Remembering MLK Jr. with Steady Loving Confrontation
Meet Lynda Blackmon Lowery. Late last year we talked with Mrs. Lowery for our new film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy about her first time meeting Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and what his words meant to her. Her mother died when she was only 7 years old, from that point forward she became committed to making sure that not another child would lose her mother because the color of her skin. So when she heard Dr. King speak the words of “Steady loving confrontation” she became committed to the Civil Rights movement. At 14 years old she marched…
Road Trips, Protests and Kiev – 2014 In Photos
2014 was an insane year. I haven’t experienced anything like it in my lifetime. Sure, everyone says that’s every year when writing these end of the year summary type articles. But just for a moment stay with my on this. We had the rekindling of the Cold War in Ukraine, riots in the streets of a middle American city, Civil Rights protests in every major city in America, a border crisis (however made-up) and a mid-term election that effectively ended Obama’s chances of doing anything before the end of his Presidency. Somehow I ended up being at all those events….
Mudflats Reports From Ferguson
After the announcement Monday that no charges were going to be brought against Officer Darren Wilson, we saw fires across Ferguson with many buildings burned to the ground, and stores looted. Tuesday, with some of the initial anger released and an increased police and National Guard presence, the city was quieter, but there were still arrests and tear gas. The protests are centered at the Ferguson Police Department on S. Florissant Road in Ferguson Missouri – from there groups of people split off and take the police and sometimes even the National Guard for a run around the area. After marchers that went…
Tea Party Cashing in on King’s Dream
I subscribe to a lot of terrible e-mail lists. One of them is the TeaParty.net’s. I can’t say it’s the worst, but by no means do I enjoy reading their amazingly insane missives. But it’s part of the job, like changing dirty diapers is part of a parent’s job. Every single one of the e-mails is somehow stinkier than the last. Whether it be about 9/11, Benghazi, or Ebola, they all end in a beg for my money. This one, though, ranks currently as the worst. “Restore the Dream” t-shirt with an image of Reagan and King just hurts my brain….
Palin & Olbermann on the R**Skins
It’s not often these days that we at The Mudflats get to write about Sarah Palin AND our old friend Keith Olbermann in the same story. It brings us back to that odd time when Palin went from being Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States, to ‘The Quitter.’ But by some magic they’ve both been talking about the same issue – the despicable name of the Washington DC football team. I’ll give you Sarah Palin’s word-salad first and then follow up with Olbermann’s fun take on the team owner Dan Snyder. Palin, ever the martyr, makes this about “the PC police” and…
CNN: Why Not Use Water Cannons on Ferguson Protestors?
As we drift into another night of likely arrests and police violence against protestors and journalists in Ferguson, MO a CNN anchor has given us this ethical and historical quandary. Rosemary Church: “Talk to us about what police are saying to you. Why they are using this strategy? Why the use of tear gas, stun grenades? Why not perhaps use water cannons?” Watch the video below, but really watch the fantastic understated reaction from her co-host Errol Barnett. For those of you that aren’t history buffs here’s a reminder of why this might be a bit awkward. And maybe we need to have…
JFK and My Grandmother
For as long as I can remember, there was an oil painting hanging at the top of the stairs at my Grandmothers house. It was of John F. Kennedy walking on the beach. We were an Irish Catholic family, my grandmother the matriarch. We weren’t conservative Christians, in fact my grandmother never liked them – she felt uncomfortable when, in her 80’s, our small local church started to take a turn for the evangelical. The change started when our priest, Father Guckert started to fall ill. He would take a Sunday off, and one of the local up-and-coming priests would…
Voting Rights Act Decision Nears on Anniversary of Evers Death
Sometime in the next couple of days the US Supreme Court will decide if crucial components of the Voting Rights Act will stand. Which is why when I saw this court room sketch posted on the excellent SCOTUSblog I felt the need to post it. From right to left you see Jess Jackson, Al Sharpton and then on the left John Lewis. All of these men, to varying degrees fought hard for this act – and lost many friends along the way. Greg Palast, who has been at the forefront of fighting the Right’s (and sometimes the Left’s) push to limit…
Palast: Dummy’s Guide to Voting Rights Act
Will the Supreme Court pull the teeth out of the law? by Greg Palast exclusively for TheMudflats.net This month –as early as tomorrow— the US Supreme Court will tell us whether Black and Brown citizens have the right to vote. Now, if you saw the film Lincoln, you probably thought that issue was settled about 147 years ago. But Honest Abe never imagined a High Court occupied by Dishonest Thomas and Scalia the Scurrilous. There’s been a lot of nonsense talk fogging the issue before the Court. To cut through the BS, the Palast Investigative Fund has made a little…