Category: Politics

Categories
Celebrities Charlie Sheen Politics

Charlie Sheen’s Poem to Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson

Last week, Phil Robertson made some statements that offended many. He compared the gay lifestyle to beastiality among other things, and claimed that black people in the South did not suffer any oppression before the civil movement began. It was happy times for all apparently.

Some came to Robinsons defense like Sarah Palin and others in the Republican Party, but many more were outraged by the things Robinsons had to say.

Below is a poem from actor Charlie Sheen, who felt the need to voice his opinion on behalf of his friends who “were hurt” by Robertson’s comments.

Mallard brained
Phil Robertso!
you have offended and hurt so many dear friends of mine,
who DO NOT have the voice or the outreach that I do.
well news flash
shower-dodger,
I will speak loudly and clearly for ALL of them.

You have my attention.

your statements were and are
abhorrently and
mendaciously unforgivable.

How can something be “mendaciously unforgivable?” Shhhhh.

the only thing you should ever be in charge of building is a hole in the ground the exact size of your head.
perhaps your beard would fit as well if you plucked out the
army of scabies and
bull weevils sequestered deep in it’s sarcophagus of dander and weasel pelts.

“Sarcophagus of dander” is pretty good, but stanza seven is still my fave:

on the eight day
when I was whittling my cosmic banjo,
I’m pretty sure YOU were the scattered dross I then used to light a fire and
locate the nearest
Andy Gump.

If While I Was Whittling My Cosmic Banjo is the title of Sheen’s memoir, everybody take a half day.

Now bring us home, Sheen:

repulsed by you;
c sheen

hash tag;
Duck; that was me.

As you were, Phil Robertso. As you were.

Categories
Domestic Policies Education News Politics

Imagining the Schools We Need

Wondering why American students are not performing at their best? Or why we struggle to solve the problems of children getting adequate resources so they can compete in the global race for knowledge, opportunity and equity?

No need. The answer’s right here and it doesn’t take much to figure it out. We’ve made education a commodity to be traded, cut, neglected and manipulated for the better part of the economic downturn, and even before, and the policy is catching up to us. School districts all over the country had to cut back on teachers, other staff, educational resources and worse, a commitment to enable all children to take part in what should be the world’s premier public school system.

It shouldn’t have worked out that way.

The corporate know-nothings who have wheedled their way into the public policy debate and, worse, have been elected to offices where they’ve had direct experience slashing budgets, blaming public employees and pulling money out of the system because they think it spends too much. Now we’ve reached the crisis point where schools are packing in too many students into classrooms without proper staffing and educational materials. The results are disappointing at best.

But they point to something that’s been underreported, and that is that America’s public school teachers are doing a fabulous job keeping the system afloat and educating our students to the best of their abilities. The shame is imagining just how much better the country would be if we committed to funding and supporting the people who do one of the most important paid jobs in the economy.

Imagine what we could do with class sizes that allow for debate, discussion and hands-on learning in every class. Imagine having enough staff to enable struggling students and those with classifiable learning problems to get the support they both need and are entitled to by law. Imagine having enough money to take students on more than one outside academic trip per year so that they could apply their knowledge to real-world situations.

Imagine a teaching staff that is respected, emboldened and confident that the culture supported its efforts. Imagine governors making full pension payments so the system doesn’t become a political battleground and an excuse to blame teachers and other public employees from being blamed for shortfalls. Remember that the only people making reliable pension contributions are the teachers; every paycheck. Imagine a system where teachers have input into curricular implementation, and where tests are not the end result of every learning task. Imagine a collaborative, supportive environment where veteran educators are respected for their knowledge, not blamed for being too expensive.

If you can imagine such a system, then we have our work cut out for us because if we keep going as we have for the past 10 years, then we will sink further behind countries that don’t need to imagine those school systems–they already have them.

For more please go to:
www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and Twitter @rigrundfest  

Categories
Politics

Sheriff is “Retaliating” Against A&E Because of Phil Robertson’s Suspension

A&E, the television network that airs the embattled “Duck Dynasty” reality show, “has produced more than a half dozen programs with the assistance of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office,” according to the Georgia county’s Sheriff Phil Miller. In retaliation against the network’s decision to suspend Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson for making a series of deeply offensive remarks, A&E will no longer receive such assistance from Miller.

“A&E has suspended Phil Robertson for talking about his conservative Christian beliefs,” Miller claimed on his Facebook page, adding that he believes this “punishment” to be “unreasonable.” Though A&E has historically been able to rely on Miller’s office for assistance, “[t]hey will not do any more with my assistance while I am sheriff. It is time for someone other than Hollywood and the news media to stand up for what is right!”

It is not entirely clear exactly what kind of “assistance” Miller has provided the television network in the past, or what services he is now pledging to deny them in the future. To the extent that Miller is refusing to provide government services to A&E because he disagrees with the network’s broadly tolerant views, however, denying government services to the network would violate the First Amendment. Unlike A&E, which is a private company lawfully entitled to suspend or fire someone because they find the person’s views repulsive, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office is a government agency bound by the First Amendment’s ban on viewpoint discrimination.

Categories
Politics Texas

Republican Larry Kilgore Wants to Execute The Gays, Right After Secession

Larry Kilgore has made God, gays and guns an important part of his campaign for governor, but his No. 1 issue is secession. Kilgore is so committed to the idea of having Texas leave the union that he legally changed his name – Larry SECEDE Kilgore. That’s the way he’ll appear on the ballot next March in the Texas Republican primary, where he is challenging front runner Greg Abbott for the GOP nomination.

Kilgore believes the Bible offers a good guide for government. As such, he suggests that in accordance with the biblical injunction against homosexuality, gay people should be put to death. But Kilgore says he’s willing to temporarily set aside his opposition to homosexuals in the interest of winning. The Arlington telecommunications contractor says to build a coalition, he’s inviting gay people to support his campaign.

In an interview with Lone Star Q, a statewide on-line LGBT news site, Kilgore talked about his version of the big tent.

“I am a Christian, and I have lots of Christian beliefs. However, I am trying to build a coalition of all different types of people. I look at the lesbians and the homosexual folks and I say, ‘Hey, D.C. is stealing my money just like they’re stealing your money.’ After we get our freedom, then we can decide all that stuff — hopefully at a county level. Right now, lesbians and homosexuals and Christians may have differences with each other, but we’ve got a bigger enemy.”

To that end, Kilgore said he’s removed an anti-transvestite plank from his campaign web site. Asked what the punishment for homosexuality should be, Kilgore said, “According to the Bible, it should be execution, if anyone participates in that activity.” But he said the same for adulterers and women who have abortions.

“In my gubernatorial run, it’s secession only, and I want to build a bridge with all different kinds of folks,” Kilgore said. “If there was a homosexual running that was a secessionist, I would support him.” Under Kilgore’s idea of secession, Texas would be divided into several states. One state could be for gay people. In another, they could be executed. In 2006, Kilgore finished second behind Gov. Rick Perry for the GOP nomination for governor. He ran for the Senate in 2008, challenging incumbent John Cornyn, and in the primary and got nearly 20 percent of the Texas Republican vote.

Categories
Politics

Justine Sacco Sacked from Job after making Racist Tweet

Just hours after Justine Sacco made a racist comment on Twitter about not getting AIDS in Africa because she’s white, her job at IAC is no more. In a statement released today, her now former employer said,

“The offensive comment does not reflect the views and values of IAC. We take this issue very seriously, and we have parted ways with the employee in question. There is no excuse for the hateful statements that have been made and we condemn them unequivocally. We hope, however, that time and action, and the forgiving human spirit, will not result in the wholesale condemnation of an individual who we have otherwise known to be a decent person at core.”

Waiting for Sarah Palin and the rest of the Republican establishment to come to Justine’s rescue… you know, free speech and all.

ps.

On a lighter note, seems like Justine already found her next job.

Categories
oral sex Politics

New York Assemblyman Sent Staffer Video of Himself Receiving Oral Sex

Okay, so this is a change. I’m usually pointing out the so-called family values of Republican politicians accused of various sexual crimes from rape to child pornography. But this sickness is no respecter of political affiliation. So with that said, this is a story of a Democratic Assemblyman in New York, who allegedly sent videos of himself doing various sexual acts to his female staffers.

Three female former aides working under 62-year-old Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak—who, naturally, is married and has children—have filed a notice of claim detailing sexual harassment allegations against him. According to the employees—Annalise Freling, Jamie Campbell and Kimberly Snickles —Gabryszak frequently made inappropriate comments to them; he allegedly told then 28-year-old Freling, “I got a boner when I walked into the office today when I saw you,” and “You’re so hot, you know what I want to do with you,” for instance, and is accused of inviting 26-year-old Snickles to a massage parlor and telling her he was “more of a ‘butt’ guy than a ‘boobs’ guy.”

If that’s not skeevy enough, Gabryszak, a Democrat, also allegedly sent Freling a video of “him in a bathroom, either receiving or pretending to be receiving fellatio,” under the premise of sending her a recording of constituents. And, oh, there’s more: Gabryszak allegedly told Freling he wanted to “lick her,” asked female employees to spent the night in his Albany apartment, suggested they wear bikinis to events, joked he had a tattoo on his penis, regularly talked about prostitutes and strip clubs and was generally just an all-around creep, according to the claim.

The employees say the harassment was allegedly ongoing for several years, and they all finally resigned between March and October of this year, according to the claim: “The behavior was so severe, persistent and pervasive that the claimants had no alternative other than to leave their employment.” Now, they’re reportedly hoping Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver takes action against Gabryszak—good luck with that!

Categories
Healthcare ObamaCare Politics

States See Huge Increase in Healthcare Sign up

WASHINGTON – States with their own well-running health insurance exchanges reported Wednesday an increase of 30 percent to 40 percent in enrollments from last week to this week.

“We’re seeing huge interest,” said Peter Lee, director of California’s exchange, during a conference call sponsored by Families USA, a health care advocacy group that supports the Affordable Care Act.

Six months ago, “no American knew about” the state exchanges.

In the first week of December, 50,000 people signed up for insurance in California.

Last week, 15,000 people were signing up every day, Lee said. He expects the interest to increase as local organizations, such as libraries or even cities, launch their own campaigns to encourage people to buy health insurance.

Lee and other officials in states that have expanded Medicaid coverage and spent millions promoting their exchanges said they are seeing an increasing diversity among the people buying insurance and the types they are purchasing.

The numbers show interest in buying insurance is increasing after the initial problems that hurt the site when it launched Oct. 1, said Ron Pollack, the founding executive director of Families USA. States that are doing well, he said, can share how they succeeded with other states and the federal government.

Categories
Politics racist

Justine Sacco Said What about Africa, Aids and Being White?

Some people are just racists, and there is nothing we can do to change that. I’ve now come to that realization. Yes, I know that racism exists, but come on, we’re knocking on the door of 2014… and we’re still dealing with this ignorance? And what’s even worse, there is no end in sight.

Twitter and other social media sites were all buzzing a little more than usual on Friday, and I needed to find out why. A few seconds later, I came upon this tweet by Justine Sacco:

Who is Justine Sacco? Well first of all she is a racist, apparently unaware that things posted on a social media website is not the same as writing in her personal diary. Secondly, she is a public relations officer and senior director of corporate communications at InterActiveCorp (more commonly known as IAC), a Media company that owns Match.com, Vimeo and CollegeHumor.com, among others.

The tweet above was made as Justine boarded a flight to Africa and by the time she landed, her Twitter account was deleted but her tweet had already gone viral, as people all over the world voiced their disgust at the so-call humor of Miss Sacco. But her boss did not find the tweet funny. IAC, trying to separate the company from their racist employee, quickly issued this statement:

“This is an outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC. Unfortunately, the employee in question is unreachable on an international flight, but this is a very serious matter and we are taking appropriate action.”

IAC, who also owns other popular sites like About.com, OkCupid and Urbanspoon, took further steps and removed Justine’s name from their Contact page.

Some are saying that Justine’s twitter account could have been hacked, that someone took her cell phone for example and tweeted out that message. But some digging from Buzzfeed found more offensive tweets, spanning over two years.

Buzzfeed dug these tweets up before Justine’s account mysteriously disappeared. Tweets like;

We can tell this one is not going to fade away anytime soon, as the world awaits IAC’s decision on Justine Sacco. Waiting for Palin and Republicans to somehow use this as a political strategy to “protect free speech!”

Categories
Politics Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin’s Hypocrisy – Defends Phil Robertson’s Free Speech, But Not Martin Bashir’s

Sarah Palin, you remember her right? She is the same person who used a slavery comparison to throw out her partisan Republican talking point in a speech a few months ago. Trying to educate Mrs Palin on the harsh and horrific reality of slavery, Martin Bashir of MSNBC explained some of the circumstances these slaves lived under, and wondered if Palin would still used the comparison if she experienced some of the same treatment.

It’s free speech, constitutionally protected by the first amendment, and Bashir was absolutely correct in the point he was trying to make. But right winged media and Sarah Palin jumped and piled on, until Bashir apologized and eventually quit his job a few days later.

And now this. Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty has shared his opinion on gays. And as misguided as his comments were, it was his right to have that opinion. And as his employer, A&E also had the right to deal with the situation the way they saw fit. They suspended the star of the Duck Dynasty show and that is where Palin and the right wing media went off the deep end.

In her Facebook page, Palin is seen in a picture with the stars of the A&E program, with the caption: Free speech is an endangered species. Those “intolerants” hatin’ and taking on the Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us.

Yes folks, she actually said that “free speech is an endangered species,” and called anyone trying to take away speech from Phil Robertson “intolerants.” But can’t the same thing be said for Martin Bashir’s free speech? Why is Sarah Palin advocating for Phil Robertson’s “free speech” and not Martin Bashir’s? When Bashir lost his job over his free speech, where was Sarah Palin?

In an interview on Fox, Palin again said that “this is all about free speech.” She went on to say that people “spilled blood and treasure to guarantee Phil Robertson and everybody else’s right to voice their personal opinions, and once that freedom is lost,” Palin said, “everything is lost in our country.”

The hypocrisy on this one is so thick, you can cut it with a knife.

As if it was really needed, this is just another example of the hypocrisy that is the foundation of the Republican party.

Categories
Elizabeth Warren employers checking credit Politics

New Bill Bans Employers From Checking Your Credit Before Your Employment

Employers would no longer have the right to attain a prospective employee’s credit report, or to deny a job applicant based on credit status, under a bill introduced Tuesday in the US Senate.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and six other senators proposed the Equal Employment for All Act, which would aim to end the ability of employers to run credit checks on possible employees, currently a common practice.

Advocates of the measure says employer credit checks are a high, needless barrier of entry into the labor market for many with poor scores. Supporters add that the employer checks contribute to long-term unemployment and have disproportionately impacted women, minorities, students and seniors.

“There’s little or no evidence of any correlation between job performance and a credit [report],” Warren said Tuesday, according to CNN. “[T]his is a point of basic fairness…people who get hit with hard economic blows end up getting squeezed out of the system. This is another way the game is rigged against hardworking middle-class families.”

The think-tank Demos found in a report this year that one in ten unemployed Americans were denied a job based on credit status. Demos said the report evaluations target anywhere from entry-level positions to senior management staff.

Categories
Politics

Harry Reid Hospitalized

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was not feeling well and has gone to the hospital.

His office said in a statement, “Early this morning, Senator Reid was not feeling well and as a precaution decided to go to the hospital. Tests have been conducted and everything is normal. He is alert, resting and feeling better.

“Doctors have asked that he remain in the hospital for observation so he will not be working today.”

Reid turned 74 earlier this month.

The Senate was expected to adjourn Friday for the holiday season.

Categories
Politics

Preliminary Hearings in Renisha McBride’s Killing Begins

Carmen Beasley heard a loud noise outside in the early morning hours of Nov. 2.

She called 911, looked out and saw a car had struck her husband’s vehicle. She then saw a woman holding her hands to her head as she walked away. The woman came back, and Beasley asked if she was OK.

“She just kept saying she wanted to go home,” Beasley said today while testifying in court.

Hours later, that woman was shot to death on the porch of Theodore Wafer’s home in Dearborn Heights.

Wafer’s preliminary examination began today in 20th District Court in Dearborn Heights and will resume Thursday. Prosecutors do not have more witnesses to call, but Wafer’s defense is continuing.

Wafer faces charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter — death by weapon aimed with intent but without malice, and felony firearm in the death of Renisha McBride, 19. McBride died from a gunshot wound to her face.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy previously said McBride was shot through a screen door. Firearms examiner David Balash, who is retired from the Michigan State Police, testified for the defense that in his opinion, McBride would not have been more than 2 feet from the gun when she was shot.

Assistant Wayne County Medical Examiner Kilak Kesha testified that McBride would have died immediately upon being shot. He said he found no evidence of close range firing based on the lack of soot or stippling.

Kesha said McBride’s injuries were too severe to determine whether she had suffered any brain injuries earlier.

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