Editorial

This website – OK, Fine – will now write an editorial on the Confederate Battle Flag.  OK, fine, has generally refrained from writing about the Confederate Battle flag because for the most part, it has largely disappeared.  Below is the state flag of South Carolina.

Note that the Confederate Battle Flag does not appear on the flag.

“Asked by the Revolutionary Council of Safety in the fall of 1775 to design a flag for the use of South Carolina troops, Col. William Moultrie chose a blue which matched the color of their uniforms and a crescent which reproduced the silver emblem worn on the front of their caps. The palmetto tree was added later to represent Moultrie’s heroic defense of the palmetto-log fort on Sullivan’s Island against the attack of the British fleet on June 28, 1776,” writes 50states.com.

There is a Confederate Battle Flag used as part of a war memorial to Confederate soldiers on the grounds of the statehouse.  The Confederate Battle Flag is not flown above the rooftop of the Capitol building there.  This can be seen in the photo above.

According to PBS, the flag used to be flown above the Capitol building, but was removed from that site in the year 2000. PBS reports that the flag at the memorial cannot be lowered to half-mast.  It can only be hooked onto or removed from the pole.

As written about before, the only state flag in the U.S. that contains the Confederate Battle Flag as part of its imagery is the Mississippi state flag.  All other states have removed that symbol from their flag.  The Mississippi flag can be seen below.

So, isn’t the conversation about the Confederate Battle Flag moot or nearly moot?  Should the real focus be to have the symbol  removed from the Mississippi state flag – the last official state flag that has it?

What about the war memorial flag in South Carolina?  Could they perhaps build a “statue flag” or put a “sculpture” of the flag on the memorial, instead of having a real flag?  What kind of facsimile could be used instead of a real flag?  Is there a compromise?

Those are the thoughts of the Confederate Battle Flag from this website…

Senator Lindsey Graham Wants State To Remove Confederate Battle Flag

Monday, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina joined other officials in urging his state to remove the Confederate battle flag from its statehouse grounds.

The Boston Globe writes that he was the first GOP presidential candidate to call for the removal of the flag.  Graham’s position could convince others to follow suit.

Politico writes that Graham was standing near Republican Gov. Nikki Haley and a bipartisan group of state lawmakers as Haley said they were all there to say “it’s time to move the flag from the Capitol grounds.”

The cold-blooded killing of nine worshipers at an African-American church in Charleston last week brought back the debate over the flag in South Carolina.  The banner currently flies on the statehouse grounds, the result of a compromise in 2000, when it was removed from an even more prominent place atop the building.

According to NPR, the head of the NAACP says it’s not appropriate for South Carolina to keep flying the Confederate flag at its state house.

“The flag has to come down,” NAACP President Cornell Brooks said at a news conference Friday.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/06/19/415830922/confederate-flag-has-to-come-down-in-s-c-naacp-leader-says

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/lindsey-graham-confederate-flag-119301.html

Did Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly Have A Domestic Dispute With His Ex-Wife?

AJ+

Gawker reports that it has secured partial transcripts from the custody trial of Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly in regards to the dispute with his ex-wife, Maureen McPhilmy.

The documents, which record testimony given last year, confirm that the ex-couple’s teenage daughter told a court-appointed forensic examiner that she witnessed O’Reilly “choking her mom” as he “dragged her down some stairs” by the neck.

The same transcripts also reveal that O’Reilly told his daughter that her mother is an “adulterer”; that he struggles to control his rage around his family; and that his daughter regards him as an absentee father.

News magazine AJ+ looks at it.

http://gawker.com/bill-o-reilly-accused-of-domestic-violence-in-custody-b-1705006992

Actress Loses Custody Battle, Must Visit Kids In France

Actress Kelly Rutherford has taken a battle for her two children to the White House.

A petition has been filed with whitehouse.gov seeking a federal order to allow her young children to move back to the US.  A judge in France previously ordered that the children live in France with her husband.

“This is a political issue now,” Rutherford told sources, adding that her children’s “constitutional rights should have been put before our parental rights,” meaning that as American citizens, her kids should not have been deported.

Best-known to television audiences as Lily van der Woodsen on the hit show Gossip Girl, Kelly played the matriarch in New York for 6 seasons culminating in December of 2012.

She is also known for her former roles in television shows Melrose Place, Homefront, and E-Ring.

Rutherford is a devoted single mom to her kids and an advocate of women’s and children’s charities including StepUp Women’s Network, Healthy Child Healthy World, and she is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Free Arts.

Rutherford lost a bid to keep her children in the U.S. after a judge refused to overturn a previous court ruling that they should live with their father in France.

She has spent two years flying back and forth from France to see her children, who live with her ex-husband Daniel Giersch.

German-born Giersch had his O1 visa – granted to individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement – revoked two years ago. The State Department will not comment on the reason for this, only to say it is classified.  This prompted a court to give him custody of the children in France in 2012 as he cannot legally enter the U.S. He will not comment on the case.  He later took the kids to Monaco, where they have citizenship.

In 2012, a California judge ordered that the children live with Giersch in France after his work visa was revoked, preventing him from living in the US. Rutherford appealed but lost.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2726002/Kelly-Rutherford-tells-MailOnline-heartbreak-forced-send-children-ex-France-loses-bid-them.html#ixzz3YvSzcJ5y

http://pagesix.com/2015/04/29/kelly-rutherford-takes-custody-battle-to-the-white-house/

Battle Brewing Over Filibuster Between House and Senate Republicans

Cliff Schecter joins Majority Report to discuss the fight over the filibuster, which is not just between Democrats and Republicans, but also between House Republicans and Senate Republicans.

Obama Proposes $3.99 trillion Budget, Sets Up Budget Battle

President Barack Obama today proposed a $3.99 trillion budget for fiscal year 2016 that sets up a battle with Republicans over programs to boost the middle class that are funded by higher taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans.

The budget foresees a $474 billion deficit, which is 2.5 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. It projects deficits stabilizing at that rate over a 10-year period, senior administration officials said.

Obama’s budget brings up proposals from his State of the Union address and helps highlight Democratic priorities for the last two years of his presidency.

But it is also a fiscal road map and would require approval from the Republican-controlled Congress to go into effect.

Republicans have said they see room for compromise in areas such as tax reform and infrastructure, but many of Obama’s programs, which were rolled out in the weeks before the budget’s release, have landed with a thud.