DoYOU Support The Troops???

SAYING you support the troops, and putting a cheesy-ass yellow ribbon magnet on your car does not "support the troops".

Taking care of injured and disabled vets adequately when they come home is support.

We fail at that.

Ensuring the vets come home to the same freedoms they were supposedly "defending" is support.

We fail at that.

Having an economy that can provide adequate economic opportunities to troops who muster out is support.

We fail at that.

Finally, making DAMN sure that any man or woman wearing the uniform of an American service does not risk their life needlessly or for mere corporate gain is support.

We fail miserably at that.

There's a big difference between supporting an unethical and immoral war, and supporting the troops. In fact, much of the time, those two things are mutually exclusive.

So, next time you talk to someone who "supports the troops", ask them exactly HOW they do that.

Chances are that they don't.

Not really anyway.
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A True Look At The Gulf

The Anti-Moratorium Rally Ate Our Oily Souls:






http://www.rudepundit.blogspot.com/

There the Rude Pundit was, in the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana, a week ago, in the media section, right in front of the stage, for the Rally for Economic Survival. The rally, sponsored by local businesses, but mostly those that are oil-related, was to send a message via the media that most of Louisiana opposes President Obama's six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling, as well as the suspension of operations on 33 wells currently being drilled (which is less than 1% of the deepwater wells in the Gulf). Everywhere you went in town, you could see signs telling people to go to the rally. Businesses shut down so their workers could attend, some even providing buses for them to get there. And, indeed, the Cajundome, which has a Justin Bieber concert coming up, was pretty much filled with over 11,000 people.

Behind the Rude Pundit was the staff for the Attorney General of Louisiana. Two seats back was Senator David Vitter, the Republican whose affairs with diaper-changing hookers do not seem to matter to the supposedly good Catholics and evangelicals who vote for him. Oil executives were all around. Walking through the Cajundome, you could identify people by their shirts - who worked for Halliburton, who worked for Shell, who worked for every small oil company, who was there for the local Tea Party. Most were the workers whose jobs could be affected by the halt of drilling, although one suspected that they were acting like it was a blanket moratorium and not one so specifically targeted.

A few observations:

1. Lieutenant Governor Scott Angelle is one of those old school politicians who can whip a crowd into a frenzy. Frankly, he's the guy Republicans should be grooming for the future, not Governor Bobby Jindal. The Rude Pundit's mom, who was his "photographer" for the event, found him absolutely thrilling.

2. Bobby Jindal is one of the goddamned worst speakers. His whiny little speech, which featured him saying that "We don't want a check from BP," climaxed by his lame-ass attempt to get the crowd to chant "Let us go back to work," which he approached with all the enthusiasm of a man forced to go to a John Mayer concert with his girlfriend. The crowd clapped a bit and confusedly tried to chant, but it was aborted before it reached its first trimester.

3. Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser is not your roly-poly friend anymore. Oh, how we all loved this man of the people when he appeared on our magical Anderson Cooper show, railing about BP's despoiling of his people's land. But now he mocked President Obama and demanded an end to the moratorium on the very drilling that wrecked his parish's marshes and coasts. He's an old oil guy, so he knows where the big money comes from. It ain't shrimp.

4. Speaker after speaker said that this was a "war" that had to be won. The war was with the federal government, which was criticized (to cheers and boos) constantly in a way that BP was not.

5. The Cajundome and rally organizers did not allow people to bring signs, not inside, not in the parking lot. One imagines it was a way to avoid anyone showing up with an Obama/Hitler or witch doctor poster. But there was a barely contained rage towards the President that popped out every now and then when someone would yell, "Stop Obama." Or when oil lobbyist John Hofmeister started to talk about the "three evils" affecting South Louisiana. He was talking about the evils of what he called "misinformation" in various forms, but dozens of people called out "Obama" or "Obama is evil."

6. Yes, there were black people there. Yes, the vast majority of the crowd was white. No, the representation of non-whites was not in proportion to the truly diverse population of the region.

7. No Democratic politician spoke nor was in the audience. Not Senator Mary Landrieu. Not Representative Charlie Melancon. They both oppose the moratorium, too.

The Rude Pundit felt disgusted by the entire thing. Because you know what? They were right. South Louisiana is bought and owned by the oil industry. In the last century, it has raped the Louisiana landscape like a Russian mobster with a new shipment of hot Ukrainian women who thought they were immigrating for modeling jobs. The state is now the oil industry's willing whore, doing anything it can to please Chevron or ExxonMobil because that where the jobs are.

You drive down, for instance, Highway 90 from Lafayette to New Iberia, and you pass the pipe fitters, the heavy tool operators, the boat repair shops, the undersea explorer offices, the truck rental places, business after business after business, every single one of them, every single person in them, every single restaurant nearby, every single motel and hotel that puts up business travelers, all of them serving the oil corporations. And all of those jobs and all of those sales and service payments make up a huge part of the tax base of the state.

So, yeah, even with just 33 rigs down, that's thousands of jobs that are directly affected. And BP ain't gonna pay it all. And it's kind of a joke to get all upset about the ruined marshes when the canals and paths that have been carved out of the Louisiana landscape have shredded the wetlands for decades, with little attention beyond activists who wave their hands uselessly.

We're fucked. That's the conclusion the Rude Pundit reached. We are so very fucked by oil. Because the cost of weaning this nation off it is astronomical. Last month, when Bill Maher said, "Fuck your jobs" in favor of the environment, it was a fine rhetorical flourish, but so, so very naive, in a way he usually is not. But not because he dreams big. Liberals are dreamers. It's what we do.

We are fucked because every job lost is a family we all gotta help. It would cost trillions of dollars to extricate ourselves from the claws of Big Oil. And we are simply no longer a nation that thinks in such ways any more. That's why the Rude Pundit walked out of the rally angry, sad, and despairing. Unless we are willing to sacrifice as a whole, unless we are willing to shift our entire economy to saving the earth and the air, you may as well let 'em drill.

I Will NOT Tolerate Crack Heads As Neighbors

Call me old fashioned but I will NEVER allow crack heads to exist ANYWHERE within my vicinity. They will be reported to local law enforcement and their drug induced activity will cease immediately.

Fuck these addicted pieces of shit.

So BEWARE!!!

If you are a crack head and I know you - you will soon enjoy an 8 x 10 cell in county jail.

Screw You Liberals - Today I Have Become A republican

I give up, I became a conservative republican today...

Posted by AnArmyVeteran in General Discussion
Thu Jul 22nd 2010, 08:51 AM

 

I give up, I've had enough, I can't take it any more. After years of fighting for progressive causes and trying to do what was right for my country, I've decided to become a republican. Not just any republican, but a conservative republican, a far right wing extremist.

After a lifetime of pounding my head against the wall trying to promote progressive values I finally asked myself 'why?'. It hasn't gotten me anywhere and I haven't made any impact on society or made it better. I've just been hurting myself.

It takes far too much energy and mental exercise to be a liberal, a democrat or a progressive. Being a liberal means I have to think intelligently using entire paragraphs and think rationally. I have to inform myself by reading hundreds of sources for information to make sure I found the truth. But I've become tired of immersing myself in the sea of knowledge and now I just want to crawl to the nearest shore and rest.

So it is with great pleasure that today I am announcing I have become a conservative republican. I've officially changed my party status and I am no longer affiliated in any way with anything that hints of left wing ideals. I have finally swam ashore and I feel very safe and secure on my small right wing island where I no longer have to process information or to try to seek the truth.

From this point forward I am only going to listen to talk radio and Fox News all day long for all of my information. It's going to be so much easier than using all my energy with thought and research. I'm hereby going to stop thinking, and instead, just absorb everything I hear from my new right wing sources. I give up being a functioning human being and a responsible, informed citizen, and from now on I will just mindlessly sit in front of my television or radio and let right wing hosts do my thinking for me. I will faithfully repeat only what I hear from them, never doubting anything I hear. I'm looking forward to just regurgitating buzzwords instead of using complete sentences or paragraphs.

To ensure I remain a conservative republican in good standing I have scheduled appointments to have 95% of my brain and 100% of my heart removed. As a right wing extremist I know I will no longer need them because I don't need to think, and I certainly will never need to have compassion or empathy for any other human being. I now believe in the right wing philosophy of a dog-eat-dog world where only the strongest should survive and the rich should own everything and control our country.

I'm going to like living my life selfishly, without any regard for anyone else. If I see someone who is poor or down on their luck I will now feel they deserve their fate instead of reaching out my hand to them. If I see someone who is vulnerable I will try to exploit them. I will now prey on others instead of praying for them. And I will support my new conservative philosophy which favors the lazy and opportunistic rich over the hardworking poor. I know only those who are rich have any true value while people of modest means have zero worth.

Capitalism is my new god are CEOs are my god's disciples. I now consider Limaugh, Hannity, Beck, OReilly and so many others to be the missionaries who believe unregulated capitalism is a divine force in which we shall all bow to and worship. I vow to always pray to the god of the almighty dollar and condemn those who do not share my newfound greed.

I was so excited yesterday when I received my conservative republican welcoming package in the mail. Contained within it was an 8 x 10 glossy photo of Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin. When I was still a thinking and responsible liberal such a picture would have ended up in the fire, but now I am proudly displaying that photo above my fireplace in a place of great reverence.

I have officially gone over to the other side. I urge everyone who was as tired as I became to follow me and to have your minds and hearts purged from your lives. I'm learning how truly blissful it can be to be totally ignorant.

Signed,
A former educated, informed liberal who is tired of using my brain and my heart...

Quit Ponting Fingers

Republicans blame Obama, rejecting facts that illustrate one man could not do that much damage in that short of time, using selective amnesia on the last 8 years of Bush.

Democrats talk about creating jobs, but never where they went and how to really get them back.

The job losses are CLINTON and GORE's fault. Can't anyone remember the debate, what Ross Perot was saying about the "giant sucking sound" of American jobs. I know that Democrats do not want to face this but Perot was right. What Gore and Clinton did was wrong. And Al Gore, in particular, is a hypocrite because these policies moved all our industries to countries where they pollute freely. CO2 anyone? But they want to cap and trade tax us to fix the environment?!

You want to fix the environment, create our goods here where we know they are made in an environmentally(not to mention decent human rights) sound environment. Punish BUSINESS that purchases from polluting companies overseas.
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I Hate To Say I Told You So BUT.....

Us left wing, free thinking, tree hugging, antiwar, peace, love, and understanding hippies were right about everything.

We were right about drilling in our seas and now the Gulf of Mexico is filled with oil.

We were right about war and now we are a broken, divided country with debt flowing into a desert drain and soldiers dying for oil and imperialism.

We were right about the corporatization, monopolization, and The Federal Reserve. Now we have Goldman Sachs and the big banks performing daylight robbery whilst infiltrating the highest levels of our government. We have the greatest joke for media on the planet. And we have corporations that are so large if they fail they take down whole portions of our economy.

We were right about our foreign policy and going to other peoples lands for their resources. Hence we had September 11th, 2001. Terrorists didn't attack Norway. They attacked us because we steal the worlds resources under the guise of spreading democracy.

We were right about overfishing our seas and treating animal life well. Now we have depleted fish stocks around the globe and dwindling endangered species in bodies of water around the globe.

We were right about green house gases and the hole in the ozone layer and treating Mother Earth with respect. Now weather conditions around the world are skewed each year, ice caps are melting and Kilimanjaro and many other mountains are growing barren of snow.

We were right about gas guzzling cars and clean energy. Our cities are filled with pollution and the price of oil continues to rob our families. We had the chance to adopt clean energy back under Carter and the big corporations killed the best ideas.

We were right about having healthy pregnancies. We have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and also one of the highest C-section rates. Those doctors need to be able to make those tee times!

We were right about legalizing marijuana. 30 years later and the drug war rages on. Alcohol still kills many more people. Mexico is full of headless corpses. Americas jails (which are now corporate workhouses) are full of our young people. And Columbia our only friend in the drug war is the only South American country that deals with us. The rest have had a Bolivarian Revolution and gone completely left against us as we robbed them of their resources and performed coups in their countries for the last century and a half.

We were right about trusting our leaders. Those leaders lied us into war, stole our retirement savings, and gave away our taxes to their friends. Our current leaders are still entrenched with large corporate interests to the point of making their own leadership nearly ineffective.

We were right about saving the Whales. New research indicates dolphins and whales have an intelligence on par with human beings. Japan, Norway, and other countries continue to slaughter the whales while the U.S. does nothing of serious consequence to enforce the U.N.'s decision to ban commercial whaling.

We were right about religion in government. The alliance of the Christian Coalition and the right wing Republican Party brought us George W. Bush and the two wars he decided to implement. Creationism is being taught in many schools, Church's pay no tax and they actually receive our tax dollars for spreading their religion. Many states actually vote in their Church's. Religious schools are on the rise and public schools are being denied funding.

We were right about the CIA and our media. We now have a dumbed down population that doesn't stir while all these terrible things are implemented in our name. The hippies said don't trust em during Vietnam and they were ignored but thanks to the antiwar movement and people like John Lennon, Abbie Hoffman, and Allen Ginsberg the war was eventually stopped. Now the hippies continue to be correct but our military industrial complex continues to expand. Even under the current administration.
We were right about drilling for oil in Alaska and now that formerly unspoiled territory has pipeline's running through it and a sound that is amuck with oil.

We were right about free love. Now we have lecherous senators having sex with prostitutes (who are found hanged) and closet gay congressmen who tap their toes in public restrooms looking for a seedy blowjob. We have poor young women on our streets who become drug addicts and murder victims while the roots of the problem continues to be ignored. The roots being repressed sexuality, lack of education, and terrible upbringings due to our screwed up society.

We were right about feeding the world. World hunger is on the rise and men, women, and children all around the world are dying from disease and starvation. Food and life saving drugs are so corporatized that people are actually not receiving them when they need them. We are now manufacturing genetically engineered seed and injecting cows with Bovine Growth Hormone. Opening the door to mutations and new diseases.

We were right about nuclear power. We have had a reactor melt down on Three Mile Island. We have had Chernobyl. And we have had a nuclear arms race that has wasted trillions of dollars and poisoned our planet.

We were right about a rising police state. We now have cops that use gestapo tactics, who dress like stormtroopers, who use tasers regularly to control the population. We have designated off site protest areas, heat rays, agent provocateurs, and mass arrests of peaceful protesters and innocent bystanders.

We were right about unregulated capitalism. The cream doesn't rise to the top. The crap does. Bad guys get away with their crimes and even get promotions when they lie and steal. While the middle class goes broke. The rich grow richer and pay less tax.

We were right about deregulation. TV, radio, the music industry, big pharma, power companies, cable companies, telecoms. They all fix prices. They all promote inane crapola. They all collude. They all hurt the little guy. They all suck.

We were right about the death penalty. We now have a country that thinks war is the answer and has no problem with the killing of innocent people. We refer to them as collateral damage. The death penalty is social conditioning as our government puts citizens to death. The lesson taught to our children is that some killing is ok. As long as the government does it. This paradox is eating away at our humanity. The death penalty should be abolished and peace and love should be the answer.

Joseph Campbell had it right. The musicians, artists, writers, poets, inventors, and dreamers are the ones who will enlighten us and bring about a true golden age.

We are the liberal left.

We are the hippies.

We are the progressive left.

We are Americas future and only hope.

And our track record of success speaks for itself.
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Corporate Interess

Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune

Corporations sue to allow campaign contributions

Not content with running their own ads supporting candidates, businesses want judicial approval to contribute directly to campaigns and political parties.

By PAT DOYLE, Star Tribune

Upset with restrictions on political campaign contributions, backers of Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer are seeking to overturn a Minnesota law barring corporations from contributing directly to campaigns and parties.

State law now allows corporations to spend money independently of campaigns on ads supporting or opposing candidates, an arrangement that the U.S. Supreme Court approved early this year.

But the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life and Coastal Travel Enterprises seek to go beyond that ruling and allow direct contributions to candidates by corporations.

"Our clients believe ... that the First Amendment gives corporations ... the right to contribute to candidates and political parties through their general treasury funds," said Joe La Rue, an attorney for the plaintiffs, who sued this week in U.S. District Court in Minnesota.

Read more: iUs" target="_blank">http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/98080899.html...
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Dave's Rage - Monday July 5, 2010

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE America, mainly because it is the country of my birth and I have lived here all my life but I am deeply disappointed in what my country has become.

We have things going on now that just don’t make a bit of sense to me: two ridiculous wars, American occupation of at least 75 other countries, corrupt government leaders, a disaster caused by a foreign corporation in American waters and don’t EVEN get me started on republican obstruction and 8 years of george fuckin’ bush.

But what frosts my balls the most is the idiots screaming for politicians to act more like the founding fathers. You know these guys? The people that wrote the Constitution. The foundation of America.

You know the founding fathers right? 

 

That band of slave owners that escaped British tyranny and landed in America and said that all men are created equal. That is unless you’re an Indian, nigger or a woman, of course. Excuse me, but I like to use those good ole’ American words, the kind that helped forge this great country of ours, when discussing the current turn back the clock attitudes of these uninformed, uneducated clods that comprise the current republican party.

Come to think of it, it shouldn’t surprise me at all.

Seeing the republican/conservative/teahadist alternate reality bizzaro world take on everything, going back to elitist attitudes and hypocrisy would seem like a great idea to them. Get them a couple of slaves, beat up their women and rob the world blind as long as they have more toys than their neighbor. DAMN THE TORPEDOS – FULL SPEED AHEAD!!!

In my short, fifty year gig so far here in this world I have never seen such a split between two political parties. We just don’t agree on anything. Not one damn thing. At least I never really paid attention to things as much as I do now.

And maybe THAT’S the problem

Because I know if, in my younger years, I seen this loss of personal freedoms and powers, I would probably have run for President by now. So instead I share my observations, my views, my feelings with you all here – not trying to change your mind on things but to at least get you to think.

Think outside the box, even for just one moment.

Think for yourself.

For some, this cold be the first time you have ever tried this and I would guess that you possess the (R) next to your political name. I applaud your efforts. There may be hope for you yet.

I see the problems with the Democrats also and believe me when I say that they have done some pretty rotten things in my book too, but to no degree of the republican destruction. So I have chosen to side with the lesser of the two evils. Not really feeling the hope and change I was promised but it sure would have been worse with the “other” guy.

I guess that’s better than being on neither side right? But it’s getting pretty old.

I would LOVE to see a third party candidate make an honest run for President. But I sure as hell wouldn’t just want the same product under a different label. There is only one person that I know of that can fit that bill and would have a great chance of winning.

Jesse Ventura.

I have a great running mate for him too. Someone that can bring respect back to the office of Vice-President. A person of power and charisma. A person of equal in-your-face-screw-you-I’m-doing-it-MY-way attitude.

 
Only one man can do this.

Donald Trump.

Now just think of this for a second or two. Think of the powerful way that these two guys take care of business. Think of THAT working for US as OUR elected leaders.

Comments please.
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They Keep TRYING To Make "Liberal" A Dirty Word

As I get older I find myself getting more and more liberal. I think it is because I see the mean-spiritedness of the conservative movement now. I see the harm their ideas have done to this country. I find myself upset to see the conservative Democrats going along with some of the policies that really will hurt people in their everyday lives in a painful way. I remember how it really got going with Newt Gingrich and his language control attempts in his 1996 GOPAC memo. He and his cohorts made liberal sound like an insult. Then the think tanks on his side picked up on it, and a few on our side of the aisle as well. They sneered at liberals, made them synonymous with words like "fringe" and "radical". I remember when I first realized how most of my Republican family felt about anything remotely off center to the left. A family member scornfully called my parents "bleeding heart liberals." My parents were moderate old-fashioned Southern Baptists who even hesitated to sip wine because the church forbade it. I noticed it again in 2003, and it really hurt then. Those of us who became so active in politics with the Dean campaign were called liberals and scorned as fringe activists. It was stunning, and it carried right down to the local level. And it was not the Republicans who did that, it was our own party. The most annoying thing was the preempting of the labels. The conservative Democrats began to call themselves progressives as they pushed liberals aside and called them fringe. They also renamed themselves the "sensible center" and the "moderate middle" and other similar high-sounding terms. It started a long time ago. And through the years the degrading comments toward liberals/leftists/the left have escalated. 1985 Blueprint for reforming the party. In his "Saving the Democratic Party" memo of January 1985, From advocated the formation of a "governing council" that would draft a "blueprint" for reforming the party. According to From, the new leadership should aim to create distance from "the new bosses"-organized labor, feminists, and other progressive constituency groups-that were keeping the party from modernizing. From's memo sparked the formation of the Democratic Leadership Council in early 1985. According to Balz and Brownstein, "Within a few weeks, it counted 75 members, primarily governors and members of Congress, most of them from the Sunbelt, and almost all of them white; liberal critics instantly dubbed the group 'the white male caucus.'" These words in the 90s from Al From, then head of the DLC, were real gems. He is actually saying that President Clinton beat the GOP to issues before they knew what happened. Something odd about bragging about pre-empting the Republican party. "One Election, Two Interpretations The predominant analysis in the media echoes the New Democrat view that Clinton won by pre-empting the right on such issues as crime, welfare reform, and a balanced budget. "Every time Dole tried to get cracking on an issue," Al From pointed out at a post-election DLC press conference, "he couldn't do it because the president had, in a sense, beat him there." Democrats at the Crossroads Pride in using the GOP's policies before they got around to doing it? There should be pride in standing for real Democratic values, not the punitive conservative ideas. An article from the DLC website in 2003 not only went after Howard Dean, his website, and his supporters, it attacked Democratic Underground. Yes, it really did. "Meanwhile, in addition to its standard-fare official website, deanforamerica.com, the Dean campaign also maintains a weblog called blogforamerica.com that plays a curious role in keeping activist supporters emotionally invested and engaged in the campaign. It is part sitcom, part soap opera. Enthusiastic campaign supporters participate in the drama, posting their own comments in related discussion areas. The interactivity and the cacophony of voices help create a sense of energy -- the feeling of a movement." But there is also another, simpler explanation for why fringe groups would be using the Internet better than mainstream campaigns: "Because they have to," said Fose, McCain's Internet manager. Certainly, the fringes of the political spectrum are active online on heavily trafficked discussion boards such as the left-wing democraticunderground.com and the right-wing freerepublic.com. Dean's fiery message resonates in the left-wing haunts. He is the favorite son on democraticunderground.com, according to the site's proprietor, David Allen, and the people posting on that site are an animated bunch. Much of what they post -- about Bush, and about moderate Democrats -- would not be appropriate to repeat here. But the question remains: It's easy to activate the activists, but what about everyone else? Nothing but Net I always find myself thinking that they must not need the activists since they so often scorn them/us. I hope they never find that the activists are not there anymore. Also in 2003 the same group defined the role of activists in the party. They as much as said there is none. There is no role for activists which they seem to equate with the left, with liberals. The Real Soul of the Party Hint: It is not activists. Not only is the activist wing out of line with Democratic tradition, but it is badly out of touch with the Democratic rank-and-file. "But the great myth of the current cycle is the misguided notion that the hopes and dreams of activists represent the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. Real Democrats are real people, not activist elites. The mission of the Democratic Party, as Bill Clinton pledged in 1992, is to provide "real answers to the real problems of real people."Real Democrats who champion the mainstream values, national pride, and economic aspirations of middle-class and working people are the real soul of the Democratic Party, not activists and interest groups with narrow agendas." ..."What activists like Dean call the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party is an aberration: the McGovern-Mondale wing, defined principally by weakness abroad and elitist, interest-group liberalism at home. That's the wing that lost 49 states in two elections, and transformed Democrats from a strong national party into a much weaker regional one." An article in 2004 pointed out the newest young leaders in the New Democrat movement. Note the use of the words "interest groups", "minority groups" "weak on defense." One of the founders once said of the DLC that they had been founded to lessen reliance on the traditional interest groups and get funding from corporations. Then they did not have to stand for things that made it hard to win. These young New Democrats have the talking points down pat. (Jamal)Simmons and his fellow "Young Turks" worry about the Democratic Party's dependence on interest groups, their relations with minority groups, the stereotypes that they are weak on defense and values, the Republican appropriation of the "reformer" label and the swaths of America that Democrats seem to have written off." .."We respect the struggles of the feminist movement, the civil rights movement and Vietnam, but (we) are not defined by those struggles," says Kirsten Powers, 37, a New York-based strategist and commentator for Fox News. "We want to take what is good in liberalism and make it better, and get rid of what is not working." ..."Simmons, Powers and New York City-based consultant Dan Gerstein have been three of the bluntest commentators. "The party in certain respects is fossilized," says Gerstein, 37. "It's trapped in the last vestiges of the New Deal coalition. That coalition is no longer an electoral majority or even close to it." A former aide to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., Gerstein wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Democrats have "fallen right back into the elitist, weak-kneed, brain-dead trap" they thought they'd escaped with Bill Clinton." It's time to pass torch, younger Dems say The words about "the left" have gone on for years, decades. In 1998 Al From said: "I've got bad news for the President's opponents in both parties: New Democrats are winning the battle for their party's soul. New Democrats, not liberals, will be the party's dominant force in the 21st century." New Democrats are here to stay In 2003 Evan Bayh had choice words about the left. His words were condescending. Bayh has a history of sparring with the left in his party. As chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council in 2003, he warned of then-rising presidential campaign of Howard Dean. “The Democratic Party is at risk of being taken over by the far left,” he told DLC members in 2003. “We have an important choice to make: Do we want to vent, or do we want to govern?” Bruce Reed of the DLC talked about how the DLC has completed its mission. “The political mission of the DLC has been largely accomplished,” said Reed, who’s had the group’s No. 2 post since 2001. “Twenty-five years ago, the forgotten middle class had serious doubts about Democrats, and now Democrats are winning the middle class, suburban voters, moderates by handsome margins. Our next challenge is to deliver on that promise and earn those votes for years to come." Political mission completed He did not refer to voters on the left. Some of the most contentious words used by the party have been directed, not at Republicans, but at "the left", "liberals". Notice how this article accuses us having narrow agendas. We are called "elitists" by those who sit in their ivory towers and make the decisions. The Real Soul of the Democratic Party Real Democrats who champion the mainstream values, national pride, and economic aspirations of middle-class and working people are the real soul of the Democratic Party, not activists and interest groups with narrow agendas. Most Democrats aren't elitists who think they know better than everyone else; they are everyone else. They don't swoon when they hear a candidate say it's time for Democrats to dream again. What they want is the American Dream, where everybody who works hard and plays by the rules has the chance to get ahead. SNIP..."Not only is the activist wing out of line with Democratic tradition, but it is badly out of touch with the Democratic rank-and-file. In 1996, a survey by the Washington Post compared the views of delegates to the Democratic convention to those of registered Democratic voters. The delegates perfectly mirrored the Democratic electorate in terms of race, ethnicity, and gender. But they could not have been more different when it came to class and education. Democratic delegates were nearly five times more likely than Democratic rank-and-file to have incomes over $75,000, three times more likely to have a college degree, and over four times more likely to have done postgraduate work. No wonder that when the New Yorker recently asked Karl Rove to describe the Democratic base, he said, "somebody with a doctorate." One of the latest to toss careless words out about liberals is Blanche Lincoln. Lincoln calls out the Democratic left In a new interview with The Hill, Sen. Blanche Lincoln -- facing a tough Democratic primary challenge funded by national progressives on Tuesday -- called out her opponents on the Democratic left wing. Lincoln said she is facing criticism from a political movement that she suggested is divorced from the political reality. Divorced from political reality? There is a constant in the jibes at the left, the liberals. We are always talked about in the 3rd person. Like we were in a separate place or location in time and space from the rest of the party. We are referred to as they or them, never in the 1st person plural like we or us. The words through the years have left their toll. As we have moved to the right things have changed in this country. The wars are growing longer, the rich are getting richer, and now the poor are growing poorer. Each time we get in power now we move right so as not to offend the Republicans, while they have no hesitation about offending us greatly and often. The most annoying thing of all is the attempt to portray liberals as not very bright, not very politically savvy, unable to see the big picture. That's the problem. We do see the big picture. We see the harm done when there is a concerted effort to define a whole group of people as being fringe and inadequate. We see the harm done when we fail to stand up to the meanness of the conservative movement of today.

If America Was Invaded What Would You Do?

I'm sure the republicans would be hiding under heir beds quaking with fear.

 

What if the United States was attacked & occupied? What would you do?

Posted by AnArmyVeteran in General Discussion

What do you think would happen if another country invaded America and occupied it with a huge number of soldiers? 

 

Do you think a lot of Americans would sit and do nothing regardless of why the foreign military was here? 

 

Or would a lot of Americans shoot at the occupying force?

I'm sure that if the US was occupied it would mobilize a lot of people to strike back at the foreign military. Hell, there are a lot of Americans who belong to militias who want to strike at their own government, so it seems like a given they would constantly attack any foreign occupiers. And ironically, that foreign military would call Americans 'insurgents'.

Imagine the leader of the occupying country saying he will keep his country's military in the US until all of the insurgents are rounded up or destroyed. This is virtually the same scenario we are facing in Afghanistan. No matter how long we have our military there there will always be insurgents. There will always be groups of people in that country that will try to kill members of the invading army, our soldiers.

What I find ironic is that the more right wing a person is the more they want to stay in Afghanistan and kill as many people as they can. I've heard the 'Christian' Glenn Beck saying we should use nukes against them. But they don't ever think that if the tables were turned would they want another country to nuke entire towns in the US just to get a handful of American insurgents?

At the G 20 conference, President Obama left the door wide open to stay in Afghanistan for a long time. This is not just disturbing, it's wrong. No matter how long we stay in Afghanistan it will achieve absolutely nothing. And as soon as we leave, whether it's 1 year or 5,000 years, everything will resort back to the pre-invasion days.

Attacking Afghanistan with a conventional army to fight against unconventional forces was the stupid act by the buffoonish Bush. We couldn't win in Vietnam with a conventional army fighting the Viet Cong just as we won't win in Afghanistan fighting an endless supply of insurgents. 

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When The Lunatcs Run The Asylum

Creepy: Utah AG’s Tweets During Execution had Religious Overtones

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/06/22/creepy-utah-ags-tweets-during-execution-had-religious-overtones/

I’m sure you saw something about this over the weekend, but today the WaPo’s on-faith looked at the language of Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s tweets during last Friday’s execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner:

[Death penalty supporters believe that] executions are manifestly supposed to have an educative impact by affirming social values and the position of the state as the authorized protector of its citizens.

In his tweets, Attorney General Shurtleff implicitly references these views and combines them with portentous religious language. Recognizing that it is a “solemn day,” Shurtleff tweets, “Utah will use most extreme power & execute a killer. Mourn his victims: Justice.” Later, Shurtleff declares in reference to Gardner’s fate: “May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims.”

These tweets constitute a religious justification for capital punishment. The word “solemn” obviously recalls the sanctity of religious ceremony. The word “justice” and “mourn” evoke heavy responsibility with deep emotional affect. “Mercy” places the execution within the larger context of the Christian belief in a redeeming God. Here their content is vacuous.

Especially telling is when the Shurtleff tweets about Gardner’s victims but doesn’t mention any of them by name–there simply isn’t room for them given everything else that he wants to say.

Yeah, there’s no room to name victims in a 140-character tweet.

I find the whole kerfuffle a bit strange. The death penalty’s outdated, ineffective as a deterrent and generally reflective of a brutal and tacky society. That seems a bigger issue than whether some showboating AG took to Twitter to talk about it.

People tweet about the ham sandwich they had for lunch, why not an execution?
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If Conservatives Hate Government Why Do They Love Government Help?

In Kentucky, the Lexington Herald-Leader had a good editorial the other day that an alert reader brought to my attention. It expressed a sentiment we’ve probably all heard more than a few times, but it’s nice to get a reminder now and then.

The editorial board highlighted the fact that Rand Paul, the bizarre Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, has ideas that sometimes “crash into reality” in awkward ways. For example, Paul hates “big government” programs like Medicaid and Medicare, but the health care programs nevertheless constitute about half of his professional income. Indeed, the right-wing ophthalmologist would like to eliminate most of the federal government, but he’s prepared to leave Medicare intact — the socialized-medicine program that’s helped him pay his mortgage.

Likewise, Paul wanted nothing to do with contributions from senators who support the financial industry bailout in 2008. The pledge suddenly disappeared when his campaign decided he needed the money.
For the Herald-Leader, the point for voters to ponder is “how Paul’s ideas and ideals would translate on the ground.”

In fairness, many of us are guilty of wanting the benefits of something — whether it’s board certification or full campaign coffers — without paying the price.
Like the Gulf Coast residents who want government off their backs, until a hurricane or oil spill comes along.

Or the Farm Bureau that wants government off the farm, except for the mailbox which is always open to subsidy checks.

Or politicians who rail against out-of-control spending but show up to take credit when a ribbon is cut or oversized check presented.

Or all the rest of us, who resent the chunk of change that government extracts from our pockets but want smooth roads, good schools, police and fire protection, national security, personal security in old age, free markets governed by laws, student loans, flood walls, lakes and parks and the list goes on.

The Tea Party movement, of which Paul is both a leader and beneficiary, feeds the comforting illusion that we can have all we’ve come to expect from government without paying for it. We buy into this illusion at our own peril.

I don’t have anything especially insightful to add; I just found this sentiment worth repeating.

This post appeared on Washington Monthly.
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Killer Cops On The Rise

Cops Kill 21-Year-Old in Marijuana Raid

On Friday the government’s war on marijuana consumers claimed yet another victim.
In Las Vegas, Nevada, metro police shot and killed a 21-year-old father-to-be while serving a search warrant for marijuana.

Phil Smith at StoptheDrugWar.org has detailed coverage here.

A 21-year-old father-to-be was killed last Friday night by a Las Vegas Police Department narcotics officer serving a search warrant for marijuana. Trevon Cole was shot once in the bathroom of his apartment after he made what police described as “a furtive movement.”
Police have said Cole was not armed. Police said Monday they recovered an unspecified amount of marijuana and a set of digital scales. A person identifying herself as Cole’s fiancée, Sequoia Pearce, in the comments section in the article linked to above said no drugs were found.

Pearce, who is nine months pregnant, shared the apartment with Cole and was present during the raid. “I was coming out, and they told me to get on the floor. I heard a gunshot and was trying to see what was happening and where they had shot him,” Pearce told KTNV-TV.
According to police, they arrived at about 9 p.m. Friday evening at the Mirabella Apartments on East Bonanza Road, and detectives knocked and announced their presence. Receiving no response, detectives knocked the door down and entered the apartment. They found Pearce hiding in a bedroom closet and took her into custody. They then tried to enter a bathroom where Cole was hiding. He made “a furtive movement” toward a detective, who fired a single shot, killing Cole.

… According to Pearce and family members, Cole had no criminal record, had achieved an Associate of Arts degree, and was working as an insurance adjustor while working on a political science degree at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He was not a drug dealer, Pearce said.

“Trevon was a recreational smoker. He smoked weed, marijuana. That’s what he did,” she told KTNV-TV. “They didn’t have to kill him. We were supposed to get married next year, plan a black and white affair,” she said. “He was all I ever knew, we were gonna make it.”

In May, I blogged about another sickening case — that one from Columbia, Missouri (you can watch the disturbing and graphic video here) — of ‘cops gone wild’ in the war on weed. But the similarities between the two cases go beyond narcotics officers breaking down the doors of private residences and discharging their weapons.

In both instances, these tragic raids took place in regions of the country that have ‘decriminalized’ marijuana possession. That’s right. In Nevada, lawmakers in 2001 enacted statewide legislation defelonizing minor marijuana possession — making the offense a fine-only misdemeanor. (Separately, Nevada voters in 2000 decided to amend the state’s constitution to exempt medical users from arrest.) And in 2004, some 60 percent of Columbia, Missouri voters approved a local ordinance that sought to prohibit local cops from from arresting anyone for simple marijuana possession.

Yet, as the above tragedies illustrate, neither of these ‘half-a-loaf’ changes in law (decriminalization and medicalization) ultimately corrects the core problem and that is this: Police and politicians still accept the premise that this level of deadly force is appropriate to keep people from using marijuana.

That is why, while on the one hand NORML (obviously) supports cannabis medicalization and decriminalization efforts, we also recognize that these efforts fall woefully short for many Americans. After all, police in Las Vegas, Columbia, and elsewhere are not forcefully entering private homes and terrorizing families while executing search warrants for alcohol. But they are engaging in such behavior in communities that have medicalized and/or decriminalized marijuana. And unfortunately, they will continue to do so.

In short, the only way to fully protect all our citizens from these kinds of abhorrent events is through the legalization and regulation of marijuana for all adults. 

Decriminalization and medicalization are first steps — not the end game. Ultimately only legalization and regulation can bring a long overdue end to the brutal war on marijuana consumers.
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Are We Sick Of Hearing This Shit Yet?

Cop Punches 17-Year-Old Girl in the Face … Over Jay-Walking

According to Seattle Police, this poor cop’s fist was brutally assaulted by the face of a 17-year old girl:

Seattle police are investigating what they call an assault of an officer in South Seattle.
However, a police officer is seen punching a 17-year-old girl in the face during the incident captured by a video camera on Monday.

According to Seattle police, the incident began when an officer spotted a man jaywalking in the 3100 block of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way S. at approximately 3:10 p.m. The man was some 15 feet away from a pedestrian overpass, police said.

The officer was talking to the man when he saw four young women jaywalk across the same street at the same spot. The officer asked the women to step over to his patrol car, but the women were being “verbally antagonistic toward the officer,” according to officials…
The girl then “began to tense up her arm, and pull away from the officer while yelling at him,” investigators said.

So naturally he socked her. The video’s below.


People generally evaluate these incidents based only on the final moments. Did the cop feel threatened at the moment he threw the punch? I don’t think that’s the key issue here. As Radley Balko (who gets a hat-tip for the story) points out:

Seems to me that the mistake came earlier: This started as a jaywalking citation. Was it it really so important that the woman get a jaywalking fine that she needed to be chased down and thrown against the patrol car? Even if she was trying to avoid the fine, seems like at some point you realize what’s at stake here (a single incident of someone undermining your authority to get away with a petty crime), and just let it go.

Yet again I’ll ask (as I always do): might this cop have been hopped up on steroids? Update: here’s another video of a different cop (also white) punching another young woman (also black) 4 times in the face in 2009 for riding her bicycle on a sidewalk.
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A Word About Immigration

Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States , people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented.

Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.

They had waved goodbye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture. Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity.

Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought along side men whose parents had come straight over from Germany , Italy , France and Japan . None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan. They were defending the United States of America as one people.

When we liberated France , no one in those villages were looking for the French American, the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.

And here we are with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.

 

And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty, it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.
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Those Pain In The Ass Christian Assholes Are At It AGAIN!!!!

Madfloridian's Journal

Church adopts a public school. Pastor says by befriending students they can now convert the parents.

Posted by madfloridian in General Discussion
Tue Jun 15th 2010, 10:09 PM

In Lakeland, Florida, a Southern Baptist megachurch has adopted a public school whose budget was cut. There is a lot of freedom now in Florida apparently to mix public schools and religion. 

It may be a good thing that the church is providing tutors, catering school events with spaghetti dinners, buying sneakers for the students. But it doesn't sound like it will end there. 

From the WSJ:

Towns Tap Businesses, Churches to Shore Up Budgets


Edward Linsmier for The Wall Street Journal Combee Elementary School officials and Pastor Dave McClamma, center top, look on as students receive new shoes from the church, which has been helping out the budget-strapped school this year.

LAKELAND, Fla.—When his budget for pencils, paper, and other essential supplies was cut by a third this school year, the principal of Combee Elementary School worried children would suffer. Then, a local church stepped in and "adopted" the school. The First Baptist Church at the Mall stocked a resource room with $5,000 worth of supplies. It now caters spaghetti dinners at evening school events, buys sneakers for poor students, and sends in math and English tutors.

The principal is delighted. So are church pastors. "We have inroads into public schools that we had not had before," says Pastor Dave McClamma. "By befriending the students, we have the opportunity to visit homes to talk to parents about Jesus Christ."

You could almost call this faith-based schooling. Public funds are being cut or diverted to private religious schools and charter schools. 

That leaves the public schools floundering, needing help, and the churches can step in with help and attempts to convert. 

More than one way to skin a cat. 

Some former pastors show concern for this movement. 

In Florida, meanwhile, alliances between churches and schools are igniting debate about church-state boundaries. "I have great concerns about churches who see public schools as, well, what shall I say, church membership," says Harry Parrott, a retired Baptist minister who runs a local chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

I agree. This Baptist church has a narrow agenda. They worked with the state legislature to pass anti-gay laws. They do not support a woman's right to choose. They believe a woman's place is in the home and being submissive to her husband. 

And now they get access to the parents of these school children. 

The principal openly said he hopes that there are conversions. The superintendent called him out on that. 

"If they want to come in and help, who am I to say no?" says Mr. Comparato, the principal.

He says he would welcome congregations of any faith as sponsors, but adds of his students, "My personal conviction is that I hope through this they'll know Jesus and they'll get saved."

Asked if the principal's comments indicated he was promoting one particular religion, Ms. McKinzie, the Polk County superintendent, says,"He personally can hope anything he wants, as long as he offers programs at the school for parents who don't believe in the Baptist faith or anything at all."

In Florida there is too much crossing over between school and religion. 

Eight Catholic schools converted to charter to get public funding.

And so, the Archdiocese of Miami will begin its experiment with charter schools this fall. What was intended as a pilot program at one parish – Corpus Christi in Wynwood – will become, for financial reasons, the norm at seven more. Charters also will open in August where five other Catholic schools closed this June: Sacred Heart, Our Lady of Divine Providence in Sweetwater, St. Francis Xavier in Overtown, St. Stephen in Miramar and St. Clement in Fort Lauderdale.

A seventh charter will open at St. Malachy in Tamarac, which opted to close its school before its financial situation deteriorated further. And an eighth charter will open in Miami Gardens, in the building used by St. Monica School until it closed in May 2008.

The First Baptist Church at the Mall now has too much access to the students and parents of that elementary school. 

And there is too much mixing of public and private money. Too much mixing of what should be secular and what is religious.

Why Abort It When You Can Wait A Few Years and Fuck It (Pt. 2)

They march into their dens willingly every week as they obediently give up their financial offerings - and their children. For more than thirty years the victims of sexual abuse have been coming forth and are being ignored by not only the church but also by law enforcement.

Church hierarchy all the way to the Vatican have compared the church with the secular world, arguing that media coverage of the issue has been excessive given that abuse occurs in other institutions. The difference being that “other institutions” found guilty of sexual abuse have been dealt with in the criminal courts. For some reason, the Catholics think of themselves as above the law. Case after case of child molestation by priests has been covered up – literally for centuries.

As Pope Benedict begs for forgiveness, he offers an empty promise of “better screening” of church volunteers and low level workers but again avoids actually punishing any pedophile priest.

Why is it that we are allowing this?

When does the abuser get to decide their fate?

The 2004 John Jay Report was based on a study of 10,667 allegations against 4,392 priests accused of engaging in sexual abuse of a minor between 1950 and 2002. The number 4,392 represents four percent of the 109,694 priests in active ministry during that time. Approximately:

• 56 percent had one reported allegation against them; 27 percent had two or three allegations against them; nearly 14 percent had four to nine allegations against them; 3 percent (149 priests) had 10 or more allegations against them. These 149 priests were responsible for almost 3,000 victims, or 27 percent of the allegations.
• The allegations were substantiated for 1,872 priests and unsubstantiated for 824 priests. They were thought to be credible for 1,671 priests and not credible for 345 priests. 298 priests and deacons who had been completely exonerated are not included in the study.
• 50 percent were 35 years of age or younger at the time of the first instance of alleged abuse.
• Almost 70 percent were ordained before 1970.
• Fewer than 7 percent were reported to have themselves been victims of physical, sexual or emotional abuse as children. Although 19 percent had alcohol or substance abuse problems, only 9 percent were reported to have been using drugs or alcohol during the instances of abuse.

There were approximately 10,667 reported minor victims of clergy sexual abuse during this period:

• Around 81 percent of these victims were male.
• 22.6% were age 10 or younger, 51% were between the ages of 11 and 14, and 27% were between the ages to 15 to 17 years.
• A substantial number (almost 2000) of very young children were victimized by priests during this time period.
• 9,281 victim surveys had information about an investigation. In 6,696 (72%) cases, an investigation of the allegation was carried out. Of these, 4,570 (80%) were substantiated; 1,028 (18%) were unsubstantiated; 83 (1.5%) were found to be false. In 56 cases, priests were reported to deny the allegations.
• More than 10 percent of these allegations were characterized as not substantiated. (This does not mean that the allegation was false; it means only that the diocese or order could not determine whether the alleged abuse actually took place.)
• For approximately 20 percent of the allegations, the priest was deceased or inactive at the time of the receipt of the allegation and typically no investigation was conducted in these circumstances.
• In 38.4% of allegations, the abuse is alleged to have occurred within a single year, in 21.8% the alleged abuse lasted more than a year but less than 2 years, in 28% between 2 and 4 years, in 10.2% between 5 and 9 years and, in under 1%, 10 or more years.

Many of the reported acts of sexual abuse involved fondling or unspecified abuse. There were also a large number of allegations of more grave abuse, including acts of oral sex and intercourse. Detailed information on the nature of the abuse was not reported for 26.6% of the reported allegations. 27.3% of the allegations involved the cleric performing oral sex on the victim. 25.1% of the allegations involved penile penetration or attempted penetration.

It's easy to think that amid the all of the allegations of sexual abuse currently scarring the Catholic Church, the cover-ups that have followed have been locally driven. But as the current Pope Benedict scandal suggests, the church cover-ups appear to implicate its highest ranks including Ratzinger himself.

Revelations that the Vatican halted the investigation of a Wisconsin priest accused of molesting some 200 deaf boys where 67 deaf men and women accused two dozen priests of raping and molesting children for years.

Church documents, official testimony, and victim interviews gathered over the past year paint an extraordinary picture of secrecy and deception in the Boston Archdiocese; a culture in which top church officials coddled abusive priests and permitted them to molest again, while stonewalling or paying off the victims of that abuse.

And this goes on ad on every day. When are people going to stop supporting these crimes?

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