Category Archives: Politics

February 6, 2011 · 1:14 pm

I Don’t Understand the Super Bowl…

I don’t get it…the Super Bowl?

I kind of understand College and High School sports, but I’ve never understood people gathering around the TV or in a stadium to watch over-paid millionaires attempt to destroy each other in order to make more money.

Don’t we see enough of this in Corporate American news every day?

If we are going to do this as national entertainment, we should just be honest and  do it right, like the Romans.

Let’s throw a few financial felons or corrupt politicians who helped crash the economy into a pit with a few lions and let’s see what happens.

That, I could get into….

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Filed under Entertainment, Politics, Scott's Commentary, Social Commentary

February 6, 2011 · 12:26 pm

The Siege of Planned Parenthood – NYTimes.com

Great article by Gail Collins in the NY Times…

Here is a brief excerpt.  I encourage you to click the link to the full post:

As if we didn’t have enough wars, the House of Representatives has declared one against Planned Parenthood.

Maybe it’s all part of a grand theme. Last month, they voted to repeal the health care law. This month, they’re going after an organization that provides millions of women with both family-planning services and basic health medical care, like pap smears and screening for diabetes, breast cancer, cervical cancer and sexually transmitted diseases.

AND:

Planned Parenthood doesn’t use government money to provide abortions; Congress already prohibits that, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. (Another anti-abortion bill that’s coming up for hearing originally proposed changing the wording to “forcible rape,” presumably under the theory that there was a problem with volunteer rape victims. On that matter at least, cooler heads prevailed.)

Planned Parenthood does pay for its own abortion services, though, and that’s what makes them a target. Pence has 154 co-sponsors for his bill. He was helped this week by an anti-abortion group called Live Action, which conducted a sting operation at 12 Planned Parenthood clinics in six states, in an effort to connect the clinic staff to child prostitution.

“Planned Parenthood aids and abets the sexual abuse and prostitution of minors,” announced Lila Rose, the beautiful anti-abortion activist who led the project. The right wing is currently chock-full of stunning women who want to end their gender’s right to control their own bodies. Homely middle-aged men are just going to have to find another sex to push around.

via The Siege of Planned Parenthood – NYTimes.com.

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Filed under Health Care, Justice System, Politics, Religion

February 6, 2011 · 10:36 am

Bush’s Swiss visit off after complaints on torture | Reuters

This man is a war criminal. I would love to see someone hold him accountable-for the first time in his privileged life.

It sure won’t happen here…

(Reuters) – Former President George W. Bush has canceled a visit to Switzerland, where he was to address a Jewish charity gala, due to the risk of legal action against him for alleged torture, rights groups said on Saturday.

Bush was to be the keynote speaker at Keren Hayesod’s annual dinner on February 12 in Geneva. But pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the Alpine country.

Criminal complaints against Bush alleging torture have been lodged in Geneva, court officials say.

Human rights groups said they had intended to submit a 2,500-page case against Bush in the Swiss city on Monday for alleged mistreatment of suspected militants at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. naval base in Cuba where captives from Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts in the so-called War on Terror were interned.

Leftist groups had also called for a protest on the day of his visit next Saturday, leading Keren Hayesod’s organizers to announce that they were cancelling Bush’s participation on security grounds — not because of the criminal complaints.

But groups including the New York-based Human Rights Watch and International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) said the cancellation was linked to growing moves to hold Bush accountable for torture, including waterboarding. He has admitted in his memoirs and television interviews to ordering use of the interrogation technique that simulates drowning.

“He’s avoiding the handcuffs,” Reed Brody, counsel for Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.

via Bush’s Swiss visit off after complaints on torture | Reuters.

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Filed under History, Justice System, Politics

February 6, 2011 · 12:26 am

South of the Border, Down Mexico Way…

It’s been an interesting week…

I left last Sunday for Mexico City- with a great deal of trepidation.  I’ve been to Mexico twice before this trip and, no matter how careful I was, I became deathly ill both times.

This time I survived with my health intact and that gave me a better chance to focus and process Mexico City.

I stayed at the W Hotel.  I’ve never seen a hotel anywhere work so hard to be hip.  It was all done in a very modern design in all black, white  and red.  Mostly Black and Red. The hallways were all black.  Walls, floor, ceiling.  All Black.  With a thin line of red neon like a chair rail.  The room numbers were spray painted on the floor in front of your room in white.  German techno music blasting everywhere.  It was not conducive to  peaceful slumber.  I felt like I was trapped in a horror whorehouse when I got off the elevator on my floor…

The bathroom was the real trip.  It was gigantic.  It took up about a third of the room.  It had one of those showers that were like rain from above and two other jets shooting at you mid body and face level.  You couldn’t turn them off.  Most inconvenient in a city where you can’t drink the water or get it in your mouth while showering…

And the bathroom had a hammock in it.  Yes, a hammock.  I’m still trying to figure that one out….

But I must say the service was fabulous.  They never missed my wake up call and gladly followed up with a second call 15 minutes later.  By a real person.  As soon as I hung up the phone from the second call, the waiter always knocked at my door with my English Breakfast Tea and fresh, hot croissant.  Free of charge.  Try getting that kind of punctual, free, gracious service at an American hotel.  The first night back in the States in Phoenix, they lost my room service order and it took over an hour to get my meal.  That would never have happened in Mexico.  Or probably anywhere else.

One of the things that struck me was how friendly and nice everyone was.  And warm.  Everywhere we went, the service was impeccable.  And this was in a poor country under siege by drug wars.

At the office I heard people speaking of robbery, kidnapping and murder as just an everyday fact of life.  But they didn’t want pity or let it interfere with going on with their lives.  It was just a part of their lives they had adjusted to….

What struck me most was the gap between the rich and the poor.  We were definitely in the best part of town.  There was a Hugo Boss store right across from the hotel.  And a Porsche dealership.  But there were armed guards and gates everywhere.  They always have at least one guard with a submachine gun at our office there.  Other armed guards patrolled both the office and the hotel.

We had our own van transportation as the cabs and public transportation aren’t safe in Mexico City.  Especially for foreigners.  Too much chance of getting kidnapped and held for ransom or being robbed.

I guess my thought- and fear- was how long before this comes to the USA?  This fear is not based on fear of immigration.  I welcome immigrants.

My fear is that it will be driven by the growing divide between the Rich and the Poor.  I can see it happening here.

When a few have so much, but most have so little, no one is really safe.

That’s the thought I brought back from Mexico this time….

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Filed under History, Politics, Scott's Commentary, Travel

February 5, 2011 · 11:51 pm

Wallflowers at the Revolution

Another insightful column by Frank Rich in the Sunday New York Times:

Unable to watch Al Jazeera English, and ravenous for comprehensive and sophisticated 24/7 television coverage of the Middle East otherwise unavailable on television, millions of Americans last week tracked down the network’s Internet stream on their computers. Such was the work-around required by the censorship practiced by America’s corporate gatekeepers. You’d almost think these news-starved Americans were Iron Curtain citizens clandestinely trying to pull in the jammed Voice of America signal in the 1950s — or Egyptians desperately seeking Al Jazeera after Mubarak disrupted its signal last week.

The consequence of a decade’s worth of indiscriminate demonization of Arabs in America — and of the low quotient of comprehensive adult news coverage that might have helped counter it — is the steady rise in Islamophobia. The “Ground Zero” mosque melee has given way to battles over mosques as far removed from Lower Manhattan as California. Soon to come is a national witch hunt — Congressional hearings called by Representative Peter King of New York — into the “radicalization of the American Muslim community.” Given the disconnect between America and the Arab world, it’s no wonder that Americans are invested in the fights for freedom in Egypt and its neighboring dictatorships only up to a point. We’ve been inculcated to assume that whoever comes out on top is ipso facto a jihadist.

This week brings the release of Donald Rumsfeld’s memoir. The eighth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq is to follow. As we took in last week’s fiery video from Cairo — mesmerizing and yet populated by mostly anonymous extras we don’t understand and don’t know — it was hard not to flash back to those glory days of “Shock and Awe.” Those bombardments too were spectacular to watch from a safe distance — no Iraqi faces, voices or bodies cluttered up the shots. We lulled ourselves into believing that democracy and other good things were soon to come. It took months, even years, for us to learn the hard way that in truth we really had no idea what was going on.

More: Wallflowers at the Revolution – NYTimes.com.

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February 5, 2011 · 11:06 pm

I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me By a Young Lady from Rwanda

 

Just a reminder, my partner Steve Willis returns to the stage as an actor this week in “I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me By a Young Lady from Rwanda.”

I say this play in Chapel Hill and would recommend it even without the special connection.

Details below:

 

 

 

Time
Thursday, February 10 at 7:30pm – February 13 at 3:00pm
Location The Little Theatre, Bennett College for Women
More Info
The Bennett Players present the Triad premiere of I HAVE BEFORE ME A REMARKABLE DOCUMENT GIVEN TO ME BY A YOUNG LADY FROM RWANDA, a play by Sonja Linden, Thursday through Saturday, February 10-12, at 7:30pm; and Sunday, February 13, at 3pm.

Advance reservatrions are not required. Tickets will be sold at the door: $10 (Adults), $5 (Bennett employees, alumnae, and non-Bennett students), and $2 (Bennett students).

The play is directed by Beth Ritson, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Speech at Bennett and features senior Theatre major, Tarshai Peterson (from Washington, DC), and Steve Willis, Associate Professor of Theatre and Speech and Chair of the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Bennett.

Simon, a British poet (played by Willis) meets a young Rwandan woman, Juliette, (played by Peterson) who has survived the 1994 genocide. As Juliette struggles to write a first-hand account of her tragic experience, the play becomes a story about the healing power of writing and friendship that crosses cultural barriers.

 

 

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Filed under Entertainment, Greensboro, History, North Carolina, Politics, Theatre

January 30, 2011 · 12:12 am

Don’t Know Much About History – NYTimes.com

Great Op-ed from Gail Collins in the New York Times…

I’m afraid the media is about to make Michelle Bachmann a Super Star.

They know Sarah Palin’s days are limited- and that she sold well to the Tea Party crowd.  Michelle Bachmann is the sequel…

And do we really need a new Sarah Palin? Shouldn’t the first one be made to go away before we start considering replacements?

Bachmann, the superconservative member of Congress from Minnesota, made a big splash on Tuesday night with her Tea Party response to the State of the Union address. True, the placement of the cameras made her look as if she was talking to an invisible friend, and her eye makeup had a peculiar zombie aspect to it. But the next day all the attention was on her and not the official Republican response by Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman.

And the Republicans were afraid to complain! One congressman from Utah told Politico that he thought “to try to upend Paul Ryan was just wrong.” Hours later he issued a retraction — through Bachmann’s office.

AND:

Bushes aside, Bachmann is a much more serious person than Palin, whose response to the State of the Union address was to focus on the title, “Winning the Future.” (“There were a lot of W.T.F. moments throughout that speech.”) If Palin and Bachmann were your co-workers, Palin would be the one sneaking out early to go bowling, while Bachmann would stay late to reorganize the office seating chart to reflect her own personal opinion of who most deserves to be near the water cooler.

Finally:

Bachmann is not a zealous fact-checker, as we learned when she claimed the president’s trip to India would cost the taxpayers $200 million a day, based on an Indian newspaper report quoting an unnamed provincial official. In the real world, many founders, like Thomas Jefferson, expressed reservations about slavery but still kept hundreds of slaves, who were the basis of their personal wealth. Others, like John Adams, never owned slaves and opposed the institution but compromised on the matter of all men actually being created equal in order to bring the southern states into the union. And not a single one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence envisioned in any way, shape or form a democracy in which people of Michele Bachmann’s gender would sit in the halls of Congress.

But Bachmann was speaking to the lore of the far right, which strips the founding fathers of their raw, fallible humanity and ignores the fact that, in some ways, we’re wiser.

Maybe she’ll make Sarah Palin look good.

via Don’t Know Much About History – NYTimes.com.

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Filed under History, Politics, Tea Party, Uncategorized

January 29, 2011 · 11:20 pm

A Chicken Chain’s Corporate Ethos Is Questioned by Gay Rights Advocates – NYTimes.com

I haven’t been comfortable with these people for a long time…

I don’t eat there anymore.  Not just because our politics clash, but because the sandwiches are greasy and gross…

Instead, if I’m going to sin, give me a Chicken Biscuit from Mrs. Winner’s any day….

Nicknamed “Jesus chicken” by jaded secular fans and embraced by Evangelical Christians, Chick-fil-A is among only a handful of large American companies with conservative religion built into its corporate ethos. But recently its ethos has run smack into the gay rights movement. A Pennsylvania outlet’s sponsorship of a February marriage seminar by one of that state’s most outspoken groups against homosexuality lit up gay blogs around the country. Students at some universities have also begun trying to get the chain removed from campuses.

“If you’re eating Chick-fil-A, you’re eating anti-gay,” one headline read. The issue spread into Christian media circles, too.

The outcry moved the company’s president, Dan T. Cathy, to post a video on the company’s Facebook fan page to “communicate from the heart that we serve and value all people and treat everyone with honor, dignity and respect,” said a company spokesman, Don Perry.

Providing sandwiches and brownies for a local seminar is not an endorsement or a political stance, Mr. Cathy says in the video. But he adds that marriage has long been a focus of the chain, which S. Truett Cathy, his deeply religious father, began in 1967.

The donation has some fans cheering and others forcing themselves to balance their food desires against their personal beliefs.

via A Chicken Chain’s Corporate Ethos Is Questioned by Gay Rights Advocates – NYTimes.com.

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Filed under Food, Politics, Religion, The South

January 29, 2011 · 3:51 pm

The billionaires are coming: Obama’s richest enemies to hold summit | World news | The Guardian

Of course the Corporate owned, mainstream media won’t publicize this…

If I were a paranoid right-winger, this would make me nervous.  These guys are really doing what they accuse the left of doing- a few elite trying to run the government to the disadvantage of the middle class.

Amid great secrecy, about 200 of America’s wealthiest and most powerful individuals from the worlds of finance, big business and rightwing politics are expected to come together on Sunday in the sun-drenched California desert near Palm Springs for what has been billed as a gathering of the billionaires. They will have the chance to enjoy the Rancho Mirage resort’s many pools, spa treatments and tennis courts, as well as walk in its 240 acres away from the prying eyes of TV cameras.

But the organisers have made clear that the two-day event is not just “fun in the sun”. This will be a meeting of “doers”, men and women willing to fight the Obama administration and its perceived attack on US free enterprise and unfettered wealth.

As the invitation says: “Our goal must be to beat back the unrelenting attacks and hold elected leaders accountable.”

The reference to the accountability of America’s elected leaders is ironic, bearing in mind that the gathering has been convened by two brothers who have never been elected to public office and are among the most unaccountable and secretive political players in the country.

David and Charles Koch enjoy a combined fortune of $35bn (£22bn), run the second largest private company in the US, Koch Industries, and are increasingly using their fabulous riches to push their special interests within America’s political process. Nobody knows precisely how much they spend on influencing elections and lobbying Congress, but it is thought to be scores of millions of dollars.

By similar vein, the guestlist for their gathering on Sunday is unknown. Past attendees at the twice-yearly event include supreme court judges, rightwing media celebrities such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, prominent governors of southern states such as Bobby Jindal (Louisiana) and Haley Barbour (Mississippi), as well as leading figures from Wall Street and energy companies, and titans of industry.

The format of the gathering will be similar to previous Koch events, the last of which was held in Aspen, Colorado, in June. The assembled tycoons will talk about some of the Koch brothers’ pet horrors – the growth of government and state regulations, what they call climate change “alarmism” and “socialised” healthcare.

Then they will share ideas about how to tighten their grip on politics and the judiciary by shaping election campaigns.

But this year’s reception will differ in one important regard: it will have an opposition. For the first time, a coalition of progressive and liberal groups has formed to try to counter the power of the Koch brothers.

via The billionaires are coming: Obama’s richest enemies to hold summit | World news | The Guardian.

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January 29, 2011 · 3:10 pm

Bachmann eyes cuts to veterans health benefits | Raw Story

This woman is a very dangerous idiot.

I assume no one will take her seriously, but then, I also assumed that about Sarah Palin….

WASHINGTON – Tea party hero Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) this week proposed a blueprint to eliminate $400 billion from the federal budget, which included billions in cuts to veterans’ health care and disability benefits.

Her plan would freeze health care funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and slash $4.5 billion in disability benefits to military veterans.

Bachmann posted the document on her official Web site, calling the spending cuts “real and necessary” to avoid increasing the debt ceiling above $14.3 trillion. She supports the United States wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Oh hell no! In the middle of 2 wars?” remarked Paul Rieckhoff, a veterans advocate who served during the Iraq war, in a Twitter post echoed by dozens.

via Bachmann eyes cuts to veterans health benefits | Raw Story.

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Filed under Politics, Tea Party, The Economy