Tag: Activism

Grassley promotes Glenn Beck’s new book at town hall. Does he agree that Obama is a racist, too?

Crossposted at Daily Kos

thanks for the FP bump, Buhdy

    From the invaluable thinkprogress.org



TOWN HALL ATTENDEE: I noticed that you have the book “Common Sense” with you today, I hope you share it with a lot more of those 535 people.

GRASSLEY: Well the reason I brought it is you’re supposed to pass it on to other people when you’re not reading it.

    I’ve had about enough of the whole Senate Finance Committee, but Senator Grassley takes the cake with this one.

    I wonder what else Beck sells that Grassley buys?

    Senator Grassley actually read this Piece Of Shit?

    After the town hall, Thinkprogress.org reports that Senator Grassley gave them an autographed copy of Glenn Beck’s new book and said “It’s something you gotta read a couple of times.”

    I assume that it is one of those books where they ask you questions and you go to different chapters to follow different storylines, and each storyline has a different ending where the world ends thanks to us no good reverse racist fascist neo-Nazi progressive socialists Democrats.

    Did Senator Grassley actually pay for this garbage?

    So, if Senator Grassley is endorsing Glenn Beck’s new book, Common Sense (which, presumably one lacks if they are reading it.), I wonder if Senator Grassley endorses these other classic asshat Glenn Beck statements.

more below the fold

Stop Herta’s Deportation

19 year-old Herta Lluso is going to be deported from the US on August 19.  Unless, of course, we can get ICE officials to grant her a stay of deportation.  That’s where you come in.

Herta’s case is a strong example of just why we need the Dream Act:

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (The “DREAM Act”) is a piece of proposed federal legislation that was introduced in the US Senate, and the US House of Representatives on March 26, 2009. This bill would provide certain illegal immigrant students who graduate from US high schools, are of good moral character, arrived in the US as children, and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill’s enactment, the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency. The students would obtain temporary residency for a six year period. Within the six year period, a qualified student must have “acquired a degree from an institution of higher education in the United States or [have] completed at least 2 years, in good standing, in a program for a bachelor’s degree or higher degree in the United States,” or have “served in the uniformed services for at least 2 years and, if discharged, [have] received an honorable discharge.” “Any alien whose permanent resident status is terminated [according to the terms of the Act] shall return to the immigration status the alien had immediately prior to receiving conditional permanent resident status under this Act.”

Wiki.

Passage of the Dream Act, however, won’t solve Herta Lluso’s deportation, because she’ll be gone, deported to Albania, long before it passes unless we get a stay of her deportation.  What we need to do is get a stay of her deportation.  And we need it now.

I found Herta’s story at dreamactivist.org:

My name is Herta Llusho, I am 19 years old, and I writing this because I am about to be deported.  I was born in Albania and was brought to the United States when I was 11 years old.   With the help and support of my family, I have struggled through more than seven years of legal proceedings to find a way to stay in this country legally.  Despite our best efforts, on August 19, I will be removed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from the only place I know as my home.  I will be sent back to a country that has become a foreign place to me.  I don’t even speak Albanian well anymore.  My only hope of staying here is for as many people as possible to ask DHS to delay my deportation until the DREAM Act is passed.

My parents brought me to the United States because they believed in the promises this country had to offer. To them it was the land of opportunities, values, and ideals. They were faithful believers of the American Dream, meaning that through hard work, education, and good character their children could accomplish anything they wanted. In fact, they believed in it so strongly that they sacrificed their own lives, as well as their relationship to make it happen. My dad stayed in Albania with the hope of relocating to the US, while my mom left everything behind in pursuit of a better life for her children. To this day, even after many years of struggle and sacrifice, they still believe that it is all worth it, and so do I. I have been truly blessed in the many opportunities I have received. The United States has made me the person I am today. I would like nothing more than to contribute to the country that has given me so much.

You can read her entire story at Citizen Orange.  And you can listen to her tell it here (audio is not great, so turn it up):

There’s not a lot more to say about why Herta should be kept in this Country.  It’s obvious. She is the kind of person we want in this Country.  It is our loss to deport her.

Let’s stop this deportation. Suggested action steps are here.  Please do what you can.

——————

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

Torture Architects had ZERO interrogation experience. They tortured and call us Nazi’s? WTF!?!

Crossposted at Daily Kos

   If we prosecute Bush/Cheney what will the GOP do? Stop working with us? Call us Nazi’s?

   Because, that is happening right now. Kinda takes the threat away, huh?

   The people who tortured children

   The people who covered up mass graves

   The people who began a domestic spying program and began an ilegal war of aggression

   They and their supporters are calling the left Nazi’s?!?

   I call bullshit

   While wingnuts scream RESPECT THE CONSTITUTION and call the Left Fascists, the last GOP administration did Fascist stuff.

   Of course, these morans don’t care to know that, but then, they are death panel believing birthers who know nothing, so who cares what they think.

   There is more below the fold, and info where you can contact AG Eric Holder and the White House to demand FULL Prosecutions for actual Nazi stuff.

Town Hall Recap NY-20: I have met the wingnuts, they are very scared and dumb as hell

Crossposted at [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/9/151935/4860 Daily Kos}

Change Vs NOOOO!!!

    This is my personal account of Saturday’s town hall with Representative Scott Murphy.

    I have met the wingnuts and looked into their eyes, and they are very scared, badly misinformed, angry, and dumb as hell.

    Early on the screamers tried to troll out the event. Representative Scott Murphy (D-NY20) answered back with a line that sums up the whole argument when he said

“When we are done people can tell me what they hate.”

    I have broken this diary up into four sections, including a breakdown of Congressmen Murphy’s conversations with the public and his stance on Health Care reform, as well as pictures from the event, the lobbyists role in all of this, and a statement on the need to throw bipartisanship overboard from now on.

   Having engaged the GOP base firsthand, I can easily state that these are the dumbest people in the country.

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Teabagging 9/11 victims, sponsored by FreeRepublic, Freedomworks, FOX and the GOP. Stay classy

Crossposted at Daily Kos

 Does anybody remember who controlled the entire Government of the U.S.A. on 9/11/01?

  It was Clinton’s Obama’s Fault, of course!

  This is the exploitation of the Americans who lost their lives on the morning of September 11, 2001 in order to further the Right Wing/Corporatist political agenda.

  This is the exploitation of the suffering of ever family effected by 9/11.

  This is the exploitation of emergency workers who served on 9/11. Many of them died on that tragic day.

  This is the exploitation of the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.

  This is the shameless exploitation of every american, everywhere.

  And where were these protesters in 2002? or 2003? or 2004? or 2005? or 2006? or 2007? or 2008?

  But now that we have a Black Democratic President the Corporate intersts, their lobbyists, the RW media and the GOP choose to protest on the morning after the 8 year anniversary of 9/11/2001?

  This can not stand unchallenged.

 I refer to this.


Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com Sign up for the 09.12.09 Protest at the Capitol!

It’s time to take the tea party movement directly to Washington, D.C. Please join thousands of local organizers and grassroots Americans from across the country as we gather in our nation’s capital to deliver a message to the politicians: Enough!

We are gathering on 9-12-2009 to deliver our message in person that we’ve had enough!

National Sponsor: Freedom Works

freerepublic.com

   

   Freedomworks, if you are not aware, is the RW lobbying firm headed by the Ex Republic House Majority Leader Dick Armey, which has been behind the Fox News sponsored tea bagging party movement that miraculously materialized the moment the Republic party lost the Presidential election on 11/4/08.

   They might as well name their event the 1/19/09 project.

Keep it stupid, simple. Jon Stewart exposes Sen. Grassley as flat out screwing with us on HCR

Crossposted at Daily Kos

   Honestly, this is just flat out pathetic.

    Cardboard caricatures of “Sir Tax a lot” and “The Debt and Deficit Dragon”, ala Senate Republicans and Ranking Senate Finance Committee member Chuck Grassley are not only ridiculous but is a slap in the face of every American who takes health care reform dead serious. Further, it is proof to three facts that are undeniable at this point.

1.     Bi-partisanship with the Republican party is NOT to be taken seriously anymore, if it ever was to begin with.

2.     Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and Sen. Grassely are flat out jerking us around.

3.     If Health Care Reform fails, or is FUBAR, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid should be the one who suffers our wrath.

    More below the fold, and a call to action.

Baucus/Conrad did NOT win the election. No more $ w/o Public Option

Simulposted at Daily Kos

   Simply put, I voted for Obama/Biden, NOT Baucus/Conrad. If these fools want to try to squander away our electoral victories through Bipartisanship with the party of “No/Birthers”, I will not give one more cent to any organization that might fund Baucucrat Senators.

    Tell your Senator:     If there is no public option in health care reform, there is no public option in our Democracy.

    I am NOT holding my breath and hoping this Senate will hold Baucus/Conrad and others accountable. They didn’t do shit when Liberman sided against Obama and with McCain, they won’t do it now.

    In my opinion, the ONLY way to force these Baucucrats accountable, the only way to force Senate Misleadership to do something is to hit em in the one place they care about, their election funds.

    Therefore, I propose that we withhold ANY and ALL financial support from groups that fund incumbent Senators until a bill with a robust public option is on President Obama’s desk.  

K K Konservatives intimidate Democrat over health care by hanging him in effigy

Crossposted at Daily Kos

    A group called “Patients First,” a project of the lobbyist-funded Americans for Prosperity, has been going around the country and hosting tea parties in opposition to “government-run health care.”

ThinkProgress.org

    Yesterday, AFP decided to hold a protest in front of the offices of Democratic Rep. Frank Kratovil’s (D-MD1) office. Despite the fact that Rep. Kratovil has yet to take a stance for or against health care reform, the AFP protesters felt it would be appropriate to voice their concerns by hanging him in effigy.

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    And I thought calling the Congressman or writing him was the best way to influence his opinion! I didn’t know this was an option.

    It’s not an option, of course, unless you have lost your mind or you are a hate mongering sociopath.

    Now, if I were Rep. Kratovil, I would vote for health care reform just to spite this proto-lynch mob.

    Unfortunately, I am not he, and I don’t know how Congressman Kratovil will respond to this.

    This is not the first time a Democratic Politician has been threatened with hanging by voices empathetic to the GOP. Recently Sam Joe The Plumber the Propaganda machine suggested that someone should String up Senator Chris Dodd.

    And then of course there are the tea baggers, the Obama is a socialists, the Obama is a fascists, the Obama is a Kenyan, and on, and on, and on.

    This is not Democracy of We The People. This is not the rule of law decided by fair elections. This is how to intimidate citizens through threats of violence. This is the rule of mob.

   I do not know if the goal is to threaten Kravotil into opposing Health Care reform or if these tea baggers are just so mindlessly hateful and violent that this is the only way they can express themselves. I honestly do not know what the fuck these clowns are thinking when they do this kind of shit.

   But I do know what the goal is. The goal is to use threats of violence to achieve their political means.

   And that is the definition of terrorism.

   So when is the line in the sand drawn? When do We The People who voted for NotTheGOP put our foot down and say ENOUGH to these Corporatist psychotic brownshirts?

     

UK lawsuit to expose CIA role in “ghost flights”

Crossposted at Daily Kos

   

    We are about to learn exactly what was going on and where under the Bush/Cheney “Extra-ordinary” rendition program.

    Lawyers for Binyam Mohamed, who spent some seven years in US custody, five of them at Guantanamo, say that Jeppesen UK, a subsidiary of Boeing, has agreed to the presentation of evidence about the “ghost flights” it allegedly operated for the CIA – off-the-grid private jets that transferred terrorist suspects to sites where they would be tortured.

rawstory.com

   Binyam Mohamed, if you recall, had his genitals mutilated by either the CIA or one of the host countries where he was tortured.

   Mutilating genitals.

    What could possibly justify genital mutilation, or even the torture program itself? It’s not like the Bush/Cheney Administration was above bald faced lying to us. In my opinion they did it because they can.

    The Object of Torture IS Torture.

    The Object of Power IS Power.

Boot Gonzo says Texas Tech Faculty and Students

Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com     If you have not heard, Texas Tech University has taken on Ex-Bush Attorney General Alberto “I Don’t Recall” Gonzalez. According to thinkprogress.org

Gonzales will be a visiting professor leading a course on “contemporary issues in the executive branch” and focusing on “recruiting and retaining first generation and under-represented students.”

    Students and angry alumni quickly spoke out, starting Facebook groups and writing scathing editorials. Many of the Texas Tech faculty, however, remained silent.

Not any longer. Approximately 45 Texas Tech faculty members have signed onto a petition calling Gonzales’ hiring “objectionable.” They charge that Gonzales is nothing more than a “celebrity hire” who won’t be worth his $100,000 salary.

    Alberto Gonzalez claims that his course will, among other things, highlight the “accomplishes of the Bush Administration”.

    I guess that means that classes will be short.

   Contemporary issues in the executive branch, such as “how to commit war crimes” and “wiping your ass with the Constitution 101” will be covered in the course, unless Alberto Gonzalez forgets them or pleads the fifth.

    And, “under – represented students” must be code language for “We are going to need more batshit neo-conservatives”

    We’re gonna need a bigger boat. That way, we can set them all adrift together.

    The protest by Students and Faculty has picked up a lot of steam. You can support their boycott of Alberto Gonzalez by joining the facebook group here

    Despite the outrage coming from Texas Tech Students and Faculty, Texas Tech chancellor Kent Hance is standing by his hiring of Gonzalez, who he says is a ‘close friend’ of his.

    Why anyone would send their kid to a school for thousands of dollars so they can learn re-writing the rule of law from one of the worst liars and crappiest lawyers ever is beyond me. You’d be better off getting your law degree from Phoenix University online.

    But, there is a way to solve this problem. We can save the fragile little minds of a whole class of law students by doing something today.

    Investigate and Prosecute Bush/Cheney/Gonzalez et all for War Crimes.

    War Criminals don’t take Sunday’s off, and neither should we.

    You can find contact information for AG Eric Holder and President Obama beneath the fold. Send them an E-Mail this Sunday and demand a strong, independant Special Prosecutor who will go all the way in the fight to clear America’s name and prosecute the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Bush/Cheney Regime.

    And, of course, YELL LOUDER!

    Just don’t write the e-mail to AG Holder in all CAPS.

4,500+ people will die if Congress vacations w/o passing HCR. More than 9/11 or Katrina

Simulposted at Daily Kos

Consider this your health care reform talking point for the rest of the summer.

    This is why this legislation is urgent. This is why it cannot wait!.

If Congress is allowed to go to recess without passing the legislation, that will be at least a 3 month delay, resulting in at least 4,500 more Americans dying than if the bill was passed now. That’s more than the number of people who died in 9/11.

We passed the Patriot Act overnight.

By the same measure of urgency of lives, the current Healthcare Reform Bill has been scrutinized to death. The deaths of those 4,500 Americans to be precise.

democraticunderground.com

     4,500 lives. That’s more than 9/11 or Katrina.

     The article at democraticunderground.com goes on to blame Republicans for playing politics with our lives. I will not blame the Republicans because they are utterly powerless. I am blaming Harry Reid and Congressional Democrats.

Liz Cheney: Birther! Carville calls them “Pathetic”

Simulposted at Daily Kos

   Larry King had James Carville and Liz Cheney on last night and the video of Rep. Mike Castle’s batshit insane constituents at the recent town hall came up. After playing the video where the woman shouts “I want my country white back!”, Larry says “That Lady is ticked” and then asks Carville “What do you think of this?”

    Watch the video, transcript and batshit wingnut potential war criminal interpretation follows below.

    Also, Attorney General Eric Holder’s contact info is posted below. If you REALLY want Liz Cheney to STFU, put her daddy on trial for war crimes.

    Dialogue below the fold

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