Author: Ezra Grant

I'm just tired of the lies and nonsense coming from the GOP, so this is my little contribution to combat the nonsense!

Categories
Politics

Erick Erickson to GOP – Forget The Website, Sabotage The Obamacare Law

With Healthcare.gov now functioning at a higher capacity, conservative activist and RedState editor in chief Erick Erickson has a new recommendation for Republicans looking to undo President Obama’s signature healthcare reform: sabotage!

In a blog post at RedState, Erickson claims that Healthcare.gov remains “unusable” but insists “conservatives are wrong to fixate on it.” Rather than focus on the site, Erickson recommends, conservatives should devote their energy to thwarting Democratic attempts to improve the law.

“Conservatives need to keep their focus on the law overall,” Erickson writes. “The website is a reflection of a terrible law.”

“As we all get back to business today, we must remember the law itself is the problem — not the website,” Erickson continues. “The website they can fix. We must deny them the opportunity to fix the law itself. Let the American people see big government in all its glory. Then offer a repeal.”

Erickson’s approach is in marked contrast to that of his fellow Republican, Georgia’s Jack Kingston. While Erickson recommends thwarting attempts to improve the law, Kingston is on record saying that letting flaws in Obamacare linger would be irresponsible.

Categories
Featured Health

Controversy – Woman Shows Off Her Washboard Abs, 4 Days After Giving Birth

Frankly, I’m proud of her. I know a few women who just cannot get back their pre-pregnancy body. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a post-pregnancy body, but these women have tried diets, exercise programs, personal trainers etc. and nothing seems to work. That this new mom is able to get her body back is fascinating. But apparently, this picture is causing worldwide controversy.

Is the postpregnancy body the new weapon of choice among superfit women? Yes, charge critics of Norwegian soccer wife and fitness blogger Caroline Berg Eriksen, who posted a flat-stomach, bra-and-panties selfie to her 245,000 Instagram followers just four days after giving birth.

“This is not a selfie. This is an act of war,” writes one Australian blogger in response to the image — just one of many blogs, news outlets, body image experts, and social-media commenters around the world to weigh in on the matter in the past few days, putting the photo at the center of a major online body image controversy. “This whole situation has become ludicrous. The competition for women to give birth and then immediately remove any trace from their their bodies that they ever carried a child is OBSCENE. There is no other word for it.” Another blogger calls the photo of Eriksen, who is married to pro soccer player Lars-Kristian Eriksen, “wildly provocative.”

Eriksen posted the photo of herself on Instagram, along with the caption, “I feel so empty…4 days after birth,” igniting the online backlash. Twitter users called Eriksen and her washboard abs “intimidating,” “unhelpful,” “obviously a freak,” and “unfair to all women.”

Categories
Featured murder

Caught on Tape: Man Tries to Burn Wife in Motor Home

A Washington state man is accused of trying to kill his wife and father-in-law by setting their motor home on fire while they were inside.

The Olympian reported that 32-year-old Joshua Ford has been charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson after being arrested Saturday night in Rainier, Washington.

Ford is accused of locking his wife, who has not been identified, and his father-in-law, Ricky Luppino, inside the motor home after an argument before trying to set the vehicle on fire.

“He said he was gonna kill us, me and my daughter both” Luppino told KIRO-TV. ”

KIRO aired video showing Ford pulling a 5-gallon can of gasoline out of another vehicle, then kicking the door to lock it from the outside before pouring the gasoline onto the motor home and setting it on fire, resulting in a fireball emanating from the front of his relatives’ vehicle.

Ford can then be seen walking back toward the RV’s door and saying, according to Luppino, “I hope you both die.”

Luppino escaped through a window at the front of the vehicle and opened the door, allowing his daughter to follow suit.

Video

Categories
Featured Racism

Houston Cops Arrested Black Dance Instructors Because They Had a White Student

Did Houston police illegally arrest three teens? Landry Thompson is 13 years old, white, and a dancer. She was traveling from her home in Oklahoma to Houston, Texas, with her dance instructors, who are both Black.

Thompson’s mother had given them a signed and notarized letter giving full guardianship and custody to dance instructor Emmanuel Hurd, for their trip to meet with other dance teachers. But Houston police managed to handcuff the teens and wrest the girl from her guardian — and hand her over to Child Protective Services.

Hurd told KHOU that the three dancers where parked at a gas station, and “were on the GPS trying to figure out where the hotel was.” That’s when the cops “just pulled us out of the car and put our hands behind our backs like we were criminals.”

“The officer asked me ‘who’s the girl?’ and I said ‘she’s my student,’” Hurd says. “I told him I had a notarized letter from her parents stating that we have full guardianship over her while we’re here.”

Not only did Houston police detain and handcuff Thompson and Hurd, but they removed the teenaged girl from her guardian and gave her to local Child Protective Services. Police “put handcuffs on me and it really scared me,” Thompson says. “And they put me in the back of a cop car and I was terrified.”

Cops initially demanded Thompson’s mother travel from Oklahoma to Houston to retrieve her child, but later allowed her to be released back in Hurd’s custody.

“She was with the people I wanted her to be with,” Destiny Thompson says. “She was with people I trusted. And now she was taken away from those people and in a shelter with people I didn’t know.”

Categories
Health

Magic Johnson Talks – Coping with AIDS

Magic Johnson has been living with the HIV virus for over 20 years now and throughout that time, he acknowledges that much has changed.

“At that time, AIDS was a death sentence. And now, things have changed,” Johnson told the Huffington Post.

“Twenty-two years ago, there was only one drug available. Now, there’s more than 30 drugs, and they’re really great drugs too. And that’s the reason for hope: Doctors and health care providers are so much better and knowledgeable today than they were in the past,” he added.

In honor of World Aids Day, which is celebrated every year on Dec. 1, the NBA-legend-turned-entrepreneur discussed his personal bout with the virus.

Johnson said HIV was primarily only of concern among the gay, white community when the virus first gained recognition.

Yet, he discussed how the public’s perception of HIV and AIDS has shifted across various races and age groups.

“Now, it’s an issue in the black and brown community, especially the African American community,” Johnson said. “Things have changed just that fast.”

According to Johnson, the rise of other health issues has reduced the awareness and attention surrounding AIDS and HIV.

“HIV has been pushed out, and it’s not at the forefront anymore. People are not talking about it as much as they used to. And in the black community especially, we really need to be talking about it.”

Categories
Politics trayvon martin

Melissa Harris Perry’s Open Letter to Angela Cory – Stop Blaming The Victim – Video

Melissa Harris Perry wrote an open letter to Florida’s Prosecutor Angela Cory – the same Angela Cory who sent Marissa Alexander to jail for 20 years for firing a warning shot to scare off her abusive husband, and the same Angela Cory whose prosecution team allowed George Zimmerman to walk free after killing Trayvon Martin.

And in her letter, Perry shed some light on a little nugget that I’m sure many have missed, that Angela Cory appears to penalize the victims more than she does the perpetrators. Melissa focused her letter on Cory’s prosecution on Merissa, but her words could have very well be for Cory’s failure in finding justice for Zimmerman’s victim, Trayvon Martin.

There is nothing like being home for the holidays with your loved ones. So I can only imagine that this Thanksgiving is particularly bittersweet for Marissa Alexander, who was granted a special pre-trial release at 10:30 PM on Wednesday – Thanksgiving Eve – after spending more than 1000 days in jail, and barely seeing her youngest child who just recently turned three.

But my letter is not to Marissa. Sis, I am saving that one for when you are finally freed for good. No, my letter this week is to the woman that worked to put you in jail in the first place: Florida State Attorney for the fourth judicial circuit, Angela Corey.

Dear Angela Corey, It’s me, Melissa.

Angela, there are few times in life that we get second chances to right our wrongs. Well Angela, this is yours.

You have been called a fierce victim’s advocate, so it is way past time that you start acting like it.

Because a woman who was hospitalized in 2009 after being shoved into a bathtub and hitting her head – she is a victim.

A woman whose estranged husband has admitted to abusing all five mothers of his kids – she is his victim.

And when that woman, that victim, who has just recently given birth, fires a warning shot near the man that has cornered her in her home – she is a victim who feels she has no other recourse.

But that is part of the problem, Angela. You never saw Marissa as a victim. You saw Marissa as the aggressor and even justified why the infamous “Stand Your Ground” law was not applied in Marissa’s case.

Because, as you put it, she was not fleeing from an abuser, even though Rico Gray, her estranged husband, has admitted telling Marissa that he would kill her if she ever cheated on him.

You have said that the shot fired was not consistent with a warning shot because it was at adult head height. Marissa is three inches shorter than Rico Gray.

And according to you she didn’t have to get 20 years in jail. That also was her fault, right Angela? You said to NBC’s the Grio back in May: “She didn’t have to get 20 years, because I took into account their prior domestic history and her lack of a [criminal] record, and we offered her the three year mandatory minimum.”

Marissa is a mother of three. And she is a victim of abuse.
Any mother knows that one day away from her child is 24 hours too long.

And when you are an abuse victim, you have to believe that the courts will finally free you from the cycle of violence instead of criminalizing you for trying to protect yourself.

If nothing else, the last two years should have shown you that an aggressive prosecution is not always the best one.

So while I know Marissa is thankful this holiday to be home with her family while she awaits her new trial on March 31st, 2014, maybe you should spend this holiday being thankful that you have a second chance to right this obvious wrong.

Sincerely,
Melissa

Categories
Politics

Bernie Sanders – I’m Willing To Stand Up and Be President in 2016

Today, Bernie Sanders almost made it official. In an appearance on MSNBC’s The Ed Show, Sanders was asked to respond to the many speculations that he may run for president in 2016.

After spending most of the segment discussing the improvements in the Obamacare website, host Ed Schultz asked, “what are the possibilities of you running for the Democratic nomination or Independent nod to be a presidential candidate.”

Sanders responds;

Well Ed this is what I said. There are enormous problems facing this country you and I talked have talked about them. Income wealth inequality, massive high unemployment, fact that we are the only country in the industrialize world which doesn’t guarantee healthcare to all people, global warming.

It seems to me it will be a real disgrace if we had a campaign with those issues, the needs of working family, the needs of the middle class, the needs of the elderly were not front and center. We need people out there fighting for ordinary people and not simply taking campaign contributions from the wealthy and a powerful. So what I have said and that candidate is needed. And if somebody else doesn’t step up, I am prepared to do it.

You got my vote Bernie, but if Hillary runs… well, I’m gonna have to think about this.

Video

Categories
Celebrities

Tyrese Breaks Down at Site Where Paul Walker Died

This is just heartbreaking.

Tyrese couldn’t contain his emotion when he visited the site where his Fast and the Furious costar Paul Walker died in a car crash Saturday in Valencia, Calif.

The singer-actor broke down at the scene, with tears rolling down his face as he stood in front of a makeshift memorial holding a flower for the late star.

“My heart is hurting so bad no one can make me believe this is real Father God I pray that you send clarity over this cause I just don’t understand My heart hurts it’s broken no one can convince me that this is real…. Prayer warriors please pray real hard for his only child, his daughter and family…#HeartOfAnAngel13YrsFamilyForever WeJustCelebreatedYour40thBirthday….. My God… My God… I can’t,” Tyrese posted on Instagram Saturday evening after learning about his friend’s passing.

He went on to post an Instagram shot of the last conversation he had with Walker, in which he told him he loved him and thanked him for his friendship.

“At least I got to say I love you…. #OurLastExchange but our laughs and moments will live forever #ThisIsWorstThanMyWorstNightmare #GodiLoveYouAndiwillneverquestionYou…. But this I just don’t understand #PaulForeverFamily #MyHeartHurtsSoBad please pray for his daughter and family…”

Other mourners have also arrived at the scene to pay tribute to Walker and his late friend Roger Rodas, leaving behind flowers candles and DVDs.

Categories
Georgia Politics shooting

Elderly Man with Alzheimers Shot Dead on Another Man’s Property

A 72-year-old who suffered from Alzheimer’s was shot dead after wandering onto a man’s property early Wednesday morning, ringing the doorbell and turning the door handle. After Joe Hendrix’s fiancé called 911 to report a possible intruder, Hendrix went outside to take matters into his own hands, and fired four shots at a silhouette in his yard, killing Ronald Westbrook.

Hendrix admitted to shooting Westbrook in the yard of his rural northern Georgia home after calling out to him and hearing no answer. The county sheriff said Hendrix went outside after waiting 9 or 10 minutes for the police, while his fiancé was still on the phone with the 911 dispatcher. The county sheriff said was “certain” he and his fiance felt threatened.

The incident is the latest in a series of fatal shootings by residents who said they feared an intruder. Last month, protests erupted while a Detroit-area district attorney mulled whether she would file charges against a homeowner who shot a 19-year-old girl, reportedly seeking help after a car accident. Theodore P. Wafer was ultimately charged with murder, but his lawyer invoked the language of the state’s “shoot first” laws that authorize deadly force in self-defense, suggesting Wafer may seek immunity against charges.

Like Michigan and Florida, Georgia has an aggressive law that permits deadly force in self-defense, both inside and outside the home. Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson told the Times Free Press in Chattanooga, Tenn., that he expected the district attorney to consider Georgia’s Stand Your Ground law in deciding whether to press charges

Categories
Featured Racism

Today in Racism – Arrested For Standing Black in Rochester New York

In a very affluent neighborhood, school children waiting for the bus is still profiled and arrested… if they are black. That is apparently what happened to three members of the Edison Technical High School basket ball team in Rochester New York, as they stood waiting for a bus.

Main Street merchants have long been clamoring for the police to keep young blacks off of the street and this appears to be part of that campaign.

Police, acting on a complaint from a merchant who has a history of these kinds of complaints, charge that they were obstructing the street and loitering at a location where there is a bus shelter and bus stop. The boys maintain that they were doing nothing wrong and were only waiting for the bus as instructed.

Their coach, Jacob Scott who is also the guidance counselor, says that they are all good students who have never been in any trouble. He says that he informed the officer that he was supervising them and they were waiting for a bus — at which time the officer told him that if he didn’t leave he too would be arrested.

Scott said, “He goes on to say, ‘If you don’t disperse, you’re going to get booked as well.’ I said, ‘Sir, I’m the adult. I’m their varsity basketball coach. How can you book me? What am I doing wrong? Matter of fact, what are these guys doing wrong?’”

The officer, backed up by his sergeant, said that if he had a big enough vehicle he would arrest them all.

School board member Mary Adams appeared at the arraignment and said, “I think the charges should be immediately dropped and I think the district attorney’s office should be stepping in an looking at these kinds of matters.”

The parents of the three arrested had to post $200 bail in order to have their sons home for Thanksgiving dinner and they will appear in court again on December 11.

Watch the video below from WHEC 10.

Categories
Healthcare ObamaCare Politics

Here’s The Link: CNN Poll – 70% of Young Adults Believe Obamacare Will Work

Earlier today, I tweeted a recent poll by CNN saying that 70% of young Americans believe the problems with the Obamacare website will eventually be fixed.

Here’s the tweet:

Needless to say, some Republicans on Twitter couldn’t believe that this poll actually existed, and thought that I was making it up. I don’t blame them for thinking this. Their political leaders are constantly feeding them false information which they readily eat up, so naturally when someone shares the truth, they feel the need to question it as well.

Here is one example of the replies I got to the tweet mentioned above:

So with that said, here is the link to the A CNN/ORC International poll where that tweet came from. And here is a CNN article that mentions this data. Below is an exert of the actual article.

Younger Americans are much less likely to express negative views of the new health care law.

“Only 25% of 18-to-34 year olds say that the new law is a failure, compared to more than four in 10 in any other age bracket. Seven in 10 younger Americans think the current problems faced by Obamacare will eventually be fixed. Senior citizens are split, and most people between 35 and 65 years old think that the system is permanently broken,” said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

The poll was conducted November 18-20 for CNN by ORC International, with 843 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

To the doubters: – Where it says “only 25% of 18-34 year olds say that the new law is a failure,” it means that the remainder 75% think the law is NOT a failure. And where it says, “seven in 10 younger Americans think the current problems faced by Obamacare will eventually be fixed,” that “seven in 10” actually mean 70%.

Hope this helps.

Categories
Politics right winged

Right Winged Mega-Church Pastor Accused of Plagiarism – Video

Mark Driscoll, a right-wing megachurch pastor best known for his chauvinistic,bullying, anti-gay and domineering preaching style, is facing charges of plagiarism from his fellow conservatives. When talk show host Janet Mefferd confronted him about the plagiarism claims in an interview last week, Driscoll was offended that Mefferd dared to ask him such questions and told her that she was “grumpy,” “rude” and “not very Christ-like.”

He patted himself on the back for being “gracious and humble” through it all, adding that he couldn’t appropriately answer Mefferd’s questions because he had a cold and was doingher a favor by appearing on her show. Driscoll’s publisher similarly claimed that it was not Driscoll who was at fault but Mefferd for taking a “belligerent tone” with him, and supporters eagerly piled on.

Christian blogs have noted that Driscoll himself preached against plagiarism as a “Satanic issue.”

Exit mobile version