The Time Times Sunday Song Break

TheTimeTimes.com

Sunday Bloody Sunday  by U2

 

 

From wikipedia

“Bloody Sunday (Irish: Domhnach na Fola)^[1][2]—sometimes called the Bogside Massacre^[3]—was an incident on 30 January 1972 in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, in which 26 unarmed civil-rights protesters and bystanders were shot by soldiers of the British Army. Thirteen males, seven of whom were teenagers, died immediately or soon after, while the death of another man four-and-a-half months later was attributed to the injuries he received on that day. Two protesters were also injured when they were run down by army vehicles.^[4] Five of those wounded were shot in the back.^[5] The incident occurred during a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march; the soldiers involved were members of the First Battalion of the Parachute Regiment (1 Para).^[6]”

“The Provisional Irish Republican Army‘s (IRA) campaign against the partition of Ireland had begun in the two years prior to Bloody Sunday, but public perceptions of the day boosted the status of, and recruitment into, the organisation enormously.^[13] Bloody Sunday remains among the most significant events in the Troubles of Northern Ireland, chiefly because those who died were shot by the British army rather than paramilitaries, in full view of the public and the press.^[3]”

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Obama Abandons Hope & Change, Embraces John McCain To Portray Romney As Right Wing Nut

Obama Embraces John McCain To Draw Contrast With Mitt Romney Ahead Of 2012 Election | Huffington Post

June 4, 201215 Militants Killed in Suspected US Drone Strike in Pakistan | CNN 

(This blog post was written before the above headline broke.  This would bring total deaths from U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan this year to an estimated   117 to 132, making it the the  20th U.S. drone attack on Pakistan in 2012.)

Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times/MCT Newscom

An alternate title I came up with is “Obama Wants to Make McCain Look Cool To Make Romney Look Even More Uncool; Meanwhile U.S. At War With Pakistan.”   I say war because Obama has ordered 19 drone strikes just this year, killing between 102 and 117 people.  That is an act of war, but since no official has announced it, it just doesn’t exist, I suppose.    2 + 2=4, I promise.

I really loathe politicians and their expensive political theater, but I thought this was an interesting piece because it calls out the real reasons behind Obama’s uncomfortably fuzzy embrace of McCain.  It is obviously a ploy, with the goal being to paint Romney as a right wing extremist.  If they’re trying to propagate  the image of Romney being an extremist who actually wants to live by The Constitution, they have their work cut out for them.  If they want to shape his character into an extremist who is an uneducated racist,  constantly talks about guns, and hates anyone who isn’t Christian, they have their work cut out for them.

Abused Woman Given 20 Years for Firing Warning Shot

FREE  MARISSA  ALEXANDER

Victims aren’t the people who are supposed to end up in jail.
FREE MARISSA ALEXANDER.

Update: June 23, 2012 Search Twitter for Marissa Alexander. I just remembered that tomorrow is day of action. The change.org petition I posted at the bottom is circulating with less than 5,000 more signatures needed.  Here are some tweets about how you can show your support:

dlathamwhite ‏@msladyD

JUNE 24, 2012 NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FOR MARISSA ALEXANDER AND VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE http://shar.es/sh9oh via @sharethis

 

Darren Anthony ‏@djanthony13

Sun 6/24/12 is a Global Day of Rallies in Support of Marissa Alexander & all domestic violence victims http://ow.ly/1NYzup @RolandSMartin

 

Happily Natural ‏@happilynatural

Global Day of Rallies In Support Of Freedom For Marissa Alexander – In Your City or In Jacksonville, Florida http://p.ost.im/p/ec8xJv

——————————-

Note: I inadvertently posted a rough draft of this on approximately May 18th. This is the rewritten version. I mainly corrected sentence structure and fixed a few broken links, and roped in the rogue copy and paste errors

Marissa Alexander has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for invoking her unenumerated right to protect herself.  Her abusive husband threatened to kill her just nine days after she’d given birth. After an unsuccessful attempt to escape, she grabbed a gun and fired a warning shot, not aiming for any person.  I’ve read articles saying she shot into a wall, and others saying she shot into the ceiling, but she never shot her husband or anyone else.   However, Marissa Alexander, the victim, was found guilty when prosecuted by the same attorney that is prosecuting George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting.  She was given the mandatory maximum sentence of twenty years in jail.  From CBSnews.com:

Stone says the case is “not perfect from a defense perspective,” but believes Alexander may have grounds for an appeal based on the judge refusing to admit testimony from witnesses who could tell the jury about Gray’s history of violence against women.

First, according to court documents, Alexander violated her bail by returning to the home where the shooting incident took place several months later.

FDA Admits to Killing 100,000 People A Year, Why Are We Okay With This?

Click here to read it right from the FDA website

fda.gov
“Why Learn about Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR)?”

Why Learn about Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR)?  (link from FDA.gov)

Imagine there is a huge food producer that makes a multitude of  products consumed by millions of Americans each year.  Now imagine that the food producer knows their products kill 100,000 people and cause over 2 million serious adverse health effects every year, yet they do not stop producing or selling them.  Would the American people allow those products to stay on the market?  Would we hold the food producer accountable and insist on charges of involuntary manslaughter if the statistics are known facts found on the FDA website? (see below)

• Over 2 MILLION serious Adverse Drugs Reaction (ADRs) yearly

• 100,000 DEATHS yearly

• ADRs 4th leading cause of death ahead of pulmonary disease, diabetes, AIDS, pneumonia, accidents and automobile deaths

• Ambulatory patients ADR rate—unknown

• Nursing home patients ADR rate— 350,000 yearly

Reuters: Russia Condemns Syria Attacks, Sees Foreign Hand

Hightowerlowdown.org

On May 10, 2012  Reuters

(Reuters) -” Russia condemned twin suicide bombings in Syria on Thursday, accusing unspecified foreign countries of encouraging such violence and saying Moscow would not yield to pressure to change its stance on a resolution to the conflict.

In a meeting with the Syrian ambassador to Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov “decisively condemned the terrorist acts that have taken place in Syria in recent days”, the ministry said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went further, saying foreign states shared the blame, Russian news agencies reported.

Feinstein: TSA Molestation “Very Necessary,” Americans Need to Be “Sympathetic” To Groping

Senator Feinstein wants you to shut up and spread ’em.
MinnesotaIndependent.com

Feinstein: The Gropings Will Continue

I’m always surprised at how my disdain for this woman continues to grow.

The government is milking this C.I.A. leak for all it’s worth.  It is serving many purposes:  Reiterating the terrorist threat, shaming Americans into continuing to put up with more TSA molestation, striking more fear into people who leak information or whistle-blow, and showing off the government’s amazing ability to thwart it’s own plots.

Feinstein says the public “hasn’t been sympathetic” to the poor TSA non-officers molesting us, and says she doesn’t mind the pat-downs. Other government officials do mind the groping, and have in fact described the procedures as molestation.  After speaking out about the thug agency,  the officials have found themselves further targeted by TSA bullies with even more aggressive pat-downs than before, leaving some of the officials with sore testicles.

I want to stress:  The government initially said there were NO plans for the bomb except that the attack was supposed to happen around the anniversary of Bin Laden’s death, May 2.  There was no exact date, no location chosen, no plane tickets purchased, and the government specifically said there was no risk of it being taken aboard a plane.  They also said we were never in any danger.

Pictures of UN Observer in Syria With Rebels, Civilians, & Man in Shirt With Al Qaeda Symbol

Here is a U.N. observer with Syrian rebels in April.

U.N. Monitors Tour Rebel-Held Syrian Town
April 22, 2012 nytimes.com
Getty Images

From The New York Times

“Syria’s state-run news agency, SANA, said United Nations monitors visited the central city of Hama on Sunday, where they met with the governor, while opposition activists said observers visited Rastan, a rebel-held town south of Hama. An amateur video posted online showed two white United Nations vehicles driving in Rastan accompanied by a red pickup truck with the words “Free Army” written on it.”

 

The next photo is from earlier this month.  It shows a U.N. observer walking with a man wearing a shirt with an Al Qaeda flag emblem, according to the caption.  I cannot make out the symbol.

UN Observer with man wearing shirt bearing Al Qaeda Flag, according to caption.
news.daylife.com
Getty images

 

See photo at news.daylife.com

” Getty Images 1 week ago

A man wearing a black shirt bearing an Al-Qaeda flag (L) speaks with a UN observer as monitors meet with rebels and civilians in the village of Azzara in the province of Homs on May 4, 2012. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the unrest in Syria has killed more than 11,000 people since an anti-regime uprising broke out in March last year.”