White supremacists in the Armed Forces

Neo-Nazis are in the Army now

This is a tad (and by tad I mean extremely) disconcerting. People hell bent on a "race war" getting free military training on how to kill on the taxpayer dollar. I guess this is what happens when you start frivolous wars that a majority of your own people don't want to fight (or believe) in.

Systematic Racism is still alive in America

Bank Accused of Pushing Mortgage Deals on Blacks

This is the type of racism that's not as obvious as slurs or racial insults. However, it remains very damaging to minority communities and prevents them from "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps" like the conservatives say. Racism still exists, and this kind is especially ugly. It doesn't just hurt people's feelings, it takes money from them. It causes their kids to go without food. It gets them kicked out on the street without a place to live. It goes against everything the "American Dream" stands for, and yet it still continues today with very little attention paid to it by the mainstream media.

I don't want to hear any more conservatives (or anyone for that matter), harp at minorities about not asking for government handouts and all the other falsities they put forth in order to cover up for the systematic racism that holds people of color down in this country. Until there is a truly level playing field, which is probably decades or centuries off considering it has been less than 50 years (think about that) since people of color could even vote.

I think our inability to actually grapple with the true history of America leads to issues such as this. People act like the way things are today (which still aren't great if you really look at it, case in point) were how they always were. It's just not true. In this great capitalist mecca we live in, people of color weren't even allowed to build up CAPITAL through bigoted laws against land ownership, unequal access to jobs, etc. If you can't build capital in a capitalist country, how are you supposed to "pull yourself up by your bootstraps"? How are you supposed to get ahead in America when borrowing money to buy a house costs you $100,000 more than it would a white person with a similar credit profile?

Don't get me wrong, I think things are getting better, but just because things have improved since slavery or the Jim Crow era doesn't mean we can just stop and pat ourselves on the back and pretend like the problem is solved. This issue will never go away until everyone person in America, regardless of race, creed, sexuality or religion has the same basic rights and opportunities. Until then, the American Dream is just that, a dream.

They knew it was wrong...

U.S. Lawyers Agreed on Legality of Brutal Tactic

"C.I.A. officials had been nervous about the legality of their proposed methods from the start in 2002. They had asked Michael Chertoff, then head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, to grant interrogators immunity in advance from prosecution for torture. Mr. Chertoff refused, but neither did he warn the agency against the methods it was proposing."

Why would you ask for immunity in advance if you didn't know it was wrong? It's clear that people knew ahead of time this was illegal. This is abhorrent behavior by members of our government.

Mullyman - "I Go Hard"

This dude is pretty sick. Nice to see someone from Baltimore who can actually rap hitting the scene. This video is full of Baltimore references and landmarks. Worth a watch if you call 410 home.

Our politicians are still missing the point

Intel firestorm: GOP reveals briefing info

Regardless of how it's clear that the torture subject has turned into a political charade as evidence by the discussion of what was considered sensitive or even classified information by some GOP members, everyone is still missing the point.

The contention should not be whether torture (please stop calling it "enhanced interrogations", it's classified as torture in the civilized world) can get us useful intelligence. The issue is whether it is legal. Hint: it's not! As long as we let the narrative continue to be driven towards subjects outside of torture's legality, we are allowing the issue to be clouded and laws to be broken. I say again: we are either a nation of laws or we aren't. We can't apply them sometimes and not others. It's hypocritical (surprise surprise, that happens to be something we're becoming known for around the world).

Over the past few months I've seen what I consider to be normal, decent people defend the use of torture against people we've captured. It boggles my mind. Are we really that frail of a people that we would so easily lose our moral compass as a nation as soon as we are confronted with some danger in our lives? It goes to show you how good we have it in America, because many people around the world are confronted with much greater danger day in and day out and they refuse to lose their bearings as much as we have in the past 8 years.

I say it's time for Americans to stand up and choose the right path. If we truly want to be the nation that people admire and look up to as we so often have been in the past, let's give people a reason to believe in us again. Stop the hypocrisy. Stop the double standards. Show that we won't be swayed by an enemy who is willing to use violence as a means of getting their point across.

I once again point to the definition of "terrorism":
Terrorism is a policy or ideology of violence intended to intimidate or cause terror for the purpose of "exerting pressure on decision making by state bodies."

The question is... by throwing out our moral compass and changing the way we operate (i.e. authorizing torture and then defending it, guantanamo, warrantless wiretapping), are we not doing EXACTLY what the terrorists want? They want us to live in fear and adopt reprehensible policies such as those put in place to authorize torture and facilities such as Guantanamo. It gives them a recruiting tool because it shows we're hypocrites and that our resolve to stand and face a threat without panicing is non-existent. Instead of taking the moral high ground and sticking to the beliefs and ideals that make this nation great, we chose to allow their actions to shake our inner core as a nation.

China: Still a long way to go

CNN coverage of Tiananmen Square

This video is kind of telling. Having visited China a few months ago and stood in Tiananmen Square, it was clear they take security in the area very seriously. Plain clothes police and security officials were everywhere. The umbrella technique employed by plain clothes officers in this video has one aim, which is to cloud coverage of the anniversary of the June 4th, 1989 incident in Tiananmen Square, as is the case with the blocking of websites and the blacking-out of news coverage.

It's clear that democracy is a ways off in China. There if very little freedom of speech and press (as seen here), which is vital to the establishment of democracy. The Chinese government has tried to placate people (or at least those who live along the eastern coast), by giving them economic growth in return for their acceptance of one-party rule. Such a deal will only last so long. With the widespread availability of information and technology to the Chinese people, these attempts at censorship can only go so far. Eventually the people will rise up and demand a say in the affairs of their land. History tells us so.

President Bush read 100 books a year. Right.

Obama keeping up with Bush's reading pace?

Ha. Ha. I don't even know where to start with this one. It's almost a joke in itself.

That's almost a book every 3.5 days. No wonder the country fell apart. Between reading and clearing brush he had no time to do his actual job. Maybe that's why Cheney took such a prominent role.

"Sir, should we invade Iraq?"
"Sure, leave me alone, I'm reading the new Where's Waldo."

Essay on Sotomayor nomination by Tim Wise

Harpooning The Great White Wail: Reflections on Racism, the Supreme Court and Right-Wing Buffoonery

The clarity and logic of Tim Wise's writing is right up there with the best. He really does a great job of laying out why a lot of the criticism being thrown at Sotomayor is grounded in racist ideology, whether people realize it or not.