In April 1793, “Citizen Edmond Charles Genet,” then just 29 years old, arrived to great fanfare in Charleston harbor. He bore diplomatic papers announcing him the new minister (ambassador) to the United States from France and instructions from his Girondist patrons to excite American fervor in France’s war against England and Spain.
With tacit encouragement from Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, the new French minister incited American privateers to invade Spanish territories in the old southwest, ran a full circuit of burgeoning Democrat-Republican Societies that formed in opposition to George Washington’s administration, recruited American sailors in the French cause and outfitted and armed American ships for war against English colonial positions. All of these activities constituted a massive breach with diplomatic norms and violated the American government’s firm commitment to remain neutral in European wars.
Federalists agonized over Genet’s contemptuous interference in American policy. The stalwart Federalist John Adams, who was vice president at the time, was horrified by Genet’s attempts to rally the American people against their own president.Writing many years after the fact, he shuddered at the memory of “Ten thousand People in the Streets of Philadelphia, day after day, threaten[ing] to drag Washington out of his House and effect a Revolution in the Government, or compel it to declare War in favour of the French Revolution, and against England.”
As was his wont, Adams exaggerated. But Genet certainly knew how to push the envelope. The final straw came when the minister rechristened an impounded British ship the Petite Démocrate and launched it on its way to France in open defiance of George Washington. Adding insult to injury, Genet — who thought he understood American politics, but didn’t — threatened to circumvent the president altogether and appeal directly to the people. Surely they would endorse his project to expand the “Empire de la Liberté” throughout the North American continent by seizing British and Spanish possessions.
“Is the Minister of the French Republic to set the Acts of this Government at defiance, with impunity?” asked an enraged Washington. “And then threaten the Executive with an appeal to the People? [What] must the world think of such conduct, and of the Government of the U. States in submitting to it.”
Ultimately, Washington proved the better student of American politics than Genet, whose Republican allies even acknowledged the damage he did for his cause. (The verdict is still out on Ron Dermer.)
The “Citizen Genet Affair” ultimately ended as bizarrely as it originally unfolded. In 1794, after the administration demanded that the French minister be recalled, the Jacobin faction— by then fully in control and unleashing its “reign of terror” —issued a call for Genet’s return. Realizing that his probable fate was the guillotine, Genet pled for asylum, and George Washington, the same president whom he so openly defied, allowed the former diplomat to remain in the United States. He lived out his days as a prosperous gentleman farmer in the Hudson Valley, where he died in 1834.
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Of course, in 1793 as today, the tumult over Citizen Genet was less about France than it was about domestic politics.
Americans in the 1790s were sharply divided over concrete questions concerning political economy. Federalists tended to support a mixed society of small farmers and manufacturers. They were tolerant of paper money, a permanent federal debt and tariffs that would — all at once — fund that debt, support homegrown industry and forge allegiance to a central state. Many Republicans, on the other hand, preferred an agrarian society of small, independent farmers; they distrusted banks, permanent debt, standing armies and centralized authority.
On a more fundamental level, Federalists adhered to increasingly archaic ideas about the social composition of the nation. They saw the body politic as organic and unbroken: There was one common good, and men of education and achievement could be counted on to act with disinterest and virtue in furthering the needs of the whole. Republicans were, in some ways, more realistic about what America had become. They believed the country was too diverse, too populous and too advanced to entertain a single, common interest. More to the point, they saw nothing wrong with various interests competing with each other on an even and level playing field. Josh Zeitz has taught American history and politics at Cambridge University and Princeton University and is the author of Lincoln’s Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln’s Image. He is currently writing a book on the making of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. Follow him @joshuamzeitz.
“I’m embarrassed for them. For them to address a letter to the ayatollah who they claim is our mortal enemy, and their basic argument to them is ‘don’t deal with our president ‘cause you can’t trust him to follow through on agreement,” Obama said in a trailer for a Vice News interview scheduled to run in full on Monday. “That’s close to unprecedented,” he said.
The letter, warning Iranian leaders that any agreement reached in nuclear negotiations would merely constitute an “executive agreement,” generated a significant backlash in Washington and beyond.
Iran’s foreign minister called the letter “unprecedented and undiplomatic,” while a message from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Twitter account said it “is indicative” of an American “collapse in ethics.”
Germany’s foreign minister weighed in Thursday, saying that to call the letter unhelpful would be “an understatement.”
“It was kind of a very rapid process. Everybody was looking forward to getting out of town because of the snowstorm,” said Sen. John McCain (R‑Ariz.), who also signed, in an interview with POLITICO earlier this week. “I think we probably should have had more discussion about it, given the blowback that there is.”
Republican support for the letter has extended beyond the Senate, with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal signing it Tuesday. Others also have backed the warning to Iran’s leadership, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, all of whom are prospective candidates for the party’s presidential nomination.
A well-known televangelist is attempting to raise $60 million for the purchase of one of the most coveted private jets on the market — one that he and his ministry will use to “continue to spread the gospel of grace around the world.”
Pastor Creflo Dollar, founder of World Changers Church International, has launched Project G650, an effort to encourage 200,000 people to donate $300 or more so that he can purchase a jet that Business Insider recently called, the “biggest, fastest, and overall best private jet money can buy.”
The Gulfstream G650 jet, which runs for around $65 million, would replace the current airplane that the ministry has been using, as it was built in 1984, and, according to a video accompanying the fundraising appeal, the plane, which Dollar has used since 1999, recently experienced serious technical difficulties that put Dollar and his family in danger.
“Recently on an overseas trip to a global conference, one of the engines failed,” the website explains. “By the grace of God, the expert pilot, who’s flown with Creflo for almost 20 years, landed the plane safely without injury or harm to any passengers.”
With the old airplane officially out of service, the fundraising appeal explains that it is time to replace the aircraft.
“We believe it is time to replace this aircraft so that our Pastors and staff can continue to safely and swiftly share the Good News of the Gospel worldwide,” the explanation continues. “We need your help to continue reaching a lost and dying world for the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The G650 was called a “gold standard” in an October Business Insider report, which also said that the plane takes passengers “faster and higher than on any commercial jet” and features natural light and richer air.
As a kid I got into fights occasionally , it’s probably safe to say most if not all kids get into fights now and then, it’s as if fighting is a right of passage. What happened in that Brooklyn McDonalds recently was not a fight. It was another instance of what has been happening all across America lately, sheer barbarism. Aniah Ferguson, 16, and others pummeled a15-year-old girluntil she went limp on the floor even then Ferguson continued to kick the wounded girl while scores of others howled in delight or participated in the assault.
Mele in Brooklyn McDonalds
This was not white on black, this was black on black, a scenario which plays out in black communities all across America daily resulting in death and massive injuries.
In fairness, this barbarism is not confined to the slaughter which occur on the streets of Detroit Michigan, Chicago Illinois, Camden New Jersey or any other city for that matter. It includes packs of young black men and women engaging in what are called flash robberies. This is a kind of Robbery where gangs of young people run into business-places and grab what they want, damage the business establishment then leave quickly before authorities arrive.
It is no wonder then that they turn on each other when they cannot find others to victimize. These are truths from which we cannot afford to turn our back. At a time when we are witnessing raw and sometimes unprovoked and even unwarranted aggression from law-enforcement, the behavior of these young people does nothing to help the case against law-enforcement excess.
In fact those with bigoted agendas point to these occurrences as reason for more law enforcement aggression. We must begin then to look at what is going on within the black home that is fueling this kind of behavior. The mother of 16-year-old Aniah Ferguson reportedly said she did not raise her daughter to act in that way. Notwithstanding Ferguson is already a mother to a one-year-old baby, and a member of a gang called the young savages, prosecutors claim. How is that for perspective. Which leaves us to wonder what are the underlying psychological issues at play which causes not just this young lady who by the way has an extensive rap sheet to act this way, but the tens of thousands of other black teens and young adults who think this is acceptable behavior.
I don’t want to hear that not only black people act that way. It doesn’t matter who else acts that way it does not make it right or acceptable. Secondly it is up to us to fix our house not the other guy’s house.
When some of us within the black community dare to speak out at the crisis of unwed mothers having babies, some within the community take issue with our criticism. We hear all kinds of kook-like explanations for the reasons why black America is in deep crisis. Recently CNN’ Don Lemon pointed to the fact that over 70% of black babies are born out of wedlock. Lemon was roundly condemned for pointing to what is a fact. Does running from the numbers, make them any less true? “If Lemon really wanted to help the black community, he could start by adopting a deeper understanding of the history, sociology and psychology of his own people,” wrote Washington Post blogger Rahiel Tesfamariam. “Offering made-for-TV analysis about deeply complex social issues in the manner in which he did is irresponsible and lacks intellectual rigor.” Clearly when you have apologists like Rahiel Tesfamariam coming up with smart sounding goobly-gook, it is no wonder many within our community take comfort in victimhood. Even as Rahiel Tesfamariam accuses Lemon of a lack of intellectual rigor, he engages in what could be construed to be intellectual dishonesty or at best Intellectual elitism. Maybe Rahiel Tesfamariam is quite happy that there are people that others like himself look down on. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/jul/29/don-lemon/cnns-don-lemon-says-more-72-percent-african-america/
Frankly you know you have a problem when even those who hate you tell you what ails you. We can no longer accept the tranquil drug of rationalizing. We cannot continue to nuance our response to events which warrants no speculation rationalization or nuancing.
We must take responsibility for our children. We cannot continue to believe the lie that having children at the tender age of 15 is okay . It isn’t. We cannot continue to invent reasons why 12, 13, and 15 year-old kids are having babies. It is a failure of parenting. It is a failure of understanding that each household which contributes to this enigma of teen birth out of wedlock is contributing to the blight of the entire community and maybe our entire existence. Who in their right mind expect that when 71% of all babies born in the African-American community are born to unwed mothers, that there are not serious consequences for those statistics?
Who doesn’t bother to recognize that the epidemic of unwed birth has become a production line for the prison industrial complex. And no, it does not matter in this context that not all end up in prison. If one does it is one too many. The fact is that the vast majority do end up in the criminal justice system. Is it disrespectful or disloyal to point out that we are directly contributing to some of the problems plaguing our community? Is it reasonable for us to demand others show us respect, when we act like ravenous Wolves tearing away at the carcasses of each other?
We can only truly expect respect when we act respectful. Not for anyone else but for our own selves. For our own dignity. For our own survival.
Univision has fired one of its most popular talk show hosts after he said on air that Michelle Obama looked like she was part of “the cast of ‘Planet of the Apes.’ ”
The growing American Spanish-language network terminated the employment of Rodner Figueroa on Thursday afternoon, less than one day after he made the racist comment on his popular “El Gorda y la Flaca” program.
In a statement provided to People en Español, the network said there was “no room for racism” at Univision.
“Yesterday during the entertainment program ‘El Gordo y La Flaca,’ Rodner Figueroa made some comments about First Lady Michelle Obama that were completely reprehensible and in no way a reflection of the values and opinions of Univision. As a result, Mr. Figueroa was fired immediately,” the network said.
On Wednesday, during a segment on his show about the use of makeup by celebrities, Figueroa, an Emmy award-winner, said that “Michelle Obama looks like she is from the cast of the ‘Planet Of The Apes.’ ”
The derogatory remarks were widely circulated on social media.
Just when you thought Rudy Giuliani couldn’t get crazier, the former NYC mayor blamed Obama for the brutal beatdown at a Brooklyn McDonalds —and said the president should be more like Bill Cosby.
Obama is ignoring “enormous amounts of crime” committed by African-Americans, Giuliani said Thursday. And he said President Obama is to blame for the brawl inside a McDonald’s in Brooklyn as well as the shooting of two cops in Ferguson because of the anti-police “tone” coming from the White House. The former mayor, speaking on AM970 radio this morning, was asked what he thought about a number of disturbing issues in the news. Host John Gambling asked for Giuliani’s take on the vicious McDonald’s fight, the recent police shootings in Ferguson and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton getting booed Thursday at a City Council hearing by protesters.
“It all starts at the top. It’s the tone that’s set by the President,” Giuliani said. He added he just returned from a multi-city trip overseas and the United States is constantly derided there as a “racist state.” “It is the obligation of the President to explain … that our police are the best in the world,” said Giuliani. He also said Obama should have used his “bully pulpit” to stop protests in Ferguson over the summer, but didn’t.
Obama is also not addressing the “enormous amount of crime” that’s being committed by African-Americans due to “historical” reasons, Giuliani said.
“I hate to mention it because of what happened afterwards, but (he should be saying) the kinds of stuff Bill Cosby used to say,” said Giuliani.
Cosby, before his public image was tarnished with a slew of rape allegations, had spoken frequently and often in blunt terms about how African-Americans needed to focus more on education, be better parents and avoid lives of crime.
Giuliani, who was roundly criticized for saying Obama wasn’t patriotic, made a point of saying a few nice things about the President.
“I disagree with Barack Obama on almost everything, but I think he’s a good family man and a good man,” said Giuliani.http://www.nydailynews.com/
Forty (47) Republicans Senators attached their signature to a Letter which they sent to the Iranian Government. The gist of the message to the Iranian Government is that whatever deal President Obama (America’s sitting President and commander in chief) strikes with them, can and may be wiped away after the president demit office. Please take a moment to absorb , and assimilate the impact and the possible consequences of this unprecedented move. Pundits and historians alike have stated there is no precedent for this. Some argue this borders on treason. Never before in the history of the Republic , historians lament, has the congress or parts of it,ever attempted to usurp the authority of the President in this way much less on foreign affairs.
Hillary Clinton
Former Democratic Senator and presidential front runner Hillary Clinton said quote<“one has to ask, what was the purpose of this letter?
“There appear to be two logical answers,” Clinton said. “Either these senators were trying to be helpful to the Iranians or harmful to the commander-in-chief in the midst of high-stakes international diplomacy. Either answer does discredit to the letter’s signatories.”
Well Hillary, this is not the first time they have been disrespectful or tried to undermine this President . Remember Joe Wilson’s “You lie”? Since then it has been incessant, just recently Boehner invited Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to use the US house of Representatives to blast the Iran policy of the sitting President. So there is precedent for their behavior. They would rather collude with a foreign power against this President, that try to find common ground toward securing America’s future, and the future of the planet. Which means they collude against their own country. I am not a Lawyer, and certainly not a Constitutional lawyer by any stretch , but if it looks like treason,smells like treason behaves like treason, oh well.….…..
President Barack Obama slammed the letter on Monday, accusing the GOP of making “common cause with the hard-liners in Iran” by attempting to undercut ongoing negotiations that face a first deadline for a framework agreement at the end of the month.
Tom Cotton
The Republican point man on this latest affront to Presidential authority is Arkansas freshman senator Tom Cotton. The fact that Cotton would be point man on this is even more unprecedented. According to senate traditions Cotton who just took the oath hasn’t even figured out his way around the senate building yet, much less to have injected himself into international negotiations, particularly one this delicate and one which really is the purview of the President.
Only Seven Republican Senators did not sign Cotton’s letter to the Mullahs. They are Sens. Jeff Flake, Lisa Murkowski, Lamar Alexander, Dan Coats, Thad Cochran, Susan Collins and Bob Corker. Guaranteed each had their own self serving reason not to, which did not include their allegiance to the Republic.
Under pressure to explain his unprecedented actions Cotton insisted there was nothing unprecedented about what they did, arguing that the letter was not intended as a partisan move and was instead aimed at keeping the U.S. from reaching a bad and “dangerous” deal.
“This letter is about stopping Iran from getting a nuclear deal,” Cotton said. “One way that we make sure that we get a better deal is that we stand strong.” Here’s the hypocrisy of Cotton and republicans, if they wanted to stand strong they would do so standing with the Commander in chief of their country and the other Nuclear armed powers behind the deal being worked out with Iran. They would stand as Democrats did with George Bush after the events of September 11th 2001. It is not unusual for the Political parties in this country to be contentious. It is also not out of the ordinary that there are grave and serious differences when issues of serious import are being considered. Never forget this country fought a civil war to decide its way forward. What is out of the ordinary is that Americans would give aid and comfort to other powers rather than support their own twice elected leader.
You do not stand strong by telling a foreign power that you are against your own leader. That is not patriotism, there are other names for that kind of action, and they are not similar in meaning to patriotism. Cotton is a former soldier and a Harvard educated lawyer. He is also a right-wing hawk who wants war. Republicans want war with Iran. Expect that there will be far worse than Netanyahu’s speech and Cotton’s letter, they will not stop until they get another war with another middle eastern country.
Their goal is to neutralize any country in that region that has the gall to stand up to the nuclear armed apartheid bastion of white supremacy we now know as Israel. Obama will not instigate a war against Iran and that makes Obama dangerous. Waging war against Iraq using lies and distortions was not enough. The consequences of Republican lies and deception resulted in the creation of ISIS and has radicalized young men across the Globe. They see America as waging war against Islam. President Obama who thankfully have seen the World outside as compared to his Republican counterparts , some of whom have never seen anyone outside their county of birth,refuses to fall into that trap of making it seem that America is waging a christian crusade against Islam. And for that the idiotic and idiotic republicans criticize him.
The New York Daily news did not bother with pleasantries
During the American Civil War Lincoln did not want to free the slaves, contrary to what you hear today. Lincoln was a slave owner. Eventually Lincoln had to make the war about something bigger that himself, even bigger than the Union. There needed to be a higher moral argument for this war… Lincoln signed the Emancipation declaration. Not because he was a man of high moral conviction on the issue of slavery as some revisitionist historian would have you believe. Lincoln needed men to fight, he needed a grand idea on which to rally the Union, he also needed to prevent the French from coming in, in defense of it’s Louisiana territory. It was the moral and right thing for Lincoln to do, the North won the war and the Union survived. Obama understands the consequences of the perception of an American crusade against Islam, and is doing his level best to avoid that perception. Unfortunately that level of comprehension cannot be expected from the racist bunch of white supremacists which is now the Republican party.
Even those who have seen combat, Cotton included,and the carnage of war, are in no way dissuaded from the fallacy and counterproductive nature of constantly manufacturing new enemies. Instead they convince themselves that brute-force and heavy handedness are appropriate tools in dealing with Sovereign powers. Then they wring their hands and wonder whats behind the thinking of young people who head to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside ISIS.
SELMA 50 YEARSLATER
President Obama speaks at the Edmund Pettus bridge
It is interesting to note that not one of these racist war mongers who signed Cotton’s letter to Iran bothered to show up in Selma Alabama to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the march across the Edmund Pettus bridge. Black America’s triumphant march across that bridge was symbolic of more them prevailing against the raw bigotry of Racist oppression. They braved billy-clubs, dogs and bullets knowing they were writing the indelible story of America. The America which still, is an evolving saga yet to be completed. They had their heads bashed in , bones splintered ‚flesh gnarled by viscous dogs, because they believed in the phrase ” all men are created equal” and that they too deserve to live as equal men on this land blacks occupied before Europeans realized the world was not flat. The bigotry and racism of 1965 has not died or gone away , it dwells just below the surface, forced there by strong Federal laws which guaranteed that people were not to be impeded when they wanted to vote. Laws which guaranteed that all Americans , regardless of race, class, or creed, religious or sexual persuasion should be able to study in the same schools. Yet the very institution charged with the sacred trust of protecting the fundamental rights of all the people is the very institution tearing away at the fabric of the voting rights act and the right for people to go to school where they please and congregate where they please.
When our President speak of the America of his dreams with euphoric oratory and brilliance, I shudder to think of what America will be under the likes of Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, and others. We may hide our heads in the sand and pretend all is well, or we may confront the reality of what those like Cotton and his band of 46 dim-wits mean. These are elected officials who hold high office, yet they systematically missed, or chose to miss that whether they like it or not the African-American story is the story of America. Choosing to stay away makes it clear they do not care to respect, represent, or relate the black story, America’s story. By so doing they have cast themselves as inconsequential footnotes in the dust-bin of history. Rendering themselves and their party inconsequential to the conversation going forward. By turning their backs on black America they turned their backs on America. By turning to Netanyahu and Iran they declared their dastardly disloyalty to America in no uncertain terms. That my friends is what the Republican party has become. An international disgrace.….….
A truly historic moment [adapted]Fifty years after Police bludgeoned black Americans marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of the “Bloody Sunday” demonstration of March 7, 1965 , the Nation’s 44th President a black man, commemorated the event with a sea of Americans of all stripes to include President Bush 43rd and his wife Laura.
The President’s speech.
It is a rare honor in this life to follow one of your heroes. And John Lewis is one of my heroes.
Now, I have to imagine that when a younger John Lewis woke up that morning 50 years ago and made his way to Brown Chapel, heroics were not on his mind. A day like this was not on his mind. Young folks with bedrolls and backpacks were milling about. Veterans of the movement trained newcomers in the tactics of non-violence; the right way to protect yourself when attacked. A doctor described what tear gas does to the body, while marchers scribbled down instructions for contacting their loved ones. The air was thick with doubt, anticipation and fear. And they comforted themselves with the final verse of the final hymn they sung:
“No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you; Lean, weary one, upon His breast, God will take care of you.”
And then, his knapsack stocked with an apple, a toothbrush, and a book on government — all you need for a night behind bars — John Lewis led them out of the church on a mission to change America.
President and Mrs. Bush, Governor Bentley, Mayor Evans, Sewell, Reverend Strong, members of Congress, elected officials, foot soldiers, friends, fellow Americans:
As John noted, there are places and moments in America where this nation’s destiny has been decided. Many are sites of war — Concord and Lexington, Appomattox, Gettysburg. Others are sites that symbolize the daring of America’s character — Independence Hall and Seneca Falls, Kitty Hawk and Cape Canaveral.
Selma is such a place. In one afternoon 50 years ago, so much of our turbulent history — the stain of slavery and anguish of civil war; the yoke of segregation and tyranny of Jim Crow; the death of four little girls in Birmingham; and the dream of a Baptist preacher — all that history met on this bridge.
It was not a clash of armies, but a clash of wills; a contest to determine the true meaning of America. And because of men and women like John Lewis, Joseph Lowery, Hosea Williams, Amelia Boynton, Diane Nash, Ralph Abernathy, C.T. Vivian, Andrew Young, Fred Shuttlesworth, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and so many others, the idea of a just America and a fair America, an inclusive America, and a generous America — that idea ultimately triumphed.
As is true across the landscape of American history, we cannot examine this moment in isolation. The march on Selma was part of a broader campaign that spanned generations; the leaders that day part of a long line of heroes.
We gather here to celebrate them. We gather here to honor the courage of ordinary Americans willing to endure billy clubs and the chastening rod; tear gas and the trampling hoof; men and women who despite the gush of blood and splintered bone would stay true to their North Star and keep marching towards justice.
They did as Scripture instructed: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” And in the days to come, they went back again and again. When the trumpet call sounded for more to join, the people came –- black and white, young and old, Christian and Jew, waving the American flag and singing the same anthems full of faith and hope. A white newsman, Bill Plante, who covered the marches then and who is with us here today, quipped that the growing number of white people lowered the quality of the singing. To those who marched, though, those old gospel songs must have never sounded so sweet.
In time, their chorus would well up and reach President Johnson. And he would send them protection, and speak to the nation, echoing their call for America and the world to hear: “We shall overcome.” What enormous faith these men and women had. Faith in God, but also faith in America.
The Americans who crossed this bridge, they were not physically imposing. But they gave courage to millions. They held no elected office. But they led a nation. They marched as Americans who had endured hundreds of years of brutal violence, countless daily indignities –- but they didn’t seek special treatment, just the equal treatment promised to them almost a century before.
What they did here will reverberate through the ages. Not because the change they won was preordained; not because their victory was complete; but because they proved that nonviolent change is possible, that love and hope can conquer hate.
As we commemorate their achievement, we are well-served to remember that at the time of the marches, many in power condemned rather than praised them. Back then, they were called Communists, or half-breeds, or outside agitators, sexual and moral degenerates, and worse –- they were called everything but the name their parents gave them. Their faith was questioned. Their lives were threatened. Their patriotism challenged.
And yet, what could be more American than what happened in this place?What could more profoundly vindicate the idea of America than plain and humble people –- unsung, the downtrodden, the dreamers not of high station, not born to wealth or privilege, not of one religious tradition but many, coming together to shape their country’s course?
What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this, what greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?
That’s why Selma is not some outlier in the American experience. That’s why it’s not a museum or a static monument to behold from a distance. It is instead the manifestation of a creed written into our founding documents: “We the People…in order to form a more perfect union.” “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
These are not just words. They’re a living thing, a call to action, a roadmap for citizenship and an insistence in the capacity of free men and women to shape our own destiny. For founders like Franklin and Jefferson, for leaders like Lincoln and FDR, the success of our experiment in self-government rested on engaging all of our citizens in this work. And that’s what we celebrate here in Selma. That’s what this movement was all about, one leg in our long journey toward freedom.
A historic day for AmericaA historic day for America
The American instinct that led these young men and women to pick up the torch and cross this bridge, that’s the same instinct that moved patriots to choose revolution over tyranny. It’s the same instinct that drew immigrants from across oceans and the Rio Grande; the same instinct that led women to reach for the ballot, workers to organize against an unjust status quo; the same instinct that led us to plant a flag at Iwo Jima and on the surface of the Moon.
It’s the idea held by generations of citizens who believed that America is a constant work in progress; who believed that loving this country requires more than singing its praises or avoiding uncomfortable truths. It requires the occasional disruption, the willingness to speak out for what is right, to shake up the status quo. That’s America.
That’s what makes us unique. That’s what cements our reputation as a beacon of opportunity. Young people behind the Iron Curtain would see Selma and eventually tear down that wall. Young people in Soweto would hear Bobby Kennedy talk about ripples of hope and eventually banish the scourge of apartheid. Young people in Burma went to prison rather than submit to military rule. They saw what John Lewis had done. From the streets of Tunis to the Maidan in Ukraine, this generation of young people can draw strength from this place, where the powerless could change the world’s greatest power and push their leaders to expand the boundaries of freedom.
They saw that idea made real right here in Selma, Alabama. They saw that idea manifest itself here in America.
Because of campaigns like this, a Voting Rights Act was passed. Political and economic and social barriers came down. And the change these men and women wrought is visible here today in the presence of African Americans who run boardrooms, who sit on the bench, who serve in elected office from small towns to big cities; from the Congressional Black Caucus all the way to the Oval Office.
Because of what they did, the doors of opportunity swung open not just for black folks, but for every American. Women marched through those doors. Latinos marched through those doors. Asian Americans, gay Americans, Americans with disabilities — they all came through those doors. Their endeavors gave the entire South the chance to rise again, not by reasserting the past, but by transcending the past.
What a glorious thing, Dr. King might say. And what a solemn debt we owe. Which leads us to ask, just how might we repay that debt?
First and foremost, we have to recognize that one day’s commemoration, no matter how special, is not enough. If Selma taught us anything, it’s that our work is never done. The American experiment in self-government gives work and purpose to each generation.
Selma teaches us, as well, that action requires that we shed our cynicism. For when it comes to the pursuit of justice, we can afford neither complacency nor despair.
Just this week, I was asked whether I thought the Department of Justice’s Ferguson report shows that, with respect to race, little has changed in this country. And I understood the question; the report’s narrative was sadly familiar. It evoked the kind of abuse and disregard for citizens that spawned the Civil Rights Movement. But I rejected the notion that nothing’s changed. What happened in Ferguson may not be unique, but it’s no longer endemic. It’s no longer sanctioned by law or by custom. And before the Civil Rights Movement, it most surely was.
President Bush and first lay Michelle Obama
We do a disservice to the cause of justice by intimating that bias and discrimination are immutable, that racial division is inherent to America. If you think nothing’s changed in the past 50 years, ask somebody who lived through the Selma or Chicago or Los Angeles of the 1950s. Ask the female CEO who once might have been assigned to the secretarial pool if nothing’s changed. Ask your gay friend if it’s easier to be out and proud in America now than it was thirty years ago. To deny this progress, this hard-won progress -– our progress –- would be to rob us of our own agency, our own capacity, our responsibility to do what we can to make America better.
Of course, a more common mistake is to suggest that Ferguson is an isolated incident; that racism is banished; that the work that drew men and women to Selma is now complete, and that whatever racial tensions remain are a consequence of those seeking to play the “race card” for their own purposes. We don’t need the Ferguson report to know that’s not true. We just need to open our eyes, and our ears, and our hearts to know that this nation’s racial history still casts its long shadow upon us.
We know the march is not yet over. We know the race is not yet won. We know that reaching that blessed destination where we are judged, all of us, by the content of our character requires admitting as much, facing up to the truth. “We are capable of bearing a great burden,” James Baldwin once wrote, “once we discover that the burden is reality and arrive where reality is.”
There’s nothing America can’t handle if we actually look squarely at the problem. And this is work for all Americans, not just some. Not just whites. Not just blacks. If we want to honor the courage of those who marched that day, then all of us are called to possess their moral imagination. All of us will need to feel as they did the fierce urgency of now. All of us need to recognize as they did that change depends on our actions, on our attitudes, the things we teach our children. And if we make such an effort, no matter how hard it may sometimes seem, laws can be passed, and consciences can be stirred, and consensus can be built.
With such an effort, we can make sure our criminal justice system serves all and not just some. Together, we can raise the level of mutual trust that policing is built on –- the idea that police officers are members of the community they risk their lives to protect, and citizens in Ferguson and New York and Cleveland, they just want the same thing young people here marched for 50 years ago -– the protection of the law. Together, we can address unfair sentencing and overcrowded prisons, and the stunted circumstances that rob too many boys of the chance to become men, and rob the nation of too many men who could be good dads, and good workers, and good neighbors.
With effort, we can roll back poverty and the roadblocks to opportunity. Americans don’t accept a free ride for anybody, nor do we believe in equality of outcomes. But we do expect equal opportunity. And if we really mean it, if we’re not just giving lip service to it, but if we really mean it and are willing to sacrifice for it, then, yes, we can make sure every child gets an education suitable to this new century, one that expands imaginations and lifts sights and gives those children the skills they need. We can make sure every person willing to work has the dignity of a job, and a fair wage, and a real voice, and sturdier rungs on that ladder into the middle class.
And with effort, we can protect the foundation stone of our democracy for which so many marched across this bridge –- and that is the right to vote. Right now, in 2015, 50 years after Selma, there are laws across this country designed to make it harder for people to vote. As we speak, more of such laws are being proposed. Meanwhile, the Voting Rights Act, the culmination of so much blood, so much sweat and tears, the product of so much sacrifice in the face of wanton violence, the Voting Rights Act stands weakened, its future subject to political rancor.
How can that be? The Voting Rights Act was one of the crowning achievements of our democracy, the result of Republican and Democratic efforts. President Reagan signed its renewal when he was in office. President George W. Bush signed its renewal when he was in office. One hundred members of Congress have come here today to honor people who were willing to die for the right to protect it. If we want to honor this day, let that hundred go back to Washington and gather four hundred more, and together, pledge to make it their mission to restore that law this year. That’s how we honor those on this bridge.
Of course, our democracy is not the task of Congress alone, or the courts alone, or even the President alone. If every new voter-suppression law was struck down today, we would still have, here in America, one of the lowest voting rates among free peoples. Fifty years ago, registering to vote here in Selma and much of the South meant guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar, the number of bubbles on a bar of soap. It meant risking your dignity, and sometimes, your life.
What’s our excuse today for not voting? How do we so casually discard the right for which so many fought? How do we so fully give away our power, our voice, in shaping America’s future? Why are we pointing to somebody else when we could take the time just to go to the polling places? We give away our power.
Fellow marchers, so much has changed in 50 years. We have endured war and we’ve fashioned peace. We’ve seen technological wonders that touch every aspect of our lives. We take for granted conveniences that our parents could have scarcely imagined. But what has not changed is the imperative of citizenship; that willingness of a 26-year-old deacon, or a Unitarian minister, or a young mother of five to decide they loved this country so much that they’d risk everything to realize its promise.
President Obama delivers speech for the ages
That’s what it means to love America. That’s what it means to believe in America. That’s what it means when we say America is exceptional.
For we were born of change. We broke the old aristocracies, declaring ourselves entitled not by bloodline, but endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. We secure our rights and responsibilities through a system of self-government, of and by and for the people. That’s why we argue and fight with so much passion and conviction — because we know our efforts matter. We know America is what we make of it.
Look at our history. We are Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea, pioneers who braved the unfamiliar, followed by a stampede of farmers and miners, and entrepreneurs and hucksters. That’s our spirit. That’s who we are.
We are Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer, women who could do as much as any man and then some. And we’re Susan B. Anthony, who shook the system until the law reflected that truth. That is our character.
We’re the immigrants who stowed away on ships to reach these shores, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free –- Holocaust survivors, Soviet defectors, the Lost Boys of Sudan. We’re the hopeful strivers who cross the Rio Grande because we want our kids to know a better life. That’s how we came to be.
We’re the slaves who built the White House and the economy of the South. We’re the ranch hands and cowboys who opened up the West, and countless laborers who laid rail, and raised skyscrapers, and organized for workers’ rights.
We’re the fresh-faced GIs who fought to liberate a continent. And we’re the Tuskeegee Airmen, and the Navajo code-talkers, and the Japanese Americans who fought for this country even as their own liberty had been denied.
We’re the firefighters who rushed into those buildings on 9⁄11, the volunteers who signed up to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. We’re the gay Americans whose blood ran in the streets of San Francisco and New York, just as blood ran down this bridge.
We are storytellers, writers, poets, artists who abhor unfairness, and despise hypocrisy, and give voice to the voiceless, and tell truths that need to be told.
We’re the inventors of gospel and jazz and blues, bluegrass and country, and hip-hop and rock and roll, and our very own sound with all the sweet sorrow and reckless joy of freedom.
We are Jackie Robinson, enduring scorn and spiked cleats and pitches coming straight to his head, and stealing home in the World series.
We are the people Langston Hughes wrote of who “build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how.” We are the people Emerson wrote of, “who for truth and honor’s sake stand fast and suffer long;” who are “never tired, so long as we can see far enough.”
That’s what America is. Not stock photos or airbrushed history, or feeble attempts to define some of us as more American than others. We respect the past, but we don’t pine for the past. We don’t fear the future; we grab for it. America is not some fragile thing. We are large, in the words of Whitman, containing multitudes. We are boisterous and diverse and full of energy, perpetually young in spirit. That’s why someone like John Lewis at the ripe old age of 25 could lead a mighty march.
And that’s what the young people here today and listening all across the country must take away from this day. You are America. Unconstrained by habit and convention. Unencumbered by what is, because you’re ready to seize what ought to be.
For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, there’s new ground to cover, there are more bridges to be crossed. And it is you, the young and fearless at heart, the most diverse and educated generation in our history, who the nation is waiting to follow.
Because Selma shows us that America is not the project of any one person. Because the single-most powerful word in our democracy is the word “We.” “We The People.” “We Shall Overcome.” “Yes We Can.” That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given, to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.
Fifty years from Bloody Sunday, our march is not yet finished, but we’re getting closer. Two hundred and thirty-nine years after this nation’s founding our union is not yet perfect, but we are getting closer. Our job’s easier because somebody already got us through that first mile. Somebody already got us over that bridge. When it feels the road is too hard, when the torch we’ve been passed feels too heavy, we will remember these early travelers, and draw strength from their example, and hold firmly the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on [the] wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint.”
We honor those who walked so we could run. We must run so our children soar. And we will not grow weary. For we believe in the power of an awesome God, and we believe in this country’s sacred promise.
May He bless those warriors of justice no longer with us, and bless the United States of America. Thank you, everybody.
A Madison, Wis., police officer who fatally shot an unarmed 19-year-old African American man Friday had been exonerated in a previous fatal shooting, officials disclosed Saturday.
Nineteen-year-old Tony Robinson was not armed when a Madison, Wisconsin, police officer fatally shot him, Police Chief Mike Koval said Saturday. The 2007 shooting involving Matt Kenny, 45, was ruled a “suicide by cop,” said Madison Police Chief Mike Koval in a Saturday press conference. The case was reviewed and audited at the time by the district attorney’s office in Dane County, he said. Kenny, a 12-year department veteran, was the primary responding officer in the incident Friday that resulted in the shooting death of Tony Robinson.
Police said they received several calls about a man who had “battered someone“and had been “out in traffic” and then gone inside an apartment, Koval said Friday. Kenny heard a disturbance in the apartment, forced his way in, and after a scuffle with Robinson in which Kenny received a “blow to the head,” the officer shot Robinson, Koval said.Robinson later was pronounced dead of gunshot wounds at a nearby hospital. Koval did not disclose how many shots were fired, saying the information was part of the shooting investigation, which will be handled by the state’s Division of Criminal Investigation.
Kenny was placed on administrative leave with pay pending results of the investigation, Koval said. He said that Kenny received a commendation of valor for his participation in the 2007 fatal shooting. The state agency will handle the probe of the new shooting in line with a 2014 Wisconsin law that requires all officer-involved shootings to be reviewed by an outside agency. Findings will be turned over to the Dane County district attorney’s office, which will also review the case, Koval said.
Koval said he went to the home of Robinson’s family early Saturday morning to express his condolences and “remorse for the loss of life.” He met Robinson’s grandparents in the driveway, and they spoke for about 45 minutes and prayed together, he said. “To his family, and to his friends, and to this community, that is a loss,” Koval said. “Nineteen years old is too young.”
Republicans who never rises and clap for their own President gives Netanyahu several standing ovations
“I deeply regret that some perceive my being here as political. That was never my intention,” Netanyahu said in an address before Congress. “I know that no matter on which side of the aisle you sit, you stand with Israel.” “Don’t be fooled – the battle between Iran and ISIS doesn’t turn Iran into a friend for America; Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam,” said Netanyahu. The problem with America’s potential deal with Iran is twofold, said the Israeli leader. “The first major concession,” he said, is that it “would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure.” Second, he continued, the restrictions imposed on Iran’s nuclear program would not effectively bar violations. “Iran has proven time and again that it cannot be trusted,” said Netanyahu. “That’s why this deal is so bad – it doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb; it paves Iran’s path to the bomb.”
President Obama said there was nothing new in the speech delivered before the American Congress by the Republican Senator from Israel. President Obama, meanwhile told reporters later in the day that he read the transcript of Netanyahu’s speech and found “nothing new.” He noted that the Israeli leader did not offer any “viable alternatives” to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and defended his administration’s pursuit of a nuclear deal with the Middle Eastern country. Does it seem strange that a President, any president, would be forced to defend his policies as the duly twice elected head of his country, while a foreign leader attacks his policies in his country’s highest legislative body, as that leader visits, all unbeknownst to him ? I digress, maybe it’s just me.….
Netanyahu
“[A]s one who values the U.S.-Israel relationship, and loves Israel, I was near tears throughout the Prime Minister’s speech – saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States as part of the P5+1 nations, and saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation,” said Pelosi in a statement.
Pelosi
No Republican would have sat through a controversial speech given by a foreign leader when a Republican President in the White Hose was not notified that that foreign leader would be invited to address the country and congress. On that basis the comments of Pelosi is inconsequential and has no bearing, it should not be considered. Any Democrat Jew or not, who attended that speech is disloyal to the President and should hang their heads in shame, they are all a disgrace.
Netanyahu wants war. As President Obama stated there was nothing new in the speech. We have all heard Netanyahu’s drumbeat for war against Iran before. If Netanyahu did not proffer anything new what is the reason for the speech ? As Pelosi lamented qoute,“I was near tears throughout the Prime Minister’s speech – saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States as part of the P5+1 nations, and saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation”. Well why would he not be condescending? He was brought in without the knowledge of the sitting President and Commander-in-chief, to challenge the President and other nation’s leaders work toward a peaceful settlement to the perceived problem of Iran’s nuclear program.
President Obama
Simply put Netanyahu is a war-monger, if he was to be believed the World would have come to an end years ago based on his predictions on Iran’s intentions. Netanyahu did not offer anything new, because he has nothing new. He wants war but he wants America to fight that war with Iran, and he wants American soldiers to die so he can have hegemony in the region. Republican war-mongers do not mind getting into a war with Iran , which by the way would be a grave mistake. Their only problem is that there is only one Commander-in-chief at a time. So it seem that the strategy is to paint Obama as a weak President who is actually paving the way for Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb, even as he speaks niceties about the president from the corner of his mouth.
ISIS is not a religious group of Muslim fundamentalists, they are a bunch of murderous savages. Netanyahu does not mind playing up the ISIS threat to get what he wants. What Netanyahu and his supporters will not say is thatsome supposed leaders of ISIS have been revealed to be Jewish operativespretending to be Arabs. Those who want to bomb other nations must avail themselves to the duplicitous canard being fed the world by Netanyahu. Ask the Palestinian people who live under the boot-heels of Israeli occupation. However none of that matters, even as the singular largest issue at the center of most conflicts in the middle east, is Israel’s occupation of Palestine. The fact is that Netanyahu knows that come what may , America will continue to support the nuclear armed Israel. In fact he bragged about it in his speech, quote,” “I deeply regret that some perceive my being here as political, that was never my intention, I know that no matter on which side of the aisle you sit, you stand with Israel.” There you have it, no matter what President is in the White House Jewish money will ensure that he stays in line and do the bidding of Israel.
Many people in the state of Israel disagrees with Netanyahu’s incessant drum-beat for war. A large percentage of Israeli’s also disagree with Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people. So too do they disagree with the idea that Israeli should be at war with Iran. Netanyahu wants war with Iran just on American dime and with American blood. The warmongering clowns on the right are too stupid to figure it out. Israeli’s going to the polls in two weeks can show Netanyahu the door, that is their best hope for peace.
Images in black communities when they dared stand up for their rights…
Despite massive street protest and retaliatory violence against Police in 2014 the rash of police killing of unarmed civilians continue unabated.
Jan.23rd , 2015 .-An Oklahoma cop wearing a body cam recorded himself shooting and killing a man who was running from him after the suspect stopped to pick up an object he had dropped during the pursuit before continuing fleeing.
PASCO, Wash. — Residents angry that police shot and killed an orchard worker accused of throwing rocks at officers are planning more protests in an agricultural area of southeastern Washington. Some of the dozens of people who saw the shooting at a busy intersection Tuesday evening videotaped the confrontation in Pasco, a city of about 68,000 people where more than half the residents are Hispanic.
March2nd 2015 .-Three Los Angeles police officers fired at and killed a man on the city’s Skid Row during a struggle over one of the officers’ guns, and authorities said they planned to use video captured by a bystander in their investigation.
The killings happen almost daily, yet Authorities turn a blind eye to what is clearly a pandemic of excessive police use of force. In shooting after shooting, police brass declare that the shootings are justified and done withing police use of force guidelines. Politicians jump on the police band-wagon and declare that they stand with police , even when the actions of police are clearly beyond the pale. Those who do not automatically default toward the police, remain in duplicitous silence. New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo readily comes to mind.
So what is behind the continued and unabated killing by police, despite nation-wide protest? The answer is simple. They are not being held accountable. In some cases the killings don’t even make sense. A former Florida A&M football player was shot and killed as he approached police officers, looking for assistance after getting into a car accident. Jonathan Ferrell, 24, crashed his car early one Saturday morning, and approached a home, looking for help. The residents, unsure of who was outside, called the police. When the officers arrived, Ferell ran towards them, only to be shot several times. Ferell, who might have been badly shaken up by the accident, died on the scene. Police said in a statement. “Our investigation has shown that Officer Kerrick did not have a lawful right to discharge his weapon during this encounter. ” How does a man get killed running toward the people who are paid handsomely to protect and provide help? As I have said it is becoming increasingly evident that the police have no interest in serving certain segments of the public. In most if not all cases where excessive lethal force was employed the victim is black or brown and the cop is white.
If as police say when these shootings occur , that “officers followed procedure” then the public must be told that the police have a right to kill you whether you are armed or not. The cop only need to say he/she was in fear for his/her life and that fear is no longer based on reasonableness , but is totally left up to the potentially irrational mind of the cop.
As a police officer I would never contemplate un-holstering my weapon to subdue a single unarmed individual if I was in the company of one or more officers. How four officers end up using lethal force on one unarmed individual is galling , unconscionable and frightening. What is even more frightening is the callous dispatch with which people deal with these wanton acts of murder because the victims do not look like them nor live like them. Have the police now become exterminators of those society deem disposable? If so who are the disposable dregs and who decide when they die? It is incredibly scary that so many citizens unwittingly cede their freedoms to the state, through their cold uncaring disregard for others they deem less than them or other.
Police officers are issued batons, tazers, pepper-spray, hand-cuffs, and yes guns.The Gun was supposed to be the last weapon an officer uses. It’s use has always been contingent on the life of the officer or that of another being in imminent danger. The threat to life and limb was once supposed to be real and reasonable. It was never supposed to be concocted or contrived.
Today cops tell citizens I will F*****g shoot you as they walk up to them, they then make good on their threats and they are not held accountable. These are the new realities, the rules have changed and nobody bothered to tell us. Welcome to the new world order.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not even making an attempt to respect American President Obama and his administration. The New York Daily News reported that Sens. Dick Durbin, D‑Ill., and Dianne Feinstein, D‑Calif., on Monday invited Netanyahu to meet in a closed-door session with Democrats during his visit. He declined the invitationon Tuesday and expressed regret about the politically fraught tone of his trip.
“I regret that the invitation to address the special joint session of Congress has been perceived by someto be political or partisan,” Netanyahu wrote. “I can assure you that my sole intention in accepting it was to voice Israel’s grave concerns about a potential nuclear agreement with Iran that could threaten the survival of my country.”
Who are the “some” of whom Netanyahu speak is it the President? The President has said he will not meet with Netanyahu because it would be a break with tradition of the white house not to meet with foreign leaders who are engaged in election campaigning. Netanyahu faces the Israeli electorate in just a couple of weeks from his scheduled March 3rd address.
Frankly President Obama should stop beating around the bush and tell the world he refuses to meet with the disrespectful Republican Senator from Israel because he does not like him. Netanyahu all but endorsed Mitt Romney for President during the last Presidential elections . Who is Netanyahu fooling , he does not like Obama and Obama does not like him .
The report went on to say more than a half dozen House and Senate Democrats have said they will skip the speech, calling it an affront to President Barack Obama and the administration as they engage in high-level negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. Vice President Joe Biden will be traveling and has no plans to attend the speech. Well there you have it, half a dozen house and senate democrats? What of the rest? Not only is this address a deeply offensive breach of protocol, it is an affront to the Nation’s first black president. Democrats who make the decision to sit through this affront will signal that they join republicans in giving aid and comfort to the insolent Netanyahu over a sitting American president who just happens to be black.
Israel is anapartheid state which has precious little respect for black people. Netanyahu and his administration has led a vicious campaign against Ethiopian Jews and and other Africans who venture into the state of Israel. Netanyahu and many in his Government and Country labels blacks who venture into Apartheid Israel “Infiltrators”. They call them cancers on Israeli society. Many African Jews,(real decendants of biblical jews) are harassed and rounded up like cattle and herded into a massive prison in the Negev desert. Why would a republican supporting Netanyahu respect our president, when he sees Africans in Israel as infiltrators?
The travesty of the blind support some have for the Apartheid state of Israel, including some religious leaders in the black community, is their ignorance to the realities of the Biblical Israel and this charlatan Apartheid state. The tragedy is that even though they hate blacks , they benefit from black people’s money the American Government takes in taxes and gives to them to the tune of Billions of dollars annually.
Durbin said in a statement that he regretted that Netanyahu could not meet with the Democrats.
“We offered the Prime Minister an opportunity to balance the politically divisive invitation from Speaker (John) Boehner with a private meeting with Democrats who are committed to keeping the bipartisan support of Israel strong,” Durbin said. “His refusal to meet is disappointing to those of us who have stood by Israel for decades.
Well there you have it, Netanyahu is not a diplomat, he is not a man who respects protocols. He is a war-mongering hawk who will not rest until America is engaged in a war with Iran over nuclear weapons even as Israel posseses stockpiles of nuclear weapons of it’s own. What makes Israel exempt from the same rules other countries are subject to? Who does Netanyahu think he is that President Obama should bow to his demands for war, failing which he will protest the President’s policies using the congress as a political platform? This is the kind of raw disrespect that we have come to expect from republicans in the congress. Hiding our heads in the sand does not negate the fact that congressional republicans want war with Iran. Netanyahu also want war with Iran.
This president’s policy of peace through negotiations and mutual respect, does not line up with the perpetual war-mongering of republicans and Netanyahu. This is the reason the weak John Boehner invited Netanyahu to speak . Never before have we seen such egregious display of disrespect to presidential leadership. We will wait to see which democrat sit and listen to Netanyahu’s bull.
Rudolph Giuliani the man some dubbed America’s mayor doubled down on the inflammatory comment he made about the nation’s president not loving America as others do. On the face of it, the publicity-hound Giuliani would have to have some sort of access to the brain of all Americans in order to measure their degree of love of country. There is no need to guess about the method Giuliani used in arriving at the President’s patriotism levels, he spelled it out when he made it clear he was not sorry about making an ass of himself.
“Look, this man was brought up basically in a white family, so whatever he learned or didn’t learn, I attribute this more to the influence of communism and socialism” than to his race, Giuliani told the Daily News. “I don’t (see) this President as being particularly a product of African-American society or something like that. He isn’t,” the former mayor added. “Logically, think about his background… The ideas that are troubling me and are leading to this come from communists with whom he associated when he was 9 years old” through family connections.
Okay so now we understand the formula for Obama’s communism, the reason for Giuliani’s ignorance is made clearer. his father had been arrested in 1934 for robbing a milkman at gunpoint and had spent a year and a half in jail. This happened when young Rudolph was about 7 years. So if a 9‑year-old Obama is a communist for being introduced to Communist, then it naturally follows that Giuliani is indeed a gun-toting-stick up felon for his time spent with and being his father’s son. It is a fair analysis to make using Giuliani’s logic.
I must admit I am no fan of El Deuce, that much must be clear by now. Why? Because he is a hypocritical racist. He is narcissistic glory hound. There are ample examples of Giuliani’s glory hunting. As a U.S. Attorney Giuliani developed the reputation as something of a publicity seeker, sometimes publicly hand-cuffing mob bosses and business leaders on trumped up charges only to quietly drop the charges later.
The façade he presented as some kind of great American Mayor fed by the swooning New York Press and a Nation looking for heroes after September 11th 2001 could never stand the smell test, or withstand scrutiny when the scab is peeled back. It is laughable when television talking heads tell us Giuliani is sullying his image as America’s Mayor with this far right rhetoric. The truth is Giuliani had no record to sully, he made the decision to place the city’s command center in the world trade center building after the building had already experienxced one terrorists attack in 1993. If incompetence and bad judgement qualifies one as a good American Mayor then Obama’s solid leadership since he took the reins of America’s collapsed economy certainly makes him a candidate for sainthood. Giuliani’s horrible judgement and arrogance far exceeds the decision to house the control center in the world trade center. President Bush tapped Kerik, as his nominee for homeland security secretary, but Kerik abruptly withdrew his name after revealing that he had not paid all required taxes for a family nanny-housekeeper and that the woman may have been in the country illegally.
Kerik a former NYPD commissioner appointed by Giuliani and later his business partner was recommended to Bush by none other than Giuliani. Bernard Kerik was later to do time in a federal prison. Giuliani’s abuse of his office through police protection he received as he trekked to Long Island to see his mistress Judith Nathan at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars to the city’s tax-payers is well documented.
These are just a few of the transgressions we know of the hypocritical glory-hound Giuliani. We also know that he gets paid handsomely as a consultant and speaker commanding up to 80K per speaking engagement where he provides strategic counsel in emergency preparedness. If ever there was an irony. Giuliani needs to be in the news, that’s how the money keep rolling in. He is prepared to say and do anything to be in the news and he is doing just that.
This guy is not running for dog-catcher yet everyone is talking about him and that’s exactly what he craves.
No one expects any particular Democrat to defend our President from the vile disgusting and concerted rhetoric coming from his enemies on the right,but blacks must remember the likes of Hillary Clinton and probably most importantly Andrew Coumo.
Coumo New’s York Governor, gave a long meandering speech at the funeral for his late father Mario Coumo a former Governor whom some viewed as a liberal lion and a champion for those without money and power. As I listened to the speech, I thought to myself the
The late Mario Cuomo
speech made one thing clear Andrew Coumo was no Mario Coumo. Real leaders lead from the front , not hide behind and do what is politically expedient. Cuomo hid while Mayor deBlasio stood and took heat for his stance on Police abuse. As the state’s Governor, Cuomo did not have to defend the state’s black citizens, God forbid, but he could have stood with deBlasio another white man who did the right thing. Andrew Cuomo chose to remain silent.
Unfortunately though Cuomo benefited immensely from black votes in the last elections he could not muster up the balls or the character to stand with them in their moment of travail.
Both Cuomos
Though Cuomo won the last elections beating Republican rival Rob Astorino by 13 percentage points, the National review reported that Astorino collected 1.3 million votes — or 49 percent — compared to Cuomo’s 1.2 million, or 46 percent, in a low-turnout election. Three third-party candidates were also on the ballot. Cuomo’s 13-percentage-point win over Republican challenger Rob Astorino on Nov. 4 was fueled by a large margin of victory in New York City, where he took home 77 percent of the nearly 1 million ballots cast, according to the state Board of Election’s unofficial results.
He did not do well in white Democratic liberal strongholds ‚generally speaking Cuomo did best in the
Cuomo and Clinton
ADs that are predominantly black.” Democrats have taken the black vote for granted for decades. They probably will for decades more, unless blacks cease voting, or avail themselves to the realities they face. The fact is that Democrats know that blacks cannot run to the Republican party, so they do not have to earn the votes of their most loyal voters, neither do they have to stand with them. So Cuomo did not feel the need to stand up for black people in New York City. neither does he feel the need to repudiate the vile creature Rudolph Giuliani on his bottom feeding gutter attack on our President.
Giuliani
Chances are Andrew Cuomo is not willing to ruffle the feathers of another Italian, a republican who crossed party line and endorsed his father when he ran for a fourth term in 1994.
On the occasion of crossing party lines to endorse the elder Cuomo, Guiliani said. “George Pataki’s only essential characteristic is that he offers an alternative. “Strangely, however, after lengthy analysis and a lot of soul-searching, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is George Pataki who best personifies the status quo of New York politics — a candidate taking as few positions as possible, all of them as general as possible, taking no risks and being guided and scripted by others. He has simply not made the case that he is the agent of change.” This is the very first time I concur with anything Giuliani has to say, only this time the very words
George Pataki
Giuliani used to described George Pataki as he battled Mario Cuomo, are now totally appropriate in describing Andrew Cuomo. New York’s black voters should never forget the cowardice of Andrew Cuomo when they needed their Governor to stand with them. They should never forget the cowardice of Andrew Cuomo when he refused to stand against the vile naked bigotry of his fellow Italian, Rudolph Giuliani in his incessant attacks against the Nation’s first black chief-executive. But I will not hold my breath that this will happen, chances are many of the state’s black voters don’t even bother to hold Coumo accountable, or know they should. Given the chance they will once again go into voting booths and vote for Andrew Cuomo again and again, and again.
“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Giuliani said during the dinner at the 21 Club, a former Prohibition-era speakeasy in midtown Manhattan. “He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”
Anyone who thought the war against President Obama was anything but racial is living a deluded existence. President Barack Obama cannot run for another elected office in America. He has roughly two years left in office. So one would have thought that even at fund-raisers opponents would have sought to talk about potential adversaries , not the guy who can non longer beat them. So what motivates the opposition to Obama you ask? Race does. For a sick demented swath of the Republican right, President Obama represents a gross departure from the foundation tenets and teachings of white supremacy and could only have attained the office through fraud, or evil designation such as their charge he is an impostor from Kenya and worse, a devil Manchurian candidate. Whether you assign credence to the publicity whore Rudolph Giuliani, or you believe as the National Review’s Kevin D Williamson does that,“Barack Obama spent years in the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s church as the churchman fulminated: “God Damn America!” The Reverend Wright’s infamous “God Damn America!” sermon charges the country with a litany of abuses: slavery, mistreatment of the Indians, “treating citizens as less than human,” etc. A less raving version of the same indictment can be found in the president’s own speeches and books. His social circle includes such figures as Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn, who expressed their love of country by participating in a murderous terrorist campaign against it”. You must divorce yourself from the facts of those atrocities, suck up the abuse and never mention it but be grateful that they live in the utopia of American exceptional-ism. never mind the indefensible atrocities meted out to people of color, the issue is not the abuse is that you dare question the methodology used on the path to American exceptionalism.
As loathe as I am to acknowledge Giuliani’s existence, I do so to highlight the fact that even though they know they lie they cannot resist the lure to lie to further their agenda. “I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,”. It is a horrible thing to say because it’s a lie. The truth demands no apology. It is horrible that even though the despicable Giuliani knows he was lying he could not tame his vile tongue. He knew it was the thing that would play well in that room of equally vile creatures of hate and lies. They gather using lies and deceit as they eat the meat of contradiction. Because on the right, right is what’s right for them. Truth is a dispensable option used for expediency. The ideological fight around Immigration , Voting Rights and Budget allocations are not fights they wage on righteous principles. They are ideological fights waged around the concept of white supremacy and white entitlements.
In two years they will not have Obama to kick around any more,but their hateful rhetoric will continue on budget, voting, immigration, and on police abuse so the next democratic president will be no less a bogey-man/woman, just not the Kenyan-born, Manchurian candidate sent to destroy their republic.
A very serious breach of diplomatic protocol is about to be committed by
Netanyahu
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu . The Israeli Prime Minister was invited by the United States Speaker of the House John Boehner to address the American Congress. Netanyahu is scheduled to address the congress on the talks between the Obama Administration and other powers, including Britain, Germany, France,China, Russia and Iran , on Iran’s nuclear program. Initially Netanyahu was slated to address the House in February but the speech has been pushed back to March 3rd.
President Obama
The problem with the speech is that no one in the speaker’s office bothered to notify the White House that Netanyahu was scheduled to address the congress just two weeks prior to that country’s elections to pick a new leader. The White House insists that the Israeli Ambassador recently met with Secretary of state John Kerry for two hours but did not bother to mention that Netanyahu was coming to address congress. In fact Boehner made it clear that his invite to Netanyahu was intended to be a disrespectful gesture to President Obama. Boehner said quote:The Republicans are interested in sending a “clear message to the White House — and the world — about our commitment to Israel and our allies,”. Boehner who did not even bother to tell members of the democratic caucus in
Boehner and Netanyahu
the house of his decision to invite Netanyahu,sees nothing wrong with usurping normal protocols to make another political statement. Netantahu a right wing hawk who crave war with Iran, is anxious to use the American Congress two weeks before a tight election in Israel to lift his own profile. Most of all however, Netanyahu no fan of Obama, seem to relish the opportunity to poke a finger into Obama’s eye as the American president enters the fourth quarter of his presidency. Republicans for their part are not concerned about any disrespect to Obama, in fact that seem to be exactly their intention. President Obama has intimated he will not meet with Netanyahu. There is a long standing protocol not to meet with foreign leaders that close to elections in their own countries, the president said. No one believes those are the reasons the president will not meet with Netanyahu however. The office of Vice president Biden said, Biden will not be attending the speech either. Members of the congressional black caucus have also indicated they will not be attending the speech. In Israel there is very little support for the speech, the Times of Israel published a poll which shows In response to the question, “Do you think Prime Minister Netanyahu should travel to speak before the US Congress?” a majority of 52% said no, compared to 36% in favor. A further 12% said that they didn’t know whether Netanyahu should go.
Set aside the breach of diplomatic protocol for a second then ask yourselves
Obama and Netanyahu
why would Netanyahu do something so potentially damaging to American Israeli relations? Never mind the actions of Republicans, anyone still doubtful that their actions toward president Obama are anything but racial need to have their heads examined. Netanyahu must have calculated that his visit will give him a boost in polls at home. He probably sees this as an opportune time to stick it to Obama, whom he clearly has very little love for. Netanyahu does not believe there are any dangers to the bi-lateral relations between the two countries. Why would he ?America has pledged unequivocal support to the Zionist state, that will not change because he is disrespectful to it’s first black president, if anything it will bolster that relationship.
In an Observer Article dated Feb 3rd 2015, retired Jamaica Defense Force Colonel Allan Douglas wrote an Article which could only be construed to be in defense of Garrisons. In his Article Douglas said this. Regrettably, throughout my military career, I have often heard from civilians the solution of “flattening” areas over and over; ‘Just flatten Rema, Tivoli, etc, and the crime problem would be solved!’ they say. So, I have become very suspicious with proposed solutions like “dismantling political garrisons”. What exactly do people mean when they speak of dismantling garrisons? Clearly Douglas misses the feeling of exasperation of citizens who make those statements. It appears that despite a carrear in the JDF and having attained the rank of Colonel, Douglas has very little understanding of what obtains on the streets of Jamaica’s Garrisons, or what are often referred to as zones of political exclusions. It could be either that Douglas did not spend enough time outside Duppy Gate, or that he is once again acting as a de-facto defender of the People’s National Party’s failures. See Article here. http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/We-can-t-just – flatten – garrisons_18340450 Colonel Douglas in what could easily be misinterpreted as a stout defense of the poor, unwittingly showed his Orange colors ‚Quote: I have become very suspicious with proposed solutions like “dismantling political garrisons”. What exactly do people mean when they speak of dismantling garrisons?
Technically only the ruling people’s National Party has true garrisons remaining . Having held state power for most of the time since independence, the PNP is the sole party with scarce resources to dole out. This has allowed the party to increase and consolidate it’s hold on state power because of it’s ability to dish out scarce resources. This means that in actuality each election cycle less and less seats are actually in play.
Incredibly after a carrear in the Nation’s security forces, Allan Douglas could speak on the issue of Garrisons as if in defense of them. If the goodly Colonel had spent some time outside of the Banana Republic type confines of Up-Park Camp, where subordinates cater to his demands, he would certainly have recognized that the problem of Jamaica’s Garrisons was never the function of the young soldiers and police officers who police and die in these garrisons , but are well designed strategies aimed at dividing and conquering so that the architects may hold state power. Just maybe if Colonel Douglas had a single modicum of real empathy for those condemned to a lifetime of incarceration within the imaginary walls of Jamaica’s garrisons, he would be using his voice and position to trumpet.….….. yes the dismantling process of all garrisons.
These demonic urban terrorists are not innocent children
They are not garrisons in the strict military dictionary meaning of the word. The communities can’t be “flattened” as if one was striking a military tented camp or shutting down a military stronghold and reducing the buildings to rubble. So just how is this dismantling exercise to be done?I suspect that there are many who would still advocate and have implemented some sort of “ethnic cleansing” type of operation. I also suspect that those advocating dismantling of garrisons haven’t the slightest clue as to how they are going to go about doing so. What are the factors to be considered in this dismantling exercise? If the social, political and economic factors of this dismantling exercise have been thoroughly thought out, it certainly must be one of Jamaica’s best-kept secrets. It is my opinion that, for far too long we have treated these communities and the people who live therein with scorn and derision. We have trampled all over their rights, murdered their innocent youngsters, and so often comforted ourselves with the thought that they are all just a bunch of criminals and are deserving of death by any means. And, if by chance a baby in a crib is slaughtered — and these things do happen — collateral death is acceptable. If the bodies of youngsters shot by our security forces are left to rot on the road for dogs and crows to take their pick, then so be it, because they are all a bunch of horrible criminals and deserve it. Their voices are very rarely listened to when they cry out for justice, and their leaders and defenders of their rights are demonised. Despite all of that, they survive and are real, and out of what we regard as the cesspit of our country, they have produced many who have gone on to bring fame and glory to Jamaica — and, oh, how we love them then!
My point is, if we are anxious, as Jamaicans, to stop the obvious rot from within our society, we must be more caring of each other, regardless of our stations in life. Our laws must be just and administered fairly. If one innocent Jamaican is killed, it must be the business of all Jamaicans. If we “flatten” without a conscience, the back-blast is bound to hurt all Jamaicans in the long run, not just the criminals.
“They are not garrisons in the strict military dictionary meaning of the word so they can’t be flattened” . Well Colonel they can be , but no one, no sane person at least, is suggesting that they be literally flattened. Not because it is a bad idea to flatten them physically, does not mean they should not be dismantled. The mindset of dependency and entitlement which fertilizes and nurtures the garrison culture, does nothing to advance the prosperity and well being of those who reside within those confines . Voting with unanimity for one party or the other, believing that scarce resources will come flowing is never a sustainable path to true independence and prosperity. The problem is that there is never enough to go around after the principal players have gouged themselves with the slop
Jamaica’s Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller
stolen from the public trough. On that basis ‚the only true option for the poor and dispossessed is the utter dismantling of all garrisons and a return to the true entrepreneurial spirit of the free and unencumbered.. You see Colonel as you stated, Jamaica’s garrisons are certainly not Garrisons in the military sense. So no ‚flattening them would be ill-advised. However, it is evident that you suffer from the same type of blindness which struck Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller. After all she famously stated that her party has no garrisons because she doesn’t not see any walls. Yes Colonel, the walls are not literal they are mental, so yes, we must begin the slow painstaking process of dismantling the mindset of Garrison dwellers. Then and only then, will all Jamaicans have an opportunity to live out the full promise of their lives, free and unshackled from the promise of state funded largess. In the end the only true benefactors are those with political power and those who exert muscle on their behalf.
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