"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Martin Luther King, Jr.

On Monday, American politicians will be making their obligatory rounds to African-American or civil rights groups to "say nice things" about the dynamic leader whose 1/15 birthday is celebrated then.

Unfortunately, nearly 44 years after he was shot and killed (some believe
with FBI involvement, as they had a long history of harassing and
attempting to discredit him), the civil rights of those in the United States
and its satellites have been steadily eroding.

I believe Dr. King, an ardent opponent of the Vietnam War, would be
appalled at the U.S. occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the de facto
occupation of Palestine, and U.S. attempts to destabilize elected
governments in South America.

I believe he would be appalled at the CIA, FBI, and military involvement
with torture and "indefinite" (i.e. permanent) imprisonment, of not only
non-citizens, but American citizens as well (the FBI even now involved
with a U.S. citizen tortured in Kuwait).

I believe that he would be appalled that the U.S. Supreme Court is allowing
the above mentioned groups and "law enforcement" in general, to continue
restricting and outright denying citizens their constitutional rights to
freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom
from searches and seizures without a reasonable warrant, etc., etc.   I believe
Dr. King, upon seeing this occur, would remind us of what he said
during his lifetime,

     "Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."

Won't American politicians see a contradiction between the lip service they
are giving to the words and actions of a great man and the words and actions
they are using to UNDO his???

"When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people."

Chinese Proverb

Predictable reaction?

Since the tragic shootings in Arizona last Saturday, right-wing politicians
and talk show hosts have reacted predictably.  Instead of apologizing for
their hateful rhetoric and actions, they have done one or more of the
following: 

Blamed "liberals" for "politicizing" the shootings

Denied any responsibility for a hateful political climate in the country and
said that only the shooter should be blamed for anything  (unlike their loud
and ongoing rhetoric against whole GROUPS of people, urging spying,
imprisonment, and death for them, after one or more "Americans" are
killed by one: i.e. Muslims, gays, etc.)

Urged more buying of guns to "protect" "innocent Americans" (i.e. their
kind) against anyone they deem a threat

Urged more restrictions of civil liberties by "law enforcement" (but, of
course, only on non-right-wingers)

Let's hope that the fruits of these predicable reactions will not be
endorsed by the Obama Administration, which has often catered to
the whims of the right in the name of "bi-partisanship."

"When a goal matters enough to a person, that person will find a way to accomplish what at first seemed impossible."

Nido Qubein

When I think of all the injustice and suffering right-wingers have caused...

...poor Americans, including myself and my family, it makes me furious to hear hard-right hypocrites like former House leader Tom Delay say the following:

"The criminalization of politics is very dangerous. It's dangerous to our system. Just because somebody disagrees with you they got to put you in jail, bankrupt you, destroy your family."

Delay said this after being sentenced to 3 years in jail for "money laundering
and conspiracy to commit money laundering", a day of which he'll probably
NEVER SERVE,  because he's out on bail while he appeals his conviction,
and he had a flood of right-wing politicians come to his aid, including Israel's
Prime Minister.

This sanctimonious hypocrite, who illegally funneled millions of dollars to
Republican politicians to steal elections and deprive thousands of their votes,
and was ALL FOR spreading hate and having "law enforcement" do to poor
people what he is now whining about for himself, is a prime example of
how, up to the tragic Arizona shooting on Saturday, American politicians
had become like the pigs at the trough, as described in George Orwell's
famous book, Animal Farm.  Let's hope that more Americans finally wake
up to what has happened to the political system that they live under.

"All violence, all that is dreary and repels, is not power, but the absence of power."

Emerson

The "Toxic Political Tone" has had light shined on it by the Arizona shooting tragedy Saturday...

...according to the Associated Press.  But the question many of us have is, will
the Obama Administration finally take note that it was a WHITE RIGHT-
WINGER who caused this tragedy, goaded on by the day-in-day out gun-
toting, hate spewing right-wingers, (including some politicians and media
talking heads), whose ultimate solution to silencing those individuals, groups,
or countries that they refuse to co-exist with them, is to kill them.  Will the
Administration finally see that many within its own "justice" and  "security"
agencies have wrongly harassed people of peace and social concern because
of their own right-wing mindset, and have deliberately turned a blind eye to
the hatemongers on the right because of their own political sympathies? 

By reversing course and PROTECTING the First Amendment Rights of
American citizens and residents FROM those who violently want to take
those rights away, the Administration will be FINALLY doing something
towards bringing REAL security and REAL democracy.  And by
FINALLY taking steps to make it harder to obtain and possess
weapons, and by FINALLY taking steps to end U.S. military intervention
in Afghanistan, Iraq, and throughout the world, the U.S. WOULD
FINALLY be listening to, ironically, the words of a Republican President
and General of more than a half century ago, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who
said:

"EVERY GUN THAT IS MADE, EVERY WARSHIP LAUNCHED, EVERY
ROCKET FIXED SIGNIFIES, IN THE FINAL SENSE, A THEFT FROM
THOSE WHO HUNGER AND ARE NOT FED, THOSE WHO ARE COLD,
AND ARE NOT CLOTHED."