In remarks on the Senate floor today Sen. Harry Reid said in prepared remarks:
It is unfathomable that even as the community of Charleston grapples with the devastation of this hateful act, African-American men and women have to walk underneath a confederate flag when they step on the grounds of the South Carolina State House in Columbia. The confederate flag is a symbol of the dark past from which our country has come. It does not and it should not represent our values or the way we treat our fellow Americans.
It is a symbol of slavery and white-supremacy. There is no other way to explain it. It often flew high as vile organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan torched African-American churches. This symbol of the past has no place atop buildings that govern Americans. It’s just not who we are. This flag should be removed and removed now.
Earlier he said on the Senate floor:
I find it stunning that the NFL is more concerned about how much air is in a ball than with a racist franchise name that denigrates Native Americans across our country. The Redskins name is a racist name. So I wish the Commissioner would act as swiftly and decisively in changing the name of the Washington, D.C. team, as he did enforcing how much air is in the football.
This is the same Harry Reid who praised former KKK leader Robert Byrd with a glowing memorial upon his death.
This the same Harry Reid who has not said anything about his hometown university teams being called the Rebels and having a mascot called Hey Reb, until today.
According to an AP story posted at the Las Vegas Sun website, Reid told reporters in Washington, D.C., that Nevada’s Board of Regents should consider changing the mascot and sports team name. The name has been around since 1969. Took him awhile.
Photo of Hey Reb from the UNLV campus newspaper The Rebel Yell.
4TH ST8 
January 2017…can’t come soon enough!
So you are in favor of the Confederate flag? Or not?
I don’t have one.
But since you believe Abraham Lincoln was a tyrant and are sympathetic to the South’s constitutional arguments, you must have mixed feelings about the current controversies over displays of Confederate symbols.
As a free speech advocate, it would be hypocritical of me to tell the post-Civil War Democratic Party that has seen this banner hoisted by the likes of “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman and Robert “Sheets” Byrd to take it down.
I also opposed the flag desecration amendment that Harry Reid pushed.
I can’t really make a lot of sense of your response, but it appears that you oppose the removal of Confederate flags from government property. If my understanding is incorrect I am sure you will let us know.
I don’t understand how it would be any more hypocritical, as a free speech advocate, to express your opinion about what Sen. Reid said, than it would over what the State of South Carolina “said” by having a flag that symbolizes slavery to many people, raised over their Capitol.
‘Nuf said.
My opinion is: I don’t want people like Harry telling me what I can say; therefore, I will not tell others what they can say.
Once again your response makes no sense whatsoever, Mr. Mitchell. No one is “telling others what they can say.” The question is whether or not you agree that that government buildings should not fly flags of the slave-supporting, treasonous southern confederacy.
Since you don’t believe that the Confederate were traitors, you think that their attempt to seceed from the Union was legally justifiable, and you consider Abraham Lincoln to have been a tyrant, it seems clear that you believe that southern states should continue to fly the confederate flag.
Stop trying to put words in my mouth. What I said is perfectly clear.
Harry Reid is free to be hypocritical, he can say anything he wants.
Just as Nyp is free to spin, but only if provided with the fodder to fuel his spin.
Nyp simply cannot accept Tom pointing out Reid’s hypocrisy.
This is because Tom is right about Ried and Tom provides nothing that allows Nyp to spin. This irritates Nyp enough he tries to goad Tom into posting something for Nyp to spin. This is what Nyp does not understand. And nothing will make it “clear” enough for Nyp because all Nyp wants to do is spin and spin and spin.
I wonder Thomas, where you like the State of South Carolina, “saying” though the use of a flag that, for many people, symbolizes a racist history, what the state implicitly supports by flying that flag?
And doesn’t that mean, effectively, that the state is telling others what the can say, leastways with the support of the state though the use of a flag hoisted above the state building?
I mean, isn’t the state effectively denying freedom of expression to those people that want the state to NOT fly a flag that to them symbolizes a racist past?
What about their freedom of speech?
Well, Mr. Mitchell, all that is clear is that you think Abraham Lincoln was a tyrant and that the South had the right to secceed. You said so yourself in past posts this year.
What remains unclear is how you feel about having the confederate flag flying over government property. You refuse to take a clear position becuase of something something something Harry Reid something.
It is obvious, Mr. Mitchell, that you think the confederate flag should continue to fly proudly. Why don’t you just come out with what you really believe.?
Now Nyp just invents things he claims Tom believes and then argues them as though Tom responded in kind.
There is a word which describes this, that word escapes me at the moment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/19/an-australian-stand-up-comic-explains-what-u-s-gun-laws-look-like-to-the-rest-of-the-world/
Funny.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/24/us/south-carolina-nikki-haley-confederate-flag.html
And, not as funny. But good none the less.
I thought he had some good comic bits and got a good chuckle out of some of it but apparently some others (mainly liberals with intent to control everything anyone does or says) did not.
“Fuck off you cunt” appears to be his way of showing this.
And he apparently and conveniently forgot to include this in his act.
You know, the gunman that shot up the Lindt Cafe in Sydney…..a criminal with a gun…..http://youtu.be/FvXfb_V01nI
People (especially driven ones like crooks hell bent on killing others) always find a way…get ready for knife control!
Patrick, I hope you really like the future of this “new world” you have created for yourself.
Steve you exceed even yourself with this.
South Carolina is free to say what it wants, through symbols or otherwise. Since the state government represents its people, then one would hope the the people finally want the flag removed. Flying the Confederate flag pokes the northern states and/or the black population in the eye. The fact that the Confederate flag still flies there confirms that some stereotypes are accurate. It’s been 150 years. Get over it already!
Well, Patrick, as comedy the guy was funny.
As commentary, he left a bit to be desired.
Interesting, those who lose wars should be forbidden from flying the flag under which they fought…lets ask Japan about that one.
A good way to end yet another day away from home.
VSOP and Crème brûlée
https://scontent-lax1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10290607_859715324102738_5809202581304600403_n.jpg?oh=108bde0780978e2db53b92db16944e27&oe=55EC2FA2
Have any of the three of you spent any time in the South? If so, where and for how long?
My family was from the north and the south. We have people who called it the Civil War and other people who called it the war of northern aggression.
Which of my past would qualify Barbara?
Not family. Any personal experience living in the South?
The reason I ask is I’m wondering if anyone is commenting based on personal knowledge or experience to know what the Confederate flag symbolizes to someone (white and black) who is actually from the South. Also, the South is not monolithic as a region. For example, I am from Texas and I can tell you there are regional differences. East Texas is different than West Texas as much as urban and rural are different.
[…] everyone is talking about removing “racist” symbols, such as state flags and university team mascots, following the killing of black churchgoers in South Carolina, Obama goes on the radio and uses […]
So, are Dixie Cups…”Rebel Yell” by Billy Idol…and pro golfer Bubba Watson’s General Lee replica car…all under the PC gun now? I’m waiting for someone to go into an African American owned bakery and requesting a Confederate Flag cake for their Southern pride pool party…