This country was not ready for a black president

…and thus I will say what has been brewing in the back of my head for months. The vitriol against President Obama shows that this country was not ready for a black president. Yeah, I said it. The fact that these whackjobs are coming out of the woodwork with no fear of reprimand for threatening the President, or in th…is case hoping for his assassination shows this to be true. Had a white democrat won, I really doubt we’d be seeing such an ugly side of the US’s denizens.

Conservative Blogger calls for Obama’s Assassination

What this idiot apparently didn’t know is that:
Forell may think he’s protected by the First Amendment when it comes to his tweets, but the law begs to differ, specifically 18 USC Sec. 871:

Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

Sam Gustin at DailyFinance is reporting that the Secret Service is now investigating Forell’s tweets, with Secret Service spokesperson Max Milien stating: “We are aware of the actual posting and are actively investigating.”

This saddens me, but does not surprise me in the least. People thought I was being overly dramatic when I talked of hoping that Obama survives his first term. Now, maybe with whackjobs like this advocating that the POTUS is killed off, people will listen to me.

SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT JOE THE PLUMBER WOULD YOU!

Christ on a wheat thin, I am so fucking sick of hearing about Joe the Plumber! It’s been proven that he’s not even a real plumber, owes quite a bit of money in back taxes, is a Republican and has donated to the their causes and is related to the Keatings of the Keating controversy.

Stop waving his name around like a fucking badge of honor, like he’s your personal buddy. Between him and Joe Six Pack, I’m sick of this ooooh look, we love the common man. He’s the face of America! Well, here’s a bit of news. Joe Six Pack is who I think of when I think of redneck assholes that go home and beat their wive because dinner isn’t ready at 6 pm.

I think of Joe Six Pack as the guy who never got out of high school or has a couple community college credits and resents his wife because she makes more than him in her secretarial job at the local high school. Joe Six Pack is not what I think of when I think of what America is.
America is supposed to be the land of the free, brave, and so on. It’s not a country where you are inciting people to riot over race, not a country where one has to be afraid to express themselves for fear of censure, not a country where I need to fear that someone will attack me because I’m not a white, conservative christian. People seem to have forgotten that America was founded by people who were sick of being run over by the elite, yet we have a candidate who doesn’t know how many houses he owns and a barbie doll for a running mate who has had more spent on an image re-do in 6 weeks than some people make in 2 years.

So for those people who want to toss out Joe the Plumber and Joe Six Pack as shining examples of American values, just fucking stop it. You are making all of us sick to death with this lame ass sound byte, and frankly you are foolish if you think anyone agrees with that small minded idea.

November 4th must come quickly because then I can stop hearing about how Un-American I must be because I live in a Big City, because I’m not a Christian or Conservative.

Westboro nutters have gone beyond the pale

Snagged from Brian. In respectful proximity… Westboro nutjobs actually have the bloody gall to ask Heath Ledgers family where they are hiding their sons body so they can protest his funeral. These bastards are so fucking sick… I wish they’d all just fucking die already.

I loathe Huckabee…

Huckabee: Amend Constitution to be in ‘God’s standards’

01/15/2008 @ 7:31 am

Filed by David Edwards and Muriel Kane

The United States Constitution never uses the word “God” or makes mention of any religion, drawing its sole authority from “We the People.” However, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee thinks it’s time to put an end to that.
“I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution,” Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. “But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.”

When Willie Geist reported Huckabee’s opinion on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski was almost speechless, and even Joe Scarborough couldn’t immediately find much to say beyond calling it “interesting,”

Scarborough finally suggested that while he believes “evangelicals should be able to talk politics … some might find that statement very troubling, that we’re going to change the Constitution to be in line with the Bible. And that’s all I’m going to say.”

Geist further noted of Huckabee that if “someone without his charm,” said that, “he’d be dismissed as a crackpot, but he’s Mike Huckabee and he’s bascially the front-runner.”
The video is available at the original posting here.

That didn’t take long…xtian nutters blaming gays for Cali fires

Because some nutjob right wing xtian psycho just HAD to blame gays for the wildfires in Cali

G*D in the University classroom… 2 adjuncts are out of work… what do you think about this?

Adjuncts and God: Why Are 2 Instructors Out of Jobs?

The adage says that you’re supposed to avoid talk of religion and politics in polite company, but the topics are hard to avoid if you teach Western civilization. And the topics may be especially dangerous for adjuncts.

An instructor at Southwestern Community College is charging that the Iowa institution fired him last week for having offended some students by telling them that he wouldn’t teach the Bible as being literally true. And on Friday, the University of Colorado at Boulder chapter of the American Association of University Professors issued a report charging that an adjunct there had not been reappointed in retaliation for disputes with department colleagues who thought he was too religious and too conservative. Officials of both institutions dispute the charges.

Steve Bitterman has been teaching at Southwestern since 2001, and said he’s never had any trouble with students in his courses. He’s an adjunct who teaches history, while also teaching philosophy at Metropolitan Community College, in Nebraska.

This fall, he is teaching Western civilization at Southwestern’s Red Oak campus, and his lectures are broadcast to students at the Osceola campus, with a live hook-up so he can see students. Much of early Western civilization focuses on the myths and beliefs of ancient peoples. Gilgamesh was no problem for students, Bitterman said. But when he got to the Bible on Tuesday, a student walked out of the Osceola section when, Bitterman said, when he wouldn’t agree with her that the story of the Garden of Eden was historically true. Several other students appeared disturbed by the incident, he said. From their questions and statements, he believes that they are evangelical Christians.

“A few of the students thought I was knocking their religion by not promoting it,” he said. “They were upset that I didn’t say that the Bible was literally true.” Bitterman said that he treats the Bible as a historically significant, important work, but that he does not accord it status beyond that. “That really seemed to come as a shock to some of them,” he said.

On Thursday, he said, Linda Wild, a vice president, called him, told him that several of the students and the parents had threatened an unspecified lawsuit, and fired him. Bitterman said Wild said he would be paid for the sessions he had taught and no more. “She said that the parents said that I was there to teach history and not religion and that she agreed,” Bitterman said.

Whether teaching about the Bible or the Reformation or many other topics, Bitterman said that it would be impossible to teach a Western civilization survey course without covering religious topics. Of administrators who fired him and parents who wanted him gone, he said “I assume that they don’t know much history.”

Various administrators at the college did not respond to messages seeking comment. But Barbara Crittenden, Southwestern’s president, told The Des Moines Register: “I can assure you that college understands our employees’ free speech rights. There was no action taken that violated the First Amendment.”

In Colorado, meanwhile, the AAUP has weighed in on behalf of Phil Mitchell, whose contract to teach history was not renewed this spring after a period of 17 years teaching in a program that provides some for-credit courses in dormitories. The AAUP report — published on the College Freedom blog — states that Mitchell enjoyed high rankings from students and peer evaluations of his teaching for most of his tenure, but was briefly in danger of losing his job in 2005, which prompted him to speak out against his department.

The report goes on to say that the AAUP considers Mitchell to have lost his job in retaliation for the statements he made at the time and because of “hostility” in the history department to his conservative religious and political views. The report cites a history of glowing reviews that changed radically at the time that Mitchell charges that some professors started to become concerned about his religious views and his sharing them with students.

Bronson Hilliard, a spokesman for the university, disputed the AAUP report. He said that Mitchell has been given the chance to present evidence of religious bias against him to a series of Colorado administrators, up to the university system president, and has produced “absolutely no evidence.” Hilliard acknowledged that Mitchell was popular with students, but said that the decision not to rehire him had to do with issues of academic rigor, not philosophy. “He was simply not leveling up and following the agreed upon curriculum,” Hilliard said.

Faculty members were concerned that the dormitory-based courses weren’t serious enough and wanted more writing added to them. Mitchell wouldn’t go along, despite “repeated dialogue,” Hilliard said. “Dr. Mitchell didn’t want to go along.”

Mitchell, who has encouraged campus groups to demand his reinstatement, said Sunday that the AAUP report backed his claims and that the administration’s defense that he was not providing enough rigor was “sheer nonsense.”

— Scott Jaschik

The original story and user comments can be viewed online at http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/09/24/adjuncts.

Bill O’Reilly discovers Black folks are humans too! Holy shit, call the media

I’ve always hated Bill O’Reilly but this takes the fucking cake. Thanks to Thorswitch on LJ for her post.

Bill O’Reilly is surprised no one one was carrying on or hollering Motherfucker, I want more Iced Tea? To paraphrase Chris Rock… in his Colin Powell skit… “what the fuck kind of people were you expecting to find there, you dumb motherfucker.” Fill text of article below. Article is here

O’Reilly surprised “there was no difference” between Harlem restaurant and other New York restaurants

Summary: Discussing his recent dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at the Harlem restaurant Sylvia’s, Bill O’Reilly reported that he “couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship.” O’Reilly added: “There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’ ”

During the September 19 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, discussing his recent trip to have dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at Sylvia’s, a famous restaurant in Harlem, Bill O’Reilly reported that he “had a great time, and all the people up there are tremendously respectful,” adding: “I couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship.” Later, during a discussion with National Public Radio senior correspondent and Fox News contributor Juan Williams about the effect of rap on culture, O’Reilly asserted: “There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’ You know, I mean, everybody was — it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn’t any kind of craziness at all.” O’Reilly also stated: “I think black Americans are starting to think more and more for themselves. They’re getting away from the Sharptons and the [Rev. Jesse] Jacksons and the people trying to lead them into a race-based culture. They’re just trying to figure it out. ‘Look, I can make it. If I work hard and get educated, I can make it.”

Jack Thompson thinks Rockstar is trying to get people to kill him

Bwahahaha… this made me laugh. Jackie boy is at it again. This time he’s accusing Take Two of encouraging people to kill him.

Gamepolitics already covered this issue, so I’m a little late to the game. But this is freaking awesome! I now really want a 360 just so I can vicariously give Thompson something back for all of his buffoonery.

I love it… I just love it!

Couldn’t have said it better myself…

I believe Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church are the perfect argument that God is either non-existent, or an utter bastard.

WordPress user moonflake put this better than I could have… 

Phelps and his clan just need to all drop dead, as in yesterday.

Take action on this… swiped from LJ comm on race issues

Dear friend,

I just learned about a case of segregation-era oppression happening today in Jena, Louisiana. I signed onto ColorOfChange.org’s campaign for justice in Jena, and wanted to invite you to do the same.

http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=1748-211171

Last fall in Jena, the day after two Black high school students sat beneath the “white tree” on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a “prank,” more Black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town’s police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, “I can be your best friend or your worst enemy… I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen.”

So.. your house floods and you ask for prayer, not help?

… so… your house floods and instead of asking for people to help out you ask them to pray for you? Seriously, why not ask for people to come by with sand bags, shovels, buckets, or something? I don’t understand the mentality of Oh no! A disaster, I’ll just pray it away.

I just don’t get it…. really I don’t. Probably because I’m not an xtian and even when I was I didn’t think merely praying would keep things at bay. I believe in action to take care of oneself not just oh well, the Lord will provide. That has’nt worked very well for me, and I seriously doubt that it will work well for others.

Yep, not a lot of faith in that Jesus guy thats for certain. My friend Kevin said it best when he quoted the following:

“…Organized religion is not the final truth in our search for God. Rather, it is the grammar school of faith, an important stage in our spiritual education but one from which we must eventually graduate.” – John Sloat, former Presbyterian minister

That makes such perfect sense to me… and  I think I’ll put it on my desk at work.

The Creationists nutjobs have to be stopped…

Park employees told to fib about age of National Parks… handbook to cater to Creationists. What the fuck man!!!!

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility News Release (www.peer.org)

For Immediate Release: December 28, 2006
Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337

HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WON’T SAY — Orders to Cater to Creationists Makes National Park Agnostic on Geology

Washington, DC — Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

“In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “It is disconcerting that the official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand Canyon is ‘no comment.’”

In a letter released today, PEER urged the new Director of the National Park Service (NPS), Mary Bomar, to end the stalling tactics, remove the book from sale at the park and allow park interpretive rangers to honestly answer questions from the public about the geologic age of the Grand Canyon. PEER is also asking Director Bomar to approve a pamphlet, suppressed since 2002 by Bush appointees, providing guidance for rangers and other interpretive staff in making distinctions between science and religion when speaking to park visitors about geologic issues.

In August 2003, Park Superintendent Joe Alston attempted to block the sale at park bookstores of Grand Canyon: A Different View by Tom Vail, a book claiming the Canyon developed on a biblical rather than an evolutionary time scale. NPS Headquarters, however, intervened and overruled Alston. To quiet the resulting furor, NPS Chief of Communications David Barna told reporters and members of Congress that there would be a high-level policy review of the issue.

According to a recent NPS response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by PEER, no such review was ever requested, let alone conducted or completed.