US turns its back on Israel, disasters following http://t.co/1hYq8GAP7j
— Michele Bachmann (@MicheleBachmann) October 4, 2015
South Carolina Removes Confederate Flag To Chants Of “USA! USA! USA!”
This morning the country watched as South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from the grounds of the State House.
It was thrilling to hear chants of “USA! USA! USA” as the flag – long a symbol that divided not only South Carolina, but the entire country – was lowered and marched off the capitol grounds.
I loved that once the flag was removed it was handed to an African-American. Delicious.
Forward.
South Carolina: House Votes To Remove Confederate Flag From State House Grounds
By a vote of 94 – 20 the South Carolina state House voted to remove the Confederate flag from state house grounds.
Earlier this week, the state Senate had passed the same measure. The bill now goes to Gov. Nikki Haley who supports the measure.
South Carolina Senate Votes To Remove Confederate Flag From State House Grounds
By a vote of 37-3 the South Carolina state Senate voted to remove the Confederate Flag from the State House grounds.
The issue now goes to the state House where it must pass by a two-thirds vote, then be signed by Gov. Nikki Haley.
This flag’s presence became a national story in the aftermath of nine African-Americans were murdered during a Bible study at a historic church on June 17.
South Carolina Governor Calls For Removal Of Confederate Flag From State House Grounds
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley says, “Today, we are here in a moment of unity in our state, without ill will to say it’s time to remove the flag from our capitol grounds.”
Bravo, Gov. Haley for an excellent speech and for stepping up.
South Carolina Governor To Call For Removal Of Confederate Flag From State House
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| Pic via Facebook |
According to Salon.com, Gov. Nikki Haley may have had a change of heart over the weekend regarding flying the Confederate Flag near the state house’s ground.
The governor has announced a 4pm press conference for today where she will reportedly call for the flag’s removal.
Controversy erupted around the flag that has flown on South Carolina’s State House grounds since 1962, when it was put there in defiance of the civil rights movement, after it flew at full mast the day after the gruesome murder of nine African-American churchgoers by an apparent white supremacist.
Pastor and South Carolina Senator Clementa Pinckney was one of the victims of the church attack. His body will lie in state in the Capitol rotunda where the flag flies right outside.
After pictures of the alleged shooter, Dylann Roof, posing in front of a Confederate Flag surfaced calls for the flags removal grew quickly.
A MoveOn.org petition demanding Haley “Remove the Confederate Flag From All Government Places” has already garnered over half a million signatures.
Removal of the flag would require a two-thirds majority in the state legislature where Republicans outnumber Democrats 106-64.
Over the weekend 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney called for the removal of the flag as a symbol of racism.
President Obama And Mitt Romney Urge South Carolina To Take
In the aftermath of the horrific Charleston church shooting, the Confederate flag – long a symbol of racism to many in the US – still flies over the South Carolina capitol.
In a rare moment of unity, both President Obama AND 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney call for the the flag to be lowered.
Current GOP presidential candidates were not so brave.
Sen. Marco Rubio derided such calls as ignoring a “states rights” issue. While Rick Santorum and Bobby Jindal sought to divert to a false “religious freedom” angle.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush still isn’t sure if the attack was racially motivated although the shooter has admitted to wanting to start a “race war.”
#HeadsInTheSand
GOP Presidential Candidate Rick Perry Calls South Carolina Shooting “An Accident”
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| Former Texas Governor Rick Perry |
“This is the M.O. of this administration, any time there is an accident like this — the president is clear, he doesn’t like for Americans to have guns and so he uses every opportunity, this being another one, to basically go parrot that message.” – GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry in response to President Barack Obama’s Thursday remarks.
Perry also shifted the discussion from guns to drugs, saying, “It seems to me, again without having all the details about this, that these individuals have been medicated and there may be a real issue in this country from the standpoint of these drugs and how they’re used.”
More at Right Wing Watch.
South Carolina Church Shooter Admits He Wanted “To Start A Race War”
According to CNN, Dylann Roof, the 21 year old gunman who shot and killed nine at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday night, told investigators that he wanted to start a race war.
One survivor of the incident said that Roof responded to a man’s pleas to stop shooting by saying, “No, you’ve raped our women, and you are taking over the country … I have to do what I have to do.”
His roommate told ABC News that Roof was “big into segregation.” And the Berkeley County, South Carolina, government tweeted a picture of him wearing a jacket with flags from apartheid-era South Africa and nearby Rhodesia, a former British colony that was ruled by a white minority until it became independent in 1980.
By telling authorities his aim, Roof admitted he attacked unarmed civilians for political purposes in an act of terror.
John Mullins recalls “racist slurs in a sense” that Roof made while the two attended White Knoll High School in Lexington, South Carolina, though he also remembers him having black friends.
“He would say it just as a joke,” Mullins told CNN. “I never took it seriously. But … maybe they should have been.”
Joey Meek told ABC that talk of reinstating segregation was nothing new for Roof, his roommate. He’d been plotting something for six months, though “he never did any of that,” and authorities weren’t tipped off.
“I think he wanted something big like Trayvon Martin,” Meek said, referring to the black Florida teen whose shooting death at the hands of George Zimmerman — who was acquitted of murder — provoked huge protests. “He wanted to make something spark up the race war again.”
More at CNN.
Jon Stewart On South Carolina Church Shooting: “This Wasn’t A Tornado, This Was a Racist”
In a stone cold sober opening, Jon Stewart began last night’s edition of The Daily Show with a joke-free monologue on the shooting deaths of nine black Americans in a South Carolina church by a white racist.
“I’ve got nothing for you in terms of jokes and sounds, because of what happened in South Carolina.”
“Nine people were shot in a black church by a white guy who hated them who wanted to start some kind of civil war.
“The confederate flag flies over South Carolina. And the roads are named for confederate generals.
“And the WHITE guy’s the one who feels like his country is being taken away from him.
“We’re bringing it on ourselves. And that’s the things —al Qaeda, all those guys, ISIS – they’re not shit compared to the damage we can do to ourselves on a regular basis.”