Even Dead Fish Deserve Better Than the Courant

I picked up a copy of the Hartford Courant last Monday (July 26 2010) for the first time in years and was actually considering getting a subscription. I had momentarily forgiven the past transgressions of their journalistic malpractice, as I am a forgiving soul (perhaps too much so). I have been feeling unsatisfied by the local papers lately. I had the practical goal of keeping up with proposed legislation at the state capital.

Then I opened up to the opinion section and saw the most intellectually unredeemable cartoon I have seen in a long time. It was a drawing by “Tote’s View” of a conservative with a copy of the Constitution in his hands and he is saying, “I’m not racist. I just want to go back to the Constitution as it was written”. On the Constitution is says “Slavery OK”.

No one needs to say it but I will anyway. How tunnel-visioned and shrilly partisan do you have to be to think this cartoon has any kind of point? It is certainly not funny.

Conservatives do not want to bring slavery back, and as I recall it, the Republican Party came into existence to abolish it and the Democrats that wanted to keep it. What we do want is for the court's to obey the clear textual parameters of the Constitution as it exists at the time. Stop reading stuff that isn't there and stop ignoring stuff that is -- like the Second Amendment for one. It is apparent the Hartford Courant has taken a page from “Journolist” and is calling anyone who opposes the Obama Agenda as racist.

"If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they've put upon us. Instead, take one of them – Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares –- and call them racists".

-- Spencer Ackerman of The Washington Independent

What is truly racist is using the authentic past racism of the past and present to further a political view that has nothing to do with racism. In effect they are calling wolf and the result is we all become deaf to allegations of racism even on the occasions that it is real.

I will not be subscribing to the Courant after all. I really and truly hope they go out of business. That is exactly what they deserve for being so Neanderthal and engaging in gutter politics that is not only reprehensibly lowbrow but so much so that it insults the intelligence of all of us. Themselves most of all.

Shame on them.

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Sarah Palin's Notes

An Intolerable Mistake on Hallowed Ground

Earlier today, Mayor Bloomberg responded to my comments about the planned mosque at Ground Zero by suggesting that a decision not to allow the building of a mosque at that sacred place would somehow violate American principles of tolerance and openness.

No one is disputing that America stands for – and should stand for – religious tolerance. It is a foundation of our republic. This is not an issue of religious tolerance but of common moral sense. To build a mosque at Ground Zero is a stab in the heart of the families of the innocent victims of those horrific attacks. Just days after 9/11, the spiritual leader of the organization that wants to build the mosque, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, suggested that blame be placed on the innocents when he stated that the “United States’ policies were an accessory to the crime that happened” and that “in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.” Rauf refuses to recognize that Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of our ally, Israel, and refuses to provide information about the sources of funding for the $100 million mosque. Rauf also plays a key role in a group behind the flotilla designed to provoke Israel in its justifiable blockade of Gaza. These are just a few of the points Americans are realizing as New York considers the proposed mosque just a stone’s throw away from 9/11’s sacred ground.

I agree with the sister of one of the 9/11 victims (and a New York resident) who said: “This is a place which is 600 feet from where almost 3,000 people were torn to pieces by Islamic extremists. I think that it is incredibly insensitive and audacious really for them to build a mosque, not only on that site, but to do it specifically so that they could be in proximity to where that atrocity happened.”

Many Americans, myself included, feel it would be an intolerable and tragic mistake to allow such a project sponsored by such an individual to go forward on such hallowed ground. This is nothing close to “religious intolerance,” it’s just common decency.

- Sarah Palin

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Corazon Aquino

This fine lady happens to be one of my personal heroes. What follows is an absolutely superb entry from Wikipedia that I can not hope to improve upon.

Maria Corazon "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was the 11th President of the Philippines and the first woman to hold that office. Aquino was also the first popularly and democratically-elected female president and head of state in Asia.^[1][2] She is best remembered for leading the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, which toppled the authoritarian regime of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy in the Philippines. "Tita (Auntie) Cory", as she was affectionately known, is revered by many Filipinos as an icon of Democracy, and was hailed by TIME Magazine as the "Saint of Democracy," due to her well-known spiritual life and strong adherence to non-violence and democracy.

A self-proclaimed "plain housewife",^[3] Aquino was married to Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., the popular opposition leader and staunchest critic of then President Ferdinand Marcos. Senator Aquino was assassinated on August 21, 1983 upon returning to the Philippines after his exile in the United States.

After her husband's assassination, the widowed Aquino became the reluctant leader of the opposition against the authoritarian rule of the Marcos regime. She united the fragmented opposition and strengthened its moral crusade against the abuses and excesses of President Marcos' martial rule. In late 1985, when President Marcos called for a snap election, Cory Aquino challenged his regime. Aquino thrust herself into the political arena only after one million signatures urging her to run for president were presented to her.

Despite having no prior political experience, except being her husband Ninoy's wife, Aquino proved to be a cult leader, inspiring orator and skilled campaigner. She ran for president with former senator Salvador Laurel as her vice-presidential running mate. When Marcos-allied Batasang Pambansa proclaimed Ferdinand Marcos the winner in the 1986 snap elections, Aquino called for massive civil disobedience protests against him, declaring herself as having been cheated and as the real winner in the elections. Filipinos enthusiastically heeded her call and rallied behind her. These series of events eventually led to the ouster of Marcos from power and the installation of Aquino as president of the Philippines in February 1986, an event which is now known as the historic 1986 EDSA .

Now in power, Aquino oversaw the restoration of democracy in the Philippines and the promulgation of a new constitution, which limited the powers of the presidency and established a bicameral legislature. Her administration gave strong emphasis and concern for civil liberties and human rights, peace talks and dialogues with communist insurgents and Muslim secessionists. Aquino's economic policies, meanwhile, centered on bringing back economic health and confidence and focused on creating a market-oriented and socially-responsible economy. Despite these achievements, Aquino's presidency was not smooth-sailing as she had to face series of nine coup attempts against her administration and destructive natural calamities and disasters until the end of her term in 1992.

After her term expired in 1992, Aquino returned to private life although she remained active in the public eye, constantly voicing her views and opinions on the pressing political issues in the country. In 2008, Aquino was diagnosed with colorectal cancer (the same ailment that killed her mother Doña Demetria "Metring" Sumulong Cojuangco) and after a one-year battle with the disease, she died on August 1, 2009.