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Thank you ahead of time for your consistent kindness and generosity. Without you, there would be no us.
Today's Los Angeles Times letters to the editor, because our voices matter:
Re “Redskins: No harm, no foul,” Opinion, Oct. 15
In response to my remarks on NBC about the Washington Redskins team name controversy, Jonah Goldberg writes of his love and respect for words. So why then play so fast and loose with them?
Goldberg twice refers to my comments as a “tirade.” I defy any fair-minded person to view the two-minute piece in its entirety and find anything in its tone or content that remotely resembles a tirade. He later refers to my “crusade.” How does addressing a prominent football-related issue one time on the very night Washington was playing on NBC qualify as a crusade?
Goldberg writes: “It strains credulity to believe the team name was intentionally pejorative, or that fans or ownership see it that way today.” I went out of my way to stipulate that very thing. Or don't the words I actually used matter if they get in the way of whatever point Goldberg is trying to make in this case?
Goldberg is usually cogent, but we all have our blind spots and hot buttons. For Goldberg, it is the tendency to see liberal boogeymen lurking behind every issue. Always. Yet I clearly delineated the difference between the often silly politically correct objections to other team names and the singularly objectionable “Redskins.”
Every dictionary I have consulted has defined “redskins” with words such as “offensive,” “insulting,” “pejorative” and “derogatory.” No such words are part of the definition of Braves, Chiefs, Warriors or any other team name associated with Native Americans. One would think a professed lover of words like Goldberg would appreciate that clear and compelling distinction, and recognize that many of those who have problems with the name Redskins are motivated not by liberalism or political correctness but by common sense and common decency.
Bob Costas
New York
***
Goldberg misses the point. As a mixed-blood Muscogee and former chairman of the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission, I can tell you that the term “redskin” is never used by American Indians to describe ourselves. It is a term popularized by whites and almost always used in a pejorative sense.
More than 20 years after the NBA's Baltimore Bullets moved to Washington, it was felt that the name “Bullets” sent the wrong message; the team became the Washington Wizards in 1997. Likewise, “Redskins” sends the wrong message, especially for a team located in the nation's capital.
By the way, Goldberg's assertion that he is offended by the Philadelphia Eagles being the namesake of the National Recovery Administration's Blue Eagle symbol is both historically correct and profoundly silly.
Jack Shakely
Rancho Mirage
Meghan McCain said, "I'm kinda done with Chris Christie":
"I used to love Chris Christie. I'm kinda done with Chris Christie right now. Ever since his speech at the convention... he just talked about himself the entire time..."
Beat you to it, Meghs, I've been saying that for years. Here are a few samples of why no Democrat, no woman, no gay, no nobody who respects civil rights-- and civility-- should ever vote for Christie again:
When I was at Netroots Nation last June, I had the good fortune to meet and talk with Christie's opponent in the New Jersey gubernatorial race, Barbara Buono, right after she did my radio host/dear friend Nicole Sandler's show. I was very impressed with both her politics and her willingness to hang out a little after the show when she had so little time and way more important people to meet.
Last night she appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show, and she continued to impress me with her directness and stands on the issues:
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Rachel Maddow:
Starting this Sunday night, 12:01 a.m., gay and lesbian couples in Asbury Park and Jersey City, and Newark, and elsewhere around the state of New Jersey, will be getting themselves married. In the wake of the Supreme Court striking down the Defense of Marriage Act this summer, it was a lower court in New Jersey that ordered that marriages could begin in the state on October 21st...
Chris Christie, the state's Republican governor, has appealed that ruling. He's been fighting it tooth and nail...
In contrast to the Senator Elect [Corey Booker], New Jersey's governor, the honorable Chris Christie, is totally opposed to same-sex marriage. It was he who pushed the lower court's ruling to the state Supreme Court. last year, he personally vetoed a marriage equality bill that passed the New Jersey state legislature.
Chris Christie is the thing standing in the way of same-sex couples getting married in New Jersey. he has been. But for the moment, seems like he's not doing to have a choice in the matter...
Then she played this Buono ad:
I'm Barbara Buono, the only one actually running for governor. Chris Christie's got his sights set on the Republican presidential primary. That's why he defunded Planned Parenthood, opposes abortion rights, vetoed gay marriage and stands with the gun lobby on background checks.
With 400k New Jerseyians out of work, and our poverty rate at a 50-year high, Christie raised taxes on the working poor, but won't ask millionaires to pay another dime. He wants to be president. I want to be your governor.
Barbara Buono:
This is the governor, the first one since Roe v Wade, that's anti-choice. He thinks that politicians should make our health care decisions and not us.
He's anti-pay equity. He vetoed a pay equity bill and called it senseless bureaucracy.
So his social values on guns as well, he's far to the right of most New Jerseyians.
The key is that a lot of New Jerseyians don't know that.... A lot of people don't know he's anti-marriage equality, that he's anti-choice.... that's why we went up on TV today...
The governor has a history of using his office to advance his own political interests. He did it with this senate race. It's less than three weeks before our race, it cost, as you said, a lot of money, and it certainly disenfranchised voters. The lowest voter turnout for a general election in New Jersey history.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Maddow:
Now this is ... the part where I say to Governor Chris Christie: Come on, come on, she did the show, you can do the show. We'd have such a good time. Come on. Come on.
Don't hold your breath, Rachel.
Your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash at Truthout, via my pal Mark Karlin:
Yes indeed, with "The Tea Party and the Economy: It's Like Putting an Arsonist in Charge of the Fire Department." Paul Krugman also opined on the ruinous impact of the rabid Right Wing in a column, "The Damage Done":
Elections have consequences, and one consequence of Republican victories in the 2010 midterms has been a still-weak economy when we could and should have been well on the way to full recovery.
But why have Republican demands so consistently had a depressing effect on the economy?
Part of the answer is that the party remains determined to wage top-down class warfare in an economy where such warfare is particularly destructive.
Think of Obama's sudden emergence of spine as having kept the dam of the American economy from bursting, wreaking havoc throughout the nation -- with a devastating global impact had the nation defaulted. Yet, due to the Tea Party (financed largely by the likes of the Koch Brothers) and Republican Ayn Randians such as Paul Ryan and the opportunistic Ted Cruz (along with the less fanatic, but, nonetheless, austerity-driven Mitch McConnell) the dam is still leaking like a sieve. It hasn't burst, but the jury is still out on whether or not the dam will break open from all the holes blasted open by the alliance of libertarian oligarchs with neo-Confederate populists.
Let's look at just one example: sequestration. The Republicans in Congress insisted on potential sequestration (automatic cuts in the domestic and military budgets) as a condition of raising the debt in 2011. [...]
This summer, the AFL-CIO blog listed "25 Ways the Sequester Causes Real Harm to Real People." These include: "kids kicked out of Head Start"; "increased homelessness"; "elderly adults not being able to eat"; "loss of unemployment benefits"; and much more damage to a large swath of US citizens, not to mention the economy. [...]
Given that the Republicans in Congress continue to oppose new sources of revenue (higher taxes on the rich and the closing of corporate and financial institution loopholes, along with perhaps some financial transaction taxes), the likelihood of the austerity juggernaut continuing is high.
Basically, the federal budget and debt have been negotiated since Reagan largely on Republican terms...
Please read the entire post here.
Who am I?
I defunded planned parenthood, I oppose abortion rights, I vetoed gay marriage in my state, I stand with the gun lobby on gun background checks, I brought the poverty rate in my state to an all-time high, I raised taxes on the working poor,I refused tax increases on millionaires, and I am looking for reelection so I can run for president in 2016.
The answer is everyone's nightmare, but New Jersey's own, Chris Christie. Despite his infamous short fuse and illegally using police helicopters for his own personal purposes (coptergate), this questionably corrupt individual is is an overwhelming favorite. This is truly amazing as he's a Republican in a Democratic leaning state. What is in the post-Sandy water the people are drinking there?
How devious and calculating is Christie? Just ask the New York Times:
Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, called for the special election, at a projected cost of $24 million, in June, following the death of Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, who represented the state for five terms. Mr. Christie himself is up for re-election in three weeks. That election will be more typical, on a Tuesday. Mr. Christie vetoed a bill that would have consolidated the two days, arguing it would cause “unnecessary voter confusion.”
The New Jersey governor added $24 million in costs to an already cash strapped state. Why? Because he was afraid that Cory Booker, the extremely popular Democratic Newark Mayor's candidacy for Senator would bring a lot of Democratic voters out to the polls. If Democrats showed up in large numbers for this combined gubernatorial/senate off-year election, they might vote for Christie's opponent, Democratic State Senator Barbara Buono. This woman:
Tragically for the Garden State, every poll shows Christie is a shoe-in. But when you look at what this man stands for, he casts a long and wide shadow of questionable character and self-serving motives. When confronted for his take on the government shutdown, he sloughed it off as he's glad he's not there. But what we'd all like to know is what would he have done if he was?
The election is around the corner. And the Christie machine will most likely prevail. You have to scratch your head and ask why? Who does this bombast have naked pictures or illegal wire-tapped conversations of? He's not winning on personality alone. And Barbara Buono certainly represents the democratic stand on so many issues. Can you solve this conundrum?
Nobody likes it when someone looks over your shoulder, to see what your reading, writing or watching. It's really kind of rude. We can ask them to stop, and usually they do, casting it off as simple curiosity. And most of the time it is. But what we've learned about the NSA and it's covert spying, things have gotten seemingly out of hand. And through denials and walkbacks from the people committing this eavesdropping, nothing has changed. If anything, they're looking even deeper and saving more and more data on us.
I think this has to stop -- or at least be explained and we be allowed to know what's being done with the information that the government is culling on all of us. Is it really just for our security?
Reuters reported about a month ago that they found that NSA staff were using all of their eavesdropping to spy on girlfriends, boyfriends and spouses, current and ex. I'm not sure that qualifies as national security.
Isn't it about time we spoke up and demanded some accountability? I know there's some bad people out there, but the same could be said about the NSA and their subcontractors. Enough it enough. Last time there was a bill brought up to rein in this unwarranted collection of data, we came within 7 votes of making it happen. Now's the time to bring it back up.
There will be a (hopefully) huge gathering soon, the Stop Watching Us: Rally Against Mass Surveillance on October 26 in Washington, DC. I don't know if you're going to be around, but if you are, make your voice and presence know. Here's the info and the meaning of this very important, and peaceful demonstration :
Seems justice in Florida is an elusive thing. Even a conviction for murder -- and we all know how tough that is to come by with Stand Your Ground laws -- seems to be part of an open door policy. Certainly it is if your names are Joseph Jenkins (guilty of first-degree murder in the 1998 killing and botched robbery) and Charles Walker (guilty of second-degree murder in a 1999 slaying).
These two convicted murders accidentally duped the Florida penal system and were allowed to walk out free from prison, with years left on their sentences. They're currently free.
Now how did they do it? Simple, they just forged some documents which they downloaded on the prison computer system. After printing them up, they just filled in their names on these sample release forms. Next on the to-do list was they needed a judge's signature to make this all Kosher. So whose did they use? Why none other than Judge Belvin Perry, the infamous Casey Anthony judge who's signature is readily available on Google images.
So these two killers outsmarted the Florida Penal system. But how smart are they?
Before their release could be discovered, they went to the police in the city they were staying and registered as felons with the police department. After all, that is the law. They figured, hey, were' out. Might as well follow the rules since it looks like we're legally free, except for the required ex-con felony registration requirement. This way if they got stopped for a traffic offense and their prints or names were run, they'd come up clean. Gotta hand it to these two. If they ever get caught, they should consider writing guest scripts for police drama's, maybe CSI Miami, The Movie.
So they go on with their lives for a few weeks until one of the deceased victim's family was notified of the release by the Florida Department of Justice, something they do in Florida when a killer is set free. The family member was nervous, thinking this released convict might come to extract some revenge on the family. So they called their attorney who called the states attorney general. He looked into it and found out there was no release ordered.
The prison officials examined the documents and determined them to be forged.
The brilliant Florida Justice Department somehow ended up releasing the story BEFORE the two cons were re-arrested, and now they're on the lamb.
For an update on the story, watch below. But really Florida. Can't you get your legal sh** together?
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