Archive for January, 2010

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Keep it up, Keith!

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Keith Olbermann has taken heat recently for his January 18 broadcast, in which he opened up a can of whoop ass all over Massachusetts Senator-Elect Scott Brown.

In particular, Olbermann is being criticized for his summation:

In Scott Brown we have a irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, tea-bagging supporter of violence against women and politicians with whom he disagrees.

All I have to say is, keep it up, Keith. When someone supports a constitutional ammendment denying marriage rights to LBGT people, they deserve to be called homophobic.

Still, Olbermann apologized. The next day, Olbermann said, “I’m sorry. I left out the word ’sexist’.”

Right on.

He later apologized for real, which is a bummer. News casters shouldn’t have to apologize for speaking the truth, regardless of whose conservative sensibilities are offended.

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S. Carolina Lt Gov Compares Poor People to Stray Animals

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

Last Friday, South Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer compared giving public assistance to poor people to “feeding stray animals.” Quoting his grandmother, Bauer says that stray animals breed, so feeding them just makes it worse. He elaborates:

You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.

On Saturday, he refused to apologize, saying that South Carolina needs to have an “honest conversation” about dependence on public assistance.

Bullshit, Bauer. If you were interested in an honest conversation, you would have discussed 12.6% jobless rate instead of vilifying the 58% of your states children who receive public assistance.

How dare he. His state is struggling with double-digit unemployment coming off the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and he has the audacity to talk about his own constituents this way?

I agree with Race Wire’s Channing Kennedy. Bauer needs to quit blaming South Carolina’s struggling families and instead address the joblessness problem. He can start by creating a job opening for the position of Lieutenant Governor.

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Posted in Activism, Conservatism, Hunger, Liberalism, Public Assistance, Uncategorized, economic justice, poverty | No Comments »

“You Need to Get Up, Get Out and Give Something Right Now To Haiti”

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

says Jay Smooth in a killer post at Ill Doctrine. Check out the video below to learn why our obligation to join with the Haitian people goes much deeper than pity:

This not only a nation of poverty and desolation…this is the nation that taught our hemisphere what it means to be a freedom fighter, and what it takes to break the chains of slavery. Its only when you see that full scope of Haiti’s history that you understand what our obligation is. That we need to act not because Haiti is some nation of perennial victims that we need to have pity on. We need to act because Haiti is a nation of heros. And we need to repay them for what they’ve given us. THAT is what our responsibility is.

Damn. That gave me chills. Looking at it in this way gives so much more meaning, not only to the suffering we see in pictures and on the news, but to our deep connection and responsibility to the people of Haiti.

Jay goes on to suggest four different ways to get involved, and stay involved, in the solidarity effort:

Volunteerism
Activism
Self-education
Donations

Like many folks, I’ve contributed what I can afford financially, but Jay’s post gave me a swift kick in the ass to step it up in other arenas. I’ve provided links to the categories above to help us get started.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the magnitude of suffering around the world, but thats no excuse for inaction. If you’re like me and need a reminder of both our responsibility and power to act, re-watch Jay Smooth’s video and kick it back into gear. There is much work to be done.

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