Dishing out spicy liberal social commentary and critical thinking news analysis on America, world politics, the news, fun political humor, cartoons - and a little poetry by Independent journalist blogger Denny Lyon.
A conservative Tea Party Rand Paul supporter attacks a MoveOn protester by stomping on her head. What the Democratic Party needs to do to get back the female vote.
From Denny: Ever since I saw this video clip of a MoveOn.org liberal activist getting stomped by a bunch of men at a conservative Kentucky political rally, well, that image has stuck in the back of my mind. This 115-pound small women gets hurled to the ground and stomped on by five men twice her size and weight.
*** Check out the latest from the cartoonists this week as they weigh in on the Sherrod unjust firing after they were all set up by Fox News lies. And some Tea Party funnies as a bonus.
Funny Einstein photoshopped as a rocker
From Denny: Talk about a news story that got so many "legs" (as they say in the news biz) that it got up and ran out of the neighborhood: The Unjust Firing of Shirley Sherrod. What this story has is all the right elements. It has injustice at the core of the story at a time when injustice runs rampant in our business world, economy and culture.
It has racial and gender aspects that just prove "the more things change the more they remain the same." Too many women have been waiting for their time of acceptance and to be treated like first class citizens in their own country instead of being treated like second class citizens. What makes it worse is when there are women like the Republicans who join "the masters" and condemn their fellow slaves mindset. Women who turn on other women without hesitation or thought of giving them the benefit of the doubt until the dust settles.
American female culture never has been terribly nice and usually very nasty in how women throw each other under the bus. And American women wonder why most men don't take them seriously enough. The problem is that the women who are serious, thoughtful, energetic about doing more for society and hard-working, like Sherrod, get short shrift because they are lumped in with the common perception of "the destructive maligning woman."
Nothing speaks to acceptance like being given the benefit of the doubt and be allowed the chance to explain the situation after you have been a loyal public servant for decades. Instead, Sherrod was immediately dismissed without a hearing, without a chance to explain the entire situation. More importantly, she was not given a proper investigation. Because she was female it was assumed she was a problem so her own Democrats dumped her unceremoniously. It had less to do with being black as her own President assumed she was guilty without so much as a thought as to maybe she should get a chance for an investigation first before firing.
What also needs to be addressed by the federal government is a return to the media restraint that was in force before 1987. There was a time (yes, it really is true) when everything that marched out onto the airwaves as news had a high standard of proving the veracity of their facts. There was a time when facts were separated from opinion in news stories whether they were on the air or in print. There was a time when every news program was demanded to accurately present both sides of the story.
The standard is to check your news story facts at least three times before running it in print or on the air. Fox News NEVER checks their facts as they are an entertainment network not a news network. After this incident the President needs to kick out Fox News from the White House briefings and to hell with the howling from other press people. They can threaten to not come back and the White House would just be the better off for it. The reality is that all the network news hounds will back down because they all want in on what is going on to deliver their news stories for profit. Obama was foolish to back down the first time when he first took office and wanted to kick out Fox from the White House press briefings. He should have trusted his instincts.
There was a time that people like Rush Limbaugh would have been jailed and heavily fined for the caustic lying he does regularly on the airwaves. Mind you those are supposed to be public airwaves and yet the government continues to give them away for free to blowhard versions of broadcasters like Limbaugh to make millions off of every year. The taxpayer should get a percentage of his earnings every year for his use of the public airwaves.
It's time Congress visit legislation about true privacy as well as the libel laws and update them. We would put an end to the majority of the political character assassination from the Republicans if the Democrats developed some steel spine and created privacy laws to include people running for office and restricted some things that the media can publish about private lives and family members. Maybe they ought to take a look at France's privacy laws.
Political Charade Cartoons
Shirley Sherrod shafted by her own Democrats who refused to investigate before firing her. If they had they would have realized she was the victim of character assassination and totally fabricated lies. This White House actually was foolish enough to take the word of a conservative blogger known for lying on a regular basis. How idiotic was that one?
Big Business:
American voters are spent:
Tea Party:
The saddest answer to the Tea Party racists:
Former VP Cheney's newest heart issue of getting a mechanical pump to be his new heart. That basically means he no longer has a pulse - literally, weird, huh?
Then there's the Tea Party Asian style - North Korea nutjob:
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From Denny: Now if this doesn't make you angry. This woman gets fired because she found out, after testing her DNA, that she had an 80% chance of getting the dreaded breast cancer. So, as a preventative measure, she got a double mastectomy to avoid getting sick.
Now, it turns out, her employee figured they could fire her and save some money on their health insurance premiums. Talk about depraved indifference. Now what were these guys doing violating her privacy in the first place? What has her health condition and DNA have to do with her job performance? Answer: none.
Let's see, just how many laws and sense of decency did this energy company violate? Try the Genetic Information Non-discriminaton Act as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act for starters. Health privacy and human rights should be added to the list. Here we go again, women are being treated like second-class citizens in their own country. When is this garbage going to stop?
As long as there are no laws getting enforced there will be egregious corruption and injustices like this case. Just think of all the cases not brought to court because people are so afraid to make a health claim for fear of getting fired from a job they need to pay their bills. In this state of Louisiana doctors are complaining there is little surgery to be had because people injured on the job work with injuries just to avoid getting laid off.
The real inconvenient truth here is that her employer figured out she was a liability as she was getting closer to age 40 and they wanted to start thinning out the employee herd. They went for the older and sick - or those who possibly would be getting sick in the near future - and started firing them.
As long as our current federal government sits on their hands and does nothing to stem this tide in the work place it will only get worse. So, Mr. President, what do you - and this idiot Senate of inconsiderate destructive jerks - plan to do about it? Women and the entire public are tired of these kinds of constant in-your-face injustices.
Pelosi does her job exceedingly well. She has enough toughness to invite the Republicans once and if they refuse she cuts them out from further negotiations. They hate her and respect her. Reid waffles and rarely does his job, achieving a drop of what the Democratic agenda was supposed to be: helping the middle class.
When are you, Mr. President, going to quit listening to the wrong advisors in your administration that are telling you to go softly on Big Business - effectively telling the middle class "Oh, just eat cake if you are hungry!" Mr. President, quit being mollified by these guys who are telling you to sideline the big reforms and just keep the campaign money rolling into the coffers. This is no way to run a transparent and truly ethical government. Stand up for the middle class and be counted.
A Connecticut woman claims she was fired despite years of glowing reports by her employer after she told them she had tested positive for the breast cancer gene and would undergo a double mastecomy as a preventative measure.
"I was a great employee and I did really great work," said Pamela Fink, 39. "The only thing that changed from the time that I had a great review to when I didn't was my two surgeries."
Fink has filed complaints at the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities as well as the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that she was fired from the Stamford, Conn., company MXenergy because of her genetic testing results.
She is claiming that by doing so, her employer, MXenergy, a natural gas and electricity provider, violated the Genetic Information Nondiscriminaton Act as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act.
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From Denny: Here's something people don't do every day: take a 560 mile freezing journey in subzero temperatures for 38 days. Seven women, all from different walks of life, skiied together in Antarctica down to the South Pole on a journey of a life time.
Can you believe it that over 800 women applied to become part of this historic journey of the Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition? This international expedition of women was initiated to highlight just how much modern women can do.
From Denny: This week at least I loaded the stories I wanted to post about, then finally got the time this weekend to finish writing and post them!
Dennys Global Politics:
Assassins Security Recipe For Disaster: Obama State Dinner - Then the worst scenario of all: A well-trained or motivated assassin could have cleaned house on the top tier of our government - President, Vice President, Speaker of the House and Chief of Staff. That would have left us with Senator Pro-tem, Senator Byrd from West Virginia to run the country, an aging 90 years plus man in poor health.
Obamas Unwelcome Afghan Strategy, Reactions and a Lame Congress - Republicans complained about Obama not wanting to continue the war indefinitely while Democrats worry about the cost of a protracted war, circulating the lame idea of a war tax to fund the recent surge on an already burdened depressed economy.
Prez Obama Lays Out Bleak New Afghanistan Strategy - "And Karzai is a sorry excuse for what passes for good government. What started out with great promise years ago has become a farce. He now looks like a bejeweled weasel sitting on a pile of gold: American foreign aid money."
Iran Jails Irani-American Woman Protesting Elections - An Iranian-American female grad student went to Iran to study and document women's issues in Iran. That didn't sit well with the local government soon after she arrived and they threw her into jail.
*** Is the News really Art? What pulls at your emotions when you watch a news story on television?
From Denny: As I've been catching up posting on all my blogs (too many interests) it struck me as a poem idea to take a look at the News - and if it could actually be classified as a kind of Art.
That's what you get for saturating yourself sifting through and reading too much content as a blogger I guess... :) Your mind goes off onto the weirdest tangents.
And that's why God invented poetry. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. He knew writers needed a condensed form to get out those burning life questions. :)
What's your take on the News as Art?
They Pull at Your Heartstrings
At the end of the day you sit down to watch the news. There are stories to make you squeamish and uncomfortable. Stories to horrify, displaying mankind’s depravity…
You sit there watching the world in chaos or harmony. There are stories to make you feel sad and still more Stories to make you feel angry with outrage.
You watch the day’s news, wondering if it’s called Art. All the stories evoke a full range of emotions in a swirl. There are stories of compassion and charity to make you glad.
You watch from a culture away as girl brides light themselves Afire to escape abuse from the hands of their loving husbands. You watch from your comfortable home as your countrymen and women Give of their hearts and wallets to help children on the other side of the world.
You watch as another culture of women struggles against severe abuse and crimes To grow strong with confidence, education and smart with new life options So, one day they are the ones sitting in a comfortable home watching the news, Waiting for their chance to help someone else a world away, suffering and in need, Cheering them on to success, praying they experience a long, fruitful life.
Denny Lyon Copyright 5 November 2009 All Rights Reserved
