Category Archives: national news

national news

Yes, Mitt … remove the rebel flag

Mitt Romney has added his important voice to the cries of those who want South Carolina to take the Confederate flag down from its statehouse grounds.

Not all the leading politicians in this country have taken up the cause. This should be a no-brainer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/20/mitt-romney-confederate-flag_n_7627776.html

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee said once again that the flag symbolizes hate. Indeed, that symbol has overshadowed the “Southern pride” heritage that many still proclaim.

As Romney spoke out in the wake of that terrible Charleston, S.C., church massacre, other pols continue to hold their tongue.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican and presidential candidate, said the decision must rest ultimately with South Carolinians. Sure thing, senator, but South Carolina doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It is one of 50 united states, yes? Thus, it is totally fair for all Americans to express outrage that the state hasn’t taken down a flag that symbolizes — in the eyes of millions of us — the kind of hatred that produced the carnage in the Charleston Bible study classroom.

Another GOP presidential candidate, South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, calls the flag “part of who we are” as Southerners. Oh, please. Hasn’t he seen that flag waving at Klan rallies where participants say those things about their fellow Americans who happen to be of different races?

I’m with Gov. Romney on this one.

Take down the rebel flag.

national news

Rebel flag still flying high in S.C.?

I can’t believe I just read this.

The flags flying atop the South Carolina state capitol building — the Stars and Stripes and the state flag — were lowered to half-staff to honor the memories of the nine victims shot to death in the Charleston church.

But the Confederate flag that flies on the grounds in front of the capitol building is flying high.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/charleston-church-shooting/south-carolinas-confederate-flag-not-lowered-half-mast-after-church-n378316

Why is that? Apparently state law requires the legislature to sign off on how the rebel flag is displayed.

Gov. Nikki Haley has authority over the flags flying over the capitol dome. She doesn’t have exclusive say over the Confederate flag.

You know the story. A young white man — an apparent white supremacist — killed nine black congregants while studying the Bible with them.

The Confederate flag represents to many of us the very racism that likely drove the shooter to do what he did.

The flag doesn’t deserve to fly on public property.

That it remains at the top of the staff that holds it is insulting in the extreme.

 

national news, political news

That’s the ticket: blame the victim

National Rifle Association board member Charles Cotton has exhibited an amazing capacity for heartlessness.

He has placed the blame for the shocking shooting deaths of nine Charleston, S.C., church members on one of the victims.

Despicable.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/nra-board-member-blames-clementa-pinckney-charleston-shooting-119202.html?ml=po

Cotton’s narrative goes something like this: One of the victims is state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, who voted against legislation allowing South Carolinians to carry concealed handguns. Had the measure passed, according to Cotton, the victims would be alive.

According to Politico: “And he voted against concealed-carry. Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead,” Cotton responded to the post on Thursday afternoon. “Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.”

Pinckney, who was pastor of the church where the carnage occurred, is responsible for this tragedy. Did you get that?

What in the world is Charles Cotton, a Texas NRA board member, thinking in trying to blame one of the victims killed in that rampage?

Suppose for a moment that someone in the church was packing a pistol when the gunman opened fire. Is the NRA board member certain that he or she could have stopped the shooter on the spot — without anyone else suffering grievous injury or death on the melee?

Good grief! It’s been only four days since the tragedy erupted in that house of worship.

Can’t there be some sort of cooling-off period? Can’t we wait a reasonable length of time before leveling blame? And for crying out loud, can’t we declare “hands off!” the memory of one of the victims of this senseless act?

 

national news

Where do these people find forgiveness?

The loved ones of the men and women Dylann Roof allegedly shot to death have done what?

They have forgiven the young man? They say that if God can forgive him, how can they not?

Families forgive accused church shooter

This one is going to take some time for me to process.

Roof stands accused of killing nine people at a church in Charleston, S.C. It appears to have been a racially motivated massacre. He is known to have said he wanted to start a “civil war” and that he believes blacks and whites shouldn’t mix.

So, he went to a Bible study, was welcomed by the African-American church members. He sat with those victims for an hour — and then he opened fire.

Today, he went to court for an arraignment and several family members said they forgive this individual for committing a monstrous act of terror against them and those he killed in cold blood.

I consider myself a committed Christian. I know what Scripture says about forgiveness, how Jesus Christ urges us to love one another, no matter the sin. He didn’t distinguish among sins, never said one sin was greater than another.

What the young man is accused of doing, though, crosses a line that makes his alleged sin far greater than, say, using impolite language.

Could I forgive someone for doing something that Dylann Roof is accused of doing?

Hypothetical questions are tough to answer.

Perhaps one day, I could.

One day.

Perhaps.

From my perch halfway across the country where this carnage occurred, I harbor intense anger toward this young man.

I stand amazed that those who are suffering such intense grief and heartbreak can find it in them to forgive.

 

national news

Attention turns to Confederate flag

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Just as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Texas is able legally to deny issuing motor vehicle license plates depicting the Confederate flag, the issue of flying the flag in South Carolina has emerged to become a central discussion topic.

The Confederate flag flies in front of the state capitol in Columbia, S.C. But over on the Atlantic Coast, in Charleston, a young man this week opened fire in a predominantly black church, killing nine worshipers in a horrifying massacre.

Dylann Roof admitted to committing the crime today in court, so we can take away the “alleged” description of the person who did the terrible deed.

Why? The young man is a raving racist, according to those who know him.

Thus, we get back to the issue of the rebel flag. What does it represent? To many Americans, it symbolizes hatred. It flies at Ku Klux Klan rallies, where Americans proclaim their “pride” in a movement that enslaved other Americans.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/take-down-the-confederate-flag-now/396290/?utm_source=SFTwitter

The flag should come down. It shouldn’t fly on the South Carolina’s capitol grounds. It should be put away, never to be seen in public.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has it within her power to remove the flag. She should act.

Think about this, too: Charleston was where the Confederate States of America fired the first shots that ignited the Civil War. They bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor and thus began the bloodiest war in American history. Why? Because the Confederate states had seceded from the Union because they claimed that as individual states, they had the power to own slaves.

The flag symbolizes hatred, the kind of hatred that prompted Dylann Roof to attack people — in a place of worship.

Bring it down, Gov. Haley.

 

 

national news

‘Race-baiting’? Please

There’s no real need to say much more than what’s in this blog about the Charleston, S.C., carnage.

Jim Mitchell writes for the Dallas Morning News and he devoted the following post to answering someone who accused him of “race-baiting.”

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2015/06/another-failed-chat-about-race-in-america.html/

Mitchell is on-point in telling the letter writer that he/she is trying to deflect responsibility of what happened in Charleston by saying it was allegedly committed by a “deranged white man.”

Nine people are dead. They are victims of a mass murderer. He concludes: “Let’s stop playing games of racial original sins, and recognize that racial tensions are denying this country of the opportunity to reach new heights for all Americans. That’s not race-baiting. That’s asking for justice and fairness, nothing more and nothing less.”

Now, let us continue to pray for our country and for the souls of those who were lost.

national news

Tragedy redefines ‘unspeakable’

Nine people are dead in a Charleston, S.C., church, where they were engaged in a study of Scripture.

The gunman is loose. He’s been caught on camera entering the church.

How does this make any sense? How does one even begin to comprehend something so horrible?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/the-latest-on-charleston-shooting-hate-crime-investigation/ar-AAbL8UE

I’m at a loss this morning to even offer anything other than words of utter sorrow over what has happened.

Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Tucson, Ariz. — and other communities — comprise a list of places affected by spasms of gun violence. Now we can add Charleston.

The nation grieves for those people.

There’ll be plenty to say at the right time. For now, I think I’m just going to pray they find the gunman — and pray for the souls and the loved ones of those who died at this individual’s hand.

 

national news, political news

Nixon could have squashed scandal … easily

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Forty-three years ago today, President Nixon missed an opportunity to squash what had been termed a “third-rate burglary.” All he had to do was deliver a brief speech on national television that went something like this:

My fellow Americans. Good evening.

By now you’ve heard about the break-in at the Watergate office complex and hotel in Washington, D.C. Several burglars were apprehended by the D.C. police and arrested and charged with breaking and entering. 

You also have heard that the men apparently were working at the behest of the Committee to Re-Elect the President. They broke into the Democratic National Committee offices and allegedly rifled through some files, looking for papers relevant to the Democrats’ campaign they intend to launch against me this fall.

I called DNC Chairman Larry O’Brien and expressed my deepest regret for this intrusion into the Democratic Party’s office.

It doesn’t stop there. Today, I fired the head of the Committee to Re-Elect the President and his senior staff. I informed all of them that this kind of chicanery will not be tolerated by me, my closest advisers, and anyone associated with my re-election campaign.

Accordingly, I have instructed the attorney general, the director of the FBI and have asked local police to do all they can to get to the bottom of this caper and to ensure that anyone caught is brought to justice as quickly as possible.

I want to apologize as well to the American people for this shameful criminal act.

Thank you and good night.

That event didn’t happen on June 17, 1972. What did happen is that President Nixon launched the Mother of All Cover-Ups. He instructed the FBI to stonewall the investigation into what happened. He told his senior White House staff to do all it could to block any and all inquiries.

He abused the office to which he had been elected and was about to be re-elected later that year in historic fashion.

Contemporary politicians today keep yapping about the “lawlessness” of the current administration. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is among those who toss around the “lawless” label a bit too carelessly.

Back when young Teddy was in diapers, the Nixon administration set the standard for lawlessness that hasn’t been met since. If he wants to see how an administration can flout federal law, he need look no further than what the Nixon administration did in the name of the man at the top.

So … there you have it.

The Watergate break-in occurred 43 years ago. It could have been put aside and relegated to the kind of story it was in the beginning: a minor cop story covered by the Metro desk of the Washington Post. Then two young reporters — Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward — began smelling a rat.

They found it — in the Oval Office.

 

 

national news, political news

Trump: grand marshal of the clown parade

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Donald Trump decided during his 45-minute presidential campaign announcement speech to trash as many groups of people and individuals as he could.

Well done, Donald.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/donald-trump-mexicans-comment-119100.html?hp=rc4_4

I’ll admit that I didn’t have the stomach to sit through the entire speech, but my favorite part occurred when he dissed Mexicans.

Immigrants are coming into the country to rape, murder and steal from Americans. He said that “I’m sure good people” are coming as well, adding the “good people” reference almost as an afterthought.

He thinks conservative columnist/TV pundit Charles Krauthammer is “overrated.” He trashed all his Republican rivals as being half-hearted and afraid to speak the truth.

As this campaign unfolds, though, I’m waiting anxiously for the Birther in Chief — Trump — to raise the issue of Sen. Ted Cruz’s legitimacy as a candidate, just as continues to do with the current president, Barack Obama.

Cruz was born in Canada; his father is Cuban, his mother is American. Thus, he’s an American citizen by birth — just like President Obama, except that the president was born in one of the 50 United States of America.

Will The Donald suggest that Ted Cruz is not qualified to run for, let alone serve as president?

Gosh, I hope he does — and then reveals why he deserves to be in the lead car in the Parade of Clowns.

national news, political news

Hey, what’s happening on the Democratic side?

Republican presidential candidates are gobbling up all the attention these days.

Have you noticed what’s happening in the “other” party’s presidential race? The once-unstoppable Hillary Rodham Clinton is looking, well, a bit stoppable these days.

Polling data suggest that Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who’s running in the Democratic Party primary against Clinton, has closed a lot of the once-huge gap between the two of them.

He trails Clinton now by just 9 points in New Hampshire, according to new data.

OK, it’s fair to ask: Is that a home-boy advantage for Sanders, given that he hails from next-door Vermont?

His crowds are huge. The excitement appears to be real. He’s speaking to the Everyman among us, railing against wage equality and declaring — without equivocation — that he opposed the Iraq War authorization from the get-go, unlike Clinton, who approved it.

It’s still a significant stretch to believe that Sanders is going to be nominated next summer at the Democratic National Convention. Two others also are running to the left of HRC — former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee.

Democrats aren’t likely to actually nominate an avowed socialist whose major campaign platform plank has been to call for massive redistribution of wealth.

Actually, of the three men running against Clinton, I find Chafee to be the most interesting, given that he once was a Republican.

But those gentlemen are far behind the two Democratic frontrunners.

How strange it seems to be talking today about Sen. Sanders as someone with at least a shot at derailing the Clinton Express.

Now, let’s all turn our attention back to those crazy Republicans … shall we?