It was spring vacation in my Junior year.  I wanted to do battle in the front lines.  It might have been good for the movement, if future Republicans hadf murdered a young white boy, not yet 17.  But the protestors were better that that.  For my own safety, two very large and very kindly black ladies linked arms with me, refused to let go, and kept me well behind the front lines.  I didn’t get to see much of the violence, but I did get to see way too much blood.  Fifty years later, Obama was upbeat, but realistic.

On this day in 1965, the nation watched as peaceful civil rights demonstrators were savagely beaten by police as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., a bloody sacrifice that historians credit with helping to usher in the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act days later.

Fifty years later, with the nation embroiled in a fresh debate about race in America, the country’s first black president joined a bipartisan congressional delegation and tens of thousands of marchers at the foot of the iconic civil rights landmark to commemorate a day that forever altered the landscape of American history.

“There are places, and moments in America where this nation’s destiny has been decided,”  President Obama told the sea of people who had stood for hours to hear him pay tribute to the day known as Bloody Sunday. “Many are sites of war – Concord and Lexington, Appomattox and Gettysburg.  Others are sites that symbolize the daring of America’s character – Independence Hall and Seneca Falls, Kitty Hawk and Cape Canaveral.”

“Selma is such a place,” he added.

The speech came several days after the Justice Department released a searing report admonishing police in Ferguson, Mo., for engaging in a vicious pattern of racial bias. The police department was home to Darren Wilson, a white officer whose killing in August of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, sparked nationwide protests about police brutality in communities of color throughout the United States…

Inserted from <Washington Post>

The Post was overly generous to call the Congressional delegation bipartisan.  Many of the Republicans present attended only after their intended absence became a talking point.

Here is the video of Obama’s address in it’s entirety.

And click here for the transcript.

One key focus of the speech is that the civil rights movement continues today and has helped many different minorities.  How sad it is that racism was waning quickly, and we would be much further along had the Republican party not embraced racism, as part of the Southern strategy.  Obama alluded to this, but called for us to press on, as the struggle is not yet over.

Another key focus of the speech was the Voting Rights Act.  He alluded to those who are keeping it week, without calling out the Republican Party by name.  He also said that the Congressional delegation could prove their sincerity by returning to Washington and fixing the voting rights act.

I have no doubt that I’ll have more coverage of this story, because these Republicans now need to prove to their rabid base that their sheets and hoods are still intact.  They will immediately return to abusing their power to disenfranchise minority voters.

It seems that we can’t turn on the TV anymore without seeing a burning oil train polluting the environment, despoiling waterways,and threatening lives and property.  Unfortunately, what makes that all seem insignificant to the criminal corporations and corrupt politicians that allow Bakken  crude trains, is the huge profits they also carry.

A derailed oil train continues to burn in northwestern Illinois near the Mississippi River town of Galena more than 24 hours after it crashed.

It is the third fiery derailment of trains carrying crude from the Bakken area of North Dakota in the past three weeks, raising more questions about the volatility of the oil and the safety of the tank cars used to transport crude.

No one was hurt when the BNSF Railway freight train derailed at about 1:20 p.m. Thursday in a hilly and heavily wooded area near where a tributary joins the Mississippi, about three miles south of Galena, IL.

In a statement, BNSF says 21 of the train’s 103 tank cars loaded with light Bakken crude left the tracks and at least five of them ruptured and caught fire. Witnesses reported seeing the fireball from miles away…

Inserted from <NPR>

After a long segue way, Rachel Maddow also reported this story.

The claim that this a controlled burn is a pure lie.  They have been cooling that car to prevent a BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion).  The company is calling it a “controlled burn”.  Comparing a BLEVE to a controlled BURN is like comparing a KKK Republican to Mother Theresa.  Years ago, as a volunteer firefighter, I was using the stream from a 2 1/2” live too cool a propane tank adjacent a burning building to prevent a BLEVE.  I was about 100 feet away, and I was terrified.  I knew that, if that tank blew, my chances of survival were nil.  Compared to this, that was tiny.  I only hope that a one mile radius is far enough.  These are the new “safe” cars.  That’s another lie.

I call it a show, because that’s what it was.  On the plus side, I have to admit that Butcher Bibi pulled off a very talented act, but that’s all it was.  There was no substance there.  In fact, it really had little to do with Iran.  Both Butcher Bibi and Agent Orange had their own separate agendas, neither of which involves Iran, per se.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel could not have hoped for a more rapturous welcome in Congress. With Republicans and most Democrats as his props, he entered the House of Representatives to thunderous applause on Tuesday, waving his hand like a conquering hero and being mobbed by fawning lawmakers as he made his way to the lectern.

Even Washington doesn’t often see this level of exploitative political theater; it was made worse because it was so obviously intended to challenge President Obama’s foreign policy.

Mr. Netanyahu’s speech offered nothing of substance that was new, making it clear that this performance was all about proving his toughness on security issues ahead of the parliamentary election he faces on March 17. He offered no new insight on Iran and no new reasons to reject the agreement being negotiated with Iran by the United States and five other major powers to constrain Iran’s nuclear program.

His demand that Mr. Obama push for a better deal is hollow. He clearly doesn’t want negotiations and failed to suggest any reasonable alternative approach that could halt Iran’s nuclear efforts.

Moreover, he appeared to impose new conditions, insisting that international sanctions not be lifted as long as Iran continues its aggressive behavior, including hostility toward Israel and support for Hezbollah, which has called for Israel’s destruction… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

As long as the US remains in a state of war against nations or groups that claim to follow Islam, Israel remains an important regional ally.  That limits US pressure for Israel to honor  treaty obligations and and helps maintain the regional view that the US is anti-Muslim.

Chris Hayes provided excellent coverage.

In addition to the reasons I referenced, Butcher Bibi was making a campaign speech casting himself as the sophisticated international player condescendingly schooling the ignorant, naive black man.  How insulting!

In addition to his normal sedition against Obama, Agent Orange is just as devious.  A small minority of American Jews are political activists.  The conservatives gravitate towards AIPAC, and the liberals, toward J Street.  The vast majority, on the other hand, are nominally liberal, and tend to vote Democratic, but support for Israel is important to them.  Boehner is trying to make Democrats appear to be anti-Israel, and if he can drive that wedge deep enough, he might be able to remove that block of voters from the Democratic into the Republican camp.  He’d happy to send thousands of young Americans off to die in a needless war for political gain.

Like me, most Democrats are not anti-Israel.  We’re pro-Israel.  But many of us are anti-Netanyahu, because his war crimes and his pursuit of a one-state solution, contrary to treaty obligations.  We're for permanent peace in the region for both Israel and a Palestinian State.  That’s why American Jews, and Israelis for that matter. should oppose both Butcher Bibi and the Republican Party.