Abraham Lincoln Died 150 Years Ago Today

Image from source, Mother Jones

The fact that Abraham Lincoln's death by assassination happened 150 years ago today is a little stunning when you think about it. In the scheme of things, that really isn't that long ago. I'll be 50 next year, and it's hard for me to believe that just three of my life-spans separate the here and now from Civil War America.

It's also roughly the same amount of time that it took to go from basically no modern conveniences to the world of today. There were some important inventions in use at the time of course, from photography to locomotives to telegraphs, but if you plunked a Millennial kid into 1865, he'd pretty much find it to be a dystopian nightmare. Similarly, if you plucked Lincoln out of Ford's Theater, and into 2015, he'd be mortified by the modern Republican Party.

In many of the discussions about civil rights (spurred by either a gay rights issue or Ferguson and the other racially charged controversies with police), I've seen countless conservative Republicans go on about how it's the Republican Party that blazed the civil rights trail. They'll start with Lincoln, and go all the way up to the Civil Rights Era. They'll point to George Wallace and other Democrats as proof. They're not wrong. . .but they're not right either. They disregard the massive shift both parties went through over the issue, and the fact that the "Dixiecrats" jumped ship and effectively overtook the Republican Party.

Look at a map sometime of the red and blue states, particularly in the 2008 and 2012 elections. Look at a map of the progression of same-sex marriage states. They echo closely the map of Confederate States vs. United States of Lincoln's time. I don't think that's a coincidence.

[Excerpt]

Lincoln Died 150 Years Ago Today and If He Were Still Alive He Wouldn’t Have Been a Republican

On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC. Lincoln died the following morning, just six days after General Robert E. Lee had surrendered and the Civil War, which lasted four years and killed an estimated 750,000 soldiers, officially ended. . .

Read more at: Mother Jones

Wisconsin GOP Committee Votes for Right to Secede

Dixieland up north? Image from ThinkProgress

Attention, you faux patriots: you cannot love America and favor secession. You can't be patriotic, and want to separate from the country. One thing cancels out the other. Morons.

Thank you for your attention.

[Excerpt]

Wisconsin Republican Committee Votes To Uphold ‘Wisconsin’s Right… To Secede’
 
Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Republican Party’s Resolutions Committee voted to endorse a proposal expressing the party’s support for “legislation that upholds Wisconsin’s right, under extreme circumstances, to secede.” A stronger version of this resolution passed one of the state GOP’s eight regional caucuses in March. That version provided that “we strongly insist our state representatives work to uphold Wisconsin’s 10th Amendment rights, and our right to secede, passing legislation affirming this to the U.S. Federal Government. . .”

Read more at: Think Progress

Bloody Battles in Kiev

Image from source, MSNBC

I'm not going to pretend to speak with authority on what's going on in Kiev. But I wanted to document it on the blog, and make sure it didn't go unmentioned.

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Deadly clashes in Kiev as protest camp burn

A three-month-old political standoff between the Ukranian regime and anti-government forces came to a head Tuesday as violent clashes in the country’s capital turned deadly and a protest camp at Independence Square burned. Thousands of police officers descended onto Kiev’s Independence Square, where protesters set up camp demanding President Viktor Yanukovych’s resignation. Armed with stun grenades and water cannons, authorities began dismantling barricades on the perimeter of the square, where many of the demonstrators’ tents were burning. . .

Read more at: MSNBC

Sarah Palin, President Obama, Racism and the Civil War

Can anybody tell me what the hell Sarah Palin is trying to say here? You couldn't possibly diagram any of her sentences, or even figure out where they begin and end. As good as HBO's Game Change movie was, this element of Palin's character wasn't on full display. She's still giving us pageant answers, though she may have cobbled together some factoids in the last three years. It's the art of sounding like you're saying something, because you've strung so many words together. The biggest mystery is why this woman with no particular area of expertise is a paid political pundit.

Found at: TowleRoad.com