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Tag Archives: human rights

Congress to cut SNAP?

15 May

According to the Associated Press (AP), the Republican Tea Party (GOTP) controlled House Agriculture Committee’s beginning to throw together a farm bill cutting $2.5 billion in food aid, because feeding the poor has become “too expensive”.

laddling food

The proposed legislation would cut roughly 3 percent from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), achieving the cuts by eliminating “broad-based categorical eligibility,” or automatic food stamp benefits when people sign up for other programs, which more than 47 million people used last year, or about 1 in 7 Americans; because of the additional numbers needing help the cost has more than doubled since 2008 due in a large part to the economic downturn caused by the disastrous economic policies of the Bush/Cheney presidency.

God fearing Christian Conservative members of Congress have repeatedly attacked the President for daring to care for the poor by expanding SNAP, and many of those same white bread House members are refusing to consider a farm bill without cuts to food stamps. Clearly they don’t read the parts of the Bible where Christ said things like, “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

“I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

“Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

“Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”

Funny how conservatives repeatedly thump their Bibles when opposing same-sex marriage, which by-the-way isn’t mentioned anywhere in all of scripture, but then conveniently forget about their Bibles when making cuts to programs helping the poor.

 
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Posted by on May 15, 2013 in Budget Cuts

 

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The McCaine Mutiny …

19 Feb

McCaine Mutiny

 
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Posted by on February 19, 2013 in Benghazi, Humor

 

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2008 GOTP 2008 Presidential footnote claiming there’s a ‘massive cover-up’ on Benghazi?

19 Feb

There comes a time when some individuals should, as Douglas MacArthur once famously said, “fade away”. Clearly, it’s past time for the 2008 GOTP Presidential footnote, Senator John McCain. This past weekend, while a guest on Meet the Press, discussing his party’s ongoing misuse of the filibuster and how contentious the confirmation hearings for defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel had become, McCain became belligerent and it seems, began to speak without his brain being fully engaged; his stinging defeat to President Obama clearly shaping his need for revenge at all cost.

John McCain

When asked about the contentious hearings McCain began to lambast the host seeming to say the Senate hearings had become so bad due to the lack of information from the White House surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks in Benghazi as a “massive cover-up.”

“There are so many answers we don’t know,” McCain claimed. “We’ve had two movies about getting bin Laden and we don’t even know who the people were who were evacuated from the consulate the day after the [Benghazi] attack. So there are many, many questions. So we’ve had a massive cover-up on the part of the administration.”

Host David Gregory tried unsuccessfully to get McCain to clarify what he meant by “a massive cover-up.”

To which McCain then started almost shouting, “I’m asking you, do you care whether four Americans died? And shouldn’t people be held accountable for the fact that four Americans died?”

“Well, what you said was the cover-up–a cover-up of what?” Gregory asked.

“Of the information concerning the deaths of four brave Americans,” McCain replied. “The information has not been forthcoming. You obviously believe that it has. I know that it hasn’t. And I’ll be glad to send you a list of the questions that have not been answered, including ‘What did the president do and who did he talk to the night of the attack on Benghazi?'”

McCain continued: “Why did the president for two weeks, for two weeks during the heat of the campaign continue to say he didn’t know whether it was a terrorist attack or not? Is it because it interfered with the line ‘Al Qaeda has [been] decimated’? And ‘everything’s fine in that in that part of the world’? Maybe. We don’t know. But we need the answers. Then we’ll reach conclusions. But we have not received the answers. And that’s a fact.”

McCain never answered any of the questions put to him, he seemed to be the grandfather at Thanksgiving dinner rambling from one topic to the next, unable to ever coherently clarify what he’s talking about, just speaking louder and angrier the more you try to comprehend where he’s going.

There is no cover up on Benghazi, there have been countless hearings and reportedly more than 10,000 pages of testimony given; plainly, as stated earlier, it’s past time for the Senator to begin fading away before he begins screaming, “Ahh, but the strawberries that’s… that’s where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with… geometric logic… that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox DID exist, and I’d have produced that key if they hadn’t of pulled the Caine out of action. I, I, I know now they were only trying to protect some fellow officers…”

It’s one thing to serve the people; it’s another to continue appearing as a petulant loser who’s coming unglued, incapable of moving on.

 
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Posted by on February 19, 2013 in Benghazi

 

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Robertson pushes man to become Muslim so he can beat his wife?

14 Sep

Right wing lunatic televangelist Pat Robertson’s at it again, proving he’s quite a few words short of a Bible verse; this time, Pat’s focused his indignation on wives who fail to “properly obey” their husbands.

Earlier this week, during a broadcast of Robertson’s television show “The 700 Club,” he answered a question from a viewer named Michael about how to repair his marriage to a woman who “has no respect for me as the head of the house.”

Rev Pat’s response?

“Well, you could become a Muslim and you could beat her,” he declared while co-host Terry Meeuwsen giggled.

But wait, there’s more.

“I don’t think we condone wife-beating these days but something has got to be done to make her learn to submit to authority,” Pat said.

So, let me get this straight, “we don’t condone wife-beating these days” means in Robertson’s world it used to be condoned?

But, since Christian scripture doesn’t allow for divorce, Rev Robertson urged the man to “move to Saudi Arabia,” where, ostensibly, beating the woman would be permissible.

Even with all his past out bursts Robertson remains someone Republican Tea Party (GOTP) Willard Mitt Romney likes to appear with him at campaign events, and so far there’s been no word from the Romney campaign to distance himself from the minister of wacko; why? Well, Willard needs the right-wing evangelical vote to even remain competitive, but he’s selling his political soul for votes he’s likely to already get anyway.

 
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Posted by on September 14, 2012 in Religion, Right Wing Crazies

 

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O’Donnell criticizes Romney’s faith?

09 Apr

According to news reports MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell has decided it’s OK to go after Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential hopeful Willard Mitt Romney on the basis of his religion and last week he called Mormonism an “invented religion.”

Reportedly O’Donnell criticized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, making insanely inaccurate claims about the church’s founding and attacking Willard for believing in Mormonism.

“Mormonism was created by a guy in upstate New York in 1830 when he got caught having sex with the maid and explained to his wife that God told him to do it,” O’Donnell said on his MSNBC show. “Forty-eight wives later, Joseph Smith’s lifestyle was completely sanctified in the religion he invented to go with it. Which Mitt Romney says he believes.”

O’Donnell, whom I thought was brighter than this, has stepped off in Glenn Beck zone of television commentary.

I hate to say it, and I do mean I hate to say it, but I find myself agreeing with FOX PAC’s Bill O’Reilly, who responded to O’Donnell’s “smear” comments by saying if O’Donnell had done the same about Islam or another religion, he would’ve been immediately fired. While I agree with O’Reilly partly, I disagree partly, because if O’Donnell said the same things about Islam he’d have been offered a show at FOX.

O’Donnell clearly knows there’s no religious test for holding political office in the United States, and he also knows a cheap shot when he throws one; with all there is to criticize Willard Mitt Romney on he chooses to pick on his faith?

It’s beneath him, and the way O’Donnell’s going after the Mormon Church one can only assume he has a monstrous size axe to grind; whatever the problem, it’s not good journalism; it’s not good political commentary; and it’s not good to leap into the political gutter next to the race baiting, religious haters.

 
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Posted by on April 9, 2012 in 2012 Election

 

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Limbaugh backed Kony

14 Mar

To demonstrate how badly Rush Limbaugh’s infected with Obama Derangement Syndrome (ODS) here’s a little transcript of Limbaugh actually supporting war criminal Joseph Kony.

From Limbaugh’s 14 Oct 11 broadcast: “Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians.  They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them. That’s what the lingo means, “to help regional forces remove from the battlefield,” meaning capture or kill.

“So that’s a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda, and — (interruption) no, I’m not kidding. Jacob Tapper just reported it.  Now, are we gonna help the Egyptians wipe out the Christians?  Wouldn’t you say that we are?  I mean the Coptic Christians are being wiped out, but it wasn’t just Obama that supported that.  It was our — the conservative intelligentsia thought it was an outbreak of democracy. Now they’ve done a 180 on that, but they forgot that they supported it in the first place.  Now they’re criticizing it.

“Lord’s Resistance Army objectives.  I have them here. “To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people.” Now, again Lord’s Resistance Army is who Obama sent troops to help nations wipe out. The objectives of the Lord’s Resistance Army, what they’re trying to accomplish with their military action in these countries is the following:  ‘To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people; to fight for the immediate restoration of competitive multiparty democracy in Uganda; to see an end to gross violation of human rights and dignity of Ugandans; to ensure the restoration of peace and security in Uganda, to ensure unity, sovereignty, and economic prosperity beneficial to all Ugandans, and to bring to an end the repressive policy of deliberate marginalization of groups of people who may not agree with the LRA ideology.’ Those are the objectives of the group that we are fighting, or who are being fought and we are joining in the effort to remove them from the battlefield.”

This demonstrates two things:

First, Limbaugh hates the President so much he’s willing to support a murdering war criminal in order to criticize him.

Second, it demonstrates quite clearly Limbaugh’s real ignorance of what’s going on in the world.

Rush is a hack, he makes stuff up in order to win ratings, and he lies habitually about the President due to his chronic ODS.

 
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Posted by on March 14, 2012 in Right Wing Radio

 

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Cut down the forest of hypocrisy …

07 Mar

Christian conservatives are screaming about contraception being forced on them by the President, but refuse to condemn Rush Limbaugh for saying vile and degrading things about women.

Don’t preach “family values” to me until I see you condemn Limbaugh.

Don’t preach “religious” freedom to me until you condemn Limbaugh

Don’t claim to be the “moral” majority until you condemn Limbaugh.

You scream about “values” and about “religion” and then allow someone like this to be your hero; to be your spokesman?

You call someone a hero who calls a young woman a “slut” and “prostitute” and who attacks her for three full broadcast days, more than 9 hours of accusations and vilifying, asking to see the videos of her alleged promiscuity?

Want to know where the GOTP candidates really stand on “family values” and how they view women?

As a Latter-day Saint, where’s Mitt Romney’s outrage?

As Catholics, where’s Rick Santorum’s and Newt Gingrich’s outrage?

I’m sorry, I can’t see your “values” because there’s a forest of hypocrisy in my way.

Do what’s right conservatives and then come talk to me …

 
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Posted by on March 7, 2012 in Women's Rights

 

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Enhanced Interrogation?

20 Sep

While I whole heartedly agree with many of my conservative friends who question the validity of countries like Cuba, North Korea & China lecturing anyone on human rights, I wonder how it looks to others when we do the same, or when we – United States – broach the subject of the treatment of prisoners.

Fact is we – the United States – tortured prisoners, how many is irrelevant, we did it. And we did it with Presidential approval. Up until Bush/Cheney allowed it, I – as an American soldier – could proudly say the U.S. didn’t do “those things”; now I can only say “we don’t do it any longer”.

In May 2009 I asked the question “Did the United States of America Torture Prisoners? (https://thelibertytree.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/did-the-united-states-of-america-torture-prisoners/) and showed various images that showed U.S. military personnel doing just that. It wasn’t “enhanced interrogation”, it was torture.

“Enhanced interrogation”, the enlightened euphemism of the right, is in reality a failed administration’s attempts to cover up; under the Geneva Convention – of which we are a signatory – we committed an act of torture; we mistreated prisoners. Can’t repaint facts; we violated international law.

In spite of what misinformed talking heads like Limbaugh say, the United States didn’t use “enhanced interrogations” during WWII, Korea or Vietnam, it wasn’t until the Katz and Jammer kids got elected.

Additionally, no matter what Cheney tries to say in his book, we did not gather one speck of useful or credible Intel from the use of “enhanced interrogation”. Senator McCain and others, who know a lot more about this subject than the likes of Sean Hannity and the cast of Fox and Friends has so testified.

It is a dark stain on our nation’s honor, and it will take a long time for it to be removed.

It’s not something any real American should be proud of.

Bush/Cheney – and all of their cohorts – were wrong, and should be forever thankful President Obama wouldn’t authorize a full investigation and prosecution on the basis of war crimes having been committed.

I’m sorry, but as someone who has served for more than 21 years in the service, our treatment of prisoners during the previous administration was a willful violation; and IT WAS WRONG! “If we adopt the ways of the Nazis, we’re as bad as the Nazis.”

Another conservative justification is that we use many of the same “techniques” on our own troops during their training. Regarding the use of “those techniques” in the training of our own personnel; our personnel know they’re not going to die when they’re undergoing that training; it’s far different for a prisoner subjected to it. That’s a straw man argument waiting for a match.

Conservatives continue to amaze as they attempt to justify what the country did, saying it wasn’t “torture”; fortunately the United States Department of Defense doesn’t agree and defines Torture, “as an act specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incident to lawful sanctions) upon another person within the actor’s custody or physical control.

“Severe mental pain or suffering” is defined as the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from:

“the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical
pain or suffering;

“the administration or application, or threatened administration or
application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt
profoundly the senses or the personality;

“the threat of imminent death; or

“the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death,
severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality.”

Tea Party darling Congressman Allen West was forced into early retirement from the Army because he violated these definitions when he intentionally discharged his weapon next to a prisoner’s head.

Additionally, President Reagan signed the “United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment”; not some bleeding heart liberal, RONALD WILSON FRACKIN REAGAN!!!!

Its past time for conservatives to accept the fact Bush and Cheney screwed this up, and placed American service personnel – as Senator McCain has said – in real jeopardy because of it.

 
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Posted by on September 20, 2011 in Torture

 

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