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Comments Posted By choicelady

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The details of the wound come NOT from Parkland but from Washington after the body arrived.

Lifton’s book, ‘Best Evidence’ confirms that there are such huge discrepancies between Parkland and Washington you could drive a TRUCK through the opening.

It is horrifying to think there are people in the CIA, Secret SErvice and probably the Family who wanted this to happen.

I have watched Oliver Stone’s depiction of Jim Garrison’s logic, and I cannot find a flaw once I read ‘Best Evidence’.

This assassination coupled with MLK, Jr. and RFK and all the unanswered questions DID open the floodgate of distrust of government.

Ironically it’s the Right – who probably propagated those assassinations – who distrust government the most. Maybe they know some things we don’t.

At any rate – it’s damned scary.

» Posted By choicelady On March 21, 2013 @ 8:14 pm

Oddly, the best source on those horrific deaths was “Ramparts” magazine. It was the brainchild and work of David Horowitz. Yes – the David Horowitz who today is to the right of the Tea Party. But in his youth, his work was outstanding – well researched, documented, supported.

I remember being terrified by their findings – and once I read “The Family” it suddenly all FINALLY made sense. Seeing the role and the power of the extremist Dominionist Right made it all come clear.

And this week, for the very first time, challenges to the Family are going forward with the trial of Rios Montt, the horrific dictator in Guatamala whom they supported, funded, and encouraged to massacre, torture, rape his own Mayan people.

FINALLY someone is bringing one of the Family’s handpicked tyrants to REAL justice.

The Family will never be held accountable for what murderes they have supported and funded, but I suspect everyone we ever cared about was on their hit list.

» Posted By choicelady On March 20, 2013 @ 9:36 pm

I want to say that by Iraq time, this war started on my birthday.

I will NEVER forgive Bush and Cheney for that!

(Because, of course, it’s ALL about ME.)

» Posted By choicelady On March 20, 2013 @ 9:26 pm

Hey girfriend – I would very much recommend the book, “Best Evidence” by David Lifton. It will chill you to the bone.

He posits that, on a step by step comparison of what we know of evidence presented and recorded in Dallas v that recorded in Washington DC, the body and everything else was tampered with.

Who could do that? Only high ranking officials – CIA etc. Who was behind it? He doesn’t say.

Well then, move on to Jeff Sharlet’s “The Family”. They had the power, the money, the motivation, the connections.

Lifton posits that JFK was going to pull out of Vietnam where The Family had vested interests galore.

I think there are many revelations one could pull together that make this case well. Even Oliver Stone’s film makes a very strong presentation – though I think the conclusions are wrong – about Oswald and his ties.

One question no ‘conspiracy deniers’ can answer: how was it that Oswald went to Soviet Russia, RENOUNCED his citizenship though it was not a done deal, married a Soviet woman, and waltzed back INTO THE US with no questions asked in the throes of the Cold War. NO ONE can answer that. Anyone who did that seriously would either be denied re-entry or tried and jailed and, at minimum, grilled within an inch of his life. Nothing happened to Oswald.

Absolutely nothing.

I do not think Oswald was the shooter but if he was involved, he was NOT alone. Lifton’s book is overwhelmingly clear. It has been too much disregarded. It’s time to revive it. I bought a copy. It’s available and I DO recommend it.

Much here we do not know.

» Posted By choicelady On March 20, 2013 @ 9:23 pm

In Iraq itself, it was on my birthday even if on the 19th here. I’m SO GLAD your son was not subject to the draft – my brother went through all that during Vietnam with a very low draft number. Very worrisome, troubling times.

I was horrified that when we pulled out of Iraq in 2011, there was only ONE reporter – Richard Engel – there to note the last truck over the border, the last combat troops to depart, the end of the war. It was an amazing thing to see, to watch him watch them, to see the gate closing, to know it was the end. I will be forever grateful to Engel for being there, honoring those men and women, and ‘piping them home’. Why it did not get more notice is absolutely beyond me.

I’m SO glad your son did not have to go. I wish none of our young men and women ever have to do this again.

» Posted By choicelady On March 19, 2013 @ 8:47 am

Ouch! Been there, done that. I recommend a good chiropractor – saved me entirely! Get well soon!

» Posted By choicelady On March 17, 2013 @ 10:53 am

Hi Zenith – welcome to PPOV. We’ve not met before, but I was very interested in your friend’s observations.

At the time, when the first stories about Reagan’s interference into the hostage issue arose, another piece of information came out that was squashed: the helicopters failed because the sand screens were left off the engines, and they were disabled.

Guess who was in charge of prep for the mission? Col. Oliver North.

There has never been an investigation or follow up of any significance, not even during the Iran Contra hearings. But I think the evidence is damning. Reagan appears to have made deals to obstruct the rescue and interfere with the negotiations, and then if the North story is true, that group of ultra conservatives committed what may have well been sabotage. If that is accurate, our nation was in the hands of truly horrific people driven by ideological and political self interest at the expense of our democracy.

We probably will never know the truth.

» Posted By choicelady On March 17, 2013 @ 10:51 am

I remember several Eastern nations did have all power vested in men – and all leaders were picked exclusively by the women.

Who had the REAL authority?

We’ve had the discussion that our Protestant missionaries and presumably Catholics, too, could not tolerate the equity and spiritual grace of those they found living as one with the universe and each other. It made such a lie of our instituions, rules, rites, and edifices to find people living more closely with The One than we ever did.

We are the ones who screwed up, not they. So along with the economic supremacists and the government we did what anyone challenged by reality would do – we tried to wipe you out.

Very white of us.

» Posted By choicelady On March 16, 2013 @ 10:42 am

Well – some of the young’uns ain’t so hot either. We were in a Mexican chain restaurant last year during the annual gun show when a couple came in who were white supremacists. I’ve written about them before. How people in their 20s could have that much HATE shocks me. I see a lot of intolerance and smug superiority among too many college kids these days. However much things are changing among our youth statistically, the percent who are NOT open to that change are, I think, increasingly rigid and sometimes violent. That is part of the tracking of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate Watch – and it’s scary.

It’s not all graybeards and blue haired ladies. Hate is an equal opportunity program.

» Posted By choicelady On March 16, 2013 @ 10:37 am

They’d fit right in at a Dominionst rally. Wow – who knew they all had so much in common.

The BIG scary one – number seven. Can’t have THAT now, can we?

» Posted By choicelady On March 15, 2013 @ 6:15 pm

Wow – and the follow up in the LA Times was some guy demanding “equal time” with “white studies”.

WHITE STUDIES? Seriously? That’s ALL anyone gets most places. It IS the curriculum. It’s movies, TV, exhibits, literature. That is what we call “American culture”.

It’s like to doofus I saw wearing a cap “Straight Pride”.

Damn – racists and bigots don’t even know how to be normative anymore!

» Posted By choicelady On March 15, 2013 @ 6:13 pm

US Attorney for the Eastern District of CA, Ben Wagner. Amazing, honorable, ethical, and delightful man! I championed his selection because I’d worked closely with him on the Sacramento Task Force on Hate Crimes. I have never EVER seen him put a foot wrong. GREAT man with a lovely sense of humor, too. Once, dealing with the marijuana issues, he was at the Sacramento Press Club. He made VERY clear he was pursuing only those medical marijuana outlets using their clinics as fronts for behind the scene drug dealing. The net result is that we still have open, functioning medical marijuana clinics. When someone challenged him about HIS use of marijuana, he just smiled and said, “I was a college student in the United States.” It was very nicely said. He is a great friend to women’s clinics, to minorities, to the Muslim community, to me. He has done several prosecutions of mortgage BROKERS who, unregulated, were the originators of most of the fraudulent lending. Those were crimes. He prosecuted them. He is always willing to teach me about the law. He is excellent, and we’re very lucky to have him.

» Posted By choicelady On March 10, 2013 @ 2:10 pm

OMG – Obama is going to pick Thomas Perez, the Deputy AG in DOJ to replace Hilda Solice. I KNOW him! Well, I knew her, too – but not well. He is just GREAT, and has been a MAJOR figure in civil rights concerns as well as watching extremism and fighting hate crimes. Only thing that bothers me is that if he leaves DOJ to do this, our US Attorney whom I love may be tapped to head to DC to replace Perez in DOJ. I’d HATE to lose him.

But I am over the moon that Perez might be Sec’y of Labor. Wish bito were still here though – Perez might just be next best thing to Frances Perkins whom bito adored.

Well, Mr. President – good call,IMHO. Very good call indeed. Just don’t take my local US Attorney please – I REALLY like him!

» Posted By choicelady On March 9, 2013 @ 10:14 pm

Or both… It will be interesting to watch, but what I want for ACORN folks is public revelation that O’Keefe and Breitbart LIED. Nothing less will do.

» Posted By choicelady On March 8, 2013 @ 3:32 pm

Well there is no fear of that, per Holder. The law does not remotely permit it, and Holder sent an answer to Paul about the president’s authority to do that: NO. That’s what he said. NO.

It’s the hype that worries me. NDAA last year protected civil liberties (after Lindsay Graham TRIED to take them away in the first draft) and NO one in the Libertarian/faux progressive world will believe it.

If you want, I can give you chapeter and verse where warantless roundups and indefinite detention is EXPLICITLY rejected in NDAA. But I’ve read the bill. Dianne Feinstein’s amendment protects citizens, lawfully present non-citizens, AND the whole thing gives full Constitutional protection to everyone. (Equal treatment before the law is IN the Constitution.)

On drone strikes – they’re awful.AND much less destructive than the bombs no one on any side seemed to protest. I have friends who were in Iraq just before the war who had friends slaughtered and harmed in the thousands. Now we are using drones to MINIMIZE ‘collateral damage’.

We need to be protesting WAR not hardward. I want this insanity OVER, but I’m not worried about this administration using those drones on us. Just ain’t gonna happen. What Congress MUST do – and won’t – is outlaw them so a conservative president isn’t tempted. As a 2003 victim of NSA warrantless wiretapping, I know the previous administration had no scruples at all. The next one might not either.

But for now? NOT worried.

» Posted By choicelady On March 8, 2013 @ 3:29 pm

Euuwwwww. TMI! Bad Visuals! Everything that’s wrong with the Right is wrong with this guy.

Honestly – this IS way more than I EVER wanted to know about anyone. Seriously. But if the cartoonists don’t pick up his final comment about having to leave to pee (not said in so many words) they are soooo missing a great moment.

STROM never admitted that.

Honestly – this is just too, too weird.

» Posted By choicelady On March 7, 2013 @ 8:19 pm

Nirek – one of the reasons we come here is that too many sites draw on people of whom it can realistically be said, “They love humanity. It’s people they cannot stand.” It’s exhausting to be around people who hate others or at least disdain them.

Love, long ago I realized that generalized “loving of humanity” was shattered when there was disregard for individuals – even those with whom I radically disagreed. I want always to be the kind of person who will bring a covered dish to a neighbor with whom I am having a feud if they are in trouble.

I have a very long track record of doing that – it’s how I was brought up – and mourn the passing of common civility. Of course here I’m in good agreement with everyone, but if we cannot consider the hardships of each of us as individuals, it is a lie for us to pretend we “care” about the bigger issues.

At the end of the day, it is heartfelt concern for those near and far who touch us. And even for those we do not know. Politics is for the big stuff. Neighborliness is the smaller end of that very same principle. The close connection is the open manifestation of our politics. If we cannot do both, we are not living up to the best in us.

I don’t know where you are – but if you need me or any of us here, we will be there for you. Near or far, our hearts as well as physical presence are always here for you.

» Posted By choicelady On March 7, 2013 @ 7:34 pm

You are in our hearts, KT. I am so sorry this has happened.

» Posted By choicelady On March 7, 2013 @ 7:26 pm

Oh please let there be catheter and diaper stories. PLEASE!!!!

When Operation Rescue invaded clinics and engaged in “lock and block” chaining together with titanium locks, they wore diapers. Seriously. I am not making that up, got it right from the police.

Who knew that world revolutions centered around bladder control?

» Posted By choicelady On March 7, 2013 @ 7:25 pm

Actually it ended because Rand had to pee. I am quite serious.

This evening on NPR an historian of the filibuster said that Strom et al. did what they did with CATHETERS. The only reason anyone stopped? Catheter fell out.

You know – this is waaaay more than I wanted to know about Strom AND maybe Rand.

» Posted By choicelady On March 7, 2013 @ 7:22 pm

Oh glenn you are so sweet – you believe in truth, justice, and the American way!

No. BillO will never mention ONE WORD of this. I think it speaks incredibly well of you that you can imagine he might.

» Posted By choicelady On March 7, 2013 @ 7:20 pm

James O’Keefe, the Breitbart weasel who libeled an ACORN staff member saying he helped set up a child prostitution ring, has been found guilty and now must pay the employee $100,000. He and Breitbart never reported the employee told the police immediately after O’Keefe left that he had info on child sex trafficking!

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/03/07/report-james-okeefe-to-pay-100k-settlement-to-f/192958

Spread the word. ACORN and this man deserve vindication!

» Posted By choicelady On March 7, 2013 @ 1:59 pm

We in CA are forbidden to give one red cent to a candidate. Doesn’t mean our employers can’t but WE can’t. We also cannot arrange donations for our employers. So it helps, but it’s not enough.

It’s ALWAYS the money, isn’t it? There are bills here to disclose funders – the REAL funders, not just vague “People for” and “Americans against” groups. Bills just getting going to allow citizens to challenge outright maliciously false political ads. Bills to “out’ the secret c-4 funding.

We CAN fight back – more easily at the state rather than federal level – and we need to do it daily. Common Cause is leading the way at the national level, too, and more is to come.

It’s the money. Definitely.

» Posted By choicelady On March 7, 2013 @ 10:39 am

Oh KT – how horrible for her, for you, for everyone who loved her. I’m so sorry this happened to her and to you. The pure shock alone is almost beyond bearing, and no one should carry this unspoken, alone.

Of course we’re the people you’d tell. Your presence on PPOV has endeared you to us absolutely. Your loss is our concern, your sorrow ours to embrace. We adore you – whatever we can do to help we will do if only be ‘ears’ to hear you tell us about her. The kindest thing anyone ever did for me is listen when someone I loved died. I hope you will write more about her so we can learn who she was to you and to your family.

Lean on us. We are physically distant but emotionally present for you. This is a horrible loss for you. We are here if and when you need us.

Love and virtual hugs from us all.

» Posted By choicelady On March 5, 2013 @ 6:05 pm

AB – I assumed funk was offering the kiddies a chance to view blood and gore, you know, the stuff like snot that is soooo attractive to the little tykes.

I hope your interpretation is not what funk’s offering! Mine is disgusting enough.

» Posted By choicelady On March 5, 2013 @ 11:17 am

Eeeuuuuwww – conjures up images of a gray-green, oozing, sloughing Barney.

No. Not on.

» Posted By choicelady On March 5, 2013 @ 10:40 am

Sue – too many people on Twitter, Facebook etc. are really ignorant of facts even when they’re on ‘our’ side. I’m shocked often at the lack of understanding. It makes them vunerable to the hair on fire ‘analyses’ of everything – ‘the sky is falling’ OR, as with VAWA, ‘this is the first time EVER isn’t it wonderful’ kind of hype.

I had a young lawyer who was defending some Occupy Oakland folks say this was the most brutal and anti-civil rights period in American history. I am afraid I just laughed. What had happened to them (they had not been brutalized as a few were) was NOTHING compared to the Civil Rights movement, to even things in San Francisco back in the 60s.

Not KNOWING anythng about what people had endured, the rights they had to fight to get that the Oakland folks used to their advantage, is a recipe for making the wrong moves. If you do NOT know the history of even the bill you’re celebrating, then you don’t understand the NEXT steps you need to take. And more – you don’t respect the people who went before you and REALLY suffered and gave their all for the cause.

» Posted By choicelady On March 4, 2013 @ 10:44 pm

Please do, girlfriend!

It has Dominionist roots – men’s ‘right’ to control women. I can see you take off and run with this!

» Posted By choicelady On March 4, 2013 @ 10:39 pm

Back in the 1970s Nixon’s memoir went on sale at the indie Santa Cruz Bookstore for $1.69 a pound – the going price for baloney.

» Posted By choicelady On March 4, 2013 @ 10:36 pm

Sally – on the 5:1 lobbyist thing, this is actually too LOW. I am a lobbyist, and about 25-30% of those in Sacramento are just like me, lobbying for education, welfare reform, people in need, etc. Here it’s 9:1 and that’s GOOD because it means no single interest has a lock on the legislators. There are hundreds of us, all representing something different. Think if it were just 12-15 corporate types – that’s what we had when the railroads dominated CA. Today the MORE lobbyists there are, the better especially when their interests are very diverse.

Common Cause was, if I recall correctly, the first ever public interest lobby group. Since then we’ve multiplied like crazy, and it gives us access, real public voices backed up by members doing grassroots lobbying. AND we WIN over the corporations. In CA it was people who got soft drinks out of school vending machines – we the lobbyists AND our members pushing against the corporate soft drink company lobbyists! We WON. We won the Clean Air Act. We won health care. We won so many things against corporate presence that I no longer can even count them.

On the surface, the 5:1 looks bad, but if you think about it the MORE there are, the less control any one of them will ever have.

BTW – there IS an NRA lobbyist here, too. He’s a pompous, arrogant, ill mannered popinjay – and he has almost no influence with anyone who’s not already a gun freak. So we out-gun him, so to speak.

THAT is why numbers can’t tell the whole story. What matters more are the rules – the money – the degree of influence over writing laws. That is quite well regulated in CA but NOT in DC, and that’s the real problem. It’s ‘free range lobbying’ all the day all the time, and if there were political reform rules, it would be a LOT better and would level the playing field more as it has done in CA.

Here I have real influnece – and I haven’t a penny to my name. I do have 1.5 MILLION members who vote. That matters even though we are non-partisan and don’t support candidates. We don’t have to – it is clear where our values lie.

If we could do that in DC, it would vastly improve things indeed. I hope that helps take some of the edge off the worry? Even without reform, there are public voices in that 5:1 figure. They need your and my support! That will help make them stronger and more likely to be successful. It’s what Obama said – it’s we the people who make democracy work.

» Posted By choicelady On March 4, 2013 @ 10:33 pm