<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><rss xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/" xmlns:blogger="http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" version="2.0"><channel><atom:id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074</atom:id><lastBuildDate>Sat, 18 Jul 2026 03:41:17 +0000</lastBuildDate><category>U.S.</category><category>Democrats</category><category>Obama</category><category>Analysis</category><category>Election 2010</category><category>Video</category><category>News</category><category>Election 2012</category><category>Economy</category><category>Congress</category><category>Republicans</category><category>Senate</category><category>Ideology</category><category>House</category><category>Health 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Ledbetter</category><category>Lincoln</category><category>Magazines</category><category>Maps</category><category>Marion Barry</category><category>Medicine</category><category>Mining</category><category>Mississippi</category><category>NASA</category><category>Nigeria</category><category>Norway</category><category>PBS</category><category>Pelosi</category><category>Planned Parenthood</category><category>Poland</category><category>Politico</category><category>Puerto Rico</category><category>Quiz</category><category>Rand Paul</category><category>Ratings Agencies</category><category>SEC</category><category>Saudi Arabia</category><category>Simon Schama</category><category>Socialism</category><category>Space</category><category>Spain</category><category>Star Trek</category><category>Sununu</category><category>Surveillance</category><category>TARP</category><category>Ted Strickland</category><category>Testimony</category><category>Transition12</category><category>Trayvon Martin</category><category>Truman</category><category>Tunisia</category><category>Urban League</category><category>Video Games</category><category>Voter Registration</category><category>iceland</category><title>Fort McHenry II</title><description>&quot;To stand upon the ramparts and die for our principles is heroic, but to sally forth to battle and win for our principles is something more than heroic.&quot;&#xa;Franklin Roosevelt, 1928.</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/</link><managingEditor>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</managingEditor><generator>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>2467</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-5985751552034633180</guid><pubDate>Mon, 30 Sep 2013 18:23:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-09-30T11:23:34.643-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Health Care</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Humor</category><title>&quot;Can someone get me a real scandal, please?&quot; (VIDEO)</title><description>&lt;iframe src=&quot;http://www.funnyordie.com/embed/11f45484dd&quot; width=&quot;640&quot; height=&quot;400&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align:left;font-size:x-small;margin-top:0;width:640px;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/11f45484dd/scandalous-with-jennifer-hudson&quot; title=&quot;from Jennifer Hudson, Charles Ingram, Funny Or Die, Joe Craig, Larry Marsee, and rachelgoldenberg&quot;&gt;Scandalous with Jennifer Hudson&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.funnyordie.com/jennifer_hudson&quot;&gt;Jennifer Hudson&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;iframe src=&quot;http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?app_id=138711277798&amp;amp;href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.funnyordie.com%2Fvideos%2F11f45484dd%2Fscandalous-with-jennifer-hudson&amp;amp;send=false&amp;amp;layout=button_count&amp;amp;width=150&amp;amp;show_faces=false&amp;amp;action=like&amp;amp;height=21&quot; scrolling=&quot;no&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;border:none; overflow:hidden; width:90px; height:21px; vertical-align:middle;&quot; allowTransparency=&quot;true&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/09/can-someone-get-me-real-scandal-please.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-187799301936700488</guid><pubDate>Fri, 20 Sep 2013 16:29:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-09-20T09:29:01.186-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Civil Rights Movement</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">History</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Texas</category><title>Local Houston Television talks to the first Black Student to attend Rice University... (VIDEO)</title><description>He also happens to be my Father.  Think I should mention that?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;script type=&#39;text/javascript&#39; src=&#39;http://KRIV.images.worldnow.com/interface/js/WNVideo.js?rnd=654151;hostDomain=www.myfoxhouston.com;playerWidth=630;playerHeight=355;isShowIcon=true;clipId=9322635;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=News%2520-%2520Hard%2520News;advertisingZone=;enableAds=true;landingPage=;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript;controlsType=overlay&#39;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.myfoxhouston.com&quot; title=&quot;Houston weather, traffic, news | FOX 26 | MyFoxHouston&quot;&gt;Houston weather, traffic, news | FOX 26 | MyFoxHouston&lt;/a&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/09/local-houston-television-talks-to-first.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-7554508846873416918</guid><pubDate>Thu, 01 Aug 2013 13:23:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-08-01T07:32:50.170-07:00</atom:updated><title>When will moderate Whites take responsibility for the dangerous White Culture they&#39;ve created? (VIDEO)</title><description>&lt;object width=&quot;592&quot; height=&quot;346&quot; id=&quot;msnbc996c8&quot; classid=&quot;clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000&quot; codebase=&quot;http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;movie&quot; value=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;FlashVars&quot; value=&quot;launch=52626752^25620^415050&amp;amp;width=592&amp;amp;height=346&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowScriptAccess&quot; value=&quot;always&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowFullScreen&quot; value=&quot;true&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;wmode&quot; value=&quot;transparent&quot; /&gt;&lt;embed name=&quot;msnbc996c8&quot; src=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640&quot; width=&quot;592&quot; height=&quot;346&quot; FlashVars=&quot;launch=52626752^25620^415050&amp;amp;width=592&amp;amp;height=346&quot; allowscriptaccess=&quot;always&quot; allowFullScreen=&quot;true&quot; wmode=&quot;transparent&quot; type=&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&quot; pluginspage=&quot;http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&quot;&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 592px;&quot;&gt;Visit NBCNews.com for &lt;a style=&quot;text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;&quot; href=&quot;http://www.nbcnews.com&quot;&gt;breaking news&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507&quot; style=&quot;text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;&quot;&gt;world news&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072&quot; style=&quot;text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;&quot;&gt;news about the economy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/08/when-will-moderate-whites-take.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-1974868254769646026</guid><pubDate>Thu, 25 Jul 2013 22:00:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-07-25T15:00:05.613-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Florida</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Law</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Race</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Racism</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">The Daily Show</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Trayvon Martin</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Video</category><title>Larry Wilmore (@thelarrywilmore) lets us know why we can NEVER have a conversation on race...</title><description>This is the best, funniest, most honest, most insightful...and in it&#39;s own way...the &lt;b&gt;angriest&lt;/b&gt; statement on our Race relations in the U.S.A.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;background-color: black; width: 520px;&quot;&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;padding: 4px;&quot;&gt;
&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;288&quot; src=&quot;http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:cms:video:thedailyshow.com:428031&quot; width=&quot;512&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 4px; padding: 4px; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-july-24-2013/a-conversation-on-race&quot;&gt;The Daily Show with Jon Stewart&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Get More: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/&quot;&gt;Daily Show Full Episodes&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.comedycentral.com/indecision&quot;&gt;Indecision Political Humor&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow&quot;&gt;The Daily Show on Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/07/larry-wilmore-thelarrywilmore-lets-us.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-5078461536891291580</guid><pubDate>Thu, 25 Jul 2013 21:30:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-07-25T14:30:00.616-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Democrats</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Election 2014</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Illinois</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Obama</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Recovery</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Speeches</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><title>The President&#39;s Big Speech on the Economy from July 24th, 2013 in Galesburg, IL</title><description>&lt;iframe width=&quot;580&quot; height=&quot;326&quot; src=&quot;//www.youtube.com/embed/6CzBA1UPdC8&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-presidents-big-speech-on-economy.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-8415917260648395376</guid><pubDate>Thu, 25 Jul 2013 21:00:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-07-25T14:04:09.247-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Democrats</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Election 2014</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Missouri</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Obama</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Recovery</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Speeches</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><title>The President&#39;s OTHER speech on the Economy from July 24, 2013 in Warrensburg, MO</title><description>&lt;iframe width=&quot;580&quot; height=&quot;326&quot; src=&quot;//www.youtube.com/embed/sbXIGVHf224?list=UUYxRlFDqcWM4y7FfpiAN3KQ&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The main speech will post at 2:30pm, today.</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-presidents-other-speech-on-economy.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-161312831440763226</guid><pubDate>Mon, 15 Jul 2013 22:42:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-07-15T15:42:52.792-07:00</atom:updated><title>America can be smart, but instead it chooses to be dumb, panicky and dangerous...even to its own.</title><description>The worst thing that has ever happened to me, legally speaking, was driving in California with a Maryland License. I had to go to court for that, for which the penalty was...&lt;i&gt;gasp and shock&lt;/i&gt;...to go take and pass the California Driver&#39;s Test.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
That&#39;s it. That&#39;s my grand &quot;criminal&quot; past. &lt;i&gt;Traffic Citations&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Yet, I have no doubt...ZERO doubt...that if I ever wound up dead, killed by someone of the Caucasian Persuasion, &lt;b&gt;I would be turned into some sort of raving Drug User sometime before my body was cold.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If I wind up dead...it is &lt;b&gt;automatically&lt;/b&gt; my fault. I must&#39;ve done something to deserve it, is how the logic will go. &amp;nbsp;This is how the groupthink, be it from Media, from the Legal Authorities, be it from my friends and neighbors. &amp;nbsp;This is what you&#39;ll do to me in death, and you won&#39;t think twice about it.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
That&#39;s the way it works in this country. It doesn&#39;t matter what you did. &lt;b&gt;If you are a black male in this country, and you wind up dead at the barrell of someone else&#39;s gun, and that person happens to be white, at least one person in this country will twist themselves into knots to retroactively justify that black male being dead.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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This is your America now.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The sad part is...going back to another young black male, one &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Emmitt Till&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;b&gt;this was your America back then as well...and nothing&#39;s changed. Nothing.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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It&#39;s also time for America to come to grips with the fact, that the lives of black males, young or old, are just not valued in this country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Mind you. I didn&#39;t say &lt;i&gt;not valued &quot;as much as&quot; whites&lt;/i&gt;. &lt;b&gt;Not valued...Period.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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This is a not a call to action, or a demand for something better, this is a statement of &lt;b&gt;surrender&lt;/b&gt;. &lt;b&gt;I&#39;ve given up on expecting better from America. America is just not capable of doing better, at least not when it comes to race.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This is a &lt;b&gt;racist&lt;/b&gt; country. &lt;b&gt;It is just who this country is&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
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When someone tells you who they are...believe me.&lt;br /&gt;
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America has told me time and time and time again who it is. &amp;nbsp;I&#39;m way past believing them&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Now, when I say that &quot;I know America is a racist country&quot;, I say that knowing not only in my &lt;i&gt;heart&lt;/i&gt;, but in actual &lt;b&gt;fact&lt;/b&gt;, the majority of its citizens individually themselves are not racist.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
But like Tommy Lee Jones said in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119654/&quot;&gt;Men In Black&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;i&gt;&quot;A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.&quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Well, where does racism come from, if not the &lt;i&gt;dumb, panicky and dangerous parts of our collective nature?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
But look what happens when collective action is taken, when any measure of groupthink is applied, the outcome pretty much is guaranteed to be racist...or at least racial in nature.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Don&#39;t agree. Fine. Not that I care...but then again, maybe you can explain to me why &lt;a href=&quot;http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/07/14/why-did-marissa-alexander-get-a-20-year-sentence-despite-invoking-stand-your-ground/&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Marissa Alexander&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is sitting in jail right now. Don&#39;t know her? I suggest a quick Google search, or clicking on the link I just left you.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Tell me why juries seem &lt;b&gt;incapable&lt;/b&gt; of prosecuting White Defendants when they have Black victims? I mean, I&#39;m sure it&#39;s happened, &lt;b&gt;but the safe money bet every time to bet against that happening, no matter what state you live in.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/b&gt; What&#39;s possibly even more insulting than the current cries of &quot;Yes, African-Americans are the vicitims of racial injustice in the supposed land of the free&quot; is the dead-cinch CERTAINTY, as in 100% guarantee that come this very hour two weeks from now, you&#39;ll have moved on without doing one damn thing to address the problem that ultimately took Trayvon Martin&#39;s life.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Not...one...damn...thing.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Like I said...&lt;b&gt;America is incapable of fixing this problem&lt;/b&gt;. &amp;nbsp;This County lacks the &lt;i&gt;ability&lt;/i&gt;, the &lt;i&gt;heart&lt;/i&gt;, the &lt;i&gt;intellect&lt;/i&gt;, and most obviously the &lt;i&gt;will&lt;/i&gt; to fix this problem.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
You&#39;ve had 70 years, &lt;b&gt;and you&#39;re just not interested.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
My only comfort comes in the fact that one day,&lt;b&gt; this will boomerang&lt;/b&gt;. One day, when the Whites are the &lt;i&gt;minority&lt;/i&gt; in this country, &lt;b&gt;you will be bleating and crying for racial protections from the majority.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;And I hope they stiff you like you&#39;ve stiffed us.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I hope the Latino and Asian majorities in this country treat you with the same contempt, same disregard you&#39;ve treated us these last 300 years. &amp;nbsp;You&#39;ll deserve it.</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/07/america-can-be-smart-but-instead-it.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-8974140433788330994</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 Jun 2013 18:49:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-06-26T11:59:06.731-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Voting Rights</category><title>Why I&#39;m not in full-throated celebration of the justified downing of both DOMA and Prop. 8</title><description>I am not celebrating today.  I am not celebrating &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court/2013/06/26/f0039814-d9ab-11e2-a016-92547bf094cc_story.html&quot;&gt;an obvious good decision in the DOMA and Prop. 8 cases&lt;/a&gt; before the Supreme Court because yesterday was &lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;so bad.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
And let’s repeat that.  Yesterday was &lt;b&gt;bad&lt;/b&gt;.  &lt;b&gt;Hyper bad&lt;/b&gt;.  &lt;b&gt;Disastrously bad&lt;/b&gt;, &lt;i&gt;is-this-a-country-worth-saving &lt;b&gt;bad&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Let’s be clear about a couple of things.  I am a Straight Black dude in California.  I was never going to see any direct benefit from Marriage Equality.  &lt;i&gt;But my neighbors were&lt;/i&gt;.  That was &lt;b&gt;good enough for me&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So, when these same neighbors asked me to support their cause,  I did.  I &lt;b&gt;gave money&lt;/b&gt;.  I &lt;b&gt;signed petitions&lt;/b&gt;.  I supported the cause.  I did the work that got LGBT Friendly Politicians into office to get the result we got today.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Now, &lt;b&gt;I’m expecting the same force to be brought to bear for my cause, restoration of the Voting Rights Act&lt;/b&gt;...and to be real honest with you, &lt;b&gt;I’m not optimistic&lt;/b&gt; I will.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;i&gt;Liberals...I &lt;b&gt;know&lt;/b&gt; you.  I’m &lt;b&gt;one&lt;/b&gt; of you, and &lt;b&gt;I know you&lt;/b&gt;.  I know what you’re going to do.  &lt;b&gt;You’re going to spike the football and go home.  It’s what you always do.&lt;/b&gt;  You take the victory you got in hand, and celebrate like the job is finished.  I’m watching it happen on my Twitter Timeline right now.  YAY DOMA is dead!  YAY Wendy Davis stopped that abortion bill.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I’ll be honest, one of the reasons I’m not celebrating with everyone is that I’m not thrilled with recent relations between the LGBT and African-American Communities.  There were lot of lonely days when I had to look my fellow African-Americans in the eye and tell them, &lt;i&gt;as a community mind you&lt;/i&gt;, we were toxically homophobic.  I won few friends doing that, and had a lot of Bible verses thrown back at me.  When President Obama finally came out for Marriage Equality, that helped flip the script.  Instead of being 60-40 Homophobic, now we’re 40-60 because of what he did.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
But, just because my community has shown hostility to LGBT Americans, doesn’t mean I’m going to tolerate racism from the other side.  I was not thrilled &lt;a href=&quot;http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2009/01/sf-chron-black-support-for-prop-8.html&quot;&gt;when the LGBT Community blamed African Americans at first for the passage of Prop. 8 in California&lt;/a&gt;, which turned out to be false.  I was not thrilled when the LGBT Community treated this President with open contempt when &lt;a href=&quot;http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2010/09/gay-folks-i-hope-you-realize-what.html&quot;&gt;DADT repeal didn’t happening fast enough&lt;/a&gt;.  They went after him for defending DOMA at first.  I was really not happy &lt;a href=&quot;http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/06/05/first-lady-obama-confronts-gay-rights-heckler-at-dnc-fundraiser/&quot;&gt;when some in the LGBT Community stepped up to defend a heckler who went after the first lady recently&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;b&gt;When you are heckling the President like Joe Wilson did, it’s hard not to see that in racial terms.&lt;/b&gt;  Did you do that to Bill Clinton when he was in office?  To Hilliary Clinton?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Yeah, sure.  You can say that African-Americans are a little touchy about respect due to our sitting Black President.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
You can also say its &lt;b&gt;not-negotiable&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To top it off, many African-Americans did notice and have taken offense &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.looktothestars.org/news/9977-glaad-to-honor-bill-clinton-as-advocate-for-change&quot;&gt;when GLAAD decided to honor Bill Clinton this year with their Lifetime Achievement award&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
You can say what you want, but the &lt;i&gt;optics&lt;/i&gt; on that...and the &lt;i&gt;timing&lt;/i&gt; on that...is &lt;b&gt;terrible&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;Bill Clinton&lt;/i&gt;...the guy who signed DOMA and DADT into Law, the same laws that caused Gay Activists to heckle the President every chance they got...and not the same President who was instrumental in &lt;b&gt;shooting them down&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Like I said.  &lt;b&gt;I’m not optimistic about any help coming in the Voting Rights Act fight from the LGBT Community.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
***&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For my part, I’ve already placed calls to my Representative and to my Senator this morning, with one more Senator to go.  I’m basically at a &lt;i&gt;“Why aren’t you dropping everything you’re doing right now and working on the VRA RIGHT THE HELL NOW”&lt;/i&gt; frame of mind.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I’m glad that the Senate is taking up hearings in a Month, &lt;a href=&quot;http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/leahy-i-will-take-immediate-action-to-bolster&quot;&gt;with Patrick Leahy taking the lead in crafting legislation to fill the hole blown open by Justice Roberts&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
But this is still a &lt;i&gt;&quot;Why aren’t you dropping everything you’re doing right now and working on the VRA RIGHT THE HELL NOW”&lt;/i&gt; moment.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I am in California.  My County is &lt;b&gt;not&lt;/b&gt; one of the one’s subject to Section 4 or 5 of the Voting Rights Act.  But you know what?  My &lt;b&gt;brothers&lt;/b&gt; are.  My &lt;b&gt;sisters&lt;/b&gt; are.  They live in places like Shelby County, Alabama.  They live in the heart of the old Confederacy.  Hell, my Father lives in Texas.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Right now, &lt;b&gt;if a Voting District wants to place a burden of a costly or expensive Voter ID on someone&lt;/b&gt;, they can.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Right now, &lt;b&gt;if a State wants to give ten working Voting Machines to a quote-unquote White District, and give one non-functional Voting Machine to a Black District&lt;/b&gt;, they can.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Right now, &lt;b&gt;if a Voting District wants to redistrict itself in a manner than dissolves Latino or African American representation&lt;/b&gt;, they can.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Right now, &lt;b&gt;if a State wants to decide that certain forms of State-issued ID are valid to Vote, yet other kinds of State-issued ID are not valid to vote&lt;/b&gt;, they can do that do.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Right now, &lt;b&gt;there’s nothing to stop a State-Elected Secretary of State from willy-nilly purging the voter rolls, and having those purged Voters all be of a particular ethnicity.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;There’s nothing to stop Counties from setting aside Local Election results who’s results they don’t like.&lt;/b&gt;  &lt;i&gt;(Yes, this has happened).&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Y’see.  There was a law that did stop all that.  It was called the Voting Rights Act.  And yesterday the Supreme Court blew a hole in it.  &lt;b&gt;Basically made it impossible to enforce until Congress acts.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
People think that my right to vote hasn’t been hurt by what happened today, &lt;b&gt;but it has&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;You think that by watering down someone else&#39;s vote in some other state, it doesn&#39;t effect me here in California, or change national results?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
People think that I’m talking about the past, that this stuff happened in the 1960s.  &lt;b&gt;Most of this stuff happened eight months ago in the last election.&lt;/b&gt;  There’s even more in Ginsburg’s Dissent to Shelby vs. Holder from the run-up to the 2006 Reauthorization.  And Justice Ginsberg says in her Dissent she could have gone on and “fill the pages of the legislative record”&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;People think that Voter Discrimination is is about someone at a Desk somewhere in the South telling some Black person to their face that they can’t vote.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;Not...true.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;Voter Discrimination takes place when you set up a machinery intentionally designed to make it harder for someone to vote, no matter what their color or creed.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
And &lt;b&gt;yesterday&lt;/b&gt;, the Supreme Court said &lt;b&gt;that was okay&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Even though this reauthorization passed 98-0 in the Senate and a nearly equally ridiculous number in the House...even though there were massive amounts of hearings on the matter in the run-up, the Supreme Court said the Section 4 list is hopelessly outdated.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Okay...&lt;b&gt;but there was a provision in the Voting Rights Act allowing Section 4 Territories to opt out...if they could prove they weren’t discriminating for a period of ten years&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;Is Shelby County trying to tell me that the price of not-discriminating for ten years was too high?  That over the 50 year history of the Voting Rights Act, they couldn’t get their act together enough to not discriminate against their citizens?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;No, instead Shelby County had to shoot down the whole enforcement mechanism&lt;/b&gt;.   At least they tried to, and &lt;b&gt;mostly succeeded&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
What Shelby County cost me yesterday, &lt;i&gt;and I blame Shelby County for this&lt;/i&gt;, is not my right to vote, &lt;b&gt;but the protection of my vote&lt;/b&gt;...which is in equal measure.  &lt;b&gt;Because without the protection of that right to vote, we are not a country.  We are certainly not a Democracy.  We are just a bunch of tenants living on land owned by the actual citizens, the only one’s who do matter.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;
&lt;i&gt;Which I realize may have been the point.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
My people have lived through this before.  In the days of slavery, and the days of Jim Crow.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
We thought we had lived past them.  We were wrong.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
And now, anyone...and I mean anyone...who gets in our way, who doesn’t help, who doesn’t put their back into this fight is going to pay a price.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This is about the Country.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
America is an idea...and the idea is dying.  We best do something about it.  &lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;Yesterday.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/06/why-im-not-full-throated-celebrating.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-7481332587367335682</guid><pubDate>Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:43:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-06-18T11:48:48.515-07:00</atom:updated><title>Charlie Rose is a great interviewer, but his Website sucks.</title><description>If there is a major media figure that frustrates the hell out of me, it&#39;s Charlie Rose, who provides exactly zero embeddable video on his website.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Thanks for nothing, Charlie.  You can&#39;t even share the links to the video you want for two days after the event.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So if you want to see his Interview with President Obama, go to CharlieRose.com.  It&#39;s on the home page, without a way of sharing that link with any one else.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;UPDATE: 11:47am Pacific&lt;/b&gt;:  Of all the...&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The White House has published a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12981&quot;&gt;link...to the transcript&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;b&gt;Not the video&lt;/b&gt;, even they couldn&#39;t figure out how to do that.  &lt;i&gt;Just the transcript&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Your website is a &lt;b&gt;piece of crap&lt;/b&gt;, Mr. Rose.</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/06/charlie-rose-is-great-interviewer-but.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-1325880509580458868</guid><pubDate>Thu, 16 May 2013 00:31:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-05-15T17:31:03.926-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Budget</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Democrats</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Election 2014</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Ethics</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Last Word with Lawrence ODonnell</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Law</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Obama</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Taxes</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Tea-Baggers</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Video</category><title>In two videos, @Lawrence O&#39;Donnell breaks down the REAL &quot;IRS Scandal&quot;...</title><description>Day 1: May 13, 2013:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;div style=&quot;background: transparent; color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 5px; text-align: center; width: 592px;&quot;&gt;Visit NBCNews.com for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nbcnews.com/&quot; style=&quot;border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; color: #5799DB !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;&quot;&gt;breaking news&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507&quot; style=&quot;border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; color: #5799DB !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;&quot;&gt;world news&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072&quot; style=&quot;border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; color: #5799DB !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;&quot;&gt;news about the economy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

Day 2: May 14, 2013:  &lt;object classid=&quot;clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000&quot; codebase=&quot;http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0&quot; height=&quot;346&quot; id=&quot;msnbc3991f8&quot; width=&quot;592&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;movie&quot; value=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;FlashVars&quot; value=&quot;launch=51885924^1870^750870&amp;amp;width=592&amp;amp;height=346&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowScriptAccess&quot; value=&quot;always&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowFullScreen&quot; value=&quot;true&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;wmode&quot; value=&quot;transparent&quot; /&gt;&lt;embed name=&quot;msnbc3991f8&quot; src=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640&quot; width=&quot;592&quot; height=&quot;346&quot; FlashVars=&quot;launch=51885924^1870^750870&amp;amp;width=592&amp;amp;height=346&quot; allowscriptaccess=&quot;always&quot; allowFullScreen=&quot;true&quot; wmode=&quot;transparent&quot; type=&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&quot; pluginspage=&quot;http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&quot;&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;background: transparent; color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 5px; text-align: center; width: 592px;&quot;&gt;Visit NBCNews.com for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nbcnews.com/&quot; style=&quot;border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; color: #5799DB !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;&quot;&gt;breaking news&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507&quot; style=&quot;border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; color: #5799DB !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;&quot;&gt;world news&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072&quot; style=&quot;border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; color: #5799DB !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;&quot;&gt;news about the economy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/05/in-two-videos-lawrence-odonnell-breaks.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-2004083755863526751</guid><pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 17:56:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-05-06T10:56:38.168-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Guns</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">News</category><title>Before anyone starts panicking too much over 3D Printed guns, ask yourself one thing...</title><description>&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;...how are the Gun Manufacturers going to take this?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Because if the Record Industry vis-a-vis any File Sharing Service in existence, &lt;b&gt;it ain&#39;t gonna be pretty&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Yeah, these knobs are reaching in and leaving them with &lt;b&gt;empty rice bowls&lt;/b&gt; this Christmas. &amp;nbsp;They&#39;re showing the world how to make their own guns, and putting the plans up on in the internet.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If you&#39;re Smith and Wesson, you can&#39;t be happy about this. &amp;nbsp;Even if you get into the game yourself, you still are seeing a segment of your market walk out your front door.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Don&#39;t be surprised if the NRA (&lt;i&gt;our normal enemy in these matters&lt;/i&gt;) takes a very dim view of these 3D Printed guns, because after all...&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;who do they really work for??&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Via &lt;a href=&quot;http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/worlds-first-3d-printed-gun-successfully-fired-in&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;TPM&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
The world&#39;s first 3D-printed gun, called &quot;the Liberator,&quot; was successfully fired in Texas this weekend, according to Fox News.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Defense Distributed, an Austin, Texas-based company led by 24-year-old law student Cody Wilson and several others that market 3D printed firearms and firearm components, or “Wiki Weapons,” on Thursday posted a new video online showing a plastic gun being fired. &lt;b&gt;A blueprint file is expected to be available for download today.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&quot;I recognize that this tool might be used to harm people,&quot; Wilson said, according to Fox News. &quot;That’s what it is -- it’s a gun. But I don’t think that’s a reason to not put it out there. I think that liberty in the end is a better interest.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called the development &quot;stomach-turning&quot; on Sunday, according to CNYcentral, saying it means anyone &quot;can open a gun factory in their garage.&quot;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/05/before-anyone-starts-panicking-too-much.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-5930225291763425130</guid><pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2013 17:11:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-05-01T10:11:02.035-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">B.S.</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Ethics</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Journalism</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Massachusetts</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Media</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Terrorism</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Video</category><title>Roger Nicholson&#39;s Confrontation with Info Wars Conspiracy Reporter Dan Bidondi. #BostonStrong</title><description>I&#39;m not a fan of Alex Jones, so...of course...I found this video endlessly entertaining:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe width=&quot;580&quot; height=&quot;326&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/WdMP8XKDZd4&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Once again, the people are left in the position of standing up to the charlatans in media.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/05/roger-nicholsons-confrontation-with.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/WdMP8XKDZd4/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-5174732245754483097</guid><pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:18:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-04-30T16:18:12.808-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Democrats</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Election 2014</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Libya</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Obama</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Press Conference</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Syria</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Video</category><title>President Obama&#39;s Press Conference for April 30, 2013 (VIDEO)</title><description>&lt;iframe width=&quot;580&quot; height=&quot;326&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/-IPcuuhi2Jo&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/04/president-obamas-press-conference-for.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/-IPcuuhi2Jo/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-6560441405372296077</guid><pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:43:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-04-29T11:43:31.271-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Democrats</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Election 2014</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Obama</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Video</category><title>The White House Correspondent&#39;s Dinner Complete Speeches... (VIDEO)</title><description>The President&#39;s Speech:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe width=&quot;580&quot; height=&quot;326&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/ON2XWvyePH8&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
And Conan&#39;s:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe width=&quot;580&quot; height=&quot;326&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/bJvS4aTcUyQ&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
And bonus video:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe width=&quot;560&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZyU213nhrh0&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-white-house-correspondents-dinner.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/ON2XWvyePH8/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-6396867043562764915</guid><pubDate>Sat, 20 Apr 2013 17:00:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-04-20T10:00:06.709-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">essay</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Massachusetts</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Terrorism</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><title>From Boston&#39;s darkest day, to their finest hour...</title><description>&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;326&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/ch5JiYDy3II&quot; width=&quot;580&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Looking at the tape, in the aftermath of &lt;b&gt;Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s&lt;/b&gt; capture, it reminds me of the night Osama Bin Laden was captured, with joyous College Students yelling out: USA, USA, USA!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Still, in the tape from the makeshift memorial taken tonight, you also can tell Boston has finally given itself permission to grieve.  Thus, we can finally take a moment to really feel the loss of &lt;i&gt;Krystle&lt;/i&gt;, of &lt;i&gt;Lu&lt;/i&gt;...and &lt;i&gt;Martin&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Only now, &lt;a href=&quot;http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/19/17825631-officials-dedicated-officer-gunned-down-by-boston-marathon-suspects-at-mit?lite&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;Sean&lt;/i&gt; joins them&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;This was unquestionably Boston’s finest hour.&lt;/b&gt;&amp;nbsp; This was bigger than the Red Sox in 2004. &amp;nbsp;Bigger than the actual Boston Tea Party. &amp;nbsp;In a time when, in response to the &lt;i&gt;worst&lt;/i&gt; of humanity, the people of Boston had every right to do the same to the people who did this crime.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Somehow Boston didn’t fall into that trap.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Even though I was watching the whole time, &lt;i&gt;I’m still not certain how they did it&lt;/i&gt;.  They probably don’t know how they did it either.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
We just watched in Los Angeles, during the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Dorner_shootings_and_manhunt&quot;&gt;Christopher Dorner fiasco&lt;/a&gt;, a city totally lose it’s @#$%.  Cops fanning out in a panic, chasing pink rabbits down invisible holes, chasing bad clues,&lt;b&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57568368/christopher-dorner-manhunt-two-innocent-women-shot-by-lapd-officers-had-no-warning/&quot;&gt;shooting unarmed innocent civilians who looked nothing like Dorner&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Boston when through something a &lt;b&gt;hundred times worse&lt;/b&gt;...and they didn’t lose it.  They kept their cool, because for &lt;b&gt;five straight days&lt;/b&gt;...all they &lt;b&gt;wanted&lt;/b&gt;, all they &lt;b&gt;thought about&lt;/b&gt; was &lt;b&gt;finding these guys.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Not finding them, &lt;i&gt;and then they gonna--&lt;/i&gt;...like the LAPD would do.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
No.  Just...&lt;i&gt;find&lt;/i&gt; them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;Find those bastards.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Then the moment came.  The moment came because it was &lt;b&gt;earned&lt;/b&gt; through &lt;b&gt;leg work&lt;/b&gt;, &lt;b&gt;shoe leather&lt;/b&gt;, &lt;b&gt;sweat equity&lt;/b&gt;, not might, brawn or overwhelming firepower.  The Police closed down what they needed to close down.  They sifted through what they needed to sift through.  They talked to who they needed to talk to, and when the moment came, &lt;b&gt;they even asked for help.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Granted, &lt;b&gt;not everything was perfect&lt;/b&gt;.  The cordon they set up to catch&amp;nbsp;Dzhokhar&amp;nbsp;was a &lt;b&gt;block too short&lt;/b&gt;, allowing him to stay hidden most of the day.  But when the moment came, when they were needed most, &lt;b&gt;the people of Massachusetts got their man&lt;/b&gt;.  They got him &lt;b&gt;alive&lt;/b&gt;, and got him on his way to jail.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Boston PD, the Watertown PD, the Massachusetts Staties, the FBI, &lt;b&gt;didn’t hurt any innocent people along the way&lt;/b&gt;.  They only people they hurt were the people who committed a massive crime.  The people they arrested, they talked to, and when found they had nothing to do with the crime, were let go.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As an African-American, &lt;i&gt;I so want to love the Police&lt;/i&gt;.  I try.  I always look out for them.  I always want them to be well paid, and their families taken care of.  But what inevitably happens, they do something stupid, like a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadou_Diallo&quot;&gt;Diallo&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/09/local/la-me-torrance-shooting-20130210&quot;&gt;or shoot up innocent people chasing Christopher Dorner&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/24/multiple-people-shot-near-empire-state-building-in-manhattan-police-say/&quot;&gt;or shoot nine people in New York City trying to get one guy&lt;/a&gt;...and I lose faith in them all over again.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
But Boston restored it.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Monday there was a crime.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Wednesday they solved it.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Friday they arrested the people responsible.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;326&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/VIG703_PgE0&quot; width=&quot;580&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;God love you glorious Irish Bastards.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
See you next Patriots Day, when I have the distinct feeling it’s going to be a National Holiday, for at least one year.</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/04/from-bostons-darkest-day-to-their.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/ch5JiYDy3II/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-4972044844561336714</guid><pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 20:00:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-04-11T13:00:05.367-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Election 2014</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Kentucky</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Race</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Rachel Maddow Show</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Racism</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Rand Paul</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Republicans</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Video</category><title>Rachel Maddow calls out Rand Paul for his utter bull@#$% at Howard University - April 10, 2013</title><description>&lt;object width=&quot;592&quot; height=&quot;346&quot; id=&quot;msnbca868b&quot; classid=&quot;clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000&quot; codebase=&quot;http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;movie&quot; value=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;FlashVars&quot; value=&quot;launch=51500273^1060^383020&amp;amp;width=592&amp;amp;height=346&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowScriptAccess&quot; value=&quot;always&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowFullScreen&quot; value=&quot;true&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;wmode&quot; value=&quot;transparent&quot; /&gt;&lt;embed name=&quot;msnbca868b&quot; src=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640&quot; width=&quot;592&quot; height=&quot;346&quot; FlashVars=&quot;launch=51500273^1060^383020&amp;amp;width=592&amp;amp;height=346&quot; allowscriptaccess=&quot;always&quot; allowFullScreen=&quot;true&quot; wmode=&quot;transparent&quot; type=&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&quot; pluginspage=&quot;http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&quot;&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 592px;&quot;&gt;Visit NBCNews.com for &lt;a style=&quot;text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;&quot; href=&quot;http://www.nbcnews.com&quot;&gt;breaking news&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507&quot; style=&quot;text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;&quot;&gt;world news&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072&quot; style=&quot;text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;&quot;&gt;news about the economy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/04/rachel-maddow-calls-out-rand-paul-for.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-1107418335871108999</guid><pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:30:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-04-11T11:30:01.952-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Biden</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Democrats</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Election 2014</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Guns</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Interview</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><title>Part 1 of Joe Biden&#39;s Interview on Morning Joe for April 11, 2013 (VIDEO)</title><description>&lt;object width=&quot;592&quot; height=&quot;346&quot; id=&quot;msnbc980726&quot; classid=&quot;clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000&quot; codebase=&quot;http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;movie&quot; value=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;FlashVars&quot; value=&quot;launch=51502638^2960^862860&amp;amp;width=592&amp;amp;height=346&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowScriptAccess&quot; value=&quot;always&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowFullScreen&quot; value=&quot;true&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;wmode&quot; value=&quot;transparent&quot; /&gt;&lt;embed name=&quot;msnbc980726&quot; src=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640&quot; width=&quot;592&quot; height=&quot;346&quot; FlashVars=&quot;launch=51502638^2960^862860&amp;amp;width=592&amp;amp;height=346&quot; allowscriptaccess=&quot;always&quot; allowFullScreen=&quot;true&quot; wmode=&quot;transparent&quot; type=&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&quot; pluginspage=&quot;http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&quot;&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 592px;&quot;&gt;Visit NBCNews.com for &lt;a style=&quot;text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;&quot; href=&quot;http://www.nbcnews.com&quot;&gt;breaking news&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507&quot; style=&quot;text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;&quot;&gt;world news&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072&quot; style=&quot;text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;&quot;&gt;news about the economy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/04/part-1-of-joe-bidens-interview-on.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-6486059759004589247</guid><pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:00:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-04-11T11:00:01.686-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Chicago</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Democrats</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Election 2014</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Guns</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Illinois</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Michelle</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Speeches</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Video</category><title>Michelle Obama&#39;s Speech on Gun Violence - April 10, 2013</title><description>&lt;iframe width=&quot;580&quot; height=&quot;326&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/yY46XyhXiq0&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/04/michelle-obamas-speech-on-gun-violence.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/yY46XyhXiq0/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-3358046716260477177</guid><pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:35:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-04-11T10:35:53.933-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Democrats</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Election 2014</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Guns</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Obama</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Speeches</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Video</category><title>President Obama&#39;s Speech on Gun Violence - April 8, 2013</title><description>&lt;iframe width=&quot;580&quot; height=&quot;326&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/g7MYLbOV9fY&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/04/president-obamas-speech-on-gun-violence.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/g7MYLbOV9fY/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-4933793546025335401</guid><pubDate>Thu, 14 Mar 2013 23:04:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-03-14T16:04:01.811-07:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Analysis</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">B.S.</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Budget</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Congress</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Democrats</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Election 2014</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">House</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Journalism</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Media</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Republicans</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><title>@RuthMarcus, Villagers and the evolution of media bull@#$%...</title><description>My distaste for &lt;a href=&quot;http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2010/08/wasted-special-comment.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Ruth Marcus&lt;/b&gt; goes back a while&lt;/a&gt;.  So I guess I shouldn&#39;t have been completely surprised when yet again decided to act as the &lt;i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.washingtonpost.com/&quot;&gt;Chief Villager for a Newspaper run by nothing but Villagers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt; when she wrote her latest (cough-cough) column.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
After &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-obama-has-to-be-dealmaker-in-chief/2013/03/14/9714cff4-8cce-11e2-b63f-f53fb9f2fcb4_story.html&quot;&gt;listing through some of the nasty comments House GOPers were tweeting&lt;/a&gt; as the President was speaking to them about reaching a Budget Deal, she quoted the President calmly assessing the situation with George Stephanopoulos:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote class=&quot;tr_bq&quot;&gt;
Obama: “You know — I think whatever I’m for, it’s very hard for a Republican to also be for. I think they always have to be a little bit — you know, maintain some distance.”&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One would think after all the Filibustering and insults (some of them actually racist) that have been hurled at this President from the start of his administration, a columnist might react with shock and surprise that the sitting President managed to keep his cool.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Instead, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-obama-has-to-be-dealmaker-in-chief/2013/03/14/9714cff4-8cce-11e2-b63f-f53fb9f2fcb4_story.html&quot;&gt;Ruth Marcus offered this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote class=&quot;tr_bq&quot;&gt;
The president has made this point before, and maybe he’s right. Yet this analysis leaves him in a distinctly unpresidential posture — not leaning in, but holding back.&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Excuse me, but...&lt;i&gt;I did not think it was anatomically possible for one&#39;s head to get that far up one&#39;s&lt;/i&gt;...--never mind.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I don&#39;t know how to tell Journalists this, because...&lt;i&gt;I really thought they would have covered it in Journalism school&lt;/i&gt;, but...&lt;b&gt;it&#39;s not your job to balance the argument&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I know you &lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;think &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;that&#39;s your job.  But &lt;b&gt;let&#39;s be clear about what your job really is&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Your job is to present &lt;b&gt;both sides of a story&lt;/b&gt;...&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Your job is not necessarily to lend them equal weight, particularly when they don&#39;t deserve it.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Again, you don&#39;t elevate both sides into equality. &amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;We don&#39;t need you to do that. &amp;nbsp;In fact, it&#39;s a really bad idea if you do do that.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/b&gt; If you&#39;re a columnist, as Ruth Marcus is, this is even more tricky. &amp;nbsp;Why? &amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;Because, a columnist offers nothing but opinion. &amp;nbsp;They don&#39;t do any actual reporting.&lt;/b&gt; &amp;nbsp;They don&#39;t go digging around for facts anymore...&lt;b&gt;they&#39;ve been excused from that particular activity&lt;/b&gt;. &amp;nbsp;In fact, &lt;b&gt;they are paid a substantial salary to say only what they think. &amp;nbsp;Even if what they think has no basis in reality&lt;/b&gt;, as Ruth Marcus clearly demonstrated today.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One would think that some measure of journalistic integrity would matter in a circumstance like this, but again...you&#39;d be wrong. &amp;nbsp;The Washington Post is more than capable of publishing utter complete bull@#$% so long as it fills column inches. &amp;nbsp;After all they employ &lt;i&gt;Jennifer Rubin, Marc Thiessen, Robert Samuelson, Richard Cohen&lt;/i&gt;...and &lt;i&gt;Ruth Marcus&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
(Hey, at least &lt;i&gt;Ezra Klein&lt;/i&gt; -- and I know me some Liberals who hate him for some reason -- no idea why -- does actual work to preparing his pieces.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One would think it would &lt;b&gt;matter &lt;/b&gt;to the folks at the Washington Post &lt;b&gt;that their own readers can smell this line of crap a mile off&lt;/b&gt;, but we don&#39;t matter of the folks at the Washington Post. &amp;nbsp;Ruth Marcus has proved...once again...that the &lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;Villagers are talking only to other Villagers.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Which could explain why most newspapers are in trouble.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
We need Newspapers and Magazines and Media in general, &lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;advocating for their audience, and not entertaining their damn selves.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For example...if someone...say like&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt; the President&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;...presents something that is backed in fact, and his opposition presents something that is cloaked in bull@#$%...&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;we kinda need Media to call out the bull@#$%.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt; But they&#39;re not.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;They used to&lt;/i&gt;. &amp;nbsp;But they&#39;re not.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I mean it happens...sometimes, but it sure as hell didn&#39;t happen today with Ruth Marcus.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Let me quote something a columnist said not too long ago:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
Excuse me, but can these people not count to 60? Have they somehow failed to notice that Mitch McConnell and John Boehner have not exactly been playing nice? That while the left laments Obama&#39;s minor deviations from party orthodoxy, the right has been portraying him, with some success, as an out-of-control socialist?&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/08/robert_gibbs_was_right_to_crit.html?hpid=opinionsbox1&quot;&gt;That was from &lt;b&gt;August 10, 2010&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. My goodness who wrote such a prescient piece?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
C&#39;mon, &lt;b&gt;this is easy&lt;/b&gt;. This was &lt;b&gt;Ruth Marcus&lt;/b&gt;...in a piece backing Robert Gibbs when he called out the Professional Left.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So what happened?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Apparently, Ruth Marcus...still employed by the Washington Post...&lt;b&gt;has lost the ability...&lt;i&gt;to count.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Ruth Marcus got lazy. &amp;nbsp;She and the paper needed column inches to fill, &lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;and bull@#$% magically transpired.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When you say the President isn&#39;t showing leadership after showing in just a few short paragraphs that there&#39;s no one who&#39;s willing to be lead, we do wonder why the President is to blame, and not the Congress. &amp;nbsp;And if you can&#39;t make that elementary of a call, &lt;b&gt;it calls into question your ability to observe things...or any thing, for that matter.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I mean, I don&#39;t meant to tell Ruth Marcus in particular how to do her job, &lt;b&gt;but I figured someone ought to.&lt;/b&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/03/ruthmarcus-villagers-and-evolution-of.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-3821408473832930874</guid><pubDate>Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:41:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-03-04T16:41:18.082-08:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Budget</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Civil Rights Movement</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Conservatives</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Debt Ceiling</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Election 2014</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">History</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Ideology</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Interview</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Race</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Racism</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Supreme Court</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">The Daily Show</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Video</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Voting Rights</category><title>Rachel Maddow calls Antonin Scalia a Troll on the Daily Show (VIDEO)</title><description>Part 1:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;background-color:#000000;width:520px;&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;padding:4px;&quot;&gt;&lt;iframe src=&quot;http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:cms:video:thedailyshow.com:424284&quot; width=&quot;512&quot; height=&quot;288&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:left;background-color:#FFFFFF;padding:4px;margin-top:4px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-28-2013/exclusive---rachel-maddow-extended-interview-pt--1&quot;&gt;The Daily Show with Jon Stewart&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Get More: &lt;a href=&#39;http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/&#39;&gt;Daily Show Full Episodes&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&#39;http://www.indecisionforever.com/&#39;&gt;Political Humor &amp; Satire Blog&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&#39;http://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow&#39;&gt;The Daily Show on Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Part 2:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;background-color:#000000;width:520px;&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;padding:4px;&quot;&gt;&lt;iframe src=&quot;http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:cms:video:thedailyshow.com:424285&quot; width=&quot;512&quot; height=&quot;288&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:left;background-color:#FFFFFF;padding:4px;margin-top:4px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-28-2013/exclusive---rachel-maddow-extended-interview-pt--2&quot;&gt;The Daily Show with Jon Stewart&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Get More: &lt;a href=&#39;http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/&#39;&gt;Daily Show Full Episodes&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&#39;http://www.indecisionforever.com/&#39;&gt;Political Humor &amp; Satire Blog&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&#39;http://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow&#39;&gt;The Daily Show on Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/03/rachel-maddow-calls-antonin-scalia.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-7190428454776563423</guid><pubDate>Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:35:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-03-01T13:37:11.390-08:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Analysis</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Budget</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Democrats</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Election 2012</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Obama</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Star Trek</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Star Wars</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Video</category><title>&quot;These aren&#39;t the cuts you&#39;re looking for...&quot; (VIDEO)</title><description>Here is the President&#39;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/03/01/statement-president-sequester&quot;&gt;brief Press Conference on the Sequester&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/rPMM5_h7NIg&quot; width=&quot;560&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
That&#39;s right. He went with &lt;b&gt;Jedi Mind Mend&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I was entertained no end.  The rest of the Geek world was not, preferring instead to chastise my President for getting his franchises confused.  (Yeah, like that&#39;s never happened to them.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Leave it to the Geek Godather, Leonard freakin&#39; Nimoy to &lt;b&gt;put it all in perspective&lt;/b&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;blockquote class=&quot;twitter-tweet&quot;&gt;
Only a Vulcan mind meld will help with this congress. LLAP&lt;br /&gt;
— Leonard Nimoy (@TheRealNimoy) &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/TheRealNimoy/status/307582109042737152&quot;&gt;March 1, 2013&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;script async=&quot;&quot; charset=&quot;utf-8&quot; src=&quot;//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Yeah, baby, YEAH.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also.  It seems that the &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/whitehouse/status/307584535976112128/photo/1&quot;&gt;White House has chosen to OWN it&lt;/a&gt; (OWN IT, I say!!):&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRr_2Owy0VVDevb1KvpV3HGAcFXckzm-hWt9a6idXlKq_wHUAQIJz6o_jhGLN18TlR76H-X3mhgnMiwKRirhB70YmvfgGBKXNXMGfEKcvnzGsqlSv9kA6HCeMxiVyaiMzGevujJrLAuqg/s1600/BETCgX3CcAETg65.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;400&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRr_2Owy0VVDevb1KvpV3HGAcFXckzm-hWt9a6idXlKq_wHUAQIJz6o_jhGLN18TlR76H-X3mhgnMiwKRirhB70YmvfgGBKXNXMGfEKcvnzGsqlSv9kA6HCeMxiVyaiMzGevujJrLAuqg/s400/BETCgX3CcAETg65.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/03/these-arent-cuts-youre-looking-for-video.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/rPMM5_h7NIg/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-8810192367164023892</guid><pubDate>Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:08:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-02-26T15:08:49.398-08:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Florida</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Guns</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Race</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Racism</category><title>Shame on me for missing the &quot;Am I suspicious&quot; video made by Howard University Students</title><description>&lt;iframe width=&quot;580&quot; height=&quot;326&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/rH5bB8HUWFs&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/02/shame-on-me-for-missing-am-i-suspicious.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/rH5bB8HUWFs/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-1878790573772541044</guid><pubDate>Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:57:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-02-21T16:58:57.071-08:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Democrats</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Economy</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Election 2014</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">GLBT</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Interview</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Jobs</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Labor</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Obama</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Video</category><title>Did President Obama drop a Prop. 8 hint on ABC 7 News in San Fran (VIDEO)</title><description>&lt;object height=&quot;268&quot; id=&quot;otvPlayer&quot; width=&quot;400&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;movie&quot; value=&quot;http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=fw1000&amp;station=kgo&amp;section=&amp;mediaId=9000365&amp;parentId=8998366&amp;cdnRoot=http://cdn.abclocal.go.com&amp;webRoot=http://abclocal.go.com&amp;configPath=/util/&amp;site=&quot; &gt;&lt;/param&gt;
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Via&amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/02/21/obama-administration-set-to-do-right-thing-on-prop-8/&quot;&gt;Greg Sargent&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;(heck his whole piece comes from Greg Sargent):&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;blockquote&gt;
In an interview with an ABC News affiliate in San Francisco, &lt;b&gt;President Obama made his most extensive comments yet on the question of whether his administration will weigh in with a friend-of-the-court brief on the Proposition 8 case set to be heard by the Supreme Court&lt;/b&gt;. He said:&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;blockquote&gt;
“The Solicitor General is still looking at this. I have to make sure that I’m not interjecting myself too much into this process, particularly when we’re not a party to the case. I can tell you, though, obviously, my personal view, which is that I think that same-sex couples should have the same rights and be treated like everybody else. And that’s something I feel very strongly about and my administration is acting on wherever we can.”&lt;/blockquote&gt;
This is more encouraging than not. &lt;b&gt;It shows that the administration is very actively considering taking this step.&lt;/b&gt; What’s more, Obama reiterated the view, spelled out in his Inaugural Address, that full equality before the law is the ultimate goal of his administration, stressed that he feels “very strongly” about it, and underscored that his administration is acting to bring this about “wherever we can.” Obviously, filing a brief in the Prop 8 case — one that forcefully articulates the view that Prop 8 is unconstitutional — falls into that category. It is something his administration can, in fact, do. And since the Court gives weight to the views of Solicitors General, doing it could help bring about a broad Supreme Court ruling that would put state laws banning gay marriage on the road to extinction — bringing us closer to the full equality that Obama himself articulated as a paramount moral goal.&lt;br /&gt;
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At the same time, &lt;b&gt;by saying that this is something his Solicitor General is examining, even as he noted the need to avoid interjecting himself into the case, Obama was also signaling that this process is unfolding as it’s supposed to&lt;/b&gt;: With the Solicitor General making this determination independently, on the merits. An optimistic reading of this is that it could give the Solicitor General the breathing room he needs to expound on the administration’s views of Prop 8 even if gay marriage opponents will inevitably cast such a move as political.&lt;/blockquote&gt;
</description><link>http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/02/did-president-obama-drop-prop-8-hint-on.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (admiralmpj)</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286633260216304074.post-4147270016416270695</guid><pubDate>Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:07:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-02-21T16:07:05.515-08:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Civil Rights Movement</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Election 2014</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">History</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Republicans</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">U.S.</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Video</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Voting Rights</category><title>Chris Matthews wonders what happened to the Republican Party of the 1960s (VIDEO)</title><description>I keep &lt;a href=&quot;http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/02/gop-consider-this-your-final-warning.html&quot;&gt;saying it&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2013/02/something-to-keep-eye-on.html&quot;&gt;saying it&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://fortmchenryii.blogspot.com/2010/02/episode-v-eisenhower-wing-strikes-back.html&quot;&gt;saying it&lt;/a&gt;.  The Republican Party&#39;s &lt;b&gt;last hope&lt;/b&gt;...&lt;i&gt;as in last hope to continue existing as a Party&lt;/i&gt; is to &lt;b&gt;dump &lt;/b&gt;the John Birch Society retreads (aka, the &lt;i&gt;Tea Party&lt;/i&gt;) and grasp onto their proud heritage from the Eisenhowers of the world.  For the GOP to survive, the Eisenhower Wing has to lead.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;div style=&quot;background: transparent; color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 5px; text-align: center; width: 592px;&quot;&gt;Visit NBCNews.com for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nbcnews.com/&quot; style=&quot;border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; color: #5799DB !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;&quot;&gt;breaking news&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507&quot; style=&quot;border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; color: #5799DB !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;&quot;&gt;world news&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072&quot; style=&quot;border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; color: #5799DB !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;&quot;&gt;news about the economy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Meanwhile, one of the Eisenhower Wing&#39;s potential leaders has dumped the party to become a Democrat...and more than likely, the Governor of Florida once again.&lt;br /&gt;
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