Not even a concubine.

The GOP is giving the cold shoulder to Senator Mark Kirk for coming out in favor of gay marriage. Meanwhile, Republicans embrace Mark Sanford, left, who cheated on his wife. Sanford is shown here with his fiancee Maria Belen Chapur. Photograph: Bruce Smith/AP

Wait a minute. Chapur is not a mistress. She is not a kept woman. Not to my knowledge was she ever supported by Sanford. He spent money, of course, but it was in pursuit of sex, not lifestyle.

See, the word mistress actually has higher esteem than does any other word, such as slut or home wrecker or paramour. To be nice, Chapur is a paramour.

So, I don't believe anyone has the right to confuse the issue. Chapur is on her way to bring Argentina to the floor of the US House of Representatives as the former PARAMOUR of a married man. 

Okay?

There is a correct context to establish this relationship and I don't feel comfortable with the status of Mistress now Fiance. She was never a mistress, she was a paramour. Simple.

I entertained the idea of concubine, but, she wasn't. She was never a social face with Sanford until he slipped up on his excuse for seeking sex outside of marriage. Nope, not even a concubine.

A "Fallen" Officer. He is dead, not fallen. How does a person walk into police station with a weapon?

Does anyone actually believe this suspect didn't intend to kill that officer with the gun before he entered the police station? Do we need statistics to stop this hideous activity in our country? Where is the funding? This is Mississippi, right? Jackson, Mississippi. 

Buoy. 

This is anarchy. There is no other word for it. This is anarchy facilitated by the gun culture of the USA.

There is plenty of money for propaganda about gun violence while our officers and prosecutors die, but, there is no money to secure the smooth operations of our own law enforcement. The paradigm is BACKWARDS.

Suspect also dead at police headquarters (click here)

Apr. 4, 2013 8:35 PM 

8:33 p.m.: Slain Jackson Police Det. Eric Smith's wife, Eneke Williams Smith, works for JPD (Jackson Police Department).

8:20 p.m.: According to sources, Det. Eric Smith was interviewing a homicide suspect when the two got into an argument. The man reportedly overpowered him and took his weapon and shot him, sources said Thursday. Another officer ended up shooting the homicide suspect, sources said Thursday.

8:15 p.m.: Mayor Harvey Johnson identified the slain Jackson officer as Det. Eric Smith.

7:41 p.m.: It’s extremely rare for a shooting to occur inside a police station, said Tony Carleton, chief of the Tupelo Police Department and longtime law-enforcement officer....

Notice the fist. The fist is now a icon for this Governor. A strong man, no doubt.

Gov. Pat McCrory (right) talks about his strengths as he takes part in a panelist roundtable discussion moderated by High Point University President Nido Qubein (left) at the Hayworth Fine Arts Center on Wednesday, March 20, 2013, in High Point. Photo by Jerry Wolford, News & Record

They weren't discussing boxing, they were discussing cuts in education. why does it look as though the Governor is trying too hard and losing 'it?'

The guy is scary and the state government is out of control. I hope the US Attorneys are paying attention.

By Molly Parker
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 7:12 p.m.

Gov. Pat McCrory's first budget, released Wednesday, speaks volumes about the new governor's priorities for higher education in North Carolina.

The Republican governor proposes steep cuts to the state's universities, though McCrory would add $63 million to pay for the University of North Carolina system's plan to cater to high-growth job sectors.

He also suggests an overall cut to the state's community college system, but earmarks millions in new money for high-demand technical job training and equipment at area community colleges.

Education officials from Southeastern North Carolina summed up McCrory's proposals as a mixed bag.

“Certainly we're concerned about the proposed level of cuts in places, but there is attention to things we are considering our priorities as well, such as repairs and renovations, enrollment growth and elements of the university's strategic direction plan,” said Mark Lanier, assistant to the chancellor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

The University of North Carolina system would take a $136 million cut, buoyed by a 12.3 percent tuition hike on out-of-state students at UNCW and other major universities statewide....

The UNC System is one of the most successful achievements of the State of North Carolina. It adds considerably to the brain trust of the country and has spawned great athletes as well. Why would this be a place where cuts to education be prudent?

There is no rhythm or reason to this Governor or the Republican legislature, there is only extremism. Evidently, extremism with a fist in iconic madness.

The man in the picture is High Point University President Nido Qubein, a private university. High Point University has risen very fast in it's enrollment, ambition and BUILDING. 

The Construction Lobby in North Carolina is about the most powerful lobby in the state.

The point is, this speech is at a private university and we all know exactly how the Republican Party wants to privatize government. Stay tuned, there is a profoundly interesting and aggressive pivot here. 

High Point University has over reached with it's investment. Hello?

The beginning of the end of the UNC System is to make the education at a public institution, world renowned for it's faculty to become too expensive to attend. 

I'll be darn. I think I figured out the corruption at it's inception. That was real tough to do, too.

This is the face of the Pro-Life Movement. The Pro-Life concentrates on Anti-abortion measures, not Pro-Life.

Scott Roeder, charged with killing 67-year-old George Tiller, a Kansas doctor reviled by anti-abortion groups for his work providing "late-term" abortions, appears via video in Sedgwick County District Court in Wichita, Kansas, June 2, 2009. REUTERS/KSN TV

The Pro-Life Movement never stopped the threats, they never demanded to be determined to seek the end of violence or the BENEFITS of the extremists.

...Abortions at the new clinic, (click here) called South Wind Women's Center, will be done through the 14th week of pregnancy, even though abortions are legal through about 20 weeks under Kansas law, said Julie Burkhart, director of the Trust Women Foundation, which owns the clinic.

"It's just our comfort level. It's where our doctors want it," said Burkhart, who had worked closely with Tiller and had been a spokeswoman for his clinic. She said the "vast majority" of abortions are sought within the 14-week window.

The opening of the clinic marks the latest salvo in the broad national fight over abortion in the United States that has seen lawmakers in several states pass new restrictions on abortion in the past two years.

Those have included laws approved in the last month in North Dakota and Arkansas that are seen as direct challenges to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion in 1973....

The fact a woman's clinic is holding back on helping women to the full extent of the law is oppression. The Pro-Life Movement is not demanding the clinic operate to the full extent of the law, nor are they stating the clinic has a right to conduct health care for women. The Pro-Life Movement is AGAIN in the shadows of permission to violence and threats.

Look, if the clinic personnel are being threatened to be GUNNED DOWN in their places of worship, then don't go to church. Watch it on television and tithe to their local churches OR hold church for the staff in a secure location like the clinic itself.

One other thing, when the conversation of a physician was allowed to be leaked to those that seek to cause harm, that is the equivalent of the tactics of Rwanda. It is culpable and litigable. It is time to file charges "WITH INTENT." Time to get started to secure the help women need and request.

The art of understanding and appreciating art.

In 1975 Roger Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize (click here)

Chicago, nation reacts to passing of Roger Ebert (click here)

BY KARA SPAK Staff Reporter April 4, 2013 4:04PM

...President Barack Obama: “Michelle and I are saddened to hear about the passing of Roger Ebert. For a generation of Americans — and especially Chicagoans ­— Roger was the movies. When he didn’t like a film, he was honest; when he did, he was effusive — capturing the unique power of the movies to take us somewhere magical. Even amidst his own battles with cancer, Roger was as productive as he was resilient — continuing to share his passion and perspective with the world. The movies won’t be the same without Roger, and our thoughts and prayers are with Chaz and the rest of the Ebert family.”

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn: “I was very saddened to hear today that my good friend Roger Ebert has passed away. I – along with the people of Illinois – offer condolences to his wife Chaz, with whom I had the privilege of spending some time just last week. Even in recent years when illness robbed him of his ability to speak, the mere act of raising his thumb brought auditoriums full of people to their feet in applause. One of my best memories was getting a ‘thumbs-up’ from Roger in 2011 when I proclaimed ‘Roger Ebert Day’ at Ebertfest in Champaign. Roger Ebert was Everyman with a cinematographer’s eye and an artist’s passion. His unique gift was the ability to communicate with everyday people about all kinds of movies and ultimately, the real values of life. He was one of our best-known and most respected journalists, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize as a Chicago Sun-Times film critic, and a proud and generous graduate of the University of Illinois where he began his journalism career at the Daily Illini....

By Roger Ebert on April 2, 2013 9:37 PM

Thank you. (click here) Forty-six years ago on April 3, 1967, I became the film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. Some of you have read my reviews and columns and even written to me since that time. Others were introduced to my film criticism through the television show, my books, the website, the film festival, or the Ebert Club and newsletter.  However you came to know me, I'm glad you did and thank you for being the best readers any film critic could ask for....

The advocacy against gun regulation relies on PURPOSELY INCOMPLETE statistics.

The journalist is with "The Guardian" a news agency in Great Britain. Why is it easy for him to delve into THE TRUTH about the corruption and it isn't that easy for anyone in the USA?
What do we know (the word is KNOW) about the LACK of reporting? We know that when there is a LACK of information corruption exists!
End of discussion.
Posted bySimon RogersMonday 17 December 2012 07.01 EST

How bad is gun crime in the US? (click here) The latest data from the FBI's uniform crime reports provides a fascinating picture of the use of firearms in crimes across America.

Barack Obama is under pressure to tighten gun laws after following the disclosure by police that the Newtown gunman used a semi-automatic assault rifle equipped with "numerous" high-capacity magazines holding hundreds of bullets to carry out his massacre of young children.

The US has the highest gun ownership rate in the world - there are 89 guns for every 100 Americans, compared to 6 in England and Wales.

And the murder figures themselves are astounding for Brits used to around 550 murders per year. In 2011 - the latest year for which detailed statistics are available - there were 12,664 murders in the US. Of those,8,583 were caused by firearms.

The FBI crime statistics are based on reports to FBI bureau and local law enforcement. The figures are not complete - there are no stats for Florida or Alabama on firearm murders. But even so it provides a detailed picture of attacks by state.

There is absolutely no reason to defend gun control legislation based on the fact those opposed to that legislation have tainted and incomplete information. No reason. None. The legislation goes forward.

If the opposition to legislation cannot present accurate, complete and compelling information there is absolutely no reason to take it seriously.

The justice system demands accuracy when making decisions.

I'll make a parallel comparison that has nothing to do with violence, but, does involve Wall Street. 

Some time ago, there was an endangered species dying in purse-seine nets the fishing industry was using for Yellow Fin Tuna. (click here)

The startling statistics came before a group of scientists. I know because I know one of the scientists involved.

The group filed a lawsuit against the tuna industry based on the Endangered Species Act to stop the practice. It went before a judge. The judge stated to the group of scientists that the statistics they had were not compelling enough to provide a ruling. 

The judge admitted since this was an endangered species of dolphin it was not prudent to allow the industry to continue the practice. The judge ordered the group of scientists to do thorough fact finding and return to the court in a period of time that was reasonable. The funding for the scientific research was to come from the tuna industry because they had no information about any dolphins or 'by catch' of any kind to present in court. So, in the decision of the court, the industry was HIDING the truth and/or negligent in policing their own industry.

The results were obvious. The group of scientists conducted intense investigation with their students into the deaths of dolphins in purse seine nets by bringing their own equipment on the very ships casting the nets and then counting the 'by catch' by the industry. They won their case, not because they 'drummed up' information, but, because they were on the very ships committing the crime. They operated their investigation in complete openness and transparency.

In the case of the gun industry, the American people are operating in a fog created by Wall Street so their profits are CERTAIN and not UNCERTAIN. What is occurring here is VICTIMIZATION of honest and decent people and their kids are dying. The gun industry RELIES on falsehoods and lies. They don't care and they aren't going to care because it serves their purpose. The gun industry is guilty of not policing itself. It has become at the very least a nuisance to the people of the USA. They rely on propaganda to sustain their CERTAINTY of their profits. Do people really want gun policy based on propaganda?

The question arises as to the OPPORTUNITY for accuracy in gun statistics. Well, if states are cutting their budgets by eliminating vital information that services political cronies will there ever be accurate statistics? And what about those gun sales between criminals? Will those statistics ever be known? Police find guns all the time, they are part of the prosecution of criminals, found in drug raids; so there is information available, but, no one is going to set up another office to record gun statistics KNOWN within the justice system.

And what about the prison population? Is there any way of knowing where the 'trafficking' comes from and how it is carried out? Sure. But, there has to be an incentive for prisoners to COOPERATE to break up the trafficking networks.

These statistics are NOT infinite as the gun industry and lobby wants Americans to believe. These statistics are finite. This can be done, but, it requires funding. Without concerted efforts and/or the funding and/or cooperation there is only ONE WAY, (ONE WAY, EVERYONE) to stop this and it is to ban the military style weapons and END THE MARKET ourselves.

There are countless examples of countries in this world very successful in LIMITING violence and death. LIMITING any adverse COMPONENT of a society is a reasonable request of legislation be it food that kills and/or guns that kill. A society has a right to save their own lives. When the ODDS of proving anything to advance legislation is so tainted by political monkey business, the legislation goes forward. If the corruption is so deep and the facts so twisted it makes protection for citizens nearly impossible the legislation goes forward and the impact stunted or stopped. Just that simple. 

As a society we don't need the permission or information by the gun industry; we simply need to know our own realities and demands for protection by our government. That is all we need.

The Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre is proof of a society with wayward trends. They have to end. That is all the proof anyone needs.

Legislation is not a trial. If the Endangered Species Act did not exist the group of scientists would never have brought brevity to the tragedy they were witnessing. 

The USA needs to act. It is moral and correct.

Hold it right there. I thought our prison system was suppose to rehabilitate inmates. Was I mistaken?

POSTED BY PRISCILLA ON APRIL 03, 2013
Usually, Fox News (click here) patented outrage starts on official Fox opinion and them makes its way over to official Fox News for further reinforcement and validation. However, the newest bit of right wing apoplexy, over Columbia University's hiring of a former Weather Underground radical who has done her time and is now a distinguished sociology professor, started yesterday on official Fox News with Megyn Kelly. It then made its way to Fox & Friends where Peter Johnson Jr. had a total hissy fit about it....

This is Kathy Boudin today as she appears on the Columbia University website. (click here)  Columbia University is not hiding anything about Ms. Boudin's past. They are proud to be a part of a rehabilitation program after she has served her time. She was in prison a very long time. There is nothing evil and covert about her employment, quite the contrary.

Dr. Kathy Boudin is director of the Criminal Justice Initiative: Supporting Children, Families and Communities, based at Columbia School of Social Work, where she is also an adjunct professor. The Initiative is dedicated to ending reliance on incarceration and retribution. Working within the University, the Initiative also implements community-based projects supporting education for youth with incarcerated parents, advocating for parole reform and promoting restorative justice. Boudin also works with the Center for Comprehensive Care, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, where she is founding director of the Coming Home Program for people returning from prison....

We are not a tooth for a tooth and eye for an eye society. My deepest sympathies to the families of those suffering losses so long ago in the incident of which Ms. Boudin was a part. It still hurts. It will always hurt and be a place of pain for generations I am sure, but, this isn't about them so much as it is about what the USA determines as Justice.

There is much about 'that time' in the USA that was not reasonable either. I know the Right Wing political machine likes to tidy up after their corrupt politicians and wars, but, enough is enough.

This was Kathy Boudin many years ago. I apologize to her and Columbia University for having to endure this exercise, but, there is a very important lesson that still needs to be learned evidently.

No one person is a judge and jury in the USA except perhaps for a Texas Ranger. People are tried by a jury of their peers. I make no apologies for that. 

We have lived in a society of injustice in many ways. I was in Newark, New Jersey the day the OJ verdict was read. The reaction was palpable. Everyone in the room was elated at the outcome. I was astounded. It shook me to my shoes that an entire social class of people were relieved at his vindication. Of course, that was due to zealot police and all kinds of indications there was doubt to his guilt.

We reap what we sew, isn't that the parable? As a society under the direct power of people that deceive the electorate to obtain office we are very vulnerable. The 'time of our country' during which these horrible things happened was a time when many horrible things were happening and some were due to abuse of power by the federal government of the citizens. Citizens at that time that were still unable to vote.

There is no doubt there are problems to be solved in the USA, there are problems with engagement of our military and how that all plays out in deceiving the public and electorate.

The media in the USA has been granted huge concessions through the Freedom of Speech. That has been the way of the USA. It has been a way for citizens to let government know they are not pleased with outcomes. Whether or not that media acts responsibly then or now is a matter of whom the story teller is and whether there is 'an agenda' in that story.

I am not going to relive the 60's. If one is honest with their own self-reflection we all know what occurred. But, to say Ms. Boudin should be denied a life after serving a sentence handed down to her is not our democracy. That narrative is a faux democracy based in vengeance, not forgiveness and I thought the biblical reference is, "Vengeance is mine says the lord." 

So, before anyone seeks to defame a former inmate that has acted to improve her life and seek to add to the structural dialogue of a university, I think it's time for everyone to forgive Ms. Boudin. She has no more penance to pay and to expect that of any inmate returning to society only defeats the hopes of all Americans to stop crime forever without recidivism.

I remind. For those seeking vengeance beyond the sentence and prison system of the USA, it is illegal and they can suffer the penalties of acting in a manner inconsistent with our democracy.

I wish Ms. Boudin well and I congratulate Columbia for taking on a difficult task of reintroducing our rehabilitated inmates back to society. 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew personally the horrors of racism and southern segregation. 

This is a picture of he and his son at his home. He is removing a burnt cross placed on his front lawn.

Progress is still possible. But, this move by Disney and Lucasfilm does not eliminate violence video games, but, simply outsources them.

By Daniel Miller
April 3, 2013, 12:43 p.m.

The Walt Disney Co.'s (click here) recently acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. subsidiary announced on Wednesday that its video game unit will no longer develop games. 

LucasArts, which was founded in 1982, is best known for a slew of "Star Wars" video games. Lucasfilm said in a statement that the company will now look to license its intellectual property rather than create video games in-house.

"After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality 'Star Wars' games," Lucasfilm said in a statement....

On the issue of video games and movie ratings. "Sex is bad, war and violence is good." Gives a man a purpose, confused, but a purpose.

Video games as 'training films,' where human avatars use all too real military style arms, are dangerous. They were developed to recruit for the military during the Bush administration. They should be removed from the market. If the military wants to have 'real life' training games they should be used after recruitment happens and before deployments where they are NECESSARY. There are questions to the need for these at all, but, urban warfare is different than the battle fields the USA has approached before. But, the advantage of using these 'military games' are sincerely not known.

That has always been the position by most peace advocates and people for a safer society.

The 'ratings business' focuses on sex. Love making. They measure the amount of skin exposure for a rating of X. But, the idea blood should be measured to achieve the same rating is out of the question. It is due to the fact the American Politician BELIEVES such gore is necessary to have men become soldiers.

So, many Independent Filmmakers are moving to releases of their movies without ratings. They want their material viewed by the public as a means to move a society forward in ways that are meaningful and real. Their films show up in wonderful places like film festivals. Then the films are brought to theaters after Independent Film Houses known as Movie Theaters realize the social responsible message brought forward by these filmmakers as important and people will pay to see it.

If the Right wants to chase this down to a good result that actually benefits society, they might find some interesting bedfellows. Some they might not want.

Hey, Michael Moore, you finally have someone on the Right that FOUND the argument for a better movie rating system.

April 3, 2013, 7:10 p.m. ET
Campbell Brown
...Another helpful proposal (click here) would be to institute a real movie ratings system. As anyone who has recently seen PG-13 movies knows, the level of violence in them has increased to the point of making the Motion Picture Association of America's voluntary rating system meaningless. Like the FCC's rules for television, MPAA ratings emphasize sex and language over violence. The result? Feature films like Vin Diesel's "Fast Five"—which includes people being shot, blood spurting, necks being broken and horrific car crashes—receive a PG-13....

How many years, Mike? How many years? 

Will it ever get traction? It will never happen. Year after year after year of asking by the Left and it never gets consideration.

And where is Dodd on the issue of screen violence? Dodging bullets about Anne Hathaway and Jennifer Lawrence.

10:52 AM PST 3/8/2013 by Etan Vlessing

OTTAWA -- There was no ensnaring MPAA (click here) chairman Chris Dodd in Canada's Anne Hathaway -vs.- Jennifer Lawrence debate during a visit this week.

“They both obviously did a terrific job with their movies, but I’m not getting in the middle,” Dodd declared. “But I thought Bradley Cooper was rather good. How’s that for ducking your question?”“I’m so glad I came for that first question,” the former U.S. senator said when asked during an keynote interview why Canadian viewers of the recent Oscar telecast hated Hathaway and loved Lawrence as both picked up major Academy Awards....

US Representative Tim Griffin is Congressman to Mayflower, Arkansas.

The US Environmental Protection Agency considers the incident a "major spill," Exxon says.

A major spill and Griffin states pipelies are the safest method of transporting oil. That is amazing. The man has no conscience.

He stated pipelines are the safest method of transporting oil. Did he bother to sincerely understand the danger of these monstrosities? He is very misinformed and influenced by petroleum money.

How did he get into office? "Caging the system." An investigative reporter comes forward to talk about it. 

Mr. Griffin is not a reputable source of information. The information he puts forward is rhetorical and invalid. Pipelines are actually very dangerous and this is proof of it. Those lands are tainted for a very long time.

I am not being mean, I am being honest. I wish there was a US Representative for Mayflower, Arkansas that was honest, too.

GREG PALAST, BBC INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Glad to be with you again. (click here)

JAY: So you've been continuing your work on the pipeline bringing tar sands oil down to Texas.

PALAST: Yes, I've been slithering through that gooey tube and pulled out another little porker that was stuck in the pipe named--this one is a guy named Tim Griffin, Congressman Tim Griffin. And he is one of the most important congressmen in America that you've never heard of--and you're not supposed to.

JAY: Why?

PALAST: Timmy Griffin used to work for a guy named Karl Rove, known as "Bush's brain". And one of the things that the brain decided to do was that since Bush couldn't get elected by the voters, he has to be elected by voter manipulation. If you remember, of course, I reported, as we mentioned again last week, that Bush won Florida by having his brother, the governor, remove thousands of black voters from the voter rolls there. And that gave him the 500 votes he needed to seize the White House.

In 2004, the game continued with a new, sophisticated twist called caging. But what does this have to do with the pipeline and some guy named Griffin? The answer is: caging is a system, is a very sophisticated system for swiping tens of thousands of votes. What you do is you send letters to voters that you know are not living at their voting address. And when the letters come back undeliverable 'cause you said do not forward, you challenge the voters as a fraudulent voter.

Thousands of these letters went to African-American and Hispanic voters at the naval air station in Florida, Jacksonville, Florida....

...JAY: These letters were returned because these soldiers were overseas and had left their base....

...JAY: Yeah, get us back to Griffin....

...I then took it to a civil rights attorney named Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the dean of the law school at Pace University, and he said, quote, "Griffin should be in jail, and so should Rove." That's a quote from the son of the attorney general who wrote the law that would put them in jail, the Voting Rights Act of '65....

...So when we exposed Griffin's--what Kennedy called criminal activity--I'm not a criminal lawyer; he is--what he called criminal activity, when we exposed that, Griffin immediately had to resign his post....

...I have a little film of Griffin in tears.... 

...He waited a couple of years, and then he suddenly pops up running for Congress from Arkansas. Now, how does a guy with this record end up running for Congress? There's only one way to do it: on a big old pipeline of money, $167,000 from two guys named Koch, the Koch brothers Charles and David. They paid--they came up with $167,000 for an unknown, tainted candidate and washed him right into Congress.

~~~

TIM GRIFFIN, U.S. CONGRESSMAN (R-AR): I rise in support of the Keystone XL Pipeline, as well as the underlying bill. The plot here is for jobs, American jobs. It's a no-brainer. Like most Arkansans, I support this pro-jobs project that will strengthen our national security by making us less dependent on Middle Eastern oil. Arkansas families and businesses are hurting due to high gas prices, and the Keystone Pipeline will bring an additional 1 million barrels of oil per day into the United States....