Woodstock Turns 40

The music venue in a cow pasture in New York state that defined a decade, Woodstock, turns 40 years old this weekend. Approximately a half million mostly young, college-age people attended the 32 act music festival. Greats like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, CCR entertained the rain and mud covered, ‘hazy’ revelers. The event lasted 3 days, even longer for those who had to figure out where they were.

Woodstock has been defined by Rolling Stone Magazine as 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll. Musicians who chose other venues that weekend kicked themselves for years over the decision not to attend Woodstock. (Bob Dylan and the Doors were 2 who come to mind who had other commitments.) No one had any idea that the event would turn in to what it did.

Woodstock is still the standard, even 40 years later. Many who played on that stage are dead–mainly because of too much hard living, booze and drugs. Joplin, Hendrix, Jerry Garcia are dead as well as others. Their music lives on. So many favorites–it took a while to select MY favorite. I did not go to Woodstock. I later saw Joplin before she died however.

[WARNING–its Joplin. Expletive alert. Turn your speakers down]

Let’s Give Edwards Equal Time

Much as it breaks my heart, it is only fair to give former presidential candidate John Edwards equal time with all the other low-lifes like Gov. Sanford.  He has confessed to fathering a child by his paramour Rielle Hunter.  The child is a [should read GIRL], about 18 months old.  Edwards is an even bigger skunk than most because his wife has a terminal illness.  This ranks him right up there with Newt Gingrich in my opinion. 

What’s wrong with these men in power? Why do they seem to think they can do whatever they want and they won’t get caught? There has to be some sort of syndrome involved.
[ED NOTE: As of 10:45 am 8/14/09 thread is still a rumor. It was based on a Fox News report of late, breaking news that never broke yesterday. ]

Health Care Debates

Anti contributors seem to want to talk about the health care debates.  Every news channel is filled with angry, often rude protestors hollering at an elected official about health care.  Let’s consider the following questions:

1.  Is this the most productive means of communicating?

2. Is this issue being discussed according to right or left ideology?

3. What about people who do not have health care? Are they being heard? How about those who are in jobs where it is not available or the 10% who are unemployed?

4. What is so great about our health care system?

5. If we exclude people from health care (illegal immigrants, food and beverage people, etc) have we really fixed health care? Won’t we still be paying for those who do not have insurance?

6. Do our congressmen and senators really ‘work for us’ or do we elect them to go represent us? Since ‘us’ have different political views, how can we say they ‘work for us?’

7. President Obama’s health care meeting would not have gone the way Senator Spectrum’s did. No one would have been allowed to get in the President’s face. Should congressmen have additional security during these times?

16 Awarded Medal of Freedom

The Medal of Freedom was established by President Harry Truman in 1945 to recognize civilians for their efforts during WWII.  President John F. Kennedy reinstated the Medial of Freedom award in 1963. 

Today, President Barack Obama awarded 16 remarkable people the Medal of Freedom.  The awards ceremony was a moving experience to see all these legends or their representatives all together. 

 

Recipients:

Stephen Hawking     Mary Robinson        Desmond Tutu         Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh     Harvey Milk     Sidney Poitier     Rev. Joseph Lowery     Billie Jean King     Senator Ted Kennedy     Justice Sandra Day O’Connor     Senator Jack Kemp     Joe Medicine Crow     Chita Rivera   Sasan G. Komen/Nancy Brinker     Dr. Pedro Greer     Dr. Janet Davidson Rowley

Link to story

Right-Wing Militias Increase Dramatically

From Google News
Right-wing militias on the rise in US: report

By Alex Ogle (AFP) – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON — Incensed by the election of the first black US president, right-wing militia groups in the United States are rising again after a decade of decline, said new research on extremist groups released Wednesday.

Ideologically driven by racism and a virulent anti-government, anti-immigrant agenda, the homegrown groups that thrived in the 1990s and spurred numerous deadly terrorist attacks are expanding, said the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

“This is the most significant growth we’ve seen in 10 to 12 years,” said a law enforcement official quoted by the SPLC in its special report “The Second Wave: Return of the Militias.”

“All it’s lacking is a spark,” said the official, adding it is “only a matter of time before you see threats and violence.”

Attacks continued in the last decade after the 1995 bombing of a government building in Oklahoma, killing 168 people — the deadliest domestic terrorist attack on US soil. Such violent movements mostly subsided in the 2000s, however, following prosecutions and the election of the highly conservative George W. Bush as president, said the SPLC’s Mark Potok.

A key difference today, the Center said, is that “the federal government — the entity that almost the entire radical right views as its primary enemy — is headed by a black man,” tapping into the latent rage of white supremacist culture.

According to research released by the SPLC last month, there has been a 54-percent rise in racist groups in the United States, from 602 in 2000 to 926 in 2008.

Their study Wednesday also draws direct correlations between Barack Obama’s presidency and numerous murders of law-enforcement officials this year.

“One man ‘very upset’ with the election of America’s first black president was building a radioactive ‘dirty bomb’; another, a Marine, was planning to assassinate Obama, as were two racist skinheads in Tennessee; another angry at the election and said to be interested in joining a militia killed two sheriff’s deputies in Florida,” said Larry Keller at the SPLC.

A key component for the rise of militias is a vibrant world of conspiracy. The report notes the unsubstantiated yet widely publicized “birther” movement that continues to claim Obama cannot be in the White House because he is not a natural born US citizen.

Extremist groups have also latched onto conspiracy theories on government involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

“The current political environment is awash with seemingly absurd but nonetheless influential conspiracy theories, hyperbolic claims and demonized targets… this creates a milieu where violence is a likely outcome,” said the Center, quoting longtime analyst of radical right-wing movements Chip Merlet.

The other major factor for militia recruitment and acceptance is that their ideology has been aped and in many ways championed by mainstream media commentators and politicians, the report said.

Earlier this year Texas Governor Rick Perry repeatedly raised the prospect of his state’s secession in the wake of the government’s economic recovery efforts, and US Congresswoman Michele Bachmann from Minnesota has said she feared Obama was planning “reeducation camps for young people.”

In April an internal government report also warned that right-wing extremists were using worries spawn by the economic downturn and Obama’s election as recruiting tools.

Fears of possible new restrictions on firearms, as well as troubled veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, “could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violence attacks,” said the Department of Homeland Security.

Greater Internet access has also boosted access to bomb-making know-how, weapons training, and the ability to reach out to a vast audience of like-minded people, said the DHS, which was later criticized by conservatives and veterans groups for singling out US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The article for the post just doesn’t lend itself to a retell. The report from SPLC is linked. What is to be done about phenomena such as described in this synopsis of the SPLC report? Are we seeing signs of the underpinnings of these movements at the angry townhall meetings and at the angry crowds at the teaparties or is there no connection? What is the difference in this kind of anger and the anger shown at townhall meetings and at tea parties? These incidences just seem un-American to me. I hope they will be contained.

Let’s learn what health care reform is really about……sort of!

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Health Care Hell-Scare – Die-agnosis: Mur-DR
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Meryl Streep

 

This is too hilarious!  Stephen Colbert is a genius satirist! I’m sure we all have our insurance horror stories. If anyone cares to share, please, feel free!

I just wanted to add, the idea that offering end of life counseling, via hospice, is akin to euthanasia is despicable and completely false! I have a news flash, we will all face that cycle of life, being treated with dignity is NOT suggestive of murdering our senior citizens.

Shower Time! Perseids are Back

It’s that time of year again. The Perseid Meteor Shower is back again. Each August the Earth moves through the densest part of the tail of the comet Swift-Tuttle.

The best time to see the shower is from midnight to 5 am Wednesday morning. For those who aren’t early birds, the meteor shower can be seen tonight from 9 to midnight also. Look about half way up and towards the east-north east. The meteors will radiate from the area of the constellation Perseus. It is predicted that during the peak time it will be possible to see 60-100 meteors an hour.

A few more pieces of pertinent information, which you may wish to dazzle your friends or kids with: A small object passing through space is a meteoroid; if it hits the Earth’s atmosphere and becomes luminescent, it becomes a meteor; if some part of it survives its passage through the atmosphere and hits the ground, that part is a meteorite. Should anyone ask, the Perseids are burning up at a temperature of over 3000 degrees Fahrenheit (1650 Celsius), and become visible to the naked eye at about 60 miles up.

The moon is half full tonight so there will be some light pollution to detract from the splendor of a good meteor shower. Inclement weather can also be a problem as there is some cloud cover today.

Just to whet your appetite even further, here’s a video a man named John Chumack shot in Dayton, Ohio a few days ago, compressed down to a few seconds. And that was before the peak!

Yahoo reading
Further Reading

Tips for viewing the Perseids

Blogger goes to jail

There is a Washington Post editorial today about a Charlottesville, Virginia woman who went to jail for “identifying a police officer with intent to harass” on her blog.  She posted his name and address with a street-view photo of his house.  She also “previously advocated creating a separate, all-white nation and her blog veers from the whimsical to the self-righteous to the bizarre.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/09/AR2009080902126.html?nav=hcmoduletmv

The Post defends her Constitutionally-protected free speech, but also identifies what it calls the real problem, “an overly broad, ill-defined ban on harrassment-by-identification” in the Virginia statutes.

 

August 9th –Not Just Your Ordinary Dog Day

Nixon resigns

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 9  must be one of those special dates in history.  Several popped out today as I leafted through the papers.

35 years ago today -August 9, 1974  President Richard Nixon resigned from office as a result of the Watergate Scandal. (and last week Watergate went begging.  No one even bid on it.)

40 years ago today-August 9, 1969  Helter Skelter  Actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski) and her friends  were the victims of gruesome, violent, heinous, ritualistic murders in Tate’s home.  Tate was 8 and a half  months pregant.  The Charles Manson ‘family’ was responsible.  The nation was horrifed that human beings could commit these kinds of acts on each other.

Mansion has listened to the Beatles Helter Skelter in December 1968.  Read more about Mansion and the song.   Beatles’ Helter Skelter.

Helter skelter in a summer swelter.
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter,
Eight miles high and falling fast.
It landed foul on the grass.
The players tried for a forward pass,
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast.

From Bye Bye Miss American Pie

64 years ago today-August 9, 1945  An atomic bomb was dropped on Nagisaki, Japan, killing approximately 74,000 people.  Many more died later on from the effects of radiation.  The dropping of this second atomic bomb led to the surrender of Japan thus ending WWII.  More than 5000 Japanese marked this solemn occassion in Peace Park in Nagasaki. (picture omitted because of technical difficulties.)

I am sure I have omitted other important August 9ths.  I certainly would not call it a lucky day.  While all of these August 9’s have come and gone, how do each of them impact us today?  Has there been historical fall out from which we will never escape?   How much does music influence us as a society?  How much does it influence our crime rate? 

 

VA Tax Free Weekend for Back to School Shopping

It’s not too late to save money on those soon-top-be-needed items for kids returning to school. This years Tax Free Weekend seems to be having a better than usual affect on the economy. According to News and Messenger:

It was a win-win situation for both parents getting their children ready to go back to school and retailers to ring in some much-needed sales.

Potomac Mills mall was among retailers across the state that support the Virginia Sales Tax Holiday with extra discounts and special events designed to help parents and students save money while getting ready for school.

The program started on Friday and concludes today.

“The crowds coming to the mall this weekend have been comparable to holiday shopping,” said Caroline Barry Green, marketing director.

During the three-day period, shoppers at the retail stores will be exempt from the 5 percent sales tax on school supplies priced up to $20 per item, and clothes and shoes priced up to $100. Stores also can choose to exempt other items and pay the tax themselves.

The taxation department expects shoppers to save $4 million during the period. The tax-free holiday concludes today, so this is the last chance to save in this difficult economy.

Throughout the mall, merchants were singing a happy tune.

Should Virginia consider having more than one tax free weekend for purchasing school clothing and material? How about those who are on vacation? Are there other large group expenditures that should be considered for a tax free spree? Does this weekend really save the average family that much money or is it the idea of a sale that lures people out? Would it be more helpful to parents and students to have a schools supply tax free weekend over Labor Day Weekend, after school supply lists come out?

The Sniper Still on Death Row

Insidenova.com    8/7/09

A federal appeals court affirmed D.C.-area sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad’s capital murder conviction and death sentence Friday, rejecting claims that prosecutors withheld critical evidence.

Muhammad was convicted of killing Dean Meyers at Battlefield Sunoco out on Sudley Road near I-66 back in 2002.  Should he escape his Virginia death sentence, he has been sentenced to 6 consecutive life sentences in Maryland for his killing spree in that state. WJZ 13 reports:

Montgomery County’s chief deputy sheriff says the twice-convicted Washington-area sniper was taken immediately from a Maryland courtroom after his sentencing today and sent back to Virginia. Muhammad already has been sentenced to death for a sniper killing in Virginia.

Earlier today, Muhammad was sentenced to six consecutive life terms with no possibility of parole, a sentence Maryland prosecutors described as insurance in case his Virginia death sentence is ever overturned. Read More

Quick Up-Dates Thurs. Afternoon

Around noon, Chief Charlie Deane held a press conference over the taser incident in West Gate Sunday before last.  You may read  at insidenova.com      Overview:

Chief Deane said that unless new facts are discovered, the officers acted appropriately and within policy.  The woman was not pregnant and is still in jail. A Spanish-speaking officer was one of the first responders.  There was no language issue.   The grandfather was released on his personal recognizance. 

Because of the heightened media coverage of this story, Chief Deane wanted to dispel myths.  There is a streaming video on insidenova but the sound quality is very poor.

 

 

From the New York Times:

Senate Confirms Judge Sonia Sotomayor as Supreme Court Justice

Voting largely along party lines, the Senate on Thursday
confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the 111th justice of the
Supreme Court by a vote of 68-31. She will be the first
Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the cour

 

What is this policy meant to do?

 From the Study of Prince William County Police Illegal Immigration Enforcement Policy Interim Report 2009:

“Most of the illegal immigrant arrestees referred to ICE have committed only minor crimes. If the objective of the County’s immigration enforcement effort is to reduce serious crime, then the current policy does not provide a very efficient means of achieving it. If the objective is to remove illegal immigrants, then ICE does not have sufficient resources to handle the large numbers of referrals that would result. ICE currently tries to limit the types of offenses for which it will pick up illegal immigrants to more serious crimes in jurisdictions other than Prince William County.”

It is clear to me that this one, brief but succinct paragraph, just about sums up why I feel like this county’s policy has no real direction. What is this policy suppose to do? Because from this interim UVA report, both objectives are failing. 

Read More

Dispelling Rumors in West Gate

Sent to me from the dark screen:

DPortM said on 4 Aug 2009 at 7:29 am:

Sudley and Westgate Updates – Recent Filming in the Neighborhood
Eric Byler was in the trunk of a car driving around filming Westgate and Sudley neighborhoods on Sunday afternoon
Univision was back on the 9600 block of Lafayette in Westgate yesterday early evening filming the “taser” house and requesting interviews from the neighbors

How sad. DportM probably should have talked to Eric rather than ‘her friend’ to get the real story.

I have no idea about Univision. Guess they were out doing their own thing.
What they were doing is not my problem.

However, I did know Eric and and Jeff were in the ‘hood. I contacted Eric for his response to this rumor:

 

Read More

Freed Journalists Home!

2 journalists sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea have just landed in Burbank, CA.  Former president Bill Clinton went to Korea and negotiated their release.  Much is being made of Clinton being the come-back kid. 

These are strange times in history.  President Clinton is of course the husband of the current Secretary of State.  Much is being said about Clinton being on a rescue mission for Obama. 

While we are all glad that the journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, are home safe and sound, I am sure much will be said in coming days about this chain of events.  What do our contributors think?