Liberals Possess A Generous Heart With A Broad Enlightened Mind Free From Narrowness

On right wing talk radio, or reading comments online, like on Facebook, or comments to an article on an online news source, over and over and over again you will hear and read comments from those who think themselves to be "conservatives" besmirching those they believe to be liberals.

Liberals are referred to in various ways, as libs, libbies, libbers, libtards. and others I am not remembering right now.

Many a time I have thought to myself that those conservative right wing sorts, who so drastically disdain liberals, if asked to explain what a liberal is would be left dumbstruck, unable to articulate the meaning of "liberal".

You can see liberal defined above by Webster.

Possessing or manifesting a free and generous heart with a broad and enlightened mind, free from narrowness, bigotry or bondage to authority or creed, a person who advocates liberty of thought, speech and action.

Any of those positive attributes sound like any conservative republican sort you know of? No? Me either.

To me the definition of a liberal sounds like the Ideal American operating in the Ideal American Way.

Regarding being a liberal, someone had this to say, which I agree with...

"The conservatives say liberal with such disdain, like its meaning is so nasty. Call me liberal anytime."...

Booker T. Washington Having Dinner With Teddy Roosevelt Was Not The Most Damnable Outrage Ever

"Booker Washington and Theodore Roosevelt at Tuskegie Institute" 

What you are looking at here is Booker T. Washington and President Theodore Roosevelt at the Tuskegie Institute.

Recently an idiot murdered nine fine Americans thinking doing so would set off a race war.

Instead the idiot murderer set off American revulsion at remnants of racism and white supremacist hate mongers.

America has come a long ways since the Civil War regarding all Americans of any make or model being being treated as promised by the U.S. Constitution.

White supremacist racism in the South used to be way worse. In 2015 the hatemongers are small in number.

As an example of how far we've come let's go back to the turn of the previous century, about a month after Theodore Roosevelt became president after the assassination of William McKinley, read this blurb from the Wikipedia article about Booker T. Washington...

When Washington's second autobiography, Up From Slavery, was published in 1901, it became a bestseller and had a major effect on the African-American community, its friends and allies. In October 1901 President Theodore Roosevelt invited Washington to dine with him and his family at the White House; he was the first African American to be invited there. Democratic Party politicians of the South, including future Governor of Mississippi James K. Vardaman and Senator Benjamin Tillman of South Carolina indulged in racist personal attacks when they learned of the invitation. Vardaman described the White House as....

"so saturated with the odor of the nigger that the rats have taken refuge in the stable", and declared "I am just as much opposed to Booker T. Washington as a voter as I am to the cocoanut-headed, chocolate-colored typical little coon who blacks my shoes every morning. Neither is fit to perform the supreme function of citizenship."

Tillman said, "The action of President Roosevelt in entertaining that nigger will necessitate our killing a thousand niggers in the South before they will learn their place again."

______________________________________________

Multiple newspapers in the South editorialized that Roosevelt having dinner with Booker T. Washington in the White House was the "most damnable outrage ever."

Contrast South Carolina in 2015 with South Carolina in 1901. If a South Carolina senator in 2015 said that which Senator Tillman said I would think he would be ousted from the Senate, arrested, charged with some sort of hate crime, tried, convicted and likely jailed.

We have a ways to go, but America has come a long way from the days when racist idiots were in the majority.

The Conservative Truth Is Seattle Restaurants Are Not Closing Due To The New $15 Minimum Wage

Yesterday, via WBAP talk show radio out of Dallas, I heard conservative talk show talker, Ben Ferguson, go on and on about an alleged  rash of restaurant closings in Seattle, with those closing supposedly caused by Seattle's new $15 minimum wage.

I can only take listening to Ben Ferguson for about 15 minutes. He has an annoying tendency to repeat himself. Over and over again. He repeats himself.

See what I did there?

In addition to repeating himself, over and over again, Ben Ferguson is also very fond of various iterations of "you're an idiot", in sentences such as "If you think that you're an idiot." Every time I hear Ben Ferguson repeat his "you're an idiot" phrase it crosses my mind to assume that he has had that phrase directed at himself all his life, because, well, he comes across, to me, as a bit of an idiot.

As witnessed by the idiotic nonsense he was spouting yesterday about the supposed rash of Seattle restaurant closings caused by the $15 minimum wage.

Apparently the conservative world has been all abuzz about those Seattle restaurant closings being caused by the $15 minimum wage, with those doing the idiotic conservative buzzing focusing on several Seattle restaurants which have closed, including Grub, which Ferguson repeatedly referenced.

Well.

This morning in the Seattle Times Seattle's newspaper of record, in an article titled Truth Needle: Is $15 wage dooming Seattle restaurants? Owners say No.

In the Seattle Times article we learn the truth about the Grub restaurant which Ben Ferguson was repeatedly obsessed with....

Sharon Fillingim, the owner of Grub, the final restaurant referenced, said on Facebook that Grub was “a huge success.” In fact, the restaurant was sold and is reopening imminently under new ownership as Bounty Kitchen.

The Seattle Times talked to all the owners of all the restaurants which were referenced in the various conservative media and found no owner who was closing his restaurant due to the new minimum wage. In fact, several were supportive of the new minimum wage.

And that new minimum  wage does not go into effect next month, like Ben Ferguson repeatedly repeated. The minimum wage increase is to be phased in, incrementally, over seven years.

If Brian Williams can get in trouble and lose his job due to spouting falsehoods, how does someone like Ben Ferguson repeatedly keep his job?

2016 Ted Cruz Sarah Palin Republican Dream Ticket for Democrat Win after Palin Iowa Freedom Summit Speech

I am just about 100% certain that this CRUZ PALIN 2016 poster was not actually paid for by the Hillary Clinton for President Committee.

What a high level potential amusement factor possibility there would be in a debate between Hillary Clinton and either Cruz or Palin.

I am assuming this poster is suggesting that it is Cruz who is running for president, not Palin,

But, Sarah Palin in the top spot would surely be comedy gold.

Just a day or two ago, in Iowa, at an event called the Iowa Freedom Summit, Sarah Palin gave a speech that has had pundits, both right and left commenting on what some have characterized as a "tragic speech."

I could not make it through the entire, over a half hour, rambling, disjointed, confused stream of consciousness mess.

When you Google "Sarah Palin Iowa Speech" below is what shows up at the top of the results page...

Below you can watch Sarah Palin's Iowa Freedom Summit speech in its entirety (if you are blessed with the patience to do so)...

73rd Anniversary of the December 7, 1941 Japanese Attack On Pearl Harbor & America

It seems like only yesterday, but it was 73 years ago today, December 7, 1941, a day with continues to live on in infamy, that the Japanese sneak attacked Pearl Harbor and other points on Oahu and the Philippines, leading America to declare war on Japan and Germany, which eventually put an end to the fascist madness.

Americans were shocked that Sunday morning 73 years ago. America had been helping fight the Nazi peril, indirectly, supplying weapons and ships to those, like England, who were already fighting Hitler and his Nazi terrorists, but avoiding getting directly involved.

Until December 7, 1941 unleashed the strongest military response the world had ever seen, bringing an end to World War II with a couple real big bangs over Japan, in less than four years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

America was not shocked with another Pearl Harbor type shock for almost 60 years, not til September 11, 2001, with that attack bringing America into a totally different type of World War, with the War on Terror not ending with a victory in less than fours years after the attack which started the war.

America's War on Terror continues, over 13 years after it began, with no end in sight.

Today was supposed to be the last official meeting in Pearl Harbor, on Pearl Harbor Day, of the few Pearl Harbor Attack survivors still alive. However, at least one of those survivors has said he will return every December 7, as long as he remains able to do so.

Will President Obama's Latest Executive Order Push the Republican Know Nothings Over the Edge?

Tonight, in a speech the American networks, ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, are refusing to cover, President Obama is expected to announce an Executive Order executing some sort of action regarding the immigration issue.

This has the Republicans, also known as the Know-Nothings, in high umbrage mode, again rattling the impeachment cage.

If you listen to the Know-Nothings, and knew nothing about the reality of the American Constitution, you'd believe Rush Limbaugh when he rants that Obama is trying to dismantle the Constitution and end America as we know it.

These type poorly educated blowhards have been part of the American landscape all the way back to the start of the nation. Only in modern day America, sadly, these types can access millions with their idiocy, via having a radio show.

As you can see, via the chart above, the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, sparingly used Executive Orders. Lincoln was president during a period where he had reason to use all the power available to him. Subsequent Republican presidents made frequent use of Executive Orders, with Teddy Roosevelt using this power the most.

Barack Obama is second to Lincoln in the limited number of times he has issued an Executive Order.

Way back a couple centuries ago, in the election in which Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams to become the first Democratic-Republican President, Adams' Federalist Party ran on a campaign of fear mongering claiming that if Jefferson were elected he would destroy the Constitution.

Instead, immediately upon taking over as president, Jefferson used an Executive Order overturning Federalist abuses of power, freeing all who were imprisoned or facing prosecution under the Adams' administration's Alien and Sedition Act, an Act which actually did endanger the Constitution and its Bill of Rights.

I fear it is not going to be pretty what the Republican Know-Nothings are about to come up with in reaction to President Obama's latest Executive Order....

ISIS & the Stupidity of Evil Can Kill Both Domestic & Foreign

Rosewater is a movie written and directed by Jon Stewart about a Canadian-Iranian journalist named Maziar Bahari who found himself jailed in Iran for 118 days due to idiotic Iranian spy accusations based on nonsense.

At some point in Rosewater Jon Stewart sums it up, saying "Some people are just idiots, and the stupidity of evil can kill you".

Which brings me to the idiotic stupidity of that entity known as ISIS, currently terrorizing large swatches of Iraq and Syria with crucifixions, mass murders and beheadings, among with other atrocities.

The world reaction to the ISIS debacle totally perplexes me.

We have had multiple beheadings of Americans, shown via video on YouTube. Along with beheadings of nationals of American allies, like the UK.

When is the United Nations Security Council going to meet to deal with ISIS?

How is it that the United States presented a case before the United Nations Security Council calling for action against Saddam Hussein, and Iraq, due to what turned out to be false claims that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction posing a threat to the peace of the world?

And so America led its allies in America's first pre-emptive war, against a foe who had beheaded no Americans.

What is the point of America spending trillions of dollars on defense when we have a situation where Americans are being beheaded with America not using the full power at its disposal, both military and diplomatic, to put an end to ISIS?

I don't get it.

All that money wasted taking down Saddam, and the chaos which followed, which pretty much led to the festering of the ISIS virus.

The United States led a coalition of around a half million soldiers to free Kuwati from Iraq. The United Nations was on board with that.

Is this ISIS problem not at least as serious as was the Iraqi takeover of Kuwait?

It is just maddening, all the resources wasted with the toppling of Saddam, who posed no threat, with that toppling resulting in the deaths of thousands of American soldiers, the wounding of thousands more, the deaths of untold thousands of Iraqis.

All in a war which never should have happened and which brought about the instability brought by ISIS.

You think ISIS would be beheading Americans if Saddam where still in control of Iraq?

No.

Would America be better off right now if Saddam were still in control of Iraq?

Most likely yes.

Would America be better off right now if the man who actually won the 2000 election became president, rather than the man who got a couple million fewer votes than George W. Bush?

Most likely yes.

How does George W. Bush sleep at peace with himself? I have no idea. The benefit of having no conscience?

Most likely yes.....