Ben Franklin was such a commie

"an enormous proportion of property vested in a few individuals is dangerous to the rights, and destructive of the common happiness of mankind, and, therefore, every free state hath a right by its laws to discourage the possession of such property."

Source: Sixteenth Article to the Pennsylvania Bill of Rights

I wish people would keep ideas such as this in mind when they so often talk about what the "Founding Fathers" would have wanted.

Let's call it what it is: Elite-bias

Let's be forthright and honest here. Liz Cheney is by all measures a nobody without Dick Cheney. She's not an expert in anything, and her opinion should not matter any more than yours or mine on Barack Obama's birth certificate. Why is it then that she is all over TV and the news?

Because the MSM needs to sell product. They need viewers and readers, and despite the fact that this "birthers" movement is a slap in the face to all available (and impartial) evidence and logic, it is continually given coverage by the MSM because it sells. This is how the media works. Clearly these "birthers" should be pushed to the fringe where they belong, but instead they are given a huge platform to speak from. Ridiculous. But then again, as long as the populace is paying attention to nonsense like this, they'll be less likely to call out our leaders as they water down environmental and financial regulation, bailout their corrupt bank buddies, continue to wage imperialist wars, and make sure that health care will eventually bankrupt our country. Liberal-bias my ass. Elite-bias, indeed.

Pushing the "few bad apples" theory

Official: Joint chiefs chairman 'infuriated' about detainee abuse

I am sure McMullen is 'infuriated'. But is his anger directed in the right direction? Probably not.

There is clearly a sustained effort to continue to push the line that detainee abuse was the fault of a "few bad apples", when the evidence clearly suggests that this kind of treatment was given the OK from the highest levels of our government. Placing plame solely on the foot soldiers and implementers (though they should also be held responsible to a certain extent) only serves to let the true criminals slide and ensure that we don't actually fix the underlying problem. That problem? That the elites and power hungry in this country will do whatever they want in order to ensure that things play out to their liking, legal or not. It happened in Iraq. It's happening with health care. It's happening with environmental legislation. These aren't irregularities. This is how our "democracy" works. It's a sham. Our government is not one of the people, and the only change we have of getting to that point is by recognizing that truth. We need to hold our leaders responsible. Torture and detainee abuse is a good start.

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.