tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83454247599836848442024-03-14T00:55:35.692-05:00DC Dispatches "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." Nelson Mandela @ trial in 1964. RIPPhilip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.comBlogger387125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-277204283740784132020-06-12T21:45:00.001-05:002020-06-12T21:45:44.855-05:00What do Liberals think?As is often the case. I was "confronted" over on Facebook today by a cut and pasted quote from a long time conservative friend that, in a nut shell, could be titled "liberals hate me and want me to be not myself - and why I keep throwing them the middle finger." I pointed out to said friend that plenty of people see no problem telling me as a liberal how to be. His uncaring response was to tell Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-76332210503385456332020-03-07T12:28:00.000-05:002020-03-07T12:28:17.472-05:00Assessing Joe Biden
Over on
Facebook I’ve been in some heated discussions over the Democratic Presidential primary race this
year. As former VP Biden consolidates his delegate count on the way to the
Democratic nomination, I’ve raised the issue that I don’t think he’s going to
beat Trump. Lots of my liberal friends have pushed back – some harshly – that I’m
wrong, and that I’ll need to eat a lot of public crow Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-66848885363860848762019-08-28T11:41:00.000-05:002019-08-28T11:41:11.923-05:00Another Brick in Trump's Wall - Stolen From the Rule of Law
This is what modern
corruption, waste, fraud and abuse look like:
President Trump is so eager to
complete hundreds of miles of border fence ahead of the 2020 presidential
election that he has directed aides to fast-track billions of dollars’ worth of
construction contracts, aggressively seize private land and disregard environmental
rules, according to current and former officials involved Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-57846048026037337922019-07-18T06:34:00.000-05:002020-03-13T18:26:06.122-05:00Left Behind Already - Why Mr. Trump's Bullying Works
Like a lot
of pundits, CNN’s Michael D’Antontio almost gets to the heart of the matter
assessing Mr. Trump’s recent racist tirades against sitting members of
Congress. He seems to correctly
diagnose Trump’s bullying for what it is, and then extends it to his
followers thusly:
The fear of being targeted, excluded -- or even sent away,
like the President was as a youngster -- may also Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-43353299458778718982019-01-21T15:43:00.000-05:002019-01-21T15:43:31.820-05:00Dr. King and the Furlough - Attacks on the Dream
Today is Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day (abbreviated MLK Day). Its also day 30 of the latest
government “shutdown.” Contemplating each day requires contemplating both. And sadly, this year we seem to be even
farther from Dr. King’s vision and call to a higher place.
The furlough
is impacting communities nationwide and has spread its pernicious damage well
beyond the 450,000 or so Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-56413520273783294592018-10-07T12:18:00.000-05:002018-10-07T12:19:13.111-05:00Now What - A mediation on the elevation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.My head hurts. Not because the confirmation hearings for Mr. Kavanaugh produced dialogue about gender equality or sexual assault that's over due. Not because many women are - perhaps for the first time - willing to take on the patriarchy. And not because Mitch McConnell proved again that he doesn't really care about anything other then power.
No, it hurts because so many of my Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-742344961128512832018-04-25T14:36:00.000-05:002018-04-25T14:36:05.834-05:00If You Are in Awe of the Duchess of Cambridge, You Don’t Know Modern Birth
CNN’s AJ
Willingham wrote on April 23rd about the “Awe” expressed
by so many in the fact that Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, walked out of the
hospital 7 hours after giving birth to her third child. The Duchess has done this sort of thing twice
before, and it seemed so . . . magical . . . mythical . . . unmodern to so many
commentators, both women and men.
Now yes, as
Ms. Willingham Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-51777498440591912332017-02-07T22:49:00.000-05:002018-04-25T14:37:23.606-05:00How can the State get it right, when Congress gets it so wrong?I'm no fan of single party control of the three branches of government. I have always been a fan of cross-aisle compromise. so it was neat to see today that the Mississippi State Senate – led by many Republican senators – voted unanimously on Senate Bill 2634, which creates a
special trust fund for the total of $750 million Mississippi will receive over
the next 15 years for economic Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-33291631673785872102017-01-27T20:00:00.000-05:002017-01-27T20:00:05.162-05:00A "YUGE" Victory still creates the Biggest Looser - Now will he hear "You're Fired!"President Trump likes to talk about his immense win - he even did so in an exclusive interview with ABC. Problem is the numbers don't add up.
There are around 200,081,377 registered voters in the US. The best statistics available show that 138,884,643 actually voted. the vote totals for the Presidential race broke 65,844,610 for Clinton and 62,979,636 for Trump. Which Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-21535392337791810832017-01-26T22:46:00.000-05:002020-03-13T18:27:59.609-05:00An Open Letter to Donald Trump SupportersI get it. You have been lied to so long, ignored so long, and watched too many people who said they were in your corner fail to come to your defense. You look around your towns and see people who don't look like you doing jobs your neighbors used to do; you see those same neighbors addicted to drugs, living in despair, and devoid of hope. You see an array of cultural and Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-40736077390983273992016-09-30T08:51:00.001-05:002016-09-30T08:51:22.222-05:00The State of Republican AffairsWhat does it say about the Republican Party that the Cato Institute - which leans hard right and libertarian - is calling out the Reoublican nominee for lying about the connection between illegal immigrants and crime? And here's the spoiler - Cato says immigrants of all stripes make us safer as a nation.What does it say about rank and file Republicans backing that nominee that they don't or won'tPhilip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-39820902558861573082016-07-26T19:07:00.001-05:002016-07-26T19:07:56.039-05:00Hillary makes history - but is it enough?Bernie Sanders graciously bowed out. Hillary Clinton becomes the first woman nominated by a major political party to be President. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is out (finally). But with so many Americans so upset about so much - and feeling so disconnected - will it be enough? Time will tell, but democrats inability (or unwillingness) to connect to voters emotionally is still Hillary's Achilles heel.Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-61819331056797015112016-01-12T22:35:00.001-05:002016-01-12T22:35:01.597-05:00Really Martha Raditz? The MSM shills for the military industrial
complex again.In tonight's State of Union speech, President Obama rightly noted that while ISIL certainly represents a threat to American citizens but not an existential threat to the US. While it seems to many to be a wildly inaccurate statement, the reality is that ISIL can not destroy the US unless we as a nation cower before them.Yet ABC's Martha Raditz picked up the banner of war and dismissed the Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-81840928235792816142015-12-10T18:54:00.001-05:002015-12-10T18:54:21.439-05:00Are gas prices going to sabotage COP21?Driving home tonight I needed to get gas in my wife's car. Our preferred purveyor had an excellent price:From a pocketbook perspective this price is great - in fact it's been several years since we've seen prices this low in the National Capitol Region.Problem is, lower gas prices severely underprice the environmental impact of their associated carbon emissions. So while many educated and Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-3541369745052570142015-09-03T15:00:00.001-05:002015-09-03T15:00:34.594-05:00A Truly Compassionate and Christian Response to Kim Davis "fear" of Issuing Marriage Licenses to Gay and Lesbian Couples<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-51672685693927543192015-09-03T13:24:00.001-05:002015-09-03T13:24:53.188-05:00The Free Press and The Security State: no, reporters aren't generally
spiesDriving to work today, NPR was running coverage of the latest arrests of reporters covering Turkey's fighting with the Kurdish PKK. Seems the Turks are using the "reporters siding with our enemy by writing about them" argument to suppress potentially unfavorable coverage.During the discussion, the NPR host made note of a recent document released by the Pentagon which says that journalists often Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-73621539271476725262015-08-24T12:36:00.000-05:002015-08-24T12:36:35.668-05:00George Will misread's the source of Republican's Immigration Quagmire<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-89590851509032813582015-08-21T12:04:00.001-05:002015-08-21T12:10:25.831-05:00A well regulated militia . . . Didn't do this. A violent society did.This is a memorial to victims of gun violence in Washington DC since the start of 2014. I photographed it today on the lawn of the Northminster Presbyterian Church, which sits just into DC from Silver Spring, MD. No matter your views on the Second Amendment to the Constitution, we all need to remember that guns are used regularly in our violent society to kill innocent people. That's a social Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-53202329452723404322015-08-17T10:57:00.001-05:002015-08-17T10:57:45.862-05:00The Economics of the Black Live Matter protests why Republicans need to get the log out of their own eye<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-55769391776966215062015-07-21T14:02:00.001-05:002015-07-21T22:02:11.779-05:00Trading Freedom for Security - why arming serving military members on US Soil is the WRONG response to Chattanooga<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-61788944899755261262015-06-11T20:57:00.001-05:002015-06-11T20:57:24.022-05:00Snapshots of The Digital AgeSo it's a late Thursday night, and my wife and her mom are siting on adjacent chairs in our living room reading the same article on their own, separate smartphones. If there's a better image of our disconnected digital age, I can't think of it.Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-31902682449501573762015-04-16T10:13:00.001-05:002015-04-16T10:13:32.774-05:00Tax Day Redux - The Washington Post slaps Feds too!So on April 15, the Washington Post published the usual polemics about the 4%of federal employees with tax "deficiencies" meaning they owe some sorts of back federal taxes. The stories also highlighted legislation making its way through the House to make it easier to fire Feds who don't pay taxes properly and on time.Sadly, both the Post and the House seem to think that the fed tax delinquency Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-69549151970085345342015-03-09T20:55:00.001-05:002015-03-09T20:55:42.613-05:00What have we become - the Bachelor FinaleWhat does it say about our nation that tomorrow's water cooler conversation will be dominated by discussions of whether the "right" woman got get heart broken in a pig barn in Dubuque Iowa? Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-52003200083520599602015-02-12T15:58:00.001-05:002015-02-12T15:58:00.726-05:00REBLOG - Why I Don't Care What You Think (Or At Least I'm Trying Not To)Mandy has such a way of taking a tough subject - perhaps one of the toughest, and tearing it apart to its bare essence. Read more at:
Why I Don't Care What You Think (Or At Least I'm Trying Not To)Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345424759983684844.post-41897324197168468482015-01-23T14:59:00.001-05:002015-01-23T14:59:06.316-05:00Federal Employment Redux - how the House's Selective memory hurts AmericansThe House of Representatives wants to continue cutting the size of the federal workforce presumably without cutting the number of this the federal government has to do:
“We’ve racked up $18 trillion in debt simply because Washington has no idea when to stop spending,” Lummis said in a statement.
“Attrition is a solution that requires the federal government to do
what any business, state or Philip H.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12049875206738422083noreply@blogger.com0