calimary
calimary's JournalEverybody I know in the consumer cigar community is THRILLED!!!!!!
I'm pretty tickled about it myself. COME ON, America. GET OVER IT!!!!
Something else I like about this, too. This is going to put Barack Obama in the history books for yet another positive reason - and a GIANT, and rather courageous step forward.
Helms-ANYTHING is pretty much a mistake.
He was one of those schmucks who served as a good barometer - if he was against it, it was probably something worth supporting.
I watched a clip of marco rubio - and wondered how much he was coached and reminded
to LEAVE THE WATER BOTTLE WHERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where's yer bottle, marco-baby?
That's a REALLY good point. I'll bet that's absolutely a legitimate concern of his.
I keep thinking back to Michael Moore. Had a chance to interview him once. And he talked about what the wrong-wing has done to him personally, posting his personal information, and that of his wife and kids, his address, phone number, photos of his home and his neighborhood, his kids' school, and more. And THEY'RE the ones who can do something bad about it. More often than not, THEY'RE the ones with the guns. THEY'RE the ones with the Gibraltar-sized chip on their shoulder. THEY'RE the ones who are the paranoiacs and the "Stand Yer Ground'ers" and the cliven bundy pals and supporters. THEY'RE the ones living in the 6th Century. THEY'RE the ones who let their closed-mindedness and hate for everyone not exactly like them or exactly their skin color. THEY'RE the ones who yammer about pro-life, pro-life, pro-life, and determine to do something about it by murdering doctors and health care workers. THEY'RE the ones.
Just consider. What do the active participants and front-liners on that side of the aisle tend to do when they feel somehow "persecuted" and "victimized"?
Compare it to what active participants and front-liners on OUR side tend to do. Our side tends to do sit-ins, "die-ins," protest marches, "peace-ins," hunger strikes, chaining themselves to trees against the lumber industry, chaining themselves to fences surrounding nuclear weapons sites. Laying across railroad tracks where trains carrying nukes and/or toxins are expected. And so forth. WE don't stalk, grab our guns, stockpile assault weapons, bully and menace people in stores and fast-food joints shoving our assault rifles in their field of vision, and shoot-to-kill because somebody cut us off in traffic or we didn't like the loud music they played or we didn't like "their kind" in our neighborhoods.
OUR SIDE TENDS NOT TO DO THAT SHIT.
It's the OTHER side of the aisle whose minions tend to gravitate toward that shit.
Were there any liberals out there armed to the teeth and taking sniper positions aiming at law enforcement officers with that cliven bundy jerk? Are those CONs out there marching with the signs that say "I Can't Breathe"? Are those liberals accosting and badgering and threatening frightened young women attempting to enter some Planned Parenthood center - for WHATEVER reason? Is it the liberals who want to jam one narrow form of one religion down the throats of all America?
So I can understand and sympathize with this concern, and I'd completely understand if that's how Bernie Sanders feels. If it were me, I'd be worried for my family, too. They're non-combatants. He probably expects the venom and bile and hatred spewed at him. But he surely doesn't want to subject his family to that. I don't blame him. It's getting to be a dangerous game. Those of us who worry - "hope so-&-so stays out of small planes" and other such concerns - have good reason to do so.
Which is CLEARLY a strong reason to point out that this movement really can't get off the ground or have any significant impact if there aren't MILLIONS of us geared up, activated, ready, AND willing.
+1,000,000
Nothing will happen without MILLIONS of Americans behind it, and with him.
He's also a signatory of the PNAC. Project for a New American Century.
The PNAC is the foundational organization of the Iraq War - that also features the signatures of rummy, cheney, paul wolfowitz, three kagans (donald, fred, and robert), scooter libby, ken "it'll be a cakewalk" adelman, richard "the Dark Prince" perle, randy scheunemann, dan "potatoe" quayle, john mccain, charles krauthammer, michael (who for a long time was trotted out as the single "liberal" voice back in the day) o'hanlon, frank carlucci, john bolton, elliott abrams, bill bennett, gary bauer, general barry mccaffrey, ed meece, norm podhoretz, AND chaired by the infamous chickenhawk and "Meet the Press" semi-regular bill kristol. Big-time playpen for the worst and most vile crackpots, nut-cases, panty-waists, and chickenhawks on earth. ALL of them hands-on midwives to the worst and most colossal foreign policy fuck-up in American history.
They're the ones who tried to get this started in the last quarter of the Clinton administration, and were rebuffed. Then they got their boy dickie to pick himself as dubya's ticket partner, and five friendly votes on the Supreme Court, and then they were off to the races on their pet wet-dream. The decision to invade Iraq was THEIRS, and they came into power with dubya, ready to implemented. They just had to find the "right" approach.
http://www.publiceye.org/pnac_chart/pnac.html
Yeah, I get it, when I allow my higher self to preside.
Sometimes it's just so damn frustrating to see what always seems to be the South acting exceedingly UNSEEMLY!
I know some really nice people who live in the South. Some really talented and friendly and warm and resourceful and intelligent and compassionate and wonderful people. People who are very dear to me. And there are parts of the South that are just SPECTACULARLY beautiful. And eateries that are FABULOUSLY delectable.
But ... SOMETIIIIIIIIMES....
I'm a Hillary supporter just basically on the premise that a D must keep the White House.
That's the sheer Machiavellian in me. If she's the party nominee, I'm most certainly going to vote for her. And I've made that case here before.
HOWEVER... I am hoping that what we're seeing in the past few days and/or weeks is a national gut check. Maybe we're seeing a critical mass starting to be approached - where enough of us and our fellow Americans have just finally had a belly-full. I've been wondering if we've reached the "okay - seriously. Enough is ENOUGH!" The Fed-fucking-UP point. I kinda hope we have. Hesitant to get too excited about it, but I think I'm noticing something. It's the police brutality/Ferguson/"I Can't Breathe" protests that won't stop. It's the uproar about torture. It's the accelerating Elizabeth Warren movement as though a latter-day Joan of Arc, making a VERY loud, VERY public, and VERY attention-getting case for the little guy, the Main Street guy, middle class families. As we've seen NO ONE else do with such vigor and so articulate. Telling truths. And naming names. She's caught fire. As all these other things are coming to massive public attention. Occupy was only the beginning.
And I believe Hillary Clinton is way too smart not to notice. I am HOPING that it pushes her leftward. Hoping To God. IF FOR NO OTHER REASON that she recognizes what might well be turning into a national sea change, the end of an era, WAY more than a trend - a new mood flowering and solidifying across the land. I hope she does. I hope she decides to go with the tide. I was on the phone with a friend today who speculated that Hillary has already blown it, because she hasn't said peep about a LOT of things coming to a head at the moment - toward which she should be showing leadership. Whether she decides to run or NOT. Where is she on torture? Where is she on holding those responsible accountable for their actions? Where is she on Michael Brown's case? On Eric Garner's case? Where is she on grand juries - she should be issuing position statements or comments on these things, especially with her lawyer background. Where is she on police brutality, police militarization? Where is she on Wall Street and how Dodd-Frank has just had a big hole shot in it? Where is she on too-big-to-fail? I'm troubled by that.
I admire her brains like nobody's business, and I think if anybody's in a strong position actually to break that last glass ceiling, it's she. Nobody else has the resume or the gravitas or the experience. And she was the first person really to try seriously to fix America's health care system. But she needs to weigh in. She needs to come out of seclusion and say something. And take a stand. And let us see what kind of national leader she really is especially in tense times like these. I HOPE she starts taking the left more seriously. It's the most progressive Senator other than Bernie Sanders who's actually out there, vigorously pushing this new populism, and showing that leadership. She's also demonstrating a need that hasn't been filled in a LOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNG time - and filling it! We have a champion on this increasingly urgent and relevant cause, and it ain't Hillary. At least not yet, or so far. And I'm wondering if it will be. If it could be. If she's to be our nominee and the first woman President, I think she's gonna have to. And I suspect she knows that, even if she doesn't or won't admit it. The time to be Wall Street's friend appears to be OVER. And I think she's going to have to get with that very seriously, or her aspirations just might become hamstrung.
The thing is - Bottom Line: WE HAVE TO KEEP THE WHITE HOUSE. That is IT. That is the End-All-and-Be-All for 2016. We have to go with our best shot. I'm watching and waiting - because it's going to be telling how much momentum Elizabeth Warren gains. If she turns into a speeding freight train, that might just change the calculus. Or if her prominence and the prominence of her issues force Hillary to evolve.
Remember the shock-jock who wound up inadvertently handing hannity his ass regarding water boarding?
Anybody remember Mancow? One of those radio loudmouths who was all hot-headed with that "USA! USA! USA!" mentality some years back? His was a big beefy yowling pro-bush/cheney voice after 9/11, one of those let's-get-those-Iraqis, Katie-bar-the-door, whatever-it-takes, make-'em-pay, make-'em-hurt types. The waterboarding-was-NUTHIN' types. The we-do-what-we-gotta-do types. The just-a-little-splashing-in-the-face-and-they-deserve-SO-much-more types. I never worked with this guy, but I fondly remember this back in the last decade, along with the run-up to it by shock-jocks all over the country. A Howard Stern wannabe.
Yes, Virginia, there actually ARE the rare CONS and recovering CONS or maybe back-peddling-but-still-CONS CONS, who realize that torture is nothing to dismiss, downplay, or snicker at. He actually allowed himself to find out that it's TORTURE, alright.
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/tony-norman/2009/05/26/Mancow-knows-Waterboarding-is-torture/stories/200905260184
From the article:
Last Friday, Mancow did what higher profile skeptics of the charge that the Bush administration engaged in torture don't have the courage to do. Where Fox News host Sean Hannity last month glibly agreed to be waterboarded ("I'll do it for charity"
, Mancow actually underwent the procedure during the live broadcast of his popular morning show.
(snip)
Still, there was an undeniable logic to the stunt. Being waterboarded would be a ratings bonanza for "Mancow's Morning Madhouse." Once the footage of a torture skeptic "successfully" defying the critics of waterboarding made the rounds, it would elevate Mancow from the "D-list" of Howard Stern imitators to the first tier of conservative yakkers like Rush, Beck, Hannity and Michael Savage. A little water on the face could potentially yield big dividends.
But the real world closed in quickly once Mancow's legs were elevated, his feet tied and a towel pressed over his face. It was telling that he was already on the verge of freaking out even before a single drop was administered. Don't be surprised if some, including fraus on the right like Ann Coulter, question whether Mancow was brave enough to do it in the first place. Everyone agrees Mancow has more guts and conviction than Sean Hannity, though.
Alas, the hoped-for propaganda minute did not happen. Six seconds into the procedure, Mancow emerged gasping and spitting water. Instead of brave forbearance, Mancow Muller had the look of a man who had seen a terrible light.
"It was way worse than I thought it would be, and that's no joke," a badly shaken Mancow said. "It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back. ... It was instantaneous ... and I don't want to say this: absolutely torture."
He lasted SIX seconds. With all his swagger and bravado and LOUDLY obnoxious in-yer-face pseudo-patriotism. He was almost shitting his pants before they even got started on him. I LOVE this line, from above: "It was telling that he was already on the verge of freaking out even before a single drop was administered."
And to this day, has Mr. Red-White-&-Blue Bravado himself made good on his chest-thumping? Has that-guy-whose-name-rhymes-with-VANITY made good on his assertion that he, too, would undergo water boarding to prove it was a whole lotta nothing? He's nothing but a first-class chicken-shit. Talks a good game. Then folds like a piece of paper! Don't ever join the CIA, sean. You'll be giving up state secrets at the drop of a hankie.
(Reposted by request).
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