and daughters killed in battle. Grieving Iraqi mothers and fathers were no less difficult to watch.

There is no graceful way to withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq. Bush and his gang of neocons have gone on to live their lives, appearing on TV, writing books, hitting the lecture circuit, living large and comfortably. Thousands of American men and women are stuck in a foreign land, unable to realize comfortable lives with their families, unable to make TV appearances, lecture for money or write books. Thousands of them are crippled both mentally and physically for life.

Bush's big lie should not be forgotten by any of us. The wounds of these wars are too deep to push to the back of our minds.

If President Obama go it alone in Libya, America may find itself in another protracted Middle East conflict. The same spineless neocons pushing for an immediate show of American chutzpah, are the same hypocrites who will use it against President Obama in 2012 if a unilateral invasion evolves into a long confrontation. Iraq and Afghanistan are perfect, in-your-face examples of why it is dangerous to kick down a door without knowing what’s waiting behind it.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

The night Rodney King made world history in America by getting a cop beat-down

Rodney King is savagely beaten and humiliated by LA police. 
UPDATE: Rodney King made news when several police beat him for speeding 1991. At age 47 King died in an accidental drowning June 7, 2012, in his home swimming pool. He was found at the bottom of the pool. Police could not resuscitate him.

The beating of Rodney King 20 years, March 3, 1991, is remembered by the media. It was the police beating heard around the world; a world that expressed shock about America and its attitude toward African Americans.  The beating produced a memorable video and a memorable event.

King was pulled over in Arcadia, California. He ran a red light and fled he fled from the police. He had been drinking and he was on parole. It was past midnight. George Holiday, who lived at the Lake View Terrace apartments had just purchased a camcorder and was learning how to operate it when he caught the King beating by LA police officers.

Had Holiday not been standing in the right window at the right time, the King beating would have been swept under the carpet, as often the case in Los Angeles. It would have been just another day at the office for the policemen who had solidified their story. The now famous video hit the media two days later. King was beaten within an inch of his life that March 3, 1991. The horrendous beating guaranteed him a page in history books and magazines.

The no guilty verdicts that followed the trials of officers Laurence Powell, Theodore Briseno, Timothy Wind, and Stacey Koon in 1992 launched riots in the streets of Los Angeles. Fifty people were killed, an estimated 2,000 were injured. Property damage due to fires and looting was in the high millions.

Ironically, a grand jury indicted the officers, but an all White jury in Semi Valley looked at the police officers through different colored lens. King must have been guilty of a crime, otherwise there wouldn't have been reason to chase him, beat him, arrest him.

It was doing the riots that King asked this question in a nervous, quivering voice: “Can we all get along?” This was his attempt to quell the angry rioters. The King beating caused the LA Police Department to look at itself, deciding it had to make changes. Below is a LAPD timeline that led to the savage beating.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Officers' Trials: A Chronology

March 2, 1991--King drinks heavily at the home of Bryant ("Pooh") Allen while watching a basketball game. After the game, King, Allen, and another friend named Freddie Helms drive down the 210 freeway, singing to the radio.

King shows the media his wounds.
March 3, 1991--About 12:30 A.M., King's Hyundai is spotted speeding on the 210 freeway by two California Highway Patrol officers, Tim and Melanie Singer. The CHP officers pursue King at speeds of over 110 mph. King's vehicle is finally cut off about fifteen minutes later. As the Singers, with guns drawn, attempt to arrest King, Sgt. Stacey Koon and three other LAPD officers (Laurence Powell, Theodore Briseno, and Timothy Wind) intervene. From his nearby apartment, George Holliday videotapes the scene, as three officers strike King over fifty times with metal batons before finally handcuffing him. King is taken to a hospital by ambulance.

March 4, 1991-- Holliday gives his videotape to Los Angeles television station KTLA. KTLA takes the tape to LAPD headquarters, where it is viewed by senior officers. That night, KTLA broadcasts the Holliday videotape on the evening news.

March 5, 1991--CNN obtains a copy of the Holliday videotape and plays it on its nationwide cable news program. The FBI opens an investigation of the King beating.

March 6, 1991--The Holliday videotape is played on the evening news programs of all major networks. Most viewers express shock at what they see. King, meanwhile, is released from jail without charges.

March 7, 1991--Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates announces that the officers involved in the King beating will be prosecuted.

March 8, 1991--District Attorney Ira Reiner announces that he will seek indictments against the officers from a grand jury. Fifteen officers present at the scene of the King arrest are suspended.

March 10, 1991--A Los Angeles Times poll reports that 92% of those who had seen the Holliday videotape thought excessive force had been used against King.

March 11, 1991--A grand jury watches the videotape and begins listening to testimony.

March 14, 1991--The grand jury returns indictments against Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, and Theodore Brisenio.

April 1, 1991--Amidst charges against the LAPD of racism and incompetence, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley announces that a commission headed by Warren Christopher will evaluate the performance of the LAPD.

April 2, 1991--Mayor Bradley asks for the resignation of Police Chief Gates, but Gates refuses.

May 16, 1991--Judge Bernard Kamins sets June 17 as the opening date for the trial of the four officers. He denies a defense motion for a change of venue out of Los Angeles County. The defense appeals the denial of their motion.

In photo at the top King is asking rioters: 

"Can we all get along?" He is attempting to quell the rioters. Photo at left is King years later.

July 23, 1991--The California Court of Appeals unanimously grants the change of venue motion. The Court also takes the case from Judge Kamins because of a message he sent to prosecutors: "Don't panic. You can trust me." The case is reassigned to Judge Stanley Weisberg.

Nov. 26, 1991--Judge Weisberg transfers the LAPD Officers' case to predominantly white and conservative Simi Valley. He announces that the case will be heard beginning in February.

February 3, 1992--State trial of the four officers begins at the East Ventura County Courthouse in Simi Valley.

March 2, 1992--A jury of ten whites, one Hispanic, and one Filipino American is selected. Six jurors are male, six are female.

April 29, 1992.--At 3:15 P. M., Jury acquits Koon, Wind, and Briseno of all charges. Jury is unable to reach verdict on one charge against Powell. About 5:00 P. M., rioting begins in Los Angeles. When it is over, 53 people are dead, over 7,000 people arrested, and more than $1 billion in property damage is sustained.

April 30, 1992--President George Bush announces that he has ordered the Department of Justice to investigate the possibility of filing charges against the LAPD officers for violating the federal civil rights of Rodney King.

August 4, 1992--A federal grand jury returns indictments against the four officers.

Feb. 25, 1993--Trial begins in the courtroom of Judge Davies on the charge of violating the civil rights of Rodney King.

April 16, 1993--The federal jury convicts Koon and Powell on one charge of violating King's civil rights. Wind and Briseno are found not guilty. No disturbances follow the verdict.

August 4, 1993--Judge Davies sentences Powell and Koon to thirty months in a federal correctional camp. Various civil rights groups complain that the sentences are not harsh enough.

August 27, 1993--The Justice Department announces that it will appeal the sentence of Judge Davies as too light.

Oct. 12-13, 1993--Powell and Koon report one day apart to Camp Parks near San Francisco to begin serving their federal sentences.

April 19, 1994--In a civil suit by King against Los Angeles, a jury awards $3.8 million in damages.

April 22, 1994 --A civil suit against the officers begins before Judge Davies. King asks for $15 million in damages.

June 1, 1994--A civil trial against the officers ends with a jury awarding $0 in damages to King.

Jan. 13, 1995--The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the sentences by Judge Davies was too lenient and sends the case back for re-sentencing.

Sept. 28, 1995--The U. S. Supreme Court agrees to hear Koon's and Powell's appeal of the Ninth Circuit decision sending their case back to Judge Davies for imposition of a harsher sentence.

Oct. 15-16, 1995--Koon is released from the Federal Work Camp in Sheridan, Oregon, to enter a halfway house in California. Powell is released from a Federal Work Camp near Edwards Air Force Base, north of Los Angeles.

Nov. 23, 1995--An armed assailant invades a halfway house in Rubidoux, California in an attempt to kill Koon, but Koon is away for the Thanksgiving holiday. The armed invader in killed by police in a shoot-out. Koon is allowed to serve the remainder of his term in a form of house arrest.

Dec. 13-14, 1995--Powell, then Koon are released.

June 13, 1996--The U. S. Supreme Court reverses the Ninth Circuit and upholds the sentence of Judge Davies on most points but orders re-sentencing on the basis of two errors.

Sept. 26, 1996--Judge Davies refuses to extend the sentences of Koon and Powell. He reimposes the thirty-month sentence, effectively ending the case. From the LAPD Officers' Trials Homepage.

Update: On June 17, 2012, Rodney King was found dead at the bottom of his home swimming pool. He was fund by his live-in girlfriend. His death was ruled an accident.