May the Farce Be With You: Who's Investigating David Daleiden?

Republican House Oversight Chair Jason Chaffetz

Tone deaf Republicans once again used the Capitol Building as a public stage to try and publicly tee off on women's reproductive rights, federal support of Planned Parenthood's women's health care initiatives and programs, and the head of the embattled organization. 

Despite the fact that a detailed investigation of the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic by Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster showed there was absolutely no merit to the widely disputed claims made in a series of "sting" videos accusing Planned Parenthood of illegally selling fetal tissue for profit, Republicans are proving once again that what they think and believe trumps the actual truth.

It strains credulity to think that an extremist group like the Center for Medical Progress could be the source of any kind of evidence that would initiate Congressional witch hunts investigations by four separate Republican-controlled committees.

According to an investigation by RightWingWatch.org, CMP has ties to violent anti-abortion groups with a history of harassment and intimidation of people seeking and providing legal abortion services.

Liar: David Daleiden of the Center For Media Progress

As detailed must-read research that was  conducted by People For the American Way reveals, David Daleiden (pictured left), the deceptive right wing misogynist responsible for creating the infamous bogus videos, approached Operation Rescue with his idea three years ago and met with (among others) OR policy adviser Cheryl Sullenger.

Sullenger spent time in jail in the 1980's for plotting to bomb an abortion clinic.

Remember folks, the current Republican movement to shut down the entire federal government over funding for Planned Parenthood wasn't driven by actual evidence of any illegal wrongdoing or a valid investigation conducted by law enforcement or any agency of the government.

This madness has been fueled by concocted evidence manufactured (not gathered) by delusional wing nuts like David Daleiden, Cheryl Sullenger and their ilk - and the Republicans took that phony ball and ran with it.

And they were up on the Hill yesterday, banging away like it was Watergate.

Cecile Richards tries to get a word in 

Any questions about whether Republican members of Congress might actually be remotely interested in hearing what Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards had to say were quickly put to rest.

As Jedd Legum reported in an article for ThinkProgress.org, even dedicated pro-life activists were shocked by the unfettered display of crass bullying and witch hunt hysteria put on by members of the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill.

Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz's rambling, tear-filled opening speech at the start of the hearings set the tone for yet another misogynistic display of uninformed Republican attack-speech that had almost nothing to do with facts or truth, and everything to do with contrived ideological theater.

As numerous outlets have reported, he tearfully suggested that if funds that went to Planned Parenthood went to cancer research instead his mother might be alive; obviously Chaffetz seems to have totally missed the point that Planned Parenthood provides pap smears, mammograms and other cancer prevention services for women.

The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis

Politically speaking, I don't usually agree with the conservative co-founder of The Federalist, Sean Davis, a Texas Tech grad who served as Rick Perry's former economic adviser. But he was just one of many conservatives who took to Twitter to lambaste the Republican's handling of the questioning of Cecile Richards:

"Can you imagine if this band of incompetent morons had been in charge of prosecuting the Nuremberg trials? My goodness what a farce."

Farce is right Sean.

Between the near constant rude interruptions of Richards as she patiently tried to answer the barrage of questions thrown at her, to the outright distortion of truth being peddled by a bunch of grandstanding preening clowns masquerading as lawmakers, it was a total disaster for Republicans.

One that may actually serve to boost the already strong public support for Planned Parenthood and further decrease the overall female support for Republican presidential candidates - a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday showed 52% of 1,574 respondents registered to vote opposed Congress cutting of federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

The not-fact-based "Chaffetz chart"

Chaffetz's attempt to pass off a simplistic hokey chart (pictured left) purporting to show that Planned Parenthood increased abortions while decreasing breast exams is a perfect example.

As Sara Jerde reported in article for TalkingPointsMemo.com, Chaffetz tried to pass off the baseless propaganda as having come from "directly from (Planned Parenthood's) corporate reports". 

Richards then informed him that her own attorneys said the chart was actually created by an anti-abortion group called Americans United for Life and suggested he check his source.

Seriously, this guy is the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee and he's bringing in charts made up by Americans United for Life?

That's like a Congressman holding hearings to scale back fuel efficiency requirements for cars bringing in a chart made by Exxon.

As Olga Khazan reported in The Atlantic back in July, AUL (founded in 1971) is almost chiefly responsible for writing the text of legislation for various state houses around the country that seeks to scale back abortion rights.

But give Republicans some credit, at least it wasn't just a panel full of men lecturing Richards.

Republican Congresswoman Mia Love

Chaffetz, who represents the state of Utah, did bring along the freshman Congresswoman from his own state, Mia Love, who represents a rarity on the Hill; An African-American female Republican who represents Utah no less.

If a unicorn walked into the room I'd be less shocked.

Love was just one of many of the GOP reps who lobbed over-the-top attacks at Richards.

She tried to make the fact that Planned Parenthood clinics usually outsource mammograms to other clinics or hospitals simply because the machines are too expensive to have in every Planned Parenthood clinic seem like some kind of subversive plot.

Leave it to a female Republican to try and make providing cost-effective mammograms to lower income women in America seem like a criminal act.

What is wrong with the GOP?

Only Republicans would use a series of deceptively-edited videos created under false pretenses to try and discredit a health care provider that focuses on the needs of lower income women.

Only Republicans would try and use this farce to shut down the government of the nation with the largest economy in the world; the clock is ticking but let's hope even Republicans have enough sense to not let that happen.

In the meantime I won't hold my breath waiting for Jason Chaffetz to summon David Daleiden to the Hill to ask him about his phony "sting" videos; as we've seen the Republican thirst for knowledge is situational at best.

And limited only to that which conveniently fits their ideology.

George Zimmerman Gloats Over a Teenager's Death

George Zimmerman (center) next to Florida gun shop owner Andy Hallinan

It's hard to tell who's more sick in the head.

A Twitter user who goes by the name "Grand Moff Alexander" who posted a gruesome crime scene photo of teenager Trayvon Martin's dead body with a message glorifying his killer George Zimmerman as a "one man Army".

Or Zimmerman re-posting the picture on his own Twitter account; where he calls himself "TheRealGeoregeZ".

Regardless, his choice has ignited a firestorm on Twitter and other social media sites.

There are a lot of people outraged that the man who stalked, confronted and then initiated a physical confrontation with an unarmed Trayvon Martin before killing him back in 2012 continues to take a demented pride in the fact that he got away with murdering an innocent teenager who was on his way home with a drink and a bag of Skittles.

It wasn't enough that a Florida jury found Zimmerman not guilty based on his claims that he was just defending himself from a teenager he'd followed after a police dispatcher specifically told him not to.

Zimmerman shakes the hand of a fan

Since his acquittal, Zimmerman has been arrested for threatening his girlfriend with a loaded shotgun, assaulting his ex-wife and been stopped by police with a loaded gun in his vehicle.

He's also reveled in making money off of public appearances by posing for photos with "fans" at gun shows (pictured left) and other events where an assortment of conservatives, right wing extremists, "patriots", 2nd Amendment advocates and white nationalists regard him as a celebrity.

But profiteering off murdering a black teenager isn't his only source of income.

Prior to the grassroots media backlash against his posting a photo of Martin's body (which he quickly deleted), most recently Zimmerman made headlines by teaming up with Florida resident Andy Hallinan to sell copies of a painting of the Confederate flag that Martin painted.

Hallinan is the high school dropout from Massachusetts who sparked outrage back in July when he publicly declared his Florida gun store a "Muslim-free zone" in the wake of 24-year old Kuwaiti-born U.S. citizen Muhammad Youssef Adbulazeez killing four U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy Petty Officer in a violent mass shooting in Tennessee before he himself was killed.

Hallinan (pictured left) posted a video of himself on Youtube (standing in front of a Confederate flag) in which he blamed President Obama for causing the rise of racial polarization in America and announced that he was banning Muslims from his gun store; and urged people to "get armed, get trained and carry-daily".

In response, according to an article on Newsweek.com by Michelle Richinik, Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced that the organization would file a lawsuit against Hallian and said:  

"These bigoted declarations are no different than whites-only signs posted in businesses during a period of our history that we had hoped was over."

There's something depraved about a man whose documented propensity for violence, love of guns and racist views led to the death of an innocent teenager, then shows absolutely no remorse for it.

There's something morally reprehensible about someone who not only remains unapologetic about causing the death of another human being, he aligns himself with those who treat him as if he was some kind of American hero for getting away with it.

As if he'd fended off an attacker who'd broken into his house or stopped a bank robbery instead of stalking and killing a innocent 17 year-old high school student with no police record.

But we are talking about the state of Florida after all folks.

The same state where Congresswoman Janet Adkins (pictured left) recently told a group of Florida Republican activists that the key to defeating Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown (pictured left), an African-American who served as a state representative for 10 years before being elected to Congress in 2013, was to simply increase the number of black prison inmates in Brown's district.


As Evan Hurst of Wonkette.com reported earlier today, Adkins strategy is to follow the Republican playbook and use illegal Gerrymandering to, "draw [Brown’s seat] in such a fashion so perhaps, a majority, or maybe not a majority, but a number of them will live in the prisons, thereby not being able to vote,” said Adkins, a Nassau County Republican, referring to black residents."

Now obviously it wouldn't be fair to lump every single resident of the ironically nicknamed "Sunshine State" into one barrel with all the bad oranges.

But it is a state where a judge and jury did elevate the warped principle of "Stand Your Ground" laws over the life of an innocent teenager.

And it's also the place where an elected member of Congress is on record as openly suggesting that districts with high concentrations of incarcerated people of color is in line with the Republican strategy to suppress the votes of non-white Americans to create majorities that are illusory.

I'm not sure what the members of the jury who found Trayvon Martin's killer not guilty felt when they heard the news that the man they absolved of murder posted photo's of his victim's body on his Twitter page like some kind of trophy from a hunt.

But I do know that there are a lot of people around the world wondering how justice and politics can be so openly twisted along racial lines in a state that's part of a nation the loves to see itself as the greatest Democracy in the world.

Liberty and justice for all?

I'd imagine the family of Trayvon Martin, being forced to hear news about photos of their son's body being posted on a social media account by his killer, might think otherwise.  

Boehner's Tears, The Handshake & The Global Pope

Republican Speaker John Boehner's had enough [Photo - AP]

The live broadcast of Pope Francis' speech to the joint session of Congress filled me with a sense of awe at the depth of the message he brought to a chamber that has been so polarized, toxic and politically dysfunctional.

There's something about his presence and the carefully measured tone in which he speaks that makes him fascinating to watch.

The aura His Holiness projects clearly affects those around him, including Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, who was noticeably teary-eyed as the Pope spoke yesterday before shocking the political world with the news of his resignation this morning.

I guess even he's had enough of the small faction of extremist Republican Congressman who are determined to intentionally shut down the government, risk the stability of the largest economy in the world and affect the lives of millions of people over the personal desire of a few to defund Planned Parenthood - an organization that provides critical health care services for thousands of women across the nation who might not otherwise be able to afford or access such care.

Is the morality of a handful of elected politicians really more important than the best interests of over 300 million people? From the standpoint of their twisted logic, it is. Perhaps they think that will help Republican efforts to recapture the White House in 2016 - that dripping you hear is the sound of Hillary Clinton drooling.

Some media pundits are speculating that the staunchly Catholic Boehner's decision was a carefully calculated strategic political decision designed to prevent a government shutdown by removing the power of the threat of the Tea Party wing-nut faction to remove him from the Speaker's chair; which they wanted to use as a wedge to force him to go along with their government shutdown fantasy.

But I have to believe that the toxic anti-immigrant hatred of Donald Trump, Ben Carson's Islamophobia and Ted Cruz's detached lunacy, plus the weight of Pope Francis' words had to have played a part in his decision to step down from one of the most powerful political positions in DC.

Pope Francis greets Sec of State John Kerry

To me, Rachel Maddow provided one of the most insightful aspects of the Pope's visit; his choice to shake the hand of one person in the Congressional chamber; that of Secretary of State John Kerry.

In one handshake the Pope publicly repudiated the rigidly conservative Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke, the former Archbishop of St. Louis who, as MSNBC reported, "made headlines by criticizing Ted Kennedy's funeral and John Kerry's worthiness of holy communion."

Cardinal Burke's open scorn for feminism has made him seem more like a musty 15th century church relic than the leader of 21st century Catholicism and demoting Burke to a meaningless symbolic position in the church was one of Pope Francis' first major personnel changes to clean up the Catholic hierarchy when he was elected Pope.

Regardless of religious background, the Pope's visit to America has sparked such an amazing range of interesting conversations and discussions on a vast array of topics; I suspect his mentioning of influential American figures like Dorothy Day (1897 - 1980) and Thomas Merton (1915 - 1968) will expand the perspectives of untold numbers of people who were never exposed to them in school or college or were unaware of their influence on the 20th century.

For example, earlier this morning on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, during a discussion about the impact of the Pope's visit, speech and role in the world today, Brian invited Catholic immigrants in this country to call in to the show and share their observations.

A woman from the Dominican Republic called in to say that she wanted to see the Pope doing more to raise awareness of the DR government's plan to deport thousands of dark-skinned Haitian people who've lived across the border in the DR for years (some for generations) and repatriating them back to Haiti against their will.

While that example of a government instituting a race-based immigration policy is troubling given how close the two nations are to each other in more than just geography, I think the woman's desire to see the Pope use his influence to intervene demonstrates not just the high expectations that people have of his role as the head of the Catholic Church, but the tremendous respect they have for his authority and willingness to tailor the role of the church to be more relevant to the issues facing humanity in the 21st century.

His authority has nothing to do with warships, bombers, combat troops or drones.

From the global reaction to his tenure as Pope thus far, and his willingness to use the template of the moral convictions of Christian theology to address contemporary issues like wealth inequality, poverty, war and climate change, it's clear Pope Francis wields a powerful authority that transcends the physical.

More and more, he seems to be a Pope for all people around the globe - regardless of how they choose to worship.

Pope Francis is a religious leader who seems to transcend religion, geographic borders and the petty differences which divide so many of us that are symptomatic of a deep spiritual longing.

Frankly, if Rush Limbaugh calls Pope Francis a "Marxist", then he's gotta be doing something right. 

The Threat Of Simple Existence

Rini Sampath (left) & running mate Jordan Fowler (right)

That loudmouth Birther wearing the Trump t-shirt who stood up in front of Donald Trump in New Hampshire last Thursday night and repeated the well-worn falsehood that President Obama is a Muslim who wasn't born in America demonstrates that the election of an African-American to two terms in the White House has had the unfortunate side effect of bringing bigotry and prejudice closer to the mainstream in this nation.

But is the virulent anti-immigrant rhetoric that's been such a prominent feature of Trump's toxic campaign message negatively affecting the mindset of some college students as well?

Troubling incidents at two of the nation's most recognizable universities recently would suggest there's arguably a link.

Now it's been awhile since media headlines have featured the various kinds of overt displays of intolerance and crass bigotry that have become an all too unpleasant hallmark of so many American college fraternities.

Remember the leaked video of the SAE sing-a-long at the University of Oklahoma back in March?

With the fall underway and college campuses once again teeming with young students adding to America's record-levels of college debt, along with the usual assortment of back-to-school dramas of college life come those unfortunate incidents based on race and ethnicity that soil the reputations of some of the nation's most esteemed institutions of higher learning.

Earlier this morning at work I was listening to Los Angeles public radio station KCRW on my computer and I heard about a troubling incident that took place on the campus of the University of Southern California this past Saturday night that hasn't really gotten a ton of mainstream coverage here on the east coast aside from The Washington Post.

Two days ago Lindsey Bever's WaPo article detailed how the president of the University of Southern California's undergrad student body, an Indian-American student named Rini Sampath (pictured above, left), was walking home from her friend's apartment when:

"Someone leaned out of the fraternity house window, she said, and shouted: 'You Indian piece of shit!' Then he hurled a drink at her."

In an effort to make sense of what happened and share her experience, Sampath detailed the incident on her Facebook page and said she was in total shock after it happened. As Bever reported in her WaPo article, Sampath was trying to make sense of the "Why?" of the incident when a friend told her:

"Because now you know, the first thing they see you as is subhuman."

Sampath snaps a selfie with Hillary Clinton

What was going on in the mind of the fraternity brother who saw Rini Sampath walking by and felt compelled to lean out of the window?

His toxic comments can't just be chalked up to too much alcohol; though alcohol did play a part since he did try to throw a drink at her.

It's more than that. Rini Sampath has a fascinating perspective on the American immigrant experience, she's a driven, focused college student and if you read her words from this June 10th article in Brown Girl Magazine, she's an eloquent and intelligent person with a genuine desire to help others.



Which makes the fact that this ignorant college frat brother simply saw the color of her skin and her ethnicity, and (as Sampath's friend suggested) reduced her to some kind of demented subhuman stereotype, all the more disturbing. Remember, she's president of the student body to which he belongs.

My concern, as I've blogged about before regarding the thought process in the minds of some members of law enforcement in this nation, is that we as a nation are not paying enough attention
to what's going on inside the mind of a kid like that.

I mean, what if he'd been a few feet away from Rini as she was walking by; would he have assaulted her just for being Indian?

Personally I'm concerned that the frat boy, like millions of other people in America, felt like it was simply more acceptable to say that kind of thing after being exposed to Donald Trump's brand of ignorant anti-immigrant hysteria.

It's really troubling to think that some kid swilling down booze inside a frat house on the USC campus in 2015 is behaving no differently than some angry redneck in the 1950's deep south who saw a black person walking by minding their own business.

Oh and speaking of southern bigots yelling racist shit at black people for no reason, just about a week before Rini Simpath walked past that USC frat house and had a drink and insults hurled at her, down in Columbia, Missouri another student of color who happens to be the president of a college student body organization was also subjected to unsolicited verbal insults because of his race.

Missouri MSA president Payton Head

When you talk about journalism programs, the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia is considered one of the finest in the world.

At the least, that kind of reputation suggests a progressive educational campus environment right? 

Many administrators, faculty and students of "Mizzou" are now questioning that assumption after senior student Payton Head (pictured left), the African-American president of the Missouri Student Association posted a blistering commentary about intolerance on the Columbia campus on his Facebook page following an incident when he says a group of white men in a pickup truck driving past started yelling "Nigger!" at him on the night of Friday September 11th.

He didn't know them.

He had done nothing to warrant their attention aside from having dark skin and being where those guys in the truck could see him. 

In his Facebook post, Head asked a question that completely transcends the incident itself: 

"I really just want to know why my simple existence is such a threat to society. For those of you who wonder why I'm always talking about the importance of inclusion and respect, it's because I've experienced moments like this multiple times at THIS university, making me not feel included here."

Hundreds of miles across the country in southern California on the campus of USC, Rini Sampath might have asked the same question too.

What is it about people whose skin is darker, or who speak a different language, or come from a different country that is so threatening to a large segment of the U.S. population?

I'd like to hear that delusional clown in the Trump t-shirt answer that question.

Because with all his anti-Muslim fear-mongering and fake macho swagger, he's the kind of guy who's all geared up to unleash the dogs of war on ISIS for running around cutting off the heads of people who are different than them.

The truth is that the frat guy at USC and the guy in the Trump t-shirt in New Hampshire are actually an American version of the type of person that ISIS would recruit and brainwash with their delusional paranoia - because the fact is both of them are terrified at the threat of simple existence.

The existence of those who they perceive as being "other".

SPD Officer Cynthia Whitlach Fired For Lying About Being Threatened With a Golf Club

William Wingate, 70 arrested for using golf club as a cane

James Blake being an ex-pro tennis player standing in front of a hotel in Manhattan didn't prevent NYPD officer James Frascatore from "mistaking" Blake for a criminal, tackling him to the ground, handcuffing him and falsely arresting him.

But it did get Blake a personal private sit-down and apology from the mayor and the police commissioner of New York in a case where celebrity profile and security videotape made a difference; when an average Joe probably would have earned a night in The Tombs courtesy of the NYPD until the whole thing got straightened out.

Videotape also ended up making a difference in the wrongful arrest of 69-year old William Wingate (pictured above) back in July of 2014 when Seattle police officer Cynthia Whitlach spotted him standing on a downtown street corner in broad daylight leaning on a golf club he's used as a cane to help him walk for 20 years.

What made this case so interesting (and disturbing) is how Whitlach aggressively initiated the encounter, then within about thirty seconds began shouting at Wingate to put the golf club down after telling him "it's a weapon."

The outraged braniacs over on Fox News who've been ranting about the peaceful civil rights activist group Black Lives Matter being an "anti-police" "hate group" should probably take a look at the
unfettered ease with which Whitlach suddenly accuses Wingate of "swinging the golf club" at her - which he rightfully and adamantly denies.

Watch the footage taken from the dash cam video of Whitlach's police car for yourself, it's only about three minutes long - she falsely accuses him of swinging the golf club at her at least three times when all he's doing is leaning on it like a cane. He's not even close to her.

Listen to her concocted Barney Fife-like radio call for assistance that brings fellow SPD officer Chris Coles to the scene: "I have a subject with a golf club who's refusing to put it down." 

William Wingate being taken to jail, July, 2014

Wingate, a 20-year military veteran and former Seattle Metro bus driver with no police record, was eventually handcuffed, placed in the back of a paddy wagon (pictured left). 

According to an article posted on Rawstory, former Washington state Rep Dawn Mason decided to intervene in the case "after seeing footage of Wingate needing a footstool to be able get into the paddy wagon."  


Wingate was placed under arrest by SPD officer Chris Coles, taken to a police station where he was charged with harassment and obstruction before spending the night in jail in what the outraged 69-year old called "...the most miserable night I've ever had."

The case quickly captured local then national media attention as local citizens, local politicians and activists including the local chapter of the NAACP began lobbying on his behalf.

Officer Whitlach was placed on modified desk duty so she would no longer have any contact with the public while the case was being investigated.

Ex-Seattle PD officer Whitlach

But according to an article posted on the KUOW Website by Joshua McNichols back in January, the disgruntled cop made her situation even worse by revealing some disturbing insight into her warped perception of African-Americans.

Rather than just admit that she'd been out of line, she began posting quasi-delusional messages on her Facebook page about "black racists" and "black people's paranoia" which were scrutinized by SPD police officials.

The Facebook posts, which "shocked" Seattle police Chief Kathleen O'Toole when she read them, later became part of the evidence used in the internal police investigation of Whitlach's actions - including examinations of her previous arrests which came under suspicion for possible racial bias.

As reported in the Seattle Times, after an extensive review of the facts in the case, last Tuesday SPD chief O'Toole fired Whitlach from the force, stating (in part) in her Termination Report:

"Without this ability to learn from your mistakes, understand how you can improve and do better, and recognize your own errors, you are unable to effectively function as an officer,”

It's truly regrettable that this incident ever occurred to William Wingate.

As the SPD chief's statement makes clear, even throughout the investigation, Whitlach stubbornly maintained that she'd done nothing wrong - even though the video taken from the dash cam of her own car Cleary shows that she lied about Wingate swinging the golf club at her.

An innocent senior citizen who served his country for 20 years being arrested and carted off to jail on trumped up charges based on the flagrant lie of a police officer is bad enough, but to me the more deeply disturbing aspect of this case is Whitlach's attitude.

Sure, her Facebook statements are troubling, but they're more reflective of the kind of ignorant garden variety bigotry peddled on conservative radio and television on a daily basis.

To me what's more disturbing is that like NYPD officer James Frascatore who falsely arrested James Blake, Whitlach had been disciplined by her superiors back in 1997 and 2002 over incidents in which her temper and lack of emotional control "brought discredit" on both her and the SPD as detailed in an article on The Stranger blog.

If people like Frascatore and Whitlach have shown a documented history of being overly aggressive with civilians and have demonstrated a troubling lack of emotional control in public situations that can be particularly dangerous for someone with a badge licensed to carry a firearm and use deadly force - why are they still on the force?

James Blake and William Wingate both endured humiliating encounters at the hands of cops with records of issues with civilians - and in both cases race was a factor.

But ultimately Blake and Wingate were lucky, they were just a trigger pull away from being added to the ranks of The Counted in America.

Like the Rolling Stones warned about war in the song Gimme Shelter, James Blake and William Wingate were both "Just a shot away."

But at least the Seattle Police Department made sure Whitlach will never do it again - the jury is still out on NYPD officer Frascatore.

Carson Goes Rogue, Trump Shrugs & 'Saint Scott' Helps "Clear the Field"

Ben Carson points to where he's going: way off the ranch

Is the word 'ironic' sufficient enough to describe the fact that the lone African-American Republican presidential candidate for the 2016 race, a former pediatric neurosurgeon and devout Christian, is being publicly accused of religious bigotry and intolerance?

During an interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday, Dr. Ben Carson declared that a U.S. President who was a practicing Muslim was not "consistent with the Constitution", and that he could not agree with America having a Muslim President.

No doubt Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, a practicing Muslim and respected Democratic leader, found Carson's comments interesting.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, promptly called for the soft-spoken GOP candidate to resign on the grounds that he was not fit to hold office.

Now I'm not really sure what Carson was thinking when he said that.

The good doctor was coming off a pretty decent performance in the latest GOP presidential debate in California.

Maybe he felt he had to do or say something to put some space between him and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina after she stood up to both Russian President Vladamir Putin and Donald Trump during the debate and boosted her standing in the polls up into the top three.

Or maybe Carson was simply following in the footsteps of other GOP candidates and trying to "out-Trump" Donald Trump after the Republican front-runner made headlines last Thursday for refusing to correct the comments of a right-wing "Birther" who stood up in front of an audience of about 3,000 Trump supporters and said:  

“We have a problem in this country, it’s called Muslims. We know our current president is one — you know he’s not even an American. But anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question, when can we get rid of them?”

The idea that there are people in this country who want to "get rid" of Muslims is obviously disturbing on a number of levels, but hardly surprising given the right wing media's role in actively promoting anti-Muslim hatred since the 911 attacks.

So far Trump has refused to disavow or clarify the statements made by his supporter in New Hampshire last week; how can he? Especially given his own role in actively spreading discredited fringe "Birther" theories.  

A stunning 52% of Trump supporters incorrectly believe President Obama is a Muslim.

Republican town hall meeting in Maryland, 2013

Some of the folks still riding around in the 2016 Republican Clown Car are so intent on pleasing the amorphous living mass called the "Republican Base" that they seem to have lost sight of the fact that the much larger American middle is far more moderate in its views.

The Republican Base may be strong, and God knows it's opinionated, but as Mitt Romney learned in 2012, it's simply not big enough on it's own to get someone elected to the White House - Gerrymandering and voter suppression of Democratic votes are only going to take you so far. 

The backlash against two of the leading Republican presidential candidates over the tone of intolerance so prevalent in the GOP message is proof positive that the Republican's post-2012 presidential election self analysis mea-culpa exists only in a distant past that is unrecognizable.

The racial, ethnic and religious divisiveness that GOP leaders vowed to steer the party away from just three years ago in an effort to make the party more inclusive, is now a legitimate plank in the current Republican platform.

A platform that's so out of step with the current demographic makeup of the United States in terms of the ethnic diversity of its population, that it's very close to rendering the Republican party irrelevant.

The number of seats they hold in Congress is in part, an illusion that helps to disguise the total lack of optimism in their outlook for the nation and the non-existence of any meaningful or substantive policy proposals or broad initiatives to move the country forward.

Wisconsin Gov Scott Walker drops out

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's announcement earlier this evening that he's dropping out of the 2016 GOP race was about as anti-climatic as it was unsurprising given his anemic Presidential campaign message and the fact that he's polling at zero %.

According to multiple sources, the press conference to announce his dropping out of the race was hastily planned.

Based on his comments earlier this evening and his lackluster performances at both GOP presidential debates, maybe his entering the 2016 race in the first place was hastily planned too.

Frankly it's laughable that the same candidate who just recently was touting the same kind of "Trump-ian" anti-immigrant hysteria as planks of his own campaign (erecting walls on the border of Canada, saying only a "handful" of the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world are moderate...) is now trying to spin his dropping out of the 2016 presidential race as some kind of half-ass pseudo-religious epiphany.

In his farewell statement, Walker said,  “The Bible is full of stories of people being called to lead in unusual ways, I believe I am being called to lead by helping clear the field.” 

Like former Texas Governor Rick Perry before him, Walker seemed to try and use his exit as some kind of clarion call for the Republican party to wake up and "smell the Donald" before it's too late.

But that ship has already sailed for the Wisconsin Governor with a 40% approval rating in his own state. But hey, that's 10 points better than the 30% home-state approval rating of another Republican presidential hopeful in the 2016 race. (We see you Chris Christie)

Walker had plenty of opportunities to stake out a position across the ideological field from Trump to try and force the GOP to distance itself from Trump's unabashed courting of right-wing extremists, anti-immigrant hate mongers, fringe loonies and white nationalists.

But he didn't. Instead Walker went for the same low-hanging fruit Trump revels in feasting on;
and he reaped exactly what he sowed.

In another display of Republican irony, it was only in his final statement as a 2016 presidential candidate earlier this evening that Walker said something that actually made sense:

“Sadly, the debate taking place in the party today is not focused on an optimistic view of America. Instead, it has drifted into personal attacks. In the end, I believe that the voters want to be for something and not against someone.”
  
You got that one right Governor, but no one is going to consider you "Saint Scott" for saying it; if you'd said it on stage during one of the two prime-time Republican debates in front of millions of people on television it might have meant something.

It might have changed the scope of the race and your own campaign.

Instead you waited until you were on your way out of the race to mention the truth as an afterthought on a Monday evening when most people's focus is on Monday night football, the humanitarian crisis in Europe, the vilification of a Muslim kid in Texas who built a clock that some people saw as a bomb, or their own problems.  

The kinds of problems a real honest to God presidential candidate with vision and guts might offer some solutions to.

But you weren't that candidate.

Instead you were just an unpopular Governor propped up by millions in Koch brothers dark money who stripped hard-working union workers of their right to collective bargaining, stripped your state's college system of critical funding even though you never graduated from college yourself, and contradicted your own "government is too big and intrusive" philosophy by signing a ban on abortions after 20 weeks into law.

You said it best yourself earlier tonight Governor Walker, "... the debate taking place in the party today is not focused on an optimistic view of America." 

You yourself were part of that lack of optimism; and clearly you were not part of the solution. 

'Damonsplaining' - Diversity Advice From Matt Damon

Damon explains diversity to a black woman as Affleck cringes

In recent months former Sony Pictures head Amy Pascal, actor/producer Mark Wahlberg and actor/director Ben Affleck have all made headlines for reasons that touch on delicate issues relating to race in America.

After the premiere of season four of HBO's Project Greenlight, the other night the subject of race is once again intersecting with the actions or words of a wealthy well-known Hollywood celebrity; this time it's actor /producer Matt Damon and the subject of diversity in film in the spotlight.

During the episode, as the panelists were discussing which director should be picked for a film project, African-American producer Effie Brown began to make the point that they should at least consider that a minority director might be best suited to sensitively handle scenes where the main character, a black female prostitute, is physically struck by a white male character.

Damon quickly interrupted her as she was talking and began to explain that diversity in film should start with casting; not with the creative talent behind the camera - Brown was completely dumbstruck by his comment but managed to keep her cool as Damon went on to explain that directors earn their chops on merit alone as if Hollywood is a meritocracy.

The LA Times offers some interesting perspective on the incident.
 
Now I don't for a second believe that Damon is a bigot or a racist or anything like that - but the way he spoke to Brown came off as remarkably condescending.

Producer Effie Brown

From my take, her reaction was not just about what he said to her specifically.

I think Brown was also blown away by how simplistic and naive Damon sounded and the fact that he didn't seem to realize it, or that he, a privileged and successful Hollywood A-List white male actor, seemed to be lecturing her on the issue of diversity in film.

Bear in mind Effie Brown (pictured left) is not just some "contestant nobody" picked to be on Project Greenlight, she's a successful film producer in her own right.

Most notably she produced the indie film hit Dear White People which was a hit at The Sundance Film Festival last year; the critically-acclaimed satire was also the directorial debut of 32-year old African-American director Justin Simien.  


Brown was making a valid point based on her own professional experience, and Damon's reaction ended up making a point about why diversity in Hollywood is still such an issue.

It seemed on some level that Damon honestly wanted to weigh in on the issue of diversity in film, and he was right in saying casting in front of the camera is where change needs to take place in American cinema.

But the moment he told a black female producer that casting behind the camera was not where that change needed to take place, the truth is he came off as seeming really uninformed about the issue; and social media quickly took him to task for it.

The hashtag #Damonsplaining quickly blew up on Twitter as people began to comment about the absurdity of Damon explaining diversity to a black female film professional. 

If you've seen the clip, what's sadly funny about it is watching Ben Affleck's reaction as Damon is speaking; look at Affleck's eyes in the picture above, he looks like he wants to sink into the couch or tap Damon on the shoulder quietly.

It was only a few months ago back in April that Affleck was making headlines and adding a new dimension to the ongoing national dialog on race in America for his request for PBS not to air an episode of the genealogy program Finding your Roots  with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates after it was revealed one of Affleck's ancestors was a slave trader.

I'm not sure people necessarily found "fault" with Affleck for not wanting to air his family's dirty laundry on national TV, but his decision was controversial.

Affleck & Damon accept 1998 Best Screenplay Oscars for Good Will Hunting

Affleck and Damon jointly produce Project Greenlight so naturally they were seated side by side on the couch the other night as Damon punched a hole in the prestige of their creative partnership and let some of the air seep out.

The legitimacy of that creative partnership was inflated quite quickly for both of them when they shared the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1998 (pictured left) for Good Will Hunting.

Now don't get me wrong, I really liked Good Will Hunting. Solid film. Good watch.

Damon showed impressive range as an actor and to me it's one of Robin Williams best on screen performances; and it was a touching story too.

While the film launched Damon and Affleck's careers, I'm not sure their well-documented creative and personal 'brolationship' will ever be considered as culturally influential as Keith Richards and Mick Jagger's prolific song co-writing efforts; known informally as 'The Glimmer Twins'.

But Damon and Affleck, either alone or in partnership, certainly continue to spark controversy in ways that aren't always positive. After all, rumors have persisted for years in Hollywood that Damon and Affleck didn't actually write the script for Good Will Hunting; many insiders have insisted it was actually written or heavily doctored by screenwriting master William Goldman.

The Project Greenlight incident won't put a damper on the careers of either of these guys, but it does call into question the widely-held perspective of Damon as the "progressive liberal" raised in Cambridge, MA who publicly used his fame to come to the defense of teachers a few years back at a time when Republicans were vilifying them (and unions) as the scourge of all evil.

Project Greenlight revealed a Matt Damon who seems ensconced and somewhat culturally insulated in his position as a wealthy Hollywood A-Lister; and like many other decent Americans who are not bigots, is not all that comfortable talking about the privileges his skin color grants him in this nation.

But someone who is nonetheless as human as any of us, and for that he certainly doesn't deserve to be condemned.

Regardless I'm still a Damon fan and think the Jason Bourne franchise will be better with him in it.

This incident is not only another case of social media driving what has now become a mainstream news story, it also reveals a lot about racial identity in America - and the ways that race can impact how two people can view the same issue so differently.

Dixie Chicken, Cheap Gas & Horizon's Exclusionary Health Care Alliance

Current lineup of Little Feat - still rockin' after 46 years

After I posted my last blog about newly-famous NYPD cop James Frascatore last Friday afternoon, I jumped in the shower and drove straight into Princeton for a Mexican-themed BBQ at my friend Geoff's house that turned out to be a rather festive gathering of old friends from high school (and three of their kids).

The next morning was a working Saturday for me so I was up early to get to the office before leaving at 1pm to drive up to Port Chester, New York to see Little Feat in concert at the Capitol Theater at 8pm with some friends.

Great venue, really intimate and a super relaxed place to see live music.

Oh, get this. After my complaining about feeling "Trumped Out" on this blog two weeks ago after seeing "The Donald's" face on The Hollywood Reporter, when I arrived home earlier than expected on Sunday the day after the concert and found my latest issue of Rolling Stone in the mailbox - guess whose scowling face was on the cover?

My frown quickly turned to a smile when I saw that a brief letter I wrote to the editor last week about a Q&A interview with Wilco lead singer Jeff Tweedy had been published in Rolling Stone's "Correspondence" section. (My name is Mark and I'm from Hamilton, NJ should you wish to check it out)

Writing letters to various editors has been a hobby of mine for years, I've had letters published in The New York Times, The New York Post and many other papers and magazines - Rolling Stone was on my personal bucket list so that really helped my hangover on Sunday.

Anyway, the mileage I racked up on my Honda SUV during my travels last week is made less painful by the fact that the price for regular unleaded at my local gas station is now about $2 a gallon; which is just about as low as it gets for gas in the United States according to the latest figures from the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

What is it with New Jersey? We have some of the cheapest gas in the nation, but we also have some of the highest property taxes and state taxes - and few states pay higher health care costs than we do in the Garden State. 

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Robert Marino

Now on the surface, one might think the September 10th announcement that the state's largest health care insurance provider, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey had formed the "OMNIA Health Alliance" in an effort to lower out-of-pocket costs for consumers would be a positive thing for average folks, right?

Horizon CEO Robert Marino (pictured left) certainly thinks so.

The Alliance is a partnership with 34 of the state's largest hospitals (and physicians affiliated with those hospitals) that seeks to channel higher patient volume to the selected hospitals in return for their agreeing to lower reduced levels of reimbursement for procedures and other patient services from Horizon.

According to Horizon, the hospitals in this new alliance would also have an incentive to provide better patient care because Horizon would then pay higher reimbursement costs to those hospitals and physicians. As NJ.com's Kathleen O'Brien reported last week:  

"Under this new alliance, participating hospitals and physicians will be rewarded for quality care that results in speedy recovery. OMNIA will also emphasize preventive care that heads off health problems before they snowball into crises."

But according to an article by reporter Susan Livio posted on NJ.com on Saturday, the only problem is that this alliance of 34 hospitals has excluded the largest inner city hospitals in Trenton and Camden.

The largest hospitals included in the alliance were given a "tier one" rating by Horizon, while the 38 hospitals left out of the alliance were designated "tier two" hospitals.

With the State House, NJ Motor Vehicle Commission's main office, Social Security Administration, New Jersey utility provider PSE&G and US Postal Service all located in Trenton, the state (and the federal government) are now the largest employers in the Trenton area.

This new alliance potentially sets up a scenario where large numbers of patients concentrated in urban areas with high populations of poor and working class African-Americans, Hispanics and other ethnic minorities would face significantly higher costs for out-of-pocket health care expenses.

For example an insured state employee in the Trenton area enrolled in the new Horizon alliance would pay a $1,500 deductible is they visited any of the "tier two" hospitals in Trenton; but they would pay no deductible if they went to a "tier one" hospital.

But since there are no "tier one" hospitals in Trenton, state employees face a choice of higher health care costs, or increased costs in time, money and convenience to travel to a "tier one" hospital.

So why did Horizon leave hospitals in Trenton, Camden and Burlington County off the list?

St. Francis Hospital in Trenton, NJ

The hospitals designated "tier two" in Trenton might not be the largest hospitals in the state, but they are not slouch hospitals by any means.

Right now there is a rapidly growing number of people wondering why the state capital does not have at least one "tier one" hospital to serve the city's needs.

As people in this area know, both Trinity Health and St. Francis Hospital in Trenton (pictured left) have excellent reputations for quality of service and customer satisfaction.

As does Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden.

But even though Horizon CEO Robert Marino has been actively lobbying the state legislature to change out-of-network regulations since at least last March, the political backlash to the unveiling of Horizon's alliance has been swift.  

The Burlington County Times' David Levinsky reports that Assemblyman Herb Conaway has expressed concern that none of the three major hospitals in Burlington County made the list of "tier one" hospitals. According to Conaway, the only practicing doctor in the NJ state legislature:

"The No. 1 reason people miss (doctors' appointments) is because they can't get to them," he said. "You're now saying to people already economically marginalized that they need to pony up cab or bus fare to get to a more distant health care facility. It could mean remarkably reduced care."

Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson

Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson (pictured left) has requested meetings with state officials to determine how all Trenton hospitals were excluded from the "tier one" ranking by Horizon.

Democratic Assembly members Reed Gusciora and Elizabeth Muoio of Mercer County both issued a joint statement stating in part:

"Ultimately, the decision to leave our capital city and its residents without a Tier One provider jeopardizes Trenton's access to quality healthcare at more affordable rates. Horizon's actions threaten to create a gaping void in affordable coverage for those who most need it." 

Affordable and quality health care is also a marker of a civilized and evolving society.

The lengthy national debates and passionate discussions that accompanied the passage of the Affordable Health Care Act during President Obama's first term made one thing clear: the vast and overwhelming majority of Americans support comprehensive health care for all citizens. Period.


"All citizens" doesn't mean a large health care insurance provider should be able to use it's market share and influence over the state legislature and the health care industry to decide which citizens in which parts of any state will have access to health care discounts intended to drive down overall health care costs to hospitals, insurers and consumers.

My guess is that consumer backlash on this issue is going to heat up pretty quickly.

If Horizon CEO Robert Marino says this hospital alliance is an effort to drive down health care costs in the state of New Jersey, I don't disbelieve him - or doubt that his intentions are true.

But regardless, someone who sat at the table when Horizon laid out this list of "tier one" hospitals as part of this new "OMNIA Health Alliance", should have raised their hand and pointed out the fact that there were no "tier one" hospitals located in two of the state's largest urban areas.

Given the challenges Trenton and Camden have faced over the years, at the least you'd think one of the high-powered health insurance executives who drew up this alliance would've recognized that making the alliance accessible to all New Jersey citizens should have been a cornerstone of getting buy-in from the public, consumer advocates, health care experts and politicians.

Instead they've crafted a policy of health care discounts for consumers that are essentially, exclusionary - and they haven't explained why.

Someone in that room should have told Robert Marino the alliance of "tier one" hospitals needed to be expanded to at least 37 - so that Trenton, Camden and Burlington County were not ostensibly labeled "tier two" communities and were not placed at risk at having the existing hospitals they DO have close because Horizon's alliance plan causes a bleed-off of customers.

Horizon's proposal may lower health care costs, they're not actually releasing specific cost details until next month, but one thing is clear; it appears to have created a two-tier health care system in New Jersey with one set of pricing discounts for some and inconvenience and higher costs for others.

There's a lot of folks in New Jersey, myself included, who'd much rather pay a little more for gasoline if it means more equitable quality of health care for all.

And we wonder why we pay some of the highest costs for health care in the nation; Horizon's alliance proposal offers insight and shows those cost aren't restricted to just money.

Frascatore-Time & Petra Laszlo Gets Her Kicks

NYPD officer James Frascatore

Remember back in 1997 during the fallout from the heinous toilet plunger assault on Abner Louima when the term "Giuliani Time" was being widely used to describe former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's approach to policing and the toxic relationship between the NYPD and communities of color?

Well now apparently it's "Frascatore Time".

Earlier today I was thinking that it may have been a bit premature of me to have awarded this week's George Lincoln Rockwell Award to disgraced NYPD officer James Frascatore (pictured left), the cop who assaulted and falsely arrested retired tennis star James Blake two days ago.

But after hearing today's news that a 2014 investigation conducted by WNYC revealed that the 38-year old Frascatore had been the subject of five separate civilian complaints during a seven-month period in 2013 and was also named in two different federal civil rights lawsuits filed by individuals who claim he pepper-sprayed, beat and then falsely arrested them, I'm sticking with my choice.

According to various reports, Frascatore has changed his phone number and has been placed on what the NYPD is calling "modified duty" after detectives who saw the video footage of his attack on Blake seized his badge and gun.

Meaning he's still earning a paycheck and benefits on the taxpayer's dime while the NYPD brass figure out whether they're going to serve him up to make an example to other NYPD officer's who are just a little too quick to resort to physical violence at the sight of dark skin.

Far right journalist Petra Laszlo

But in my book the Hungarian journalist Petra Laszlo (pictured left) certainly qualifies as a close runner-up for this week's Rockwell Award after video footage of her kicking an adult Syrian refugee and trying to trip his child went viral this week.

I suppose one might say it's now "Laszlo Time" in  Hungary given the country's opposition to the sugggested quotas proposed by EU officials for the numbers of Syrian refugees each European nation should accept to alleviate the humanitarian crisis. 

Laszlo was one of a swarm of journalists who were in an open field near the Serbian border in the village of Roszke trying to capture footage of a large group of Syrian refugees who were desperately trying to evade capture by a group of uniformed police in blue uniforms.

The absurd cold-hearted inhumanity of the moment is certainly one of the reasons the video clip has been seen millions of times around the world, but there's also something compelling about viewing a natural reaction like that.

Petra Laszlo's Hungarian welcome

If you've seen the video clip, Laszlo intentionally sticks out her right leg and kicks the leg of a male refugee running from the police, she then attempts to trip a child next to him whose hand he's holding.

Her choice suggests one of two possibilities.

Either she was trying to purposefully cause a terrified adult and his child fleeing a war-torn country to trip and fall so the cops chasing them could capture them so she could then record the confrontation on video.

Or, her personal feelings of contempt, anger or resentment towards the refugees simply bubbled up to the surface and trying to trip them was all she could manage to do at the spur of the moment with so many others running around.

Maybe it's a combination of both.

After all, as The New York Times reported earlier this week, N1TV, the Internet television channel she worked for, is associated with the right-wing Jobbik party - she could have been trying to intentionally stage the photo to appease N1TV member audiences; who like Fox News watchers have nothing but contempt for refugees.

Regardless, she's been fired and I can only assume is now looking for work; I can't help but wonder how Laszlo will sit across from someone in HR in a job interview and explain why she left her previous job; Fox News would probably hire her in a snap.

She has since publicly apologized for getting her kicks on innocent refugees, but only after her name achieved astronomically high rankings as a Google search term and images of her physically abusing people fleeing the ravages of war and ISIS have been seen by millions around the globe.

Just like NYPD officials revoking James Frascatore's badge and gun, Laszlo's apology comes just a little too late.

I mean come on, trying to trip a little refugee girl? Low rent.