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I just watched E.J. Dionne with Lawrence O’Donnell and know why the Clintons love him. His education, and it was not even Jesuit, as I suspected.  It was Benedictine.   Imagine that!  The guy not only knows logic, he knows how to apply it in daily life.

The fault, in the faux comparison between the Watergate investigation and the Benghazi  “investigation”   was the target of Dionne’s laser-beam tonight. Using few words, E.J. managed to illustrate why there can be no comparison between the real scandal of the Watergate cover-up and the in-construction of a Benghazigate cover-up.

Eminence-grise that he is, E.J. hearkened back to a bi-partisan effort to find facts via hearings.  Having gathered the evidence,  the special committee on Watergate  arrived at a conclusion of  a  cover-up conspiracy.  E.J. then  contrasted the partisan effort of Darryl Issa, Jason Chaffetz, & Co. on Benghazi  that, having decided on a conclusion of a cover-up,  now attempts,  by way of cherry-picked hearings, to construct a web of evidence.

Thomas Pickering, co-chair of the Accountability Review Board appointed by then Secretary of State Clinton, and other officials from the State Department and the Department of Defense,  volunteered to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today to balance the information and testimony offered by the “Whistleblowers.”   Those offers were declined.

Clearly there is an agenda here, and E.J. spotlighted it like a professor with a laser light.  The two sets of hearings work from two opposing constructs.

The Watergate hearings, having listened to a wide variety of  testimonies arrived at a specific proposition: there was a cover-up.   Deduction, my dear Watson.

The Darryl Issa war on Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is an inductive effort.  Let’s find enough testimony to point to a cover-up conspiracy – just in case she runs.  Find evidence for this proposition.

N.B. This is not pure induction.  It is, having decided on a conclusion, cherry-picking the evidence, not a true investigation.  If Issa really wanted a pure conclusion, he would have invited all who were willing to testify, including Ambassador Pickering.

Apparently Martin Richard’s message failed to get through to some people.

martin richard dead boston marathon

The marathon bombings were tragic and reprehensible, but so is this kind of visceral scapegoating.

Heba Abolaban, Muslim Woman, Says She Was Attacked Over Boston Bombings (PHOTO)

The Huffington Post  |  By Posted: 04/18/2013 7:46 pm EDT

Muslim Attack Boston

A Muslim woman wearing a hijab said she was attacked in the Boston area by a man who shouted that Muslims had perpetrated the twin bombings that killed three people and wounded about 170 Monday.

Heba Abolaban, a Palestinian doctor who immigrated to the United States from Syria, says she was punched in the shoulder in Malden, Mass., on Wednesday by a man who shouted “F*** you Muslims!” and “You are involved in the Boston explosions,” according to the Malden Patch.

The man, described as a white male in his 30s, allegedly shouted at Abolaban for about two minutes before continuing on his way, Patch reports.

Read more >>>>

Boston Bombing Suspects’ Identity Sparks Fear Of Backlash For American Muslims, Sikhs

Posted: 04/19/2013 6:17 pm EDT  |  Updated: 04/19/2013 9:14 pm EDT

WASHINGTON — For Arab-Americans — and people who are mistaken to be Arab — there’s an extra layer of fear that rides along with the frightening news of a possible terror attack: the very real possibility that they will be blamed.

Linda Sarsour, the national advocacy director for the National Network for Arab American Communities, knows it happens. But when the bombs exploded Monday at the Boston Marathon, it was her 13-year-old son who brought that reality home with startling and personal impact.

He did it with a simple text message about an hour after the news broke that asked: “Mom, who did it?”

For Sarsour, it showed just how deeply the fear of guilt by bogus association is embedded in the Arab-American community, even in children born and raised in the United States whose prime obsessions tend to be video games, not race relations.

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How sad that a 13-year-old American boy might now be as at-risk going to school for fear of retribution for something he had nothing to do with as Malala Yousafzai was in Pakistan. Americans wrongly assigning blame and encouraging vigilante justice are no better than the Taliban.

Background checks on potential purchasers of firearms went down in flames today.   The bill that was defeated by a 54-46 vote in the U.S. Senate was already badly hobbled when both an assault weapons ban and a ban on high capacity magazines were removed.  Polls have indicated that 90% of Americans agree with legislation that would keep military-style weapons and the accoutrements out of the hands of individuals who might use them to unleash more  Newtown, Columbine,  Tucson, Aurora, and Virginia Tech mass shootings and serial murders like the D.C. area sniper attacks.

Gun control loses: No expanded background checks

By ALAN FRAM

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON —

Senate Republicans backed by a small band of rural-state Democrats scuttled the most far-reaching gun control legislation in two decades Wednesday, rejecting tighter background checks for buyers and a ban on assault weapons as they spurned pleas from families of victims of last winter’s school massacre in Newtown, Conn.

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Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has let forth with a stinging op-ed in today’s New York Times.

Op-Ed Contributor

A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip

SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.

On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms — a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count.

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What these senators faced was not fear.  Those killed in these massacres knew fear.  Parents who send their children off to inner city schools know fear.  Those cheering at the finish line at the Boston marathon faced fear, and before you think I am confounding things,  Lawrence O’Donnell reported tonight that the defeat of this legislation effectively blocked the FBI from obtaining evidence related to “taggants” in the gunpowder in the home-made  bombs used there.

Senators Manchin and Toomey, who co-authored the legislation,  are both gun owners and NRA members with A ratings from the organization.  Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, are also gun owners and members of the NRA.  Yet these 46 senators voted against this legislation for “fear” of the gun lobby. These senators are cowards.

So, what is it going to take?  What do these senators need in order to hear 90% of the American public?  Do they have the woodman’s tin ear – and no heart?

Or would giving them a medal help?

Maybe they just need this.  Ba-Bye!

These are the reasons.

Karen Finney has shown herself to be fair and balanced, strategically sophisticated politically, and kind enough to share campaign advice with the opposition (even though they have not been wise enough to take it).    Ever since she began appearing as a commentator on MSNBC her fan base has steadily grown (as witnessed by the many hits this post receives every time she fills in for Bashir) and become increasingly insistent that she be given a show of her own.

Regularly seen on Bashir Live, where she has also filled in for Martin occasionally, as well as on Weekends with Alex Whitt,  Now with Alex Wagner, and Lawrence O’Donnell’s prime time hour among other MSNBC offerings,  Karen’s pleasant humor,  incisive intellect, and ability to put issues in an historical perspective have made her an ideal guest.

Her ability to get ahead of the pack on back stories and bring in fresh perspectives will make her a stand-out host as  seen when she filled in for Martin Bashir and exposed ALEC as the organization behind “stand your ground” laws in many states.  Thus it was most welcome news when we learned today that Ms. Karen Finney has been given a spot to call her own at MSNBC.

02 Apr 2013 1:37 PM
KAREN FINNEY NAMED MSNBC WEEKEND HOST

KAREN FINNEY NAMED MSNBC WEEKEND HOST

Finney to Host Weekends 4p-5p ET

NEW YORK –April 2, 2013 – Karen Finney has been named host of a new MSNBC program to air on weekends from 4-5 p.m. ET. More details about the program, including the launch date, will be announced in the coming weeks.

“Karen’s rich background in both education policy and politics will add a unique point of view to our expanding live weekend programming,” said Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC.

Finney has been an MSNBC political analyst and guest host on the network since 2009.

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We will all be watching, Karen! We know you will do a terrific job and are looking forward to your debut. Congratulations! It’s about time!

It took years to put together exactly the way she wanted it,  and many of her friends followed her progress through the process on Facebook and online at the website for the film.  Tonight,  all the hard work paid off for our friend and homegirl filmmaker, Jennifer Lee,  when her documentary,  Feminist: Stories from Women’s Liberation, won big at the Los Angeles Women’s Film Festival!

Friends logging on at Facebook saw this wonderful announcement.  Congratulations, Jennifer, for making history during Women’s History Month!   We are all proud of you!

 

My film won Best of the Festival for Documentary! I am delighted to have launched my film at the Los Angeles Women’s International Film Festival 2013. This is a picture of me and the festival director Diana Means http://lawomensfest.com/about.html

The way this country has evolved toward marriage equality is bass-ackwards.  There are perfectly normal, and straight, adults walking around who were raised by committed gay couples.  That is because we have for so long allowed gays as well as singles to adopt.

Often, gay couples have adopted children who are considered unadoptable – older children, siblings, children with special needs.  What our society has accomplished, thus far, is to have given those children loving homes they might otherwise not have had, but minus the full protections and advantages that children of straight married couples enjoy, most importantly happily married parents with all of the rights and privileges granted straight married pairs.

The argument that children need to grow up in a home with a mother and a father doesn’t wash.  In addition to completely normal children raised by gay couples,  there are many straight and gay single parents of both sexes who have successfully raised happy, healthy children.   Denying gays the right to marry based on an argument that marriage is meant for procreation is equally baseless.  Many straight unions cannot produce children or do not.

Given the fact that there already are families with gay parents, it seems high time parents so committed be permitted the right to marry should they want to.

Zerlina Maxwell does not think women carrying guns is sensible rape prevention.  She received quite a reaction to statements she made to this effect in a Hannity segment.  Here is her story along with a sample of the kind of tweets she has been receiving since the show aired.

There may be some women who carry and know how to use a gun for self-protection.  As long as they are trained and competent and keep the weapons away from irresponsible hands, that is fine.  Not every woman wants to go that route.  We should not have to and should not be made to feel we ought to.

Not having a handy weapon to fend off an attacker (or multiple attackers)  is not what generates rape.  Thinking that the penis you were born with was meant to be used as a weapon is.

Telling women to get a gun is not rape prevention

By zerlina | Published: March 7, 2013
http://d1o2xrel38nv1n.cloudfront.net/files/2013/03/Screen-Shot-2013-03-07-at-9.45.15-AM3.png

On Tuesday night, I appeared on Hannity in a segment framed around the idea that giving women guns is the solution to ending rape.  I was on with Independent Women’s Forum’s Gayle Trotter who recently made the point that women need guns for self defense from rape and gun violence prevention is infringing on their second Amendment rights, as well as, putting them at greater risk for domestic violence and rape.

Obviously, I disagreed.  Giving every woman a gun is not rape prevention.  If a woman chooses to go out and buy a legal gun for self-defense, that’s fine.  But that shouldn’t be confused with actual prevention, which is really about stopping rapes before they happen and focusing on the sole party responsible: the rapist.

Since Tuesday, I’ve been bombarded by conservatives on Facebook and Twitter purposefully misquoting and misunderstanding my point in order to call me dumb, bitch, idiot, and at worst threaten to gang rape common sense into me.  Charming.

Read more >>>>

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