USAians: What are you doing on this loooong MLK weekend?

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


Why don't you ask them? Seems the folks in Virginia honour the both of them, one of whom gave up his life.



IOW, just because I disagree with the holiday means I should get to tell people what days they can or cannot celebrate.

I suppose you'll be telling us Canadians next that we shouldn't celebrate Victoria Day in honour of Queen Vicky.

yeah. I think it's perfectly appropriate to judge people based on who they choose or choose not to honor. If you see a holiday honoring someone there has to be some individuals who can answer for that.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Lonestar


Really? You think that Buchanan, the guy who had the conn as the country imploded, had a better administration than Bush?

Wow, you're one pampered bourgeois individual.

Buchanan was before Grant.

JM

[chequita guevara]

Not really the issue. Lonestar was using a different metric than I was.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Being in charge when bad things happen isn't the same as having a bad administration.

Sitting on your ass and doing absolutely nothing is, however.

Perhaps I was unclear in that I was referring to political corruption. I'm having a problem with incomplete thoughts due to the medication.

Ah, okay, then how about Wilson's reign?

[chequita guevara]

I am unaware of Wilson's Administration being known for being particularly corrupt

[chequita guevara]

Went to see McKinney tonight. The Greens showed a movie, American Blackout about the stolen elections in Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 and Cynthia McKinney Good movie despite it being a campaign flick for McKinney.

Very nice lady, extremely well read, volunteered to be assassinated for the cause (not specifically in those words, but was the gist of what she was saying about Malcolm X and Martin Luther King). Almost entirely white, middle class folks with a smattering of Black activists. She's very good on addressing issues of democracy and accountability, but it seems she only sees the Greens as a pressure group on the Democratic Party and isn't interested in building the Greens up for themselves.

She isn't the conspiracy nut that the right-wingers made her out to be. A 9/11 truther couldn't pin her down to say what he wanted. Neither could I get her opinion on socialism, even privately. But then, I didn't expect to.

[Quintillus]

Originally posted by Geronimo


What possible good was anything that Jackson or Lee did for the people of Virginia? I would think you'd only honor folks whose actions made a positive difference or at least whose goals would have made a positive difference if realized. Do the counties involved make any effort to justify honoring these two men?

Not sure about Jackson, but when Lee was offered command of the Union Army he turned it down because he refused to fight against his home state (Virginia). His loyalty to the state was stellar.

My college, in Virginia, has classes on MLK day, so no long weekend for us. But we had school on Labor Day, too. We just like to ignore federal holidays.

Off-topic: First post at Apolyton!

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
She isn't the conspiracy nut that the right-wingers made her out to be. A 9/11 truther couldn't pin her down to say what he wanted.

He wasn't trying very hard:

"We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11," McKinney said that day. "What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11? Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered? What do they have to hide?" McKinney thought she knew the answer. "What is undeniable," she explained, "is that corporations close to the administration have directly benefited from the increased defense spending arising from the aftermath of September 11th."

[Reiko]

I would have suggested that blacks stop with the crack dealing, robbing the corner convenience store for crack money and stop tearing up apartment complexes they live in.
On top of that, support black leaders that call for an end to the idiotic black victim mentality and the retarded gangster rap culture that many think is cool.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
He wasn't trying very hard:

"We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11," McKinney said that day. "What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11? Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered? What do they have to hide?" McKinney thought she knew the answer. "What is undeniable," she explained, "is that corporations close to the administration have directly benefited from the increased defense spending arising from the aftermath of September 11th."

That's not an accurate quote. You've stitched two seperate comments together, without even the benefit of an ellipsis. The full quote is very different. Let me see if I can find it.

CM:Now is the time for our elected officials to be held accountable. Now is the time for the media to be held accountable. Why aren't the hard questions being asked? We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, delivered one such warning. Those engaged in unusual stock trades immediately before September 11 knew enough to make millions of dollars from United and American airlines, certain insurance and brokerage firms' stocks. What did this Administration know, and when did it know it about the events of September 11? Who else knew and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered?

September 11 erased the line between "over there" and "over here." The American people can no longer afford to be detached from the world, as our actions abroad will have a direct impact on our lives at home. In Washington, DC, decisions affecting home and abroad are made and too many of us leave the responsibility of protecting our freedoms to other people whose interests are not our own. From Durban to Kabul to Atlanta to Washington, what our government does in our name is important. It is now also clear that our future, our security, and our rights depend on our vigilance.

DB: Well, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, it’s great to have you with us on Flashpoints. I wanted to follow up on that very powerful commentary with just a few questions that come off speeches you’ve given on the House floor on related information. First of all, why do you oppose the Rumsfeld 48.1 billion dollar increase in the military budget? What is most troubling about this for you?

CM: It was incredible sitting in the room on the day that Secretary Rumsfeld gave his presentation to members of the Armed Services Committee. Of course, I serve on the House Armed Services Committee, and every year the Secretary of Defense comes before that committee with a statement on the budget.

Now, the 48.1 billion dollar increase that Secretary Rumsfeld requested was interesting because basically what he said was, we can afford it. Notwithstanding the fact that the Pentagon has lost 2.3 TRILLION dollars that we very well cannot afford to have lost.

DB: Lost it? Where’d they lose it?

CM: Well, that’s a darned good question. You would think that Arthur Andersen is their accountant over there. They have lost 2.3 trillion dollars and they don’t know where to find them, where to find that money. And, of course, the Secretary acknowledged the fact—2.3 trillion dollars remain unaccounted for—but, in his testimony to the House Armed Services Committee, the Secretary said that the United States can afford it.

Now, he also said that we have a responsibility, in this Brave New Post-September 11th World, to make sure that we can adequately defend ourselves. And what he views as a justification for this unprecedented hike, the biggest hike in a generation, was the fact of the events surrounding September 11th. But as you know and I know, it wasn’t the military that failed, it was a failure of people who had information to act.

We know that there were several warnings that were given prior to the events of September 11th. From people in Germany to people in the Cayman Islands to people who…even, now we learn about the owners of the pilot schools. People were calling in to the CIA and the FBI and they were giving information that was critical. Even prior to these warnings, we had the trial itself from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. And we had the trial from the American Embassy bombings. So we know that the World Trade Center bombing trial gave us a lead on the fact that US embassies were being targeted. And now the United States government is being sued by survivors of the embassy bombings because it is clear that America had warning and did nothing, did nothing, to protect the lives of the people who served in our foreign service, and who serve us in other ways in our embassies around the world. Now the Unites States government is being sued and we’re going to have to pay for that, as those families are now paying every day with the loss of their loved ones.

There was adequate warning. There were people who failed to act on the warnings. And THAT’S what ought to be investigated. But instead of requesting that Congress investigate what went wrong and why, we had President Bush, painful for me to say that, but, we had President Bush place a phone call to Majority leader Senator Tom Daschle, asking him NOT to investigate the events of September 11th. And then, hot on the heels of the President’s phone call was another phone call from the Vice President asking that Tom, that Tom Daschle also NOT investigate the events that led to September 11th.

My question is: What do they have to hide?

That's kinda very, very, different than the deliberate misquoting by Tucker Carlson, which you used.

The part about "What is undeniable ... " isn't even from the same interview.

[Alinestra Covelia]

I'm spending the weekend at home, reading up on Corporate Finance (which makes my head hurt but will be worth it).

What about you?

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Yep... it is no mistake that Lee-Jackson Day is held so close to MLK Day.

Actually Lee-Jackson Day has been around longer than Martin Luther King Day. Virginia began celebrating Lee's birthday in 1894, then added Jackson in 1904.

For awhile the state tried to roll them all together into Lee-Jackson-King Day, but needless to say a whole lot of folks on both sides of the color bar were displeased.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I am unaware of Wilson's Administration being known for being particularly corrupt

That speaks volumes of your knowledge of history then.

[chequita guevara]

Not really, no. Was never really a big student of Wilson's domestic policies aside from his support for the rebirth of the Klan. And any corruption under his administration isn't covered in general histories of the period, unlike Grant's, Harding's, etc.

[Kidlicious]

Wilson is heroified by history.