FCC Cracks Down on Anonymous Campaign Donors

Congress, the Supreme Court and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) can’t or won’t do anything about the anonymous campaign donors who keep stealing elections.  But the FCC has finally come to the rescue.

Not all secret campaign donors will be exposed, but the FCC has put a major dent in the problem.  Local TV affiliates of the major networks will be required to publicize, online, some basic information about the political ads they broadcast.  With just a few clicks you’ll be able to find out who paid for each political ad and how much they paid.

This FCC ruling will cover about sixty percent of the political TV ads we’ll be getting swamped with.  It’s a start anyway.

For the other forty percent of TV stations that aren’t covered by this ruling, the information is available but you have to go to the physical location of that station and request a paper copy of the information you want.  Aw come on, you’ve got plenty of time to do that, right?

The FCC vote was 2 to 1 in favor of this ruling.  Needless to say, the one Republican commissioner was the dissenting vote.  It also goes without saying that the broadcast industry is having a mass pantytwist over this new rule.

You know the drill:  too much paperwork, too cumbersome, too much government intrusion, yada yada...

A watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, had been urging the FCC to make this ruling.  A spokesperson said:

“With so much secret political spending by shadowy outside groups flooding our airwaves, it is more important than ever that we have some information regarding the identities of those who are trying to influence our votes.  Like so many things in Washington these days, the decision to make these allegedly publicly available documents online seems like a no-brainer.”

It most definitely is a no-brainer.  Whatever anyone thinks about campaign finance laws, the public has a right to know who it is that’s purchasing the electoral process right out from under us.  And now, thanks to the FCC’s ruling, we can finally lift up that rock and get a good look at the slimy slippery vermin that have been squiggling underneath it.

Thank you FCC; or at least two out of the three of you.

Obama’s Takeover of Veterans’ Education

It looks like the Rightwing Noise Machine has another “Government Takeover!” soundbite for getting the inbreds all fired up.  President Obama has issued an executive order to start cracking down on diploma mills that target soldiers and veterans.

The fact that it was done by executive order instead of through Congress — that in itself is enough to get the Right screaming.  What else could he have done?  That giant 435-member whorehouse formerly known as Congress certainly wasn’t gonna do anything on behalf of soldiers or veterans.  I mean, come on, when was the last time a soldier wrote a 7-figure campaign contribution to a congressman?

There’s been a growing number of for-profit colleges and technical schools that have been offering worthless diplomas.  Soldiers and veterans and their families are their main targets.  For example, there’s a website called GIbill.com which has absolutely nothing to do with the G.I. Bill.  The website’s purpose is to steer visitors to a list of for-profit schools.

Part of Obama’s plan is to trademark the term “GI Bill” so that sleazy operators can’t use the term just to ensnare veterans.

Obama talked about this in a speech at Fort Stewart, Georgia.  He said these diploma mills “don’t care about you.  They care about your cash.”

He referred to the “9/11 generation” and said America would fight for soldiers and veterans just as they had fought for their country.  He was joined by Michelle Obama and Holly Petraeus (yes of course it’s his wife; how many Petraeus’ do you know?)

Obama’s executive order also includes a new system called Know Before You Owe.  This will enable veterans to calculate — with pinpoint accuracy — the ACTUAL cost of a school’s tuition and fees.  Schools can join this program voluntarily this year.  Next year it’ll be mandatory.

A veterans’ group called Student Veterans of America was grateful for Obama’s executive order, saying this would help stop “deceptive and misleading practices.”

The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, a lobbying group for diploma mills — yes of course they’ve got one — shed a few crocodile tears over the fact that Obama “decided to bypass the Congress” with an executive order.

Mitt Romney: “The Soviet Union Will Bury Us!!!”

President Obama is willing to just lie down and play dead while Soviet tanks come rolling down Main Street.  Meanwhile, Mitt Romney is frantically — and probably in vain — trying to save us.

After all, Nikita Khrushchev came right out and said our grandchildren will live under Communism.  He said “we will bury you.”  Isn’t that a dire enough warning?  Is our pacifist Kenyan president going to do ANYTHING???

Our potential allies in Eastern Europe could also use some help from the Leader of the Free World.  Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, East Germany — they’re still being crushed behind the Iron Curtain while Obama does nothing.

While Romney is fixated on the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, he’s not quite as paranoid about other potential enemies.  When asked about Osama bin Laden, Romney replied  “Who???”

Marco Rubio — Chickenhawk

Most of the Republican White House contenders — with the exception of Ron Paul — have been clamoring for the U.S. to attack Iran.  Now that Marco Rubio is auditioning to be Mitt Romney’s running mate, he’s jumping on the bandwagon too.

Talk about birds of a feather.  Combine Mitt Romney’s and Marco Rubio’s military experience and whaddya get?  ZERO.  I’m guessing the total amount of physical labor ever performed by these two empty suits would also add up to zero.

(And Mitt Romney says he’ll build the Keystone Pipeline all by himself if he has to.  ROTFLMAO.  “Oohhh, Ann, I had the most awful day at work.  I sprained my finger, tore my sleeve, and look, I got mud all over my $1,200 shoes.”  But I digress…)

Marco Rubio said today that the United States must “not stand on the sidelines” in the tensions between Iran and Israel:

“Our preferred option since the US became a global leader has been to work with others to achieve our goals.  But America has acted unilaterally in the past — and I believe it should continue to do so in the future — when necessity requires.”

“When necessity requires” — isn’t that a redundancy?

He added:

“The goal of preventing a dominant Iran is so important that every regional policy we adopt should be crafted with that overriding goal in mind.  We should also be preparing our allies, and the world, for the reality that unfortunately, if all else fails, preventing a nuclear Iran may, tragically, require a military solution.”

Why yes, it is just a tad “tragic” when other people’s sons and daughters get torn to shreds in an unnecessary war.

Marco Rubio:  either 1) call your recruiter ASAP, or 2) Shut The Fuck Up.

Set Fatal Booby Trap, Get Your Wrist Slapped

America’s totally lopsided ideas of crime and punishment have been ranted about for decades.  Smoke marijuana, go to prison for thirty years.  Swindle millions of people out of their homes and life savings, get a larger bonus next year.  Etc.

But this is the last straw.  In Utah, two neckdrooling inbreds were arrested for setting potentially fatal booby traps along a heavily-used public trail.  They were arrested, charged with a misdemeanor and released.

WTF?!?!?!?

Benjamin Steven Rutkowski, 19, of Orem, Utah and Kai Matthew Christensen, 21, of Provo were arrested, charged with reckless endangerment and released on bail.  Reckless endangerment???  Skateboarding too fast on a crowded sidewalk — that’s “reckless endangerment.”  Setting fatal booby traps which, by a roll of the dice, didn’t snare or kill anybody — that’s pre-meditated.  Throw the key away.

These traps are straight out of those Grade Z movies we’ve all seen.  Step on a hidden wire and a twenty-pound spiked boulder smashes into your head.  Step on a different wire and you fall onto a bed of sharp wooden stakes.

But this was in real life.  The two knuckledraggers claimed their traps were only targeted at wildlife (which should be illegal but isn’t).  A local sheriff said:

“This is a shelter put together by people, visited by people — anything that would be impacted by their device would have to be human.  It took some time to build these traps. They took rope, heavy-duty fishing line, and they intended what the traps were going to do…Who goes up this trail thinking, ‘I'm going to have to look out for booby traps?’  A kid could say, 'Oh cool, a shelter,' and run right across the trip line.”

Benjamin Steven Rutkowski and Kai Matthew Christensen should get long prison sentences, spending every day of their pitiful lives being passed around from cell to cell like a peace pipe.  (Name that movie.)

Second choice:  the townspeople of Orem and Provo will communicate — very very clearly — exactly what they think of these two sickfucks.

Charles Colson: “Grab St. Peter by the Balls, and He’ll Let You Into Heaven”

Charles Colson, one of Richard Nixon’s dirty tricksters, has passed away at the age of eighty.  Next to Gordon Liddy, Charles Colson was probably the most colorful of Nixon’s henchmen.

Two of his more memorable quotes are:  “I’d walk over my grandmother to get Richard Nixon re-elected” and “Grab them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow.”

Colson’s main claim to fame was his involvement in Nixon’s effort to smear Daniel Ellsberg.  Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office was burglarized in an attempt to find damaging information that would discredit Ellsberg and, more importantly, get even with him for writing The Pentagon Papers.

Colson pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and got a seven month prison sentence.  Before his sentencing, he became a born again Christian.  Whether or not that was just a gimmick to get a lighter sentence — as everyone thought — Charles Colson remained active in evangelical activities up until his death.

He founded the Prison Fellowship Ministries in 1976 to help prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families.  In addition to preaching, Colson tried to reduce prison overpopulation and pushed for alternative penalties — i.e. community service instead of prison — for nonviolent crimes.

He graduated from Brown University, served as a captain in the Marine Corps and received a doctorate from George Washington University.

The National Center for Public Policy Research — the New ALEC

Cut off the ALEC head of the Hydra monster and a new head pops up.  The National Center for Public Policy Research will be carrying on with ALEC’s tireless crusade of making sure low income people, swarthy minorities and the elderly will NOT be allowed to vote.

Just as a cockroach will scamper away when the lights are turned on, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has discontinued its ongoing campaign to disenfranchise millions of voters.  After too much publicity and scrutiny, ALEC has scurried back into the woodwork.  For now.

But not to fear.  The ultra-rightwing National Center for Public Policy Research has formed a Voter Identification Task Force to continue ALEC’s dedicated efforts toward “promoting measures to enhance integrity in voting.”

Again, that’s “promoting measures to enhance integrity in voting.”  And that takes care of our Euphemism of the Week contest.  No more calls, we have a winner!

The Grand Wizard of the National Center for Public Policy Research, David Almasi, said:

“The fact that ALEC is no longer going to be offering the services it did got us interested in doing something.  We obviously can’t do everything ALEC did, but we can do something to make sure the issue doesn’t go away.”

Vice Grand Wizard Amy Ridenour said:

“We’re putting the left on notice: you take out a conservative program operating in one area, we’ll kick it up a notch somewhere else.  You will not win. We outnumber you and we outthink you, and when you kick up a fuss you inspire us to victory.  Corporate CEOs who cower in the face of liberal boycott threats need to understand that the left never gives up.  If these corporations do not reverse course and immediately grow enough of a backbone to say no when the left tells them what to do, conservatives may as well consider them part of the organized left. It doesn’t matter if corporate executives have free-market sentiments hidden deep inside them if they continually surrender to the left’s Trotskyite strategy of making relentless demand after demand in public.”

All righty then.  For what it’s worth, the National Center for Public Policy Research was closely tied to the Jack Abramoff / Tom DeLay scandals.  So according to these nimrods’ “reasoning,” it’s perfectly OK when our government is for sale to the highest bidder — as long as we can keep them Nigras and po’ people out of the voting booth.

Obama Holds Republican Welchers to their Agreement

President Obama has drawn a line in the sand and dared Republican welchers (or is that a redundancy?) to cross it.

You’ll remember last summer’s knock-down-drag-out battle over the debt ceiling.  Republicans almost pushed the United States into bankruptcy, and then grudgingly signed a last-minute budget agreement so the country would remain solvent.

Since then, Republicans have been trying to squirm out of the deal.  The agreement called for a specific level of reductions in domestic and “defense” spending.  And now Republicans are trying to increase “defense” spending while making even deeper cuts in domestic spending.

You signed an agreement, Assholes.

They’re like a sneaky high school student.  “The principal warned me that I’d get kicked out of school for a week if I got in any more fights, and I just started another fight.  They’re not really gonna kick me out, are they?”

“I didn’t do that term paper you assigned, and I haven’t handed in a single homework assignment all semester.  You aren’t gonna give me an F, are you?”

It’s one thing when an adolescent tries to weasel out of a deal.  But these Congressional Republicans are grown-ups — chronologically anyway.

And now the White House has warned that the government will be shut down in September if Republicans don’t man up and hold up their end of last summer’s agreement.  A White House spokesman said:

“Until the House of Representatives indicates that it will abide by last summer’s agreement, the President will not be able to sign any appropriations bills.”

Will Republicans have the ‘nads to shut down the government right during the throes of a red-hot presidential election?

EXCLUSIVE: Previously Unreleased “Hot Mic” Comments from Mitt Romney

The media has jumped all over Mitt and Ann Romney’s “hot mic” conversation that was picked up by reporters.  By now we all know about Mitt Romney’s secret plan to eliminate the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  And it’s common knowledge that Ann Romney — while pretending to be just devastated when Hilary Rosen accused her of having never worked a day in her life — was secretly gloating that Hilary Rosen’s comment was an early birthday present.

But that hot mic conversation had a lot more comments, which — until now — have not been released to the public.  Below are some excerpts:

Mitt:  “I hope a lot more crazy dictators start saber-rattling, so I can do my tough guy routine.  It sure worked when I lashed out at Iran and North Korea.  Gosh, I wouldn’t know the first thing about mobilizing the troops or sending out an aircraft carrier to intimidate our enemy of the week.  But that doesn’t matter.  All I have to do is scrunch up my face and spit out some sort of drivel like ‘There will never be a nuclear Iran with President Romney in the White House,’ or whatever, and millions of dimwitted warmongers just fall all over me.  I’ve got them eating out of my hand.  I’m about as intimidating as a glass of milk, but they don’t know that, heh heh.”

Ann:  “Oh Mitt, Dahling, since you like to fire people so much, can you please do something about one of the maids?  I forget her name, but she’s in charge of the upstairs bathroom on the south wing.  She missed a spot in the bathtub, and the other night when we were entertaining the Roves, there was a smudge on the medicine cabinet mirror.  It was just so, [gasp] so gauche.  Such an embarrassment.  Won’t you be a love and take care of this?”

Mitt:  “Should I be worried about all these flipflops I keep doing, you know, and everybody calling me Etch-A-Sketch and stuff like that?  I keep trying not to say anything specific, anything beyond a vague slogan.  If I say something specific, and then I change my mind, I’ll have another flipflop on YouTube.  But in the meantime, I have hundreds of past flipflops that have already gone viral.  Can the Democrats actually use these contradictory statements of mine in their TV commercials?  Or is there some sort of law we could invoke to stop them from doing this?  Or maybe we could ask the Supreme Court to make some sort of emergency ruling.  Can we do this?”

Mitt:  “Also, we have to keep pumping the Mormon Church for more contributions.  I know they’ve already given me millions, but they’re good for a lot more than that.  Heck, they purchased the California election results for that Proposition Hate, I mean Eight.  Surely they can do the same thing for me, purchase the White House for me, can’t they?”

Michele Bachmann is Pro-CHOICE!!!

Oh.  My.  God.  She actually said it.  Hell has frozen over and a pig just flew past my window.

On Meet The Press, Michele Bachmann said:

“What we want is women to be able to make their own choices…We want women to make their own choices in healthcare. You see that’s the lie that happens under Obamacare. The President of the United States effectively becomes a health care dictator. Women don’t need anyone to tell them what to do on health care. We want women to have their own choices, their own money, that way they can make their own choices for the future of their own bodies.”

Apparently nobody on Meet The Press pointed out the screaming irony of her comments.  The president of the United States is a “health care dictator” because of the Affordable Care Act.  And yet Michele Bachmann has been constantly screaming to ban birth control and abortion — and she’s simultaneously talking about “women making their own choices.”

Do Michele Bachmann’s various personalities know about each other?

New PAC to Defeat Lamar Smith

A political action committee, the Alliance for Internet Freedom, is hoping to defeat Rep. Lamar Smith (R—Inbred) in the Texas Republican primary on May 29th.  This PAC is made up of IT professionals who don’t appreciate Smith’s sponsorship of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

As you probably remember, SOPA — which was defeated last January — would have basically allowed the government to shut down YOUR blog or website if somebody somewhere said they heard from a friend’s coworker’s roommate that you might have unknowingly linked your blog to another site that might possibly have violated somebody’s copyright.  Or something.

If this asshole came up with an abortional idea like the Stop Online Piracy Act, there’s sure to be more harebrained ideas where that came from.  Let’s hope he gets primaried.

A spokesman for the Alliance for Internet Freedom said:

“The Alliance hopes to give a voice to the techies, bloggers, and IT companies nationwide that we can band together and be just as strong as say the ACLU or NRA.  Since our formation we are working on registering political action committees in California, Ohio, Illinois, and Canada.”

In addition to the Alliance for Internet Freedom, there was already another PAC which was also formed specifically to get rid of Lamar Smith — Test PAC, which is made up of a group of Reddit users.

Believe it or not, the Stop Online Piracy Act isn’t even Lamar Smith’s worst idea.  Last year he sponsored the Drug Trafficking Safe Harbor Elimination Act of 2011.

(I wrote a post about it at the time.)

This law would make it a federal crime for an American citizen to do something in a foreign country which is LEGAL in that country, if the thing he/she is doing is illegal in the United States.  WTF???

Smoking marijuana in Amsterdam — Busted!  Purchasing a drug over the counter in a foreign country, if that same drug requires a prescription in the U.S. — to the slammer!

Lamar Smith has done enough damage already.  Primary the bastard.  Kill it before it multiplies.  (Figuratively.)

Six Years Ago Today, Freedom Died

April 12th, 2006 was the beginning of the end for America.  On that date, Mitt Romney —  the socialist governor of Massachusetts — staged a Government Takeover of the health care industry in Massachusetts.  For these past six years, meddling socialist bureaucrats have been barging in and inserting themselves between Massachusetts residents and their doctors.

Government Death Panels have been looming over our heads for the past several years, but we all need to remember:  These Death Panels got their start in Massachusetts six years ago today.

This is what we would expect from a simpering pinko like Mitt Romney.  But America’s betrayal runs much deeper.  We’ve found out that the Heritage Foundation — America’s last bastion of Freedom and Personal Responsibility — has stabbed us in the back.  The Heritage Foundation was actually in FAVOR of Mitt Romney’s coup d’état against the People of Massachusetts.

What?!?!?!?  If you love Freedom and hate Communism, you’ve just had the rug pulled out from under you.  Everything you know is wrong.

In a speech exactly six years ago, Mitt Romney said:

“Special thanks as well to the Heritage Foundation.  Two of its leading scholars are the ones who helped design and craft what we now call the Connector, which is the centerpiece of the insurance reform portion.”

NOOO!!!  Oh America, we hardly knew ye.

And those Communist vermin at the Heritage Foundation didn’t even have the balls to admit they were establishing Death Panels to control the people’s health care.  They had to hide behind flowery euphemisms like “patient-centered” and “consumer-based market.”

It’s COMMUNISM, you flag-burning bunch of pinkos!

And now, Heaven Forbid, Mitt “I Hate Freedom” Romney is running for President of the United States.  If you don’t want the rest of the country to turn into a giant festering Massachusetts, please vote for his opponent.

The Draining of the ALEC abscess

There’s still a lot of filth and disease festering in there, but the boil has been lanced and the pus is starting to ooze out.   The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is being drained from several directions.

Some of ALEC’s largest contributors are leaving in droves.  Wendy’s is the latest company to withdraw from ALEC, following in the footsteps of Pepsi, Coca Cola, Intuit, Kraft Foods, McDonald’s and the Gates Foundation.

And now ALEC is lashing out at the “Coordinated Intimidation Campaign” by liberals against ALEC’s members.  An ALEC spokesman issued a public tantrum that basically said “I’m melting!”

A lot of these rats have deserted the sinking ALEC ship because of Color of Change.  This group has been targeting ALEC’s contributors because of the voter suppression laws and “stand your ground” laws which have been written by ALEC and dutifully transcribed by dimwitted state legislators.

And that’s not all:  ALEC is also catching it from the shareholders of some of their largest companies.  More and more shareholders are demanding that their companies disclose all contributions to ALEC and other tax-exempt lobbying organizations.

It’s a start.  But there’s still a whole lot of draining and lancing and cleansing to be done.

Lawsuit Against George Zimmerman’s Homeowners Association

If George Zimmerman can’t be prosecuted or even arrested for murdering Trayvon Martin, the next target might be the homeowners association that hired him.

George Zimmerman was officially listed as the neighborhood watch captain of The Retreat at Twin Lakes, the Florida gated community where he shot Trayvon Martin on February 26th.

In a newsletter to residents, the homeowners association instructed residents to first call the Sanford Police Department in case of trouble, and then “please contact our Captain, George Zimmerman, so he can be aware and help address the issue with other residents.”

In other words the homeowners association gave George Zimmerman the keys to the car — without checking to see if he’s had dozens of accidents, or if he even has a driver’s license — and he crashed it.  Totaled it.

A Florida real estate attorney said The Retreat at Twin Lakes is “stuck” if they get sued:

“So, if you’re going to send out a newsletter saying, `Hey, he is the captain. Whatever he says goes,’ you have now basically rented a free police officer for your neighborhood.  He certainly took on that role with the homeowners association, and it seems to me that they recognized that.”

George Zimmerman might be able to hide behind Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, but the homeowners association won’t be able to.  They made their bed, and now they might have to lie in it.

Monsanto Threatens Lawsuit Against Vermont

The Vermont legislature is considering a law requiring all genetically modified food to be clearly labeled so consumers will know what they’re buying.  The bill, H. 722, is called the Vermont Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act.

Monsanto is threatening to sue the state of Vermont if this law gets passed.

As far fetched as this sounds, Monsanto filed a similar lawsuit against Vermont in the 1990s — and won.  Vermont had passed a law requiring milk producers to label their products which contain bovine growth hormones.  After Monsanto successfully sued the state, Vermont had to modify the law to make it strictly voluntary.

Monsanto even tried to crack down on Ben and Jerry’s, because it said on the label that their ice cream was free of hormones.  Monsanto thought Ben and Jerry’s was implying that there might be something hazardous in consuming recombinant bovine growth hormone.  Preposterous!

Monsanto tried — unsuccessfully — to persuade several states to prevent Ben and Jerry’s from using these “hormone-free” labels.

California has a state initiative on the ballot that’s similar to Vermont’s proposed law.  If this initiative passes, will Monsanto sue California too?  Since California is the world’s eighth largest economy, they’d be a much tougher opponent than Vermont.

And if this initiative passes in California, other states might start passing similar laws.  We can hope.

Fuck Monsanto.

Who is Funding ALEC

As more and more people are learning, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a corporate front group which has been bribing dozens of state legislatures into legislating the corporate/Far Right agenda.  Basically, corporations are dictating to their secretaries — formerly known as “legislators” — which laws to pass.

Voter suppression laws, union-busting legislation, state governments’ “demands” that all federally-owned public lands be returned to the states — these assembly-line state laws were all bought and paid for by ALEC.

Pepsi and Coca Cola have canceled their affiliation with ALEC.  But they were just the tip of the iceberg.  You probably thought (as I did) that ALEC got its funding from just a few corporate monoliths — Exxon, Koch Industries, etc.

WRONG.

Check out the list at the end of this article.  You won’t believe how many companies are donating to ALEC.  It’s like all those science fiction movies were it’s not just a few people who have become drones — it’s everybody.  Or think of John Prine’s famous line, “and all your friends turn out to be insurance salesmen.”

BP (of course), several health insurance companies, telecom conglomerates, Amazon.com, FedEx and UPS, Kraft Foods, some of the largest drug manufacturers — the list is huge.

I’m not necessarily suggesting a boycott (then again…), but keep in mind that every time you purchase the products/services of one of these companies, you’re helping to pay for the Rightwng Agenda.

And a Hat Tip to the source from Think Progress who obtained this list.

If “Obamacare” Gets Overturned…

It’s pointless to speculate about the Supreme Court’s ruling and what it will mean, since we won’t know until June at the earliest.  But still:

Will the Affordable Care Act be upheld?  If it’s overturned, will that mean the end of the entire 2,000-page law or just the individual mandate?  If the mandate gets overturned but all of the other restrictions are upheld (that’s my guess), how will this affect the health insurance industry?

Will this be the demise of the private health insurance industry?  Will it pave the way for a Single Payer / Universal Coverage system?

A lot of conservatives are speculating — or hoping anyway — that if the individual mandate is overturned, the rest of the Affordable Care Act will collapse like a house of cards.  But that doesn’t make sense.  As far as I know, nobody is claiming that it’s “unconstitutional” to require HMOs to insure people with pre-existing conditions, or to prohibit HMOs from canceling their patients’ coverage after they’ve gotten sick.

My understanding is that the individual mandate — whether or not it’s unconstitutional — is the only issue before the Supreme Court.

If the individual mandate is overturned but all of the other restrictions are still in place, that will put the health insurance industry in an awkward position.  They’ll still be bound by all of the “Obamacare” regulations but without the billions of premium dollars guaranteed by the individual mandate.

But that has nothing to do with the Constitution or the judicial branch.  That’s for the legislative branch to decide.  (I think one of the Supreme Court justices was saying exactly that, but I can’t remember where I read it.)

Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how this shakes out.  How do you think the Supreme Court will rule, and what will be the result?

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Rears Its Head Again

The mainstream “media” never mentions the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).  But if you check out the non-mainstream news sites at all, you’re probably familiar with ALEC, a corporate front group funded by the Koch Brothers, Exxon Mobil and BP, among others.

You didn’t really think state lawmakers were actually designing their own legislation, did you?  Riiight.  That’s sooo last century.

Whenever a bunch of new cookie-cutter state laws are passed in lockstep, you can be pretty certain that these laws have been dictated by ALEC.  ALEC is the boss; the man behind the curtain.  Your state “legislator” is basically just a stenographer taking dictation.

Who dictated the wave of Voter ID laws rolling off the assembly line?  ALEC.

The numerous Stand Your Ground laws that are suddenly being scrutinized because of George Zimmerman’s murder of Trayvon Martin?  ALEC.

Union-busting legislation?  Ditto.

And now the latest instruction memo from ALEC:  the wave of new state laws “demanding” that the federal government return all federally-owned public lands back to the states.

So far Utah is the only state to pass this law.  But Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico and Montana will soon get with the program and jump on the bandwagon, as ordered.

Makes you wonder what these state “legislators” are getting paid for.  Secretaries don’t usually get a 7-figure salary, do they?

Trapperman.com — Getting Rid of Them Treehuggers One by One

Us folks here at Trapperman.com are gearing up to celebrate the one-year anniversary.  And you know which anniversary I’m talking about, don’t you.  It’s almost a year since them filthy wolves got taken off that commie Endangered Species list.  Once again, America is a Free Country where men can take to the woods with their loaded penises — er, ahem, guns — and start firing away at those nasty critters.

And you know what’s even more fun? Setting traps for them foul creatures and the trap don’t kill the critter right away and you get to stand there and watch the thing twist and suffer in agony.  Oh Lordy I’m gittin’ me a hard-on just thinkin’ about it.

Some of them animal rights treehuggin’ PETA sissies is givin’ us a hard time, especially that there animal-hugging group that calls itself Footloose Montana.  They been whining about one of our photos, a wolf dying real slow like in one of our traps, or somethin’.  They been complaining and trying to get us in trouble, so I sent them an e-mail.  This is what I done said:

“I would like to donate a gun to your childs head to make sure you can watch it die slowly so I can have my picture taken with it's bleeding dying screaming for mercy body.”

Yeah!  Did I tell ‘em good or what.  I’m a pretty mean sumbitch when I’m sittin’ here hiding behind my e-mail thingie.

If you hate animals and treehuggers as much as we do, you’re welcome to join us.  If you ain’t sure, you can check out these here pictures of some of us:

Here.

Here.

And here.

Us mountain men in the northwest are about the last Real Men left in this Godforsaken country.  And we aim to keep it that way.  This is The Lord’s Paradise.  Wild critters are only good for one thing — target practice.  And most of the people up here is White.

Yup, I did say “most.”  But we’re workin’ on it.

George Zimmerman’s Body Found — Apparent Suicide

George Zimmerman — the neighborhood watch captain who shot Trayvon Martin in cold blood — has been found dead, apparently the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot.  Authorities found the following crumpled up note lying near the corpse:

“I committed the perfect crime, and what did it get me?  I can’t live with this any more.  I was never worried about going to jail.  My buddies at the Sanford Police Department will keep covering for me.  And with my father’s connections from when he was a judge in Virginia — I’ll never be prosecuted for anything.

I’m probably the most famous person in America right now, and for all the wrong reasons.  My name and picture are all over the news, night after night.  Late night comedians and bloggers keep making fun of me and dragging me through the mud.

But the worst part of it is, I’ll never be a cop now.  And that was my dream.  I had it all planned out.  I’d start off as a neighborhood watch volunteer.  I’d be visible all the time, always out patrolling and glaring at everybody, calling 911 all the time.  It was getting where every time I called 911, the dispatcher would sigh and go ‘yes George, what is it this time?’  Cool, huh?  This job really rocks.  I figured I might rough up a few skinny teenagers, children, old people, intimidate everybody, show how tough I am.  And eventually the Sanford Police Department would be impressed and they’d hire me.

Sure I have a criminal record.  Assault, domestic violence, stuff like that.  Shit, all cops do that.  That wouldn’t have kept me off the force.  Nope, the reason I’ll never be a cop is because that scrawny 140-pound Trayvon Martin kicked my ass.  I’m twice his size.  How the fuck did that happen???  My nose still hurts, and now it’s crooked and I can’t get any girls.

And worst of all is the taunts and jokes I keep getting from my buddies down at the precinct.  ‘Don’t worry, Zimmie, we’ll keep you out of jail.  But we can’t protect you from those bad-ass 140-pound teenagers, heh heh.’

My dreams have been shattered, I’m the national laughingstock, Fuck You All.”

And a happy April Fools’ Day to you too.