Monthly archives: October, 2013

Video: Last Gay Standing (Late Show with Jon Stewart)

From the Daily Show:

Al Madrigal travels to Alabama and Mississippi to see which one of these backwoods, inbred, homophobic states will swim longest against the tide of history.  (05:44)

 


Law Enforcement Against Prohibition: Crowd-funding Campaign

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition’s crowdfunding campaign, “Cops Lead Drug War Victims on  Journey for Peace.” 

Making use of the footage shot during 2012’s Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity, LEAP is producing a documentary filmabout the law enforcers who led a caravan of drug war victims across the United States in a campaign to acknowledge the devastation created by Mexico’s war on drugs. 

LEAP’s mission was to supplement the victims’ testimony with law enforcement voices bearing personal witness to the harms and wasteful futility of the War on Drugs here in the United States.

LEAP journalists Dean Becker and Sam Sabzehzar joined with filmmakers from Mexico and around the world to document the emotional testimonies of the victims and police throughout the 27-city tour, shooting more than 500 hours of unedited video.

This moving story of law enforcement coming together with drug war survivors reveals a truth about the value of ending the violence generated by drug prohibition.

We write to request your help in two ways.

1. Would you make a gift of at least $25 today to support this film’s production?  

2. Would you invite at least 10 friends to join this effort with you and make a gift by sharing the link (www.tiny.cc/leap_film)? 

We have the film. We have the story. You have the funds to help us edit, translate, score and finish a documentary that will draw attention to the grief caused by the war on drugs around the world. 

As a LEAP supporter, your contributions are truly what sustain our efforts. Please help us to complete this film and educate the public on the dire need for an end to drug prohibition. 

Thank you, 

Major Neill Franklin (Ret.)
Executive Director
Law Enforcement Against Prohibtion


Video: Jacob Hemphill of SOJA Supports Marriage Equality

Commentary

Straight ally Jacob Hemphill of reggae band SOJA voices his support for marriage equality. SOJA joins a growing list of musicians standing with the Human Rights Campaign on the right side of history. Equality Rocks!

Learn more at hrc.org/equalityrocks #EQUALITYROCKS


Fox News Contributor Sandy Rios Says Matthew Shepard Murder a ‘Fairy Tale…Total Fraud’

Never forget Matthew Shepard

Between the reality, above, and the madness, below, lie two simple truths: Matthew Shepard was viciously beaten, eventually dying on October 12, 1998.

And Fox Contributor Sandy Rios is incredibly, incredibly mean-spirited.

Here is what she said on October 11, one day before the anniversary of Matthew’s painful death:

At today’s conservative Values Voters Summit, hosted by the certified anti-gay hate group Family Research Council, Sandy Rios made the horrific claim that the story of the 1998 anti-gay hate-crime murder of Matthew Shepard “wasn’t true,” and is “a total fraud,” and a “fairy tale” used as “propaganda” by LGBT activists.

Unbelievably cruel.

If you can tolerate her unabashed lies, below is video of her comments, spoken, horribly, on the eve of the fifteenth anniversary of Shepard’s death.

He was attacked overnight on October 6–7, and taken off life support and died on October 12, 1998.

Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson murdered Matthew Shepard. This is a matter of fact. This is a matter of public record.

Sandy Rios’ claims are cruel, rubbing salt in wounds that will never heal.

Our condolences to the Shepard family for being put through these awful, hate-filled claims, all over again.


Damn the GOP. What They’re Doing Is Unprecedented, Immoral, and Evil

The GOP government shutdown just hit home for a close friend.

His son, a laborer who lives in a so-called "Right To Work" state, was out of work. He had been let go from his previous job because he became injured outside of work. Rather than give him a month to heal, which is all he needed, his employer at the time just let him go. Tried to tell him that he was doing him a favor. That he could collect unemployment, as opposed to making nothing for the 30 days or so he would need to heal.

And his employer knew that this lad had only worked for him for five months, therefore not qualifying for unemployment. And, it turns out, this employer has done this to other workers, letting them go in the fifth month of employment, so the employer has to pay neither benefits nor unemployment.

This is what the GOP refers to as "Right To Work," the myth that, forbidding unions from requiring workers to join a union when they get a job, workers now can be "free" of union dues and work, because, dammit, they have the right to work.

In reality, it means states full of workers, like my friend’s son, who have no union protection, no unions who negotiated fair working conditions. None of that. Not at all.

And employers can be as ruthless as the nasty members of the GOP, some of the meanest pols we’ve seen since just before the Great Depression, when robber barons ruled, and pols danced to their commands.

So my friend’s son applied for another job. Went through the entire interview process. Passed every background check, drug test — paid for by the hiring company — and was given his "new employee" packet.

And, on what was supposed to be his first day of work, was told that the company could not start him, because of the government shutdown.

Because of the government shutdown, the company was not certain that some contracts would be upheld.

That’s not what they told him at first. But, after he pressed them, they admitted this was, in fact, the case. The government shutdown.

The damn GOP government shutdown.

His son says it was evident the company was scrambling. Some news from on high had reached the blue collar workers, and the company, and American company, was being downsized.

These inglorious GOP members of Congress have got to go.

All of them.

They claim that this shutdown is the fault of the Democrats and the Democratic President who "refuse to negotiate.

Bullshit.

And here’s proof.

From BillMoyers.com, proof that this debt ceiling crisis is not politics as usual:

Never before has a minority party linked controversial legislative demands with a threat to shut down the government or imperil the global economy. But House Republicans would have you believe otherwise.

In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal this morning, Rep. Paul Ryan writes that president Obama “says he ‘will not negotiate’ on the debt ceiling. He claims that such negotiations would be unprecedented. But many presidents have negotiated on the debt ceiling—including him. ”

Ryan was referring to a speech given in September before the Business Roundtable — an association of CEOs of large US companies — in which the president said, “You have never seen in the history of the United States the debt ceiling or the threat of not raising the debt ceiling being used to extort a president or a governing party, and trying to force issues that have nothing to do with the budget and have nothing to do with the debt.”

Ryan continued: “He’s refusing to talk, even though the federal government is about to hit the debt ceiling. That’s a shame — because this doesn’t have to be another crisis. It could be a breakthrough.”

But that’s spin: Negotiating would set a dangerous precedent, because Obama’s right that this time really is different. Here are three reasons why.

Go to the original article here and read, and then act.


Obama Continues to Kick Ass as POTUS: U.S. Says Navy SEAL Team Captures Shabab Leader in Somalia

From the NYTimes:

A Navy SEAL team targeted a senior leader of the Shabab militant group in a raid on his seaside villa in the Somali town of Baraawe on Saturday, American officials said, in response to a deadly attack on a Nairobi shopping mall for which the group had claimed responsibility.

The SEAL team stealthily approached the beachfront house by sea, firing on the unidentified target in a predawn gunbattle that was the most significant raid by American troops on Somali soil since commandos killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Qaeda mastermind, near the same town four years ago.

The Shabab leader was believed to have been killed in the firefight, but the SEALS were forced to withdraw before that could be confirmed, a senior American official said. Such operations by American forces are rare because they carry a high risk, and indicate that the target was considered a high priority. Baraawe, a small port town south of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, is known as a gathering place for the Shabab’s foreign fighters.

Read more here.


Video: Shutstorm 2013: America Sits on Its Balls – Bias on Bulls**t Mountain, Jon Stewart

Could there be a higher octane fuel for the Fox News false outrage exploitation engine than wheelchair-bound World War II veterans?

Jon Stewart at his best. Surgical. Precise.

And with firm proof that the GOP planned and engineered this shutdown.

Proof.

From 80 Congressional members of the GOP.

And don’t forget Smokey the Bear.


Quash the Teabaggers! Reclaim America!

The following is from Congresswoman Robin Kelly:

This morning at 12:01am, Congressional Republicans shut down the government.

Millions of Americans are going to suffer — seniors, veterans, students, businesses, and workers — while those responsible for the shutdown get paid.

Democrats in Congress need to hear that the public is on their side in this fight and we need them to stand strong.

Click here to call Rep. Robin Kelly and tell her to stand strong against Tea Party demands.

This shutdown will end in one of two ways:

  1. Democrats will cave and cut vital programs like Social Security or
  2. Republicans will cave to immense public pressure. 

Flooding Democrats’ offices with phone calls will make sure it’s not option 1. We’re also running online ads targeting Republican Speaker John Boehner to make sure he feels extra pressure back home. 

Can you call Rep. Kelly and tell her that the American people need Democrats to stand strong? Click here.

Thanks for being a bold progressive. 

From Turning Left:

Thank you, thank you all, for being bold progressives!

Stay true, and reclaim America from the Tea Baggers!