freshwest
freshwest's JournalThose silly wabbits! (dial-up warning, large image)
Obama Gives Helen Thomas Cupcakes For Her Birthday
http://gawker.com/5330020/obama-gives-helen-thomas-cupcakes-for-her-birthday
Funny story and video of the event celebrating her 89th birthday above.
RIP, Helen Thomas. Obama was one of her admirers, for keeping him accountable.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/20/us/helen-thomas-obit/index.html?hpt=hp_t2#
He is unendingly gracious, almost to a fault. He must have been brought up with good manners and feeling love for others. And I'd love to get a hug and cupcakes offered like that!
Obama will veto any farm bill without food stamps. It's an immoral environment he has to work in, dealing with those who want to push savage inequalities on the American people and the world. Obama treats everyone equally and they hate him for it.
I'm sure Obama would have given them something to eat. The waiter story is about stereotypes, which deny one the gift of getting to learn the story of another person and experience their perspective. It's their loss if they don't know the freedom of Namaste.
Obama knows by education, upbringing or instinct, that primary needs must be met as the first step in Maslow's Pyramid:
I've always considered Obama at the top of that pyramid, as it shows in everything he does. He's never forgotten anyone along all those levels.
Very proud of my President.
13 surgeries, more to come, and her children affected too. Real people, real pain.
This is why the wounds of the people of Boston are still raw, the pain nowhere near over, yet some in media will dance on them with glee.
The defendant's supporters in media can't bring themselves to admit there were victims, some of them. They didn't make the front page of the magazine, they aren't sexy.
The CT media says they are all actors, that they didn't see any injuries and will not utter a word for them. Since they really don't exist, do they?
Thanks for bringing some uncomfortable truths to this.
The second of two replies to you, Sheshe, on what Boston has endured:
Man Who Trashed Alex Jones Infowars Dan Bidondi. 'It's Westboro Baptist Church Of Journalism.'Published on Apr 30, 2013
VIDEO description:
The Boston man behind a viral video featuring him berating a reporter for Alex Jones' conspiracy theory website InfoWars appears on MSNBC with Martin Bashir on Tuesday where he clarified and expanded on his animus towards the website and its employees. The Boston-based video maker said that InfoWars had become the "Westboro Baptist Church of journalism," suggesting the site exists to be provocative and to agitate Americans already grieving in the wake of tragic events.
RELATED: 'You Son Of A B*tch': Furious Boston Man Confronts 'A**hole' Alex Jones Reporter Over 'False Flag' Allegations
Roger Nicholson, the man behind the camera in this viral video hurling a series of angry expletives at an InfoWars camera man who claims to have the images which prove the FBI orchestrated the April 15 attack on the Boston Marathon, joined Bashir on Friday to continue his anti-InfoWars crusade.
Nicholson told Bashir that he was frustrated by the reporter who had been "hijacking" a series of press conferences held by law enforcement in the wake of the Boston attacks.
"I had a dear friend of mine who was at the Marathon when the bomb went off," Nicholson said. "I was very affected by her -- what she had experienced."
"I just felt very angry that InfoWars came to my town to start making show material," he added.
"To me, the InfoWars -- whatever that show is -- has become the Westboro Baptist Church of Journalism," Nicholson declared. "I think these people are un-American, and unpatriotic, and they're hysterics."
Bashir asked if there was anything that Nicholson would like to say to Alex Jones. Nicholson said Jones was the equivalent of the "David Koresh of broadcasting," referring to the leader of the Branch Dividian cult.
Yes, he took what belonged to both the defense and prosecution, state's evidence.
But I can understand his rage at this cover. They could have been of the bombing itself and then put his 'Jim Morrison' look-a-like photo inside.
Beware:
A rambling rant is coming. Back away now if necessary.
The idea that Rolling Stone gets a pass for making a buck off of this is a Libertarian one. Nothing must stand in the way of the First Amendment and making a buck. Because money is free speech and corporations are people. Just ask Greenwald why he supports Citizens United.
Guess that makes Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and FNN okay for whatever they say. Why should anyone complain of having their feelings hurt? Don't react, don't say a thing, just accept getting kicked when you're down because the self-righteous bullies are gonna yell, 'It's my right!' To make a buck off your agony. It devalues human life, to turn it into fodder for profit.
Should Trayvon's family not be permitted to speak against the racist media atmosphere that killed their son and let his killer go free, because it's all just 'Freedom of Speech!' like the Teabaggers sing in chorus?
And NO ONE is censoring or stopping RS from publication of whatever they think will sell for profit. THAT line is never crossed in this country, NEVER. This magazine will go on without any hindrance, like Beck, Rush, etc. without being as ill-intended.
But the people of Boston cleaning up the wreckage in the lives of many, the trashing of a global event that resonated so much that the Marathon winner gave his medal to the citizens of Boston in honor of their pain; they are not allowed to speak without being called names or their motives degraded politically?
Are they not allowed to be angry, or outraged, because commerical journalism is being accused of being insensitive to their feelings? How far do we want to take this, when such commerical speech is valued so highly, that it is making policy and abusing the process of informing the citizenry daily, yet the words of Bostonians are being sneered at? Since they are not professional journalists, is that the dividing line on the worth of their words or experiences?
If that is the case, we are truly doomed as a nation, that we are only judging between the words of those paid to speak for media owners, the vast majority of which are conservative one-percenters, who daily ignore, malign and lie about the motivations of those who say they have a right by law to have services, a right to have an education, healthcare, and all the rest the well-organized and funded city of Boston represents, while pushing their newest variety of social darwinism.
Boston is a success story for liberal government and it exists as a counter to their nihilism, and thus it must be destroyed from the top to the bottom for the sake of the 'liberty and freedom.' Of the 1% that is, not the 99% that built Boston and this nation.
If we judge everything within the media lens, we are proving the USCoC and Koch brothers right. That dollars really do equal freedom of speech. Consider each dollar and each word paid for and produced as a vote.
This is a wonderful state of affairs to promote if you are a multi-billionaire. Their dollars and the people they pay to speak for them far exceed our numbers. There are 300 million Americans, but they are billions. We know that Jones is a JBS, Libertarian, GOP and a fan of James O'Keefe's work to bring down Democrats and liberals along with that nasty government. He carries out his mission with the zeal of a great entertainer.
We've seen Beck shilling openly for the GOP, the USCoC, the Koch Brothers, and all of that. And so is Rand Paul. Yet we let their words determine how we treat our peers, as they have 'points that should be made.' Weapons like knives have points, too. What of the hand that wields them? And the forces behind the hand?
While what RS did, was not as direct as Beck and Rush, and I will not boycott them, and am not from Boston, it was a gratuitous appeal to the youthfulness and doe eyed appearance of the defendant. Did they also post a picture of the less photogenic Zimmerman for an article in order to foster a genteel discussion of why he did what he did, like a tea party of aristocrats analyzing the fine points of the mewls of the dying peasants beneath their feet?
RS is not FNN. That's not what's going on in this case. But the actions being chatted about are worse than when Z murdered Trayvon. A certain number of people enjoy roaming the minds of serial killers, too. In this case, this guy slaughtered people for his cause. To sympathize with his cause is to believe that everything about the city of Boston that has made it work, that ended a week of being terrorized by a real life sitaution, is an evil fraud.
Also the defendant said he was amazed with how his good looks enabled him to influence others, or words to that effect. IOW, he could con people and did it without remorse. And his face on that cover does exactly that.
Most people understand that there is an emotional underpinning to what we say and do, and no one is less aware of this than the various forms of media. Who is RS trying to con, or are they not quite as clever as they make out to be? Is there an agenda, or is it just pandering to sell copies? Are either agendas so noble that they deserve our fealty?
I don't hate the defendant and am not worried about him being mistreated in any way. He is getting a far better defense team than Z had in Florida. A highly dedicated group of individuals who will do all in their power to see that this young man either is found not guilty or will mitigate his sentence in however they can.
I've known attorneys from Boston, of the ACLU variety. They are not going to let this guy be railroaded or mistreated. He will get a vastly superior defense than the majority of Americans will ever get.
I don't begrudge him that at all. In fact, if he is found not guilty, it's no skin off of my nose personally. The truth and not The Truth© that is being sold to us by CT shills, will be welcome even to those injured. They don't want a man wrongfully convicted and let the guilty run loose.
His trial or verdict, one way or another will not bring anyone back to life, will not reattach torn off legs, feet, hands, arms, eyes, faces, or the ability for lives most of us expect will be our lot.
On the other hand, if I appear to be inconsistent, the Zimmerman case was not in a crowd. And he pretty much shot himself in the foot with his media appearances and own words. He has had his day in the media court, and court in Sanford.
The suspect here will no doubt generate a fan club or a different variety than Z, just as the the Menendez brothers and many others in American Idol land.
In this case, there still remains a possibility, despite eye witness testimony by Bauman, that he will not be convicted. Some CTers say Bauman did not lose his legs in the bombing, amd that the man who helped him, formerly adored by the left as antiwar, was a fraud as well. How fickle the public is.
What CTers are saying is hurtful to the people of Boston, saying it is all a fraud, no one was hurt, just like Newtown, all actors covering up for an agenda to take away guns, just as was brought into arguments here, that the people of Boston needed guns to protect themselves. And not the police state Bostonians were called cowards for agreeing to being asked to stay in their homes.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101661629
Very easy to say the Libertarian solution is the only one that is right, as Beck and Jones promise us that a full Nazi state is just around this corner. Or that corner, some other corner. Keep looking for it, be afraid of anyone that says 'I'm from the government,' like Reagan said. But Reagan was no freedom fighter in the sense that a liberal thinks - he was, though, the spiritual, philosophic and economic basis of the Tea Party.
The same voices will suggest we buy water filters and gold for the coming collapse that they are selling us on, but never seems to happen. Because it won't, things will simply be re-aligned and those who have will keep on having and those who are being robbed by the Libertarian paradise they promote will keep being robbed, unless they unite to hold onto the government and run the plutocrats out.
Beck and Jones are shills for the plutocracy while making out to be populists. It's all so entertaining, cynical and very effective.
And this parade of insults is for a community that has endured Glen Beck turning the bombing to fit into one of his very profitable, emotionally charged and dishonest narratives, using the shell shocked citizens there into unwilling bit players in his circus. The grifters didn't even wait for the blood to be cleaned up:
Glenn Beck compares hunt for Boston Marathon bomber to Nazi Germany
April 29, 2013 By Michael Ross
You had to know he would get around to it sooner or later.
This morning on his radio program, Glenn Beck spent several minutes discussing a photo reportedly taken during the hunt for suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev which shows a police officer riding in a Humvee who appears to be aiming his rifle up at the person taking the photo through a window...
Beck then claimed to find the image particularly disturbing because it reminded him of something he learned when visiting Auschwitz, which was that the Nazis would murder anyone who dared to so much as look out the window when they came to haul away Jewish families living in a neighborhood.
Glenn Beck compares the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bomber to the Nazis. Credit: Rightwingwatch.org
"So there were no eyewitnesses to anything because they had trained them," said Beck. "You make that mistake one time and the entire neighborhood and the town realize when they say stay in the house, they mean stay in your house. When they say don't look out the window, don't approach a window, don't look at what's going on, you don't or they'll kill you..."
A lot more goodies at link:
http://www.examiner.com/article/glenn-beck-compares-hunt-for-boston-marathon-bomber-to-nazi-germany
How very original of Glenn and the rest of the gang...
At the same time, Boston had to endure the Infowars franchisees from the Westboro Baptist Church school of journalism with their claims of a 'false flag.' They came to town and claimed the FBI and the police themselves committed the bombing.
This is what they claimed about the First Responders, the ones who carried the injured and dead and had to stop another bombing from taking place. The ones who saw their neighbors suffering and ran to help instead of standing aside like a film audience and jeering at the people who didn't have time to stand aside.
The same crew showed up with the same condescending, 'I know something you don't know, you brainwashed sheeple' singsong and attitude to Boston they brought to each town after the shootings in Newtown, Aurora, the Sikh temple and Oklahoma tornadoes, to any place local citizens sought to prevent more death. Talk about rubbing the salt in the wound. They reek of 1% arrogance with their insistence on demoralizing people, and that's their agenda, not truth telling.
I'm going to divide this line from above about how the vampiric media is hurting people there, for anyone who wants to go that journey as it what is underneath the words being said about the authorities in Boston:
They came to town and claimed that the FBI and the police themselves committed the bombing.
...that the FBI and the police themselves committed the bombing.
...and the police themselves committed the bombing.
The clear charge that has been made is that the police themselves stood by or even committed the crime, is that they are guilty of such soulless and cruel behavior toward the people they have been sworn to protect, many of whom they were related to as family, friends and co-workers and were injured.
That's about as damning as it gets. It's saying they murdered the innocents. That they committed a crime against humanity. That is what Beck is selling there with his deeply flawed parallel reality, the same way that Infowars does.
This had to have hurt deeply for this officer to have reacted as he did and get himself in trouble, as he wanted to clear his profession. his friends and neighbors of the charges that have been made of the suspect being badly treated, that they were out to kill all the witnesses and keep the truth from coming out in this matter.
Just as Beck and Jones said.
These are very serious charges being laid at their feet by the CT shills. And the zealots don't give a damn, as long as the money and the thrills keep on coming.
The assault on all civil authority is coming from the same sources who want public schools and the social safety net gone with no regulation enforced. They daily demoralize the public, demonize and defund public institutions created to protect people from the same plutocrats that pay them.
In doing so they mobilize for the civil war the 1% wants to happen, the constitutional crisis they are itching for, to eliminate the last obstacle to plutocratic rule.
Just because it's wrapped up in plain paper for the masses doesn't mean it's not part of what the 1% wants, to have us going at each other's throats and destroying the government all institutions that are so deeply flawed they must be destroyed for freedom and liberty.
The essential part of the narrative they never delve into is that the default will result in our living under religious and corporate authorities, and no redress.
This is perfect, this is selling the public on the ideas of the 1% and against those who are working for them. And is why I don't buy the story that continual trashing of the government is a winning strategy for change. Because that requires enthusiasm for the imperfect instrument of social safety nets, health care and rights for the poor and minorities that Democrats represent no matter what. As the song Freewill goes, 'If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.'
Not supporting those working for change, just standing back and jeering, is a vote fo the status quo, the Koch brothers, theocrats and the 1%, because they are the default power, eager for you to lose faith in a We The People government that makes our lives better, but only in proportion that we bite the bullet and join into it to make change.
The old saying is, 'If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.' I see no solutions being offered at DU most days, just tearing down. No practical alternatives to change things will result in a default to 1% schemes. It's dishonest to complain about what the Tea Party and GOP are doing, and at the same time trash their only opposition. Because it ensures their continued success.
It's not a secret. It's evidence that might compromise the defense or the prosecution.
I've thought about it because I was wondering about him being relieved of duty. The 'let's put it all out there for the public to see' mentality is not alawys a good thing,, but like entertainment news media.
It's not a secret at all, there is no mystery in the process. As a defendant, I don't think I'd like to see every moment of my life put out there for people who are not in any way involved in the case who are looking to make money off misery to escape ennui.
If I was on trial, I wouldn't want over emotional members of the public to go to my job, my house, harrass my friends and family, and go over my life with a fine toothed comb. We see what happened with the eternal thug Zimmermann. Even though he was definitely putting all his laundry out in public for profit and to taint the jury pool.
As an officer, Sean Murphy is responsible for maintaining the chain of custody on evidence. He broke it and it may not be able to be used for the jury, for all I know.
He should not be fired, I think he should be reprimanded or whatever they do. But in a high-profile situation as this, the stakes are high for both the defense and prosecution. Not as a game - they both believe in what they are doing, it is their life's work, they have trained for this.
There are many raw feelings in Boston and speculation will not serve justice or a fair trial. Enough drama has occured in this whole thing without cheap shots being made and ignorant commentary. I expect it will get really ugly by the time the trial starts and will deeply hurt a number of people here who are in the process of trying to heal those maimed in Boston.
Just my thoughts.
I decided to make a poll in the BOG, after my response to this post:
A pic to test the waters:
The responses from those who will object to that image, no matter how they spin it, are telling. It's a visual test on how far down the rabbit hole they. have gone. One either enjoys it or feels offended. Those are honest visceral reactions. Images bypass the excuses.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023280246#post10
The person I was replying to was tired of racist posts sent to him after Z-THUG verdict, and the term 'Obama Thugs' posted to him. He's going to make it his profile picture to let people on FB know where he stands...
How do you feel about this image of President Obama?
WARNING: You have stumbled into the infamous BOG of DU.
This is a totally biased internet poll created by an Obamabot and posted in the BOG, which is maintained for supporters of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, his policies and his family.
That was your last chance to escape, continue at your own risk.
Excellent. A pic to test the waters:
The responses from those who will object to that image, no matter how they spin it, are telling. It's a visual test on how far down the rabbit hole they. have gone. One either enjoys it or feels offended. Those are honest visceral reactions. Images bypass the excuses.
Confederate flags are not just for the South now. They are national symbols to baggers who hate the
US Government. For virtually the same reasons as the South left the Union.It's a different social, religious and economic model than most of us grew up with. Equality to them is the philosophy of failure.
This flag is seen as more American than the American flag, as they see the US Government as illegitmate.
It's as much as sign of rebelling against oppression as the Gadsden flag. The American flag represents the IRS, socialism and as such is an attack on their freedom and liberty as they see it.
Profile Information
Member since: Fri Dec 10, 2010, 11:36 PMNumber of posts: 53,661
