LibertyVoter.Org

By Dexter Thomas, The Guardian

Perhaps you’re like me, and the first thing you do every morning is to check social media. And perhaps on a recent morning, you opened your Facebookapp only to see your old high school buddy Stacey post this:

“Why don’t we just send the US Marines to Baltimore City and clean house?! We don’t need these animals around us anyway!”. It was posted an hour ago, and already has 107 likes. You scroll down a bit further down the thread. One of her friends chimes in: “I’m down! As a Marine veteran, I’d love to smoke some of them animals!”. 46 likes on this one.

I’m gonna delete this jerk, you think. You don’t need this negativity, especially not this early in the morning. It doesn’t matter if she used to share her fries with you when you ditched gym class to go to Burger King. That was then, this is now – and whatever she’s become now disgusts you. You move your cursor, hovering over the ‘unfriend’ button.

But please, don’t. Not only because she needs you (she does), but because you need her. She’s the only thing keeping you in touch with reality right now.

I get it. It’s frustrating. We went through this with Ferguson, and Staten Island. Back then, your buddy posted fake pictures of Michael Brown with a gun, and now, she posts fake pictures of looting. She posts videos of a CVS burning. She doesn’t post the videos of police throwing bricks at children, or the video of a young man literally being kidnapped by armored troops as CNN reporters ignore him. At best, she might post the now-infamous video of the woman smacking her child, calling her a hero – yes, Stacey, the same woman that posted that 10 Reasons Not to Hit your Child listicle last week. But she’s happy to have permission to cheer on the beating of a …read more

Source: ALTERNET

By Kerry Eleveld, Raw Story

This should be fun! Jeb Bush on Friday will try to bridge the gap between himself and the GOP's evangelical voters, who are being heavily courted by Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Scott Walker, and to some extent, Marco Rubio. Maggie Haberman has the details:

Mr. Bush has struggled with grass-roots evangelicals. In his speech, he is unlikely to wander deep into politics, but instead will focus on religion, according to people planning his speech. The structure will still allow him to discuss his opposition to same-sex marriage, for instance, and his belief in respecting religious rights.

The speech culminates two weeks in which Mr. Bush, who is a deeply religious Catholic convert, has been talking more openly about his faith.

But the speech also gives Mr. Bush another opportunity to demonstrate support for Israel, at a moment when such fidelity is a litmus test with the Republican base. Mr. Bush continues to face questions about his foreign policy team ever since an adviser, James A. Baker, a secretary of state under his father, criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in a speech to a liberal pro-Israel group.

Ah, yes, Jeb was questioned as recently at Tuesday about Baker/Israel flap and, in an apparent effort to calm the controversy, said his chief adviser on the Middle East was … wait for it … W! (Aka George W. Bush, in case you think your eyes have betrayed you.)

Anyhoo, we should be in for a treat at Liberty U. By railing against same-sex marriage rights, Jeb can instantaneously alienate young voters (including 61 percent young Republicans and even 43 percent of  young evangelicals).

He can also embrace bigotry by favoring special rights for the religious over the rights of taxpaying LGBT Americans to live a life free from discrimination.

And let's hope he doesn't miss the opportunity to alienate single women on abortion, because Scott Walker has really been giving him a run for his money there.

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  Source: ALTERNET

By Cassandra Fairbanks, The Free Thought Project

New York, NY– A seven-second long video uploaded to YouTube on Saturday morning captured a man asserting his rights, and an officer actually respecting those rights, even as the man called him a scumbag.

This just may be the fastest we have ever seen a cop get shut down.

“Sir, what do you got in your bag?” An officer asks.

“None of your f*cking business, that’s what I’ve got in the bag.” The man asserts as he films the encounter.

“Alright,” the officer concedes, as he begins to walk away.

“Honor your oath scumbag!” The man filming throws in for good measure.

 

 

As awesome as it is to watch a cop get shutdown so easily, the most incredible part of all of this just may be the officer’s reaction. He didn’t puff out his chest and make threats or harass the man further, he accepted the refusal and walked away. It is a sad sign of the times that an officer respecting someone’s rights is noteworthy.

In 2014, the Civilian Complaint Review Board investigated 42 cases of individuals recording the NYPD over the course of just six months.  In 27 of those cases, the police were accused of reacting inappropriately to the camera presence.

Earlier this week we reported on one of those videos which has just been released. The footage captured the NYPD officers lying in their police report, as the entire incident was captured on three surveillance cameras.

The surveillance footage incriminated the officers after they viciously assaulted a man for filming while one of the police officers got too handsy during a stop and frisk on the man’s female friend.  After falsely arresting the man, they proceeded to throw the phone that he was using out of their vehicle window before driving away.

Know your rights, and always film the police.  These interactions can be a deadly game of Russian Roulette. With a camera present, however, officers are often on their best behavior  – especially with the ease in which these officers can be made famous from a simple YouTube clip.

<Img align="left" border="0" height="1" width="1" …read more

Source: ALTERNET

By Colin Gorenstein, Salon.com

As we’ve learned through the course of the month, David Letterman’s departure means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For Americana musicians, it means saying goodbye to one of the genre’s biggest champions. For POTUS, it means losing an “escape” after a long day at work. And for the 20-time visitor of the show, Tina Fey? It means saying sayonara to gendered expectations of wearing fancy dresses.

“This is my last time wearing a fancy dress on a talk show and conforming to gender norms out of respect for you,” Tina Fey said during her visit to “The Late Show” Thursday night. “I dress up like this out of respect for you. This is it, because…what, am I gonna put a dress on for Jimmy? That’s creepy, he’s like my brother.”

Fey then consulted Letterman’s help in stripping off her elegant blue dress, revealing some “almost medical” shapewear underneath. “Bye Dave” and “#Last Dress Ever,” the undergarments read.

Watch the clip below:

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Source: ALTERNET