Mind Vomit by the ikss

what a concept

"Going forward, anytime the American people want to know something that I or a former president wants to withhold, we will have to consult with the Attorney General and the white house counsel, whose business it is to ensure compliance with the rule of law. Information will not be withheld just because I say so; it will be withheld because a separate authority believes my request is well-grounded in the Constitution. Let me say it as simply as I can: transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency"

-President Barack H. Obama.

mlk

Why I Cannot Be Silent

By Martin Luther King, Jr

 

 

The following text of the speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City is a powerful reminder that we should all speak out for peace.

I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.

The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.

the 11 dumbest things sarah palin has said...so far

Presenting a roundup of Sarah Palin's most hilarious, shocking and scary statements since she was added to the McCain ticket.

 

1. The News Makes Me Sad ... So I Don't Watch It

Sarah Palin at a North Carolina fundraiser:

At those times on the campaign trail when sometimes it's easy to get a little bit discouraged, when, you know, when you happen to turn on the news when your campaign staffers will let you turn on the news ... Usually they're like "Oh my gosh, don't watch. You're going to, you know, you're going to get depressed."

Maybe her handlers could put on a puppet show instead -- something fun that allows Palin to maintain her cheery optimism in the face of overwhelming evidence that the McCain campaign has imploded. There was once another politician similarly unconcerned with current events and the news: George W. Bush. That went well.

2. The People Don't Elect U.S. Presidents, God Does

Upon being asked by James Dobson if the McCain ticket's precipitous slide in the polls gets her down:

... [it] strengthens my faith, because I'm going to know, at the end of the day, putting this in God's hands, that the right thing for America will be done at the end of the day on Nov. 4. So I'm not discouraged at all.

... and I can feel it too, Dr. Dobson. I can feel the power of prayer, and that strength that is provided through our prayer warriors across this nation.

Ah yes, the always helpful "prayer warriors," whose appeals to the Almighty actually count for more than the average American citizen's vote. Apparently the next president of the United States will be handpicked by God.

let the rich bail them out

"If we are going to bail out Wall Street, it should be those people who have caused the problem, those people who have benefited from Bush's tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, those people who have taken advantage of deregulation, those people are the people who should pick up the tab, and not ordinary working people."

- Bernie Sanders, Senate Floor Speech

go get 'em joe

"All of the things they said about Barack Obama in the TV, on the TV, at their rallies, and now on YouTube … John McCain could not bring himself to look Barack Obama in the eye and say the same things to him ... In my neighborhood, when you’ve got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him."

- Joe Biden.

sarah palin interview with katie couric

From Katie Couric’s interview with Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin, last week on CBS Evening News:

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? … Instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: Ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up the economy...Oh, it’s got to be about job creation too...So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions...

Huh? Talk amongst yourselves...

bob benjamin

“Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about the one's who don't. Believe everything happens for a reason.  If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands.  If it changes your life, let it.  Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.”

 

~~ My co-worker, Bob Benjamin, who died of a stroke on Tuesday September 23, 2008. He sent this out in an email to friends and colleagues on New Years’ Day, 2008.

commentary on palin

Drew Westen, Psychologist and neuroscientist:

We've seen what happens when "the average person" becomes president. The world is simply too complex to do that again. She wants to be a heartbeat away from becoming the leader of the free world behind a 72 year old man with a recurrent deadly illness and she gives answers like she's in a beauty pageant and hasn't even followed the news enough over the last 6 years to know what the Bush Doctrine is. It's fine for the average person not to know, but it's not fine for someone who could become President at any moment, any more than it's fine for your pediatric oncologist to say, "Ah, gee whiz, I don't read what's in those fancy medical magazines—I just give it my all and pray a lot when I see a sick child." Time for a second opinion. Like Bush, she also seems to view truth as optional, and most Americans have had enough of that as well. But those are stories the Obama campaign is going to have to tell, tell effectively, and tell repeatedly. Isolated "facts" will just bounce off a folksy persona like hail off a bridge to nowhere.

 

on mccain, pow

"To see McCain resort to playing the POW card when answering legitimate questions, in my mind, cheapens that experience. And by cheapening his own experience in war, he degrades all of our experiences in war. He turns the horrific incidents we've all seen, touched, smelled, and felt into a lame excuse to earn political points. And it dishonors us all."

-- Brandon Friedman, a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan