Setting the record straight about Unions and the Civil Rights Movement

I notice with a bit of sadness that NeoConservative Blogger Glenn Reynolds AKA InstaPundit has taken to outright lying about the Unions and the Civil Right movement.

Allow me to point this out to Glenn and anyone else who happens to read Glenn Reynold’s blog.

This is from the UAW Region 8 Website’s entry about Walter Reuther:

The rights of all people was another battle that found Walter Reuther on the frontlines. In 1959 he met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the two became fast friends. While some labor organizations were slow to come on board with the Civil Rights movement, President Walter Reuther committed the UAW’s help up front. Reuther joined Dr. King on many of his marches and gave an address to the crowd to open the historic “march to Selma.” Again he joined Dr. King to protest in Birmingham as the crowd was met with fire hoses and police dogs. It was in fact Reuther who bailed King out of jail following the demonstration.
In 1963 Dr. King felt the time was right to take their message to the national stage and became planning a march on Washington. However, being the methodical thinker that he was, King decided to hold a march in Detroit to test the waters before going to Washington. The “Walk to Freedom March” was organized from an office at the UAW’s headquarters Solidarity House, with space donated by Walter Reuther. Dr. King also planned the March of Washington from the same office.
During the March on Washington, Walter Reuther was the only Caucasian to speak from the podium that day. Afterwards, one of Reuther’s aides overheard two ladies backstage discussing who he was. One asked the other is she knew him, to which the reply came “that is Walter Reuther, and he is as good a man as Dr. King.” It is said that Reuther always considered that statement a great complement.
President Reuther knew that education was the key to social improvement and late in his life he dedicated much of his time to that cause. His final achievement was building the Walter and May Reuther Family Education Center (better known as Black Lake) in northern Michigan. The visionincluded classrooms and facilities so UAW members could assemble and be educated on the issues of the day. Reuther took an extreme interest in the project, even personally decided which trees would be saved in the construction. The center rivals anything of its kind in terms of design and purpose. On May 09, 1970 Walter and May Reuther, Architect Oscar Stonorov and their pilot were on their way to view the completed facility just prior to the official opening. Their plane went down in a rainstorm near Pellston, Michigan.
Walter Reuther is quoted as saying “There is no greater calling than to serve your fellow man. There is no greater contribution than to help the weak. There is no greater satisfaction than to have done it well.” If this is the case, then Walter Reuther must have surely died a satisfied man. His contributions to working class people the world over should never be forgotten. Reuther knew that social justice is at the heart of everything that organized labor stands for and his legacy is an inspiration to all those who continue his work today.

So much for that little talking point, eh Glenn? 🙄

This is my problem with the NeoCon right; they just cannot tell the truth about anything related to blacks, unions and foreign policy. Which is why I simply will not vote for them, at all. 😡

I do not support the politics of the likes of Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson; but I also do not support the lying idiocy of the likes of Glenn Reynolds.

A Liberal Blogger bemoans the police state of Washington D.C.

I might not agree with this site’s political stance; but I do give them credit for realizing that police state tactics are simply wrong and Anti-American.

Quote:

The day was symbolized for me on multiple levels by seeing DC Park police seize 200 professionally printed placards from activists that were distributing them for free. The placards read, “Stop Mass Incarceration. Stop the new Jim Crow.” Police said that it was “unlawful solicitation”, even though they were clearly giving them away. When those having their signs seized complained, they were threatened with fines or arrest. I heard one DC police officer say, “Hey, you can get them back at the end of the day. On second thought, given your attitude you cannot. “
I have never seen free placards confiscated at a national gathering by DC police. Then again, I’ve also never seen a demonstration so thickly monitored, with park police, the Department of Homeland Security and the military on every corner.
Today, those “triplets of evil” King warned us about 1967 still strangle this country. If we are not talking about the New Jim Crow, Wall Street and militarism, then what are we doing? King said, “If an American is concerned only about his nation, he will not be concerned about the peoples of Asia, Africa, or South America. Is this not why nations engage in the madness of war without the slightest sense of penitence? Is this not why the murder of a citizen of your own nation is a crime, but the murder of citizens of another nation in war is an act of heroic virtue?” Given US foreign policy, how can one say that they stand in King’s legacy and not raise these issues?
I would ask those who find this objectionable to ask themselves, “What would Dr. King/Ella Baker/Fannie Lou Hamer/Malcolm X think about today’s march?” I don’t presume to know the answer to that question, but I know that we only honor their memory by asking it.
via Seeing ‘New Jim Crow’ Placards Seized by Police & More From the March on Washington | The Nation.

Now, if I were a cynical smart aleck, I would say something like “Well, this is what liberals want, right?” But, I know better, most American progressives simply want responsible Government. They do not want repressive Government. In other words, they want European-style socialism in America, with American freedoms; and not Soviet-style repressive Communist rule. Those on the right argue that European-style socialism cannot be obtained without the loss of personal freedom.

What progressives do not get, is that we are right at the stage now here in America, of corporatism or the corporatization of America. Many on the left and some on the right bemoan this fact greatly. This is one stage away from Soviet-style repressive Communist rule. The seizure of these signs, ought to be a clear sign of that moving towards a Soviet-style of oppressive Government.

Liberal progressives need to wake up and realize that the sort of new left and neo-left form of progressivism, that was promoted from President Johnson till President Clinton and now the neo-leftism promoted by President Obama is not the classic liberalism of the old left. New-leftism, and Neo-leftism is nothing more than diluted soviet-style of oppressive Government and militarization of the police force. It is textbook Fascism in it’s rawest form.

The Saturday Night Music Express Presents Linda Ronstadt

This is for Linda Ronstadt, who is fighting for her life. Fight like hell woman!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ooPy8tX3h94

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=tvXPBC0t6Mk

Legendary singer Linda Ronstadt, 67, told AARP today that she “can’t sing a note” because she suffers from Parkinson’s disease. Diagnosed eight months ago, Ronstadt began to show symptoms as long as eight years ago. But she ascribed her inability to sing to a tick bite (“my health has never recovered since then”), and believed the shaking in her hands resulted from shoulder surgery.
In a wide-ranging interview with AARP’s music writer Alanna Nash to be published on aarp.org next week, Ronstadt revealed how she discovered that “there was something wrong” with her voice.
“I couldn’t sing,” she told Nash, “and I couldn’t figure out why. I knew it was mechanical. I knew it had to do with the muscles, but I thought it might have also had something to do with the tick disease that I had. And it didn’t occur to me to go to a neurologist. I think I’ve had it for seven or eight years already, because of the symptoms that I’ve had. Then I had a shoulder operation, so I thought that’s why my hands were trembling.
“Parkinson’s is very hard to diagnose, so when I finally went to a neurologist and he said, ‘Oh, you have Parkinson’s disease,’ I was completely shocked. I wouldn’t have suspected that in a million, billion years.
“No one can sing with Parkinson’s disease,” Ronstadt said. “No matter how hard you try.”
Ronstadt walks with the aid of poles when on uneven ground, and uses a wheelchair when she travels.

Others: Telegraph, Power Line, Scared Monkeys, KTLA 5 and EW.com

Bradley manning wants to be a girl

Oh brother….

Via CNN:

Bradley Manning wants to be a woman.
The U.S. Army soldier sentenced this week to 35 years in prison for leaking 750,000 pages of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said Thursday in a statement read on NBC’s “Today” show that will seek hormone therapy and live as a female named Chelsea.
“As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me,” Manning said in the statement. “I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition.”

Oh he’s gonna be a woman alright! When he is the pivot man in the prison circle jerk.

Sick bastard. Hope he rots in jail.

Video: This is why I do not trust Al-Jazeera TV

American version of it or not. I simply do not trust it and this here is why. This comes via Memri TV:

Some of you might say, “But, aren’t you a Buchananite type?” Yes, indeed I am. Which simply means that I am not a fan of Wilsonian Foreign Policy and that’s all it means. If Al-Jazeera TV is putting this sort of garbage on it’s Arab speaking network, it has zero business being in the United States of America. This is nothing more than Anti-Jewish propaganda and it furthers the blood libels that the terrorists thrive on and use to commit acts of carnage.

If our President were actually worth a tinkers damn, he would tell Al-Jazeera TV, “You either do something about that, or you can pack your little network up and go back to mecca, where you truly belong.” But, because we have a President who kowtows down to Arabs and their religion, instead of defending Jewish Americans, you have this network Al-Jazeera TV here to brainwash Americans into believe that 9/11 was somehow justified.

…and that, my friends, is a great American tragedy.

(H/T to Commentary Magazine)

Quote of the Day

My view on Democrats is that they’re fascists disguised as liberals, or liberal moderates. You’re not allowed to say anything that they don’t agree with. You’re not allowed to do anything. Also, the whole Obama, “I can kill anybody with a drone with no trial,” is kind of disturbing. I’m surprised that more people who are supposedly liberal aren’t more disturbed by it. I think whatever Obama does is OK with them, because he’s Obama. It’s bullshit.

(H/T SayUncle)

News From Japan: Water is leaking from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

Some unsettling news out of Japan via ENENews.com:

NHK WORLD, Aug 19, 2013: Officials with Tokyo Electric Power Company say they will study storage tanks to find out why radioactive water is leaking from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The officials said on Monday about 120 liters of highly-radioactive water had leaked from a tank near the number 4 reactor. They detected 100 millisieverts per hour of radiation on the surface of puddles near the tanks. The maximum annual exposure limit for nuclear plant workers is 50 millisieverts. […] Officials from the Nuclear Regulation Authority assessed the problem as a level one incident on an 8-point international scale.

Also see this: ‘Water Storage Nightmare’: Bolts in Fukushima tanks will corrode in just a few years, plant workers reveal — “Tepco says it doesn’t know how long tanks will hold” -Reuters

Ugh… Not good at all. 🙁

Gay Bashing at Little Green Footballs?

Go read.

Looks like it to me. 😯

Update: I made this statement because I thought the photo was an underhanded swipe at Greenwald’s sexuality and I said so. Now, it seems that Johnson is calling me “mentally disturbed.” I wonder if Johnson knows that he can be sued for making such inflammatory comments in a public forum? Remember guitar-boy, I can and will use lawyers, if needed. 😡

Bad Optics on David Miranda detention

The left and some on the right are howling about the detention of Glenn Greenwald’s “partner” David Miranda.

The Story via Guardian:

The partner of the Guardian journalist who has written a series of stories revealing mass surveillance programmes by the US National SecurityAgency was held for almost nine hours on Sunday by UK authorities as he passed through London‘s Heathrow airport on his way home to Rio de Janeiro.
David Miranda, who lives with Glenn Greenwald, was returning from a trip to Berlin when he was stopped by officers at 8.05am and informed that he was to be questioned under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The controversial law, which applies only at airports, ports and border areas, allows officers to stop, search, question and detain individuals.
The 28-year-old was held for nine hours, the maximum the law allows before officers must release or formally arrest the individual. Accordingto official figures, most examinations under schedule 7 – over 97% – last less than an hour, and only one in 2,000 people detained are kept for more than six hours.
Miranda was released, but officials confiscated electronics equipment including his mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games consoles.

Greenwald understandably is not amused:

At 6:30 am this morning my time – 5:30 am on the East Coast of the US – I received a telephone call from someone who identified himself as a “security official at Heathrow airport.” He told me that my partner, David Miranda, had been “detained” at the London airport “under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act of 2000.”
David had spent the last week in Berlin, where he stayed with Laura Poitras, the US filmmaker who has worked with me extensively on theNSA stories. A Brazilian citizen, he was returning to our home in Rio de Janeiro this morning on British Airways, flying first to London and then on to Rio. When he arrived in London this morning, he was detained.
At the time the “security official” called me, David had been detained for 3 hours. The security official told me that they had the right to detain him for up to 9 hours in order to question him, at which point they could either arrest and charge him or ask a court to extend the question time. The official – who refused to give his name but would only identify himself by his number: 203654 – said David was not allowed to have a lawyer present, nor would they allow me to talk to him.

A few things that are not being reported; one, the Guardian paid for the trip. Two, this here, which is being reported by the NYT:

Mr. Miranda was in Berlin to deliver documents related to Mr. Greenwald’s investigation into government surveillance to Ms. Poitras, Mr. Greenwald said. Ms. Poitras, in turn, gave Mr. Miranda different documents to pass to Mr. Greenwald. Those documents, which were stored on encrypted thumb drives, were confiscated by airport security, Mr. Greenwald said. All of the documents came from the trove of materials provided to the two journalists by Mr. Snowden. The British authorities seized all of his electronic media — including video games, DVDs and data storage devices — and did not return them, Mr. Greenwald said.

Some people are calling him a “Mule”, and that might very well be true too.

Here is my take on the situation: This is very bad optics, not only for the British Government, but for the United States as well. However, as someone who believes in rule of law. If you are a person, who is well-known or somehow or another related to this person who is well-known and you are carrying stolen documents that rightfully belong to a major Government and you intend on delivering them for illegal distribution; you should expect stuff like this to happen.

This is one of my major gripes with the libertarians of all stripes. They do stuff like this here; and then, when they get arrested, they act like somehow or another their rights have been somehow violated. The truth is, Snowden broke the law and when you break the law, you have to answer for your crimes. Whether abuse happened or not, in Snowden’s claims is totally irrelevant and nothing more than a distraction to the fact that the man was trusted with the secrets of the United States Government and he chose to break the law by revealing them.

If anything, Greenwald, Poitras, and Miranda ought to be charged in accessory to releasing stolen classified documents. Again, this is not about whether the United States made mistakes, this is about someone, who was trusted with classified documents and chose to release them, thereby breaking the law.

Again, let me be absolutely clear, I am not a supporter of the NSA spying program and some of it’s abuses that is being reported. What I am a supporter of, is rule of law and protecting the United States of America, and protecting classified information from getting into the hands of those who want to destroy this Country. Snowden and Greenwald obviously do not share that feeling and as a result, Snowden broke the law and Greenwald is helping him. For this, both of these men should go to jail for a very long time.

Andrew Sullivan / The Dish: Cameron Proves Greenwald Right
Associated Press: Partner of reporter at center of NSA leak detained

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Update: Fixed rather funny typo in third paragraph after quotes. More coffee! 😛

Sean Hannity loses even Pat Buchanan

Man, when you lose Pat Buchanan, you know you are in trouble.

Video: (H/T Crooks and Liars)

I never was much of a Sean Hannity fan; he’s like the annoying rich kid at a party. He just annoys me. Compared to Hannity, Bill O’Reilly is so much saner and that is not saying much, let me tell you.

This here could very well be why Hannity’s show is going away and Megan Kelly is moving to that time slot.

Either way, it is pretty bad, when a staunch Conservative like Buchanan tells someone like Hannity that he is basically full of crap.

I just watched the clip and it is obvious to me that Sean Hannity is simply interested in slamming President Obama, no matter what he does. That is not legitimate political commentary, that is nothing more than ad-hominem attacks. For that alone, Sean Hannity should lose his show.