All posts by Nativegrl77

In days, when the UN holds an emergency summit on climate change, we need to deliver the largest petition ever for a world powered by 100% clean energy. The petition number will be read out to every world leader at the summit! Click now to sign the petition!

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mom died unexpectedly … Change.org

09/14/2014 Nativegrl77

Monumental Life Insurance Company: Approve my moms life insurance payout.

Noah Kelding
Omaha, Nebraska

Sign Noah’s petition

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VoteVets opposes arming the Syrian rebels

09/14/2014 Nativegrl77

Almost one year ago, we asked VoteVets supporters to write their Members of Congress urging them to oppose military intervention in Syria.

Over 50,000 of you did.

I listened to President Obama’s speech on Wednesday night with great interest, and believe he made a compelling case for the pursuit and destruction of ISIS.

But, once again, VoteVets cannot support sending arms to Syrian rebels that many reports continue to suggest are still fighting alongside some of the same groups we fought against in Iraq, and are even reportedly entering into truces with ISIS. (1) (2)

Additionally, to think that training and providing equipment to the Free Syrian Army is a decisive course of action in Syria is flawed. The United States has spent $25 billion to train and equip Iraqi Security forces (3) which were overrun by ISIS earlier this year. $500 million in arms and training to a less effective force only guarantees, at best, a stalemate that is passed to the next president. Or, worse, potentially obligate even more U.S. forces in the region at a later date.

We don’t oppose using force to attack ISIS, but the idea of utilizing the Free Syrian Army to carry the load in Syria is unrealistic.

As one of the final advisors out of Northern Iraq, I fully supported President Obama’s efforts to hold the Kurdish line and protect the slaughter of tens of thousands of Yezidis on Mount Sinjar. I applaud efforts to be more inclusive of country’s Sunni minority in a new, post-Maliki government in Iraq.

But we risk making some of the same mistakes in Syria we made during the initial 2003 invasion of Iraq, and today, I cannot support that.

Tell me what you think:

http://action.votevets.org/thoughts

Adding to this, it’s important to note just how tall of an ask this is of the American people, and those who serve, in light of recent efforts by some in Congress to block money meant to improve veterans’ health care, education, and job training.

The cost of war doesn’t end when the last soldier returns home, or missile system is sent to an enemy of our enemy. Any money Congress authorizes to expand our operations into Syria should be matched by an investment in the care of those who have fought our previous wars.

Thanks for sounding off,

Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran and Chairman
VoteVets.org

(1) http://www.ibtimes.com/us-backed-moderate-group-syria-signs-truce-isis-reports-1687662

(2) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/12/isis-deal-syria_n_5814128.html

(3) https://twitter.com/RichardEngel/status/510200061137911808

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Cliven Bundy said WHAT?

09/14/2014 Nativegrl77

So, you can always count on some folks ….Bundy doesn’t disappoint ! Question is …

WHAT do we, as voters do or think NOW about Republicans like Senator Rand Paul, Boehner, Dean Heller , Greg Abbott, Governor Rick Perry who support Bundy

Cliven Bundy Wonders If Blacks Are ‘Better Off As Slaves’ Than On Gov’t Assistance

Catherine Thompson – April 24, 2014, 6:49 AM EDT

Now that he’s won a confrontation with the Bureau of Land Management over grazing his cattle on federal land, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has time to hold court on everything from abortion to the current state of “the Negro.”

Bundy made some racially charged comments about government assistance in his daily news conference Saturday, according to a New York Times story published Wednesday.

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” the rancher began as he described a “government house” in Las Vegas where he recalled that all the people who sat outside seemed to “have nothing to do.”

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he said, as quoted by the Times. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

The Times reached out to spokespeople for Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Dean Heller (R-NV), who have spoken in support of Bundy, and for Texas Attorney Gen. Greg Abbott (R). Those who responded distanced themselves from Bundy and his remarks.

A spokesman for Heller, who had called Bundy and his supporters “patriots,” told the Times that the senator “completely disagrees with Mr. Bundy’s appalling and racist statements, and condemns them in the most strenuous way.”

A spokeswoman for Abbott, who asked BLM to respond to reports that it planned to acquire land near his state’s Red River in the wake of the Bundy ranch standoff, told the Times that the gubernatorial candidate’s letter to the agency “was regarding a dispute in Texas and is in no way related to the dispute in Nevada.”

A spokesman for Paul told the Times that the senator wasn’t immediately available for comment on Bundy’s remarks. TPM has reached out to Paul’s office and will update when we receive a response.

Cliven Bundy Muses On What He Knows ‘About The Negro’

Defiant domestic terrorist Cliven Bundy shares his thoughts on liberty, race, and “the Negro.”

The standoff at Bundy Ranch is over, but Cliven Bundy can’t quite let go of the limelight, so he is giving a daily press conference. If he has nothing to say, he’s got plenty of opinions to share with reporters.

New York Times:

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

Two things to remember about this. First, Rand Paul and Dean Heller think this guy is a patriot and a hero. Second, the United States Supreme Court thinks race is no longer an issue any of us need to worry about.

Having read Bundy’s remarks, is anyone at all surprised that he doesn’t recognize the federal government’s authority?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Also, a factcheck for the New York Times. This paragraph needs to be corrected:

Mr. Bundy, whose family has grazed cattle here since they homesteaded in the 1870s, owes the government more than $1 million in grazing fees. He stopped paying after the bureau ordered him to restrict the periods when his herd roamed the 600,000-acre Gold Butte area as part of an effort to protect the endangered desert tortoise.

You got taken for a ride, NYT. Bundy’s family didn’t buy that land until 1948 and didn’t start grazing their cattle on it until 1954.

Update: Rand Paul (predictably) distanced himself from Bundy’s remarks, saying “he completely disagrees with Mr. Bundy’s appalling and racist statements, and condemns them in the most strenuous way.”

However, let’s not forget that Rand Paul’s former social media director and book co-author Jack Hunter would be quite in agreement with Mr. Bundy. Senator Paul also supported doing away with the Civil Rights Act, and his former spokesperson Chris Hightower also posted racist remarks on Facebook. Sometimes actions speak louder than the strongest condemnation of someone else’s opinion.

Update 2: Waiting for Governor Rick Perry to walk back his praise for Mr. Bundy, too. I won’t hold my breath.