HIATUS WINDING DOWN

• Long time, Searchers. I've been off for a while dealing with things I won't go into detail about here. Greetings to a Searcher, Jason of Illinois.
  
  Very quickly, as I'm taking care of other things at the moment, I wanted to touch base about two books I picked up from the Library the other day. One is by Deena Guzer, Divine Rebels American Christian Activists for Social Justice. The other is Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman. Both are phenomenal.
  
  In Krugman's book, granted I am only a few pages in, he writes about the similarities between what he calls The Long Gilded Age, the period between 1870 and the 1920's. There is a table he inserts that appears on page 16 of the book, I will attempt to recreate it here:
  
  
  



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  Table 1. Share of High-income Groups in Total Income, Excluding Capital Gains



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  Highest-income 10% Highest -income 1%



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  Average for 1920's 43.6% 17.3%



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  2005 44.3% 17.4%

In the table and the writing explaining the table, he discusses the inequality of income and the resemblance between the Nation in the 1870's and today, albeit a few years ago. Since 2005, it has not gotten better, it has gotten worse. As a direct result of the abysmal economic policies of the Republican party, including Ronald Reagan, and his political offspring, George W. Bush.

The Republicans are tearing down our Nation, make no mistake. Another quote from his book that appears on page 11 of Conscience of a Liberal:

Ronald Reagan, more than anyone else, showed the way. His 1964 speech "A time for Choosing," which launched his political career, and the speeches he gave during his successful 1966 campaign for governor of California foreshadowed political strategies that would work for him and other movement conservatives for the next forty years. Latter-day hagiographers have portrayed Reagan as a paragon of high-minded conservative principles, but he was nothing of the sort. His early political successes were based on appeals to cultural and sexual anxieties playing on the fear of communism, and, above all, tacit exploitation of white backlash against the civil rights movement and its consequences. (Bold mine.)

One key message of this book, which many readers may find uncomfortable, is that race is at the heart of what has happened to the country I grew up in. The legacy of slavery, America's original sin, is the reason we're the only advanced economy that doesn't guarantee health care to our citizens. (bold mine) White backlash against the civil rights movement is the reason America is the only advanced country where a major political party (the Republicans, this is inserted by me) wants to roll back the welfare state. Ronald Reagan began his 1980 campaign with a states' rights speech outside Philadelphia, Mississippi, the town where three civil rights workers were murdered; Newt Gingrich, (who by the way is running for President for the 2012 election, against President Obama, parenthetical commentary mine) was able to take over Congress entirely because of the great Southern flip, the switch of Southern whites from overwhelming support for Democrats to overwhelming support for Republicans.

Without a doubt, the Republican party is against American families, and against America herself.

Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan's dangerous plan to turn Medicare into a coupon or voucher program is but one of the many examples of the Republican nightmarish plans for our country. For those of you who don't know about his plan to destroy medicare, study up. Same for the plans by the now infamous Scott Walker, the current Governor of Wisconsin. He will be up for a recall vote one year after his term began. There are currently several Republican State Senators facing recall next month in Wisconsin.

The Republican party is not for America's families. They are attempting to haul us back to the time before the Great Depression, and they are trying to destroy the New Deal designed by FDR, as well as the middle class and the elderly, students, young families, American industry, the list goes on and on.

Listen, Searchers, get off your asses and get involved. It is time to take our country from the Right Wing of America that seeks to destroy it.

Peace-

By the way, I will write about a couple of comments I received a while back that come directly from the useless Flanagin rabble in the state of Arkansas. And, there is a circuit judge I will post about before long, also in Arkansas.


The table is kinda jacked up, I know, but figure it it. Better yet, go to your library or local bookstore and pick up a copy of Paul Krugman's book. I don't have the time to perfect the table right now, in the future I will work on it.

Till next time...
Where's my sitemeter?????? Must get that back on....

RIGHT WING CHRISTIANITY AND THEIR WAR MACHINE

Gotta love Eric Prince, the sleaze behind Blackwater. It is amazing to see how the right distorts Christianity and how the Christians on the Right love to wage war. It's a growth industry, don't ya know, and Capitalism is God's own economy...Eric Prince is as anti-christ and unamerican as any Soviet era official...Pure Capitalism, the type the Christian Right wants to usher in, is as evil as Communism in its pure form...Check out Jeremy Scahill's excellent book "BLACKWATER." You won't regret it.

Thank you NYT again...

Blackwater won contracts with web of companies
Network let it obscure involvement from contracting officials and public

By James Risen and Mark Mazzetti

updated 9/4/2010 12:07:58 AM ET

WASHINGTON — Blackwater Worldwide created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, according to Congressional investigators and former Blackwater officials.

While it is not clear how many of those businesses won contracts, at least three had deals with the United States military or the Central Intelligence Agency, according to former government and company officials. Since 2001, the intelligence agency has awarded up to $600 million in classified contracts to Blackwater and its affiliates, according to a United States government official.

The Senate Armed Services Committee this week released a chart that identified 31 affiliates of Blackwater, now known as Xe Services. The network was disclosed as part of a committee’s investigation into government contracting. The investigation revealed the lengths to which Blackwater went to continue winning contracts after Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in September 2007. That episode and other reports of abuses led to criminal and Congressional investigations, and cost the company its lucrative security contract with the State Department in Iraq.

The network of companies — which includes several businesses located in offshore tax havens — allowed Blackwater to obscure its involvement in government work from contracting officials or the public, and to assure a low profile for any of its classified activities, said former Blackwater officials, who, like the government officials, spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that it was worth “looking into why Blackwater would need to create the dozens of other names” and said he had requested that the Justice Department investigate whether Blackwater officers misled the government when using subsidiaries to solicit contracts.

The C.I.A.’s continuing relationship with the company, which recently was awarded a $100 million contract to provide security at agency bases in Afghanistan, has drawn harsh criticism from some members of Congress, who argue that the company’s tarnished record should preclude it from such work. At least two of the Blackwater-affiliated companies, XPG and Greystone, obtained secret contracts from the agency, according to interviews with a half dozen former Blackwater officials.

A C.I.A. spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, said that Xe’s current duties for the agency were to provide security for agency operatives. Contractors “do the tasks we ask them to do in strict accord with the law; they are supervised by C.I.A. staff officers; and they are held to the highest standards of conduct” he said. “As for Xe specifically, they help provide security in tough environments, an assignment at which their people have shown both skill and courage.”


Congress began to investigate the affiliated companies last year, after the shooting deaths of two Afghans by Blackwater security personnel working for a subsidiary named Paravant, which had obtained Pentagon contracts in Afghanistan. In a Senate hearing earlier this year, Army officials said that when they awarded the contract to Paravant for training of the Afghan Army, they had no idea that the business was part of Blackwater.
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While Congressional investigators have identified other Blackwater-linked businesses, it was not the focus of their inquiry to determine how much money from government contracts flowed through the web of corporations, especially money earmarked for clandestine programs. The former company officials say that Greystone did extensive work for the intelligence community, though they did not describe the nature of the activities. The firm was incorporated in Barbados for tax purposes, but had executives who worked at Blackwater’s headquarters in North Carolina.
The former company officials say that Erik Prince, the business’s founder, was eager to find ways to continue to handle secret work after the 2007 shootings in Baghdad’s Nisour Square and set up a special office to handle classified work at his farm in Middleburg, Va.
Enrique Prado, a former top C.I.A. official who joined the contractor, worked closely with Mr. Prince to develop Blackwater’s clandestine abilities, according to several former officials. In an internal e-mail obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Prado claimed that he had created a Blackwater spy network that could be hired by the American government.

“We have a rapidly growing, worldwide network of folks that can do everything from surveillance to ground truth to disruption operations,” Mr. Prado wrote in the October 2007 message, in which he asked another Blackwater official whether the Drug Enforcement Administration might be interested in using the spy network. “These are all foreign nationals,” he added, “so deniability is built in and should be a big plus.”

It is not clear whether Mr. Prado’s secret spy service ever conducted any operations for the government. From 2004 to 2006, both Mr. Prado and Mr. Prince were involved in a C.I.A. program to hunt senior leaders of Al Qaeda that had been outsourced to Blackwater, though current and former American officials said that the assassination program did not carry out any operations. Company employees also loaded bombs and missiles onto Predator drones in Pakistan, work that was terminated last year by the C.I.A.

Both Mr. Prince and Mr. Prado declined to be interviewed for this article.

The company is facing a string of legal problems, including the indictment in April of five former Blackwater officials on weapons and obstruction charges, and civil suits stemming from the 2007 shootings in Iraq.

The business is up for sale by Mr. Prince, who colleagues say is embittered by the public criticism and scrutiny that Blackwater has faced. He has not been implicated in the criminal charges against his former subordinates, but he has recently moved his family to Abu Dhabi, where he hopes to focus on obtaining contracts from governments in Africa and the Middle East, according to colleagues and former company officials.

After awarding Blackwater the new security contract in June, the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, publicly defended the decision, saying Blackwater had “cleaned up its act.”

But Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat and a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she could not understand why the intelligence community had been unwilling to cut ties to Blackwater. “I am continually and increasingly mystified by this relationship,” she said. “To engage with a company that is such a chronic, repeat offender, it’s reckless.”

It is unclear how much of Blackwater’s relationship with the C.I.A. will become public during the criminal proceedings in North Carolina because the Obama administration won a court order limiting the use of classified information. Among other things, company executives are accused of obtaining large numbers of AK-47s and M-4 automatic weapons, but arranging to make it appear as if they had been bought by the sheriff’s department in Camden County, N.C. Such purchases were legal only if made by law enforcement agencies.

But defense lawyers say they hope to argue that Blackwater had a classified contract with the C.I.A. and wanted at least some of the guns for weapons training for agency officers.

REPUBS AND CONSERVATIVES CANNOT HIDE THEIR RACISM

This is a repost from the AP...just a thought, the Right wing, the right wing christians (small "c") and the republican in general expose themselves on a regular basis for their racism and hate of those without a Euro-Cauc heritage...Drunk Lindsay Graham and his bible thumping ridiculous beliefs are behind the yapping from the right regarding the repealing of the 14th Amendment...Citizenship Clause, Equal Protection Clause, and Due Process Clause would all be done away with...makes you wonder just how out of control the right is...answer? Very.

Keep on keeping on exposing these fuckers for exactly what they are...bear in mind haters, I used to vote right wing, then i woke the hell up and saw it for what it is..."Conservatism is a euphemism for social cowardice." Nothing else.


WASHINGTON — Leading Republicans are joining a push to reconsider the constitutional amendment that grants automatic citizenship to people born in the United States.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he supports holding hearings on the Constitutional right, although he emphasized that Washington's immigration focus should remain on border security.

His comments came as other Republicans in recent days have questioned or challenged birthright citizenship, embracing a cause that had largely been confined to the far right.

The senators include Arizona's John McCain, the party's 2008 presidential nominee; Arizona's Jon Kyl, the Republicans' second-ranking senator; Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, and Lindsey Graham, a leading negotiator on immigration legislation.

"I'm not sure exactly what the drafters of the (14th) amendment had in mind, but I doubt it was that somebody could fly in from Brazil and have a child and fly back home with that child, and that child is forever an American citizen," Sessions said.

Legal experts say repealing the citizenship right can be done only through constitutional amendment, which would require approval by two-thirds majorities in both chambers of Congress and by three-fourths of the states. Legislation to amend the right, introduced previously in the House of Representatives, has stalled.

The proposals are sure to appeal to conservative voters as immigration so far is playing a central role in November's elections. They also could carry risks by alienating Hispanic voters and alarming moderates who could view constitutional challenges as extreme. Hispanics have become the largest minority group in the United States, and many are highly driven by the illegal immigrant debate.

McConnell and McCain seemed to recognize the risk by offering guarded statements Tuesday.

McCain, who faces a conservative challenge in his re-election bid, said he supports reviewing citizenship rights. He emphasized, however, that amending the Constitution is a serious matter.

"I believe that the Constitution is a strong, complete and carefully crafted document that has successfully governed our nation for centuries and any proposal to amend the Constitution should receive extensive and thoughtful consideration," he said.

At a news conference, McConnell refused to endorse Graham's suggestion that citizenship rights be repealed for children of illegal immigrants. While refusing to take questions, he suggested instead that he would look narrowly into reports of businesses that help immigrants arrange to have babies in the United States in order to win their children U.S. citizenship.

The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War, granted citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States," including recently freed slaves.

Defenders of the amendment say altering it would weaken a fundamental American value while doing little to deter illegal immigration. They also say it would create bureaucratic hardships for parents giving birth.

Quoting a newspaper columnist, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Republicans were "either taking leave of their senses or their principles" in advocating repeal.

An estimated 10.8 million illegal immigrants were living in the U.S. as of January 2009, according to the Homeland Security Department. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that as of 2008, there were 3.8 million illegal immigrants in this country whose children are U.S. citizens.

Thanks AP...giving credit where it is due...and can someone tell me why the people of Alabama keep voting in that squirrely bastard Jeff Sessions? Please Alabama give yourself an anal/cranal-ectomy, and quit fucking up the country for the rest of us...Peace!

FORGIVENESS

So I"ve been thinking...and this is what I have come up with:

Samuel Chris Flanagin, Dora Flanagin Hughes, Good Ole Patty Pat Pat Flanigan and Hank:

Chris: I forgive you for breaking into my home and attempting to murder my wife and me. You are an absolute utter douchebag, raised by an atrocious father. It's what you do. You are a hater and that's a hater's job-to hate. However Samuel, (I'm going to fax this to your offices, the paper and your buddy Tony Rogers,) if you're (catch the correct spelling and use of the word you're bud,) buddy Tony is going to run again for his seat, I am going to mail your mugshot all over your county with a short explanation of Tony Roger's character and his hiring of a utter criminal.

One more thought Samuel: Mrs. Searcher is not brain washed, she simply wants nothing to do with you, period. Shove your ego up your ass, Chris, you ain't no prize...but I forgive you for attempting to murder my wife and me.

Dora, you are dumb. Period. An example, the comment posted below is from an earlier posting and it is vintage Dora Hughes, a shining example of the school system in the state of arkansas, complete with misspellings, lies, with a heaping helping of insanity...this is my in laws? I mean, my God, EVERY computer has a spellcheck!!! Lord...

This worthlss, uneduated,PSYCHO came to our class reunion and was kicked out! Poor nice, pretty, once normal Kelli. we all know he brainwashed her as she was too cool to be with a 40 year old crazy whimp! She supports his lazy ass and we heard he has 5 or 6 kids he does not even support. Pretty Bad to get kicked out a mocked at a class runion. Notice how he downgrades successful people and identifies with otyher lunatic terrorist! We heard he was a bundy with a touch of Charlie- but they were even more educated than this wimp looser!

Okay. Mrs. Searcher has never been to a high school reunion, she was getting a Bachelor of Science in Psychology...btw, she's almost done with her SECOND B.S., in Biology...do you have a GED, Dora?? Well? 'Nough said...I forgive you Dora, you simply can't help yourself...here is an example of Mrs. Searchers comment on a recent posting:

"This is one of my favorite posts. It is the only place I have heard or read about these truths. You bring lucidity to other searchers."


This is an example of how someone who is not an uneducated dolt writes...but I forgive you Dora, you simply cannot help yourself, but you need serious medical care...and I believe you should check yourself into an inpatient clinic...you're sick, and I forgive you...

Patty Pat-You have no class. I forgive you, your hate and anger have eaten you up inside, and is shearing years from your life. I refuse to be like you, your sister, or your sons...I forgive you...

Hank you were raised by your father, and like chris...you just can't help yourself. I forgive you for saying you hope my son, your nephew, gets hit by a bus...you are a douchebag, but I forgive you...don't ever contact my family again, and you will have no problems, hank. I am bigger than you Hank, but I will not use that fact to harm you...I forgive you Hank.

Peace-
Mike

WELL "IT WAS TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY..."

This is a Mini-Documentary done by a Berliner...It is excellent.



Peace-
Mike

PROFOUND DVD EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH: "THE ANGRY EYE" WITH JANE ELLIOTT

A week or so ago in my Communications class I had the pleasure of watching the short video, "The Angry Eye" with Jane Elliott.

Jane Elliot gained notoriety after Dr. King was shot in Memphis in 1968.

She began a blue eye/brown eye exercise that segregated her all white third grade class (according to Wikipedia she did not see a Black person until she was nineteen,) in tiny Riceville, Iowa into two groups: The Blue Eyes, the Superior Group, and The Brown Eyes, the Inferior Group. She had the "brownies" wear neck collars to further set them apart.

The response was stunning. The blue eyed kids were told the brownies were inferior because of their eye color, and as a result of their eye pigmentation they were unable to learn at the same level, they were unable to hold jobs, and the blue eyes should lower expectations for the brownies and then castigate them for not doing better, etc...

It didn't take long and the blue eyed kids were bossy, arrogant, and mean to the brown eyed kids, and the blue eyes actually began to do better academically, while the brownies suffered, and even brown-eyed kids that were excelling in class saw their grades and their confidence slip.

I watched a version of the exercise that was filmed on a college campus in the United States that involved young college students, and it blew my mind. The reaction from the white students was predictable yet unreal nonetheless...I believe this should be a required video in every school in the United States, it is that good, and it is that necessary.

The video that I posted is not from the vid I saw in class, however, it is just as poignant as the one I saw...we will be investing in these videos as time goes by, take the time to watch the video.


Some links:
Wiki
Jane Elliott website
IMDB -The Internet Movie Database

Peace-
Mike

ISLAM IN AMERICA: WHEN AMERICAN STUPIDITY SHINES BRIGHTLY

I am working on securing a series of interviews from a local Imam. In light of the shooting in Texas at Fort Hood, I thought it would be in my best interest, my family's best interest, and the best interest of those I will interact with in the future to have a better understanding of Islam.

I read a write up about Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter, on MSNBC, and it's rather disturbing.

It is not disturbing in the sense that most Americans, especially white Americans would think, you know the type Searchers: "That guys a Muslim...I betcha he's gots him some bombs and guns and I bet he's a-fixin to blow up (insert local shitbox .50 cent-draft-night-on-tuesdays bar here.) No, read the excerpt, the disturbing part is the local shit kickers giving a man shit who is trying to mind his own business and serve his Country at the same time.

"'Everyone else just sat down there and drunk their beer, and looked
at him, and giggled at him,' the woman said starting to cry. 'They
just would laugh at him when he walked down with his Muslim clothes...he was
mistreated. He was all alone. He went to his apartment there and was
all alone.'"

I know the type. I used to go to church with the worthless idiots, and Mrs. Searchers entire range of kinfolk in Arkansas are precisely this way. Redneck, and total pussies when it comes to individual confrontation. Like Mrs. Searchers brothers, Hank and Samuel Chris Flanagin, and the racist coward Pat Flanagin.

In addition to verbal harassment, Major Hasan also had to deal with rednecks vandalizing his vehicle.

What cracks me up about the worthless red necks is Major Hasan is educated; he is an Army Psychiatrist. That means he is a Doctor. MD. And the rednecks outside their crappy little apartment units probably have less than a GED, probably have less than a mouthful of teeth, and probably have the equivalent of a 9th grade education.

The only People I am prejudiced against and the only People I believe should be sent to re-education camps are Rednecks. No mercy, either change or be eradicated.

So, I am trying to secure at least one interview with the folks that run the local mosque. I'll keep ya posted. Peace,

Mike

Read the full article here

Thanks Washington Post and MSNBC

image credit

EXCELLENT COMMERCIAL FROM MEDIA MATTERS REGARDING THE FOX NEWS PROPAGANDA MACHINE

Most of you know I watched Fox News for years before I became enlightened. I was watching the Ed Show and he aired a clip from the vid below. It's five minutes or so, and well worth the time. It is a very concise rundown of propaganda promoted on Fox since we elected President Obama:

Peace-

RELIGIOUS RIGHT MOST LIKE TALIBAN IN THE UNITED STATES: CHRIS MATTHEWS OF MSNBC

I caught the video below on MSNBC, it's about 14 minutes long, but I found a 50 second clip on Huffington Post of the end of the segment with Ron Reagan and Frank Gaffney, they were discussing, of sorts, the situation in Afghanistan.

The focus of most has been on the insult Gaffney, a neocon, threw at Ron Reagan, the son of President Reagan and a radio host on Air America, you'll hear it at the end, Gaffney tells Reagan, "Your father would be ashamed of you."

Totally below the belt, and you have to expect that from a neocon, but the thing that really perked up my ears was Chris Matthews' comment at the end, I'll paraphrase it-the religious right are the closest thing we have to the Taliban in the United States, and I couldn't agree more. In parts of the U.S., the "religious right" doesn't necessarily mean those with Republican leanings. I know plenty of Democrats that are racist hatemongers.

Here's the brief write up from HuffPo:
Peace-

Right-wing neoconservative Frank Gaffney went on "Hardball" Thursday night to defend Dick Cheney but ended up just insulting his fellow guest.
After a long exchange with Air America host Ron Reagan on the war in Afghanistan, Gaffney gave up on arguing and went for a personal attack. "Your father would be ashamed of you," he told Reagan, whose father was the late president.


"Oh, Frank," Reagan replied, "you better watch your mouth about that, Frank.



And here's a brief write-up about Frank Gaffney from Steve Benen from the Washington Monthly:

Now, Gaffney probably knows he crossed a line of decency; in fact that probably why he said what he said. Gaffney's a right-wing nutjob whose job it is to say ridiculous things.


And that's really what matters here. Gaffney's insane rhetoric isn't the problem; the fact that he was invited onto national television (again) to share his insane rhetoric is the problem.

Gaffney probably isn't a household name, but inside the media establishment, he's a pretty well known figure, as evidenced by his joint appearance with Dick Cheney on Wednesday night. And when offered a major media platform, Gaffney takes full advantage.


In April, for example, Gaffney appeared on MSNBC to argue that whenever President Obama uses the word "respect" in foreign policy, the word is "code for those who adhere to Sharia that we will submit to Sharia." He wasn't kidding.

In June, Gaffney wrote a column insisting that President Obama might really be a Muslim. In March, Gaffney argued that "evidence" exists connecting Saddam Hussein to 9/11, the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, and the Oklahoma City bombing. Last September, Gaffney argued that Sarah Palin has learned foreign policy through "osmosis," by living in Alaska. (Bold is mine)

He's argued that U.S. forces really did find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but the media covered it up. He's used made-up quotes and recommended "hanging" Democratic officials critical of the Bush administration's Iraq policy. He even believes there's "evidence" to support the "Birthers," and once recommended a military strike on Al Jazeera headquarters.

So why is it, exactly, that MSNBC's "Hardball" invited Gaffney on to talk about foreign policy? What is it the viewing public can learn from listening to his unhinged perspective?
To be sure, Gaffney is certainly entitled to believe obvious lunacy, but that doesn't mean he deserves a microphone or the opportunity to convince a national television audience that his lunacy is legitimate.

Honestly, is there nothing conservatives can say that would force them from polite company? Just how nutty must far-right activists be before they're no longer invited to share their ridiculous ideas?

The right wing is getting more and more in the outfield, if any "wing" should be closely observed it is the right. And do not forget: Right Wing does not necessarily mean Republican. I cannot stress that enough.
Peace-

THE DEMON POSSESED BALWIN BROTHER (STEPHEN) APPEARED IN D.C.

The right wing oughta loves this- 'God Bless The Great White Right'-and all of the (my dad should love this)imps, John Boehner, Eric Cantor (when is he going to come out of the closet????) Carrie Prejean at the "values voter summit" as though no one has values unless they're banging their choir director...or has fake boobs, or can bring a gun to a Presidential Meeting...you should be proud right wing: now we all know how you operate, and we should make sure we watch you closely...

Peace-

FINALLY THE CHRISTIANS IN THE UNITED STATES ARE CALLED OUT

It is about time. Check out Rachel Maddows show today.

Oh and by the way, American Christianity is utterly against Jesus' teaching. Not a big surprise. Fuck off American Right wing Christianity, it is no surprise that hate is espoused by your teachings, and by Pat Flanagins' "bible fund." Also, thanks Flanagins for giving me fodder, and trying to kill me.

Peace-and everybody cares...

fuck off pat flanagin and joe wilson...

come on with your punk ass, Pat, and Chris and hank yank yank and tasha, bring it.

BEING ATTACKED FOR BELIEFS-

I'm down with that; it has happened before....And since my AIDS posting, I have received more hate mail than at any other time. It is not surprising that when I research where the hate is coming from I find it originates in Searcy, AR, Little Rock, AR, and Northeast and Northwest/NorthCentral Arkansas

After all, the KKK website originates from the Arkansas Section of the Bible Belt. Big Surprise.


Disclaimer: My inlaws espouse hate. I do not. They encourage hate speech such as when Samuel Christian Flanagin called me a Nigger, and violently attacked me and my wife in our home. His father, Patrick Henry Flanagin former State Representative, embraces his sons behavior. Ironically, their home state of Arkansas hosts the Ku Klux Klan in Harrison AR, according to the Klans' website: KU KLUX KLAN.

Welcome to the Bible Belt and Pat Flanagins' home state.

Get out while you can; come back when the good ole boys are shut down for ever.

Peace

RACHEL MADDOW SHOW: 77% OF AMERICANS SUPPORT A PUBLIC OPTION HEALTH-CARE OPTION

Chillin watching Rachel, she is on the game, and exposing the foolishness of the Consevadems as well as the right wing politicians and gun toting Conservative citizens and elected officials.

She played a clip from the Sarah Palin twin Michelle Bachmann, member of the Great White Right and pseudo-christian extraordinaire, and rabid anti-abortionist, and she declared she did not want the government telling her what to do with her body... but she's very content to tell other women what to do with their bodies, largely because she is "enlightened by God."

What a doofus, a prime example of Right wing Christianity, much like some people we know, the Flanagins, Dora F. Flanagin, and Chris Flanagin, Hank Flanagin, and the ever-compromised career politician-Pat Flanagin, Arkansas State Representative.

It is time for systemic change in America, health care for all...and remember these faces: compromised politicians and violent criminals: Pat Flanagin and Chris Flanagin...soon to be posted, Hank Flanagin, the brother in law that wants his 6 year old nephew killed by a bus, and Dora Flanagin Hughes, employee of the Arkansas Employment Security Office, (and she uses her computer to hack into Mrs. Searchers personal employment records, and mine as well.) It is time to expose hate for what it is: Hate, that is fueled by contempt by these well-off elitists that hate the poor and people with skin color other than Caucasian...this is reality and these people are haters.

WOULD JESUS LET CHILDREN STARVE? AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY THINKS SO

Cynthia Davis,(R) State Rep from Missouri's 19th district. (what is with these bums? Kinda like Arkansas worthless Percy Malone or Pat the adulterer Flanagin) made an over the top comment about children receiving subsidized food programs because she thinks "hunger is a motivating factor." Watch the clip from The Colbert Report. This Cynthia Davis actually owns a Christian Book store, which brings me to this: Fuck off American Christianity, you are so far from Jesus' teachings, you may never be able to get back.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Tip/Wag - Cynthia Davis & Fox News
http://www.colbertnation.com/
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Jeff Goldblum

ON HATE AND GENERATIONAL RACISM

*Click on The pics for a near life size version of Chris Flanagin*

I've been trying to post this one for several days, since the psycho shot up the Holocaust Museum in D.C. The original post had started out discussing the man that was killed at the museum Stephen T. Johns.

The act by the white hater James von Brunn (not pictured, the story about the ridiculous person in the mug shot follows) that took the life of Stephen Tyron Johns at the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. disturbs me on several levels. And it touches me on a personal level.



I lived in Arkansas for years as you know by now. While in Arkansas I witnessed cross burnings; I walked by a half dozen police cars, a fire truck and a smoldering cross on the front lawn of one of the two black families in Pocahontas on my way to work one morning at Ramon’s Grocery Store. Coming from Chicago, I was horrified at the behavior and stupidity and the overall dumbfuckery I witnessed while living in the “Gem” (you silly Roy Ockert!) that is Arkansas.


I was in a brief relationship with someone once upon a time; her dad liked to go by the nickname “Skip.” I guess he didn’t like “Jerry”. He was extraordinarily racist, he never referred to African Americans as Blacks or African Americans, it was always “niggers.” He was a retired manager from a factory in Flint MI. I remember him saying, as my sons played on his kitchen floor “Oh sure, when I was at the plant you could get a nigger by himself and he’s alright to talk to, but you get a bunch of ‘em together, and it’s “mothafucka this and mothafucka that… they’re all a bunch of goddamn monkeys.”

He loved to tell a joke that went something like this: “So, Abraham Lincoln woke up Monday morning after being on a weekend drunk and said, ‘I did what?!?’” The punch line being if Lincoln hadn’t been wasted all weekend he would have never freed the slaves.


Not so funny. He was one of those that liked to fight also, and we almost came to blows on at least one occasion when I dared to speak against “Rednecks” because as he informed me one blisteringly hot Arkansas summer afternoon, “when you talk about rednecks you’re talking about me.” It is little wonder why I rejected him as well as his rhetoric.


Let me move on to another racist, this one not afraid to use violence. Unlike Skip, (who liked to intimidate his sons in law, but tried not to get into too many scrapes with them,) this one has proven more than once his propensity for violence.

He is around 30; his date of birth is on his mug shot at the top of the post. (I'll try to configure it bigger) This is why I believe this is not going away; the old racists’ virus of hate has infected another generation, and so on. I believe we will see more violence from the right, and when I refer to the right, I do not necessarily refer to someone that would vote for Sarah Palin, or even the type that runs around skinhead-like shouting pro-white power slogans.

The family of this particular violent racist is one that traditionally votes Democrat, in fact, his deadbeat father served 11 terms in the Arkansas legislature as a Democrat. A Conservadem, little more than a center-left republican.

Pictured below is Samuel C. Flanagin, of Eureka Springs, AR. (formerly Forrest City, AR) He broke into my home with an accomplice, Michael Clark of Forrest City and violently attacked my sleeping wife and me on August 26, 2000:

It was a bloody scene, blood was splattered on the wall behind my bed, it had sprayed on the carpeting, it ran down my chest, my stomach, and my legs.

I remember Flanagin screaming "You Motherfucker! You Motherfucker! You motherfucker!" as he hit me in the face and head and body (I had deep bruising that lasted for weeks) with an oak stick as thick and long as a man's forearm. Then he was on top of me, stomping on my head, screaming insanely. Blood was flying. His sandal left a black scrape mark on the wall three feet up behind my bed.

My brand-new wedding ring lovingly inscribed with Philippians 2:2, "...we be of one mind and purpose," was smashed flat on my finger; it took a pair of plyers to get it off. Clark stood behind Chris, laughing.

Mrs. was screaming at the top of her lungs at them, she was covering herself with the sheet sitting up; neither of us had clothes on. It was a hot late summer Arkansas night; we were newlyweds.

I'm going to stop the narrative there, but I'll add quickly: I called the police from the apartment manager's office, and took pictures, I was out of my mind with what had just transpired, but I managed to call Chris' sorry ass (I'm a whole lot tougher than him) and I remember screaming at him to bring his ass back and stand up like a man and not be a coward. He had a chance earlier in the year, in February, in front of his momma's house, but he truly is a coward.

I remember him screaming and cackling insanely, and screeching, "I really dented your mother fucking head! I really dented your motherfucking head!"
I also remember thinking "This is the voice of someone truly psychotic."

I called the police, and they picked us up, and we rode with them to Mrs'. mother's house where they were hiding with the lights turned off. They had hidden Clark's truck out back. Paul Turney of the Jonesboro P.D. as well as his Lieutenant arrested Chris and Clark, and they were charged with several felonies between them. I'll write about it more later, there's plenty.

Since that time, he has stolen property from Mrs. Searcher, threatened to have me arrested if we came to Arkansas to attend Mrs. Searchers mother’s funeral, and this unrepentant, violent criminal that goes to church and claims to be a Christian has referred to me in an email to his sister as a “nigger.” This is common for Chris. He is a classless racist, a violent, intellectually retarded narcissist, and an utter waste of carbon, water, and trace elements. The following is the excerpt from the actual email:

Everyone's always picking on poor nigger Mike, boo hoo. Your detachment from reality is amusing but sad.












Words don’t mean much, especially from an individual such as Flanagin. He does not display a tenable grasp on the English language. (BTW, he works for Thurman and Bishop; a law firm in Eureka Springs, AR, the link is included.)

But the history of violence and the ease in which it appears to come to him, his desire to lash out at people that disagree with him, those that he fears, and those that he recognizes are his intellectual and moral superiors, is very troubling. Resorting to bloody violence (Chris was facing almost 20 years in prison for his actions) his use of racial epithets, against those who oppose his idiocy is a massive red flag-to thinking people.

He has also justified his actions in the past using the fact that I have children from a previous marriage as cause. See? Truly psychotic.

Mrs. Searcher has related to me that on numerous occasions as she grew up in the town of Forrest City, she was forced to flee from her home, (on more than one occasion jumping out of her second floor bedroom window) and run for safety to the neighbors because Chris was on a rampage, looking for blood, trying to rip her bedroom door off, again.

I believe classmates of Chris Flanagin could say the same. Any of them out there? From UALR School of Law? Uof A Fayetteville? Forrest City High School?

His deadbeat father Patrick H. Flanagin was close buddies with Coolidge Conley, the Sheriff of St. Francis County, AR, that approved of the assault and maiming of an individual; Conley displayed his testicles in a jar on his desk. (Make no mistake the accused criminal was a complete shit, but his assault and maiming happened to him while he was accused, not tried and convicted. And if the person was convicted of the crime, the county Sheriff cutting his balls off is still fucking illegal.)

Getting back to Chris, his actions are of course, his perverted way of trying to “equalize” the difference between people like him and people like Mrs. Searcher and me. Oh-as I mentioned before he also has in his possession a chair and ottoman that he swindled from his sister, it was lovingly recovered in leather for her by her Mother shortly before she passed away, and he fucking stole it from her…See? A true shithead. Where does it stop?

His older brother, Pat “Hank” Flanagin, Jr., attacked his step brother violently while he was in the shower. Hank actually went so far as to write in an email to Mrs. Searcher “I hope [your son, name withheld] gets hit by the bus.”

Former Arkansas State Representative Pat Flanagin has also threatened me with violence on several occasions, in person, on the phone, and in emails.

He offered me a car and "several thousand dollars" if I would drop the charges against Chris. Of course, I made it clear he could cram his money and the car up his ass. And bless his heart, I would twist his old, watermelon sized liver, droopy ass laden self into a pretzel like The Zohan

*Update* I've had to remove part of the post due to font issues. I'm not sure if it's Blogger or what, there is a scheduled outage tonight, so maybe that has something to do wth it. I'll finish the post tomorrow after it is back up.

I also have documents on the way that will help with equality issues with the Office of Child Support Enforcement...Peace

Chris Flanagin Chris Flanagin Chris Flanagin S. Christian Flanagin

Arkansas Community Foundation Arkansas Community Foundation Thurman Bishop arkansas eureka springs arkansas chris flanagin matt bishop greg thurman tasha flanagin hank flanagin

thruman and bishop

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS

Note: This is a long post, please take time to read it. In it I bring up the tragic case of Nataline Sarkisyan, the girl killed by insurance giant CIGNA, and I remind the recipients of the ridiculous Billy Tauzin (R, Louisiana), the fraud that went to work for PhRMA after he left congress. I am in the process of emailing it to my respective electeds in Washington as well as Arkansas. I am also snail mailing it. We have to make changes in our system, people are dying as a result of policies that our Lobby-Owned Congress refuse to change. Peace-

My Dear Elected Officials- Monday, June 8,

I am writing to request a full explanation regarding the "single payer" option being taken off the table in reference to health care reform.

As you are well aware, scare tactics abound when this subject is broached, as in the early 1990's when insurance lobbies spent upwards of 100 million dollars to kill health care reform when President Clinton first entered office.

I am confident you aware of at least one of the tactics used by Republicans, neocons, skinheads, and some Conservadems, the usual worn-out statement meant to scare people that goes something like this: your sick mother or grandmother will not be able to get treatment because of a government bureaucrat as a result of "socialized medicine." I have noticed some on the right beginning to use catch words such as “rationing of care” “long lines” “you may have to wait six months to see a dentist.” And other nonsense. There have been times I wished I could wait six months to see a dentist because as our current system is designed now, NEVER was how long I would have to wait to receive dental or medical treatment.

Let me remind you of W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, Republican, of Louisiana proclaiming over and over again how he "loves his Mama, I love that woman" while on a "family values" crusade and then went to work for PhRMA at a reported salary of 2.5 million dollars a year after he left office. So much for all of the love for Mamas everywhere.

I am confident you are aware of the current for-profit health industry, in which insurance companies such as Aetna, Blue-Cross, and Kaiser Permanente, companies that make billions of dollars profiting from people's misery, have the ability to deny claims.

Perhaps you recall the infamous case of Nataline Sarkisyan, the 17 year old girl that died at the UCLA Medical Center on December 20, 2007 as a result of CIGNA denying her a liver transplant. Unfortunately, Nataline was one of approximately 20,000 American that are killed yearly, one could argue murdered, by the insurance companies they pay premiums to. Premiums that are paid by Americans for the express purpose of the insurance company paying up in the event of a claim being filed.

If you have seen the movie "Sicko," you will recall a scene in which a doctor is testifying before committee on Capitol Hill, and she recounts a particular case in which she had to deny a claim by a man that was dying because of the denial quotas she was expected to adhere to. She testified that had the man received the necessary care he paid for he would not have died. I do not understand why this woman was not immediately detained and charged with this man's death.

Please include an explanation of the lack of detention of this woman in your response. Be advised any references to any sort of immunity deal should be included, but as a taxpayer, I am uninterested in this. Had this scenario played out during a robbery anywhere else, the individual responsible would be imprisoned. In this case the CEO's of these companies are directly responsible, and they have blood of Americans on their hands. When health insurance companies take money for premiums from individuals and do not deliver, that is robbery. Furthermore, if that robbery results in an individual’s death, one could argue a murder occurred.

The current state of our health care system is in shambles. As you are well aware, the United States spends more money on health care than any other Western Nation, and we have less to show than most for our efforts.

I would like to include more statistics for you, but I am confident you already know the numbers.

Here is what I require from you, my dear elected officials: A full explanation of why my elected officials are bowing to the insurance companies by denying a single payer system for the American People. As members of my Congress, you are individuals that enjoy the benefits of health care funded by the American Peoples’ tax dollars. Armed with the knowledge that the paycheck you cash as a result of your elected position is drawn on my Treasury, I will need an explanation for the lack of Congressional regard for the American People, especially our children.

I will also require a detailed explanation as to why my government cannot negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for medication prices as is the practice in other countries. An explanation of the law as it is currently written is unnecessary. I am well aware of the legislation, what I require is detailed explanation of what you are doing to repeal this reckless legislation.

What must not be included in your detailed explanation is any defense of the current for-profit insurance nightmare that has been developed in the United States, which has been as successful as Milton Friedman's economic policies adopted by Ronald Reagan in 1981. We have learned that "trickle down" economics does not work, nor does our health care system. There is no reason to cling to either of these failed policies.

Let me reiterate: under no circumstances are you to defend the current system, it does not need to be defended, it needs to be dismantled completely and redone.

Even Margaret Thatcher, the Ronald Reagan counterpart that turned thousands of police officers and military against her own countrymen and women to break the labor unions, much like Reagan with the Air Traffic Controllers, said of the National Health Service "It is safe with us." Even Thatcher knew the U.K. National Health Service worked, and as one prominent Labour leader stated, "If they touched it there would have been revolution."

Perhaps that is what we need in the United States. Perhaps not, perhaps all we as constituents need to do is vote out politicians that live off the government dole, while they slash education, health, food programs, school lunch programs, while at the same time ensuring their own children and families are well cared for.

As a young man of 40, I have many years left, and while I am sinking myself into thousands of dollars of debt, (my wife as well) because of our abysmally planned higher education system, eventually I will be out of school armed with an education in Public Policy and Poli Sci from Washington State University, Vancouver. My wife will eventually be finished with her second Bachelor of Science, this one in Biology, from WSU Vancouver as well, her first a B.S. in Psychology from Portland State, and she will eventually be in and out of Medical School, with a mere $200,000 dollars in debt, and together we will work to ensure the current system in the United States is turned on it head.

An interesting side note, at this point in time, due to the failed policies of the past 30 years, we are considered poor enough to qualify for the State of Washington health care system. Thank you Washington. My primary care physician is a remarkable woman from India, where, when she trained there 15 years ago, related to me just today in conversation that India has programs that put women into Medical Schools for free. She also related to me the appalling amount of waste in the United States in relation to health care. You see, the Indians are interested in investing in their people; they approach government as government and not as a corporation that only thinks about the P&L Sheet. It is time to once again wake up and realize the U.S. government is not a business; it is a government, one that must invest in its people, not its lobbyists, and the CEO's of massive financial firms on Wall Street.

Ms. Patty Murray, Ms. Maria Cantwell, and Mr. Brian Baird, my wife, son and I are constituents in Washington State.
Mr. Mark Pryor and Ms. Blanche Lincoln, I have two children of voting age in your state, and two more that will soon be of voting age.
I am including some of our Republican elected officials in my request, so be assured I hold all Members of my Congress fully responsible for the paralysis on this and many other extraordinarily important issues.

Mid-terms are just around the corner, and 2012 will be here soon. As a former Conservative that voted Republican for 22 years, (for Heaven's sake I voted for Mike Huckabee of Arkansas; sorry about that, my wife proudly proclaims she did not) I have fully embraced the Democratic Party's principle of people over profit. Please do not disappoint me.

Thank you for your time, I realize you are in session, and I will be patient. However, please understand paralysis in D.C. is trying most Americans' patience. I will be following up with each of you, and I will post this letter and your responses on my blog, www.mikesearches.blogspot.com.

Sincerely,

It is time for systemic change in the United States.

TERROR IN THE HEARTLAND,MURDER IN CHURCH, THIS IS NO TIME TO CUT MENTAL HEALTH FUNDING

I have spent a lot of time in church. I grew up in the Catholic Church, I was confirmed, (John, in case you're wondering,) and after I left the Catholic Church at 15, I started attending again at age 20, but I got into Evangelical religion, specifically the charismatic/pentecostal movement... I became quite passionate about religion, and I began to minister in churches in Northeast Arkansas. I used to attend a church in a little town called Pocahontas, (true story) and I ministered occasionally on Wednesdays, and sometimes on Sunday nights. I also ministered in Walnut Ridge, AR, at Sister Becky's church, I guess that's where I "got my start." We had pieces of plywood covering the holes in the floor of this dilapidated shack owned by another preacher that charged an absolutely outrageous price for this dump, somewhere around $500 a month(extortion!).

So, I was thinking about the times that I have been on the platform, speaking, disseminating the knowledge that I had, the points that I had studied in the scriptures, points that I had spent agonizing hours of prayer and fasting to ensure I was tuned in...

The point is, at no time did I ever think my own life could have been in danger as a result of my personal beliefs. (Believe me, at the end of my preaching run, I was beginning to focus solely on reform in the church I attended and almost no one was interested in that.)

Again, at no time was I ever concerned about some whacko stepping into the church and open firing because of my personal beliefs, my politics, etc...hell I preached on January 15, 1991 the day my precious daughter was born, and the day the U.N. prepared the way for the invasion of Iraq the first time, which began just a few short hours later-shout out to my precious New Year Baby! I also had a key my pastor, Bro. Grey gave me, and I made it a habit to go to the church an hour or so before work to meditate and gather my thoughts for the day.

Which is why I find it so disturbing that this doctor, Dr. George Tiller was gunned down in church, where he served as a deacon, and as I understand it, his wife was in the choir at the time of his murder.

I have been involved with Fundamentalist Christianity for more than 20 years. I can say decisively, that although most will not admit it publicly, most will say this "baby killer" this "murderer" got exactly what he deserved.

This is not the first time a right wing terrorist invaded a church (remember Jim Adkisson, Knoxville TN? My family and I lived in Knoxville, he said he did it to kill liberals) and it will not be the last. We will see a trend. The "Christians" (in truth the "Anti-Christians") have gone nuts, and they celebrate killing in the name of God.

This is what concerns me most about the right wing and the Republican Party: they will kill if necessary, and they will do it in the name of God. Does anyone else see a connection between Islamic extremism and Right Wing, Republican extremism? I know you do.

The right wing and the Republican Party are completely responsible for this man's murder, this act of terror. They kill and hate and murder in the name of God, and they are too fucking lazy to get off their asses and approach the legal practice of abortion legally, and make changes to the law.

Let me reiterate and expand: The right wing, Fundamentalist Christianity, and the Republican Party are absolutely responsible for this man's murder.
It is time for systemic change in the United States.

Peace-

"A NATION OF COWARDS"

Eric Holder the new Attorney General of the US throws down the glove when it comes to race. Check it out courtesy of CNN:

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic
melting pot, in things racial, we have always been and we -- I believe continue to be in too many ways essentially a nation of cowards," Holder told Department of Justice employees at an event Wednesday celebrating Black History Month. He said that Americans are afraid to talk about race, adding that"certain subjects are off-limits and that to explore them risks at best embarrassment and at worst the questioning of one's character."

Regarding the melting pot myth: There is no such thing and there never has been. We are not a pot of fondue, we are human beings, different,unique, beautiful. For far too long the United States has forced people of color and especially the Natives to conform or be left behind, or worse, imprisoned or killed.

It is time to recognize our diversity and strength. Embracing the cultures that make up the United States, and acknowledging the atrocious behavior by the United States Government toward the people of African decent, people from Latin America, Native Americans, is a first step, but only a first step toward healing this country and laying to rest the ghosts of the past that continue to haunt the United States.

I can further tie this "cowardly race issue" in to the past election, and the way the electoral map shifted in the United States. What used to be the bible belt can clearly be seen for what it is and what is has always been: The Racist Belt. Check out this link for the map, click on the Voting Shift link if it doesn't take you right to it. It shows the way the country voted, either more democrat or more republican than in 2004. It is very telling. Here is the map:

You will notice, Arkansas and the bible belt voted MORE republican that in 2004, clearly disrespecting Obama, and embracing the embarrassingly ridiculous Republican party ticket of McCain/Palin. Even after the fucking nightmare of George W. Bush. They voted more republican, completely against their own interests. Once upon a time I was like that in Arkansas. Then I finally pulled myself out of the bowl that Arkansas is. You know? You get stuck in a bowl so long without being able to see above the rim, and you think the rest of the world is like this bowl, also. Fortunately it is not true. You can get out and have a better life.

Something else. When I lived in Arkansas, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day rolled around, white people greeted each other by saying, "Happy Nigger Day." With a big grin and a smile. Don't tell me about the New South, and the Gem that Arkansas is, it simply is not true. The potential is there, but the leadership is not.

We have much work to do in the US. Things have begun, let us work to fully marginalize the right wing to a strictly yapping small regional party relegated to the South, and then let's push them right off the East and Gulf Coasts right into the sea where they belong. Stay strong Searchers, keep the heat on the right wing...and Mr. Holder, you're completely correct. Peace-

Onward.

map courtesy of New York Times, photobucket

MORE RACISM IN MURDOCH'S WORLD

This is a pic from The New York post. It depicts Obama as a chimpanzee being gunned down by police. It is not surprising that the paper that published this disgraceful "cartoon" owns Fox News and employs the racist Sean Hannity as well as Bill O'Reilly. It is pathetic, and it reinforces my past decision to tune Rupert Murdoch's puppets out. Before you get nuts and call me judgemental against conservatives, as if there is such a thing, I devoted years of my life tuning Fox News channel in. I'm glad of the day I woke up.

It also shows the racism that is fully alive and well in the United States, and supported by major media outlets.

Boycott Fox News and other Murdoch media outlets.

Image Courtesy of guardian.co.uk

REGARDING ARKANSAS "ALL THE ROADS ARE CLEAR WHY AREN'T WE SEEING ANYTHING?" "NO SIGHT OF STATE REP J.R. ROGERS" "NO HEAT FUEL FROM SHELTERS"

ELECTRICAL WORKERS: "WE'RE QUITTING AT SIX"

"WHAT'S SCARY TO ME IS WE'RE IN THE DARK AND DON'T SEE ANYTHING."

ANONYMOUS WRITER FROM THE JONESBORO SUN: "IT IS NOT THE GOVERNMENTS RESPONSIBILITY TO TAKE CARE OF THE PEOPLE, ASIDE FROM POLICE AND FIRE."
Let me make a comment: It is the responsibility of the municipal, state and federal governments to be on the game, to ensure warmth, safety, education, health, food. I am deeply concerned that a writer at the Jonesboro Sun has such a view on responsibility. Such is the mindset of some in Northeast Arkansas, and such is the outcome of such thinking.

Planning? The writer at the Sun said no one could plan for this catastrophe. I disagree. Like New Orleans, this is an event that could have been planned for, but leadership denied, and the people are suffering for their lack of foresight.

I am after you J.R. Rogers. Make sure you call!

Sherry from Walnut Ridge: "We don't need JR. Rogers"

This is indicative of the mind set in Northeast Arkansas: Do not expect help, responsibility, or accountability from your elected officials.