Are Republicans Guilty of Treason?

On “Real Time with Bill Maher” this past Friday, Bill Maher referred to the House GOP’s thirty-seventh vote to repeal Obamacare:

“And what about trying to repeal it for the 37th time?  Is that a wise use of our time and resources? At some point, obstruction becomes, um, I dunno, treason.”

On the same program one of the guests — Michael Moore — described the GOP as “a squealing dinosaur whose time has come.”

Let’s hope.

Bill Maher also talked about how the implementation of Obamacare is causing some of the top health insurance companies to lower their rates:

“They did a test and they put, you know, what insurance would cost if you were a 40-year-old, non-smoker and instantly, the two highest priced insurers went down.  This is the heart of Obama.  This is the heart of capitalism. I’m wondering why the people who love the free market so much are not for this.”

Maher also referred to the GOP’s blocking of almost everybody nominated by Obama.  The head of the EPA, a chief circuit court judge and dozens of other nominees.  And best of all — if you’re a rightwing oligarch or one of their useful idiots — bringing the Labor Relations Board to a screeching halt.  Right now the Labor Relations Board doesn’t have enough members to even have quorum.  And Republicans are determined to block any and all nominees to serve on the board, just so they can keep the Labor Relations Board dysfunctional and unable to enforce the laws that protect millions of working people.

Bill Maher said:  “At some point it becomes more about hating Obama than loving our country.”

Michael Moore added:

“No, they hate America.  I think that’s really what it is.  Conservatives and right-wingers, as much as they profess to love this country, they hate it. They hate the government, they hate the people.”

Unfortunately I think Bill Maher and Michael Moore are both right.

North Carolina is the new Mississippi

What the fuck is happening to North Carolina?  This has been one of the most progressive of the southern states.  It’s the home of Duke University — plus a lot of other top notch schools — and some of the most prosperous cutting-edge cosmopolitan cities.  Yes they still have Jesse Helms to atone for, but remember, on the day Jesse Helms died the entire country celebrated with fireworks.

Until last year, the state had a Democratic governor to veto the Klanbagger and Teatard legislation that erupts out of every Republican legislature.  Now that they have a Republican governor, North Carolina’s Teahadist legislators are getting crazier than a busload of priests at a little boys’ swimming meet.

Some of the country’s worst voter suppression legislation, anti-abortion zealotry, union busting, eliminating all corporate taxes while increasing the sales tax — North Carolina has it all.

And on top of that, it turns out some of North Carolina’s teadroolers don’t even believe any of that “free market” rhetoric they’re always spewing.  State senator Tom Apodaca (R—Corporate Prostitute) has introduced legislation that would ban the sale of Tesla’s electric vehicles in North Carolina.

Tesla sells all of its vehicles directly to the consumer — via phone or Internet — and hence is able to bypass all third parties, i.e. the car dealer.  On direct orders from his pimp, Hooker Apodaca spread his legs for the North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association.  His proposed bill would prohibit all car companies from selling directly to a customer.  All sales would have to be transacted through a dealer.

Problem solved.

What happened to that “limited government” that the teajobs are always drooling about?  You know, “government bureaucrats meddling in the marketplace,” or something.  To add even more irony, the North Carolina teawads are pretending this law is “to protect consumers.”

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!

Who the fuck voted for these dildos???

If this trend keeps up, people in Mississippi will be saying “Thank God for North Carolina.”

Elizabeth Warren: “Why Aren’t Criminal Bankers Being Locked Up?”

Earlier this week, Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Attorney General Eric Holder and SEC Chair Mary Jo White.  Speaking for hundreds of millions of angry Americans, Senator Warren’s letter asked why the biggest robbers in history are not in prison, getting beaten to a pulp by guards, and gang-raped and Sodomized by fellow inmates until their assholes are big enough to drive a tank through.

(I’m paraphrasing.)

Her letter said in part:

“…I believe very strongly that if a regulator reveals itself to be unwilling to take large financial institutions all the way to trial — either because it is too timid or because it lacks resources — the regulator has a lot less leverage in settlement negotiations and will be forced to settle on terms that are much more favorable to the wrongdoer.

The consequence can be insufficient compensation to those who are harmed by illegal activity and inadequate deterrence of future violations. If large financial institutions can break the law and accumulate millions in profits and, if they get caught, settle by paying out of those profits, they do not have much incentive to follow the law.”

New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman echoed the same sentiment on MSNBC last week:

“The problem is the banks have overwhelming confidence that law enforcement is not taking this seriously.  They have overwhelming confidence that whatever the rules are, they won’t be followed up on.”

That’s putting it mildly.  People losing their homes through illegal foreclosure and then getting a $300 “compensation” payment from the bank; guilty bank CEOs getting a slap on the wrist and a stern warning not to let it happen again — how much more of this shit are the American People going to put up with?

Is the government EVER going to crack down on these Wall Street cartels?

(Don’t worry, it was a rhetorical question.)

Want to Boycott Monsanto and Koch Industries? You Can. There’s an App.

Millions of shoppers are patronizing Koch Industries, Monsanto and other shadowy corporate conglomerates, without even knowing it.  You won’t find too many items on the shelf with “Koch Brothers” or “Monsanto” stamped in big letters.

Those two companies (and others) have more tentacles than all the squid and octopi in the seven seas.  Their products are everywhere.

And now there’s a phone app — Buycott — enabling everyone to boycott companies whose ethics they hate.

The app is nonpartisan.  It allows the user to scan the barcode to determine the ownership background of a product.  There’s been such a huge demand that the developer of the app, Ivan Pardo, is frantically trying to keep up.  He said:

“The workload is a bit overwhelming now.  Our Android app was just recently released and the surge of new users today has highlighted a serious bug on certain devices that needs to be fixed immediately. So all other development tasks I was working on get put on hold until I can get this bug fixed.”

The app also allows the user to take part in online campaigns to boycott companies they don’t like, OR to support those companies whose ethics they agree with.  Buycott’s users are also encouraged to keep its database updated by adding products not yet recognized by Buycott.  Ivan Pardo said:

“It was critical to allow users to create campaigns.  I don’t think it’s Buycott’s role to tell people what to buy. We simply want to provide a platform that empowers consumers to make well-informed purchasing decisions.”

YES.

Talk about “find a need and fill it” — this is a need that’s gone unmet for decades.  Back in the ‘60s, Dick Gregory did a speech making fun of anti-war protesters who would shower up with Dial Soap (made by Dow Chemical Company) and then go out to protest against Dow Chemical for making Napalm.

45 years later — Problem solved.

The GOP’s Newest Tic: “Impeach Obama, Impeach Obama, Impeach Obama…”

Not to be confused with Rudy Giuliani’s 9/11 Tourette’s Syndrome.

On her TV show last Friday night, Rachel Maddow said the GOP’s constant hiccupping of “Impeach Obama, Impeach Obama” is like an involuntary tic.  She also compared it to incontinence, like when somebody coughs or sneezes too hard and then, “oops, ahem, uhh, I need to be excused for a minute.”

And this has nothing to do with Benghazi or whatever the Republicans’ fake scandal du jour happens to be.  The Far Right has been having a mass bedwetting since the day Obama took office.  Rachel Maddow played back the audio of a phone call to Michael “Voice of the Inbreds” Savage from March 2009:

Caller:

“What they’re doing right now is destroying this country.  Everyone that I know of, at least, is very angry about it. We’re very upset. We want this guy out. We want him to be impeached.”

Michael Savage:

“What I don’t like is that this guy is doing this by executive order, one after the other and the American people are sitting like a bunch of shmucks watching a dictatorship emerge right before their eyes.  I think it is time to talk about impeachment. Somebody has to get this guy under control. He’s out of control. Thank you for the call.”

Rachel Maddow said:

“Republicans on the right love talking about impeaching President Obama even when they’re not sure exactly why.  It’s almost like an involuntary tic. They sneeze and a little ‘Impeach Obama!’ squeezes out without them meaning to.”

Last week's foulest burst of incontinence came out of James Inhofe, who shat his pants with:

“Of all the great cover-ups in history, we’re talking the Pentagon Papers, the Iran-Contra, Watergate and all the rest of them, this, I said back on November 28 on Fox, is going to go down as the most serious, most egregious cover-up in American history.  People need to know how serious this is. To me, this, people may be starting to use the ‘I-word’ before too long.  The ‘I-word’ is ‘impeach.’”

Well, you’ve gotta give James Inhofe credit for one thing:  He’s fully aware that his inbred constituents need to have every little word spelled out for them.

Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Miles Davis, Tony Williams: the Supergroup that Might Have Been

Before Jimi Hendrix’ death in 1970, plans had been in the works for a recording session with Hendrix and Miles Davis.  Tony Williams would be the drummer.  The bass player would hopefully be Paul McCartney.

On October 21, 1969, Jimi Hendrix sent this telegram to Paul McCartney:

“We are recording and LP together this weekend.  How about coming in to play bass stop call Alan Douglas 212-5812212. Peace Jimi Hendrix Miles Davis Tony Williams.”

A Beatle aide replied to the telegram the next day, saying that Paul McCartney was on vacation and would not be back for two more weeks.  And that was that.  The recording was never made.

One can only imagine what this music would have sounded like.  Jimi Hendrix was getting more experimental during his last few months.  And Miles Davis was experimenting in the opposite direction.  This was around the time that his second jazz-fusion album, Bitches Brew, was released.  (“In a Silent Way” was released a year earlier.)  Both of these albums combined all the intricacies of jazz with rock and roll’s power and immediacy, electric guitars, and every electronic gizmo in the world hooked up to Miles’ trumpet.

Tony Williams was as “out there” as any jazz drummer, but like Miles Davis, he could fit into any conceivable jazz-rock-experimental setting.

And this brings us to Paul McCartney.  Meaning no disrespect, but was/is Paul McCartney really this legendary virtuoso of the bass?  Back in the day, I liked the Beatles as much as the next person.  And Paul McCartney’s first two solo albums — after the Beatles’ breakup — totally kicked ass.  Wings and everything else that came after:  two thumbs down.  (IMHO)

Anyway, as much as I liked the Beatles and the first two McCartney solo albums, I don’t remember ever thinking “Whoa!  Check out that bass solo!”

In the annual Playboy Jazz and Pop Poll — which I haven’t seen in decades; I don’t even know if it exists any more — Paul McCartney was ALWAYS voted Best Bass Player.  Seriously.  Runners up:  Charles Mingus, Ray Brown, Miroslav Vitous, Ron Carter.  Number One:  Paul McCartney.

I never understood that.  The poll winners were a pretty eclectic mix of rock, pop and the major jazz categories:  mainstream, avant-garde, fusion, etc.  And yet Paul McCartney always came out ahead of these incredible jazz titans.  Am I missing something?

In any case, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis and Tony Williams must have known what they were doing when they invited Paul McCartney to be their bass player.

We’ll never know what we missed.  Weather Report used to call themselves “the Best Fuckin’ Band in the world, Man.”  They might have been just second best if the Hendrix-Davis-Williams-McCartney band had made that recording.

IRS Apologizes for Harassing Rightwing Charity Organizations

Last year, leading up to the 2012 election, the IRS conducted a relentless witch hunt against rightwing hate groups charity organizations that were trying to influence the election.  If the IRS discovered that these groups were political rather than charitable, the groups would lose their tax-exempt status.

According to a few harebrained IRS employees, if an organization has the words “Patriot” or “Tea Party” in its name, this organization might not actually be a charity group.

What???  Oh come on, how paranoid can you get?!?

The liberal media has spent the past year demonizing these poor Tea Party groups, and then the IRS started terrorizing them.  And now the IRS has admitted it was wrong.  As it turns out, these secretive organizations that donated hundreds of millions of dollars in anonymous political contributions — charity groups are not required to disclose their donors — really ARE charitable organizations after all.

And just what is so far fetched about that?  What, a word like “Patriot” or “Tea Party” is supposed to be some sort of “red flag” or something???

I happen to know that Patriots For Guns has an incredible outreach program for troubled youth.  And God only knows where thousands of inner city residents would be today, were it not for the Impeach Obama! soup kitchen.

If you — or any loved ones — are in danger of losing your home, please be aware that Obamacare Gonna Kill Your Grandma operates a homeless shelter near you.

Those are just three of the countless thousands of patriotic charity groups who have been persecuted by Obama’s thugs.  And don’t forget Nazi Skinheads for Better Textbooks, the Queer-Bashers R Us job training clinic — well, the list goes on and on.

Darrell Issa and Mitch McConnell have already promised to hold thorough investigations into this unconscionable witch hunt by the IRS.  Of course we all know that Barack Hussein Obama is the evil mastermind, but we should at least go through the motions of staging an impartial investigation.

Wanted: Strawberry Pickers. Must Be Fireproof

Imagine this:  you’re filling out a job application, and you come to the inevitable “Reason for leaving your previous employer?”

Your answer:  “Fired because I ran for my life when smoke and flames came roaring in.”

During last week’s Springs Fire — the raging wildfire that originated in Camarillo Springs, CA — fifteen strawberry pickers ran for their lives so they wouldn’t suffocate from the smoke and ash that was engulfing them.  Their employer, Crisalida Farms of Oxnard, CA, fired these malingering sissies for walking off the job.

(And this wraps up our Douchebag Employer of the Month Contest.  No more calls, we have a winner!)

One of the fired workers — who are represented by the United Farm Workers Union — said:  “The smoke was very bad. There’s no doubt about that.”

Crisalida Farms gave an official statement saying the workers had clocked out without permission while orders were still unfilled. A real man isn’t afraid of a few third degree burns.

During subsequent negotiations with the union, Crisalida Farms was informed of the following union rule:  “No worker shall work under conditions where they feel his life or health is in danger.”

Crisalida Farms eventually relented and offered the fired workers their jobs back.  (No wonder conservatives hate unions so much.)  Only one worker accepted the offer.  All of the other workers have found employment at other farms where the employers are a little more, uh, human.

One of the fired workers made the point that while losing work is hard, losing one’s health is harder.

No argument there.

Anonymous “Dark Money” Political Contributions are Backfiring

Here’s the dilemma.  Let’s say you’re a rightwing millionaire and you’re planning to purchase the next election right out from under the lowly public.  If you donate to a Political Action Committee (PAC), the PAC has to disclose the names of its donors.

When the public starts seeing the nasty attack ads you’ve paid for, they’re gonna say “who’s the cocksuckin’ douchebag that’s financing this shit?”  And then they’ll follow the money right back to YOU.

This is why so many large corporations and wealthy individuals are laundering their money through these phony “charity” organizations that are NOT required to disclose their donors.  You can purchase the election or candidate of your choice and still remain hidden under your rock.  Foolproof, right?

Wrong.  New research has discovered that while attack ads lose their effectiveness when their donors are revealed, the public backlash is even worse when the donors are kept secret.

This study was performed by Conor M. Dowling and Amber Wichowsky.  They used a group of 1,213 participants.  The participants watched a political attack ad from the 2010 election.  For some viewers, the ad showed a list of donors at the end of the ad.  For the other group, the donors weren’t listed in the ad, but later on the viewers read an article about Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, the group behind the ad.

The attack ad lost some of its effect among the viewers who saw the list of donors.  There was no change among the people who didn’t see the list of donors but only read the article about American Crossroads.

Dowling and Wichowsky said:

“Our study suggests that voters may be more likely to pay attention to campaign finance data if it is directly and objectively presented, much in the same way that nutritional information is displayed.”

However, the attack ad was the least effective among a group who saw the ad, weren’t shown a list of donors, and then later learned from an article that the ad’s donors were being kept secret.

Dowling and Wichowsky said:

“This result suggests that individuals and corporations could be viewed in a negative light if they do not disclose their donors, which is perhaps one reason why several corporations have decided either to not make political contributions or to adopt their own disclosure policies.”

Maybe this is why Far Right extremists spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the 2012 election — most of it from undisclosed donors — and they have practically nothing to show for it.

Mark Sanford Defeats Elizabeth Colbert Busch. But on the Bright Side…

Yes it sucks that South Carolina’s braindead voters elected Mark Sanford (R—Disgraced) to represent them in Washington DC.  But what kind of victory was this?  Mark Sanford’s district has been solid Republican for over thirty years, and Mark Sanford is a household name in South Carolina, for better or worse.

Sure he’s a slippery little spoogebucket, but he’s the devil they know.  This race was sort of like a 300-pound wrestler fighting a 100-pound opponent.  If the 300-pounder lost, the humiliation would be unbearable.  And if he won, well whoopee shit, you just beat up somebody one third your size.  OOOOHHHH!!!!

And some people are saying Mark Sanford will do the GOP more harm than good by winning this election.  He’s “damaged goods.”   A Washington Post column says in part:

“A Sanford victory puts that guy in the House Republican Conference. That means that not only do the late-night jokes start again but, more importantly, every GOPer in the House and Senate will be asked whether they support Sanford and what they think of serving with him.”

Works for me.