The Savage Weiner

by Pa Rock
Amused American

Yesterday the United Kingdom's Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, made news by announcing the names of sixteen individuals who have been banned from entering the United Kingdom. The ban went into effect last October when, supposedly, the selected individuals were informed that they were not welcome to enter the British Isles. Ms. Smith, in making the list public yesterday said, "I think it's important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here. It's a privilege to come to this country. There are certain behaviors that mean you forfeit that privilege."

Apparently those behaviors include terrorism, racism, gay-bashing, and stupidity.

The majority of those named were political extremists from the Middle East, but a few notable Americans also made the list. Stephen Donald Black, a former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard was on the list of banned individuals, as was neo-Nazi Erich Gliebe. Topeka's favorite homophobe and all-around idiot, Fred Phelps, can no longer enter the United Kingdom, and neither can his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper. (The Phelps' Klan makes the news on a fairly regular basis with their protests at funerals of American service men and women. Their contention is that our government supports a gay agenda, and hence our service members are somehow helping to promote a gay lifestyle. - You can't get much stupider than that!)

But the highlight of the list of people now banned from entering the United Kingdom was American right-wing radio personality Michael Savage. Savage is known for his bizarre racist rants, and has spent a lot of air time hollering about the need to keep Mexicans out of the United States. Now he is in a major snit because somebody wants to keep him out of their country. I was listening to Savage yesterday being interviewed by NPR over the phone. He became angry over a question that another caller asked, and threatened to hang up. The host calmly replied, "Go ahead, then." And he did!

Michael Savage was born Michael Weiner. Apparently "Weiner" did not fit the image of a seriously rabid shock jock, so he changed it to the much more macho "Savage." I wonder if he ever thought about splitting the difference between Weiner and Savage and going with "Sausage?"

Probably not.

Thoughts on Terrorism

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

When we think of brazen acts of terrorism, September 11th is usually the first thing to come to mind. Middle easterners with dark skin hijacked four passenger planes and flew them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. It was unimaginable that these madmen could get away with such an outrage inside the borders of the world's mightiest country!

In point of fact, however, September 11th was not the first attack by terrorists on the United States of America, nor was it the first to occur within our borders. As noted earlier in this blog, lynchings were still happening in this country fifty years ago. Some find it hard to let go of those "good old days." Earlier this week the Secret Service was investigating a sign that was posted on a tree in Vay, Idaho, with Barack Obama's name on it and the offer of a "free public hanging."

Idaho has a long history of being infested with terrorists. A white supremacist group headquartered near Coeur d'Alene called the Aryan Nations achieved notoriety a few years back when some drunken guards at their main compound opened fire on a car that had backfired. The inebriated fascists captured the lady and her son who had been in the car and held them at gunpoint while terrorizing them into near insensibility. The Southern Poverty Law Center and their founder, Morris Dees, sued that Aryan Nations on behalf of the two victims and won a $6.3 million settlement - which resulted in all of the group's property and assets being seized and turned over to the plaintiffs.

Today the Southern Poverty Law Center was in the news again. This time they brought suit against America's premier terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan. Those stupid Klan bastards beat the hell out of a Panamanian/Native American youth (who was also an American citizen) named Jordan Gruver because they thought he was an illegal Latino immigrant. The incident occurred at a Kentucky county fair where the Klan was recruiting. They knocked the 16-year-old Gruver to the ground and proceeded to give him a severe kicking and beating that resulted in the boy having a broken jaw, broken arm, two cracked ribs, and assorted cuts and bruises. The SPLC and Mr. Dees won a judgement against the Imperial Klans of America and two of its leaders in the amount of $2.5 million. Kick that, morons!

Who says that Courts can't serve up justice?

These home grown terrorist groups conflate their idiot-ologies with religion, usually that of the angry Christian stripe. Take for instance, the case of Eric Robert Rudolph who roamed the American South bombing family planning clinics and also set off a bomb at the Atlanta Olympics.

But the king of all American terrorists has to be Timothy McVeigh - the man who brought down the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. His act of madness killed 168 people, including children who were in a daycare center on the premises, and wounded eight hundred others. McVeigh was one of the Posse Comitatus creatures who don't recognize any government above the county level. His anti-government beliefs were his undoing because he was picked up shortly after the bombing for driving his vehicle down the highway without license plates.

Our government went crazy after September 11th, quickly going to war in two countries, one of which had nothing to do with the attacks, but completely ignoring the home of most of the terrorists - Saudi Arabia. Nothing like that happened after McVeigh's attack on the Federal Building. There was no rounding up of crackpot militia members, no weapons seizures, no exhaustive investigations, no all-out war declared on Idaho or the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was all laid on the backs of two men, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, and the case was closed.

What a shame that we didn't just go get Osama bin Laden after September 11th, bring him to trial, and close that sad chapter of our history. If we had targeted the man responsible instead of turning our wrath (or our greed) on the whole Middle East, our treasury would still be relatively full, our prestige around the world would be intact, our military would be strong, and thousands of lives would have been spared.

Our country has not seen the last of terrorism, from home or abroad. When the next awful act happens we need to react with a calm and measured response. If it can be handled as a law enforcement issue, it should be. And if it is an act sponsored by a foreign nation that requires a military response, that response should be quick, targeted, and to the point. We literally cannot afford another quagmire like Iraq. When we march into quicksand and can't get out, it is the terrorists who have won.

Democracy for All

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Black males were given the right to vote in this country via a Constitutional Amendment at the close of the Civil War. For the next several years many actually did get to vote, thanks in large part to the presence of Federal troops in the South during the period of time called Reconstruction. After Reconstruction ended in 1877 and Federal troops were removed from the Old Confederacy, the White southerners quickly moved to disenfranchise the former slaves.

The most common method used was intimidation. The Ku Klux Klan and other militant organizations worked to scare Blacks from voting, and, if they still persisted in their "uppity" ways, a more permanent solution was put into place, such as lynching.

Lynchings continued in some places into the mid-twentieth century, but much of the nation began to reject overt violence by the time some Blacks were fighting for their country during the First World War. Black units were fighting in some of the worst hellholes imaginable during the Second World War, yet after serving their country fiercely and proudly, they came home to find that they were still not welcome at the polls.

When violence began to wane as an acceptable way to keep Blacks in their place, emphasis was put on using more cunning measures. One of those was the "literacy test", which had actually been around for awhile. Persons presenting at the polls to vote were given an oral exam to determine their fitness to vote. Blacks were given difficult questions and quickly culled. Whites, more often that not, were given simple questions and passed the exam regardless of their answers.

Another strategy to keep Blacks from casting votes was a "poll tax." That was a fee, or tax, assessed at the polls that persons had to pay in order to vote. It discriminated against the poor, Blacks and Whites alike, and ensured that only the elitist segment of society got to participate in elections. The US Supreme Court outlawed poll taxes more than fifty years ago, and Blacks slowly worked their way into the mechanism of our democracy.

And now a Black man is hours away from being elected President of the United States. Record numbers of people have already voted, and this election promises to bring more total voters to the polls in this country than ever before. Old voters turnouts will not only be surpassed, they will be shattered!

But, we still have a problem.

Rachel Maddow, MSNBC's rising star and host of the new Rachel Maddow Show had an on-air editorial last night where she compared the crazy long lines that have been prevalent in early voting this year with the poll tax. She said, rightly I believe, that some people cannot afford to stand in line for five or more hours in order to cast a vote. They have job or family obligations that can't be ignored. Hence, a certain segment of the population, primarily the working poor, are still being denied the vote by not having the necessary amount of time to complete the process.

We used to charge money, now we charge time. Both limit access to the polls. Both interfere with a person's constitutional right to participate in our democracy.

Voter enthusiasm and turnout have been phenomenal this election cycle. Day after day TV reporters interview people standing in line who are gushing about how excited they are to be part of history, some saying they would stand in line all day if necessary. Many are older individuals who have never voted before because they felt that they would have no impact. Also, there are multitudes of young people eager to cast their first ballot in the most exciting election in modern memory.

Up to an amazing forty-percent of the electorate may have already voted, so the lines in early voting states may be manageable tomorrow. But what about the states that don't have early voting? What will their day be like tomorrow? I have three relatives who will be voting in one of those states tomorrow - Missouri - and I am anticipating that each will have some form of horror story to share tomorrow evening.

So, as America grows, and as America becomes more invested in democracy, what can be done to ensure that everyone gets to vote in a simple and expedient manner? Early voting helps, and one can hope that more states will adopt this process. Technology may also provide an answer. Instead of worrying about butterfly ballots and hanging chads - and standing in long lines for hours at a time, maybe we can soon get to the point where we can vote electronically from home, or the local library, or the neighborhood school via the Internet.

It is not only possible, it is within reach for every American to have quick and easy access to the voting process. True universal suffrage is a goal that can be reached. Hopefully President Obama will make that a priority!