Displaying 31 To 60 Of 5,146 Comments Obama Ally Cameron’s Conservatives Win The Day In The UK: What It Means Labour’s Tony Blair loved Bush. Cameron loves Obama. I was in London the day that Blair, seeking his first shot at PM at the Blackpool Labour Party convening declared that Labour would no longer give its support to labour, the people who do the work. Upon that pronouncement, that excited very little notice in British papers, Labour, IMHO, became utterly irrelevant as an alternative to much of anything. I have no idea what to make of it all. Cameron is not Maggie, but they’re not all that progressive as to take away the stench of Maggie, but Labour is almost worse if Tony’s legacy is to be reviewed. I have a headache. » Posted By choicelady On May 10, 2015 @ 2:16 pm I would agree with you, but some groups would NOT. Never mind reality – handwringing hype prevails too often in these conversations. Rather than set standards as you note here, they project every single thing is the SHU,is Pelican Bay, and must, therefore, be outlawed. Just a heads up. There is always someone, somewhere who will make a huge deal out of what ought to be good sense. » Posted By choicelady On May 13, 2015 @ 5:15 pm I am so dreadfully sorry this happened to you. As a survivor of something even LESS personally violent, I still have PTSD because of it. Please don’t think you have to bear this alone – it is essential to get help because it will not just ‘go away’ with time. I agree he needs to be jettisoned to near solitary (see my above about solitary) so he can be lost to time and history. He deserves that and not the martyrdom of execution. » Posted By choicelady On May 13, 2015 @ 11:42 am It’s not just that the death penalty solves nothing – it becomes, ironically, the way authorities jettison their concern for victims (You’ve had your justice – now go away) but that it makes society stone cold killers. We lose every time when we do what was done. That said, may I note that life without paroled (LWOP as we anti-death penalty activists call it) is not possible in this day and age if it is part of isolation. Anti-torture activists see solitary confinement as ‘cruel and unusual punishment’. So we have to pay attention to the forces swirling around us here with respect to what we do or do not advocate. LWOP with some daily contact is now ‘acceptable’. I guess that’s what we should advocate for this young man whose life in all respects will never be free. But no death penalty – that kills US, too. » Posted By choicelady On May 13, 2015 @ 11:37 am Texas Has Finally Gone Full Metal Straightjacket I agree with all of that, but it confounds me how the ‘gubbmint’ became the enemy of white guys (with or without balls) when it was their faves who perpetrated the worst excesses on the world. With whom are they identifying anyway? Fred Hampton? Yeah. Right. They have managed to forget that Ruby Ridge was Papa Bush not Bill. I’m not so sure they will die off or out since most of the racist, anti-government, nasty bumper stickers I see are on big ol’ trucks driven by YOUNG white guys (with or without balls.) There’re always more of them. They do spawn like bunnies, y’know. Elective victimhood is a huge peril to democracy. I have no idea how to stop it. » Posted By choicelady On May 8, 2015 @ 2:39 pm You know, there ARE reasons to believe in government conspiracies. From unexplained discrepancies in the horrid JFK assassination to CONINTELPRO to secret bombings in Cambodia, to CIA interventions everywhere. However, if you look closely, those covert actions are virtually ALL the product of RW extremist forces. They are NOT the product of most liberal administrations, not even under LBJ in the thick of Vietnam. What fascinates me is that because the movements in the 60s and 70s revealed so much about the covert operations that this nation had, it is the RIGHT that has embraced the “OMG it’s the end of the WORLD” views. As they have become the ‘victims’ of ‘oppression’ making their issues the new ‘civil rights movements’ of today, it’s all to push back against the truth that they dominate the most disgusting aspects of discrimination, of violence, of oppression. By touting their victimhood, they think they can deflect our inquiries into their corruption and treachery. It’s all the ‘man behind the curtain’ sleight-of-hand to keep their own people, mostly poor white people, from looking too closely at how they have been betrayed by the RW. It started with the KKK, a product of the white, rich planter class, to keep poor whites more scared of the newly freed Black populations than of their exploitation. To prevent unification between poor whites and poor Blacks, the KKK was a powerful tool to promote division, fear, distraction away from a unified action against rich planters and their merchant allies. It worked. And people are still falling for it today. “That Black president is gonna take over Texas!” is the new “they’re comin’ fer ya” mantra. But as with Y2K and ginning up fear against that white Democrat, Bill Clinton, I’m wondering what the hell they will do for an encore. No FEMA camps, no take over of Texas, no martial law, no loss of guns, no nothing. There always has to be something. Otherwise, well, poor white working people and poor Black working people just might get hip to the REAL enemy. Can’t be having THAT now, can we? Whatever will they do for an encore? » Posted By choicelady On May 7, 2015 @ 6:36 pm The Presidential Campaign TV Series Starring Hillary Clinton and the GOP! PPO – THAT is a script I’d not thought of, and it purely rocks! Rubio can run for president – of CUBA!!!! Works for me. » Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2015 @ 9:32 pm OK – I’ll buy media manipulation, but at least Hillary opted for REAL people and REAL images. I’m no longer waiting for Godot – I get that reality sucks and policy to most people is boring. So I’m looking for someone who has enough empathy with the rest of us to keep maintaining what we have, expanding it if we can, and keeping a finger off that ol’ red button that will blow us to smithereens. Hillary’s all we have. The alternatives are unthinkable. » Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2015 @ 9:31 pm Arkansas Bill Would Provide Tax Credits For Christians Only Good for you! Nothing like smacking them with their own words! » Posted By choicelady On April 4, 2015 @ 10:05 pm I seriously believed you!!! Thank goodness this isn’t accurate, but I agree with kes that you get inside their heads. There are laws- upheld by SCOTUS no less – in Arizona giving tax credits to conservative Christians for private schools, so you are NOT that far off the mark, AdLib. There is another, also AZ, that wants to make church attendance mandatory. Your spoof is therefore NOT that far from truth! It’s right down there with “if English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for America” Bachmann. All I can think is: Jesus wept. Thanks for a great laugh – even though it was totally scary getting there! » Posted By choicelady On April 4, 2015 @ 10:04 pm My benefit of the doubt is the admission from his superior officer that it wasn’t the first time he walked out. He had done it before because exploring the countryside was part of the life he’d always led. No one reprimanded or stopped him. So this time he got caught, and he suffered horribly as a result. He wasn’t fit for military life as, I suspect, anyone from his background would not be. I’m not at all sure he snapped so much as that he was doing what he’d done before. This time it was horrible in its effects. He stayed true to his commitment and tried to escape, but he never should have been in the military to start and should have been prevented from walking out the very first time he did it. It wasn’t an issue of discipline alone – it was his survival. Nobody made that clear to him. He paid a huge price for his naïve assumptions, but some of this is on the heads of those who did not properly train him. » Posted By choicelady On March 26, 2015 @ 9:05 am Ted Cruzin’ For a Political Bruisin’ I hope upon hope that the lazy emos and the indies get well and truly scared that this is what they unleashed by not voting. Purity has NO place in American politics when you’re beset by such extremism on one side. I will repeat my mantra on Twitter – if you just pick ONE person who needs ID and does not have it, drive that person to get it, PAY for it if you must, then register them and drive them to the polls, these idiots will not win. Fair to get engaged, and you will have a serious chance of another Bush or even worse. People have died for the right to vote, and in a two party system you have no other choice BUT that system. Purity is death to democracy. So do your bit to make sure everyone is ready to vote – then do it yourself. NO EXCUSE will prevail. » Posted By choicelady On March 23, 2015 @ 7:42 pm I never thought anyone could be worse than our beloved Sarah, but yup – here’s ol’ Teddy. This man is demented, and I blame his father first, and Ted’s own political zealotry second. On Twitter there’s a new “Cruz/Palin 2016” bumper sticker brought to you by the Hillary for President Committee. I do think we could not ask for better. I thought we’d crested the Olympus of Dominionist weird in 2012 with the anointing of Rick Perry, but Cruz doubled down and is even WORSE. I think he’s so loopy even regularly dumb GOP voters would not participate in electing him. However, that said, I’m sure gonna enjoy the primaries this coming presidential year if Teddy holds strong. We are going to see the dark underbelly of American Exceptionalism exposed to the sun. As with all creepy things that crawl out from under rocks, they tend to dry up and shrivel when the bright light of day hits them. So let it ride – this is going to be fun! » Posted By choicelady On March 23, 2015 @ 4:42 pm Oh, that’s AWFUL, thank you! LOL!!! » Posted By choicelady On March 23, 2015 @ 4:37 pm You nailed it, Haruko! » Posted By choicelady On March 23, 2015 @ 4:36 pm 47 GOP Senators Write Love Letter to Ares, God of War That was the rationale for Vietnam, and you can see how well THAT worked. Nothing like advocating the same thing over and over hoping someday it will succeed. I think that’s called…”insanity”? » Posted By choicelady On March 23, 2015 @ 7:33 am Whatever happened to that good ‘ol 666 sign of the devil? Guess they can’t count that high or have that many followers. So “47” is the new norm? » Posted By choicelady On March 23, 2015 @ 7:31 am They don’t bother with the New Testament, KT. They’re so crazy about the old tribal warfare! Just gives them goosebumps, all that smiting and everything! Actually they’re “Old Testamentarians”. Jesus is just for show and the ‘get out of jail free’ card they pray will save them at death. But actually, you know, FOLLOW the teachings? Please. That’s for wimps. » Posted By choicelady On March 23, 2015 @ 7:30 am The Grand Old Party of Sedition Could NOT have said it better, confused! Very solid analogy, I must say. The word that is left out of too many news reports is that sending the letter to a foreign head of state is an UNPRECEDENTED act. NEVER has happened in our long history of democracy and Constitutional powers. That is not an act of ‘creativity’ as the 47 would like you to believe. It is an act in defiance of both Constitutional and statutory law. When they point fingers at Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Syria during Bush’s administration as ‘the same’ it is not. She and three Republicans plus a few other Dems cleared it with the White House despite Bush’s dislike of the effort, got State Department briefings, and worked with the US Embassy in Syria while they were there. Not just apples v oranges. It is day and night in difference, with the 47 being raiders of the dark. This is sedition if not treason. It is almost impossible to think of a good way to prosecute them since that would set off unholy hell on the Right, and it would be as counterproductive as impeachment to doing ANY work of the nation. But the term ‘traitor’ must be pounded into voters’ heads – these people aligned with Islamic extremists in Iran to promote war against this president’s efforts to work out a multilateral agreement supported by European nations and upheld by them if not by us. Diplomacy is always better for this country than sending our young people off to war. Always. To asset that is ‘weak’ and ‘dangerous’ is obscene when the second thing Tom Cotton did was to meet with defense contractors immediately after releasing the letter. That tells you what’s really at stake – war profits. National security has been jeopardized. By the 47, not by this president. They need to pay for this major transgression. We need to keep it front and center in the public view. » Posted By choicelady On March 14, 2015 @ 11:16 am Netanyahu’s Top Ten Declarations Agreed, AdLib. Only Rachel ‘outed’ Bibi on how often he’s said “IN FIVE YEARS” Iran would have nukes. Starting in 1992 onward. He’s mastered the Big Lie – tell it often enough, people believe it. Problem is, Iran subscribes to the Nuclear Non proliferation treaty, and subjects itself to the international inspections. Israel does NOT. The meme is wearing very thin. I hope upon hope Bibi loses the election in two weeks. Could not happen to a nicer guy. » Posted By choicelady On March 4, 2015 @ 9:12 pm It will be interesting to see how he fares in his own election. World opinion seems increasingly flowing against his position. Iran is now fighting with Iraq against ISIS. The mobilization of many peoples against this common enemy – one beyond the capacity of most to remotely understand – is going to change the world. Bibi better catch up. He has been drum beating “Iran will have a bomb in 205 years!!!” for well over TWENTY years. Iran, unlike Israel, has signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty and has submitted to the IAEA inspections. The degree of fearmongering and hypocrisy from Bibi is breathtaking. Fold in his willingness to receive support from our extremists, and you have a recipe for another WMD hoax, this again perpetrated on the American people and ‘solved’ with American lives. NO MORE. » Posted By choicelady On March 3, 2015 @ 6:00 pm The sign is exactly what he has sold out to – the end of the world – with the Dominionists. I cannot believe he cannot see that Israel is doomed from HIS actions, and from his alliance with the very people who supported the Nazis (the Family on C Street) and who want Israel to fulfill THEIR fantasy about the end of the world. Deciding that all out war will save you because Dominionsts say so is idiotic. Netanyahu has hammered the final nail in the coffin of Zionism. Lie down with dogs. Rise up with no country to call your own. » Posted By choicelady On March 2, 2015 @ 9:34 pm Hate Crime or Not? You Tell Me No question it’s hate speech. That’s also protected unless there is a specific, targeted threat. We’ve been working to eradicate hate and bias and violence. It’s not going away easily. Education alone doesn’t work as well as life experience. It DOES help, but it does not always offset what you’re taught with your mother’s milk. » Posted By choicelady On March 4, 2015 @ 9:07 pm Hi Nirek. I work to end hate crimes as part of my job, and I know the terms and conditions for what those mean. No – these people are exercising their 1st Amendment rights, however much we despise them. There is no crime at all. This is a good thing – too loose a definition of ‘hate crime’ opens every last one of us to that charge if we push hard for what we believe and stand in our policy doors to block what we hate. Like it or not, even the RENJs have right of free expression. Without an overt act of violence or a ‘true threat’ that specifically targets the president for harm from a human actor (not God), there is no crime. There is only massive disrespect and obstruction. But that is part of the process. » Posted By choicelady On March 3, 2015 @ 6:04 pm Why Some Fundamentalist Christians Are Aligned With ISIS AdLib – Kalima and Sabreen are correct that ISIL (or whatever their self-professed name is today) is as much like Islam as (with apologies to Thurber) the MGM lion resembles Calvin Coolidge. They wrap themselves in the mantle, but they create new and utterly non-Islamic “dicta” that they just made up. The same is true with Dominionists who purport to be Christian. Extremists don’t actually act on the precepts of their name tag religion – they create an entirely NEW set of ideas that become dogma justifying their actions. Since I don’t know a lot about the Qur’an, I will leave that denunciation to Imams. But Dominionists create utterly new ideas and justifications for their criminal and vile acts every time one murders or discriminates or in some other way violates the precepts of their supposed faith. At best they wallow in wrong interpretations of the Old Testament, a book written during the age of tribalism. But they get that wrong, cheerfully and gleefully, when they point to Sodom and Gomorrah as a story of God’s wrath for homosexuality – it is not, and every contemporary Christian scholar will tell you that. It’s a story about inhumanity towards strangers that calls down the wrath – but Dominionists have made up a false story that is nowhere in the Old Testament. When you have Dominionists asserting – and you’ve heard it all- that Jesus was white, that Jesus spoke English, and the like, it has exactly and precisely NO bearing on Christian belief. When Dominionists pretend there are passages in the Bible justifying the murder of abortion providers, anyone remotely familiar with the passages they deliberately misinterpret can assure you that this is not Christian. It is cobbled together as something new and horrid. If we’re going to let them wrap themselves in the mantle and then say it’s problematic, we give them power. They need to be called out for their lies and distortions, not included within the bounds of the faith. That’s what many of us never use the term “Christian extremists” but Dominionists. They are NOT Christian at all. I remain quite convinced from imams who are denouncing ISIS that the same is true for these Middle Eastern extremists. So ISIS they are. Muslims they are not. If WE don’t point out their singularity, we aid the extremists everywhere who pretend to some kind of legitimacy. We need to be willing to make that judgment. It is essential to our understanding of domestic and foreign policy everywhere. » Posted By choicelady On February 19, 2015 @ 7:23 am WATCH AND CHAT LIVE: President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union Speech @ 6:00pm PST Nice touch, AdLib – The Whiners Circle. Wouldn’t that, by now, be a Vintage Whine? Just asking. See you later! » Posted By choicelady On January 20, 2015 @ 3:56 pm For Your Consideration: Thoughts on the Oscar Nominees Murph, thank you, and thank you AdLib for your insights. Of all the picks I’ve seen only Wild (mostly liked it) and Big Hero – did not dislike it but thought it moved away from the human dimension too much. Otherwise, I’ve seen NONE of these or much of anything else. So I’m reading this as a guide from you two, not to chime in. Thanks, movie critics of mine own. Much appreciated! I WILL be going to Selma. That’s a sure thing. We shall see what comes of the nominations. Maybe those wins will also convince me to go. I hate sitting in theaters… » Posted By choicelady On January 15, 2015 @ 9:51 pm If Obama had gone to Paris the Right Would Still Have Gone Ballistic! Yes – that is exactly what would have transpired had the president gone. Cannot fix stupid, bu you CAN ignore it. » Posted By choicelady On January 15, 2015 @ 11:05 am Excellent interpretation of what unquestionably would have been said. From all the screechers who say he failed to ‘uphold freedom’ by not leading the march, all I can say is that flying to Paris for a phony photo op would be a total waste of his time. He is doing the hard work of dealing with terrorism not the easy propaganda about ‘standing for freedom’. But yes – he would have been reviled for ‘standing with’ those who were there, too. Since the President can do nothing right in the eyes of way too many who prefer theater to hard work, he might as well keep doing the hard work. It is better for us all. » Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2015 @ 8:24 am You Can’t Tell The GOP’s Bad Players Without a Program I lived through the horrific days of HUAC and McCarthyism, and I’ve still never seen a GOP so wedded to sheer lying as this one. I am with you, glenn – they get their knickers in a wad over a New Year’s Eve dinner while the values they espouse are being shredded by themselves. They are anti=American and anti-democracy on virtually every level. Appalling! Thank you for this, AdLib – when something is as horrid as this Congress, the only thing that saves us is laughter. MUCH appreciated! » Posted By choicelady On January 7, 2015 @ 12:08 pmComments Posted By choicelady
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