Should You Believe Americans for Prosperity or Your Own Lying Eyes?

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Although it’s been a few years since Wally was in college and he was never a member of any fraternity, he remembers reading about some of their “pranks” in the campus newspaper.  At most, they may have caused some minor inconveniences but were pretty harmless.  “In a few cases,” he said, “I was even amused and enjoyed their creativity.”  In the case of a recent election prank perpetrated by the Koch brothers’, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), however, the prank was neither amusing nor creative and Wally says he is highly pissed.

“It’s bad enough they think us Democrats are composed of stupid minorities and single young women who are easily fooled,” Wally wrote in another of his unpublished letters to the editor.  “But the fact that those arrogant Republican assholes think that they can trick us with a third-rate fraternity prank is pretty damn insulting.”

Recently, the Democratic Party of North Carolina filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections that AFP sent out mailers to targeted groups riddled with lies and misinformation.  In short, the mailers instructed people to wrong voting places, on wrong days and then, directed those with questions to an incorrect phone number and address.  Such actions are illegal and are currently being investigated by the North Carolina Board of Elections.   

Meanwhile, AFP is saying the mistakes are unintentional and Democrats are insisting that the mailers were a voter suppression tool.

“Seems like the Koch brothers think they’re cops and are probably expecting to get away with committing felony crimes by either taking the life or rights away from, what they seriously see as, lesser and undeserving people."

Celebrate Friday and Enjoy Our Civilization!

Just a Routine Police Shooting of Another Unarmed Black Man

Victim lived to tell about it.

Wally is no longer enraged when an unarmed brother gets shot by a trigger happy white policeman.  This time it was though, the victim lived and the entire incident was caught on police dash cam.  The offending officer, Lance Corporal Sean M. Groubert, a South Carolina state trooper, was arrested and charged with assault and battery of a high nature.

Had it not been for the fact that the victim lived and the entire shooting caught on camera, no one would have been accountable.  After all, Levar Edward Jones, would have been terminated, after reaching for, what appeared to be, a gun and charging toward the officer in a threatening manner. 

The irony is, according to Wally, is that Mr. Jones was stopped for an alleged seatbelt violation that, had he been white, never would have happened in the first place.

Vote Like Your Life Depends On It (Revised)

This article was initially posted on May 19, 2013 and is being reposted again because it speaks to something important.  And since the midterms are nearly upon us, it’s time to sit-up and pay attention!  You might not realize it right now, but you need to vote like your life depends on it, because…

 At some point soon, it just might.  

Weird Wally didn’t get serious about blogging until around 2007.   And that was about the time he got his head out of his butt and took a look around.  Something was up, but not yet obvious and Wally took to blogging to help him figure it out.  Although nothing more than an online journal, he learned to question authority, and in the process, finally started paying attention.  A lot of other people also started paying attention, but we could not believe what we were seeing.

Besides the irrational tax cuts and big bank deregulation that no one really wanted, we also saw a gigantic increase in corporate welfare, billion dollar no-bid government contracts, and a senseless war in Iraq.  And not too long before the financial crises of 2008, President Bush and other Republicans were pushing hard to privatize social security and hand the money over to Wall Street.  Fortunately, that didn’t happen.  But would President Obama be sitting in the Oval Office today, were it not for the financial meltdown of September 2008?  

For a while, we believed that our votes actually made a difference, but as Obama’s first term progressed, he didn’t stand up for much and many began forgetting what he once stood for.  Nobody from Wall Street went to jail, foreclosures continued, wages remained stagnant and the rich kept getting richer.

Meanwhile, with the help of a super-secret society, known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), many states were busy finding ways to keep minorities, single moms, seniors and single women in general, away from the polls, and voter suppression was just a start.  ALEC also promoted cutting state taxes for large corporations, fighting unions and keeping worker wages as low as possible.

In Washington, DC, things were equally as bad.  The Supreme Court had gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, immigration reform stalled and in Congress, the House voted over 50 times to repeal “Obamacare” and Republican politicians cowered to talking heads like Rush Limbaugh and people on Fox News and denied that they were all just bunch of women hating racists, anyway.

But as things started getting uglier, Wally could not yet believe how ugly things already were.  Black men and women who were unarmed were getting gunned down by cops and regular citizens alike.  Seems like, if you shot and killed an African-American, all you have to say is, that person was “black and I feared for my life,” and if you’re white, you might just get away with it.

Even as Obamacare shows major signs of success and the president is getting his mojo back, no one from Wall Street has gone to jail and the “too big to fail banks,” continue to keep private their profits and make public their loses (by way of the tax code, monetary policy and government subsidies), I’m pissed, but will vote this November in spite of it.

Had Romney been elected in 2012, he and his administration would have ignored ALEC and its attempts at voter suppression and a lot of states would be throwing people off voter rolls unhindered.   As it is, it’s an uphill struggle. 

So if we don’t vote in November, there’s a good possibility we won’t ever have to stress about it again.  A lot can happen in only two years.  Meanwhile, keep an eye out and please pay attention, because you never know.

Moyers & Company   Watch the Full Show: United States of ALEC – A Follow-Up (June 21, 2013)

The Road to War

http://www.cagle.com/2014/06/isis-and-iraq/

Wally doesn't know.  Obama doesn’t know.  And most of all, McCain, Cheney and Graham don’t know.  There is, however, a difference.  People like Wally, Obama and most everyone else admit to being confused and conflicted.  “But those who know the least,” according to Wally, “seem to have the loudest and most confident voices.”  Yet despite all of their previous failures, like Herpes Syndrome, they keep coming back to distract and annoy. 

Dick Cheney:  How about immediate boots on the ground?

Weird Wally:  How about an immediate boot up your ass?

If the polls are to be believed, we don’t want another war in Iraq.   But as we learn more and more about ISIS (ISIL), as a nation, we are getting really pissed.  But wait.  There’s a bad taste from the last time we sent ground troops to Iraq.  “And I am glad the president is taking his time,” Wally wrote in an unpublished letter to the editor.  “Seems like we can’t tell friend from foe over there, and it’s a matter of life and death that we get it right this time.

“On the other hand,” he concluded, “we can always flip a coin.”

Adrian Peterson: It’s More Than Just Child Abuse

Since retiring from child protective services in Denver back in 2006, Wally tries not to think about abused children.  But there’s something about the Adrian Peterson case that makes it hard to ignore.   It’s one of those situations where there are no winners and everyone loses.   “Although I feel bad for Adrian, I feel even worse for the kid,” said Wally.  “For the rest of his life, he will feel responsible for whatever happens to both his mother and father.”

Meanwhile, Peterson appears remorseful but Wally wonders if the man truly understands the extent of his damage.  Peterson is quick to point out that he was only disciplining his son the way he was disciplined.  Even Wally admits that back in the day when he and his black friends sans whites, were hanging together, they often would talk with fondness about the “switch.”  As a matter of fact, it often turned into a friendly competition to see who’d come up with the most horrid childhood switch story. 

But while Wally and other African-American adults may remember the switch with fondness, to children it is both traumatic and harmful.  It may even cause PTSD and although the physical scars may eventually heal, the emotional and psychological ones may always, on some level, be with them.

It is said, according to Wally, that the switch actually dates back to the days of American slavery when slave owners used to strip their slaves of clothes and beat them with a whip, often to near-death, for any rule infraction or lack of respect, perceived by the owner or overseer. 

As adults, the switch stories were entertaining, but over time the lifelong results of those whippings started becoming clear.  A violent childhood often leads to a violent adulthood.  Perhaps that is one reason why black on black crime is so high and, “when in doubt swing out,” is often their first option. 

Judging from police photos and the child’s statement, however, Wally says that what happened went way beyond discipline.  If nothing else, it’s obvious that Peterson was out of control.  But if the child’s statement to police is true and Peterson’s rule of thumb was to inflict large amounts of pain and horror, along with his discipline, then might that make dad mentally or emotionally ill?  For sure, it is a sign of his rage, but might that type of parenting also be a symptom of some kind of disease?

NFL is Photo Worth a Thousand Words

Weird Wally Sez: This NFL promotion photograph says it all.

Condoleezza Rice to Head up the NFL

Wally has been acting weirder than usual of late and is taking bets that Condoleezza Rice will be heading up the NFL, very soon.  “It wouldn’t surprise me if Wally knows something the rest of us don’t,” an acquaintance of his recently said.  “After all, they’re both African-American…”

Although people aren’t lining up to place their bets, if she is the next NFL commissioner, Wally might make a few bucks.  “Roger Goodell is really in deep shit because of his fuck up over Ray Rice’s left hook to his girlfriend’s face,” Wally Said.  “It was handled real badly and Goodell has no choice but to step down, because of it.

“Besides.  It would fit the image of what most white people think about black families; a strong black woman bossing around a bunch of young black dudes.  And if any of them hit their woman, they’d have to come and talk with to mama.  Kind of scary when you think about it.”

 According to Wally, Condi’s father was a football coach and she grew up knowing football, “I was a student of the game,” she said.  And in April of 2002, in a New York Times interview, she said that being the “NFL commissioner would be her dream job.”   

“And as everyone well knows,” said Wally, “you don’t ever say ‘no’ to mama.”

But wait!

There’s more…

Since most of the NFL owners are very conservative, it’s highly likely that they’ll jump at the chance to piss off a bunch of liberals. 

“But now that I think about it,” sez Wally.  “A few African-American owners might add a little depth to this picture.”

Weekend Update: What ISIS Warriors Aren’t Being Told…

Just Ducky on ISIS

When Wally first came across a clip of Phillip Robertson, the patriarch of Duck Dynasty, being interviewed on FOX News by Sean Hannity, Wally found himself speechless for several minutes.  Initially scheduled to promote his new book, “unPHILtered, Robertson mainly concerned himself with foreign policy, ISIS and God.

Reading from the Bible which he carries his with him at all times, he talked of the war between good and evil and emphasized that since he is a Christian, he is with the “children of God,” and forever fighting with those under the power of the “evil one.”   According to Robertson, ISIS and possibly all Muslims are under the power of the evil one and there’s only way to deal with them, “I think you either have to convert them…or kill them.  One or the other,” he said.

Weird Wally Sez:  It’s a bizarre clip, but you gotta see it to believe it…