Veeve's Comments (115)

“I agree. Adressing Katrina effectively would have been a cakewalk compared to trying to deal with the mess that our president inherited. A failed response to an event should not be compared to the types of efforts needed to address a problem that built up over years and will not respond immediately even to the most robust of policies. I find the analogy offensive”

“Nasty I would say.”

“Whoopi : "It wasn't RAPE rape"...Sounds like a defense to me. I guess drugging and sodomozing a 13 year old who keeps saying no and asking to go home isn't rape unless you beat her up and hold her down.”

“I'm not sure, Veeve, if you're aiming that at me or at DarkWraith's complex letter, which says among other things that "little separates the incomprehensibly hateful, intransigent, and uni-dimensional on the Right from their brethren on the Left," but nothing in my article or that letter is a defense of the murder.

Understanding people, seeing how they reached their viewpoint--reporting--and agreeing with them are two different things. To mirror your point, the fact that Peltier is still in jail does not erase the grievances of Appalachian people. To quote Katet, who is part of this conversation just before you, "Perhaps when all peoples who have suffered injustice at the hands of the beneficiaries of this country's 'progress' see that they share many of the same injustices and history, then unification and a real movement for change can take place."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gail-mcgowan-mellor/the-hanged-census-worker_b_300898.html

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gail-mcgowan-mellor/the-hanged-census-worker_b_300898.html”

“I'm a liberal and I agree with DarkWraith. You mistakenly assume all liberals agree with you which isn't true in my case, so please confine your remarks to yourself.

BTW, the federal government hasn't done anything to earn my respect since the Supreme Court awarded the 2000 election to the loser, George Bush. Obama is a disaster. I don't fear terrorists at all, but I do fear the federal government.

Classical conservatives and liberals are discovering that they have more in common than they realized. With the government firmly under the control of the large corporations and their wealthy owners, all of us would be wise to recognize that the federal government and the corporations that control it are our common enemy.

Disrespect and, in some cases hatred for the federal government, in no way justifies Mr. Sparkman's death, but it does serve as a barometer. Mark my words, as the impotent Democrats engage in phony theater while failing to meaningfully reform our broken system, the rich get richer, the middle class disappears, and 45,000 people die every year because they lack health insurance, the necessity and passion for change mounts with the real possibility a of violent revolution.

We don't know who killed Mr. Sparkman or why, but it looks like the motive may have been political. Obama and the rest of the people in government would be wise to seriously consider his murder as a warning of what may happen, if they don't stop playing games.”

“Yes. I can find no flaw in his reasoning. It depresses the heck out of me.”

“Sounds great but the exact same voices on the right would still be screaming the exact same things. The problem here is that the president is attempting to reason with people who have entirely left reason behind.

Oh, and Obama IS a centreist for the most part.”

“It is called single-payer...”

“It was not a well thought out program. It may have costs to it that are "unintended". It's not based upon any sound economic theories. It was a quick law passed to appease a small segment of society because economic conditions are bad. It may make the economic climate worse.”

“From Sally Quinn:

"But I do know about Skip Gates. What nobody will say publicly, for fear of being called a racist, is that he is notorious, especially among many of his colleagues (black and white) at Harvard, for being short-tempered and arrogant. I have had personal dealings with him in which his behavior was not honorable."”

“Obviously others who know him, such as Professor Wisse and Sally Quinn, who know and work him, disagree.

I think he can be both - a brilliant, interesting, humorous man - and somebody who is arrogant, short-tempered and rude - depending on the person and circumstance. From your account and theirs, that appears to be the case.

I don't want to paint him as a bad person. I am just saying that the person he displayed himself as to Sgt. Crowley is not a stretch - when others, such as Sally Quinn, who know him, believes that is the case.”

“The snippets only amount to a few seconds, so you are off your rocker if you think they recorded everything. You can hear a loud male voice in the background. Remember, Sgt. Crowley said he had to go outside because Dr. Gates was yelling so loud that he couldn't use the radio. That happened from 2:50 on in the audio when dispatch tries to get him back on the radio, and he does not respond.

I refer you to the link I posted below to Harvard professor Ruth Wisse's letter to the Harvard Crimson regarding Dr. Gates.

"What puzzles me ...why you would have chosen, as I've heard you put it elsewhere, to "talk Black" to Officer Crowley instead of "talking White" as you so eloquently and regularly do? These are distinctions I've heard you expound—how educated African Americans switch their register of speech depending on what part of themselves they want to get across. ...So why didn't you address the policemen as fellow Cantabrigians? ..."
===

Dr. Gates was not saying "yo mama" because that is the way he normally speaks. He was using it to mock.

Consider if you call somebody stupid, and they suddenly adopted an affected exaggerated Southern drawl to mock you back -- "Ya, thiiink soooo?"
THAT is what Dr. Gates was doing - he was being sarcastic, angry and mocking what he thought was Crowley's view of him as just any black man instead of recognizing him for "WHO he was".....”

“The Federal Reserve has been manipulating monetary policy for almost one hundred years since the Progressive Democrats created it.”

“coco51, you go right ahead and laugh at yourself, you too bdaved. I don't find Steele funny in the least. I find him sad, a groveling 1/2 man willing to say or do anything to fit in with your party. Of course you find his statements harmless, it's not you and yours he is degrading. Shame on him.”

“Proud Democrat? Come on now, your nose is growing. A good natured joke, yea right! The man never disapoints, always shuffling for the repubs!”

“I agree...it may have been in poor taste, considering most blacks don't really like him and wouldn't see this joke as hilarious, but it was OBVIOUSLY an attempt at humor. I'm not going to crucify the man for it, as I'm sure he'll say plenty more things worse than that in the future. I'll save my ire for such situations.”

“As a "person of color" your inability to see the "wrong" here speaks to lack of consciousness. Steele should NOT have continued the racial stereotype conversation. I don't encourage it within my family, friends and I most certainly would not have done so in a room of predominantly white men.

We in the black community are diminshed by misogynistic, self-hating black rappers, see a "allegedly" intelligent, educated black man furthering the racist stereotype is just as dimishing.”

“I get more stirred up about it when people I agree with use these kinds of methods to make political points than when people I disagree with do.”

“Nice to see your comment. I said just about the same thing this morning. The only thing extra I added is to start your own ad campaign in your front yard with SINGLE PAYER/or Public Option NOW!

Only blogging will relieve a bit of the anger or stress while actually putting what you say in writing on your front lawn speaks a bit louder because you neighbors can see and perhaps join along! Mine are!”

“I don't know about see the chessboard twelve steps ahead - six is good enough in chess. I think it's becoming increasingly obvious that Obama is very gifted at politics, more so than any living American. His recent success in Russia alone is evidence of that. Distancing himself from his allies - and that's a good point - is not political rocket science, you don't need The Prince for that. And no Patina everything he says is not opposite speak. I think he is also saying something like " All pull together as a team! " A lot of democrats, such a Ms. Kilkenny, like to be divisive. It's just that politicians can say one thing understanding that it will mean different things to different people. It's just a kind of useful cleverness.”

“Is it too much to ask for a politician to say what they mean and mean what they say? Seriously.... do you take everything he says as the opposite of what he means? When he says "change"... should we take that us "maintaining the status quo"? When he says "we don't torture"... is he really telling us that we do torture?? How do you determine when to take his words at face value and when to read some "secret chess move" into what he says???”

“"He see the chessboard 12 steps ahead."

Sorry, I know that's a nice sentiment but it is pure fantasy; delusional notions will not produce healthcare reform.

"This has been an elegant, joint Obama/Kennedy venture from the beginning, folks."

Dream on....”

“Nice.....”