It’s the Fourth of July and while other families are enjoying barbeques and fireworks and family together time, I’m fighting a pity party by making a "movable banner" for my dog and dragging her to a public fireworks celebration to register voters this evening.
Don’t worry, I promise we’ll be home long before the fireworks start and make her heart pound.
I’m kidless for another fourth and if you sense a little self-pity, yeah, I’m indulging. It’s not too often but on days like this, I think have every right... You see, my two boys signed up to serve their country and nothing's been the same since.
(Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I'm crossposting this here from Green Mountain Daily)
I won't belabor the point with a rambling post, but there is a point worth making. Yes, Obama's comments suggesting he is laying the groundwork for re-considering his Iraq withdrawal policy have been overstated and overblown. That's a given.
But the explosion is not simply a media fabrication. Not this time. It's psychological cause and effect in action.
First, I want to wish you all a Happy 4th of July. I’ve been thinking about the meaning of Independence Day, a day on which we as a people publicly declared our desire to be masters of our own destiny, to chart our own course as a free and independent society no longer under the control of others. For 232 years we Americans have done just that. We have governed ourselves, and I’d say that our record is one in which we can justly take a great deal of pride.
On this 4th of July, I’ve also been thinking about another kind of independence, namely energy independence. We are a strong country with our best days yet ahead of us. Right now, however, we face tremendous problems because we are deeply dependent on foreign oil. And we’re not just importing oil from friendly democracies like Canada, but from places like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, countries who have very different values and interests from our own.
Sean Webster was helping other severely wounded Iraq vets cope with their injuries but, in the end, could not save himself.
For the past year, Sgt. Sean Webster, 23, had worked in Wounded Warrior Battalion at Camp Pendleton, aiding sailors and Marines wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan get much-needed medical and psychological care.
Just two weeks ago he was featured in a front-page story on this effort in the local North County Times newspaper. "I'm a wounded Marine and I know what these guys are going through," he said.
Ok, on a major holiday weekend, we get big news. This morning on my NPR station they interviewed the UMass professor who emphatically stated that you HAVE to talk to your enemies. We'll see how that goes over in the media. I can't locate a clip of that yet.
I hope this is a message we will send to Karl Rove and the so-called mainstream media. We are not going to accept their propaganda!
Case in point: Barack Obama’s non-changing stand on Iraq.
Rove and the Republican right, along with a complicit media, are betting that Obama’s supporters will jump on this bandwagon with them -- that Barack Obama is flip-flopping on Iraq.
Does anyone else notice the disconnect happening right now between the Mainstream Media's and the Netroots' reaction to Obama's positions on FISA and Iraq?
In the case of FISA, the Netroots are disturbed by a clear change in position by Obama and the MSM could careless about this shift. On the other hand, Obama has rearticulated his position concerning the need to be flexible about conditions on the ground when it comes to withdrawal from Iraq and the MSM is distorting his position and treating this as a major issue and the Netroots - who should be suspicious of Obama at this point because of his shift on FISA - understand there is no shift in Obama's position and are frustrated by the MSM's collective lemming response.
Insidious Real Goal of Reporting on Supposed Obama "Flip-Flop" on Iraq
All the chatter over the last 24 hours on cable news has been about Obama’s supposed "flip-flopping" on the Iraq War. Besides the fact that these "allegations" are utterly baseless, the right-wing-inspired blathering has distracted us from a very substantive discussion of policy which Obama offered in Fargo.
Yesterday I got an e-newsletter about the same time I caught this post. The e covered what prompted the post by ScottyUrb.
Today, the 4th of July, we here in the States celebrate our "Independence", no need to go into an explanation, or give a link to read about, we're all supposed to know and understand what that means, and so are others who think they've achieved that.
This year there'll be alot less traveling to a further destination for relaxation or whatever, more home bodies, we all know the reasons, or we should.
Many are declaring that they are independents this year, most as a protest because (gasp) a black man defeated their candidate who happened to be the first woman presidential candidate, at least one for a major party. (If anyone else had been their candidate there would be cries of racism but hey these so called Democrats are not bigots, they would never stoop to racist remarks, but supporting a Black man for President is going a bit to far).
How do these so called declarations of independence compare to that one 221 years ago?
Today's media freakout on "refining" provided some great material to expose the bias and stupidity of many in the MSM.
In this video, I focus on the "reporting" of CNN, which pulled a classic case of: "Obama must respond to these allegations because he's facing questions" without noting that CNN was the outfit that had raised the questions in the first place.
Also, just so you've been warned, I've recently begun narrating some of my videos -- and this is one of them. On the bright side, you can find out that I am after all a real person, and that my name really is Jed.
Over on www.msn.com the head story is "On Iran, top military chief sounds like Obama". He, like Obama, is promoting more negotiations with Iran before military action.
Now on a day where the media has fallen into the republican "flip-flop" trap we need to make sure stories like these break through. For the web savvy people out there how is that done? I don't see it on Digg or anything and it is sad this is breaking on 4th of July weekend (not that the media would cover it anyway). I think after a day like today we need this story to get some legs and make it through the beginning of next week.
I like the Constitution as much as anybody. But given that the CIA and FBI have always done shit under the table, and that Obama says he intends to try to work against key provisions of FISA in the Senate and as Pres: I have to ask, What the heck are we focusing on here? Meanwhile, back at the ranch:
In June alone, employers got rid of 62,000 jobs, bringing total losses so far this year close to a staggering half-million -- 438,000, according to the Labor Department's report released Thursday. The economy needs to generate more than 100,000 new jobs a month for employment to remain stable.
And the unemployment rate is moving steadily higher:
The jobless rate held steady at 5.5 percent after jumping in May by the most in two decades. Still, June's jobless rate was considerably higher than the 4.6 percent of a year ago. The unemployment rate is expected to climb through the rest of this year and top 6 percent early next year.
When I was a kid, I used to love the 4th of July. My parents raised me to be a patriotic American, one who loves his country even despite her flaws. Every 4th, we'd pack the whole family up and have a picnic at Stone Mountain Park. We'd eat sandwiches, toss a frisbee, play gin, and wait for the sun to go down. Then came the laser show, one which featured outlining, then animating, the Confederate generals carved into the rock (this is the South, and, unfortunately, Confederate pride will never go out of style). Then came the fireworks. A gigantic, ear-splitting fireworks display, made louder by the soundwave echo slamming against the mountain, bound for our tender eardrums. It was beautiful, true rocket's red glare and mid-air bomb bursts.
These days I dread the 4th. It's not for the jingoism I was too young to understand as a child, which irks me, but I try not to let other's infantile politics change the spirit of the holiday for me. The real reason is I'm not much for fireworks anymore. I haven't been since I came back from Iraq.
Here it begins the Main Stream Media also known as McCain's Base has smelled Blood. They've heard about the ripping we gave Obama over FISA and they're attempting to sew the seeds of discord.
They're attempting to distort Obama's statements on Iraq. Obama today said he's committed to the 16 month timetable. However that didn't stop the News from running headlines to attack Obama. Our friends at TPM highlight the medias attempt to Fight for McCain while he's South of the border selling us all out.
This was the lede 2 hours ago. This is an attempt to paint Senator Barack Obama as a Waffler.
First let me state CLEARLY, there is no change, there has never been any change, and there will be no change in Barack Obama's position on ending the Iraq war. He has been saying since he entered the race that after "consultation" with the Generals on the ground, he would issue an order to the Joint Chiefs to prepare an immediate plan to end the war. He has said it will take 18 months, at the rate of one to two brigades per month, to get the troops home. He has said it may be necessary to leave a few troops in place to guard the embassy, and finalize the training of Iraqi police and military. That's what he said, that's what he is saying, and that is what he will do.
That is NOT how the raving Cable Guys and Gals are presenting a deliberate misreading of a statement he made this morning. And, although we know the press can't do nuance, this has Karl's sticky finger all over it.
After listening to a 10 minute rant on MSNBC where they basically played two obama quotes back to back that said the exact same thing in different words and them have them characterize it as a flip-flop, I figured I'd come here to see them getting chewed out...but no.
