On this weekend, when Americans celebrate the birth of our Nation, thousands of South Carolina residents' celebrations are being interrupted with RoboCalls from a dubious group calling itself the Conservative Response Team.

They seem to take such strong issue with the proposed legislation to remove the blood-soaked rag (AKA Confederate Battle Flag) from their capitol, that they are drawing analogies to ISIS, and -- of course -- blaming President Obama. The state's general assembly begins debate on this proposal Monday, so this group is resorting to fear tactics worthy of Joseph Goebbels.



To hear the recording or get more information, visit Raw Story's website.

And "Happy Independence Day, y'all!"

This ad -- presumably aired during the Memorial Day weekend (and for now, I'll overlook the distinction between living veterans and those who died in the line of service) -- is getting a fair amount of attention in their local market as well as worldwide via YouTub (sic).

It begs the question however, as to how willing Food City is to put their money where their advertising mouth is.

For instance...

+Do they actively recruit veterans to join their workforce, including hosting or supporting job fairs for veterans where their stores are located? (In many southeastern states, the unemployment rate for veterans is way higher than for civilians).

+Do they guarantee that their employees who are National Guard or Reserve members and are deployed will have jobs when they come home? And, yes, deployments are still underway.

+Do they give any priority to hiring/promoting spouses of service members, who are trying to build careers that are portable from one community to another?

+Are they actively supporting local programs to assist homeless veterans in their communities? (Again, the statistics show significant percentages of homeless vets in their markets and nationwide).

The Food City corporate website does not yield answers to any of these questions, so I pose them to DU'ers who live in those communities where their stores are located.

I want to believe that they are backing up this heart-rending message with concrete actions, but haven't ruled out the possibility that they are simply -- and shamelessly -- pandering to the drivers of yellow-ribbon-magnet-adorned SUVs whose idea of sacrifice is shedding a tear when they watch this ad.

Since the former senator from Pennsylvania announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination earler today, the spreading Santorum link has slid -- oozed -- down a couple pages when one tries to Google "santorum."

It's our public duty to reverse that trend. Please go to a clean Google.com page and type in that key word. When the results come up, please scroll or page down until you find the link to the appropriate page. Then click on it.

Repeat.

And encourage others to do likewise.

Our country needs you. Now!

Thank you!

This video is worth 21 minutes of your life:

He opens with a paraphrased quote from Mark Twain: "It's not that the world is filled with fools. It's just that lightning isn't distributed right."

The truth doesn't end there. He draws insight from ancient to modern history -- including recent events in Ferguson MO and North Charleston SC before he challenges the graduating seniors to reject fundamentalism and prejudice, and to keep history from repeating itself.



Full transcript here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ken-burns/commencement-address-at-washington-university-in-st-louis_b_7306636.html

... there goes the neighborhood!

The Greater Jacksonville Festival of Hope with Franklin Graham will occur next weekend, and with all the billboards, yard-signs and other expensive promotional items and activities in ethnic neighborhoods, you'd think it was the second coming of his imaginary friend. Right here on the big chrome buckle on the nation's bible belt -- even though the buckle is almost entirely hidden by a morbidly distended gut (AKA Dunlap's Disease).

I use the term "friend" loosely. From his recent statements on Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Robert Gates vis-a-vis the latter's position on gay Scout leaders, our President, and -- of course -- Muslims and the threat of Sharia Law, I wonder if the "friendship" isn't a bit one-sided.

Has anybody else endured a similar Festival of Nope?
What really happens at these gigs, and how have the non-ovine community members responded?
Should I start making picket signs ("Love thy neighbor...", "Judge not..."?
Should I feed juicy news reports to the non-mainstream media outlets here on how these festivals are funded and organized?

Or is this just the 21st Century version of an old-fashioned tent revival, and by calling attention attention to it, I'd be giving the organizers that much more free publicity?

From the article it wasn't clear whether or not they were asked the logical follow-up question: "How much in campaign contributions are you accepting from Big Pharma (the industry that has the most to lose if Cannabis is legalized)?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/06/heres-what-the-presidenti_n_7184508.html
[link:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/06/heres-what-the-presidenti_n_7184508.html|

Thanks, HuffPo! That clears things up!