Picture of the Day for July 3, 2015: Regarding Two Terrorist Groups That Claim to Be Religious

Posted on July 3, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

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According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Ku Klux Klan, which has a long history of violence, is the oldest and most infamous of American hate groups. The SPLC said, “Although black Americans have typically been the Klan’s primary target, it also has attacked Jews, immigrants, gays and lesbians and, until recently, Catholics. Over the years since it was formed in December 1865, the Klan has typically seen itself as a Christian organization, although in modern times Klan groups are motivated by a variety of theological and political ideologies.”

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Posted in American History, Crime, Murder, Racism, United States | Tagged , , , , , , | 17 Comments

FIREWORKS: An Acrostic Poem for the Fourth of July

Posted on July 3, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

By Elaine Magliaro

I wrote the following poem about a decade ago.

NOTE: An acrostic is a type of poem where the first, last, or other letters in a line spell out a particular word or phrase. The most common form of an acrostic poem is where the first letters of each line spell out the word or phrase.

Fiery flowers bloom
In the night:
Roses, carnations…chrysanthemums, too,
Emerald green, red,
White, and blue. Silvery fountains spill
Out of the sky.
Rockets of gold sizzle and sigh.
Kaleidoscope colors cascading in space,
Showering glitter all over the place.

 HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

fireworksfireani

 

Posted in Poetry | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Picture of the Day for July 2, 2015: On the Subject of Scott Walker Running for President

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

The Chicago Tribune reported today that Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin plans to officially enter the presidential race on July 13th with a campaign announcement in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha. For joy!

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Posted in Campaign Finance, Conservatives, Humor, Oligarchy, Political Science, Politics, States, Tea Party, United States, Wisconsin | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Draft of Justice Department Report Claims That Police Escalated Tensions in Ferguson, Missouri, Following the Death of Michael Brown

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Michael Brown

Michael Brown

By Elaine Magliaro

According to the draft of a Justice Department report, police in Ferguson, Missouri, escalated tensions after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Matt Apuzzo (New York Times) said that the report “describes a chaotic scene in which the police violated people’s constitutional FergusonLogoRedrights and it was often unclear who was in charge and what the orders were.” He added that the draft report concluded that Ferguson police “only worsened tensions and made it harder to regain public confidence and control” after “heavily armed police officers swarmed the streets” in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death.

The report, which was written by the Justice Department’s community policing unit, “is intended to help police departments improve their policies and tactics.”

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Posted in Civil Liberties, DOJ, Equal Rights, Government, Law Enforcement, Local Government, Media, Missouri, Police, Political Science, Racism, Society, States, United States | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Appeals Court Tosses Parking Citation Because Of Missing Comma — Strange News for Fans of SCOTUScare

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Bob Stone

From AP:  MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (AP) — An appeals court has agreed with an Ohio woman who said her parking citation should be tossed because the village law was missing a comma.

Andrea Cammelleri (kah-meh-LEHR’-ee) says she shouldn’t have been issued a citation in 2014 based on the wording of the law enacted by the village of West Jefferson.

The law lists several types of vehicles that can’t be parked longer than 24 hours, including a “motor vehicle camper,” with the comma missing between “vehicle” and “camper.”

Cammelleri says her pickup truck did not fit that definition.”

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Posted in Courts, Denialism, Health Care Insurance, Legal Analysis, Logic, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Larry Wilmore Says that South Carolina Should “Take the Damn Confederate Flag Down Right Now” (VIDEO)

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Larry-Wilmore-ConfederateFlagBy Elaine Magliaro

Last week on The Nightly Show, comedian Larry Wilmore did a segment on South Carolina and the Confederate flag. Included in the segment was a bit he called “For the Record”—during “which he tore down the widely held notion that the Confederate flag is a symbol of heritage, not one of fear and intimidation.” Wilmore brought up Alexander H. Stephens’ 1861 “Cornerstone Speech”—in which the Vice President of the Confederacy said “the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man.” Wilmore also noted that South Carolina hadn’t been flying the Confederate flag since the South seceded in 1861. He said “it went up in 1961 to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the Civil War.” Wilmore added, “And coincidentally, right around when the black people started with the wanting of the civil rights.”

In closing his argument on why the flag should be taken down from the flagpole on the grounds of the statehouse, Wilmore said that “the Confederate flag is such a strong symbol of hatred and oppression that it has been adopted by skinheads and neo-Nazis across Europe, where in many places it is illegal to display a swastika.” He exclaimed, “It’s such a racist symbol, that it does double duty as the backup racist symbol for another racist symbol!”

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Posted in American History, Civil War, Conservatives, Equal Rights, History, Humor, Political Science, Politics, Propaganda, Racism, Short Video, South Carolina, States, United States | Tagged , , , | 55 Comments

This Just In: Longtime Labor Leader Larry Cohen to Join Presidential Campaign of Bernie Sanders

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont)

Senator Bernie Sanders
(I-Vermont)

By Elaine Magliaro

Dave Jamieson (Huffington Post) reported this morning that Larry Cohen, the longtime leader of one of the country’s most powerful labor unions, is joining the Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). According to Jamieson, Cohen said that Hillary Clinton, the presumed frontrunner, “made it an easy call.”

Cohen, the outgoing president of the Communications Workers of America, told The Huffington Post he plans to serve as an unpaid volunteer stumping for Sanders. Cohen said that one of the main factors in his decision “was Clinton’s equivocation on granting President Barack Obama so-called fast-track authority on his mammoth trade deal.”

Larry Cohen

Larry Cohen

Cohen was quoted as saying, “I did everything I knew how to do to get Clinton to speak out on fast track, and she wouldn’t…We begged her to speak out.” He continued, “There was a million ways she could have done it. … Why was she silent on this?”

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Posted in Barack Obama, Economic Policy, Economics, Government, Labor Movement, Liberals, Political Science, Politics, United States | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Antonin Scalia and the Context of Context [UPDATED]

Posted on June 29, 2015 by mespo727272

By Mark Esposito

627scalia-1250x650I’ve been reading a lot of Supreme Court cases lately. No big appeal coming up or any federal research to do on any of my cases, I’m just completely  fascinated by Justice Antonin Scalia. The firebrand in the frock is just beside himself  in disagreement with the Court’s 5-4 decision legalizing gay marriage as a fundamental right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. Assuring us that his outspoken fundamentalist Catholicism has nothing to do with it, just his interest in good government: “[I]t is not of special importance to me what the law says about marriage. It is of overwhelming importance, however, who it is that rules me.” And lest we harbor any misgivings about the true import of allowing mature adults to decide with whom to associate, out textualist minister of selective originalism (kudos Gene) reduces the problem to its essence employing the subtlety of  Ru Paul: “I write separately to call attention to this Court’s threat to American democracy.”  Whew! Glad someone did.

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Posted in Constitutional Law, Health Care, Jurisprudence, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 26 Comments

Stateside South Carolina: Ku Klux Klan Planning Rally at Statehouse to Protest Removal of Confederate Flag

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

rebel-klanBy Elaine Magliaro

Andrew Shain of the News & Observer reported today that South Carolina state officials had confirmed that the Ku Klux Klan is planning to hold a rally at the State House next month. According to Shain, the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan have requested that the rally take place from 3-5 p.m. on July 18th.

Arturo Garcia (Raw Story) said that “the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which calls itself the ‘largest Klan in America,’ filed a permit saying they expected between 100 and 200 people to attend the event on the north side of the building, where the Confederate battle flag is currently being flown.”

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Posted in Equal Rights, Political Science, Racism, Society, South Carolina, States, United States | Tagged , , , | 47 Comments

Lacking Grace: Flag mania trumps loss of Faith in a free market for symbols

Posted on June 29, 2015 by ann li-summers
By: Ann Summers

“They got a goddamn day for Confederate flags. This is some bullshit!” says the (presumably black) man filming this video

And just when you’re wondering how long this line of assholes in lifted trucks can possibly be, and wishing something would make them stop… well, something does.

“By taking down that flag we express God’s grace. But I don’t think God wants us to stop there,” Obama said Friday.

Much like the artist/murderer who escapes from the prison honor block only to be gunned down by cops with as much outrage as an NRA member in hunting season, RW religion (yes, let’s go there with the American Taliban(sic)) is in a bit of a market conundrum: how to compete in the free market for ideological products/services with the apprarent legality of gay marriage.

But what about Christians and the businesses they own? “People are losing their jobs, companies are having to close down because of the aggressive bullying of homosexual and transgender activists, and it’s time that that tyranny and the symbols representing it cease in America,” Linda Harvey of Mission American… suggests that the public raise the question with government organizations flying the rainbow flag, and ask companies – such as Walmart – to stop selling LGBT items in light of the Confederate controversy.

Short of some massive but doomed future attempt at a constitutional amendment or an actual state secession, apparently there is a Scarcity of Grace, as well as bisexuals who are aggressive bullies.
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Posted in Barack Obama, Christianity, Civil War, Conservatives, Constitutional Law, Courts, Democracy | 136 Comments