unastronaut*

WRIGHT: We took this country by terror, away from the Sioux, the Apache, the Arowak, the Comanche, the Arapahoe, the Navajo. Terrorism. We took Africans from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism. We bombed Granada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel. We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenagers and toddlers, pregnant mothers, and hardworking fathers. We bombed Qaddafi’s home and killed his child. Blessed are they who bash your children’s head against a rock. We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to payback for the attack on our embassy, killed hundreds of hardworking people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day not knowing that they would never get back home. We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye. Kids playing in the playground, mothers picking up children from school, civilians, not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by day.

We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and Black South Africans and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.

• Reverend Jeremiah Wright baselessly accuses the American government of introducing the HIV virus to black communities and cites some loose and some true examples of those trampled under the tread of America’s progress.  Wright is not allowed near the Obama campaign, he’s actually been distanced for some time as having the same ideas. Recently Obama has admitted Wright’s comments about speaking only as a politician at the National Press Club will strain even his relationship with a longtime family friend.

HAGEE: All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are — were recipients of the judgment of God for that. The newspaper carried the story in our local area that was not carried nationally that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride parades. So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know that there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the day of judgment. And I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans. Media Matters for America

• Pastor John Hagee (among others) blamed 9/11 on the City of New Orleans planning a gay pride parade, and allowing for sinful alternative lifestyles. John McCain has said he’s not wise to have sought his endorsement, but he happily accepts it in the same sentence.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So was it a mistake to solicit and accept his endorsement?

MCCAIN: Oh, probably, sure. […]

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you no longer want his endorsement?

MCCAIN: I’m glad to have his endorsement. I condemn remarks that are, in any way, viewed as anti-anything. And thanks for asking. ThinkProgress

Someone remind me, do we still have the freedom to speak our minds?  Even if we’re stupid?  Does the First Amendment have any accuracy requirements?

And again, do we have any laws protecting certain groups from discrimination?  Now I realize it wasn’t “the Gays” applying for a job from Hagee, where anti-discrimination laws would apply, but which statement seems more baseless to you?

Note:  Wright has said more than this, but everything in context and he’s nothing more than any other fringe element. Having said that, Reverend Wright needs to shut up.  He is grandstanding, but he’s not saying anything at all that would draw criticism from the same people if he were associated with no political candidate.  It might garner some news, but commentators (thanks for the definition Bill O’Reilly, see below), are just stretching the crap out of this to either smear (Hannity, Stephanopoulos) or bring balance to their coverage of the Obama campaign.  

Technorati Tags: politics, obama, mccain, hagee, wright, rhetoric

When the byproducts of well intended efforts to help those suffering and bring security to the world are orphaned children and seeing a daily patrol of soldiers they only identify by a flag and a funny language, some may have ill will toward that flag and nation. That’s not to say it’s deserved, it is to anticipate. This is what people are burying heads in sand about now, and have been for quite some time. Tell me, couldn’t some better anticipation and intelligence collection have been the difference between preventing and merely reacting to 9/11? If not, what?

Good foreign policy can keep us safe, not to mention having our soldiers at home, happier and working and securing our homeland.  We don’t need a Department of Homeland Security, that’s the military’s job when unjust war is not being waged.  

…just not the 110th United States Congress. When President Bush passes the buck on the housing crisis, he sends a solar wave of hypocrisy through the nation strong enough to power every home in America for the year. Maybe that’s a bit idealistic, but we truly have a revisionist in the White House. This current housing crisis couldn’t possibly have been created by bank deregulation and bankruptcy reform of the 109th Congress.

When you sell office supplies and your boss is underqualified and only became manager because of personal connections, work can be a source of frustration. When your personal connections begin causing entire populations to be ignored in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane, it becomes a much larger issue. Mike Brown, Michael Chertoff, Alberto Gonzales are only a few of the more well-known examples of Bush administration cronies, but they provide enough of an example of how ill-served the American public can be when cronies are appointed. This angers me no matter who is doing it, but by far the most gross example of overstretched qualifications are those appointments by the current faux-Republican, neo-Conservative administration. With recent comments exposing his lack of respect for humanity, one could put Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in that grouping as well.

Economic factors are always difficult to directly correllate and I have a feeling I may have overstretched this link. The 109th did deregulate banks and make it much harder for hard working families to file for bankruptcy. In some way this surely has affected the housing crisis, in lender’s attitude and consumer’s vulnerability. I’m just not convinced it’s a direct cause -> effect relationship, so don’t get the impression I’m blaming the entire housing crisis on the 109th or one piece of legislation.