Current TV host David Shuster tweeted late Tuesday night: “GOP attendee ejected for throwing nuts at African American camera woman + saying ‘This is how we feed animals.’”
CNN issued the following statement, after a CNN employee initially declined to comment on the incident at their booth at the RNC, referring theGrio to a public relations representative:
“CNN can confirm there was an incident directed at our employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum earlier this afternoon. CNN worked with convention officials to address this matter and will have no further comment.”
It was not clear whether the person who was reportedly removed was a delegate, alternate, or other convention attendee.
“Two attendees tonight exhibited deplorable behavior,” convention spokesman Kyle Downey told The Hill. “Their conduct was inexcusable and unacceptable. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated.
RD: Obviously, agents provocatuer's all, on the Obama dole....
- Current Mood:not surprised
Killed At Home: White Plains, NY Police Called Out On Medical Alert Shoot Dead Black Veteran
"We don't give a fuck, nigger! Open the door!" said the police to the retired Marine.
The nanny-police-surveillance-prison state in America is completely out of control. Republicans in power? It gets worse. Democrats in power? It gets worse. Good luck.
I have been politically independent for years now. I have never understood the idea of voting for one party or the other without carefully hearing out the candidates and the party platforms. Right now, as a business person at an executive level I am very concerned about the federal deficit and completely understand the economic reprecussions of not addressing it. I am also worried about the costs of entitlements. The Democrats do not seem willing to truly address these two issues with concrete proposals. Also, I feel that merely raising taxes on the rich without cleaning up our tax system first will just send them looking for tax shelters. Finally, I would not want to see major cuts to our defense - the world is too volitle right now.
All of that said, I am finding myself very much pushed toward the Democrat party because of the tactics of the GOP right now. For example:
- They have fully embraced Super PACs, and this broken and dangerous campaign finance system will never go away if the Republicans get a majority
- Voter ID laws which are a new push of the right just seem like subtle racism and a way to reduce the voice of the poor
- There is too much secrecy on the right - e.g. corporate interests hiding behind groups such as the US Chamber and Mitt Romney refusing to release the names of his bundlers even though most before him have.
- The rejection of science scares me - issues that are still unproven like global warming at least deserve open and honest debate vs. entrenched denial.
I'm just wondering if others at LJ feel similarly (or completely disagree!) - democrats, republicans, and unenrolled independents.
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A great site for independent voters
An innovative political fact check site
The Facebook post says Mitt Romney is wrong to claim that spending under Obama has "accelerated at a pace without precedent in recent history," because it's actually risen "slower than at any time in nearly 60 years."
Obama has indeed presided over the slowest growth in spending of any president using raw dollars, and it was the second-slowest if you adjust for inflation. The math simultaneously backs up Nutting’s calculations and demolishes Romney’s contention. The only significant shortcoming of the graphic is that it fails to note that some of the restraint in spending was fueled by demands from congressional Republicans. On balance, we rate the claim Mostly True.
I don't always agree with PolitiFact's conclusions, but their acquisition and analysis of facts is nearly flawless. And what they've done here is blown the door wide open on refuting one of the Right's biggest talking points: "Obama is drastically increasing the size of government." As usual, yet again, the facts do not support their claim.
And I can't wait to hear how the Right is gonna spin this.
"No NATO, No War": U.S. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Return War Medals at NATO Summit
AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting from Chicago, site of the largest NATO summit in the organization’s 63-year history. While delegates from 60 nations are meeting in the heavily secured McCormick Place convention center, thousands of antiwar protesters have been in the streets.
On Sunday, protesters marched from Grant Park to near the NATO summit. The march marked the largest protest in a week-long series of actions against the NATO summit. The march was led by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as well as members of Afghans for Peace. At the end of the march, Iraq Veterans Against the War held a ceremony where more than 40 veterans discarded their war medals by hurling them in the direction of the NATO summit. Vietnam Veterans staged a similar protest outside the U.S. Capitol in 1971.
On Sunday—former U.S. Army Sergeant Alejandro Villatoro served during the Iraq 2003 invasion and in Afghanistan in 2011.
( Full transcript below cut.Collapse )
- Current Music:"For What It's Worth" ~ Buffalo Springfield
Bill Maher's "New Rules" had a funny bit about Joe Curl (the White House correspondent for the right wing conservative newspaper "The Washington Times.") Mr. Curl suggested that President Obama is a racist for not mentioning the death of one of the Beastie Boys, because he is white. The book cover mock-up cover isn't really all that removed from what we see some conservatives on Livejournal say. You need to advance to 1:43 marker, unless you want to watch all of it.
You may not like the healthcare reform law, often referred to as "Obamacare" because you feel it's too expensive. There can certainly be legitimate debate on the issue of whether its the best bill to solve issues related to health care costs. I happen to like it, since having lived through the transition to something similar in Mass I've found that its a relief to no longer have to cover the bills of those who do not take responsibility to get their own coverage. The bill has not raised my taxes (still low at 5%), our state economy is strong, my PCP is still very much in charge of my care, and we have very high quality medical care here.
I'm not saying that there is no room for honest debae over the cost of the national bill. I just wish that that groups that are opposed to the healthcare bill would stop maipulating the facts and destroying the chances of real debate. The US Chamber of Commerce, for example, is protecting a few larger members who do not want to have to pay to ensure that people have high quality healthcare. In doing so they are floating the misleading idea that "11 million people will lose their employer-based health care coverage” under the law, which is completely wrong.
Yes, it is true that close to eleven million people might choose to stop getting employer-based coverage, but their reasons will be that employer based coverage does not provide much choice and is lower quality. The law opens up marketplaces where people can choose their insurance (shouldn't the GOP like this?) - this is a very capitalistic system that makes the private HMOs compete for your business. The result will be that many people will choose higher quality and/or cheaper HMOs than what their employer offers. So a very large percentage of the 11 million people will be happy to leave their employer based coverage under the healthcare law in order to get better and cheaper insurance.
When something is repeated over and over it often takes on the perception of being true. The topic of healthcare is something I write about a lot at my blogs where I provide a political fact check and encourage honest coverage of policial news and opinions. I'm also, of course, very curious to see what people think here at LJ where there is a lot of respect even when we disagree.
The American Heartland Institute (big tobacco's lobbying arm) newest ad campaign.
In some ways, this is an almost perfect illustration of what has happened to the "right." A refusal to acknowledge scientific reality; and a brutalist style of public propaganda that focuses entirely on guilt by the most extreme association. Here's how the Heartland Institute describes this new campaign:
The billboard series features Ted Kaczynski, the infamous Unabomber; Charles Manson, a mass murderer; and Fidel Castro, a tyrant. Other global warming alarmists who may appear on future billboards include Osama bin Laden and James J. Lee (who took hostages inside the headquarters of the Discovery Channel in 2010). These rogues and villains were chosen because they made public statements about how man-made global warming is a crisis and how mankind must take immediate and drastic actions to stop it.
This is where the American right now is:
The people who still believe in man-made global warming are mostly on the radical fringe of society. This is why the most prominent advocates of global warming aren't scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen.
Mann and Ornstein are correct. Large sections of the American right are now close to insane as well as depraved. And there is no Buckley to rein them in. Just countless Jonah Goldbergs seeking to cash in.
Bill Maher got around to the weeks-old controversy over the “pink slime” that’s been in our meat for all these years. And Maher observed that in all the backlash to this gross additive, many Republicans have attempted to defend the meat industry and insist there’s nothing wrong with the slimy substance. He opined that this, like so many other contemporary issues, should not be so political, and bashed the GOP for taking a contrarian position on what he said were fairly non-controversial topics. Video here.
Page Summary
rick_day : Well, at least the honesty is refreshing [+2] - foreverbeach : Cops. [+1]
- acollectivegood : Serious Concerns about the GOP this Year [+13]
- toll_booth : "Clarifying recent changes to our electoral system" [+11]
- toll_booth : Republicans about to lose one of their biggest talking points against Obama [+11]
mzflux : Quite literally the most powerful video I've seen in months. [+5]
- telemann : You sir, deserve a promotion to Fox News [+4]
- acollectivegood : Distortion in the Healthcare ("Obamacare") Debate [+35]
- telemann : (no subject) [+8]
- telemann : The Republican War on Common Sense : pro Pink Slime [+13]
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