Exhibit A In How Passion Can Cloud Logic

It is almost common knowledge that when tea partiers and the more nativist elements of the less intellectual talk radio world of conservatives talk about illegal immigration, it predominately refers to those migrating from Mexico.

But one prankster at a recent rally in Minnesota this weekend, actually tricked the tea partiers into railing against European immigration, for their ethnic cleansing, genocide, and economic injustices against Native Americans. All something they only belatedly realized.

A speaker at an anti-immigration rally in St. Paul, Minnesota, this past weekend got the crowd to support more than just the deportation of all illegal immigrants -- he got them cheering for the eviction of all European-descended immigrants to America who "stole this land through genocide and ethnic cleansing."

A crowd of some 40 people showed up to the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol on Saturday to protest proposed reform of US immigration law. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday that the Obama administration was pushing for immigration reform that would create a pathway for the legalization of undocumented immigrants.

Napolitano said she would like to see a "tough, fair" plan that would allow illegal migrants to gain legal status if they pay a fine, pass a criminal background check, pay all back taxes and learn English.

That idea brought 40 anti-immigration protesters to Saturday's protest, as well as 30 pro-immigration reform counter-protesters, according to FightBackNews in Minneapolis.

One of those protesters, going by the alias "Robert Erickson," got a speaking spot at the rally and used it to argue for the eviction of all descendants of European immigrants -- in other words, that contingent of white Americans who these days see themselves as "real" Americans.

Susan Atkins Dies

Susan Atkins, the ex- Manson family member serving a life sentence in California for the infamous Tate Labianca murders died late last night after a battle with brain cancer at 61 years of age.

There was speculation that and pleas from her family for a release so Atkins could spend the final waning days of her life outside of prison, but that request was denied. Initially she and the other Manson Family members involved in those heinous 1969 murders were sentenced to death, but when the U.S Supreme Court ruled in 1972 that the death penalty was unconstitutional; her and the sentences of her fellow 'family members' was reduced to life in prison. And though I know this sounds cold-hearted that's exactly where she should have been. After all a sentence of life in prison doesn't mean 'life in prison unless you have terminal cancer' it means the only way you will be leaving here is in a body bag.

PHOTO: about.com

Senator Edward Kennedy Dies at Age 77

Above is the famous 1980 Presidential speech by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), marking the end of his campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Massachusetts Senior Senator, "Liberal Lion", and the last surviving son of the Kennedy dynasty that illuminated Massachusetts, the United States, and the globe passed on last night at the age of 77, following a lengthy bout with brain cancer.

Kennedy was the youngest of nine children, including President John F Kennedy and Senator Robert F Kennedy. Kennedy became a U.S Senator from Massachusetts in 1962, filling the Senate seat once held by his elder brother John. Following the deaths of his brothers, who fell victim to political assassins in 1963 and 68 respectively he took the helm of leadership as patriarch of the iconic Kennedy family, steering them and a nation through the shimmering waters of prosperity and greatness and the dark waters of tumult and uncertainty.

Throughout his nearly half a century in the Senate he sponsored legislation and heralded such causes as: Civil Rights, Voting Rights, Fair housing, Medicare, health care, Title 9 which called fore fairness for women's school athletics, lowering the voting age to 18, ending Apartheid, and Peace in Northern Ireland to just name a few segments of that profound body of legislation that aided in broadening that great New Frontier, that idealism his elder brother John F Kennedy articulated in his 1960 Presidential campaign.

Kennedy of course was not without his sins, blemishes, and short comings. But his death and in life, despite often being the target and object of ire of conservatives, he marshaled bi-partisan respect and admiration.

Associated Press:

HYANNIS PORT, Mass. (AP) -- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the last surviving brother in an enduring political dynasty and one of the most influential senators in history, died Tuesday night at his home on Cape Cod after a yearlong struggle with brain cancer. He was 77.

In nearly 50 years in the Senate, Kennedy, a liberal Democrat, served alongside 10 presidents - his brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy among them - compiling an impressive list of legislative achievements on health care, civil rights, education, immigration and more.

In a brief statement to reporters at his rented vacation home on Martha's Vineyard, Mass., President Barack Obama eulogized Kennedy as one of the "most accomplished Americans" in history - and a man whose work in Congress helped give millions new opportunities.

"Including myself," added the nation's first black president.

Senator Kennedy is survived by his last surviving sibling, his elder sister Jean Kennedy Smith, countless nieces and nephews, grandchildren, his three children Kara, Teddy Jr, and Patrick, two step children, his first wife Joan, and his wife Vicki.

Here is the official statement released by the Kennedy family:

“Edward M. Kennedy – the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply – died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port. We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all. He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it’s hard to imagine any of them without him.”

Ed Nixon; the Last to Know?

Ed Nixon, the last surviving brother of former U.S President Richard Nixon, sure found out about his brother's resignation from the Presidency in an awkward way.

This is a statement Ed Nixon made in an interview on C-SPAN, according to Reliable Source (H/T: political wire)

"I didn't really hear anything of this until I came down the mountain from the campsite and stopped in at a barbershop to get some hair cut off my head, and it was the talk of the town."

In case you forgot, Sunday was the 35th anniversary of Nixon's resignation from the Presidency in the wake of the Watergate Scandal.

Here is the famous televised address on the night of August 8, 1974 where Nixon announced he would resign the presidency.

Another Gerald Ford Assasin to be Freed?

Here is what looks to be a fairly recent interview about the assassination attempt with Lynette Squeaky Fromme, the woman about to be released from prison.

Lynette Squeaky Fromme, one of the closest and most devout members of Charles Manson's 'family' and who in 1975 aimed a pistol and attempted to assassinate then President Gerald R Ford could be paroled as soon as this month. This as the fortieth anniversary of the infamous Tate-Labianca murders approaches.

(CNN) -- The president she once pointed a gun at has been dead for nearly three years, and her longtime idol and leader, Charles Manson, remains in prison.

However, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme is about to get her first taste of real freedom in more than three decades.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Fromme, now 60, is set to be released on parole August 16.

Fromme is housed at Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.

For years, she was one of Manson's few remaining followers, as many other "Manson Family" members have shunned him. A prison spokeswoman would not say whether Fromme continues to correspond with Manson.

Fromme was convicted in 1975 of pointing a gun at then-President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California. Secret Service agents prevented her from firing, but the gun was later found to have no bullet in the chamber, although it contained a clip of ammunition.

Personally I think this woman, even if she is now 60 years old should remain in prison. At one point during her prison tenure she supposedly assaulted a fellow prisoner with a claw hammer and in 1987 even escaped from prison when she is alleged to have heard a rumor that Manson was supposedly dying of Cancer. She has lavished praise on this monster who was her former master and was (and perhaps still is) m clearly infatuated with him. Not to mention she almost killed a U.S president, and if someone is so irrational and blinded by hate and malice they are willing to even attempt to gun down a head of state of the most powerful nation in the world, ensconced by a phalanx of secret service men, body guards, and reporters; what makes one think that anyone this ruthless would hesitate at all to kill any other person of less prestige?

Of all the former apostles of Charles Manson, she according to her statements in the past has been if not the one of the most devout and likely least remorseful. There are a host of other Manson family members in jail, who are responsible for the heinous Tate-Labianca murders. Many of them have expressed remorse, one even has Cancer; and although I am opposed to their release at least they have expressed remorse and have shown some signs they have reformed themselves.

Fromme was sentenced to life in prison and in this case with some who showcases such a dangerous history and a penchant for histrionics of a violent and erratic nature, a life sentence should be just that.

But Fromme was not the only assassin of President Ford. In 1975, another woman by the name of Sara Jane Moore actually fired upon the President, but luckily missed him. She too was recently paroled too.

This Date in History 1964

Following thier June disapperance in Philadelphia, Missisippi; the bodies of three young men registering blacks to vote; Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwarner, and James Chaney were discovered. Two movies were made about the murders.



Also in 1964 the USS Maddox and the USS C Turner Joy reportdly came under attack off the coast of North Vietnam in the Tonkin Gulf Incident which would put into motion what would become the introduction of active American armed forces into and the U.S bombing of North Vietnamese allied targets by the U.S in Vietnam. Later there would be great doubts on whether or not the second attack took place that ultimately led the U.S into the war.

Sarah Palin a Nixon Republican?

Sunday 2008 Republican vice Presidential Candidate and the now former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin resigned 17 months into her term as governor. Her lines attacking the media and those questioning Conservative (or in this day and age neo-conservative policies)made her sound like a bad cross between Dick Cheney and Cheney's old mentor Richard Nixon, who in a speech of his own conceding the 1962 California Gubernatorial race gave his famous "You won't have Old Nixon to kick around anymore" speech before a herd of reporters. Reports of her anger towards her critics also are consistent with the Nixon approach towards the press, politics, and governing.

But Ben Wyskida of Pinko Magazine, sees both similarities and contrasts between the Former Alaska Governor and the 35th U.S President.

Ahhhhh! It's like how when I see Sarah Palin talk I want to spear my eyes out, but some Americans see a "maverick." At least Nixon studied his policy. If he were alive today, I doubt that Nixon would tweet that "sealife near lush wet rainforests to energy housed under frozen tundra atop permafrost, God most creatively displays His diversity in AK," tacitly implying the support of God for arctic drilling. In a way that makes Palin scarier -- while Nixon was personally shy, and comparatively reticent about religion, Palin can be an outright zealot.


Like Nixon, Palin blames the media. "Stop making things up," she told the gotcha press on Sunday. The biggest similarity though, is the willingness of Palin -- like Nixon -- to just say some shit. Let's look at her speech. Objectively, Palin has achieved almost none of her core campaign objectives. How did she handle that? "Alaska: What I promised, we accomplished." Oh! Great. Why are you quitting Sarah? "Isn't it obvious?! A lame duck Governor can not serve their state." That's insane, of course -- by that standard, 15 governors should resign, or never should run for re-election, but then they would be lame ducks in their first terms, so there shouldn't even be Governors. Or something. It doesn't make any sense. She loves to just say some shit.

In my post from July 4th, I wrote that Palin's plan could work because the 2010 election presented an opportunity for her to roll out a killer stump speech, and go town to town to town (through "real America," the towns that hate cosmopolitan liberals) campaigning for Republicans and attacking "elitist" Democrats while exploiting lingering race and class tensions

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Buzz Aldrin Reacting to Conspiracy Theory

In the wake of the recent 40th anniversary of America landing the first man on the moon, here is an amusing video (H/T: Ben Smith) of Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin's reaction to the rantings of a conspiracy theorist who claims the moon landing was not real but staged. Now if only we could find someone like this to react to the birther nonsense.

In Memory of Walter Cronkite

Famous coverage of Cronkite announcing the death of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. RIP 'Uncle Walty'

Investigate and Prosecute

Here is yet another disturbing, but not surprising allegation that former Vice President Cheney ordered that information on a secret CIA program ordered to kill Al-Queda terrorists, not be shared with members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees, a violation of the law, so the legislative branch can have oversight and knowledge of the CIA's activities.

The revelations were made regarding the program that even current CIA director Leon Paneta lacked knowledge of until June when he ended the program.

WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) - The CIA withheld information from Congress about a secret counter terrorism program on orders from former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, a leading U.S. senator said on Sunday.

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein told Fox News Sunday that CIA Director Leon Panetta disclosed Cheney's involvement when he briefed members of Congress two weeks ago. She said Panetta told them he had canceled the program.

President Barack Obama appointed Panetta to head the agency early this year. The still-secret program, which The New York Times said never became operational, began after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

News of Cheney's involvement, first reported by the Times late on Saturday, prompted an outpouring of criticism by Obama's fellow Democrats and support by rival Republicans in Congress.

Now calls for investigations and possible prosecutions of officials in the small elite of the Bush/Cheney inner circle, regarding torture and wiretapping, could be reawakened after a period when such calls had begun to become more muted and Attorney General Eric Holder is even raising such possibilities.

Many Conservative critics worry this is politically motivated and that since those was a low level program that at least as far as was never "fully operational" or was employed, and if so would be utilized to target top Al-Queda Janissary's, that this shouldn't be met with such outrage.

However, National Security is a matter that the American people have the most at stake and that transparency to a certain degree is of the greatest value. That doesn't mean the whole world should have knowledge of military troop movements, or much our intelligence, but that at least Congressional Intelligence committees can exercises oversight and ensure that any programs aren't either laden with waste or used in a way that breaks laws, violates liberties of American citizens, and be employed in the most efficacious manner.

Rather or not the aims of this program were admirable or just is irrelevant. Since at least 2001 a deplorable and dangerous culture where legislative power is usurped routinely, judicial power is manipulated, oversight is not administered, and a small circle of elites surrounding the Executive Branch seeks to maximize its authority and powers in matters both salient and trivial, large and small. That has to end and oversight and a level of transparency must be reintroduced so that a government that is based not on rickety ideology, an avarice for power, and incompetence in policy execution can be concluded and condemned for being the abhorrence to our system of what it is.

This is just one in a long train of possible infractions of the law regarding in the amassing of intelligence as well as allegations of torture and civil liberties violations. The mantra of "look forward, not backward" have been iterated by those in both parties. That is tempting, especially as we find ourselves in such a grave and deeply involved in foreign policy, national security, and economic challenges. But if the law was broken we must find out. Not only because a law could have been seriously broken, but because leniency in acting to penalize such a crime would set a precedent that will be used by this and other future administrations to justify similar controversial policies and continue to cast aside the system of checks and balances that oversight by the other two branches of government provides that protects the American people from the dangers and excesses that can result from power.

Also whenever in the annals of History a wrong has been committed and then goes unpunished or unaddressed, it paves the way for what is at best a repeat of that wrong or the foundation for something far worse. In the 1838 there was 'the trail of tears' where by order of President Andrew Jackson (and in violation of a Supreme Court ruling) around 42 million Cherokee were unjustly removed and resulted in the deaths of numerous Cherokee Indians, about sixty years later we saw another atrocious episode towards the Native American with the massacre of Wounded Knee. We had slavery and the ineffectiveness in dealing with the strife and horrendous crime of slavery led to decades of Jim Crow segregation and violence directed towards African-Americans. We had World War I and the failure to address the postwar situation, paved the way for the craven brutality of Hitler's Nazi Germany. We failed to penalize those responsible for the Palmer Raids and Red Scare of the 1920s, and we got McCarthyism and the red scare of the 1950s. We failed to effectively punish those in the Nixon administration who wronged this country in the Watergate Scandal and COINTELPRO and we got the possible violations of law and national principles that have come to surface as a result of the previous administration.

Inaction will be seen as a new standard of good and lawful policy, and in the future injustice or ineptitude is certainly set to follow in the near future. The steady stream of allegations and the alarming use of secrecy by the last administration needs to be investigated, penalized, and condemned as the violation of our national principles that it is.

The Story Behind an Iconic Woodstock Photo

This coming August will mark four decades since the incredible event that captured the imagination of a generation and the amazement of everyone The Woodstock music and arts festival in Bethel New York.

The New York Daily News had a piece this week on Bobbi and Nick Ercoline, the two lovers standing wrapped in a blanket in the famous photo that appeared on the cover of the event's record album In it, they reveal their memories of the event, why they believe the photo was chosen and became such an iconic image, and what they are doing now.

Related Items: Also affixed to the orginal print version of the article, is a litany of websites, books, literature, dvds, films, and of course albums to soak up some of what Woodstock had to offer for three days in that sleepy New York town.

Steve King Defends the Rights of Those Who Just Want to Forget About slavery, (but not those who forget our 'Christain Heritage')

While of course it was U.S Rep. Steve King (R,IA-05). Now being the lone dissenting vote against an action or legislation can be seen as a profile in courage, but when you do it standing in opposition to a plaque at the capitol Hill visitors center that acknowledges the role that slaves played in construction of the Capitol building in the name of protecting "America's Christian Heritage" you just end up looking like an idiot. But of course that is not uncommon for the Iowa congressman. But hey at least he gave some lip service to the cause of anti-slavery by saying that Christian abolitionists and Dr Martin Luther King Jr were good because they believed in God. The House vote by the way was 399-1.

Here is a statement King's office released on the matter:

“Last night I opposed yet another bill to erect another monument to slavery because it was used as a bargaining chip to allow for the actual depiction of ‘In God We Trust’ in the CVC. The Architect of the Capitol and liberal activists opposed every reference to America’s Christian heritage, even to the extent of scrubbing ‘In God We Trust’ from the depiction of the actual Speaker’s chair in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“This is just the latest example of a several year effort by liberals in Congress to scrub references to America’s Christian heritage from our nation's Capitol. Liberals want to amend our country’s history to eradicate the role of Christianity in America and chisel references to God or faith from our historical buildings.

“Our Judeo-Christian heritage is an essential foundation stone of our great nation and should not be held hostage to yet another effort to place guilt on future Americans for the sins of some of their ancestors. Christian abolitionists gave their lives by the hundreds of thousands to end slavery. Great American leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. worshiped God just as our Founding Fathers did. We must never forget this important aspect of our heritage or use it as a political bargaining chip.

Yeah, because we certainly wouldn't want to look learn from the mistakes and atrocities of the past, or acknowledge the contributions of those who were forced to do agonizing labor to build our nation. You can you get much more Far right then not acknowledging the role slavery played in our nation?

Update (9:48pm/ET 7/9/09)- If you hear a loud sound don't worry that is probably just the knuckles of Rep. Steve King (R,IA) just dragging across the floor. Now King says that he voted against the plaque because for some reason he thinks that although he abhores slavery, that too few Union soliders perished in the Civil War when compared with the number of slaves held in the cruel bondage of slavery. He also said we need to take a balanced view of History. Does this guy even know what he is trying to say?

And of the 645,000 Africans that were brought here to be forcibly put into slavery in the United States, there were over 600,000 people that gave their lives in the Civil War to put an end to slavery. And I don’t see the monument to that in the Congressional Visitor Center, and I think it’s important that we have a balanced depiction of history.

A balanced view of history? What does he mean by that? First off the civil war was not initially fought to end slavery, but over confining slavery from being instituted in new territories and to keep the succeeding states from breaking with the Union. Secondly, just because in the sick and desperate mind of a fool like Rep. King the body count wasn't high enough for the Union soldiers, or that although slavery was abolished that we simply shed it as a part of our history, or that slavery is anything short of evil; is repugnant and outright stupid. It is this and incidents like the alleged discrimination against African-Americans at a public pool in Philidelphia, Pennsylvania shows that history does have consequences. And that although in terms of race relations in the U.S we have made extraordinary strides, there are still attitudes locked in the 19th century and some minds including one in congress that are demonstrating what is the intellectual equivalent of evolution in reverse.

Related item: Sen. Jim Demint (R-SC) arguably the most hardline conservative senator in the U.S Senate, while hawking his new book compares present day America to guess what???????? Pre-World War II Germany! Glenn Beck must be proud. Honestly, the Hitler America under Obama Presidency line is degrading and insulting to those who actually had to live under the agony and endure the atrocities of the Nazis. This isn't a political term that should be thrown around for the bread and circuses of the arch conservative movement, because it really is getting a little old. Get some new material, or propose sound policy alternatives that don't involve endless military conquests or enhancing the already wealthy at the expense of average working Americans. Until then about 75% of the country will look to you not for leadership but to ridicule.

Speaking Ill of the Dead

Former Foreign correspondent Joseph Galloway, best known as the author of the book and later 2002 motion picture "We were Soliders Once and Young", unloads about his true feelings about the recently departed former U.S Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara.

Here is his stinging commentary as printed in McClatchy:

Well, the aptly named Robert Strange McNamara has finally shuffled off to join LBJ and Dick Nixon in the 7th level of Hell.

McNamara was the original bean-counter — a man who knew the cost of everything but the worth of nothing.

Back in 1990 I had a series of strange phone conversations with McMamara while doing research for my book We Were Soldiers Once And Young. McNamara prefaced every conversation with this: "I do not want to comment on the record for fear that I might distort history in the process." Then he would proceed to talk for an hour, doing precisely that with answers that were disingenuous in the extreme — when they were not bald-faced lies.

EX- Secretary of Defense, Vietnam War Architect Robert S McNamara, Dead at Age 93

Ex- Secretary of Defense, Mind behind Vietnam War Robert McNamara (1916-2009).

Robert S McNamara, the man who served as the Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and was one of the staunchest early advocates of U.S millitary action in the Vietnam War, and was often compared to one of his equally sardonic and arrogant successors Donald H Rumsfield, has died at the age of 93.

McNamara became a lightning rod of critics for his conduct of the U.S involvement in Vietnam, and although the massive financial aid to the South Vietnamese had its origins in the later years of the Truman administration and the South Vietnamese economic system as well as the introduction of U.S advisors began during the Eisenhower administration; McNamara helped implement the policy of dramatically introducing 16,000 additional military advisors during the Kennedy administration and into the Johnson administration, where he advocated and helped design sustained air attacks and the introduction of U.S forces into the conflict.

Though one of its earliest and most stalwart proponents and the public face of the war, McNamara later had mounting doubts about the war.

MSNBC:

WASHINGTON - Robert S. McNamara, the cerebral secretary of defense who was vilified for prosecuting the Vietnam War, then devoted himself to helping the world's poorest nations, died Monday. He was 93.

McNamara died at 5:30 a.m. at his home, his wife, Diana, told The Associated Press. She said he had been in failing health for some time. His death was first reported Monday by the Washington Post.

For all his healing efforts, McNamara was fundamentally associated with the Vietnam War, "McNamara's war," the country's most disastrous foreign venture, the only American war to end in abject withdrawal rather than victory.

McNamara's tenure also saw a number of other foreign policy and military events during perhaps the most challenging and dangerous days of the Cold war era. He was Defense Secretary during the disastrous Bay of Pigs Invasion, helped guide the world through the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the point in which the possibility of a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States was at its most highest point of danger, and saw the implementation in 1963 of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the first nuclear test ban treaty between the two cold war superpowers.

During the Johnson administration he headed the Pentagon when the Vietnam war and protest of it reached a fever pitch, saw the introduction of U.S Forces into the Dominican Republic, the capture and return of the USS Pueblo, and the 1967 Six Day War.

In 1968 he left his post after seven years, serving as one of the longest U.S Defense Secratary's in U.S History to become the President of the World Bank, a capacity in which he served through four administrations from 1968 until 1981, as he hearalded increased foreign aid to impoverished countries and in the 1980s championed a nuclear freeze.

Though he hesitated to come out and directly criticize the Bush/Cheney administration on the War in Iraq, he met with them twice and even hinted at his opposition at one point.

McNamara was one of the last surviving members of the Kennedy administration.

(Image from wiki media)

Related Items: If You want to see a dramatic account of the decisions made in the early years of the Vietnam War centering on those in the Johnson administration, chronicling their disasters rise and fall check out the 2002 HBO film "Path to War".

This Date in History: July 3

On this date in 1971, The Doors singer Jim Morrison was forever silenced when he died at the age of 27.

This Date in History

On this date in 1964, U.S President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act that ended segregation.

Native Tobbaco Garden to Grow the Ingredents to Traditional Tobacco for Native American Youth

Tobacco to most is an instrument of enjoyment, often a bad habit in terms of health. However in Native American culture tobacco isn't only consumed and smoked, ingested into the body. Tobacco also has a number of sacred uses including prayer and a show of respect.

Tobacco is one of the plants of the four Manido (the spirits of the four directions), as it represents the eastern direction. Some say that tobacco is the plant that with its roots.

One Indian Health Center in Montana has broken ground on a garden to harvest the ingredients of traditional tobacco.

As Native Americans over the years have come to represent such a small slice of the population (PDF) numerically and their culture and traditions have been marginalized, defiled, and cast aside by many; it is good to see some keeping alive the traditions and enriching the minds not only of the Natives but of all.

KPAX.com

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) - Work has begun on a garden to grow the ingredients for traditional tobacco in an effort to reduce the number of American Indian youths who use commercial tobacco.

Ground was broken Monday at the Missoula Indian Center, an organization that offers health care and a chemical dependency program for Indians.

Dana Kingfisher, who works at the center, says the garden will help educate youth about the sacred role of traditional tobacco.

Traditional plants such as red willow, kinnikinnick, bearberry, sweetgrass and sage will be grown in the garden, along with some vegetables.

Native Yards, a landscaping business, is providing labor, materials and guidance for the garden. Kingfisher says the Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program, a state organization, is providing about $4,000 for the project.

On this Date: Watergate

Forgot to mention that yesterday in 1972 a group of men who would become known as the Watergate Burglars were caught breaking into Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC. What was at first dismissed as a third rate burglary, would cause a cover-up at the highest levels of government and spark a constitutional crisis. Before it was over Americans would become even more disillusioned with thier government and a presidency would be brought to its knees.

This is a clip from the 1976 film "All the President's Men".


(H/T: Crooks and liars)

The American Indian in Oklahoma

Brenda Goldman of the Native American Community Examiner, writes a fascinating and sad piece on the state of the American Indian in Oklahoma, where at least 37 Federally recognized tribes reside.

Native Americans are a small sliver of the overall population, but despite: starvation, disease, harassment, forced assimilation, coercion, the avarice of industry and government alike, and brutalization and death at the hands of settlers; there are those still alive and still living in despair, as well as beating the odds.

This Day in History: JFK civil Rights Speech and the Assasination of Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evers

The date of June 11, 1963 was a significant mark in the history of the U.S Civil Rights movement. One in which their was both an urging for a nation to examine and follow its moral compass as well as a tragedy that stained the earth of Mississippi in blood.

The first was an address by President John F Kennedy on national television that night in which he called on the country at large to examine its conscience in regards to segregation and racism, as well as a request that congress take up Civil Rights legislation.

That night in Mississippi, as the President gave his speech; in a driveway in his Mississippi home a gunshot shattered any sense of peace, striking down and killing longtime civil rights activist and field secretary of the Mississippi NAACP Medgar Evers. Evers died soon thereafter at the age of 37.

The following is a documentary clip that examines both the legacy of Evers and the tense and vicious climate of the segregationist south in the 1960s.