2011: Gone in 100 Seconds

This was the year that was.

“Insane on the Campaign”

You can be horrified — mortified! — at the parade of wackjob sickfuck GOP candidates campaigning in Iowa.  Or you can kick back and laugh at the absurdity.  Flavor Flav is the campaign moderator for “Insane on the Campaign” (to the tune of Cypress Hill’s “Insane in the Membrane”).

Check it out.

Obama’s Recess “Dilemma”

Should President Obama use this brief end-of-the-year recess period to squeeze in as many recess appointments as humanly possible?  Does the Pope shit in the woods?

This article — Obama’s Recess Dilemma — warns of the political risks involved if Obama takes advantage of this recess period.

Risks?  Oh my God, now that I think about it, Congressional Republicans might not be nice to him any more.  Bitch McConnell and Jim DeMented might come right out and say that their top priority is to make Obama a one-term president.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce might say mean things about him and start raising money for his opponents.  The Koch Brothers might call him a “hardcore socialist.”

We certainly wouldn’t want this sort of thing to happen now, would we?

The Republicans have done everything they possibly could to derail Obama’s every move.  When there’s a roadblock — or in this case a huge mountain of shit in the middle of the road — you have to go around.  Take a detour.  Make those recess appointments!

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been basically unable to function since the agency was created — much to the joy of Wall Street lobbyists and their Republican prostitutes.  First, Republicans blocked Elizabeth Warren, who basically designed this agency, from heading it.  And they’ve also blocked Richard Cordray — Obama’s second choice — from heading the agency.  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was designed to PREVENT another repeat of the 2008 Wall Street meltdown, and there’s been nobody in charge of this agency since its creation.  This is entirely because of Republicans’ continued obstruction.  For God’s sake, use this recess period to appoint Richard Cordray.

The National Labor Relations Board is just about to lose its ability to function; again because of Republicans blocking every appointment.  The Board has five positions, but only three of these positions are filled.  And that third position, which was filled via recess appointment last year, is about to expire.  With only two people and three vacant positions, the Board will not have quorum.  Republicans think this is great; people who work for a living might think otherwise.  Again:  Recess Appointment.

I have no idea how many dozens, scores of high-ranking federal positions remain unfilled after years of Republicans blocking, holding and filibustering every appointment Obama tries to make.

That phrase again:  recess appointment.  Do it!

112th Congress: the Worst Congress EVER

And the fun is only half over.  This article gives eight reasons the 112th Congress is the most Godawful pitiful collection of oxygen-wasting whores EVER.

As the article says, they were designated the Worst Congress Ever last July, and they haven’t shown any improvement since then.  In October, the public gave Congress a 9% approval rating.  That’s 7 percentage points lower than BP’s approval rating at the height of the Gulf oil spill.

And how did the 112th Congress earn the title of Worst Congress Ever?

By ignoring the country’s most pressing problems so they could waste time and tax dollars with:  reading the entire Constitution on the House floor; and affirming “In God We Trust” as America’s national motto.  Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

They brought the country to its first credit downgrade by wallowing and dithering and stalling and bickering over the debt ceiling until the last second — barely averting America’s first-ever credit default.

And how about that Super Committee?  When they failed to reach an agreement, they KNEW that this failure would trigger certain automatic budget cuts.  But instead of accepting their self-created consequences, they wailed “oohhh, you’re not really going to cut the defense budget, are you???  NOOO!!!”  Sort of like a high school student who willingly fails to turn in a term paper, and then sobs “Oh, you’re not really going to give me an F, are you???”

Oh, and they ruled that pizza is a vegetable.  Careful now.  About thirty years ago, somebody declared Ketchup to be a vegetable.  A few years later, that person himself became a vegetable.

Then again, if House Republicans all turned into vegetables — how could we tell?

Legalized Online Gambling: New Gold Mine for State Governments?

The Obama Administration has re-interpreted the Wire Act of 1961.  Under the previous interpretation of this law, ALL online gambling has been prohibited, period.  With the Justice Department’s new interpretation, the Wire Act only applies to bets on sporting events or contests.  Everything else — lottery tickets, Internet poker, etc. — is now up to each individual state.

I. Nelson Rose, a gaming law expert, said:

“The United States Department of Justice has given the online gaming community a big, big present” and that the Justice Department’s new interpretation will eliminate “almost every federal anti-gambling law that could apply to gaming that is legal under state laws.”

Theoretically, state governments will be able to bring in another huge source of revenue by legalizing Internet poker or creating online lotteries.

Think it’ll work this way?

Merry Christmas from Around the World

¡Feliz Navidad

Joyeux Noël

Frohe Weihnachten

Gëzuar Krishtlindjet

Շնորհավոր Սուրբ Ծնունդ:

Весела Коледа

Glædelig jul

Häid jõule

메리 크리스마스

Maligayang Pasko

Nadolig Llawen

メリークリスマス

मेरी क्रिसमस

Happy Festivus

President Obama’s Signature Failure in Iraq

by Mitt Romney

President Barack Obama — by pulling out of Iraq, by playing cut and run — is guilty of Epic Failure.  Signature Failure.  Songbird McCain was absolutely right:  President Obama deserves nothing but “scorn and disdain” for pulling American soldiers out of Iraq.

Now, full disclosure:  I come from a wealthy family.  Very very wealthy.  I’ve had an extremely sheltered pampered life.  I wouldn’t know a military uniform if it came up and bit me on the you know what.  OK, anyway…

When we were busy fighting in Iraq and still looking for those Weapons of Mass Destruction, we were also building a new American Embassy in Iraq.  And this new embassy was going to be the largest embassy in the world.  Now, if we were planning to just pull out of Iraq after a brief eight-year skirmish, then why in the H-E double hockey sticks did we spend all that money building the largest embassy in the world?  This is the exact kind of financial shortsightedness that a Mitt Romney Administration will NOT tolerate.

And another thing.  I know failure when I see it.  I bought, castrated and sold a lot of companies during my distinguished career with Bain Capital and other private equity firms.  Every time I had to fire an employee — and trust me, I’ve fired jillions of them — I tried to sugarcoat it.  You know:  “Your position has been eliminated.”  “Your job has been outsourced.”  “This isn’t your fault; I purposely ran this company into the ground so I could sell it at an obscene profit.”  But now that I’m moving onward and upward, I’m going to be totally blunt.  Each and every one of those workers I fired was a signature failure.  A total loser.

When I become Commander-in-Chief of the United States of America, the motto of the Mitt Romney Administration will be:  Failure is NOT an option!  America is the Greatest Country In The World!  America is unique in all the world.  Exceptional!  Nobody in my administration will ever EVER apologize for America.

Any country that looks cross-eyed at America, or says anything even slightly disrespectful — we will Invade that country.  No, we won’t just invade.  We will OCCUPY that country FOREVER.   And in each one of these American-occupied countries, America will build the world’s largest embassy; bigger than the “world’s largest embassy” record-holder before it.  And right now, that list of countries includes — but is not limited to — Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela…and ANY other country that even THINKS about questioning America’s Exceptionalism.

Come on now, American People.  The last of the “not Mitt Romney” flavors of the month have crashed and burned.  You’re stuck with me.  I’m much too bland and sterile to ever ever have any scandals that would embarrass America.  And again, I will never apologize for America.  And any time the Mitt Romney Administration invades another country — America will be there for the long haul.

Tax-Exempt Status for Churches Engaging in Political Activity

Let’s hope this twisted sickfuck bill goes down in flames.  Rep. Walter B. Jones (R—Taliban) has introduced a bill that would allow churches to endorse or oppose political candidates and still keep their tax-exempt status.

HR 3600, if passed, would repeal the Johnson Amendment to the Internal Revenue Code.  This amendment, named after then-Senator Lyndon Johnson, goes back to 1954.  It prohibits churches from campaigning for or against any political candidate.

This is at least the third time this same Biblehump has introduced this same bill in the House.  In 2002 Jones’ bill got defeated.  In 2007 it never made it out of the House Ways and Means Committee.  Let’s hope the third time WON’T be the charm.

Emily Krueger of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State said:

“Religious politicking is a flat-out bad idea for a number of reasons.  Making this change would dramatically impact our campaign finance system.  Houses of worship are tax exempt because they are supposed to be charitable, not political. For this reason, contributions made to them are tax deductible while political donations are not…The bill has failed time and time again as it surely will this time around, and yet Rep. Jones refuses to quit.”

How does that old expression go again, something about doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting a different result.

Democracy Restoration Act

Senator Ben Cardin (D—Maryland) has introduced the Democracy Restoration Act.  This law, if passed, will restore full voting rights to all ex-convicts after they’ve served their sentences.

The bill is being co-sponsored by Senators Richard Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse.  Sen. Ben Cardin said:

“If we truly want to break the cycle of recidivism, we need to reintegrate former prisoners back into society. When prisoners are released, they are expected to obey the law, get a job, and pay taxes as they are rehabilitated and reintegrated into their community.  With these responsibilities and obligations of citizenship should also come the rights of citizenship, including the right to vote.”

Makes sense to me.

Merry Christmas from John Boehner

To the large corporations, PACs and wealthy individuals who continue to purchase our congressional seats for us:  Merry Christmas.  Hallelujah!  Jesus loves you!

So far we’ve held off any and all attempts by Democrats to raise your taxes.  All we have to do is keep convincing tens of millions of gullible voters that you folks are the “job creators,” and that the teeniest little tax increase will jeopardize the economy.  And these dumbfucks keep falling for it hook line and sinker.  Hee hee hee.

Remember now, we’re always in campaign mode — 24/7/365.  So keep those bribes, oops, campaign contributions pouring in, and we’ll continue to bend over at your every command.

To the rest of you — the 160 million lowly working-class types who keep whimpering about “Waaaahhh, what about a tax cut for US???” — don’t come crying to me.  (That’s my department.)  You peons don’t have enough political influence for us to care whether you get a tax cut or even whether you get to keep your homes or not.  The banks own us; you don’t.  And if the economy starts faltering again because you didn’t get your tax cut and weren’t able to stimulate the economy, that’s Barack Hussein Obama’s problem.  Our multi-billion-dollar PR department will convince you dummies that the economic slowdown is Obama’s fault and not ours.  Works every time.

And furthermore:  This is America, the land of opportunity, personal initiative and individual responsibility.  Pull your whiny asses up by your bootstraps, work harder, earn more money, and if you play your cards right, you’ll have a little extra money left over that you can contribute to our re-election campaigns.  Then — and only then — will we care about you.

Got it???


I’m John Boehner and I — Boy!  Another triple shot of Johnny Walker!  Now! — and I [hic] approved this message.

You Are What You Google

This article shows us what we Googled in 2011.  This past year’s top searches included Rebecca Black, Ryan Dunn, Casey Anthony, Battlefield 3, Adele, Steve Jobs and iPad2.

As one person in the article said:  “If this is the spirit of our time, then we are living in a sad time.  Google is showing us that we're, collectively, awful people.”  Well, at least we know why the mainstream “news” has so much celebrity fluff and so little news.

Here’s a link to Google’s Zeitgeist 2011:  How the world searched.

In other news:  A pro-adultery website has endorsed Newt Gingrich for President.  Ashley Madison, whose motto is “Life is short, have an affair” — has come out behind Gingrich.

And now this billboard adorns a highway in Pennsylvania.

Meet the REAL Job Creators

By now everyone whose IQ is higher than his/her shoe size has already seen through the Republican bullshit about “the job creators.”  In the GOP fantasy world, the wealthiest one percent of the country — i.e. the “job creators” — are champing at the bit to start investing money and creating jobs, if only those damn Democrats would give them more tax breaks and get rid of those job-killing regulations that are strangling the economy.

These alleged “job creators” are already sitting on trillions of dollars.  If we lower their taxes even more, these “job creators” will have even more money to hide in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.  And this will create jobs, uh, how again?

Small business owners are the true job creators.  Since 1993, sixty-five percent of American jobs have been created by companies with fewer than 500 employees.

And right now, bank loans to small businesses have fallen to their lowest level in twelve years.  Think that might have something to do with our huge unemployment rate?

The money that these bailed-out banks are sitting on — remember where it came from?  It came from US, the taxpayers who rescued them three years ago when they gambled and lost everything they owned.  And this is how they’re paying us back.

To help counter the Republican Propaganda Machine, everyone should read and bookmark this Mother Jones article: Six myths that have to be killed for our economy to live.  The article is one small voice against Fox News and Wall Street.  But it’s a start.

Bert Schneider: 1933 — 2011

“Who???”  I hadn’t heard of him either until I saw his obituary a few days ago.  But his work lives on.  Bert Schneider brought us “The Monkees,” “Easy Rider,” “Five Easy Pieces,” “The Last Picture Show” and “Hearts and Minds.”

I never watched the Monkees’ TV show but I liked a lot of their songs (there, I’ve admitted it).  Quite a leap from TV pap to heavy hitters like Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and The Last Picture Show.

Heaviest of all was his Oscar-winning “Hearts and Minds” (1975) about the Vietnam War.  The movie was named after Lyndon Johnson’s speech where he said we need to capture the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people if we want to win the Vietnam War. Or maybe it was unofficially named after Charles Colson’s “grab them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow.”

It’s one of those movies where you’re glad you saw it because it’s so deep, but you’re reluctant to recommend it to anyone.  It’s too much of an emotional roller coaster.  The movie was mostly a series of short interviews and film clips, juxtaposed for maximum emotional impact.  A person is sitting there, giving an emotionless recital of all the bombing runs he made, all the people he’s killed.  Then the camera moves further away and you can see for the first time that he’s in a wheelchair.  Another scene shows a Vietnamese funeral.  Bereaved relatives are sobbing, stamping their feet, clawing at the casket.  The next scene is General Westmoreland saying “You know, Orientals don’t place the same high value on human life that we do here in the West.”

Stuff like that.

Sometimes you just want to tune that shit out and watch The Monkees.

“I Came Unarmed, This Time” — the Sequel

And sure enough, the next time he was ARMED.  Johnny got his gun.

Mark Meckler, founder of the Tea Party Patriots, was arrested at La Guardia International Airport.  He was caught trying to board a plane with a semi-automatic handgun and some ammunition.

At the next teabagger gathering, look for this new updated version of their famous sign:  “I came armed with only a semi-automatic handgun.  This time.”

Hollywood Remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Apparently Hollywood’s new version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo isn’t exactly setting the box office on fire.  The linked article has four theories about why audiences aren’t breaking down the door to see it.

My own completely uneducated guess isn’t included in their list:  Who needs the Hollywood remake when the original Swedish version was so good?  It had everything:  plot twists that keep getting deeper and more labyrinthine, real 3-dimensional characters that you care about, and some wicked fight scenes.

And most of all — for me anyway — the movie just felt like Sweden (I’ve never been there).  I’ve been to a lot of European countries but never Scandinavia; and I’ve always had a fascination for those countries.  And The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo really felt like an inside view of gritty day to day life in Stockholm.

Another movie I liked a lot, for the same reason, was Smilla’s Sense of Snow.  This was a Hollywood film (Gabriel Byrne and Julia Ormond) but as far as I know there was no original Danish version to compare it to.  It was a murder mystery that took place in Copenhagen.  No mermaid statues or Tivoli Gardens or gorgeous blondes with exotic accents; just the gritty underside of Copenhagen.

Anyway, here’s a link to the original Swedish version of all three films of Stieg Larsson’s  Millennium Trilogy:  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest.  They’re well worth renting if you haven’t already seen them.

I usually hate movies with subtitles, but all three of these movies were so riveting, it didn’t matter.

Florida Family Association

I don’t understand why there’s so much public fury at Lowe’s for pulling their TV ads after being threatened with a boycott.  Sure it was spineless for them to cower and bend over under pressure from a pitiful group of Biblehumping inbreds.  But most of the public’s anger should be directed at the aforementioned inbreds — the Florida Family Association.

The Florida Family Association is apparently not affiliated with the American Family Association, even though both groups love to handle snakes, and they both go into mass seizures at the mere mention of Muslims, gay rights and people who say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas.

As you know, the president of the Florida Family Association — David Caton — threatened to boycott Lowe’s because Lowe’s was one of the sponsors of the TLC program “All-American Muslim.”  Blasphemy!  A TV show that portrays Muslims as ordinary day-to-day people instead of crazed jihadists — the nerve!

I’ve never seen All-American Muslim, or any other “reality” TV show for that matter.  But I’ve seen a Canadian program — Little Mosque on the Prairie — a sitcom about the Muslim population in a small town in Saskatchewan.  It’s pretty funny — just day to day life in a small town where the people happen to be Muslims.  Presumably Canada doesn’t have any gangs of knuckle-dragging rednecks trying to get Little Mosque on the Prairie taken off the air.

Other TV shows condemned by the Florida Family Association include:  Family Guy, Nip/Tuck, The Girls Next Door and Modern Family.  Somebody has way too much time — and too many snakes — on his hands.

Mitt Romney Personally Responsible for Destroying Five Million Careers

When Mitt Romney was working for various private equity firms, he single-handedly eliminated five million jobs.  The elimination of these jobs has taken $14.7 billion out of the U.S. economy.

NOTE:  The above paragraph was not intended as a factual statement.  It was only an illustration of Mitt Romney’s newest variation on the Big Lie technique.  Instead of the usual endless repetition of “job-killing regulations” versus the “job creators,” Romney is using specific numbers to give his Big Lie some authority.

Romney told a New Hampshire audience:

“The rate of regulatory burden has increased four-fold since Obama has become president. Four times the amount of regulation coming out per year as in the past. And so businesses say, ‘gosh, I’m not sure I want to invest in America.’”

The facts — remember those quaint old things — are a bit different.  The Obama Administration has actually approved 4.7% fewer regulations than George W. Bush had approved at this same point in his administration.

Mitt Romney’s campaign staff even admits there’s no truth whatsoever to Romney’s statement.  But it’s an interesting variation on the Big Lie.  Usually the Big Lie consists of a few simple phrases that get repeated millions of times until they become the conventional wisdom.

Or you can put out a bunch of subtle implications and innuendos and let them seep into the public consciousness.  The biggest example of this was Bush-Cheney “implying” that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks.  They never came out and said it, but there were jillions of public statements that purposely blurred “al Qaeda Iraq Saddam bin Laden Hussein 9/11 Iraq 9/11...”  It worked like a charm, since millions of bone-stupid Fox viewers still believe Saddam Hussein helped mastermind the 9/11 attacks.  And at the same time, if someone called Bush-Cheney on their Big Lie, they could honestly say “What??? I never said that!!!”

Apparently the more variations there are on the Big Lie technique, the more effective each variation can be.  In fact it’s kind of fun.  Let’s take Newt Gingrich (please!).  You could put out a few subtle rumors and innuendos about Newt Gingrich, prostitutes and drugs.  Or you could Mitt Romnify it and say:  “Thirteen underage prostitutes were arrested during an orgy at Newt Gingrich’s mansion.  Police also seized $25,000 worth of cocaine.”

[ahem]  Again, the above paragraph is not making any accusations against Newt Gingrich.  It’s just another hypothetical example of the Big Lie Technique, as told by Mitt Romney.

Frank Luntz Has More Tricks Up His Sleeve

Everyone was amused last week when Frank Luntz told an audience that he was “scared to death” of Occupy Wall Street, and “we need to get our message out better,” etc.

But a slick political manipulator who’s “scared to death” is a wounded Grizzly Bear backed into a corner.  Getting complacent now would be analogous to Dick Cheney’s famous “the insurgency is on its last legs” speech, when we were just a few months into our 8-year quagmire in Iraq.

Goege Lakoff — the author of the linked article — has written extensively on the Far Right’s decades-long master plan.  He’s a linguistics professor, and he’s totally zeroed in on rightwing think tanks’ success in using language — shades of meanings, word associations, nuances — to gain a virtual stranglehold on the American psyche.  Republican masterminds — e..g. Frank Luntz — can use the most innocuous-sounding phrase or code word, and millions of dupes will snap to attention with the predictability of Pavlov’s dogs.

By now, Frank Luntz’ talking points — about Wall Street versus the Occupy movement — are out in the open, so they’ve lost their psychological impact.  Once you’ve seen how the magician pulls a rabbit out of his hat, you’re not going to be dazzled when he does the same trick again.  So now Frank Luntz has to go back to the drawing board.

In his “scared to death” speech, Luntz named several rightwing phrases that had “backfired” — “oh darn it, we can’t use these terms any more.”  Two of his examples were “capitalism” and “taxes.”  The purpose of his speech — at least in part — was to trick Democrats into thinking “all right, we’ll use these exact terms in our own speeches, since Frank Luntz is afraid of them.”

But it’s a trap.  Wall Street and its Republican prostitutes are framing this whole issue in terms of risk-taking hardworking taxpayers versus a bunch of parasites who want free stuff.  If Democrats use terms like “taxes,” “the rich” and “capitalism” in their speeches, they’ll be playing right into Luntz’ hands.

Words that Democrats and liberals SHOULD use include:  revenue (instead of taxes) and investing (instead of spending).  And Democrats need to play up — harder, louder, more often — the fact that large corporations exert a much greater control over our lives than any government agency.  And they need to keep talking relentlessly about corporate welfare, wasteful military spending and the absolute absurdity of the term “job creator.”

Anyway, this article has some excellent advice.  If you click on George Lakoff's name at the top of the article, you can access some of his other writings.  The Right has brainwashed millions of Americans using language techniques that George Orwell never remotely imagined.  Let George Lakoff show you how they've done it.  Know Your Enemy.  Forewarned is forearmed.  Etc.  This article concludes with:

“Progressives have magnificent stories of their own to tell. They need to be telling them nonstop.  Let's lure the right into using OUR frames in public discourse.”

Republican Audience Cheers Gingrich’s Child Labor Speech

What’s the difference between a Republican gathering and a tractor pull?  No, this isn’t a riddle.  I mean, is there any difference?  I once heard a standup comedian describe a tractor pull as “ten thousand people, six teeth.”

And this is what the Republican Party has turned into.  First we have a room full of Republicans shouting “YEAH!!!” when a debate moderator asked Ron Paul — and it was just a rhetorical question — if he thought an uninsured patient in an emergency room should be just left to die.  Not long afterward, a GOP audience sees a video of a Marine asking if the reinstatement of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell would mean he has to go back into the closet.  The audience full of yellow magnet chickenhawks booed and jeered wildly.

And last night Newt Gingrich was — for the umpteenth time — expounding on the joys of child labor.  Needless to say, the inbred audience broke into furious applause.  Gingrich said:

“If you take one half of the New York janitors, who are paid more than the teachers. An entry-level janitor gets paid twice as much as an entry-level teacher. You take half those janitors, you could give lots of poor kids a work experience in the cafeteria, in the school library, in the front office, in a lot of different things. I’ll stand by the idea young people ought to learn how to work.”

[cue the whooping and hollering]

Have we hit rock bottom yet, or is there still room to sink even further?  America has turned into a country that yells “Jump!” when a suicidal person is standing on a ledge.

Merry Christmas From Your Local Anti-Abortion Wackjobs

This holiday season, fetus-worshipers will be serenading family planning clinics with Christmas carols.  And these aren’t your father’s Christmas carols.

The snake-handlers have named their Bible-humping orgy “Empty Manger Christmas Caroling,” referring to all the empty mangers that have been created by abortion.

If you’d like to be serenaded this holiday season — or if you’d like to tell these Salem Witch Hunters what you think of them — here is the

Pro Life Action League’s caroling schedule.

Some of these Empty Manger Christmas Carol protests will be held in Wisconsin.  Uh oh, didn’t those people get the news?  Scott Walker and his minions have passed a sweeping new anti-protest law.  For any protest event, the organizers will have to pay for a permit, and they’ll need to pay additional fees to cover any possible police overtime.  Surely this new law applies to ALL demonstrations and not just anti-Walker protests.  Right???

And while we’re on the subject of abortion, a scientific study has debunked one of the “pro-life” movement’s favorite smokescreens:  Women who have had an abortion do NOT have an increased risk of mental illness.

Not that these fetus-humpers give a flying fuck about women who have had abortions, or about anyone who’s already been born.  But their phony “oh, we’re only concerned about YOU” soundbites were a clever diverting tactic.  And now they’ll have to come up with a new one.

Ron Paul: “Bush Administration Gleeful After 9/11 Attacks”

You’ve gotta love this guy.  He blurts out exactly what he’s thinking, fuck what anybody thinks.  Ron Paul is by far the most outspoken presidential candidate since Barry Goldwater; maybe even more so.  Goldwater got trounced in 1964, and Ron Paul doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in Hell of ever making it to the White House either.

If you want to get elected president, you have to kiss ass.  Pander.  You have to flipflop on your positions and constantly “clarify” your earlier statements because somebody somewhere got offended.

Homey don’t play that.

Teabaggers pretend to be Libertarians, and at the same time they hate Ron Paul because he’s a Libertarian.  (It’s a wingtard thing.)  Yesterday he gave a speech at the Iowa State campus in Ames:

“Think of what happened after 9/11, the minute before there was any assessment, there was glee in the administration because now we can invade Iraq, and so the war drums beat.  That’s exactly what they’re doing now with Iran.”

Referring to warmongering chickenhawks, Paul said:

“I think extremists have taken over.  They’re the ones that run the foreign policy and that convinced us as a country to go along with all these wars.”

This past September 12th, Ron Paul got booed by a gang of teatards when he said:

“Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda have been explicit, and they wrote and said that we attacked because you had bases on our holy lands in Saudi Arabia, you do not give Palestinians a fair treatment.  I didn’t say that, I’m just trying to get you to understand what the motive was behind the bombings…America is you and I. We didn’t cause it. The average American didn’t cause it.  But if you have a flawed policy, it may influence it.”

You go Ron.

I could never vote for a Libertarian, but it sure is refreshing to have a presidential candidate who blurts out exactly what he’s thinking.  No wonder the media ignores him.

Wall Street’s Prostitutes Are Very Well Paid

Very VERY well paid.  Forty-five of Wall Street’s most highly-paid call girls (formerly known as Republican senators) staged their 927th filibuster today.  Acting on direct orders from their Wall Street owners, these forty-five prostitutes blocked Richard Cordray — former Attorney General of Ohio — from being appointed to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Believe it or not, there were actually two Republicans who DIDN’T march in lockstep: Olympia Snowe — who voted present — and Scott Brown, who actually voted with the Democrats.

And just how highly paid are these Wall Street hookers (hereafter referred to as the Skanky Forty-Five)?

The 45 members of the Skank Brigade have received over $6.5 million from the financial industry during 2011.  Throughout their entire leg-spreading careers, these same whores have received over $125 million.

Who would’ve guessed being a prostitute could be so lucrative.  Sure it’s a humiliating way to make a living.  Do these people talk about their work day when they get home to their families?  Do their kids ask:  “Daddy, who did you spread your legs for today?”  “Daddy, you’re walking so slow, and you’re walking in that funny wide stance again.  What happened?”

These people must have ZERO sense of pride or self-worth.  But the pay is fantastic.

Obama Promises to Veto Keystone XL Poison Pill

As you know, President Obama has postponed his decision to approve or disapprove the Keystone XL pipeline until after the 2012 election.  In retaliation, Congress introduced a bill to take away the president’s authority to make the Keystone XL decision, and transfer that authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Last week, Rep. Lee Terry (R—Inbred) threatened to attach this bill to the payroll tax holiday package that’s slo-o-o-owly wending its way through Congress.

And now Obama has pledged to veto the Republicans’ poison-pill attempt to ram the Keystone XL pipeline up America’s butt.  Obama said:

“Any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut I will reject.  If the payroll tax cut  is attached to a whole bunch of extraneous issues, then it’s not something that I’m going to accept.”

You go Guy.  Keep standing up to the Republican sleazebags.

Obama Promotes Global Homosexual Agenda!!!

President Obama has sent a memo to the State Department which included the following:

“I am deeply concerned by the violence and discrimination targeting LGBT persons around the world.  Whether it is passing laws that criminalize LGBT status, beating citizens simply for joining peaceful LGBT pride celebrations, or killing men, women, and children for their perceived sexual orientation.”

Blasphemy!

Predictably, the Biblehumping inbreds have gone into overdrive.

Rick Perry blubbered about “promoting special rights for gays in foreign countries” and called Obama’s message “a war on traditional American values” and a “war with people of faith.”  And Rick Santorum, determined not to be out-Biblehumped by anyone, quickly jumped on the bandwagon.

Stay tuned.  There are sure to be a lot more hysterical shitbursts from the Snake-handling community.

If America’s Land Was Owned in the Same Proportion as America’s Wealth

Try to imagine life in the United States if the wealthiest ten percent of the population owned most of the land.  The largest national parks would probably be owned by one super wealthy family (or even just one person), with fences and “Keep Out!” signs everywhere.

If you’re part of the bottom 90%, your living quarters would barely give you enough room to stand — if you’re lucky.

To get an idea, check this out.

Is this where we’re heading?

Florida’s Corrupt Police Departments

A powerful public employees’ union, thousands of corrupt government bureaucrats who couldn’t get fired if they wanted to — you’d expect conservatives to jump on this story like flies on shit.

Florida’s police departments have a virtually non-existent disciplinary system for dealing with law-breaking officers.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune goes into more detail.

One Florida cop has been arrested three times, fired five times and has been investigated forty times by Internal Affairs.  A prison guard has been investigated repeatedly for forcing himself on prisoners, and he was arrested on suspicion of raping two teenage girls.  Another cop has had numerous violent incidents at his precinct office, and was seen beating up his girlfriend at a crowded nightclub.  Another one denied having sex with a 14-year-old girl but couldn’t explain why her DNA was on one of his sex toys.

All four of the above-mentioned officers still have their jobs.  And Florida has thousands of others just like them.  Over and over, they commit the kinds of crimes that would get a long prison sentence for most people.  And yet here they are, still “serving” the public.

Again, why aren’t conservatives outraged by this corrupt union full of crooked bureaucrats?  (Don’t worry, it was a rhetorical question.)

Community of Latin American and Caribbean States

Republicans — for the 897th time — are again ganging up on Obama for not thumping the Bible often enough and for apologizing for America instead of preaching to the world about American Exceptionalism.

And in a related story:  Thirty-three Latin American and Caribbean nations have formed the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).  The only countries excluded from this organization are the United States and Canada.

The group’s purpose is for member countries to unite against terrorism, drug cartels, price speculation and other global threats.  Latin American leaders say the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes the U.S., does too much bending over for Washington, D.C.  Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez concluded the group’s 2-day conference with:

“I don't think we're exaggerating if we call it a historic day.  United in our differences, we must demand respect.  No more interference, we've had enough.”

The organization claims that Argentina still has legitimate sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (I’m not touching that one).  And like most of Latin America — and most North Americans whose IQs are higher than their shoe sizes — they’re against America’s eternal trade embargo against Cuba.

Polluting Industries Winning the Message War on Climate Change

In 2007, 71% of Americans believed climate change was being caused — at least in part — by the burning of fossil fuels.  In 2009, only 51% held that belief.  And as of June 2011, only 44% of Americans still believe this.

According to the director of survey research for the Pew Research Center, “this is among the largest shifts over a short period of time seen in recent public opinion history.”

And these percentages aren’t the worst of it.  In addition, there’s a new religious zealotry and emotional intensity among the reactionary anti-science tools.  They don’t just scoff at the idea of climate change and then change the subject.  They believe, they know — they’ve  seen the light! — that climate change (a more accurate term than global warming) is just a trumped-up excuse for power-grabbing socialists to take over America and steal our property rights.  Disagreeing on this issue is the equivalent of telling a born again Christian that there’s no God.

This mass viewpoint shift — and the culture war intensity — didn’t just “happen.”  It’s been meticulously orchestrated and heavily funded.  It’s a perfect storm of wealthy industrialists‘ massive funding, rightwing think tanks cranking out their “message” 24/7/65, and millions of gullible inbreds who keep falling for it hook line and sinker.

Two examples of these think tanks are the Heartland Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.  In the linked article, Naomi Klein describes the Heartland Institute’s Sixth International Conference on Climate Change as “the premier gathering for those dedicated to denying the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is warming the planet.”

At this conference, a member of the Competitive Enterprise Institute gave a speech with the obligatory references to Saul Alinsky and the terrifying agenda of international socialists disguised as environmentalists:

“You can believe this is about the climate…but it’s not a reasonable belief…No free society would do to itself what this agenda requires…. The first step to that is to remove these nagging freedoms that keep getting in the way.”

This conference was basically two days of instilling fear in the hearts of the gullible.  When Obama made a campaign promise to support locally owned biofuel refineries, he was actually carrying out a long-running Maoist plot.  The editor of ClimateDepot.com compared environmentalists to Aztec priests sacrificing people to appease their gods.  Speaker after speaker derided the whole notion of climate change as a Trojan Horse designed to destroy capitalism and replace it with a sinister eco-socialist police state.

Larry Bell, the author of Climate of Corruption, says climate change “has little to do with the state of the environment and much to do with shackling capitalism and transforming the American way of life in the interests of global wealth redistribution.”

Well, there you have it.  This is what we’re up against.  Environmentalists — meaning anybody who wants this planet to survive — need to get involved in this message war and start fighting back.

Four years ago, when most people were aware of the cause and effect between fossil fuel burning and climate change, it seemed like we could count on informed voters to unite and stave off the pending ecological nightmare.

Obviously we can’t.

Job Applicants: Please Provide Your ATM Password and All Bank Account Numbers

It hasn’t come to this yet, but at this rate — who knows what’s next?  At a police department in North Carolina, applicants for a clerical position are being asked to disclose all social media (e.g. Facebook) accounts AND their user name and password to these accounts.

WTF???  This has to be a new low.  And how much lower can it go from here?

Is this even legal?  It’s easy to just shrug it off with “so, don’t apply for a job there.”  But there are millions of people who are desperate, frantic to find a job, any job.  And they’d probably jump through whatever hoops a potential employer tells them to jump through.

If these Orwellian Kafkaesque practices aren’t against the law, they should be.

Brian Hayes — the Quitter

Move over Sarah Palin.  There’s a new Quitter in town — Brian Hayes.

Brian Hayes is the only Republican member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  Hayes disagrees with the other two members of the NLRB — both Democrats — over an NLRB ruling on labor unions.

Most grownups are able to withstand the heartbreak of having their co-workers disagree with them.  But Brian Hayes is threatening to resign his position on the NLRB.  This would deny the Board a quorum, thereby bringing the National Labor Relations Board to a grinding halt.

The NLRB is supposed to have five members, but thanks to a giant shit pile in the middle of the road — i.e. Congressional Republicans obstructing and blocking Obama’s every nominee to every position — the NLRB has two longstanding unfilled vacancies.  So now if one member quits, the entire Board grinds to a halt.

Brian Hayes hasn’t quit his position yet, as of this writing.  Hopefully this won’t become a trend:  quit your job and bring an entire government board screeching to a halt.  If Hayes does quit, what will he put on his next job application under “reason for leaving your prior employer.”

A spokesperson for the Service Employees International Union said:

“We are shocked by the idea that a partisan difference would shut down the workings of a federal agency.”

Brian Hayes wrote a letter to his family, discussing the agonizing decision he’s facing.  A portion of the letter was leaked to the press:

“Mommy:  I can’t take this any more.  It’s too haaard.  It’s tough out here in the cold cruel world.  People are mean to me.  Can I come home?  I want to move back into my old room again, just like old times, and just be me again.  Pleeeease?  I‘m sorry about that time when you walked in on me while I was xxxx xxx xxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxx xxxxxxxx and I promise I won’t do it again.”