Sunday, March 31, 2013

Interactive Four Billion Pixel 360 Degree View Of Mars

Interactive Four Billion Pixel 360 Degree View Of Mars

Alaska Republican uses racial slur to describe Latinos

As his party is in the midst of a on-going minority outreach campaign, Alaska Republican Congressman Don Young gave an interview Thursday to local radio station KRBD in which he referred to Latino farm workers as “wetbacks.”

Asked about bringing jobs back to America, Young recalled the workers on his father’s farm in California, where he grew up.

“My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,” he said. “It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.”

Young issued a response to the remarks late Thursday evening. ”During a sit down interview with Ketchikan Public Radio this week, I used a term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a farm in Central California. I know that this term is not used in the same way nowadays and I meant no disrespect.”

He continued, “Migrant workers play an important role in America’s workforce, and earlier in the said interview, I discussed the compassion and understanding I have for these workers and the hurdles they face in obtaining citizenship. America must once and for all tackle the issue of immigration reform.”

Young, the second most senior Republican serving in the House, has represented Alaska’s only congressional district for four decades. He won reelection in 2012 with 63% of the vote. While the remarks may be politically perilous for the rest of his party, the impact in his own district might not be as severe. According to the most recent census, less than 6% of the Alaska population self-identified as Hispanic.

 
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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Tommy Chong knows how to fix America’s gun control problems

Cenk Uygur and actor Tommy Chong talk about the best way to get better gun control in the U.S. “I came up with a solution to the gun control problem,” Chong says, “all because of pot. The solution is insurance. You can own a gun, but it has to be insured. And if that gun creates any havoc, the insurance company has to pay.” Cenk says, “That’s really smart because what it does is get capitalism behind the solution.”



Friday, March 29, 2013

Palin out of hibernation, ready to take on 2014

It’s been years since she held elected office, but former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has released a new web video proving she’s far from ready to relinquish her star role in Republican politics.

Palin brings the mama grizzlies out of hibernation, complete with a growling bear, in the new video released by her political action committee, SarahPAC and delivered to her loyal followers in a fundraising email.

The video, “Loaded for Bear,” features clips of Palin’s speech at at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, although no footage of Tina Fey’s recent impression managed to make the final cut.

And while it doesn’t reveal whether Palin plans to run for office in 2014, the video does indicate she plans to play a role in the midterm election, perhaps as a kingmaker. The ad touts her support of a number of recently elected tea party senators, including Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio (who’ve recently teamed up in opposition to gun control).

Whatever her plans may be, it’s safe to say Karl Rove won’t be happy, especially the recent rekindling of their long-running feud.

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Republican rep loses his cool over parking ticket

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Metal Gear Solid V Revealed



Official Site - http:/www.konami.jp/mgs5/

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/two-phantoms-the-metal-gear-solid-v-reveal/

Ea Unveils Battlefield 4

http://www.battlefield.com

Battlefield 4 will release Fall 2013. The "Fishing in Baku" video is shot entirely in-game and is the first glimpse of the human, dramatic, and believable single player campaign in Battlefield 4.

Available for pre-order now.



Ashley Judd: ‘Regretfully,’ I will not be a Senate candidate

By
The Last Word

After weeks of speculation, actress and activist Ashley Judd put an end to speculation that she might challenge Mitch McConnell in the 2014 midterm elections.

Update: at 5:00 p.m. EST, Ashley Judd tweeted: After serious and thorough contemplation, I realize that my responsibilities & energy at this time need to be focused on my family. Regretfully, I am currently unable to consider a campaign for the Senate. I have spoken to so many Kentuckians over these last few months who expressed their desire for a fighter for the people & new leader. While that won’t be me at this time, I  will continue to work as hard as I can to ensure the needs of Kentucky families are met by returning this Senate seat to whom it rightfully belongs: the people & their needs, dreams and great potential. Thanks for even considering me as that person & know how much I love our Commonwealth. Thank you.

While speaking to the American Counseling Association,  liberal actress and activist Ashley Judd coyfully hinted that she may indeed make a run for the Senate.  Judd joked that her mother, country music legend Naomi Judd, can’t wait to turn her garage into a campaign headquarters.

Her comments have only fueled speculation that she has taken interest in challenging conservative incumbent and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in the 2014 midterm elections.

If elected, Judd would join a growing list of Hollywood transplants who made the jump into politics. Other notables include: Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarznegger, Jesse Ventura, Clint Eastwood, Fred Thompson, Shirley Temple Black and Sony Bono.

But is D.C. ready for a yet another dose of Hollywood? And more importantly, what would even qualify the Kiss the Girls star for public office?

Over 20 years ago, as a senior at the University of Kentucky, Ashley Judd was accepted into the Peace Corps. She chose to forgo both an official degree and the volunteer program to move to Hollywood and pursue a career in acting. It took 17 years until Judd finally obtained that Bachelor’s Degree in French. In 2010, she received a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard (she graduated with a near-straight-A average), and revived her passion for social and economic issues in the world.

Judd has been in the spotlight for the people and causes she has supported throughout the years. In both 2008 and 2012, she supported Barack Obama for president, campaigning for him in various swing states and serving as a member of the Tennessee delegation in this past election. However, if Judd was to run against McConnell, she would have to reestablish residency in Kentucky.

Judd has been the global ambassador for YouthAIDS, a program under Population Services International, since 2002 and two years later became one of its Board of Directors. She has visited countries such as the Congo and Thailand to share knowledge about the deadly virus and bring attention to issues of poverty and illness in those countries. According to the organization’s website, her work as ambassador has been the subject of three award-winning documentaries, shown in over 150 countries.  Along with YouthAIDS, Judd has become vocal with its sister initiative “Five & Alive,” which reaches out to children under five to offer prevention and treatment for pneumonia, malaria and water-borne illness.

The actress’ resume just doesn’t stop there, her list of charities are wide-ranging including the Listening Campaign, Creative Coalition and Women for Women International. In her memoir All That Is Bitter, Judd chronicles how service and activism has helped her heal from depression.
Judd even lent her support to endorsing the Violence Against Women’s Act, lobbying its necessity to lawmakers. McConnell previously voted against this act, which could hurt him with female voters in the midterm cycle.  Her work with PSI also has given her experience meeting with world leaders, lawmakers and other influential people throughout the country. Her Hollywood connections could boost her favorability among progressives, as it could bring money and notable support to the campaign.

Her official website include blog posts, where she offers her opinion about hot topics like equal pay. Making her stance clear, Judd wrote, “the president and this administration take a back seat to no one on promoting women in the workforce.” Most recently, Judd talked about sexual assault in the military, another  issue that has the potential to surface in an election year. Both the Huffington Post and CNN have featured opinion pieces she’s written.

And while Judd might have a unique set of qualifications, she still hasn’t formally declared her political intentions. This hasn’t stopped Republicans from proactively targeting the actress. Karl Rove’s super PAC, American Crossroads, released an Web ad which attacked Judd’s support for Obama and brought attention to her Tennessee residency.  Team McConnell also seems to consider Judd a threat, releasing a three-minute ad targeting Judd and labeling her “Obama’s Kentucky Candidate.”

recent poll shows Judd trailing McConnell by nine points, but 2014 is still a long way off. Public Policy Polling called McConnell the most “unpopular senator in the country,” with a 55% disapproval rating.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Jon Stewart To GOP – Good Luck in 2020

By

It is hard to believe that the GOP is taken seriously as a legitimate party. The party can be broken down into four distinct factions, the racist faction, the ‘alternate state of reality’ faction, the evangelical fanatical faction, and the impotent faction. At any given time most Republicans tend to play a part in two or more of these factions.

The impotent faction of the GOP is generally characterized by those that are fairly conservative but understand that governing requires compromise. These are the guys that could return the GOP to the party that was a participant in many policies that moved the country forward (civil rights, etc.). Many times in negotiating with President Obama, John Boehner exhibited this attribute when he was willing to execute the “Grand Bargain” until his caucus balked.

The racist faction of the party is characterized by Donald Trump, Jason Rapert, and Tom Tancredo.

This wing was called out by both General Colin Powell and Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson.

The evangelical fanatical faction is characterized by Todd Akin, Mike Huckabee, and Pat Robertson.

This faction has a stranglehold on the Party as their churches skirt the laws and provide direction for their indoctrinated to vote as a block that is generally consequential.

Lastly, there is the alternate state of reality faction that is characterized by Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Glenn Beck. This faction was used to basically to rile up their low information followers.

The Republican Party knows it has a problem. As the electorate becomes more educated, more diverse, and more beaten down by the GOP policies that are mostly still in effect because of the undemocratic nature of our system (a gerrymandered House where the GOP received less votes but yet maintains control, and the 60 vote supermajority Senate requirement for the passage of most laws), the GOP will remain an ever sliding minority party. The Republican autopsy corroborates this.

Yet the Republican policy seems to be of the belief that rebranding the message is all that is necessary.

Jon Stewart in the four minute snippet below illustrates the dilemma. He uses Trump to show the racist inclination that is readily accepted. He uses Bachmann and Palin to show the alternate state of reality many GOP principals put out at prominent events. He then uses the Conservatives’ latest savior, renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson who turned out to be just another very intelligent person but a member of the evangelical Right Wing faction described above.

You may watch the show clip here:



A couple weeks ago I wrote a piece titled “Blacks Voted For Obama Because He Is Black’ To Be Dispelled By A Ben Carson Run”. The piece explains that the GOP problem is policy. In the one snippet where Ben Carson is featured in the Stewart video, it is proven that ridiculous statements and policies repackaged remain ridiculous.

Monday, March 25, 2013

What's Bringing Out Racism in Gaming?


Friday 22 March 2013 11.23 EDT

Is racism in online gaming the fault of the games – or the players?

A new study reports that non-white gamers suffer racial abuse on a daily basis on Xbox Live

Is the world of online gaming racist? Thursday was the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination or, if you prefer, Don't Be Racist Day. But for many black gamers there is unlikely to have been much respite.

According to a study in the latest issue of the New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, Microsoft's online gaming platform Xbox Live has become a new home for "the overt racism that used to permeate our society". The study followed a group of African American gamers whose voices and use of language identified them as black to other players. It found they suffered racial abuse "on a daily basis".

This is unlikely to be news to most online gamers. Many, regardless of their own racial backgrounds, will have encountered it themselves. I know I have. In a game of FIFA 13 last night my opponent got in touch to let me know I'd been scoring "JEW GOALS". I am, as it happens, of Jewish descent, but I doubt it was apparent from the way I made some little men kick a virtual ball into a net. (They didn't, for example, whip out a little dreidel as a celebration, or line up around a taller player in the shape of a menorah.)

The study blames the racist abuse suffered daily by many gamers on the white male hegemony of the gaming industry. It argues that black gamers, as well as gay, female or older gamers, are seen as "deviant" because games – and the white, male-dominated elite who make them – perpetuate a myth of white male uniformity.

That seems unfair. Major games such as Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age II have enabled players to choose black or female avatars and pursue homosexual relationships, and even the much-maligned Grand Theft Auto series has had, at one time or another, an African American protagonist and gay major characters.

Most culpable, of course, are the gamers hurling this abuse. Yet, as the study notes, most of them would not act the same way in the real world and "view their behavior as annoying – not racist". One abusive player, when confronted about using the n-word, explained: "It's just a stupid word. I just say it to fuck with people."

It is too simplistic to lay the charge of enabling racist language at the door of Microsoft's Xbox Live, PlayStation's PSN and other games platforms. It is the people sending messages, not the medium, that are at fault.

Or, put another way: don't hate the game, hate – and censor and ban – the player.

A Steelworker’s Personal Fight To Beat John Boehner In 2014

John Boehner's opponent in 2014 is an Army Veteran, steelworker, husband, father of triplets and a native son of Ohio - and aims to give the 8th District the representation it deserves.

 By

While the President is elected every 4 years, and a Senator every 6, members of the House of Representatives are up for elections every two years. Which means every two years, every member of Congress must face off against whatever challenger happens to be running against them. John Boehner has been safe in his seat for many years, without a strong challenger running against him, and always enjoyed double-digit leads over any challenger, never getting under 60% of the vote.

Many times, the Democratic Party did not even bother running a candidate against Congressman Boehner.

However, in 2014, times are changing.

Meet Andrew Hounshell, an Army Veteran, steelworker, father, husband. Here he is with Ohio Senator, Sherrod Brown:
Hounshell_Brown

He is still getting organized, but so far has been pounding the pavement, engaging in the old fashioned method of campaigning. Instead of fancy ad blitz campaigns paid for with big corporate money, he’s out there meeting people, taking his message to them. His donation page is set up for the small time donor. He has 20 months in which to get his message to the people of the 8th District of Ohio. And he is wasting no time in doing it.

But, as to why he is running, I will leave explaining that up to his own words:
Why I’m A Democrat
By Andrew Hounshell
I was 5 years old when I heard the dreadful news that our President had been shot in a failed assassination attempt. Even at that young age, I felt the impact the event had on the grown-ups around me. On the way to the grocery store, I asked my mother if we could get a get well card and send it to President Reagan. Together, we picked out one and mailed it to the White House. A few weeks later we received an official letter on White House Stationary from the President, thanking me for the well wishes. Our local newspaper ran a story, “Middletown Boy Gets White House Response,” and I was the talk of the town. From that moment on, this 5 year old from southwest Ohio loved President Reagan and thought he could do no wrong.
Fast forward 10 or 12 years, my brother was stationed in Germany while serving in the Army and was being transferred to Ft. Lewis, Washington unable to take any leave to visit his family due to his orders. His wife had given birth to our parent’s first grandchild and they had yet been able to see him. As legend goes (time clouds the memories in my family), someone made a call to our Congressman’s office (then a fairly new John Boehner) and my brother was able to get his orders changed so he could take leave and visit with his family before reporting to Ft. Lewis. In my young impressionable eyes, John Boehner was personally responsible for me getting to see my nephew for the first time, and getting to spend some precious time with my oldest brother after not seeing him for years. Once again, a young Andrew Hounshell was quite impressed by yet another Republican politician showing how much they cared about my family. These guys were great!
What I didn’t know was what was happening to other families around me. If I had been older than 5 years old when I bought that Get Well card, I might have known that it was only five months later, when our President fired over 11,000 PATCO striking Union workers; a move which has been described as starting “America’s downward spiral;” that our nation’s wages would stagnant for the rest of my life. That decision didn’t affect me as a kid, but nearly 30 years later, it is an event that persuaded me to take a deeper look into policy decisions that our elected officials make and ask myself a deeper question. Could it be the dear Republicans I grew up admiring, were not as supportive of the very middle class that I now spend my adult life fighting for?
Memories like mine can mold and shape a person’s voting patterns for a lifetime.
Luckily for me, my thirties brought on a time of clarity. There wasn’t one particular event that turned on a light bulb, but rather a combination of many: college, union work, community work, my father relying on the VA for health care, my mother relying on her Social Security to survive, in-laws going without health insurance because they can’t afford it after my father in-law was laid-off from Delphi, having 3 children at one time (the list goes on and on). I realized that through policy, our elected officials do have a huge impact on our livelihood. Through cuts in Social Security, appointments to the NLRB, cuts to the VA, immigration reform (or lack thereof), tax loopholes for corporations, subsidies to oil companies, etc., our middle class has been eroded and we are not taking care of those who can no longer take care of themselves.
The Republicans I loved as a child, and I thought loved me back, were the very ones who were supporting this erosion. How could this be?
The five year old in me feels so betrayed. It turns out, I’ve been caught up in a very real version of the fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood. At first glance, Grandma looked sweet and innocent, with her thank you card from the White House and an a few weeks of leave for a soldier to visit his family. Now that I am all grown up and have a family of my own to support, I see what big teeth you have, and how you have used them to take a huge bite out of the Middle Class. Like many voters in Ohio’s 8th District and in this country, I see the GOP for what it really is. No disguise is good enough to hide the Big Bad Wolf these days.
Now I dedicate my time to trying to make this world a better place for my children and that includes supporting those who actually support the working class in this country. In 2012, when I looked for that person in the 8th District of Ohio, the ballot was blank. It was then that I decided in 2014 there was going to be a Democratic option for my family, neighbors, coworkers, and community; an option that leads to re-building our Middle Class and a stronger America.
No More Boehner. Our Time is Now.
We could not say it any better ourselves.

If you want to support Andrew Hounshell in his fight to remove John Boehner from congress, feel free to donate to his campaign, or at least drop him a note on his Facebook page. And we wish him the best of luck?

Nate_Downes
Nathaniel Downes is the son of a former state representative of New Hampshire, now living in Seattle Washington.

Feel free to follow Nathaniel Downes on Facebook.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Dream team crushed?

On Friday, we learned that Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum discussed joining forces to keep Mitt Romney from winning the GOP nomination. Ed Show viewers share their thoughts about the “unity ticket.”

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Friday, March 22, 2013

Paralyzed Iraq Vet Tomas Young Discusses His 'Last Letter' to Bush & Cheney, His Decision to Die

 Tells 'Democracy Now!' his decision to end life comes after years of being 'sick and tired of being sick and tired'...
 
By Brad Friedman on 3/21/2013, 4:05pm PT  

Yesterday we published Tomas Young's "Last Letter: A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney from a Dying Veteran", in which the 33-year old U.S. Army veteran, paralyzed from the chest down during an ambush on a rescue mission in Iraq in 2004, announces his plan to soon allow himself to die, as his physical condition has intolerably deteriorated.

We included a link to our own interview with Tomas in 2005 when he first came down from Kansas City to "Camp Casey" in Crawford, TX, on his honeymoon, in support of Cindy Sheehan whose son Casey was killed on the same day, in the same city --- 4/4/04 in Sadr City --- where Tomas was shot twice and gravely injured in the unarmored truck his platoon had been sent out in.

Tomas has been a tremendously heroic and outspoken anti-war voice over the years, as we were reminded once again today during this morning's heart-wrenching episode of Democracy Now! devoted to his story.

Phil Donahue, co-director of the 2007 documentary film about Tomas, Body of War, (in which our '05 interview with Tomas is briefly seen) is on hand as well for the discussion. The hour included a live satellite interview with Tomas, who now struggles to speak. His thoughts seem very coherent, but what is left of his body and its functions are clearly breaking down. He is joined by his wife Claudia.

It is all worth watching, if you can spare the time. The clips from Body of War, especially the one in which Tomas speaks with the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-VA) as they read off the names together of the "Immortal 23" who voted against the Iraq War in the U.S. Senate, are particularly moving.

This is the story of the Iraq War ten years later --- and how it broke this nation just as surely as it broke Tomas Young's body and eventually his spirit and will to live...



After the lengthy segment above, Donahue is asked about his plight at MSNBC where he was fired just before the war began, as we would later find out from an internal executive memo, because his show included too many anti-war voices.

He says the episode reveals "how corporate media shapes our opinions and our coverage."

"They were terrified of the anti-war voice. And that is not an overstatement," Donahue says. "If you're General Electric, you certainly don't want an anti-war voice on a cable channel that you own. Donald Rumsfeld's your biggest customer!"

He explains again how he was required to have two pro-war voices for every anti-war voice he had on his show. "I could have [Bush Admin Iraq war hawk and architect] Richard Perle on alone, but I couldn't have Dennis Kucinich," he explains. "I was considered 'two liberals'." That segment can be watched here.

Finally, in the last moments of the show, Tomas reads his "Last Letter" to Bush and Cheney aloud and answers Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman's question as to whether there is anything that might lead him to change his mind about his decision to soon stop using his feeding tube in order to allow his life to end.

That video segment, including Tomas' answer to Goodman's question, follows below...

Thursday, March 21, 2013

98 arrested as union protest blocks Las Vegas Strip for an hour


 Las Vegas strip blocked: Culinary Workers Local members demonstrate along Las Vegas Boulevard outside the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino on Wednesday. IMAGE

LAS VEGAS — Throngs of workers blocked traffic on the Las Vegas Strip in a demonstration Wednesday against the Cosmopolitan casino that ended with the arrest of nearly 100 protesters.

Tourists watched from an overpass across Las Vegas Boulevard as police led workers wearing red union shirts one by one into a white police bus.

Police arrested 98 protesters, according to Metro Police Capt. Todd Fasulo. The workers chanted, "If we don't get no contract, you don't get no peace," as they waited to be taken away.

Las Vegas' largest and most powerful union has been in contract talks with Cosmopolitan Las Vegas owner Deutsche Bank for two years.

Earlier this year, the 54,000-member union held two one-day pickets outside the casino, which sits on a bustling corner in the heart of the tourist corridor. They marked Culinary Workers Local 226's first pickets on the Strip since 2003.

Wednesday's action was the first time union members deployed civil disobedience, the tactical use of nonviolent law breaking, outside a unionized casino in more than two decades, according to union spokeswoman Yvanna Cancela.
Cosmopolitan spokeswoman Amy Rossetti said management is continuing to negotiate with labor to "find a fair agreement." She added that the union was negotiating with casino management, not with Deutsche Bank directly.

Protesters shut down rush-hour traffic for more than an hour in both directions on the block that is also home to the Bellagio, Aria and Planet Hollywood casinos. Cancela estimated the crowd at about 1,500 people.

Moments before her hands were bound with a zip-tie, Janet Hill said she decided to get arrested to send management a message.

"They need to give workers here a contract; it affects us all," said Hill, a porter at the Flamingo casino down the Strip.

Contract negotiations will open for most other Strip casinos in April.

Talks with the Cosmopolitan have stalled on a range of issues, including wages, health care and job security, Cancela said.

The 2-year-old Cosmopolitan was built by the German investment bank after its original developer defaulted. It is one of just a handful of non-unionized casinos on the Strip, along with the Venetian, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, and the Palms.

Culinary Union members receive free health care and are paid above-average wages. Housekeepers in most Strip hotels start at $16 an hour and receive a pension.

A majority of Cosmopolitan service workers signed cards in 2010 saying they wanted representation.

On Wednesday, protesters said they were worried that Deutsche Bank was stalling because it intends to sell the casino and doesn't want to be burdened by a union contract.

Most tourists walked by the demonstration without breaking their stride. One couple turned around in surprise when a protester booed them for crossing the picket line.

Several visitors said they were annoyed at the inconvenience. But a few cheered on the workers as they marched in their navy, emerald and black casino uniforms. A few even joined in.

James Lewis, of Australia, took a photo of himself holding a sign reading, "No Justice, No Peace."

"I was surprised because I didn't know this was an issue here," said Lewis, who was in town for a friend's 40th birthday party. "I come from a place where health care is free, so this is something completely foreign."

Paulina Corona came to the protest in the brown uniform she wears as a housekeeper at the Mirage hotel-casino. She said the demonstration was important because mutual support creates strength.

"This is a union, and everybody is in it together. When there are problems at the Mirage, everyone goes there," she said.

Corona, 58, said that as a cancer survivor she worries that management could make workers shoulder more of their health care costs.

"Every day, they try to ask for more things," she said.

Obama’s visit to Israel more ‘awkward’ for Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave Republican candidate Mitt Romney a hero's welcome in Israel during the height of the 2012 presidential campaign, but today he rolled out the red carpet for the newly re-elected President Obama. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell discusses with P.J. Crowley, the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, and Richard Wolffe, the executive editor of MSNBC.com.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Anonymous Veteran Leaves Stunning Note On Stranger’s Car, Story Goes Viral

By

Surprising gift from a passing vet; @Facebook
Surprising gift from a passing vet; @Facebook

It was just another morning for Samantha Ford. She’d been with her two kids at at neighborhood Dunkin’ Donuts outside Boston and as she gazed out the window toward the parking lot, she noticed what looked to be a ticket stuck onto her windshield. The morning just got worse. As the kids clamored back in the car minutes later, she reached over to grab the unwelcome ‘gift’ tucked into the window and that’s when she noticed it wasn’t a ticket after all. It was a note written on the back of an envelope… accompanied by two $20 bills.

Shocked, she looked around to see who might have left it but no one obvious appeared to be in the area. With money in hand, she read the note and was stunned to tears:
“I noticed the sticker on the back of your car. Take your hero out to dinner when he comes home. Thank you both for service. Him deployed and you for waiting. — United States Veteran, God Bless”
The car sticker the veteran referenced reads, “Half my heart is in Afghanistan,” where Ford’s boyfriend is currently deployed. She was so moved by the anonymous vet’s random act of kindness that she took a picture of the note and money and posted it on the “Our Deployment: 101 ” Facebook page (which describes itself as a collection of “military affiliate people just looking for kindness and inspiration”), adding this note of her own:
Samantha Ford > Our Deployment: 101
“I just thought I would share with you all what happened to me today! Came out of Dunkin Donuts and found this under my windshield wiper. There are no words to describe how I’m feeling right now. Tears in my eyes. I just wish I could thank whoever did this! God bless our troops and all of those who stand behind them. ♥”
As amazing stories like this are wont to do, the post went viral. As of this writing it has 1,691,239 “likes” and countless comments from people, some touched by the veteran’s act, others sharing their own stories of deployment.

The Today Show found the story moving, as well, and got in touch with Samantha. In an email correspondence, Samantha shared some of her thoughts. From TodayNewsToday:
“It was crazy!!” Ford told TODAY.com via email. “He was so touched and he said it’s people like this that make him proud to be an American Soldier. We are forever grateful and we will DEFINITELY be paying it forward! God bless our troops!”
Ford said she hopes the photograph will draw attention and recognition to the nation’s service members.
“They are all heroes. I just happen to be in love with one,” she said.
Her deployed boyfriend, Albert DeSimone, is assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armor Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division based in Fort Stewart, Ga.
Both Ford and DeSimone look forward to that dinner together when he gets home, courtesy of the “amazingly kind and heartwarming gift” from an anonymous vet, but mostly they want to convey how truly moved they are by the thoughtfulness and generosity of a stranger.
“We are forever grateful and will DEFINITELY be paying it forward… it’s amazing to know that there are still people in this world as beautiful as this individual,” she said. [Source]
Indeed, it is.

LDW_AI

Follow Lorraine Devon Wilke on Twitter, Facebook and Rock+Paper+Music; for her archive at Addicting info click here; details and links to her other work: www.lorrainedevonwilke.com.

Pat Robertson: If You’re Bankrupt, Just Give Me $20 A Month

By Alan Colmes

Televangelist Pat Robertson will go easy in you if you’re broke.

He encouraged families who could not pay their bills to become “partners” of his ministry because “it’s just $20 a month.”

At the end of Monday’s 700 Club broadcast, Robertson told the story of D.L and Deborah Hobby, who “lived large” in a 4,600-square-foot home until the housing market crashed and their real estate business dried up.

After selling their home at a “huge loss,” the Hobbys declared Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 2010. The “defeated” family of four was forced to move into a 1,000-square-foot home.

“That is when we really started to focus on God,” D.L. Hobby recalled…

“Our finances have been restored because of him,” Deborah Hobby observed. “And I believe it was because of us continuing to tithe, and us putting God first in our lives.”

“They were faithful,” Robertson opined at the conclusion of the report. “Listen, there is no way you can out give God. You can’t do it. And that which is given to him will come back 30, 60 and 100 fold.”

“We encourage you to join the 700 Club,” the TV preacher added. “It’s just $20 a month. And if all of us do it together, it gets to be millions and millions and millions of dollars!”

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran

To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Tomas Young

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.

I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.

I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.

I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.

My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.

Dig last updated on Mar. 18, 2013

http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/the_last_letter_20130318/

Forget the Cellphone Fight — We Should Be Allowed to Unlock Everything We Own

By Kyle Wiens

While Congress is working on legislation to re-legalize cellphone unlocking, let’s acknowledge the real issue: The copyright laws that made unlocking illegal in the first place. Who owns our stuff? The answer used to be obvious. Now, with electronics integrated into just about everything we buy, the answer has changed.

We live in a digital age, and even the physical goods we buy are complex. Copyright is impacting more people than ever before because the line between hardware and software, physical and digital has blurred.

The issue goes beyond cellphone unlocking, because once we buy an object — any object — we should own it. We should be able to lift the hood, unlock it, modify it, repair it … without asking for permission from the manufacturer.

But we really don’t own our stuff anymore (at least not fully); the manufacturers do. Because modifying modern objects requires access to information: code, service manuals, error codes, and diagnostic tools. Modern cars are part horsepower, part high-powered computer. Microwave ovens are a combination of plastic and microcode. Silicon permeates and powers almost everything we own.

This is a property rights issue, and current copyright law gets it backwards, turning regular people — like students, researchers, and small business owners — into criminals. Fortune 500 telecom manufacturer Avaya, for example, is known for suing service companies, accusing them of violating copyright for simply using a password to log in to their phone systems. That’s right: typing in a password is considered “reproducing copyrighted material.”

Manufacturers have systematically used copyright in this manner over the past 20 years to limit our access to information. Technology has moved too fast for copyright laws to keep pace, so corporations have been exploiting the lag to create information monopolies at our expense and for their profit. After years of extensions and so-called improvements, copyright has turned Mickey Mouse into a monster who can never die.

It hasn’t always been that way. Copyright laws were originally designed to protect creativity and promote innovation. But now, they are doing exactly the opposite: They’re being used to keep independent shops from fixing new cars. They’re making it almost impossible for farmers to maintain their equipment. And, as we’ve seen in the past few weeks, they’re preventing regular people from unlocking their own cellphones.

This isn’t an issue that only affects the digerati; farmers are bearing the brunt as well. Kerry Adams, a family farmer in Santa Maria, California, recently bought two transplanter machines for north of $100,000 apiece. They broke down soon afterward, and he had to fly a factory technician out to fix them.

Because manufacturers have copyrighted the service manuals, local mechanics can’t fix modern equipment. And today’s equipment — packed with sensors and electronics — is too complex to repair without them. That’s a problem for farmers, who can’t afford to pay the dealer’s high maintenance fees for fickle equipment.

Adams gave up on getting his transplanters fixed; it was just too expensive to keep flying technicians out to his farm. Now, the two transplanters sit idle, and he can’t use them to support his farm and his family.

God may have made a farmer, but copyright law doesn’t let him make a living.

Neighborhood car mechanics also see copyright as a noose constricting their ability to fix problems. The error codes in your car? Protected. The diagnostic tools used to access them? Proprietary software.

New cars get more sophisticated every year, and mechanics need access to service information to stay in business. Under the cover of copyright law, auto companies have denied independent shops access to the diagnostic tools and service diagrams they need.

Mechanics aren’t taking it lying down. In September of last year, Massachusetts passed Right to Repair legislation designed to level the playing field between dealerships and independent repair shops. Under the rallying cry of “it’s your car, you should be able to repair it where you want,” voters passed the bill by a whopping 86 percent margin. The law circumvents copyright, requiring manufacturers to release all service information to Massachusetts car owners and service technicians.

The popular unrest is spreading: Legislators in Maine just introduced similar legislation.

Meanwhile, progress is being made to legalize cellphone unlocking. With grassroots groups leading the charge, the Obama administration announced its support for overturning the ban last week. Since then, members of Congress have authored no fewer than four bills to legalize unlocking.

This is a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough. Let’s make one thing clear: Fixing our cars, tractors, and cellphones should have nothing to do with copyright.

As long as Congress focuses on just unlocking cellphones, they’re missing the larger point. Senators could pass a hundred unlocking bills; five years from now large companies will find some other copyright claim to limit consumer choice. To really solve the problem, Congress must enact meaningful copyright reform. The potential economic benefits are significant, as free information creates jobs. Service information is freely available online for many smartphones from iFixit (my organization) and other websites. Not coincidentally, thousands of cellphone repair businesses have sprung up in recent years, using the repair knowledge to keep broken cellphones out of landfills.

As long as we’re limited in our ability to modify and repair things, copyright — for all objects — will discourage creativity. It will cost us money. It will cost us jobs. And it’s already costing us our freedom.

Kyle Wiens

Kyle Wiens is the co-founder and CEO of iFixit, an online repair community and parts retailer internationally renowned for their open source repair manuals and product teardowns. Launched out of his Cal Poly college dorm room in 2003, iFixit has now empowered upwards of 15 million people to repair their broken stuff.

Monday, March 18, 2013

No One in Washington DC Wants To Solve Our Economic Problems

By Nicole Belle

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


You know it's true, but let me be the one to commit to publishing it: No one in Washington DC wants to solve our economic problems.

Sure, it makes great fodder for the Sunday shows. They can have on Paul Ryan and legitimize him as a Very. Serious. Economic. Wonk.™ to discuss how we have to effectively kill Social Security (which is deficit neutral as anyone who understands the program well knows) to "save" it for future generations.

They can wring their hands over the unemployment rate as a way to blame President Obama, even though the private sector job growth has been positive for 24 straight months.

They can invite on those same politicians that authorized the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the Bush tax cuts and let them play concern troll over the deficit, as if history only started on January 2009.

They can frame the issue as one of sacrifice and 'skin in the game', ignoring that the wealthiest nation in the world has seen the wealth gap widen enormously, offering its riches only for a very few and that 98 percent of us are doing worse than they were before the collapse.

There is an economic crisis that exists in this country and there are some serious solutions designed to resolve them. But you won't hear about them, because they're coming from the marginalized Congressional Progressive Caucus:
The “Back to Work” Budget contains a $544 billion increase over current spending on public investments and job creation in the first year, including $75 billion for an infrastructure program, $155 billion for a public works program and aid to distressed communities, $80 billion for hiring teachers and $92 billion for reinstating the Making Work Pay tax credit. It also expands unemployment insurance, sends more money to the states and undoes the sequester cuts.
The CPC estimates this will create $7 million jobs in the first year—and over the next ten years, the budget would spend over $4 trillion more on job creation and public investments.
But this massive spending is offset by a number of crucial revenue measures: The “Back to Work” budget increases taxes on millionaires and billionaires, taxes investments at the same level as wages, closes corporate tax loopholes, enacts both a financial transactions tax and a carbon tax, and introduces both a public option and government negotiating for drug prices to Medicare. In addition, the budget finds savings by cutting Pentagon spending back to 2006 levels.
In short, they sketch out the opposite vision of Paul Ryan: reduced military spending, robust public investment and a strong safety net.
But this plan involves making sacrifices at the top and increasing revenue, so the Beltway has deemed this a less serious plan than Ryan's, even though it has the same odds of passing as Ryan's does. Steve Benen:
Earlier, I suggested that the Senate Democrats' plan offers a bookend to the House GOP plan, but upon further reflection, that's not quite right. Ryan aims for radicalism; Senate Dems aim for modesty. Ryan throws caution to the wind and laughs at calls for compromise; Senate Dems deliberately identify a moderate middle ground.
The actual bookend for Paul Ryan's vision is the Congressional Progressive Caucus' plan -- it's bold and unapologetic, presenting an agenda without real regard for whether folks on the other side of the aisle will find it worthwhile.
We'll never know for sure whether the public would be amenable to a vision like this. In fact, I have a strong hunch more than 99% of the population will never hear a single word about the "Back To Work Budget." But let's be clear about one thing: on Capitol Hill, when it comes to creating millions of jobs in a hurry, this is the only game in town.
And therein lies the problem: the solutions are there. Common sense solutions that will get us out of our economic rut and bring back prosperity to far more Americans than Ryan's budget will. But we'll only hear Ryan's plan. CPC members will not get invited on multiple Sunday shows to tout their vision. We'll only hear them ask for a grand bargain between the radicalism of Ryan and the center-middle milquetoast of the Murray Plan.

Because no one in Washington actually wants to find a solution.

About Nicole Belle
Nicole Belle's picture
Mom, Wife, Media Critic/Political Analyst, Blogger, Austen Fanatic, Unapologetic Liberal NicoleBelle@crooksandliars.com

80,364,995 points on a single quarter in Missile Command

Man takes to Twitch.tv with the hope of scoring 100 million in the classic arcade game.

By - Mar 17 2013, 5:12 P.M. EDT
Here's the final scene Sandberg saw after 56 hours of domination.
Some numbers just stick out. Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 56 straight games. UCLA Men's Basketball won 88 in a row. And for the classic gaming niche, Victor Ali's 80,364,995 points on a single quarter in Missile Command looms just as large.

Today however, seemingly out of nowhere, a challenger rose up and dethroned the 30-year-old record live on Twitch.tv. Victor Sandberg, aka Twitch user diskborsteMC, played for more than 56 hours and surpassed 81 million points around 2:20 p.m. PST. Sandberg mentioned a desire to reach 100 million in total, but he ended with 81,796,035 total points. It's an effort that's more than good enough to unseat the previous high score.

And, let's answer the natural question, how does Sandberg play for so many hours straight without breaks? Apparently, he's been building up extra cities and allowing them to get destroyed whenever he needs to step away from the machine for a moment. Sandberg said he could theoretically take up to a 30 minute break with such a strategy, but prefers to use only four or six minute breaks instead.

Sandberg's Twitch page is relatively new, but it's filled with test streams of Missile Command play and his previous attempts at the record. Before this most recent event, Sandberg's best was 56,675,180 total points. It's important to note Sandberg is utilizing marathon settings rather than tournament settings for Missile Command, as the two records are kept separately. (Tournament play does not allow players to earn bonus cities, so the scores there are much lower. The record in tournament settings has not eclipsed five million.)

Sandberg's performance will need verification from Twin Galaxies, the arcade turned international scoreboard for classic gaming (featured in the documentary Chasing Ghosts). The organization still maintains the official record keeping and also outlines the proper settings players must use to attempt a record-breaking run.

Atari released Missile Command in 1980 and players have strived for the record ever since (check out this newspaper clipping of a 40-million-plus round in 1981). Record-seeking play is regarded highly enough that it's been the subject of multiple award-winning documentaries: King of Kong (about the battle for classic Donkey Kong supremacy) in 2007, and High Score about Missile Command bragging rights in 2006. If you are not familiar with Missile Command, check out some basic gameplay from Atari's arcade version below.

 

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Sharpton pushes back against Snyder over Emergency Manager law

By , @morganwinn

Rev. Al Sharpton and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder went head to head on Friday’s Morning Joe over Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law and Snyder’s recent takeover of Detroit under that law.

Acknowledging the poor condition of Detroit’s finances, Sharpton argued that Snyder “undermined the will of the voters” when he signed new emergency manager legislation into law only a few weeks after Michiganders repealed it in the November 2012 election.

 
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Snyder’s defended the move, arguing the new law was different. “The old law went away, but we put in a new one that really was responsive to the issues that came up during that process,” he said.

He also pushed back against the criticism that by appointing an emergency manager, Snyder essentially became the only voter in Detroit, with full power to decide who leads it. “I’m also the elected official,” he said. “I was elected by the people of Michigan so there is an elected official responsible for this process and I think that’s critically important.”

Sharpton also brought up Pontiac’s experience with an emergency manager. In that town, manager Lou Schimmel has privatized and outsources many of the city’s services, decimated the public unions, reduced the public workforce by 90%, and sold the Silverdome arena for a fraction of its estimated value.

Snyder argued that mayors and cities in Pontiac and elsewhere are “still giving input” and involved with an ongoing process, although many elected leaders in those towns have argued the opposite, especially Pontiac’s City Councilman Donald Watkins, who said on Thursday’s PoliticsNation that the emergency manager law has led to “one man power corruption” which he calls “emergency mismanagement.”

Watch Donald Watkins on Thursday’s PoliticsNation.

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Rev. Charles Williams II, who leads the Michigan chapter of Sharpton’s civil rights organization, says the people of Detroit are ready to fight for their rights. “The mayors and the city council–they lose all of their power, and all of that power is quite frankly entrusted inside of the emergency manager,” he said. “There are certain ones who are sitting there who may still have their paycheck and they may in theory still have their power, but if the emergency manager has a gun to your head, there’s not much you can do.”

Williams, who led protests against the appointment on Thursday, said Snyder is “disenfranchising the vote and dismissing democracy in Michigan” by taking this action after the law was repealed, pointing to the more than 2 million voters who rejected the emergency manager law in November’s referendum.

“The people should decide [if elections matter], but they don’t want people to decide who chooses our president, who chooses our mayor, or our city council,” he said.

Williams also argued that the emergency manager laws are part of a broader voter suppression plan, in line with gerrymandering and voter ID laws. “This is part of the Republican scheme to continue to disenfranchise voters,” he said, calling it a “suppressive tactic.”

“We’re going to stand up and fight back we’re not going to allow our voices to be dismissed.”

Sanders: Economy Worse Than Obama Claims

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), with his statements about the economy, contradicts many of the soothsaying words of President Obama in recent addressing of the economy. ""Real unemployment ... it's not 7.7 percent; it is really over 14 percent," Sanders said during a Senate Budget Committee hearing yesterday. "Youth unemployment, a whole future generation, is today close to 25 percent. These are kids who are not getting their feet on the ground, not developing a career."

March 13, 2013

WASHINGTON, March 13 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today as the committee began hearings on a plan for the 2014 fiscal year that mixes tax increase with cuts to the Pentagon and domestic programs:

“The resolution that we will be debating in the Budget Committee today is a step in the right direction.

“At a time when the real unemployment rate is 14.3 percent, this budget resolution will put millions of Americans back to work in decent-paying jobs rebuilding our roads, bridges, dams, culverts, sewers, schools, and other infrastructure needs.  This is a step in the right direction, but I would do much more. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, we need to invest $2.2 trillion over the next five years just to get a passing grade on our infrastructure needs.

“At a time when corporate profits are at an all-time high and corporate revenue as a percentage of the economy is near an all-time low, this budget resolution begins to make sure that the most profitable corporations will contribute to deficit reduction. This budget resolution raises $975 billion in revenue over the next decade.  Altogether, 36 percent of the $4 trillion in deficit reduction achieved under this budget resolution would come from ending tax loopholes and increasing tax rates on the wealthy.  I would have gone much further by making sure that at least 50 percent of deficit reduction since 2010 was achieved by raising revenue from the wealthy and large corporations.

“At a time when the middle class is collapsing, poverty increasing and the gap between the rich and everyone else is growing wider and wider, this budget resolution keeps the promises we have made to our seniors, veterans and the most vulnerable by protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid against benefit cuts.

“Let me be clear. The Senate resolution is much better than the budget proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. Unlike the House plan, the Senate resolution will not end Medicare as we know it.  Instead, it protects earned Medicare benefits for both current and future beneficiaries.

“Unlike the Ryan budget, the Senate resolution will not slash Pell grants by $80 billion or eliminate college grants for up to 1 million students.  Instead, it protects Pell grants for 9 million low-income college students.

“Unlike the Ryan budget, this Senate resolution will not kick up to 24 million Americans off of Medicaid.  Rather, it will protect Medicaid benefits.

“Unlike the Ryan budget, the Senate resolution will not repeal the Affordable Care Act and prevent over 30 million Americans from getting the health insurance they need.

“And unlike the Ryan budget, this Senate resolution will not provide a $7 trillion tax break that will primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations, paid for by increasing taxes on the middle class.”

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Hypocrisy Alert: Anti-Marijuana Republican Rep. Steve Katz Caught With Marijuana

Since Republicans are all about state's rights, hypocrisy should also be on the state level.

By

According to reports, Katz was initially pulled over on the New York Thruway for speeding. The trooper who pulled him over apparently detected the aroma of marijuana and proceeded to ask Katz if he had any pot in the car. At which point, Katz said “yes” and then handed over a bag of the magic stuff that contained less than 25 grams. The trooper didn’t suspect that Katz was driving while impaired–an assessment that has become more common in the wake of states legalizing small amounts of marijuana–so he just issued him for unlawful possession of marijuana – a non-criminal violation – and speeding. Under New York state law, the private possession of up to 25 grams of marijuana is a non-criminal civil citation, punishable by a $100 fine. But if only there were a penalty for hypocrisy.
“If there was a concern that he was smoking while driving, we would have brought in a drug recognition expert to determine if he was under the influence, but there was no indication that he was,state police spokesman Sgt. Don Baker said(NY Daily News)
But Katz, a committed hypocrite, isn’t going to let this otherwise massively humiliating and hypocritical experience impede his work of making the lives of his constituents miserable. Katz saw it fit to deny cancer patients and pain sufferers relief when he voted against a bill last year to legalize medical marijuana
“This should not overshadow the work I have done over the years for the public and my constituency,” Katz said. “I am confident that once the facts are presented that this will quickly be put to rest.”(NY Daily News)
If Congressman Anthony Weiner had to resign in shame after his wiener sowed up all of Twitter, then it only seems appropriate for Katz to be forced to resign. In the mean time, there should be an inquiry into whether Katz was truly under the influence and if the Trooper just let him slide because, unlike plebeians like you and me, he was a public official.