The STOCK Act

The Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act is getting closer to reality.  The original purpose of the bill was to stop insider trading among members of Congress.  But more restrictions keep getting proposed.

Rand Paul has proposed an amendment that would prevent lawmakers from becoming lobbyists after they retire or get voted out.  A former senator or congressman will be able to either become a lobbyist OR keep his retirement benefits.

Susan Collins, alarmed at this “harsh” amendment, said:

“As I read the language, the former member of Congress who writes a book would be in danger of forfeiting his or her pension.”

And???

Senators Michael Bennet and Jon Tester — both junior senators — have added a lifetime ban on members of Congress becoming lobbyists.  And staff members would be prohibited from lobbying their former bosses for six years.

Two other senators, Sherrod Brown and Jeff Merkley, have proposed an amendment that would require lawmakers and their senior staff members to either divest of all stocks, or transfer all of their stock holdings into a blind trust.

Senators Claire McCaskill and Pat Toomey have proposed a Senate ban on earmarks.  And Jim DeMint is pushing for an amendment requiring term limits for Congress.

No matter how restrictive this law becomes, it won’t be easy to vote No on it.  Congress has a 9% public approval rating, and this is an election year.

Pythons Devastating the Everglades: Thank a Republican

When I saw the story yesterday about the Everglades crawling with pythons — and native wildlife being decimated as a result — I had no idea this could be anything political.  What could the Liberal-Conservative Democrat-Republican divide have to do with people’s pet pythons escaping — or being released — into the wild?

Believe it or not, it IS a political issue.  Pythons were first discovered in the Everglades around 1980.  By 2000 the problem had become serious.  And now there are practically no raccoons, foxes, marsh rabbits, opossums or white-tailed deer left in the Everglades.

It’s a day late and a dollar short, but the Obama Administration is working on a rule making it illegal to move or import Burmese pythons across state lines.  It’s a start anyway.

And House Republicans are denouncing this new intrusive “job-killing” regulation.  Apparently the python business is an integral part of America’s economy, and any attempt to regulate it would send the unemployment rate skyrocketing into the triple digits.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has referred to this new regulation as “a solution in search of a problem.”  And the committee brought in a python breeder to testify on the importance of this industry and the economic devastation that this new regulation would cause.

[sigh]

If somebody found a cure for cancer, Republicans would be against it.

Newt Gingrich’s “Work Ethic”

Make sure your irony meter is turned off when you read this; otherwise it’ll squawk loud enough to wake up your whole neighborhood.

Newt Gingrich has become famous as a no-nonsense hard-driving Boss from Hell who wants young children to become janitors so they’ll develop a strong work ethic.  And yet Newt Gingrich himself never worked during his own school years; not even in college.

It figures.  Just as a chickenhawk is willing to fight to the last drop of somebody else’s blood, Newt Gingrich’s “work ethic” only applies to other people.  And of course it’s the same with Gingrich’s “family values” rhetoric.  It comes in handy for whipping up the Biblehumps during a campaign speech; nevermind the fact that Gingrich himself has had more marriages than most Hollywood VIPs.

And yes Newt Gingrich is a chickenhawk in the literal sense.  While Gingrich was getting one college deferment after another, the Vietnam War was raging and the draft was grinding up and spitting out every person over eighteen who couldn’t buy his way out of it.  Apparently chickenhawks apply the same “preach it but don’t practice it” motto to everything; not just war.

Gingrich spent his college years asking and pleading for money from his father and step-mother, so he wouldn’t have to work.  And after he married his first wife — yes, the same wife he served with divorce papers while she was in the hospital receiving cancer treatments — it was HER income that put Gingrich all the way through the rest of his education; right up to his Ph.D.

In a final bit of sick irony, Newt Gingrich actually confirms the rightwing meme about welfare creating a nation of helpless incompetent parasites.  After all, Newt Gingrich lived on other people’s money for the first three decades of his life — and look what it did to him.

Judd McMillan: “Everyone Needs to Pass a Drug Test — Except Me”

State legislator Judd McMillan (R—Piss Fetish) introduced a bill in the Indiana legislature which would require all recipients of government aid to pass a drug test in order to qualify.  It’s not yet known whether Judd McMillan would be personally watching while each urine test is administered.

Anyway, the bill was modified by Rep. Ryan Dvorak.  Dvorak expanded the bill to include EVERYONE who receives money from the government.  And this new expanded wording includes Indiana legislators.

After his bill was modified, Judd “Golden Showers” McMillan promptly withdrew it.  Regarding McMillan’s blatant double standard, Ryan Dvorak said:

“After it passed, Rep. McMillan got pretty upset and pulled his bill. If anything, I think it points out some of the hypocrisy. If we’re going to impose standards on drug testing, then it should apply to everybody who receives government money.”

Amen.

Marco Rubio vs. Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio — the teabaggers’ Great Hispanic Hope.  Rightwing demagogues can spend four years bashing those swarthy immigrants who’ve ruined our country.  They can conjure up all sorts of ugly ethnic stereotypes to get their inbred audiences all fired up.  And then — Presto! — four years of race-baiting will be magically undone when Marco Rubio gets picked to be Mitt Romney’s running mate.

And now it turns out — there are TWO Marco Rubios.  There’s Marco Rubio the tight-fisted fiscal conservative.  He’s watching out for YOUR tax dollars.  Social Security and Medicare have created a nation of dependent helpless parasites, and Marco Rubio will stand up for America and rescue her from these incentive-sapping nanny state bureaucrats.

And then there’s Marco Rubio the reckless irresponsible spendthrift.  His own mortgage is underwater.  And after being audited, he owed the IRS $16,000.  That’s because he had been “using his party credit card for personal use.”

How’s that “personal responsibility” thingy workin’ out for ya?

Online Database for Credit Card Customers’ Complaints

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been collecting people’s complaints about credit card companies, and the bureau is planning to set up a website where the public can view these complaints.  An informed consumer is less likely to be gouged and shat on.

Haven’t we had enough yet?  Gazillions of dollars in hidden fees, interest rates that double or triple without notice and for “reasons” that are flimsy to non-existent — most of these sleight-of-hand ripoffs would be eliminated through the transparency of an online complaint database. 

Cockroaches scurry back into the nearest crack when somebody turns on the lights.  And that’s exactly what sleazy bankers will do when their bait-and-switch “Gotcha!” tactics are displayed in front of God and everyone.

Needless to say, banks and credit card companies are trying to block the CFPB from creating this database.  They don’t want anyone lifting up that rock and showing the public what those slippery creatures are doing underneath it.

If you would like the CFPB to create this online database of credit card customers‘ complaints, please sign this petition.

Low IQ + Wingnuttery = Bigotry

We already knew this, but now a new study has distilled it down to an equation.   Basically:  dumber-than-dirt child grows up (chronologically that is) and is attracted to conservative ideas.  The most appealing parts of conservatism — for dumbfucks — are resistance to change and the idea of a hierarchy.

After being mesmerized by these rightwing soundbites, Mr. or Ms. Bone-Stupid becomes part of the hierarchy, and — Presto!  “Hey, we got us a pecking order, and them dark-skinned folks is lower than me, huh huh huh uh uh uh.”

These findings came from a study at Brock University in Ontario, which was conducted by Gordon Hodson.  Among other things, the study found that people of limited intelligence generally have less contact with other ethnic groups.  Gordon Hodson said:

“This finding is consistent with recent research demonstrating that intergroup contact is mentally challenging and cognitively draining, and consistent with findings that contact reduces prejudice.”

He also said that solid unbending rightwing beliefs are appealing to those who have trouble grasping the world’s complexities:

“Socially conservative ideologies tend to offer structure and order.  Unfortunately, many of these features can also contribute to prejudice.”

Another psychologist, Brian Nosek — who was not involved in the study — said:

“They've pulled off the trifecta of controversial topics.  When one selects intelligence, political ideology and racism and looks at any of the relationships between those three variables, it's bound to upset somebody.”

Gee, ya think?  I’m guessing one of two things will happen:  This story will be suppressed and ignored, or the shit will hit the fan.

Global Crackdown on Contaminated Meat

The European Union, China and Taiwan — among other countries — have stopped importing tainted, chemical-laden meat from a certain backward country whose safety standards are lagging behind the rest of the world.  Yes, that’s us.

Ractopamine hydrochloride is a drug that’s fed to pigs and other livestock.  The FDA approved this drug thirteen years ago, but most other countries have banned it.  I guess it comes down to what a government’s priorities are:  public health or agri-business profits.

Ractopamine hydrochloride causes severe illness in the pigs, cattle and turkeys to whom it’s fed.  There’s also been speculation — nothing proven yet — that these same health hazards are passed on to the people who eat these animals.

In a related story, California recently passed a state law requiring the immediate euthanization of any livestock animals that were too sick to walk.  The law also prohibited the sale of these animals for meat.  But that law has been overturned by the Corporate Arm of the Republican Party (formerly known as the U.S. Supreme Court).

Since business lobbyists are always talking about free enterprise — the invisible hand of the marketplace — you’d think they would figure out the obvious:  In order to export their products, they need to be selling a product that other countries would like to buy.

Our bought-and-paid-for legislators certainly aren’t going to tell their agri-business pimps what to do.  If they want to sell meat made from animals that were too sick to even stand up, and from animals that were raised on a hazardous growth hormone — let the marketplace decide.

Except — well, the global marketplace HAS decided.  Being shrewd business people, Big Ag has probably figured out that they can export more of their products by adopting some basic safety standards on their own.  Right?

Nope.  U.S. trade officials are trying to armtwist other countries into importing our tainted products, health hazards and all.

Ah, free enterprise.

“An Economy That’s Built to Last”

YES!!!

President Obama delivered one Hell of a State of the Union speech tonight, and “an economy that’s built to last” was the best soundbite I’ve heard in eons.

Tonight’s speech was as rousing and as articulate as any speech I can remember.  If it’s true that President Obama is better at speaking and campaigning than he is at leading and standing up to Republicans, then the solution is to spend more time at the bully pulpit.  Take these issues directly to The People while Congress just sits there playing with themselves.

His speech had that perfect combination of being unifying, upbeat, reaching out to everybody — and being firm at the same time:

“The state of our union is getting stronger, and we've come too far to turn back now.  As long as I'm president, I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum. But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place.”

I forget who the commentators were after the SOTU speech, but they made the point that the more positive, upbeat, optimistic candidate usually wins the presidency.  Populism can be very infectious and unifying, but the speaker has to be careful not to sound too negative or resentful.  And then one of them described Obama’s speech as “optimistic populism.”

I like it.

And then, right on cue, Mitch Daniels delivered the Republican response.  In contrast to Obama’s hope and optimism, Mitch Daniels’ speech was basically:

“Boohoohooohooooooohooooooo” “Waaaaaaaahhhhhh” “It’s just awful” “We’re sinking!!!”

Way to go.  May the more positive optimistic party win the White House.

“Negroes Are Shiftless and Lazy”

by Newt Gingrich

And all they care about is food stamps.  More on that later…

First, the good news.  Asians.  These are the real go-getters, the people with the strongest work ethic and a sense of entrepreneurship.  And they’re good at math.

But they can’t drive.  And you know what they say about Japanese women, when they spread their — OOPS, uh, wrong venue.  Anyway…

Latinos — now there’s hope for at least some of these people.  Most of them just want to join gangs and hang out in the streets.  But some of them really do have that business sense, that entrepreneurial talent.  If only they weren’t so hot-tempered.  And each and every one of them carries a switchblade.

OK, back to the Negro.  Now I realize this may offend some of those politically-correct elitists in the liberal media, but come on, we all know this.  Let’s not kid ourselves.  Blacks, African-Americans, whatever you want to call them — see, I didn’t use the N-word — these people are just lazy.  They have no work ethic, and even if they did, they have no sense of entrepreneurship whatsoever.  But give them food stamps and a crack pipe and they’re happy as clams.

Or as a close friend of mine once said, the only three things they care about are loose shoes, a warm place to sleep and, uhh, damn it, I can’t remember what the third thing was.  But anyway, you know what I’m saying.

I know this is a little blunt, and I’ve probably lost the black and Latino vote.  But that doesn’t matter.  My friends at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and other “bill mills” have been grinding out dozens of assembly-line voter suppression laws — one for every red state.  So the voters whom I’ve alienated — they won’t be voting anyway.  So there.