Indiana man shot after defending Confederate flag with a machete

An Indiana man who was shot while flying a Confederate flag in a predominantly black South Bend neighborhood is not a racist, his friend wants the world to know.

The South Bend Tribune’s Erin Blasko reports that Cally Baker, a friend of the victim, insisted that “I’ve never known him to use any racial slurs.”

“Unless someone provoked him,” she added, “I can’t imagine him just blurting out the N-word.”

According to witnesses, the victim drove his white SUV into the parking lot of a convenience store in a largely black neighborhood. Baker claims that the Confederate battle flag flying from it also “has a military emblem on it,” and as the 28-year-old is an Army veteran, “he was proud more or less because of the military aspect of it.”.....

“He had absolutely no weapon on him,” Baker said, “except the machete.”


http://www.salon.com/2015/07/27/indiana_man_shot_after_defending_confederate_flag_with_a_machete_isnt_a_racist_friend_insists/

Calif. school board member faces recall after bizarre homophobic anti-vaxxer rant

Residents in Chino, California are pushing to recall a Christian conservative school board member after railing for nearly 10 minutes against school vaccinations, undocumented immigrants, and adoption rights for same-sex couples during a meeting earlier this month.

“Children are not commodities that can be severed from their natural parents and traded between unrelated adults,” Andrew Cruz said during the Chino Valley Unified School District board meeting on July 16. “Parenting will be defined, erasing and replacing with gender-neutral legal parent, erasing biological natural parenthood [so] that states would ignore childrens’ foremost right: their immutable, intrinsic yearning to know and be raised by their own biological parents. Gender of parents matter for the health and developments of children.”

The Friendly Atheist reported that Cruz also downplayed race as a factor in last month’s terrorist attack against the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston last month because South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley “is a woman from India, Indian descent.” Haley, an Indian-American, was born in South Carolina.

“One of two senators is black,” Cruz said, referring to Sen. Tim Scott. “You know, we’re no longer a racist country, but they still talk about it.”

Cruz, who was elected in 2012, then turned his attention to a state law passed last month eliminating religious examptions against school vaccines, calling it “un-American.”

He also cited a report by the conservative site Judicial Watch blaming “tens of thousands of Central Americans” who carried infectious diseases into the US, a reference to the “unaccompanied minors” who entered the country fleeing violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador last summer. In reality, medical professionals said at the time that the majority of those children were better-vaccinated than their American counterparts.

“It is bizarre how our government harm our citizens by allowing infectious diseases to infect our country and blaming mothers who don’t vaccinate their children,” Cruz said.


http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/calif-school-board-member-faces-recall-after-bizarre-homophobic-anti-vaxxer-rant/

White People With Confederate Flags Crash Black Child's Birthday Party

A woman shared videos on Facebook that shows seven trucks leaving her property, where they were parked. The birthday party was taking place at a residence near the field of the woman who shared the video, according to The Atlanta Constitution.

The woman who shared the video told The Atlanta Journal Constitution that the passengers of the trucks were armed and threatened to, "kill y’all (N-words).”

"This is a child's birthday party," a woman said in the video, which showed police ushering the trucks away from the area.

Police said there were no shots fired, physical altercations or injuries reported, according to Journal Constitution.

“Officers on scene were given conflicting statements as to what led up to the confrontation,” according to the police department’s statement to the newspaper. “Officers identified all involved and arrested one person that was a passenger in the convoy of trucks on unrelated charges."


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/confederate-flags-birthday-party-georgia

Ken Cuccinelli Says 'Black Lives Matter' Insults White People

A panel discussion on CNN got heated Sunday when former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) argued that "Black Lives Matter" is a poor message because it makes white people feel less valued.

After former South Carolina Rep. Bakari Sellers (D) explained that as a black man, he was "the only person at this table whose next interaction [with law enforcement] may cause them to be a hashtag," Cuccinelli suggested that the "Black Lives Matter" slogan and hashtag should be amended, according to CNN footage shared by Raw Story.

"Adding t-o-o at the end puts it in a context that makes sense," he argued. Sellers answered that message is already implicit in the slogan.

"Well, you may say that," Cuccinelli told Sellers. "And there’s plenty of reason to understand that. But I don’t think every American hears it that way. They hear, 'Here we are. Yes, we have this political motivation that we're separating out this one category of Americans and saying they matter more than everybody else.'"


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ken-cuccinelli-black-lives-matter_55b51821e4b0a13f9d18d863?

New Bill Targets ‘Boyfriend Loophole’ in Domestic Violence Gun Cases

After gaining momentum at the state level, a push to make it harder for domestic abusers and stalkers to possess firearms is gathering bipartisan support in Congress.

In a press conference Wednesday morning, Democrat Congresswoman Debbie Dingell of Michigan and Republican Congressman Robert Dold of Illinois announced H.R. 3130, the Zero Tolerance for Domestic Abusers Act. The bill, which is identical to one introduced by Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota in 2013, would close several loopholes in existing law that experts in domestic violence prevention say allow abusers easy access to guns.

“I don’t look at this as a gun bill,” said Rep. Dingell in an interview with Bloomberg. “I look at this as a domestic violence bill.”

The legislation would close the so-called “boyfriend loophole,” amending current law to include convicted abusers of current or former “dating partners” among those who are prohibited from owning guns under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. It would also prohibit gun ownership by anyone convicted of stalking.


http://www.thetrace.org/2015/07/congress-domestic-violence-boyfriend-loophole/

I LOVE this picture of Mike Colter and Krysten Ritter in the Marvel Netflix Series 'Jessica Jones'

THE ZOMBIES - 1965 - "She's Not There" (VIDEO)

Sarah Palin cannot understand California drought because 'It's got a whole ocean right there'.

While everyone was caught up in the grossness that was the Duggar scandal last month, the world missed Sarah Palin’s groundbreaking ideas on how to fix California’s historic drought.

On the Sarah Palin Channel — which, believe it or not, people actually pay $99.99 per year for — she released a video clip of her describing how perfect California is except for one thing: its politicians.,,,

So Palin thought of a brilliant solution:

“You might ask, though, why don’t they just fix the infrastructure problem, why don’t they just build more reservoirs and plants? After all, California is a coastal state. It’s got a whole ocean right there, water all around ya.”



http://national.suntimes.com/national-world-news/7/72/1395381/sarah-palin-california-drought-build-more-reservoirs

Yeah, this picture pretty much says it all about Bush/Cheney

Marvel's Jessica Jones Co-Creator Approves of the Netflix Show

Brian Michael Bendis has never really been a man of few words. I know how he feels. He does speak his mind, though, and as co-creator of Jessica Jones, the star of the next Marvel Netflix series, he has a lot to say about a character who is particularly close to his heart.

That being said, Jessica Jones isn't your typical Marvel page-to-screen story. There's no costume, no name recognition outside of more hardcore comic fandom circles, and even the title of the series, Jessica Jones, doesn't exactly call to mind the big costumed action Marvel is usually known for. The comic, on the other hand, was known as Alias, but to avoid confusion with the relatively recent TV series of the same name, that isn't happening here.

By the way, the often out of print Alias comic by Mr. Bendis and Michael Gaydos is now finally available on ComiXology, and you should absolutely read the entire thing immediately because it's amazing.

Anyway, back to the story at hand. Mr. Bendis often answers fan questions on his Tumblr, and when he was asked about his feelings on Jessica Jones, well...he had plenty to say. As usual. I've reproduced some of it here in all of its bloggy glory: