Month: May 2016

• I don’t remember how long it’s been since I played football as a kid. I do remember hearing about the longest punt ever. Steve O’Neal played for the Jets in 1969. He kicked the ball 75 yards before it hit the ground. It bounced and rolled another 23 yards. So it went from the one yard line on one end of the field to the one yard line on the other. Amazing.
   
  Steve O’Neal retired from the game a long time ago. He’s a dentist these days.
   
  tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors documents what some conservatives consider another Obama/Muslim scandal. Seems the house in which the first family will reside when they become the former first family is only 1,096 feet from a Mosque.
   
  So, if dentist Steve O’Neal could still kick a football as far as the record he set not quite half a century ago, and if he could do it every time he kicked, he could kick that ball from the Obama future front lawn, run way down the street and pick it up, kick it again, run way down the street and pick it up a third time, kick it again, run way down the street and pick it up a fourth time, all matching that record.
   
  Whew!
   
  Then when he tried it a fifth time, he would only have to kick the ball 65 yards to break a window at a house of worship.
   
  If that isn’t a scandal, you don’t know your conservative base.
   
• At Crooks and Liars, Blue Gal brings us video that explains just what Donald Trump and his supporters mean when they speak of the good old days.
   
• The Big Empty explains why Republican fears that the tirades of Donald Trump will make the entire party look foolish are groundless
   
• Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post continues his series, bringing a political platform from the past which sensible Republicans, should they ever again become ascendent, might want to adopt as their own.
   
• Last Of The Millenniums brings news that imprisoned members of the Cliven Bundy clan have become prisoner rights advocates, at least for themselves.
   
• Max’s Dad liked many of the old rock bands. He reflects fondly on why, so long ago, he gave up on Heart.
   

Betraying American Allies

The history of 22 Uyghurs, Muslims from the outskirts of China, is an unfortunate prologue to what is happening now.

Too many self styled patriots are willing to sacrifice those who risk life and well being to help us, as long as those sacrificed are not Americans.

Transcript

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From Iron Knee at Political Irony:

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Some of us were hoping that once Donald Trump became the presumed GOP nominee, that the media would stop talking about him incessantly. But apparently, the media is as addicted to talking about Trump as ever. After being criticized for basically bankrolling Trump’s campaign by giving him massive amounts of free publicity, they are “making amends” by still giving him publicity, but now they are trying to balance things by giving him negative publicity.

The problem is, they are talking about things that don’t matter. For example, Saturday the New York Times published “Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private” where they interviewed more than 50 people who had either worked for Trump or observed his crude behavior. But this is not news. Does anyone not know that Donald Trump is a sexist pig? Hasn’t he made that abundantly clear over and over again?

The people who support Trump know it. In fact, I’d guess that some of them are happy that he doesn’t feel any need to be “politically correct” and says what he feels. And if you already dislike Trump, this article will not make any difference.

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From Joe Hagstrom at MadMikesAmerica:

As Donald and I have pointed out, we don’t need a “unified” republican party to win the election. We already have the kooks, bigots and religious zealots behind us while Hillary doesn’t have the kooks in her party behind her. Hillary also struggles with working white men that identify with us republicans as we share their distrust of minorities and anything weird.

However, victory is not enough for Don and me. The only result we want is a complete landslide. It is with this in mind that to get that, and to keep our billionaires from funding a Mitt Romney third party run, we’re seriously considering former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice for the number 2 spot on the ticket.

Condi brings so much the ticket.

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From Last Of The Millenniums:

You can do the research yourself.

If Bernie wins then it’s ‘democracy in action’.

But whenever Bernie loses it’s ‘the process is rigged against us’.

I’m getting ready to accept a Donald Trump Presidency. Along with a Senate still in Republican hands as will be the House and little to no gains in State houses.

Why?

Bernie is getting ready to do as much harm to Hillary as he can.

Why?

Because Bernie doesn’t think he was ‘respected’.

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From Frances Langum at Crooks and Liars:

This is very good news, because history teaches that reform can come from within.

Raw Story reports that the DNC has agreed to put more Bernie Sanders supporters on the important platform and rules committees at the convention in Philadelphia:

Committee chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) reportedly agreed to add more Sanders backers to the 15-person drafting committee, after initially appointing three to the group.

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Representative J. Randy Forbes speaks of Chinese Uyghurs, Muslims captured in Afghanistan:

If we are fortunate enough to capture a terrorist who wants to kill innocent people, whether those people are innocent Americans, innocent British, innocent French, or innocent Chinese or some other nationality, if we’re fortunate to capture them before they kill those innocent people, we have two choices. The first choice we have is we can release them. The second choice we have is we can detain them.

Representative Jeff Miller agrees:

I ain’t never heard of a Uyghur before, until all this started coming up. And all I can tell is that they’re well fed, they’re healthy.

Their teeth are magnificent.

It would be hard to find a more militant group of Islamic warriors. They are aggressive in their hatred of communism, and they are fiercely pro‑American.

Pro‑American.

The Uyghurs are also a testament to conservative hostility against anything and anyone having anything to do with Islam.

Uyghurs have been under the domination of Communist China since Mao Zedong marched into Beijing in 1949. The Chinese government regarded the Tarim Basin, at the western edge of China, to be part of the People’s Republic. Uyghurs thought of themselves as a free and separate country, Eastern Turkestan. The Chinese government declared Uyghur separatists to be terrorists. Uyghurs regard themselves as anti‑communist, pro‑American, freedom fighters.

You can find Uyghurs all over Asia. They call Tarim Basin their homeland.

There was a time when Afghan insurgents were American allies. The United States channeled military weapons into their fight against Soviet occupation. That was when those Uyghurs who happened to be in the area joined up. They were happy to oppose the Soviet Union in league with the United States and their fellow Muslims. Members of the Taliban provided some of the training. Uyghurs did have one additional incentive. They hoped to take their new military knowledge back home for the fight for freedom against Chinese occupation and government oppression.

There was celebration after the Soviet Union withdrew and let the Afghan people have their country. Then the Taliban took over and provided shelter to Osama bin Laden’s extreme gang of thugs operating under a renegade offshoot of mainstream Islam.

After bin Laden’s September 11 attack on the United States in 2001, and the American invasion of Afghanistan, a reward was offered for turning in terrorists.

The problem with financial incentives is that shortcuts are sometimes taken. A fair number of terrorists captured were not terrorists at all. They had been falsely accused, turned in out of local grudges or pure greed. Not quite two dozen Uyghurs were among those accused and turned in for the reward.

They ended up in Guantanamo Bay.

The Bush administration quickly realized that a horrible mistake had been made. The Uyghurs were thoroughly investigated by military and intelligence experts and their innocence was confirmed. They were about as far from anti‑American terrorists as you could get.

The problem was finding a place to release them. The Chinese government wanted them back to be tried and dealt with as criminals. They made clear that any country wanting any relationship with China that was anything this side of overtly hostile had better treat the captives as terrorists. And that’s how they officially designated them: as terrorists.

After the American election in 2008, the new Obama administration began having a bit more success than the Bush administration had had. It still wasn’t easy. A few of the innocent detainees remained with no place to go. The administration wanted to experiment with placing a few in an existing Uyghur community in Northern Virginia.

Conservatives went ballistic. Obama was about to release confirmed terrorists to roam around right on the outskirts of Washington, DC.

Republicans knew they were terrorists for two reasons. The Communist government of China said they were terrorists. And President Obama said they were not.

…a terrorist who wants to kill innocent people, whether those people are innocent Americans, innocent British, innocent French, or innocent Chinese…

Newt Gingrich led the charge. He repeated the accusation by the Chinese government, calling the Uyghur prisoners terrorists. They should be sent back to China. If they were tortured by the Chinese government it should not be our problem. He demanded to know why Obama was so determined to coddle and release such dangerous people.

Rushan Abbas, a lawyer to the pro‑American Uyghurs, relayed a question from the Uyghur prisoners about Mr. Gingrich. It was a simple message:

Why does he hate us so much and say those kinds of things? He doesn’t know us.

In late December, 2013, the last of the innocent Uyghur captives found a new home in Central Europe. The Slovak Republic agreed to take them in. The Slovak government issued a statement. The Uyghurs, the official statement said, had:

“never been suspected of nor charged with a criminal act of terrorism”.

I thought about the long, needless, saga of the falsely accused Uyghurs as I heard the latest news.

During America’s occupation of Afghanistan, thousands of ordinary Afghans risked their lives helping American troops, diplomats, and agencies. For helping Americans, they have been targeted for death by the Taliban.

In 2009, a special visa program for Iraqis who had risked their lives helping Americans was extended to Afghanistan. Lives would be spared.

But this is an election year. Republicans in Congress don’t much care for refugees of any kind. They care even less for Muslims. And they make no distinction between pro‑American and anti‑American refugees. They do not care who risked their lives on behalf of the United States.

Republicans did agree that those who are risking death in Afghanistan and Iraq who were engaged in “sensitive” work for the United States, for them the promise of visas to safety will be a promise kept.

For those not in contact with sensitive work, well, life is unfair.

Like so much that comes from this Congress, the new standard of “sensitive” work seems like a perfect storm, a confluence of unfortunate conservative standards.

It is reflective of a new outburst of anti‑Muslim, anti‑refugee sentiment among the Republican base.

It is short‑sighted to the point of dull‑witted foolishness. What could be less in America’s interest than deliberately delivering into the bloody hands of our enemies those who had risked their lives to help us?

Most of all, most importantly, it is just plain wrong. The immorality is stark.

As wrong as it would have been to send innocent pro‑American Uyghurs into the torture chambers of mainland China.

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From Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged:

The revelation that Donald Trump posed under the pseudonyms “John Miller” and “John Barron” to plant stories about himself this past week are weird, right? Like, who brags about their love life to news outlets under an assumed name to build up their reputation as a “player”? Take this sort of thing:

“Actresses,” Miller said in the call to Carswell, “just call to see if they can go out with him and things.” Madonna “wanted to go out with him.” And Trump’s alter ego boasted that in addition to living with Maples, Trump had “three other girlfriends.”

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From Brij Khindaria at The Moderate Voice:

Donald Trump’s triumphs and Bernie Sanders’s successes have opened a can of worms already gnawing at the core of democracy as it is understood and practiced around the world.

So far, the US election looks like a circus trying to entertain rather than a democratic contest of alternatives to structure social, economic and political life in the world’s most influential nation around policies that supporters of each contestant can fight for.

Trump provokes incredulity and some guffaws while Sanders seeds twinges of the heart by evoking dreams of fairness that no nation has ever reached and few social philosophers think attainable.

Each might incite passions and fierce fervor among slices of America’s electorate and some onlookers around the world. But the damage being inflicted to the example and practice of democracy is enormous.

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From Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson:

There must be days when House Speaker Paul Ryan says to himself, “Self, what did you get yourself into now?”

While others were rushing to get on the Donald Trump bandwagon, Ryan said he wasn’t ready to endorse Trump yet. It’s understandable. Ryan publicly criticized Trump for his behavior during the campaign. Given the bizarre accusation by Trump that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s father had something to do with the assassination of President John F Kennedy, it seems Ryan needed to do a little bit more yelling at the presumed Republican nominee.

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