In the United States of America, the history of oppression, persecution, repression, and discrimination against the
people’s rights to vote is a continuum.  It might appear to have stopped but it never did, there was not even a pause – it continues and not in a subtle way! The benchmark set by those who struggle against these societal ills, is found in the fact that the persons affected were not passive victims, they fought back! Indeed some laws were eventually passed
over time that eased the grip at the throat of fairness and civility from those who ruled the roost. Don’t ever be mistaken though; none of these laws were as a result of goodwill or magnanimity on the part legislators or of noble judges ruling against discrimination. The ‘rulers’ had to respond to the voice of the people – vox populi!

“My people, my people open your eyes
  And answer the call of the drum…”  (Song “A Luta
Continua” by Miriam Makeba)

Rev. Al Sharpton said that the Supreme Court has “Cancelled Martin Luther King’s dream” but I have long thought that
we who are alive MUST own that dream and in the absence of Dr. King’s mortal  presence carry on the dream on his and our own behalf because if we do not inject continued activism into that dream, it dies. There are more than enough ‘dream-slayers’ around to make that happen – in Congress, in State legislatures, in gubernatorial ranks,
in conservative groups and sadly in the Supreme Court, a body that should be non-partisan in their ruling but are nauseating and blatantly and selectively biased, parochial, narrow-minded and sometimes even showing nuances of bigotry.

In the over two centuries of struggle for equality, liberty and justice for all, for every oppression there were multiple forms of resistance and as history has shown, it involves blood, sweat and tears. Americans have no place to call home but here therefore they have to be brave and know that they have to fight the forces of evil called the GOP.
 
“And to those who have given their lives
Praises to thee Husband and wives, 
all thy children Shall reap what you sow
This continent is home”  
(Miriam Makeba “A Luta Continua”)

1.      Disagreement on the future of Americans
-      Full Citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The system works them at slave labor conditions and 
       subsistent pay.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s sought to end segregation under the then “Jim Crow” system and to gain the rights of blacks to vote (all people of color included). I say the “then” Jim Crow system because Jim Crow is alive and well to this day and the right to vote is a battle being waged to this minute, to this day. Some might argue that there has
been change but this situation underscores the cliché “the more things change the more they remain the same”

Women Rights
 It has been 237 years – almost two and a half centuries since 1776 when Abigail Adams (wife of John Adams, the first Vice President, and second President, of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States) asked the Continental Congress to support women’s rights. Her macho husband ridiculed the thought and pledged to fight what he called the "Despotism of the petticoat”. 

To this day, this struggle continues!

The rights of women are still being trampled by the Republican Party.
 
Religious Restrictions
In the 1700’s the constitution of states boasted language such as ·        

 "No person shall be eligible to sit in the House of Representatives unless he be of the Protestant religion." 
         
“..do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration."

And although in 1787 when the new US Constitution was adopted and in Article VI prohibiting religious restrictions "... but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." 
 
To this day, this struggle continues!

President John F. Kennedy’s Catholic Faith was an issue; more recently Representative Keith Ellison’s Muslim faith was almost a hell fire situation and as recent as 2012 presidential election the Mormon faith of Mitt Romney was danced around in public but abhorred in the privacy of the hearts and souls of
conservatives. 

REPUBLICANS - THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY... 

The Right To Vote And The Sick Sardonicism Of Racism
The “slave-states” of yester-years retain this categorization in current times. What happened then continues to happen now. They insisted that only white males have the right to vote but at the same time included the black slave statistics
in deciding how many members of Congress the states are entitled to. This was in 1787. The then Constitutional Convention could not come to a consensus on national voting rights standards so it became the prerogative and of the whim and fancy of individual states. So, while the Federal Government decides who can be a citizen of the US, each state has its individual right to decide which of these citizens can vote. Don’t be fooled, the redistricting Texas style will affect not only blacks and Latinos but also poor whites and most of whom are women. 
 
I repeat!!!!!! This was in 1787… I am not saying this is June 25th 2013…… but it is. A total reversal to over 200 years
of the rights of the citizenry to exercise their rights to vote.

The struggle continues!

1820 to1865 Abolition movement to end Slavery COMPARED TO 2013  – Modern day Republican Machinery
   
1.  Disagreement on the future of freed slaves 
-          Full Citizenship for freed slaves who were the  undocumented immigrants of the 1800’s? The system worked 
           them at slave labor conditions with no pay

1a. Disagreement on the future of Americans in 2013
-         Full Citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The system works them at slave labor conditions and subsistent 
          pay.
      
2.  Right to vote for these freed human beings called slaves
2a. Provide the right to vote to bona fide Americans who have been “freed”  having paid their debt to society and been to prison and back

3.   Second-class citizen without the right to vote (slaves)
3a. Currently Americans are relegated to second-class citizenship, stripped of their right to vote, the right to a good job to education post-incarceration

4.  Expel slaves and send them back to Africa although most of the slaves by then were born in the US
4a.  Expel the undocumented workers back to their homeland after they have been used and abused to feed the pockets and the bellies of the modern day plantation owners(the Prison Industrial Complex). Even those who are Americans by birth must be deported. America does not need them anymore because the Prison Industrial Complex offers wages of US.69 per day versus an average hourly wage of under $5 which the undocumented worker is paid 

5.   In 1836 Texas denied vote to Mexicans – and all non-Anglos even those who had helped and fought for the revolution. Although the Federal Government granted US citizenship to Mexicans if they tried to vote they were beaten, burnt, and lynched
5a. June 2013 Texas is taking away the rights to vote of blacks and Latinos, Mexicans being a large percent of the Latino population in that state. The instrument of bigotry is the redistricting and Voter ID Law. This is psychological beating, burning and lynching

Characteristics of the era of the end of reconstruction and the abandonment of the 15th Amendment linger on and are being experienced in 2013. 

1.     Supreme Court decisions are decided in favor of the Republican Agenda or in recognition of the personal legacy 
        John Roberts and his cohorts want to leave behind. Nothing to do with being fair and balanced. Of note is that 
        back in the day of reconstruction (1877), vote-count was suspect and Florida was the chief culprit. In 2013 Florida 
        remains the proud perpetrator of this dishonest practice

2.     Civil Rights enforcement is removed in the 1800’s and currently is suffering the same dare or by best watered 
        down 

3.     The Voter ID law is but modern day poll tax and literacy test of the 1800’s

4.     Present-day US education system is nothing but the exact equivalent to the separation of the races in schools. 
        The lack of resources for schools in black and Latino neighborhood engender this inequity. There are many ways 
        to skin a cat and the American education system is using all those ways to skin the ‘minority cat’ through providing 
        poor education.

5.     Back then blacks were removed from voter registration rolls. Now it is blacks, Latinos, Asians and all people of 
        color. Just check Florida that is again the bastion state of modern day slavery and of everything that causes dis-
        enfranchisement (the right to vote for not only the naturally ‘free’ citizens but the ‘freed’ who have paid their debt 
        to society and released from prison).    

Modern Day Reconstruction
Back in the days of reconstruction, the voice of the people was deafening and they use the instruments available to them to be heard and to effect change.  

·        They speak out  
·        They petition  
·        They lobby  
·        They sue
·        They protest
·        They march
and even 
·        Engage in civil-disobedience for the right to vote. 

They suffered beatings, they risked life and limb. They were attacked by mobs, raped and jailed and suffered other forms of unimaginable indignities but they fought for their rights of citizenship and for all the privileges that come with
being a citizen of this great country. 

These tools and others are even more accessible in this modern society. Social media for example added to all mentioned above and the easier right-of-passage to address lawmakers prove as indomitable cache of tools at our
disposal. Let us be brave and use them because the voice of the people always gets the attention. 
  
My brothers and sisters stand up and sing,
Martin Luther King is not gone
His eternal flame
Has shown us the light of dawn

 “All of the above negate America’s claim of superiority in the world in the areas of liberty and justice for all, civil inclusion, and being the beacon on the hill providing light to its own people and to the other nations of the world.  The current reality of civil history is nothing short of barbaric!” ~ KitchenPolitics123 
4/24/2012 - "Myth or Reality: Racism in the 21st Century America"
 
It is therefore our imperative – our obligation to keep the images, ideas, emotions, and  sensations and the dream alive. There are no other hands but ours to materialize that dream. The struggle continues….we must not give up; we  cannot even afford to pause.  

PLEASE CLICK ON TO THIS LINK:
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S03/E14: "Once Upon A Time Not Long Ago"                   Show Date: Friday, June 28, 2013 
Time: 11pm EST                                                                                  Telephone: 619-789-1959 

Listen To/Call Our 30 Minute Radio Show:
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If you live in a glasshouse
Don't throw stones

And if you can't take blows brother
Don't throw blows. 
 
You build your world on lies and illusions
But you never know that This is the conclusion
No chance no hope for those Who kept it a goin'
'Cause you never know that The truth was showing
Peter Tosh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aujvc3SVKpc

I will venture to think it that per capita, the outrageously bizarre and senseless eccentrics are in the minority of
Republican administration, so my question is “Why are the sensible, honest, reasonable and levelheaded human beings not speaking out on behalf of sanity to preserve the integrity of the party?” I am led then to equate the madness being exhibited to a disease where infected persons are in two categories – you either have the fully blown infection
or you are a carrier. Cruz, Issa and the others listed below fall in the “fully blown” category and all other Republicans are carriers of the disease. It is only a matter of time for these “carriers” to become delirious and display symptoms of the full blown disease. Is this what we should conclude that most, if not all Republicans will in a matter of time and given
the opportunity succumb to the ravages, the devastation of Stupid Idiocy Dishonest Syndrome (SIDS).

ROLL CALL OF THE REPUBLICAN CRAZIES
1.      Darryl Issa – the flavor of the month in Republican lies and deception 

2.     Ted Cruz – Threw out blatantly unfounded accusations in the Benghazi investigations which has earned him the    
                           brand as modern day Eugene McCarthy

3.     Michelle Bachmann – The unintelligent Republican who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence

4.     Christine O’Donnell – “I am not a witch” lady who said she “dabbled in witchcraft’ and who said that one of her 
                                              first dates with a witch was on a satanic alter 
 
5.     Glenn Beck- King of all conspiracy theorists. Fuels the right wing lunatics with Obama: 
        “He hates white people and a devout Marxist-Socialist hell  bent on destroying America.”

6.     Rush Limbaugh – Too numerous to mention – and too stupid

7.     Ann Coulter – Not worth the key strokes to document

8.     Sarah Palin- (a.k.a. M.I.L.F. meaning Moron I’d Love To Forget)

9.     Rev. Pat Robertson – who floats in a different stratosphere and he gives Christians a bad name

10.  Rand Paul – One of the most whacky of the whackies. 

11.  Chuck Winder (R-ID): “I would hope that when a woman goes in to a physician with a rape issue, that physician  
                                             will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy caused by normal 
                                             relations in a marriage or was it truly caused by a rape. I assume that’s part of the 
                                             counseling that goes on.” - March 2012

12.  Roger Rivard (R-WI): “Some girls rape easy.”-October 2012

13.  Richard Mourdock (R-IN): “I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that is something that 
                                                    God intended to happen.” – October 2012

14.  Todd Akin (R-MO): “If it’s legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting that whole thing down.”
                                         - Midway his failed 2012 Senate Campaign

15.  Mitt Romney (R-MA): “As president, I will create 12 million new jobs.” 
                                            – October 16, 2012 in the second presidential debate

16.  Mitt Romney (R-MA): “Government does not create jobs. Government does not create jobs. 
                                             – 45 minutes later in the second presidential debate (October 16, 2012)

17.  Rick Santorum (R-PA): “I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created – in the sense of rape – but 
                                               nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has 
                                               given you…rape victims should make the best of a bad situation.- January 2012

 And the above list shows only a few of the Republican crazies. 

Darrell Issa and “moral authority”
Darryl Issa, the Republican Crazies and the term moral authority should, under no imaginable condition stand comfortably side by side in the same sentence so I am inflicting grave injustice on the term by doing so in this
article.  And this is only because there is no better or effective method yet invented to highlight contrasts without the visuals afforded by side by side comparisons.

 Rep. Issa’s deceitful, deceptive, self-serving behavior caused some digging or rehashing of his checkered past- “the higher the monkey climbs the more he exposes his ass”. His actions are not based on genuine concern but is nothing but an obvious (and transparent I must add) attempt to tie these trumped up issue to the President. Not surprising since all these so-called “scandals” are just that, attempts to undermine President Obama’s good name, his
sterling achievements and the legacy he is building. We are also fully aware that Issa and others of his party continuously hurl charges against the Attorney General Eric Holder. This kind of behavior continues to produce
only one victim – the country. 

The hind part of Darryl Issa’s anatomy exposed:  
I for one, and I am sure many Americans either could only vaguely recall that there was a little unsavory ‘something’ in Issa’s past; majority didn’t know or suspect anything at all. Here is where Peter Tosh’s advice is critical to the Congressman: 
 “If you live in a glasshouse Don't throw stones
And if you can't take blows brother
Don't throw blows.” 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aujvc3SVKpc 

1.     Issa cannot be happy about the scrutiny on his personal track record as a result of his stone 
        throwing – but what did he expect? His charges against the Obama Administration are weak and connived but 
        public record is there as proof of his criminal past. “Issa has become a vocal advocate for investigations into the 
       Obama administration, including the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, 
       corruption in Afghanistan, WikiLeaks, and the Food and Drug Administration, among other issues. In 2010 he told 
       the press that he wanted the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to hold investigative hearings 
       "seven hearings a week, times 40 weeks." "Darrell Issa plans hundreds of hearings".
       Politico. November 8, 2010. 
 
His relentless witch-hunt continues and he is only one of the leaders of his embittered and angry party that does not see winning national election any other way than escalating nasty and vicious lies. "Naturally, this is the man the Republicans vested with total power to investigate the Obama administration for any reason at any time.
You don’t appoint someone with actual ethics to do your dirty work, because, well, that wouldn’t work. “Now that he had been given the power to subpoena, investigate, and harass the Obama Administration, Issa was being
described as a future leader of his party—and the man most likely to weaken the President before the 2012 election…”  “Darrell Issa’s Lies Create an Uncomfortable Scrutiny of His Criminal Background”
By: Sarah Jones, May 16th, 2013 Politicus USA
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/05/16/darrell-issas-lies-create-uncomfortable-scrutiny-criminal-background.html

2.    His amassed wealth of over $700m is partly a result of his car alarm company and in the mix somewhere he was   
       indicted for stealing a car (a red Maserati) and was arrested in a separate incident for carrying a concealed 
       weapon (a .25 Colt) and 44 rounds of ammo and a tear gas gun and two rounds of ammo for the tear gas gun. Not 
       only is this rank of unfairness that a man of such unsavory past can be in Congress and is Chairman of the 
       Committee on Oversight and Government Reform while youths caught with one marijuana cigarette are thrown in 
       Jail some imprisoned but all of whom their rights and their lives are taken from them – they cannot vote, they 
       cannot get grants to go to school, no loan, not meaningful jobs. Inequities of the greatest magnitude!! This is the 
       quality of leadership the Republican Party is putting forward – a party depraved of morals, honesty and integrity. A 
       party which stands for vigilante justice through the NRA. A party where persons of quality, who are honest are 
       extinct. 

3.    And there is that little thing about the “accidental fire”; allegations of arson in a factory this paragon of virtue and 
       bastion of honesty (Mr. Issa) owned. An accident which occurred uncomfortably close after he raised 
       his insurance from $100,000 to $400,000

4.   The man’s words are worth absolutely nothing. He claimed for example that he was always given “highest marks” 
      by the Army and boasts that he provided security for President Nixon a claim which was easily exposed for the lie it 
      is, since records show that the President was not in attendance at events that Issa claimed he provided 
      this security. It was Lance Williams of the San Francisco Examiner in May of 1998 who exposed the fact that Issa 
      did not always receive the “highest possible” ratings in the Army as he claimed and records showed that Issa 
      “received unsatisfactory conduct and efficiency ratings and was transferred to a supply depot.”

 Darrell Issa called Eric Holder a “bad witness” and held the Attorney General in criminal contempt which was the first contempt charge ever of a sitting attorney general.  All I can say of Darrell Issa “the unmitigated gall!” that he, with his rancid past can think that with the passage of time and the fading of memory he is now washed clean of his 
rotten, putrid actions and has acquired the authority to flex his muscles as he is doing. Not so Mr. Man…not so!

Darrell Issa - The paragon of Purity and the IRS “scandal”
I must pause to call out the press for their support for all these unfounded accusations. Every last one of the news media – print and electronic is guilty of labeling these malodorous lies as ‘scandals’ and each one of these have been
disproven but the putrid taste of the scandal label lingers in the memories of the listener/viewer/reader.  After there is clarification that these so-called scandals are nothing but lies and a waste of the country’s time and money the word scandal is the one that is retained in people’s memories. Media action is nothing shy of prostitution, each trying to
out-prostitute the others for ratings and the media is omnipresent, pervasive – you can barely ever switch to a channel or turn the pages of print media and find any varying view point. Boooooooring! 
 
Let’s turn to Mr. Purity Issa and the IRS “scandal”. He published excerpts of the transcript of interview carefully
selecting portions to give the desired interpretation and impact to support his and his party’s devious agenda. All of us know and fewer of us will admit that if the total pieces of a puzzle are not in place and visible, the picture is
distorted, unclear and will depict something totally different from the truth.  

When Rep. Elija Cummings(D-Georgia), the Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of which Issa is Chairman offered to release the entire transcript so that clarity and honesty can
prevail, Mr. Issa objected saying “…..your (Cummings) push to release entire transcripts from witness interviews while the investigation remains active was reckless and threatened to undermine the integrity of the Committee’s investigation."

However, it is the same Chairman Issa who only a week prior to this utterance of concern on CNN’s “State of the Union” who told the host that the full transcripts would be released while at the same time on the same program he presented several pieces of the transcripts organized and designed to suggest that directive to screen tea party groups came from officials in Washington. 

Rep. Cummings being averse to allowing Issa to perpetuate his lies by releasing only parts of the transcript and hence having these as the only evidence in the public record, has released segments of interviews. In a memo to his colleagues on the oversight committee, on Sunday Rep. Cummings echoed the manager in the IRS Cincinnati office who oversaw the nonprofit screening. This manager confirmed that no one in Washington ordered him to employ the practice of targeting tea party groups.

Rep. Cummings said "Although the Committee interviewed a self-identified ‘conservative Republican’ who denied any White House involvement or any political motivation for screening Tea Party cases, Chairman Issa now appears to be going back on his promise to release the full interview transcripts of IRS employees," said Cummings, in a statement. "Chairman Issa changes his mind so fast that even when I agree with him, we’re not on the same page. I fully support responsible oversight, but cherry picking transcript excerpts to fuel partisan and unsubstantiated claims is not a credible or effective way to investigate." Cummings has also promised that he will release the full transcripts if Issa does not. 
 
I ask, “What is new?” Remember the 2012 Republican Presidential Primaries, all candidates would change their stance and the facts at a speed that made the heads of the American people spin. The “Head-spinner in chief” was Mitt Romney who was picked as the best of the bunch to represent this ignoble party! May God really and truly bless America… I don’t want to concede and say these people have caused American to be ‘gone to the dogs’ but if this type of behavior is not stopped and if it continues America is certainly heading to the
dogs!

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