snip> The historical significance of this moment can hardly be overstated, and it seems many Republicans, Democrats and members of the media don’t fully understand the magnitude of what is taking place. The awesome power of government—one that allows officials to pore through almost anything they demand and compel anyone to talk or suffer the shame of taking the Fifth Amendment—has been unleashed for purely political purposes. It is impossible to review what the Benghazi committee has done as anything other than taxpayer-funded political research of the opposing party’s leading candidate for president. Comparisons from America’s past are rare. Richard Nixon’s attempts to use the IRS to investigate his perceived enemies come to mind. So does Senator Joseph McCarthy’s red-baiting during the 1950s, with reckless accusations of treason leveled at members of the State Department, military generals and even the secretary of the Army. But the modern McCarthys of the Benghazi committee cannot perform this political theater on their own—they depend on reporters to aid in the attempts to use government for the purpose of destroying others with bogus “scoops” ladled out by members of Congress and their staffs. These journalists will almost certainly join the legions of shamed reporters of the McCarthy era as it becomes increasingly clear they are enablers of an obscene attempt to undermine the electoral process.

The consequences, however, are worse than the manipulation of the electoral process. By using Benghazi for political advantage, the Republicans have communicated to global militants that, through even limited attacks involving relatively few casualties, they can potentially influence the direction of American elections. The Republicans sent that same message after the Boston Marathon bombing, where they condemned Obama for failing to—illegally—send the American perpetrators to Guantanamo, among other things. They slammed the president because federal law enforcement agents read the failed underwear bomber his rights after they arrested him in 2009. Never mind that federal agents did the exact same thing under President George W. Bush when they arrested the failed shoe bomber years earlier. Republicans even lambasted Obama when he spoke about ISIS decapitating journalists, saying the president did not sound angry enough.

>snip...much more...

http://www.newsweek.com/benghazi-biopsy-comprehensive-guide-one-americas-worst-political-outrages-385853

Kasich tries to praise Latinos - and ends up talking about tipping the hotel maid

At a luncheon hosted at a posh Orange County golf club by a local political action committee, Kasich heap praise upon Latinos -- a crucial voting bloc, with 28 million expected to be eligible to vote in the 2016 election -- for family values and work ethic, but then appeared to indirectly conflate Latinos and service-industry workers.

"A lot of them do jobs that they're willing to do and, uh, that's why in the hotel you leave a little tip," said Kasich before a small group inside the Shady Canyon Golf Club, nestled in a gated Irvine neighborhood....

"This lady wrote me in my hotel there in L.A. She wrote this note. It said, 'I really want you to know that I care about your stay.' Is that just the greatest thing?" he said. "So, you know, we can learn a lot and she's Hispanic, 'cause I didn't know it at the time, but I met her in the hallway -- asked her if I could get a little more soap,” said a chuckling Kasich.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-09172015-htmlstory.html?utm_content=bufferb021e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

"Most candidates have lopsided, stereotypical ideas about immigrants, which include the sense that immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, are only good while serving others," said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, communications director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. "The comment lacks history, sense of how important immigrants are to our economy, and vision where immigrants are more than just 'the help.'"

Kasich is among the more moderate Republicans when it comes to proposed fixes to the immigration system widely viewed as broken.

My co-creators of www.rocketboysthemusical.com are offering Ahmed a
scholarship to Space Camp.

The Olympics: Black Complaint
Friday, Oct. 25, 1968

"Faster, Higher, Stronger" is the motto of the Olympic Games. "Angrier, nastier, uglier" better describes the scene in Mexico City last week. There, in the same stadium from which 6,200 pigeons swooped skyward to signify the opening of the "Peace Olympics," Sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, two disaffected black athletes from the U.S. put on a public display of petulance that sparked one of the most unpleasant controversies in Olympic history and turned the high drama of the games into theater of the absurd.

Smith had just won the 200-meter dash in a record-breaking 19.8...

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900397,00.html

"I went up there as a dignified black man and said: ‘What's going on is wrong,' " Carlos says. Their protest, Smith says, "was a cry for freedom and for human rights. We had to be seen because we couldn't be heard."

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/olympic-athletes-who-took-a-stand-593920/?no-ist

If we look at some statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we learn that:

* Children under the age 5: Black Fathers prepared and/or ate meals more with their children vs their white and Hispanic counterparts

* Children 5-18: Black Fathers took children to and from activities daily more compared to their white and Hispanic counterparts

* Children 5-18: Black Fathers also helped their kids with homework more than their white and Hispanic counterparts
.....

It sounds naive and far-fetched but one thing is for sure: if we don't show and share positive stories about black fathers, then the ugliness of institutional racism will prevail.

America and the world knows for too long the struggles plaguing African-Americans. Black men are associated with drugs, prison incarceration and gun violence. It's time for America to learn about the other side of African American men -- and it starts with telling and celebrating the amazing stories of all the great black fathers in our communities.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/20/opinions/arnold-black-fathers/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court handed a major victory to the Obama administration and civil rights groups on Thursday when it upheld a key tool used for more than four decades to fight housing discrimination.

The justices ruled 5-4 that federal housing laws prohibit seemingly neutral practices that harm minorities, even without proof of intentional discrimination. The case involved an appeal from Texas officials accused of violating the Fair Housing Act by awarding federal tax credits in a way that kept low-income housing out of white neighborhoods.
...
The ruling is a defeat for banks, insurance companies and other business groups that claimed such lawsuits are not explicitly allowed under the Fair Housing Act, the landmark 1968 law that sought to eliminate segregation that has long existed in residential housing.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/supreme-court-upholds-fair-housing-act

Fitzgibbons started the post by saying a McKinney police officer’s resignation after a dispute at a swimming pool made her angry and that the officer should not have to resign.

“I’m going to just go ahead and say it ... the blacks are the ones causing the problems and this ‘racial tension.’ I guess that’s what happens when you flunk out of school and have no education. I’m sure their parents are just as guilty for not knowing what their kids were doing; or knew it and didn’t care. I’m almost to the point of wanting them all segregated on one side of town so they can hurt each other and leave the innocent people alone. Maybe the 50s and 60s were really on to something. Now, let the bashing of my true and honest opinion begin....GO! #imnotracist #imsickofthemcausingtrouble #itwasatagedcommunity,” the Facebook post stated.

Fitzgibbons insisted the post “was not directed at any one person or group.”

http://lubbockonline.com/education/2015-06-10/frenship-isd-teacher-apologizes-after-mckinney-related-segregation-post#.VXm0Xc9Vikq

bum 1 (bŭm)
n.
1. A tramp; a vagrant.
2. A lazy or shiftless person, especially one who seeks to live solely by the support of others.
3. An incompetent, insignificant, or obnoxious person: The batter called the pitcher a bum.
4. One who spends a lot of time doing a particular recreational activity: a beach bum; a ski bum.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bum

At the State of the Union address early this year, President Obama delivered the most explicitly liberal speech of his presidency, a genuine call to arms that expands on the past successes of Democratic policies. It was Democrats, indeed, who enacted “worker protections, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, to protect ourselves from the harshest adversity.” It was Democrats who “gave our citizens schools and colleges, infrastructure and the Internet — tools they needed to go as far as their effort will take them.”

The speech included none of the middle-of-the-road, centrist Third Way pablum that has infected the party for a generation. It was, in short, exactly what liberal activists had spent years calling for. And the architect of that speech? John Podesta. The same John Podesta who now chairs Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign

<..........>

Indeed, for those hoping to generate a genuine primary challenge against Clinton, she’s provided very little ammo for them to work with. When Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) entered the primary with a stirring call for a stronger middle class, Clinton tweeted in response, “I agree with Bernie.” The old Clinton wouldn’t have been caught dead anywhere near those words.

So for those hoping that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) or Sanders would push Clinton to the left, it appears it’s too late. She’s already there.

http://thehill.com/opinion/markos-moulitsas/242587-markos-moulitsas-clinton-a-true-liberal

...Republican aides were taken aback by what they thought was a lighthearted attempt to signal to Iran and the public that Congress should have a role in the ongoing nuclear discussions. Two GOP aides separately described their letter as a “cheeky” reminder of the congressional branch’s prerogatives.

“The administration has no sense of humor when it comes to how weakly they have been handling these negotiations,” said a top GOP Senate aide.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/10/republicans-admit-that-iran-letter-was-a-dumb-idea.html