Thursday, April 28, 2011

Show Us Your Papers Mr. Trump.


“To be insulted by these fascists, is so degrading,” goes a song by David Bowie off of his Scary Monsters LP in 1980. A noted socialite millionaire and let’s be honest, Reality TV buffoon has been grabbing the mic a lot recently: New York’s own Donald Trump. We couldn’t get straight answers on anything the last administration did behind closed doors, but now a sitting President, duly elected, has had to produce papers for the first time in history to prove his right to be called an American citizen at all, -and consequently prove he is the President we all know he was elected to be in 2008. It’s no coincidence that this also happens to be the first African-American Commander-in-Chief. A coincidence ceases to be such, when it is in fact the reason behind an event.


Emily at The Vigil blog, posted a humbling outrage at this ongoing nonsense, along with a video that shows how far we’ve come as a republic, and how far many of our fellow citizens have to go in order to catch up with the simple promises of our Constitution. Emily’s post explains, once again, why this whole birther nonsense is just another tired instance of people camouflaging racism as “procedure” or “due diligence:”
http://sozadee.blogspot.com/2011/04/we-have-come-to-this.html?showComment=1303998494321#c7226072947515300810
Sadly, it’s nothing new is it? Just the same old tired racist crap.

I’ve got a request of my own, since I, like French writer Balzac long before me, suspect that behind every great fortune there is a great crime. My request is simple: Show us your papers Mr. Trump.

It shouldn’t be much of a hardship at all since Donald Trump recently said he would divulge all of his finances once the long form birth certificate (read “papers”) were produced by the President when he was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos.

Show us your papers, Mr. Trump.

Show us how you make and hide all that money from the public, the IRS, your debtors and let, as you yourself have suggested, “the experts decide.”

-SJ


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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

A Victory for ‘No Nonsense’ in Arizona… for Now.



I have always said that I’ll support Conservatives when they act like Conservatives (as long as it’s not in contradiction of my core philosophical beliefs.) Even as a pro-union, pretty-far-Left Liberal, who tends to vote for Democratic candidates fairly consistently, I still see a dire need in this country for Constitution-minded, small government, pro-small business, pro-individual politicians interested in making the Republic work for the people by enabling competition on the fairest, most level field achievable under law. Someone has to promote those perspectives with muscular clarity, because the Liberals and Progressives will forever be focused elsewhere necessarily, so that the poor aren’t legislated into slavery at the very least.

Teddy Roosevelt has been dead a long, long time.

Voting for Democratic candidates shouldn’t be a no-brainer for me, or for anyone. We’re Americans. We should have to make a well thought out choice between at least two distinct visions for policy and legislation. Sadly, the Republican Party, which has been the self-identified center of Conservative policy in America for several decades, only seems to stand against bureaucracy, subsidies, and expansion of government powers when its candidates and its tiny minority of super wealthy constituents can’t benefit from said bureaucracy, subsidies, and expansion of government powers. The same relativity is consistently applied to Conservative support for deregulation.
That leaves me with no choice at all as a citizen. Democrats should have to work hard for my votes and not rest assured simply because New York State always goes blue come election time. Hopefully, someday people like Lincoln Chaffee won’t get run out of the Grand Old Party simply for standing on principle. …Which brings me to Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona.
Yesterday Governor Brewer vetoed two bills that seemed all-but-law-before-the-fact as they sailed toward her desk from the Conservatives in the Arizona state legislature. The "birther bill," which theatrically and ceremoniously mandated various proofs of U.S. citizenship for candidates running for President, had never been anything but a sad embarrassing ploy to keep the very idea of Barack Obama’s U.S. citizenship a live subject for discussion among people looking to neutralize him politically. The bill insists upon, among other things, that long-form birth certificates, baptismal certificates, proofs of circumcision, all be put on the state ballot. The birther bill was a puerile attempt by Arizona legislators to put an asterisk on the Obama Presidency: -this from politicians who claim to oppose unnecessary bureaucracy at every turn?.. -except apparently when it enables harassment of their political opposition.
In what I considered to be one of the most surprising recent moves by any Governor, Brewer, (who made national headlines last year for signing a draconian state law cracking down on illegal immigrants,) vetoed the birther bill. The governor’s reasoning? "(it) could lead to arbitrary or politically motivated decisions." -Applause please.
The other bill before Governor Brewer had nothing to do with ongoing partisan silliness and the predictably racist nativism that had accompanied the historic election of an African-American President in 2008. This bill was a proposed gun law that would have allowed firearms on college campuses. This was such a staggeringly idiotic policy move on the part of the Arizona legislature that it almost merits no comment at all, and yet it would have flown in Arizona. Governor Brewer, in a moment of admirable sobriety and decency, vetoed that bill also.

The second veto was more surprising than the first, because surely by saying “no” once, Brewer understood she had bought herself some political capital to say “yes” to any remaining proposal in a form of disingenuous compromise between two controversial bills: a type of compromise that is often little more than a calculated “Coke or Pepsi” ruse when it comes to lawmaking in America.

I thank you Governor Jan Brewer, as a citizen of your country. I thank you because although I don’t live in Arizona, I may have to visit it again one day. I’d like to think that there is no place in the United States whereupon the laws are so alien, so opposed to what we all know are our common notions of decency that there may as well be walled borders to separate the irrational from the sane along the interstate.

Now about all that anti-immigration legislation Madame Governor...

-SJ
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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Can’t Say I Told You So-


-because I didn’t. I thought Glenn Beck was going to be with us for much, much longer.I have aggressively opposed this man’s brand of news entertainment since the start of his tenure on CNN Headline News. I thought he was dangerous then. I’ve written (So has this blog’s founder Mycue23) at length about the lies, race baiting, conspiracy promoting and calculatingly paranoid philosophies that Glenn Beck tried to pass off as information under the cover of a “news” network. If you’ve seen his show and still need further convincing, you may require the services of a psychiatric professional or may need to take a good look in the mirror: You’ll have to be honest with yourself about why you chose to believe the hazardous nonsense this man created for the fearful, suppliant masses who just wanted somebody to tell them it’s entirely legitimate to be childishly scared and to act crazy because a black man is president.

This isn’t new. Google the name “Father Coughlin” and you can read about another allegedly devout religious man who capitalized on the fear and uncertainty of an economic downturn in America to go after “enemies.”

Fox “News” deserves no pats on the back for letting Beck go. I suspect they love this theatrically teary-eyed hateful little man.


It took angry Americans by the thousands harassing marketers with emails and phone calls so that 100 or more advertisers would leave Fox “News” Channel. It took several consecutive months of the the jobless rate easing. It took two years or more of enough people realizing that anti-Semitism is still racism, no matter how you dress it up with stories, myths, convenient villains and conspiracy theories.


…What it finally took ladies and gentlemen, was a decline in ratings.


Now that there is nothing more they can squeeze from this dangerous clown, they’ve decided enough is enough and taken Beck off the air. Fox claims in press releases that they will continue collaboration with Beck in other media. I suspect this will go as far as the rumored movie deal that Mel Gibson was going to strike with Bill O’Reilly, -until Mr. O’Reilly was accused of sexually harassing Andrea Mackris of course. The mere accusation alone was enough to make Gibson run away fast, and stop returning O’Reilly’s calls. -This from a movie star whose own increasing, festering bigotry made him inconvenient in turn?


Beck is likewise being ostracized for reasons that are not central to his abuse of the public square.


Ultimately, it still qualifies as good news. One less liar on the air. One less maniac making up conflicts and challenging science as if he had any other point or purpose other than manipulation. For my part, I look forward to the day when I am writing a blog posting about the closing down of Fox “News” Channel itself.

-SJ
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