Okay. I knew I'd get this reaction on my post from the other day! It's wrong anytime, anywhere to hit another human being. However, I have seen battling couples where the wife later "played" the protection order to her benefit in court. It appeared O.J. slapped her, which of course was wrong, but I disagree with the media parlaying this into O.J. being an insane batterer. Please understand where I'm coming from. I was severely battered for 12 years and I certainly don't advocate any form of family violence. But in a big-ticket divorce case, I guarantee you Nicole's lawyers took full advantage of the protection order. I still doubt he did it. He was acquitted of criminal charges and, YES, there was a civil judgment. But that only required 9 of 12 jurors and a preponderance of evidence. This took place in a toney white venue and, believe me, those jurors were free to vote their presuppositions and prejudices. All the cable news nets devoted A YEAR of nightly newscasts from ARUBA. Last night, we got lots of the WARREN JEFFS case featuring weeping child brides recounting their horror-story wedding nights. This gets a 10 from me on the Smarmometer. Please get where I'm coming from. The news nets have made big bucks on titillating trash and I, for one, would have been interested to hear what O.J. had to say.

So racism is a thing of the past, eh? Okay, everyone out there who said O.J. beat it by playing the race card and his acquittal was A. kudos to a superb legal defense and B. reaction against systemic racism. BULLCRAP. Racism is real and lurks under every rock. We have made a rush to judgment: O.J.=Batterer. I don't buy the equation. Before the book and show, which admittedly would have been in questionable taste, were pulled, I watched an old interview with O.J. on one of the cable news nets where he spoke about the pictures of Nicole after she was battered. They showed them again. I saw one slightly swollen eye which she certainly had the ability to exaggerate. IF THIS IS THE WORST HE EVER DID, he's not a batterer. He expressed his regret that it ever happened and his remorse. He also admitted she didn't look too wonderful at the time because she was drunk when the picture was taken. Sorry, this is a big guy. He could have rearranged her face if he didn't have self-control. I was battered to the extent that I still have a huge, permanent lump on my forehead and other skull fractures. I was beaten literally black on one occasion. Not even black and blue, just black. He died of natural causes in 1990 and I'm still here. I've also known several couples who put the boxing gloves on every time they had a few. O.J. would have battered every female he was with, PLUS in all likelihood hurt small animals and beat up on smaller guys. THAT's a batterer. So this would have been distasteful. He was acquitted of criminal wrongdoing. He was gotten in a civil suit only requiring a preponderance of evidence and 9 of 12 jurors to concur. The venue was an extremely affluent white one. NANCY GRACE, GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, WHOM I LIKE, AND BUNCHES OF OTHER PUNDITS MAKE A LIVING OFF MURDERS. I DON'T think Murdock should have pulled the plug on the book, primarily, and also the show. THIS RACIST SOCIETY HAS CONVICTED O.J. Hey, once you are murdered your life is in the public domain. Every squirmy detail of your sex life will come out, all your merry girl-about-town stuff. For FOX and the others to have made millions ten years ago on this trash and THEN deny O.J. his say is WRONG.

Do not miss this one. Osama's Levitra commercial . . .
Link

What made us America? What characterized us as Americans? Our desire for freedom from tyranny AND our desire for freedom of Religion, the ability of each man or woman to decide how to best serve their God. Oh, we've had some terrible moments in our past. Slavery and Jim Crow and the Japanese detention camps during WWII. The fact that we are the only nation to ever use the atom bomb--twice, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki--is something we cannot point to with pride. But peace, freedom, and the right of dissent always won out in the end. Our system of Checks and Balances always ensured that the executive branch couldn't grab power from the judicial and legislative branches. The Fourth Estate--the press--always outed the stories of corruption and gave dissenters a voice. SO WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING NOW??? I dislike head chopping just as much as anybody else. I have been horrified and driven to my knees by the beheadings performed and displayed on Al Jazeera, which we see secondhand through American television. But the abrogation of Habeas Corpus strikes at our very nature as a country. Because they are brutal does not give us the right to be brutal. The very essence of our nation, our identity as people of good will, is forever sullied. The fact that we have openly debated the extent to which we can torture detainees stains us as the home of Liberty and Justice for All. Never mind that some of the detainees may not be guilty of anything, they were just friends with the wrong person or hung out in the wrong neighborhood. The stench of corruption hangs over Washington. Ordinary Americans are now afraid, wondering if something they have said or done might be misconstrued. President Bush spoke brightly about exporting democracy this morning. What democracy? He has destroyed it.

Let us never forget that Bushie initially wanted to let a Dubai company inspect our ports. ONLY DEMOCRATS are advocating INSPECTING EVERY CONTAINER. I betcha Bushie and crew WANT another terrorist attack on this soil to shore up their power and control. If another terrorist attack happened on our soil, they could point to it and say, "Now, do you see what we are talking about?"

I'm a Catholic Christian who ran back there from Pentecostalism because I was tired of being brainwashed how to vote. The present Pope is a possible exception but the Catholic Church has always stood for social justice and helping the poor. THESE PEOPLE MAKE ME SICK. Did anybody else catch Mean Monica Crowley on Imus on MSNBC this morning? Christ. She was expounding on her visit to GITMO, saying she was sickened by the posters on the wall displaying Article 3 rights in every language. She sneered that maybe they were there to demonstrate to the detainees that we HAD to treat them that way, even though we didn't WANT TO. Imus responded that maybe we want to treat them well because we are good people, to paraphrase. Bottom line: Monica Crowley is for torture. We need to run these rotten, foul, Attila the Hun people out of broadcasting. I got sick of Radio Christians when they started talking about executing people--"frying" them--and making prisons rotten places. Eeeeew. Don't know if Monica is a Christian but there are plenty of them just as mean and they make me SICK. I think if we treat detainees decently, they will at least know that some Americans are decent. If we still are, after all the Right brainwashing . . . Did these people like pulling wings off flies when they were kids???? I wrote most of the above as a reply to two excellent posts but decided to stick it up here so people who missed it find out what Monica Crowley is really like. EEEEEEEEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Believe me, I'm a Catholic Christian, but you gotta look at Iraq and Afghanistan from the view of the Islamists. Bush wants to introduce "moderate democracy". As much as we look at sharia from our cultural standpoint and scream, "EEEEK!", they look at our culture and see evil incarnate. They see pornographic images appearing even on broadcast channels, they see our illegitimacy rates, they see our divorce rates, they see the immodesty in attire, the drug addiction, the alcoholism, and the crass materialism. They see school shootings, mass murders, and serial rapists. They see how our poor are treated. The richest country in the world had poor black folks hanging off roofs for five days and bodies floating in the streets for three or more weeks. News nets were making policy decisions on whether or not to show the "floaters" in shots of New Orleans. Moslems see children molested. They feel they run a "clean" culture and don't want our corruption. If they want a theocracy, they are entitled to it. But, no, we want to run their oil and commerce and that's what this is about. But you can't tell any of this to the average person. They know a few buzzwords because they come home at night and watch sports, movies, and entertainment programs on television. Maybe they get five minutes or so of news on the music station they listen to on the way to work. Their bottom line is "I WANT TO SURVIVE. I don't want high taxes. I want my family to be safe." WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT, THE UNITED STATES JUST ISN'T A GREAT EXAMPLE OF DEMOCRACY IN ACTION, IS IT? They are probably saying "Keep your Mickey D's, your belly button rings, your AIDS, and your illegitimacy. Keep your sickos and rapists and pornography. Keep all your evil on your shores. We don't want it."

Wasn't it interesting how Chris Wallace asked the sucker-punch question and later bleated fear about Clinton jabbing his finger at him? His father, Mike Wallace, made the salient mistake in the early 1950's of asking Burt Lancaster about his personal life. Lancaster was the quintessential political animal and was on live with Wallace. When asked something to the effect of was he cheating on his wife, Lancaster rose and growled. Mike Wallace, known for his vituperative interview style, later bleated fear that Lancaster was going to assault him and amazement that he had been stood up to. Lesson: if you are a little, nasty interviewer, don't take on the big guys!

def. Fascism â€" A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
American Heritage Dictionary
Read this definition over, ponder it, and ask yourself if George Soros is so wrong to liken this administration both to fascist and communist states? Wolf Blitzer on CNN has been doing a wonderful job all morning of asking the tough questions . . . until he got to Soros. He seemed incredulous in his questioning, as if Soros had suggested that little men from Mars had taken over the White House. Particularly when you look at this administration in terms of cronyism and the award of no-bid contracts on a regular basis to Halliburton, tell me we're NOT looking at fascism in action.

It would be handy to blame Jerry Springer, professional wrestling, violent video games, and movie mayhem--body parts being hacked away in a sea of blood--for all the world's ills. But I won't. I will simply float, for your consideration, the theory that the conscience, sensiblity, and consciousness of the average American have been almost irreparably coarsened. I never watch Jerry but my boyfriend does. From the kitchen the other morning, I heard a chorus being chanted by the audience. "Crazy bitch, crazy bitch, crazy bitch . . ." I apologize for the language but this was on broadcast television--Channel 11 in NYC. And you know this wasn't spontaneous if you've ever attended a talk show taping. Some crumball was holding up a sign reading, "Crazy bitch, crazy bitch, crazy bitch . . ." Kids play video games in which they rain bullets on enemy forces and they are blown up and blown apart, all part of the fun. And I think George Bush may have hired one of the scriptwriters from professional wrestling. Professional wrestling consists of noble, strong heroes and unbelievably crusty villains, those villains you love to hate. All the morons who watch it (and I am related by marriage to many) wait for the Cage Match to see blood fly and their heroes triumph. President Bush has tried to dumb down and conflate the entire War on Terror into the War in Iraq. We are the good guys, and good must triumph. A hue and cry went up about CNN'S recent documentary In the Footsteps of bin Laden. For a couple of hours, we got a window into the world on the other side of the conflict. We met real human beings. The one that interested me the most was the widow of the suicide bomber, who expressed no regret over her husband's choice but lauded the treatment and status she now enjoyed as the widow of a martyr for Islam. We need to understand the other side. What threatened conservatives the most about this documentary was that it humanized the enemy. That is their biggest fear. They want us to see them, and the detainees now held in secret prisons and at Gitmo, as subhuman, violent scum. After all, They are not like Us. Bush wants you to think its perfectly alright to extract information from them in any way that works. Tune in to Bush's next speech or professional wrestling to hear the best in . . . Good and Evil, light and darkness, noble heroes and dastardly villains, and--worst of all--patriotic, godly conservatives vs. godless, seditious, traitorous lefties. Blah.

Everybody go to rnntv.com now and go into the top blog. About a quarter of the way down the blog, a video called Air Torture, a video produced by Democracy Now, is playing. A hacker put it in there. Don't know how long it will be there before they find out and rip it. It is EXCELLENT.

I am cutting and pasting MSNBC's background information on the treatment guidelines for prisoners of war under Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. Just from what we already know, gang--waterboarding, stripping people naked and subjecting them to hypothermia--is Bush a war criminal or WHAT?????!!!!!!

Pasted from MSNBC's background info:

Captured combatants and civilians who find themselves under the authority of the adverse party are entitled to respect for their life, their dignity, their personal rights and their political, religious and other convictions. They must be protected against all acts of violence or reprisal. They are entitled to exchange news with their families and receive aid.

Everyone must enjoy basic judicial guarantees and no one may be held responsible for an act he has not committed. No one may be subjected to physical or mental torture or to cruel or degrading corporal punishment or other treatment

On tonight's show, Keith Olbermann interviewed Jonathan Turley of Washington University. He theorizes that Bush's rush to push through the Article 3 Geneva definition legislation is due to the fact that 19 detainees held in secret prisons are about to arrive and GITMO and have not yet been interviewed by Red Cross but WILL BE. They have almost certainly been subjected to waterboarding and hypothermia and Bush will be charged with war crimes. Olbermann was unclear how this redefinition of Article 3 would help since we already signed it but apparently Bush feels it will shore up his position. (I'm paraphrasing.) Then, consider this. The removal of Habeas Corpus could mean that these detainees could be held in secret prisons, tried without access to the evidence against them, and executed--all without being interviewed by the Red Cross. The late edition of Keith Olbermann will be on at 12 midnight EST, 11 Central, etc.

Goerge Bush, that rotten . . . conflator? Just watched a polysci-type analysis on FOX in which a participant shot a ball right over the heads of The Rest of Us. She said George Bush was running into problems with his conflation of Iraq. What did she mean? Well, it goes like this. George Bush, both at the press conference today and in his 9/11 speech, made a durn good stab at equating Iraq with the War on Terror. George wants to conflate (condense) the entire War on Terror into Iraq. He wants people to think . . . Iraq . . . The Twin Towers . . . The Pentagon . . . United Flight 93 . . . Osama bin Laden . . . Darth Vader . . . Satan . . . those people who aren't like us and deserve to be TORTURED!!!!!!!!!!! PLUS . . . IRAQ . . . we aren't safe at home because there are probably terrorists under the bed . . . vote for those nice friendly patriotic Republicans in November who won't let the ACLU steal Christmas . . . Iraq . . . . Stay the Course . . . Victory . . . cut to slow motion of a young couple in love running toward each other in a grassy meadow with flowers . . . stay the course . . . Victory in Iraq . . . Wait a minute. I've had enough. I have to go throw up now.

Pope John Paul II, you left us too soon. You never would have done that, brought up stupid old Crusade quotes. Neither would you have conducted a witch-hunt for gays in the seminaries . . . George Bush, you're playing the Axis of Evil card again. Did everyone see the fit he took on the reporter at the news conference who dared to frame a question comparing Us with Them? Bush told him there was no comparison. He wants to continue to villainize all Muslims. He'd like us to believe they're barbarians, not quite human, and deserving of borderline torture. Gee, the last I heard there are 1.2 BILLION Muslims. Exactly 15 were directly involved in 9/11. A teeny-tiny fraction of the rest are involved in any kind of terrorism. But, hey, two world leaders managed to offend ALL of them in ONE clip on the SAME day. Gee, this should do wonders for world peace . . .

Apparently, President Bush has styled himself the Would-be World Authority on Torture. Insisting he only wanted to clarify ambiguities in Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, stating it was too vague for his interrogators to want to work under, he squirmed and became hostile when asked by a reporter how he would feel if other nations chose to interpret the Geneva Convention for themselves. Bush replied that they would do well to follow OUR interpretation. Yeah, right, Bush. Nobody should torture anybody. You question people in a non-painful and non-humiliating way and you let them know they'll be in the Gulag a long time if they don't talk. Period. I don't even like sleep deprivation, let alone waterboarding. Stripping people naked and throwing them in a freezing room is injurious to their personal dignity and could cause them to fall ill. Also, we don't know if methods like Active Denial--a microwave that can target people and make them think they're burning to death--or fMR3--a MIND-READING device that may soon replace lie detector tests--are being used. We are the good guys. We shouldn't do any of this.
George wants it HIS way, like Burger King. The fact that we are discussing U.S.-sanctioned torture is enough to scare anyone my age--55--to death. It's been a long slide down a slippery slope greased with bullpoop to get here. IMPEACH GEORGE BUSH.

I am seriously afraid that after we rid the world of Bush & Company, the next oligarchy will consist of the Food Police, aided and abetted by HMO's. They've already got us smokers cowering in alleys. I'm afraid they will start tracking our trans fat, sugar, white flour, and caffeine intake. I was outraged when the Food Do-Gooders lobbied Mickey D's into changing the fry oil. My favorite recent restaurant experience was finding out how many plates full I could eat at Shoney's buffet, which is still legal, thank God. But every once in a while, Divine Justice intervenes. Wasn't it refreshing to learn that . . . SPINACH KILLS!

I am all for religious freedom, everyone's freedom of religion, and even freedom from religion. The problem is when you try to drag underage kids into questionable practices. You know, the cases where kids are denies transfusions or medications or are caned "not to spare the rod." We have to protect kids until they are of age and can truly make their own decisions. Now, even though Tucker Carylson is a conservative, he's likeable so I watch him. It would be a shame if we couldn't LIKE others as human beings who have differing views. Recently, when the Warren Jeffries, Dirty Old Polygamist capture was at its apex, Tucker mounted a misguided defense based on freedom of religion. Unfortunately, this message board won't replicate the fonts I used. I was using Creepy in green and red for the really highlighted parts.

Dear Tucker,

Let me try again tonight. You already used the operative word in the story: FORCED. We are not talking about consenting adult polygamists. I don’t' care who marries who or, for that matter, how MANY whos. We are talking about something like Anna Nicole Smith's late husband. She was an adult volunteer hoping to inherit big bucks. We are talking about Jeffs FORCING underage girls to marry dirty old creeps. OK? First, they are brainwashed by this cult. Then Jeffs and their own family members coerce them to marry these horrible old guys. It's like white slavery.
----- Original Message -----
From: MARY CONKLIN
To: Tucker@msnbc.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 6:54 PM
Subject: Fw: And was that a pickle in the old Mormon's pocket???


Tucker, I just watched it again. Let me get more graphic about why this is wrong and repulsive. Some nice, sweet, virginal little 15-year-old is FORCED to marry some disgusting, creepy, old geezer. On the wedding night, he comes over to the bed naked. He has a turkey neck and his belly hangs, too. He is drooling, either out of anticipation or because the alzheimer's meds wore off. he has about 25 cialis tablets on the bedside table. her father or jeffs beat on her until she married the filthy old pervert. She was forced.
That's What's Wrong With It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, let's try it from your direction. You, handsome little Tucker, were brought up in a weird sect. you were just forced to marry a 70-year-old because your mother beat you with a whip until you capitulated. her boobies are hanging down to her knees. Need I go further???? You get the idea . . .
Want some of THAT action, Tucker??????
Normally, I love the show. You're just wrong on this one.

Love,

Mary Judith Conklin

----- Original Message -----
From: MARY CONKLIN
To: Tucker@msnbc.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 4:51 PM
Subject: And was that a pickle in the old Mormon's pocket???


Tucker, you are the cutest little Episcopalian I ever saw and I say this from a motherly standpoint. I hear what you are saying in regard to the government "breaking up" a religion. Yes, 16-year-olds can marry with parental permission in all 50 states, and girls as young as 14 can marry in some. But these were FORCED or COERCED marriages Jeffs arranged between very young girls and DIRTY OLD MEN, the old name for pedophiles. These old farts generally claim a revelation from God about adding a particular young girl to their families. (Yeah, you old religious hypocrite, and was that a pickle in your pocket???) While preserving freedom of religion, as a society we have to ensure that young people are not beaten, mistreated, or sold into marriage slavery.

I'm really not trying to man-bash. Hear me out. Most women have had the unfruitful and untoward experience of being the copilot of a man who will not look at the map or ask directions, sure he knows where he's going. Imagine, now, a couple headed for Cincinatti, Ohio. When they left Connecticut, it was snowing. The wife gradually notices the climate change. She has to take off her down jacket because she's sweating. During the interminable drive, she asks the husband several times to check the map. She even offers to ask directions at the next service station. "I know where I'm going, dammit," he growls. With each gentle request, he gets angrier. Finally, she just shuts up, figuring he will eventually realize he's taken the wrong course. He does, when he sees palm trees and gas stations offering free orange juice with a fill-up. Yo, George. You thought you knew where you were going. Maybe you even got wrong directions from your male buddies before you embarked on the trip. There WERE no WMD's in Iraq and, yo, Osama ain't even IN Iraq . . . Wrong turn. Turn back. Don't Stay the Course.

I thought I was watching science fiction or was experiencing some kind of temporary delusion when I watched the story about the jail web cam in Maricopa County, AZ, the other day on MSNBC. Then I checked into it. Mean-spiritedness and venality seem to be the "fruits" of the Religious Right in this country. Time and again, I heard Salem Broadcasting talk show hosts like Kevin McCullough preach about the need for tougher, bread-and-water prisons. It seems there is one in Maricopa County, AZ. Inmates get no coffee, pay for their own meals which total 90 cents a day, wear pink underwear, and are forced to sleep outside in tents. Sheriff Joe Arpaio boasts an 85% approval rating in his county. Now he has finally been slowed down by the courts, which ruled that his 24/7 web cast from the jail cannot be shown on the internet because it is a violation of the privacy of those not yet convicted of any crime. Scapegoating is a dangerous thing. It gives people societal permission to be mean-spirited to others. THIS IS THE CLIMATE THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT HAS BRED IN THIS COUNTRY--turning the screws on the helpless in our care. Turning the screws? The expression, in itself, hearkens back to the days when prisoners were tortured. Jesus told us we would know them by their fruits. Another quote to keep in mind is that "true religion is that which takes care of widows and orphans." Our country will be judged by God and history on the basis of how well we take care of the least of these--the poor, the physically disabled, the mentally disabled, those who are being physically and sexually abused, and those in our care in jails and prisons. Tell THAT to the next self-righteous "Christian" you run into . . .