Displaying 4,201 To 4,230 Of 5,146 Comments TRP!!!! How ARE you? Where are you??? We’re SO glad to see you again! » Posted By choicelady On August 18, 2010 @ 9:02 pm Just a Final Word about Robert Gibbs Thanks marion for both these posts. I think besides the issue of the phony liberals with no skin in ANY game (other than feathering their own nests and trash talking anyone outside their own frame) the problem may well lie with the new breed of reporters. Note I don’t call them journalists. That went the way of Woodward and Bernstein, Dan Shorr, and many others who have been the last gasp of reflection. I went to the same high school as Bob Woodward where he was cute, popular, and dumb. In “All the President’s Men”, Bernstein opines that everyone at the WaPo was pretty sure that English was NOT Woodward’s native language. He was NOT smart. But both men – and Cronkite, et al. – learned their craft, practiced it well, and provided us with data, insight, and left us with more questions as well as answers. Today it’s all ‘gotcha’ writing or broadcasting. I’m appalled by NPR that says stupid things such as “GM is back in the top 10 of the Fortune 500, is in the black, and is paying off its stimulus. But sales are still down.” Down from WHAT???? It’s heyday 40 years ago? Well, yes. All car companies have smaller global shares since there are more OF them. But GM is in the black for the first time in YEARS, 55,000 jobs were saved in the company and several hundred thousand in parts and other suppliers – and that’s not worth NOTING????? And isn’t it also worth noting that this means the support from the feds WORKED?????? Negativity is all anyone wants to print or broadcast. Gotcha politics to catch someone out in some gaffe or scandal is also good; if you cannot supply the latter, we will at least note the former. Your achievements? Only the RW “Mission Accomplished” theater gets US journalists’ eyes now. We are a nation of fairly remarkably ignorant people, and the media reps are among them. Even the liberal lefties are pretty stupid. I was asked recently in a blog interview if I thought Dominionist Christians could be considered a form of fascism. I said YES. But what the QUESTION turned into was “Do you think Dominionist Christians are like Nazis?” To that my answer would have been NO since there is no party, no dominance, no brown shirts. Fascism is not the same interchangeable thing. So, thanks interviewer – now I have ALL the cred of Glen Beck. I wasn’t misquoted. I was mis-something else. Not a term for it. But my answer was used to gin up the hype, NOT shed light. Phtrrrrrpppp to the interviewer. Unless and until we demand real reporting and information from our press and electronic coverage, unless and until we exercise thoughtful reflection and CALL OUT net based crapola, we will continue to get either puff or rant. There does not seem to be much in between. With net neutrality in serious danger – how many people will be routed to thoughtful and responsible sites vs. the ones that pay Big Bucks to say stoopid stuff and get us to believe it. And oh – and buy their wares along the way. Grrrrr. » Posted By choicelady On August 18, 2010 @ 8:35 pm Robert Gibbs, Ratfucking and the Professional Left I’m there, too. Perhaps because I am a lobbyist (declared by CA ethics analysts to work for “the original Good Guy organization, though!) I am in awe of Obama’s successes. The grip the right has on all parts of this nation is scary, and while I think the ratfucking is no longer a “for sure” measure, I do think people are amazingly gullible. Within the context of freaked out Congress people, House and Senate, Obama has passed huge things. WTS – Obama got $20 BILLION out of BP to avoid what happened with Exxon Valdez settlements that dragged through years of litigation. I think he knew better than anyone what HAD to be done. As far as the war – we’ve talked about the rock/hard place issue that once Bush got us IN, pulling out leaves women like the one on the cover of TIME. I do NOT know what the solution is, but the drawdown in Iraq is on time, and the shift to non-military presence to aid Iraqi’s own control of their government is amazing. Afghanistan just got hugely worse with the floods in Pakistan and the lack of western help getting in. It’s our chance to provide not only the necessary supplies BUT to build some major bridges with the Muslim extremists, and it CAN be done. One thing Obama must do – keep OUR Christian extremists OUT. I think Obama has done amazing things given the massive and despicable opposition from both sides. I am furious with the so-called Left (and I agree that Maher is actually a tea bagger with better language skills)for its narcissistic arrogance and whiny decision that if they did not get EXACTLY what they wanted, they’re going to sit out the election and show the DEMS, that’s what. It is 1980 all over again. If we lose either house, we will make NO more progress, Obama will be mired in total and unmitigated crap – they promised “investigations” and it will happen – and this nation will implode. It used to be said about Buffalo, NY that yes, sooner or later every city shoots itself in the foot, but only Buffalo goes back and reloads. Well, now it can be said of our country. We’re about to reload. » Posted By choicelady On August 15, 2010 @ 11:32 pm Mid-Atlantic Trip Part 4: Gettysburg Thank you, Khirad! I was there when the old Visitors’ Center was still in existence, and I’d love to see the new one. I found the experience of the battlefield(s) simply overwhelming, but the lighted display made sense. It could not and did not dispel the, yes, creeping perception of massive loss and futility. I’m a Yankee through and through with a great grandfather that attended GAR reunions pratically until his death – met Pres. and Mrs. Taft at one of them – but it all seems SO awful, so unnecessary. And for me it’s indisputable that Confederate cannon fodder – lower class artisans and farmers – died to preserve the plantation system, period. So terribly wrong. I was also at Manassas which has less evocative power, but it was there I encountered a young man who sneered when he said that compared to the Civil War the losses in Iraq were nothing. I said that may be true due to vastly better medicine and different forms of warfare, but I bet it was precisely the same for the families of those who’d died. He did not care. It was sheer numbers, and people meant nothing. I guess that’s why we HAVE wars. Those who cannot suffer and empathize with the individual losses keep on creating or supporting those losses. Went also to Appomattox – the beginning, middle, and end. It was terribly poignant. I respect Robert E. Lee greatly, though I cannot see how an anti-slavery man could have supported the Confederacy, but he was a good human being. BTW – the religious right wants to elevate Stonewall Jackson as the best and most revered figure in US history. Why? He brought Christianity to his slaves and obeyed orders. In their eyes that makes Stonewall the best America EVER had to offer – better than Jefferson, Franklin, Lee, anyone. Gnaw on that awhile…it’ll make you sick. Thanks for memories. For me the essence of Gettysburg is the cemetery. It’s beautiful, but the sheer numbers are daunting. The very quiet of the land where so many lie just overwhelms after awhile. Amazing – and awesome in the fullest sense of the term. I loved all your photos of the whole area but especially those. Thank you! » Posted By choicelady On August 15, 2010 @ 11:13 pm The World According to GOP – Vol. 2 But bito -he’s a person of color. Orange. Doesn’t he deserve to represent the orange people of America? Are they not human? Do they not bleed? Of course there are very few of them, one lives in hope, but honestly – doesn’t Boehner have a place in this great nation working for golfing orange people? How CAN you be so insensitive? » Posted By choicelady On August 12, 2010 @ 10:18 am And here I rode my Schwinn all around my neighborhood in the 50s never realizing I was fostering communism. Wow. Who knew? » Posted By choicelady On August 12, 2010 @ 10:14 am Cool. » Posted By choicelady On August 12, 2010 @ 10:12 am AdLib this is all terribly true, and I cannot understand how we moved genuine Hope and Change into fingerpointing. I remain in awe of what HAS changed in less than two years, and I think it ought to be clear that without Obama and his leadership things would be so much worse. But over on HP the Left is all snarky over Gibbs’ statement with their short laundry list of “failures” which means perfection on their terms alone or nothing. I have no idea what to do. I think the Right can be defeated. I’m not sure the Left can be revitalized, and what happened in 1980 to Carter will happen in 2012 to Obama. The “too good to vote” crowd won’t or will go Third Party, and some RW disaster will be returned to office. It would be almost as bad – gridlock – if we lose either house this year. What’s the matter with America that it will tolerate Bush for 8 years and won’t support Obama for even one year? He is NOT the tool of Wall Street, is NOT returning to supply side, is NOT selling out health care – what the hell is the matter with people? Canada, with all its problems, is looking awfully good to me right now… » Posted By choicelady On August 11, 2010 @ 3:30 pm Whew Marion – wow. This is THE conundrum I have about Afghanistan since a good friend (you may recall – she’s the one in hiding from the Christian Identity, skinheads, and KKK folks)once read the statement from RAWA at a convening in Stockhold about 2002. She, and I, and groups such as Feminist Majority Foundation have been working long and hard to help those brave women find ways to stop the anti-women violence that has beset them for decades. There has been progress, and Karzai has had a role in it. Khirad – the Right does NOT care about these women, and yes, their hand-wringing is deeply cynical especially since it turns out the Afghanistan has great mineral wealth, BUT – that does not make the plight of women less true. So – what I see, and it’s pretty minimal – is that we are inch by inch making some difference in this non-nation of valleys. Will we be able to help stabilize these folks who’ve been under siege since at least 1980? I don’t know. But yes – leaving after what we’ve done is indeed like hit and run. It just feels dreadfully wrong to me to abandon the very women we’ve worked so long and hard to help through interventions such as the Feminist Majority’s work which now cannot proceed. For Bill Maher and leftie feminists to dump on these women whose resources are virtually nil and sneer at them so that we can have our little anti-war snit disgusts me beyond measure. (I’ll leave Bill’s potty mouth for another time but agree with you 100 percent, marion!) The Left is beginning to disgust me. I’ve seen so much that is utterly unprincipled and heard so much spewing from their mouths, that is must mean and despicable. I consider myself quite radical, but I’m finding that too many of the Left are actually quite conservative. The comment from the so-called feminist about having no regard for Afghan women is a case in point – the new meme in leftie circles is that people create their own victimhood. Thus, we don’t actually have to care about them since they are all equally and perfectly capable of “reinventing” themselves. It began when Lefties started talking about “lifestyles” of poor and oppressed people. When I mentioned to one professor of mine that it implied CHOICE that way too many don’t have, he sniffily dismissed my objectiona and said everyone had a lifestyle. No – they have a way of LIFE but often not of their own choosing. So Lefties have converged with yuppies and now believe there is NO reason for social justice work since the victims are victims by choice. And can someone please tell me how this differs from the neo con position? Anyone? Anyone at all? So marion – you can see how what you wrote made me breathe again. I was beginning to think I was alone in worrying that YES we might have to stay because it is the MORAL thing to do cleaning up your own mess and making sure you have righted the wrongs you helped create. THANK YOU marion. You have really helped me renew my deliberations on this and to feel I’m not standing here alone. Whew. » Posted By choicelady On August 6, 2010 @ 9:04 pm The Little Right Wing Voice in Your Head OK AdLib you are quite right. I travel a lot and stay in middling priced motels where I can get almost anything BUT MSNBC. Fox – always. Of course the place I most recently stayed had mostly Korean and Spanish language TV since it was on Olympic near MacArthur Park in LA where Latino populations cross with Korean. It was pretty funny. But – NO MSNBC at all, CNN had a huge “buzz” making it unwatchable, and I had to live with local LA news which is increasingly as lame as Sacramento’s. I think news anchors are now paid to look like, talk like, think like, and report exclusively on Lindsey Lohan. She’s either VERY busy or these stories are rerun continuously. Not sure which since I don’t listen. My only genuine options are usually PBS, and then it depends on the time/day/place as to whether I watch a “how to paint in oils” or Frontline. If the latter, I’m golden. If the former, back to my book. We are quietly, creepingly, insidiously being brainwashed by the presence of Fox Noise everywhere. I do have to salute Hollywood Burbank and Sacramento airports – they are pretty much still tuned to CNN and the Weather Channel. Other than that, yup, I’m bombarded with Faux Noise. I feel brain cells dying by the thousands when I’m forced into the same room against my will with that stupid, venal, suck up channel. NOT a good thing for America. » Posted By choicelady On August 4, 2010 @ 9:51 pm Kes – good for the good Father! I know who he is even though apparently we don’t get EWTN but I’ve seen him in other cities that had it. He always did strike me as kind hearted indeed. Many of my friends here are nuns – amazing women. The Vatican should be proud but would be horrified! They are just astonishing in their warmth and compassion. Good people to be found everywhere. Lots of creeps running loose, too. Best we can do is try to sort them out, keep compassion for those who are creeps with possibilities, and stay clear of the creeps with no redeeming features. And some day maybe we’ll learn to talk with one another. You never know… » Posted By choicelady On August 2, 2010 @ 11:19 pm Hi Kalima. I got an update, and apparently 35 protesters were there but only two with dogs, one of them a poodle. Hey tough guys – a POODLE? I think even radical fundamentalist Muslims don’t actually “convert” so much as they push existing Muslims to be more extremist. I’ve never encountered a Muslim missionary! Any faith can have these kinds of extremists – hey, any ideology of any kind can have them. But we(meaning Christians) are the only ones I can think of that have made an entire industry out of talking people OUT of one belief and into ours. Pentacostals who have sent missionaries to Central America do it to convert one Christian (Catholic) to another (Theirs), and here is where it begins to dovetail with radical wahabbism, the extremist form of Islam. Fundamentalists of all types give me the willies, but ours don’t even pretend to live within their own codes of conduct. And mainstream Christians are the worst. My nephew is Jewish, and I went to his bar mitzvah where for three hours he had to make speeches, read Hebrew (MY nephew can read Hebrew???) and engage with all the ritual. Add Ramadan – 30 days of fasting from dawn to dusk – and if Christians had to do ANY of that, there would be seven of them. And I’d not be one of them. Christianity is a very low sacrifice faith these days. Can you see anyone being a martyr in reality? Oh, sure they SAY they’re martyrs because they can’t have everything they want, but honestly – would any of them really suffer and die for what they believe? I seriously doubt it. They have become far too fat and happy as people of wealth and privilege, and they are now the oppressors, not the victims. Now their big “sacrifice” is having to – GASP – allow other people their rights. Oh horrors! When WILL this persecution END???? So huzzah to my good folks who outnumbered ’em even with 35 (and a poodle) and who understand simple things: This is America. Everyone is welcome. Your faith doesn’t undermine one single thing I think or believe. You can be my neighbor and I yours. Let’s go for a beer. (Unless you’re Muslim and don’t drink then we’ll go for a milkshake. Same difference.) God bless the world. NO exceptions. » Posted By choicelady On August 2, 2010 @ 11:10 pm Hi bito- thanks for publishing this link. I found myself without internet access to do the same. Many of the people who turned out for the mosque were my folks, and I’m overwhelmed at the support in what could have been a dangerous situation. I LOVED the comment by the woman – these are not al Quaeda – these are our neighbors. Perfect! The disturbing side is the excuse that the reason there were only 2 protesters (apparently not even including the guy who sent the original alert from the teabaggers) was their “fear” of the Muslims. That is what drives all of this, isn’t it? In the NC Times it mention that Salam al-Maryati was there. He’s the Executive Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Countil. I know him well and think the world of him. Creepy neo-con Danial Pipes calles him “the most dangerous man in America”. Why? I am NOT making this up – Pipes says it’s because Salam speaks without an accent. I once had him and the ED of CAIR Sacramento in my car to take them to the airport, and as I backed out of my spot I said, “I guess you two make this the most dangerous car in America!” Two nicer and more gentle men you could NOT wish to find. I’m glad it was peaceful, but the Baptist minister who said he planned to try to convert each and every Muslim gives me cold chills. Christianity is the only religion I can think of that sets itself the chore of “turning” every single person to its rules. Even when they mean well – and some do – it’s arrogant. I was pondering this Friday at a restaurant called the Miwok cafe that is owned by a Miwok family. There was a picture of a shaman before a campfire with several other people – surrounded, clearly in some cases, and in shadows in others – by wolves, all peaceful, all listening to the shaman. I think our drive as Christians to be missionaries is born of an unspoken issue, at least with respect to First Nations people. We believe that Christian missionaries fought to convert the “natives” because we believed we were more rational and in touch with a superior truth. In fact I think it’s because we feared First Nations people were right and did not NEED salvation. They were already where we needed to be. If your faith brings you to universality and oneness with nature and spirit, you are already there. White Westers rational people have a religion of rites, rules, regulation. Many other beliefs focus on oneness. We try to convert people to Christianity not because we think they are wrong so much as we fear they are right, and we have lost the power of pure spirituality with the One and with the world. When we insist that Muslims are trying to impose Sharia law on us all, that’s not true. But they, far more than Christians, actually live with their faith. We stick our rules of economic justice in the Old Testament – prohibitions on interest, Jubilee ever 7 years to forgive debts, preservation of boundaries around harvests to give “first fruits” to the poor without reservation, control of profits and prices, justice for every person without regard to origins – and we pretend they are archaic artifacts we do not need to honor. Muslim live by the Quar’an – there is a bank in Whittier CA and a nationwide financial operation, LARIBA that invest money in people rather than charging interest (riba). I refer homeowners there all the time. They pay attention to the details of the religion that confer justice and reverence. WE pretty much I have learned how magnificant the faith is and how much the awful stuff – stoning adulterous women – is entirely NATION based and not faith based. So we fear Muslims because, rather than whining about not eating meat on Fridays, they live by a code of oneness and spirtuality that exceeds our own commitments. bin Laden has given Christians a great excuse to avoid confronting our own spiritual emptiness and lack of self discipline and for turning our own dis-ease with our beliefs and practices into self rationalizing hate of these other people. I think we are watching the death throes of Christianity as an imperialist religion. It won’t go quietly and it won’t be pretty, but from the great thrashing out of what really matters, I hope a new spirituality will bloom and grow. It already is. Witness 60 people showing up on behalf of others to protect them. That is the face of hope and renewed commitment. » Posted By choicelady On August 2, 2010 @ 7:48 am Thank you, dear friend, but I can’t be there since it’s about 450 miles away, and I am headed elsewhere today. I will stay in touch with my friends in the Muslim community and will let you all know what happens. I’m sure I can find a computer where I’m going! It’s NOT the outer woods! » Posted By choicelady On July 30, 2010 @ 7:44 am kes – I’m supposed to be non-violent, but I wish you had the latitude to bitch slap some sense into her! Obviously reason and logic don’t work, nor simple civility to others. I am appalled at the amount of sheer nastiness that enters our most casual transactions. I think it’s because we all feel ripped off by our current system of privilege for the few, but honestly – what IS the point of being nasty to YOU when you’re helping this man and doing the right thing for and by him? It’s what lies behind shootings over feeling you’ve been “dissed” by someone. Some rich white kid gave me the finger because he was backing into me with his truck, and I had the NERVE to honk to warn him I was there. Wooo – what an evil person am I! That’s how stupid we’ve become. I have memorized only one Bible verse: Jesus wept. But it’s come in handy more and more as time goes by. » Posted By choicelady On July 30, 2010 @ 7:41 am Zarro is one of my guys! Cool! I fear for the people who are the targets of hate. As with the lynch mobs of yore, they believe they have the RIGHT to harm those whom they don’t like. I hope the cops are stand up people because their first and only duty is to prevent harm. Children come to the weekly prayer service, and it curdles my blood that they will see such actions directed against them and their parents. Children who are victims of hate never get over it. Never. I hope they also see the people who are there for and with them. This has GOT to stop, but I don’t know how to make that happen. » Posted By choicelady On July 30, 2010 @ 7:34 am Khirad – I confess I don’t understand the nostalgia if your own family was not part of the gentility (odd word for people who owned and trafficked in human flesh, but there it is) but were used as canon fodder to preserve upper class power and privilege. Some of the planters’ wives joined with poor farmers’ wives to protest the food scarcity – manufactured by the merchants. They did not become “Regulators” but did write and petition for fairness. So please understand – I do NOT understand. I don’t think anything is wrong with you at all – I just simply don’t “get it”. Wouldn’t be the first time! As for tomorrow at the Mosque, well I just hope my folks turn out and that the police keep it civil. Because I know LEOs can be just as bigoted as anyone, I have grave worries. I’m so scared for everyone JUST GOING TO THEIR SERVICE. The rants against Islam I’ve read that are being used to justify this action with dogs are simply disgusting ignorance. Right after 9/11, the FIRST people to step forward on behalf of the Muslim community were Japanese Americans. They knew all too well how easy it is to demonize an entire population. About five seconds after that, at least in Sacramento, the faith community (well, OK – the progressive faith community) stepped forward as well. One sort of funny but maybe awful story – Sept. 12 a group of us were meeting at a Mideastern restaurant simply to show support. I was walking from my car a block away and passed a man dressed in jeans, cowboy boots and hat, with a bandanna around his neck. But it was clear to me he was Mideastern. So on 9/12 it was better to be though an undocumented Latino than a legal Muslim. I can’t decide whether to laugh at his ingenuity or cry over his necessity. If you want to show up with Halal BBQ let me know – I’ll book a plane! Whatever shows joy and humanity, comfort and community all works. But food is always good! Especially that! Thank you, Khirad. There is quite a lot of coverage of this proposed event in southern CA papers, but since it has not yet happened, and no one has yet been bitten, the MSM see it as a big yawn. Would it be different if it were a synagogue and Jews? I just don’t know. I’m thinking it’s reduced to “if it bleeds it leads” mentality and that no one and nothing actually matters anymore. “Investigative reporting” today is confined to rooting our welfare fraud and revealing sexual trivia about elected leaders. Justice? Community? Brother- and sisterhood? Discrimination? Double yawn. I do not know how to make people care. We did once. What happened to us? » Posted By choicelady On July 29, 2010 @ 1:47 pm Kalima – it IS identical, and I’d not be surprised if some of these Tea Bag people were direct descendants of the lynch mobs of the South. The police are supposed to be present, but…who are THEY? Hate crimes committed under color of authority are on the RISE. I have watched police turn blind eyes to all kinds of violence if they like the perps and hate the victims. WE are only marginally a nation of laws if the enforcers themselves choose who’s deserving and who’s not. I hope things will be peaceful, but we won’t know until after 2:00 tomorrow afternoon when the worshippers leave the mosque. And then – will they all make it safely home? Last year a young woman, a wife and mother who wore the hijab, was shot at point blank range after she apparently opened the door to someone. I’m not over that. It curdles my blood. I’m already thinking Anne Frank – is there room for my friends? I will MAKE room for my friends! » Posted By choicelady On July 29, 2010 @ 6:40 am Kalima = Dr. Harthout who is mosque president did tell me the police would be present, but it rather depends on the police, doesn’t it? Is this what our founding fathers wanted in the right to assemble? For those bringing the dogs, that’s how they seem to interpret it. The rant they posted is “Islams (sic) are afraid of dogs” so the point is sheer terrorism. I agree that if anyone outside the US were to read of this they would assume people of hate were the norm. But the people of hate are NO different from the lynch mobs of old – and in fact we have reason to believe they’re still lynching men of color, just covering it up as “suicide”. Easy enough to do if the lynchings go on under color of authority. We are recapitulating our early 20th century Jim Crow history, just with new targets, new faces. The hate, however, is the same. » Posted By choicelady On July 29, 2010 @ 6:33 am Patsy = I fear you are so correct! Does anyone think the dumbing of our educational system is an accident? I don’t. I think after the 60s those in power determined they never again wanted educated, thinking people who challenged the system of power and privilege. All our efforts to “improve” schools focus on skills that make us good little worker bees, not smart people. When Glen Beck says he’s not an intellectual but he IS a “thinker” (Gag) he means he’s busy with magical thinking, and that today passes for deep intelligence. A nation of dummies indeed. » Posted By choicelady On July 29, 2010 @ 6:28 am Hi- I was just at a farewell party for my former intern who is now heading to grad school after a couple of years working for the ACLU in Sacramento. Several of the people there, I included, knew about the federal ruling, and it provoked great cheers, toasts, huzzahs – sense prevailed, and it was a relief. I want, NOT off topic, to refer you all to the best book, maybe ever, on the origins of our national mythology and the truth that underpins it. “Confederate Reckoning” by Stephanie McCurry just blows the image of the Confederacy to smithereens. She looked at women and slaves under this regime and found that the Good Old Boys – all slave owners – created a government for Rich White Slave Owners, exempting their plantations and sons from conscription in the process of secession and war. They allowed the merchants to jack up food prices to the point that the women left behind who were ordinary hardscrabble farmers were priced out of food. It wasn’t the Yankees who starved the South – it was the SOUTH that starved their own people. Women joined together as “Regulators” and first petitioned the merchants then, when the merchants refused to lower prices, stormed the warehouses and took the food. Slaves were NOT devoted to dear old Pappy – they left in droves, and when forced to fight, did NOT comply. White deserters from the Confederate Army found refuge and support from fleeing slaves. Today the pink and misty pretenses about the glory days of the Confederacy MUST be challenged by this book. This was the Rich Old Guys war, and they used and disposed of tenant and small farmers and craftspeople as if they were garbage. Every NON elite, NON aristocratic Southerner should celebrate their own family histories by tearing down the stars and bars, stomping on them, and turning on their masters. White and Black need to make pacts together against the evil that was done to them. Anti immigrant sentiments among the descendants of any immigrant group that was equally opporessed, hated, and rejected, need to be rejected. It’s not beyond the pale that Italians, Eastern Europeans, and anyone else the WASP majority hated a century ago could become the target of hate once again. Molly Ivins once wisely noted that politics in America is not Left and Right – it’s Up and Down. Until we get that in our minds, we will never EVER win this battle. The Ruling Class is laughing at us all, hating immigrants instead of them. Immigrants take nothing from us. The ruling class takes EVERYTHING from us! Immigrants, Confederates, steelworkers, whoever – we are in this together. And this coming Friday the Tea Bag people are rallying at the Islamic Center mosque in Temecula, CA and bringing DOGS to terrorize and intimidate Muslims headed for weekly prayers. I’ve asked my people to turn out as “Friends of the Mosque” – this cannot go unanswered and unremarked. I’d love to know what kind of reception the Tea Bag people’s forebears got when they showed up in my ancestors’ town – I regret that despite some very positive things my family did (ran an underground RR stop in Illinois and refused, like Thoreau, to pay taxes for the Mexican American War) they were WASP snobs who hated immigrants. When will people stop identifying with “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and begin honoring their own immigrant, labor, union, progressive, populist past that brought people together and made them strong against the ruling class? Are we really so stupid today? Are we really so ignorant? I hope that all of this is the presage to illumination. If it’s not, we are doomed as a nation and democracy is doomed as a system. » Posted By choicelady On July 28, 2010 @ 9:20 pm SOMEDAYS, IT’S JUST ABOUT A GOOD LAUGH! Oh Booooo – that is the worst set of puns maybe EVER! Thank you for a great laugh! » Posted By choicelady On July 28, 2010 @ 8:58 pm You do, too, AdLib! I will carry this discussion and my dismay at recent events off post. I am over the moon at hearing Pelosi gave us in the faith community credit since I intend to ask her for letters to us and another group. Thanks for that! Have a blast for all of us here who could not be with you there. I was working my butt off on two big projects so could not go, but it sure looks fascinating! And I’ve never been anywhere in Vegas but the airport! Sorry I missed it! We will all live vicariously through you! » Posted By choicelady On July 25, 2010 @ 8:41 pm Only one – George Hunsinger who founded National Religious Campaign Against Torture for which I was a Board member until I thought they started focusing on the organization more than the mission. The others I never heard of. Thanks, AdLib – that shows about how important we are. Not. » Posted By choicelady On July 25, 2010 @ 7:51 am Hey AdLib – what a superb report! Sorry I wasn’t there since a number of folks are allies. Any evidence at ALL of progressive faith people present, and if so, who? We are seeing a MAJOR deterioration of interest in the work of the faith community after a year of being front and center to get Health Reform passed. I wish secular progressives would remember our own history – civil rights, women’s rights, child labor reform, labor rights in general, anti-war – ALL had a critical component of faith people, and now – we’re on the trash heap. So if anyone was there (outside of PICO and Gamliel who are always there) I’d love to know it! Keep letting us know what’s happening on all fronts, please. This is very helpful and encouraging. And if you happen to be able to get outside with a mis-spelled picket sign, have someone get a snapshot? We once had signs for anti-abortion protesters that said “Warning! Bullies Preying!” All it brought from their side was snide remarks about our ability to spell. It was a lot more fun NOT to correct them. After all, they were the ones with signs that said “Save Babys Life’s!” and “Fonication – AIDS, Sex, Death = your choice.” Besides correcting the spelling, we all voted for No. 2. So please do let us know that we have people who can be intentionally funny as opposed to the guy with the Morans sign? We need good laughs NOT at someone else’s mistakes! Have fun, don’t hit on 16 unless it’s s sure thing, and come back safely. We appreciate the blog and the news. Thanks! » Posted By choicelady On July 24, 2010 @ 3:31 pm St. Mary Peak and my little gesture for Hume and CarlVee Pepe – what a lovely thing to do! I will bet there will be quite a few who will recognize at lest Hume’s avatar and smile that someone remembered him and brought him and Carl there. If there IS an “after” I bet both are over the moon at where their avatars wound up. What a glorious site, what a meaningful thing, what a kind heart have you. Thank you! » Posted By choicelady On July 15, 2010 @ 8:38 pm Book Alert – Forgotten Heroes and Villains of Sand Creek I have GOT to get this book. One of my ancestors knew and worked with a man named Soule. Can’t imagine they were not related. Wow. This is an amazing insightful history about a small but incredibly important part of US history that should never be forgotten. Thank you, Planeteer for writing this! » Posted By choicelady On July 13, 2010 @ 10:45 pm Just a wee bit too convenient for FOX. I’ve watched the clip and they were not doing much of anything but running their mouths. Not saying they can’t be some new version of Black Panthers, but I remain deeply suspicious that they could so easily be RW plants. It’s happened with way too many groups. One I spoke to had its most radical and aggressive member – the ONLY one who was – turn out to be an undercover policewoman. She was a provocateur for the LAPD’s terrorist squad. The group consisted of 10 Quakers – and her. She was the only one spouting extremist rhetoric. Once bitten, twice shy. Just saying. » Posted By choicelady On July 13, 2010 @ 10:50 pm BT – in ’72 I ran two Congressional District campaigns for McGovern and in that capacity met a number of others doing the same. The days of dittos and mimeographs (ah-sweet smell of toner). During the Watergate hearings the Republicans dredged up an event involving one of my colleagues who had, as we all did being way too busy to pay much heed, allowed some guy to use the mimeo to print flyers for West LA Jewish areas that said “Nixon is tref” (meaning non-kosher). OK – my friend did not take enough care, to be sure, but he got hauled up before the Watergate committee in Congress and the Reeps demanded an answer of how this HIDEOUS thing could have been allowed. He answered calmly that given the revelations about Watergate, this oversight of his in not monitoring another person was, well, not much. With all we’ve seen from the militas, the violent teabaggers, the murders of police and abortion providers, this one incident is, well, not much. I’m glad the leader was prohibited from the polls til 2012, but I do think things need to be kept in proportion. IF a real significant Black Panther group arises with true threats and real actions, I will be OUT THERE in as much fury as with the gun toters threatening Obama. Until I know they are not RW plants and until I see a pattern, I’m NOT getting upset about this other than at the level of being pissed about their actions that day toward those people. Period. Proportion. One MUST keep proportion. » Posted By choicelady On July 13, 2010 @ 10:27 pm Good investigating, thanks. But the Southern Poverty Law Center, while it has its eye on a couple of Black supremacist groups (Nuabians is one thought I’m spelling it wrong) has NO info on a revived Black Panthers. The question of their real identity lingers… NWROC goes everywhere posing as radicals but has waaaaay too much money and far too many resources. I have their phone number, they still answer though deny who they are, and one fine day I’m getting them tracked. Same with these guys – if they’re Bush era fed plants I will NOT be surprised. If they are self styled wackos I also won’t be surprised nor especially alarmed. » Posted By choicelady On July 13, 2010 @ 10:20 pmComments Posted By choicelady
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