But the good people of Indiana are beginning to make their voice heard and they are demanding something be done about the hate bill recently signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike Pence, a bill designed to allow businesses in Indiana to discriminate against people in the state.
Hundreds of people, some carrying signs reading “no hate in our state,” gathered Saturday outside the Indiana Statehouse for a boisterous rally against a new state law that opponents say could sanction discrimination against gay people.
Since Republican Gov. Mike Pence signed the bill into law Thursday, Indiana has been widely criticized by businesses and organizations around the nation, as well as on social media with the hashtag #boycottindiana. Local officials and business groups around the state hope to stem the fallout, although consumer review service Angie’s List said Saturday that it is suspending a planned expansion in Indianapolis because of the new law.
The law’s supporters contend discrimination claims are overblown and insist it will keep the government from compelling people to provide services they find objectionable on religious grounds. They also maintain that courts haven’t allowed discrimination under similar laws covering the federal government and 19 other states.
But state Rep. Ed DeLaney, an Indianapolis Democrat, said Indiana’s law goes further than those laws and opens the door to discrimination.
“This law does not openly allow discrimination, no, but what it does is create a road map, a path to discrimination,” he told the crowd, which stretched across the south steps and lawn of the Statehouse. “Indiana’s version of this law is not the same as that in other states. It adds all kinds of new stuff and it moves us further down the road to discrimination.”
President Obama used his weekly address to talk about ways his administration is working to protect the middle class. And he mentioned actions being taken against Payday Lending as one way of protecting American workers.
But he also mentioned the recent budget by Congressional Republicans and the ways this budget is engineered to take from the middle class and give to the rich, and the president vowed to use his remaining time in office to fight against these tactics.
It’s as if we’re all guilty and must be proven innocent in the courts.
What other reason would there be for police officers to pull a man out of his car and beat him, with one officer throwing the man to the ground, applying a chokehold to the man, then punching the man 16 times in his head? Why is this thuggish behavior considered “serving and protecting?”
And then, when the rest of his backup arrived, they too get in the act of serving and protecting. One officer takes out his taser and tased the breeding man while the other members of the serve and protect gang slap handcuffs on the man, his face and head bloodied by the 16 blows he received to his head. And then when the man was finally taken away to the safety of a hospital room, one of the officers can be seen on camera pulling a bag out of his pocket and planting drugs in the man’s car.
The man – I must say – is black and yes, all the responding officers were white. But should that apparent crime of being the wrong color caused the man to be choked, beaten and almost killed by the “serve and protect” gang? Don’t blacks have the same constitutionally projected rights as everyone else? And why shouldn’t black people be expected to go home to their families, like this man was attempting to do before the gang intervened?
And of course you already know what happened next. The officers were not changed with any wrong-doing. But the man, a 57-year-old auto worker from Detroit named Floyd Dent, has a court date to answer for the drugs the Detroit Police gang members planted in his car.
Serving and Protecting… the only way they know how…
ps. No drugs were found in Mr. Dent’s system when he was examined at the hospital.
So based on the flight recordings from the Germanwings airplane that crashed a few days ago killing all 150 people onboard, it is now being determined that the co-pilot deliberately locked the pilot out of the cockpit and crashed the plane. This is leading many to ask why? Why would the co-pilot do something so hideous?
Well, according to Pat Robertson, the reason could be that the co-pilot was a Muslim. Of course! He killed a lot of people, so… there!
“What happened to that plane that crashed into the French Alps?” Robertson asked on Thursday’s edition of The 700 Club. “Well, they’ve begun to find out. The pilot went to the lavatory and was soon locked out of the cockpit. He pounded on the door, begging to come in. But the door was not opened.”
“The co-pilot then takes the plane, pushes it into a dive and crashes it. The passengers are screaming as the plane went down. The pilot is yelling.”
“What a terrible tragedy,” the TV preacher continued. “Was that co-pilot a Muslim? Was he suicidal? What was it about him?”
Glenn Beck went back to his home turf, Fox News, and was interviewed by his good friend and comrade, Bill O’Reilly on his recent comments about leaving the Republican party. And after detailing a long long long list of areas where he said the Republicans have failed him and the country, Beck then concluded that voting for another Republican like Jeb Bush, is like voting for Hillary Clinton.
He likes Ted Cruz for 2016 so that alone should give you an idea of where Beck is coming from. But listening to him detail some of the areas where Republicans have failed him, was wonderful. Beck listed immigration and Taxes as areas of contention with his party, and of course, included in his long list of reasons why he’s leaving the Republicans is Benghazi.
O’Reilly tried, but failed to convince Beck that voting Republican is the best way to go. Beck however, was adamant and concluded that voting for Jeb would be the same as voting for Hillary Clinton.
“Jeb Bush is Hillary Clinton lite”, Beck said, as Bill O’ once again lied to his audience with the unfounded claim that the economy was “pretty good” under George W. Bush. Bill O’ then accused Beck of living in “fantasy land!”
Like you may have heard, Ted Cruz formally announced his intentions to run for president in 2016. I’ll wait for the laughter to stop.
Waiting.
Waiting.
Ok, I can’t wait anymore. We don’t have all day you know.
Moments after Cruz made his announcement in front of a reported 10,000 students at the Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, another report stated that these students had to attend the event to avoid being fined. But with such a demand for mandatory attendance, some in the audience could have been angry and could have missed Cruz’s speech. They were there physically, but mentally…?
Well we are here to help. So let’s take it to Jon Stewart for his two-cents on this two-cents Republican candidate.
Shock and Awe? No, not really. It would be shock and awe if you didn’t know who you are dealing with. These are Republicans and we have learned not to put anything past these folks. Today, Ted Cruz announced a run for the presidency and now we are learning that the audience he spoke to were only there to avoid being fined.
Sen. Ted Cruz took the stage to declare his presidential candidacy at Liberty University Monday, surrounded by upwards of 10,000 cheering students. They weren’t all here by choice.
Attendance at convocation at Liberty is mandatory, and a group of students clad in “Stand With Rand” shirts sat center stage—directly in view of the cameras—to log their displeasure with having to be here.
“Of course, you want it to appear as if you have a large audience,” said Eli McGowan, who organized the not-so-subtle protest. “We felt like if we didn’t wear shirts showing our true political preference then the media might think we all supported Cruz.”
“They make you come. If you don’t come, you get punished,” said Ana Delgado, a sophomore, who said students face a $10 fine for not showing up at convocation. Delgado wasn’t among those wearing Paul gear. She is undecided about who she’ll support in 2016, but she didn’t like being forced to be part of Cruz’s announcement.
The man was drinking with friends in the area of 4600 West and Dunsmore Way and showing them his gun at the time of the fatal accident, said West Valley police spokeswoman Roxanne Vainuku.
The man took the magazine out of the gun and pulled the trigger while pointing it at his own throat, Vainuku said. Emergency workers responded to the scene about 7:45 p.m.
The man’s name wasn’t immediately released Friday night.
Vainuku said all indications are that the shooting was accidental.
He didn’t appear to express any sort of suicidal thoughts. … At this point it looks like a simple accident,” she said.
Nobody else was hurt in the incident.
“Never point a gun at another person – even if you have the magazine out of the gun, as we see with that incident tonight,” Vainuku said. “It turned out to be a deadly decision.”
The California Governor went on this week’s Meet The Press and spoke at length about Climate Change, and the fact that California is going through its own version of Climate Change with a massive drought, when he was asked to respond to a claim by Ted Cruz.
Meet The Press host Chuck Todd played a clip of Cruz questioning the authenticity of global warming, where Cruz implied that scientists and other authorities on Climate Change are wrong. Todd asked the governor to respond. Governor Brown’s response was priceless.
“That man betokens such a level of ignorance and a direct falsification of the existing scientific data. It’s shocking and I think that man has rendered himself absolutely unfit to be running for office.”
Cruz is expected to announce his intentions to run for president tomorrow.
I keep saying ‘Canadian born Ted Cruz’ because that is just a fact, although some would argue that fact does not disqualify Cruz from running for President. I am just flabbergasted that there are still some who, without any proof whatsoever, disqualifies Barack Obama from being president because they assume he was born outside the United States. But these same people however, will vote for the Canadian born Cruz in 2016.
But I digress
Senator Ted Cruz is expected to announce his run for the Republican nomination for president on Monday. The Teaparty loved Republican has made waves among fellow Republicans and Democrats alike, and even orchestrated the last Republican government shutdown in 2013, the exact quality Republicans are looking for in their next president – a president who can shut down the government.
In addition to shutting down the government, Cruz is also one of the biggest oppositions to President Obama and has opposed everything Obama has done since he became president. Cruz’s opposition to Obama’s healthcare reform for example, is legendary. And he has vowed to do everything possible to take away this healthcare from the 16 million Americans currently enjoying it.
Yes, a president capable of shutting down the government and taking away healthcare from millions of Americans? That is the Republicans’ dream!
We’re going to need our mucking boots today because we’re going to wade into the Middle East. Until now, I have assiduously avoided all mention of the region because it’s messy and confusing and controversial and, quite frankly, my ideas have, shall we say, evolved over time. But the events of the day are far too important and compelling for me to stay away from the issues, so I am now going to opine. With FEEling.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a first and world-class jerk who has no business actually running a government. His comments last week on the eve of the Israeli elections regarding a two state solution with the Palestinians and his warnings about Israeli Arabs voting in droves have only widened the differences between Israel and both the US government and many American Jews. His speech in front of Congress, orchestrated by the House Republican leadership and done without consulting or notifying the Obama Administration, was a new low in political gaming and rogue foreign policy. That the speech almost ended up actually costing Netanyahu his election, and thus his need to play the racist, far-right card, told us that he would do anything to win votes (not a bad thing in and of itself, mind you). His persistent warnings about Iran’s intentions to build a bomb and use it on Israel are complicating the nuclear talks between the US and Iran, and his approval of new Israeli settlements is angering our allies around the world.
And yet…
Netanyahu and his right wing government, is the only institution that is standing between Israel’s future existence and radical, terrorist, anti-Semitic entities that want to destroy it. His focus on Israel’s security is a prerequisite for winning and holding national office and, along with the economy, is the main issue for both domestic and foreign consumption. He’s a strong leader and has been able to navigate his way through the thickets of his country’s political system en route to 4 national election victories.
I support Israel and believe that it must survive and thrive as a testament to its Jewish roots, its democracy, its vibrant culture and its place as an island of hope in a hostile world. I also believe that there should be a state for the Palestinians because the present political and social arrangement is unsustainable and in some cases, inhuman. But now we are stuck because the current state of world affairs is so polarized and unforgiving that any compromise seems impossible. Radical Islamic groups would like nothing more than to see Israel destroyed. Israel needs to confront its adversaries and deserves the right to defend itself against attacks from both rockets and words.
What to do? The easy thing is to say that the Arab and Islamic states need to formally recognize that Israel exists and will continue to exist, and that the Israelis need to recognize that they will have to give up some land that they won in the six-day war of 1967. Militant groups will need to give up their weapons and stop using them against Israel, and Israel will need to loosen some of the border restrictions so that the Palestinians can freely conduct commerce and make their economy grow. Sounds easy, right?
Of course it isn’t and Netanyahu isn’t going to help. He’s going to hold a hard line now and wait to see who the next US president is going to be, hoping it’s someone he can work with, since his relationship with Obama is probably irreparable. I’m sure he’d love to see a more aggressive neo-conservative Republican, but I think Hillary Clinton would fit the bill too.
In the meantime, he’ll continue to oppose anything that might threaten Israel and will oppose any agreement with the Iranians. And there will be an agreement with the Iranians because deep down I think the Iranians want an agreement on their nuclear program. The Iranian economy is in shambles because of sanctions and the middle class (yes, there is a middle class) is demanding a place in the larger world. A nuclear agreement would also hold the Iranians to specific actions and inspections that, while there are many who say they will ultimately ignore any limits, will require Iran to play by the world’s rules if it wants to be taken seriously. I could be utterly misreading the politics, but I don’t think so. Attacking Israel with a nuclear weapon will only invite Iran’s destruction. They clearly don’t want that.
The prospects for genuine peace in the region look about as bleak as they ever have, and it will probably take a new generation of leadership to improve them. Of course, weren’t we saying the same thing in the 1970s?
And now a message from the Republican brain, Louie Gohmert.
On Thursday’s edition of Washington Warch, the Texas Republican told host Tony Perkins that “we need to encourage this administration to go take out Iran’s nuclear capability” instead of pursuing negotiations: “I think it’s time to bomb Iran.”
“We need to make clear to Iran: You can play these silly games with our president that buys into them and our secretary of state, but the American people aren’t buying it and you’re going to pay a price,” Gohmert said.
“I’m hoping and praying the president will realize, despite the agenda he has that has put Christians in jeopardy around the world, that he will not want to leave the Democratic Party so devastated that they won’t recover for many decades, that maybe he’ll start being more helpful to Israel instead of slapping them around as an unwelcomed visitor and start treating them like a friend. And maybe once he starts doing that he’ll realize we do need to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities that we know of and anything that they move to fix, we bomb that as well.”
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