WOULD THAT WE WEREN'T FAT, DUMB, AND HAPPY

Americans have long been fat, dumb, and happy, and a generation ago we elected Reagan and focused for a generation on little else except strenghtening our grip on the world, and filling our bank accounts.

There was an election stolen from the American People in 2000, and there was little resistance from the people, largely, I believe because the "trains ran on time" and we, collectively, are fat dumb and happy.

The Bush Administration cut and pasted the Constitution during his regime and we, collectively, allowed him to do that. And now the Rednecks and Religious Right, (the great white right) of America are going to bitch and moan (falsely) that President Obama is going to "take away our guns?" Where were you when Bush was wire-tapping your phone? Where were you when Bush suspended Habeus Corpus? (I know, I know, "habby-us core-pus" look it up, redneck, it is extraordinarily important.)

Oh-I forgot, you had better things to do like watch NASCAR or guffaw at foolishness such as "Larry the Cable Guy."

The Field Negro breaks it down. An excerpt:

"Sometimes I wish [Americans] had the passion for this stuff like our friends in other countries. But it's hard to be a revolutionary when your stomach is always full, you have hot and cold running water, and a big screen television to watch your favorite basketball team is on the wall."

There are people in Iran that are rising up against tyrannical rule. We, as Americans, owe them our support, it may mean the difference between war or peace, and please, let's put away our collective penis, wash our hands, and try to stop our pissing constest with the rest of the world.

Peace, Searchers

Thanks, Field

YOUNG PREGNANT WOMAN FACING DEATH BY FIRING SQUAD IN LAOS

Caught this on the Field Negro, and chased it down via Google. It's a frightening story about a young woman caught in a country that doesn't afford people the same rights as we are used to in the United States, such as right to counsel.

She's been in a Laos jail accused of smuggling heroin and apparently Laos law dictates death for anyone caught carrying over 500 grams; she allegedly had 680. That's a little over a pound. The Laotian government has not allowed attorney contact with Miss Orobator.

From the Field:

According to the telegraph.co.uk, Miss Orobator, 20, from London was arrested last August at Wattay airport in the south east Asian country.

Prosecutors claim she had 680 grams (1.3lb or 21 oz) of heroin in her luggage.According to the legal campaign group Reprieve she has not met a lawyer since she was arrested 9 months ago but it is believed that she denies the drugs were hers.

Under Lao law the death penalty is mandatory for possession of over 500 grams of heroin. At least 39 people have been sentenced to death for a variety of offences since 2003.On Thursday, without warning or explanation, the government of Laos rescheduled Miss Orobator's trial for next week, but they have still not announced which day the case will begin. "

More here.

So the young lady has been in jail since last August, and she's five months pregnant.

Clearly she got pregnant while locked up, which again begs the question posed elsewhere: was she raped? This is an absolute nightmare for her mother: from New York Daily news:

From her home in Dublin, Orobator's mother Jane Orobator told The Associated Press that she just wanted her daughter home."I'm terrified. I'm scared," she said in a telephone interview. "I'm just begging they should not do anything to her. They should just send her back to me."

Read the story at the link above or here.

As much as I bitch about our system in the U.S., we do have considerable more accountability from our police and judicial system, (and our system puts the burden on the government, not the citizen) than others do around the world. It makes me glad I live in the U.S., at the same time it makes me want to demand more accountability from our police forces, judges, and politicians.

Hold this young lady in your thoughts and prayers and follow this story, help get it out.

Peace-

image

thanks to nydailynews.com

ON RACE AND POLLS IN THE UNITED STATES-COURTESY OF THE FIELD NEGRO

Great post, Field-

I have a news flash for republicans: The 14th Amendment pretty much did away with Dred Scott v. Sandford. For those of you not familiar with the Dred Scott case, it is one of the many dark spots (no pun intended) in A-murder-can jurisprudence. That case basically said that us black folks were not humans but mere chattel. Property. No more important than the cotton we picked out of the ground or the animals we worked alongside.

Anyway, apparently conservatives didn't get the 14th Amendment memo. If they did, one of their most respected writers, Byron York, wouldn't be making the type of declarations that he did while writing for the Washington Examiner.

"On his 100th day in office, Barack Obama enjoys high job approval ratings, no matter what poll you consult. But if a new survey by the New York Times is accurate, the president and some of his policies are significantly less popular with white Americans than with black Americans, and his sky-high ratings among African-Americans make some of his positions appear a bit more popular overall than they actually are. [emphasis added]"

See, it's all so simple when you break it down: Obama's 62% job approval rating is primarily because of his high approval rating among black folks. But among white folks, whose opinion really matters, Obama's is "significantly less popular". See niggers, it's like this, when you are just three-fifths of a man or woman, your opinion only has three- fifths of the weight. So Obama being popular among you niggers means nothing. Wow! Byron York doing his best Chief Justice Taney imitation.

I love how Steve Benen writing in the Washington Monthly breaks down York's article:

"For crying out loud, what the hell does that mean, exactly? I read the rest of the piece, hoping to see York explain why the president's seemingly popular positions are exaggerated or inflated. Why, in other words, these positions "appear" more popular "than they actually are." But all the piece tells me is that African Americans tend to support Obama in greater numbers than white Americans.

The problem, of course, is that damn phrase "than they actually are." York argues that we can see polls gauging public opinion, but if we want to really understand the popularity of the president's positions, and not be fooled by "appearances," then we have to exclude black people. "

Steven, that is exactly the point Mr.York wants to make; "we do have to exclude black people". Because, let's face it, when did they ever matter.

Read Byron York's article here, and please note some of the comments that follow.

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Check out Field's blog here...

ISRAEL INVADES GAZA

The conflict in Israel/Gaza is major news but a post on The Field Negro, "The Lost Boys", caught my attention. I am in no way an isolationist, and my views regarding Israel have changed somewhat. At any rate, we have got to focus on the United States and reverse the trend of Right Wing policies that have lead to greater poverty, despair, homelessness, hopelessness, and death not only in the U.S., but across the globe. Here is a portion:

"It's funny, at a time when most of you are outraged at
Israeli aggression in the Middle East, which has unfortunately caused innocent
civilians to lose their lives. Right here in your own country young boys who
look like you are losing their lives to the streets, and some of you don't seem
to give a damn. You are passionate about human rights in the "Holy Land" but not
about the right of our children to live past 21 here at home. Thanks to the
policies of the right; social programs, local police and juvenile crime
prevention programs, and other key local government programs geared to help keep
kids off the mean streets, have been cut. So while the frat boy was keeping us
safe from Al-Qaeda, he forgot to protect our children from each other, and from
the killing fields of urban A-merry-ca."

Very interesting insight. Let us reverse the trend of destruction to our middle class and poor.
Peace-