NO, There are NOT “Two Sides” to the Government Shutdown Debate

WTF is up with this “liberal media” we keep hearing about?  There SHOULD be some media bias when they’re reporting on something as blatantly one-sided as the Republican Party taking 300 million hostages.  When one side is a bunch of cocksuckers and the other side is trying to act like grownups, the media should call it like it is.  They can put away their phony “objectivity” and simply refer to the government shutdown debate in terms of the cock-sucking douchebags versus the grownups.

It’s not “biased” to point out that one person is taller than the other, or that a Ferrari goes faster than an old VW van.  And there’s nothing slanted or opinionated about saying that one political party has a gun to the country’s head and the other party is trying to defuse the situation.

Enough of these “unbiased” headlines about “Finger-pointing from both sides” and “the two parties are blaming each other.”

If a would-be victim decided to fight back against a mugger, these “unbiased” reporters would say “Oh look, there’s a fight going on.”  “Now let’s be fair to both sides.  The mugger’s version of the story is _________________”

The Republican Party has become virtually disabled when it comes to winning elections or achieving their agenda through the legislative process.  They couldn’t stop the Affordable Care Act from becoming law, the Supreme Court has upheld it, and the party responsible for the Affordable Care Act trounced the GOP in the 2012 election.  And this trouncing took place in spite of the Far Right’s massive Block The Vote drive in so many swing states.  (Solution:  More voter suppression.)

The only tactic the Republican Party has left is to hold the entire country hostage.  Delay Obamacare or the global economy gets it.  In a few weeks, when the debt ceiling becomes the next hostage, it’ll be “approve the Keystone XL pipeline, delay Obamacare and suspend all EPA regulations or the country goes into freefall.”

Where does this shit end?  Why bother with this labyrinthine cumbersome legislative process at all?  It’s so much easier to just take hostages and say “Do this or the country gets it!”

After hostage-taking and blackmailing have become more commonplace and more accepted, we might all start getting in on the act; especially with local political issues.  “I have some remote-controlled explosive devices planted throughout the Civic Center.  As long as the city council votes the way I want, nobody will get hurt.”

And if you should try the above tactic, the media will be sure to tell YOUR side of the story.

Democrats are Threatening to Shut Down the Government!!!

Move over George Orwell.  The term “Orwellian” has just risen — or sunk — to a new level.  Senator Ted Cruz (R—HMO prostitute) and Congressman Louie Gohmert (R—Inbred) are trying to portray the GOP hostage-taking terrorists as the “rescuers,” the calm voice of restraint.

Ted Cruz is actually pretending he’s the one who’s “willing to compromise.”  Through a mouthful of HMO jism, Cruz mumbled:

“If Harry Reid forces a government shutdown, that will be a mistake. I hope he backs away from that ledge that he’s pushing us towards.”

Gohmert twanged:  “The fact is, we've compromised; they have not.  It's time to hold them accountable and not let them get away with shutting down the government and blaming other people when they are simply not doing their work.”

I don’t know which is more infuriating — the fact that these corporate prostitutes have the nerve to spew out such blatant “up is down, backward is forward” bullshit; or the fact that some people will be dumb enough to fall for it.

Here’s my compromise:  Originally I wanted to have Ted Cruz kidnapped, crucified and then set on fire just before he’s totally bled out.  But now I’ll be satisfied if somebody just breaks his legs and punches him in the throat.

This here “compromising” is kind of fun…

Bernie Sanders Lashes Out at Republican Terrorists

Senator Bernie Sanders gave an excellent speech on the Senate floor today.  Highlights include:

“But one thing is certain, you do not hold the American people hostage by threatening to shut down the government or for the first time in the history of our country not paying our bills and bringing this country and perhaps the entire world into a major financial crisis.  There was an election a year ago on this very issue — one of the major issues in the campaign — and the Republican candidate said, ‘Let’s defund Obamacare.’ He lost the election! Republicans lost seats in the Senate, they lost seats in the House! And that’s what democracy is about…What democracy is not about is a handful of members of the House of Representatives, extreme right-wing Republicans, saying, ‘If we do not get our way, we are prepared to punish tens of millions of Americans. Yeah, we lost the election. Yeah, we lost seats in the House and Senate. But we are prepared to bring this government down. We are prepared to cause, perhaps, a major global financial crisis unless we get our way!’”

And:

“Let us not tell men and women in the United States armed forces, who today are putting their lives on the line to defend us, that they’re not going to get paid. Let us not tell police officers here in Washington and elsewhere, they may not get paid. Let’s not tell working families, who take take their little kids into Head Start so they can then go out to work, that that program may be killed. Let’s not tell senior citizens, who are on the Meals on Wheels program who can’t leave their homes who depend upon a meal, let’s not punish them because you’ve got small number of extreme right wingers who want to get their way at the expense of millions and millions of people.”

Or as Rachel Maddow put it, the GOP thinks the 2012 election was a mis-trial.

Bernie Sanders also pointed out that the GOP’s repeated hijackings and hostage-taking were “making us look like fools throughout the entire world because a handful of right wing extremists are so determined to try to destroy this president.”

President Obama has said he will not negotiate with terrorists.  He needs to follow through with that statement.  Because the Republicans’ constant threats to shut down the government and/or default on our debts if the GOP agenda doesn’t get passed — this is economic terrorism.

And these GOP economic terrorists belong in Gitmo with the rest of their kind.

The History of Today’s “Tea Party”

This article is titled “Tea Partying:  When Protest Movements Defend the Interests of the Ultra-Rich” by David Cay Johnston.  It opens with:  “Four years ago, the modern tea party seemed to emerge from nowhere, leaving journalists bewildered and the public with few reference points to understand seemingly spontaneous rallies by middle-class people seeking lower tax rates.”

Before 2009, when someone said “demonstration” or “protest,” you’d think of workers going on strike, or thousands of people protesting against war or injustice.  Then suddenly we had thousands of middle class demonstrators “spontaneously” protesting against health insurance reform and raising taxes on the wealthiest one percent.  WTF???

After the smoke cleared, it was obvious that these Astroturf “demonstrations” were funded and orchestrated by fossil fuel tycoons, Wall Street and the health insurance industry, to name a few.  The average Joe Citizen wasn’t exactly lying awake at night worrying about the tax burden of the one percent or the agony of an HMO executive who won't be able to turn patients away because of a pre-existing condition.  What to do?  Put a folksy “We The People” spin on it, and then find a bunch of useful idiots to stage “spontaneous” “demonstrations.”  And the next thing you know, thousands of “protestors” are out there shouting about “Death Panels!” and “Taxed Enough Already.”

When rightwing politicians regurgitate “The American People” for the umpteen billionth time, the only “people” they’re referring to are their campaign contributors.

This article quotes heavily from Isaac William Martin‘s book, “Rich People’s Movements: Grassroots Campaigns to Untax the One Percent.”  Martin says:

“Social movements that explicitly defend the interests of the rich and the almost-rich have been a recurring feature of American politics.  Such movements shook the American polity before the Obama era, before the Reagan era and before Barry Goldwater ran for president — before, even, the New Deal.”

In 1913, when the federal income tax was first established (via the Sixteenth Amendment), the prototype of the Teabagger was born.  Isaac William Martin writes:

“Corporate boardrooms were rife with ‘rich men who were scared of progressive taxation, but did not know how to fight it.’”

These scared rich men were rescued by J.A. Arnold — the first of the rightwing rabblerousers; a community organizer for millionaires who were mad as hell and weren’t going to take it any more.  J.A. Arnold got his start fighting and organizing on behalf of railroad tycoons, who were starting to face a backlash from exploited workers.

After that he joined forces with the banking cartel in order to fight those commie Texas land banks that were helping small farmers.  Next he started organizing Tax Clubs which “like the tea party, seemed to emerge from nowhere.”  [from the linked article]

These Tax Clubs were made up mostly of bankers who tried to adopt the language and mannerisms of farmers and workers so they could connect with the unwashed masses.  And this was where “Trickle Down” was born — i.e. lower taxes will encourage productive investments which will benefit all of us.

Anyway, it’s a long article that’s full of relevant information.  The author closes with:

“Martin’s book is useful in understanding a forgotten history that preceded the seemingly sudden assaults on consumers, unions and workers by legislatures and governors in Michigan, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Texas, Wisconsin and other states where extremists are currently in power.”

Why Do Republicans Hate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?

Because it’s WORKING.  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is working exactly as planned.  And this is why Wall Street gangsters and their prostitutes in Congress have done everything possible to obstruct, derail and sabotage the CFPB.

The CFPB has been collecting people’s complaints about their banks since last year.  After a bank has responded to a complaint, or after fifteen days — whichever comes first — the complaint is posted in a Consumer Complaint Database.

Between March 2012 and July 2013, the CFPB has posted 19,000 complaints.  95% of these complaints have been resolved, for better or worse.  28% of the complaints resulted in some degree of financial compensation by the bank.  Five percent resulted in non-monetary compensation — correcting an error, adjusting the terms of an account, etc.  And about twenty percent of the resolved complaints are still being disputed by the consumer.

It’s a start.

Complaints to the CFPB run the gamut of financial services and problems:  credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, student loans, credit reports, debt collectors, etc.  Scott Pluta, the CFPB’s assistant director of consumer response, said:

“Every complaint we receive is important because it helps us identify and prioritize problems.  We know that if we begin to see a disturbing trend among the complaints we handle, we should consider allocating some of our limited resources to combat that particular problem.  The database may not be popular with the financial services industry, but it’s making a real difference in people’s lives and in the marketplace.”

No wonder Republicans hate it.

Private Prisons: Even Worse Than You Thought

Whatever you’ve already heard or read about the private prison industry, it’s worse than you ever imagined.  The immorality is bad enough:  huge financial incentives to jail as many people as possible, prison owners and management being totally unaccountable to the public, etc.

But financially, private prisons are even more of a drain on taxpayers than we ever knew.  The three largest private prison companies — Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), GEO Group and Management and Training Corporation — have all been including occupancy requirements in their contracts with state governments.  The state is required to guarantee maximum occupancy for these private prisons.  If the occupancy rate falls below a certain level — usually 80%, sometimes 100% — taxpayers have to reimburse the private prison company for its lost revenue.

Is it just me, or does this conflict with conservatives’ bootstraps/free enterprise rhetoric?  A “private” company is financed by taxpayers, and reimbursed again by taxpayers when their “earnings” fall short — nice work if you can get it.

Also, the private prison industry has campaigned heavily for three-strikes laws, laws to increase prison sentences in general, and laws that would criminalize every imaginable type of private behavior.  The more laws, the more “customers” the “private” prison industry can enjoy.  So much for that “limited government” conservatives are always blubbering about.

This information was compiled by In The Public Interest.

Law and Order:  SVU and CSI:  New York have both had episodes featuring corrupt judges who worked hand in glove with a private prison.  For every defendant convicted of a crime — no matter how petty — the judge received a “commission” from the private prison where this newly-convicted criminal got sent.

Unfortunately, those two TV episodes were not just fiction.  They were based on something that’s happening in real life every day.  And it’s getting worse.

Say Something Nasty about the NRA, Get Fired

Journalism professor David Guth hasn’t been fired.  Yet.  But this is a perfect example of why politicians are scared shitless of the National Rifle Association and its army of useful idiots.  If a politician says anything negative about guns or the NRA, the NRA will spend whatever it takes to defeat him/her in the next election.

And if a university professor says something bad about guns, the NRA will use its considerable political clout [see above] to get him fired and blacklisted.  Some of these gun fetishists are so fixated on the Second Amendment, they can’t even grasp why it’s called the Second Amendment.  And that brings us to today’s remedial history lesson:  The Second Amendment is called the Second Amendment because……drum roll……there’s a First Amendment that comes right before it.

I’m pretty neutral about the whole gun issue, so I’m not taking sides here.  But I would have thought the First Amendment would protect someone’s right to make obnoxious comments about the NRA.  Regarding the Washington Navy Yard shootings, Professor David Guth tweeted:

“Blood is on the hands of the #NRA. Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters.”

OK, it was a little tasteless.  [see First Amendment above]

Earlier, David Guth had written the following blog post:

“The news of the senseless slaughter today at Washington’s Navy Yard has me again questioning how we can let this madness continue. Frankly, I don’t care if I am criticized for being too quick to judge, too harsh in my criticism or too strident in my tone. The time has passed for niceties and tact. The blood spilled today is on the hands of the National Rifle Association. I don’t care how the NRA tries to spin this.”

The University of Kansas has placed David Guth on indefinite administrative leave.  Guth agreed with this decision, saying:

“It is in the best interests and peace of mind of our students that I remove myself from the situation and let cooler heads prevail.  I know what I meant. Unfortunately, this is a topic that generates more heat than light.”

But that wasn’t enough for the gun masturbators.  The NRA summoned two of its leading prostitutes in the Kansas legislature and ordered them to drop their drawers.  State senate majority leader Terry Bruce and state rep. Brett Hildabrand — both of whose elections were heavily financed by the NRA — performed their tricks as ordered.  Both have demanded that the University of Kansas fire Professor David Guth.

And the Kansas State Rifle Association said it “will do everything possible” to see that David Guth is removed.  When a group of gun worshipers says it “will do everything possible,” what exactly are they referring to?

Worker Centers are the New Labor Unions

If you work for a living — or know someone who does — you probably think Worker Centers are a good thing.  On the other hand, if you’re a rightwing plutocrat and you’ve spent millions of your inherited dollars bribing your legislative prostitutes into destroying labor unions, your opinion of worker centers would be less favorable.

Stomp on a labor union and up pops a worker center.

Worker centers are not unions but they do a lot of the advising and organizing that unions do, or used to do before they were sabotaged by the Far Right.  Fast Food Forward is one of the better known worker centers.  The group has staged walkouts of fast food workers who want higher wages.

Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), is another worker center.  A founding member of OUR Walmart says the group is not trying to unionize:

“We have our organization of associates for associates across the country. We are not unionizing. We are organizing.  We want respect. We want a decent wage. We want healthcare.”

The AFL-CIO has adopted a resolution to “expand its partnerships” with worker centers.

Needless to say, the oligarchy is not happy.  A Columbia University professor who specializes in labor issues said:

“…there will be targeted attacks from the right on worker centers.  Worker centers are going to have to navigate carefully the line between being a labor organization and a nonprofit organization. They are going to receive a lot more scrutiny.”

Yes they will.  We already have Worker Center Watch (warning:  Euphemism Alert!).  Worker Center Watch’s advisors include Ryan Williams, one of the architects of Mitt Romney’s failed presidential campaign.  Williams said:

“They have morphed into groups that harass employers, shame companies and hurt business across the country.  They are essentially getting away with skirting labor laws.”

“Skirting labor laws,” LOL.  For a long time, the National Labor Relations Board was unable to enforce any labor laws because the Board only had two members and three vacancies.  Senate Republicans kept filibustering every potential board member that Obama nominated.  I don’t recall any complaints from Ryan Williams about “skirting labor laws.”

More irony:  Worker Center Watch does not disclose its donors and supporters.  At the same time, congressional Republicans are insisting that worker centers be required to disclose their donors.  Irony is lost on the stupid.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has developed a Workforce Freedom Initiative (these euphemisms are busting out all over) and wants the government to crack down on worker centers.  I thought government was “the problem, not the solution.”  [See Irony above]

Donald McGahn: Buh Bye and Fuck You Very Much

“Who???”  I hadn’t heard of Donald McGahn either until I saw this article yesterday.  If you’ve liked the billions of dollars in anonymous undisclosed “contributions” to political campaigns, you can thank Donald McGahn.  He was one of the six-member Federal Election Commission (FEC) until he resigned two days ago.

I never felt that strongly about the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, since (or so I thought) all we have to do is follow the money and see who owns whom.  Then suddenly all these non-profit “charity” organizations started popping out of the woodwork, donating gazillions of dollars to rightwing causes and candidates.  And since these organizations are disguised as “charity” groups, they’re tax-exempt and they don’t have to disclose their donors.

Needless to say, the other two Republican members of the FEC — yes, McGahn is a Republican, in case you had to ask — have consistently joined McGahn in derailing every attempt to require billionaires to crawl out from under their rocks and identify themselves when they purchase an election.  But at least McGahn is finally leaving.  His parting words:

“I’ve been there a little over five years, and I felt like I had done all I could do. It was time for new challenges.”

Yup, your work here is done, Asshole.  So many more things to fuck up, so little time.

There are now two vacancies in the FEC (another commissioner resigned earlier this year).  Obama has already nominated two replacements:  Ann Ravel (Democrat) and Lee Goodman (Republican).  The linked article says “Both are widely expected to be confirmed by the full Senate.”

Why of course.  Surely the Senate wouldn’t be planning any sort of obstruction or filibustering now, would they?

I’m not usually in favor of litmus tests, but in this case, Obama and the Democrats should make absolutely certain that both of these nominees will require DISCLOSURE of all political “contributions.”  If not, replace him/her with someone who will.  And if a potential commissioner promises to crack down on these cowards who make secret donations, and then gets filibustered, use the Nuclear Option.

Ocean Acidification: Much Worse Than We Thought

It’s not only worse — it’s happening much faster than anyone had originally predicted.  This article — Sea Change:  The Pacific’s Perilous Turn, by Craig Welch — is long and depressing, but it’s well worth bookmarking.  I hope you’ll read it and forward it to any like-minded acquaintances you can think of.

Craig Welch calls ocean acidification “the lesser known twin of climate change.”

The prognosis is grim.  But being unaware of it won’t help.

As with climate change, the only way to mitigate the devastation of ocean acidification is for Homo Sapiens to wean itself off of fossil fuels yesterday.  Unlike climate change, ocean acidification doesn’t sound very urgent to the billions of people who don’t live near a coastline.  A scientist from NOAA said:

“If you go 100 miles from the coast, most people say, ‘Why do I care about ocean acidification?’  Convincing a farmer in Iowa or a teacher in Kansas to care about ocean acidification is our challenge.”

A former Republican state senator from Alaska said:

“Acidification is very real: There isn’t any doubt it’s happening.  It’s obvious. And it’s going to be devastating.”

Anyway, the article is chock full of these cheerful fun facts.  But these are things we need to know.  This article is the first in a series being published by the Seattle Times on ocean acidification.  At the end of the article you can find links to subsequent articles.

Enjoy.

Big Banks Trying to Eliminate Credit Unions

For obvious reasons, millions of depositors have been transferring their money from large banks to credit unions.  With their devotion to free-enterprise laissez-faire capitalism, the banking cartel’s response to this new competition has been to compete with credit unions by offering better deals and better customer service using their political muscle to tax and regulate those pesky credit unions out of existence.

Here are some more links.

(The linked article was written last July, but I didn’t know anything about this until yesterday.)

The Banking Syndicate is lobbying Congress to eliminate the federal tax exemption that credit unions have been receiving since 1934.

Frank Keating, president of the American Bankers Association, wrote to President Obama:

“Many tax-exempt credit unions have morphed from serving 'people of small means' to become full-service, financially sophisticated institutions.  The time has come to abolish this exemption.”

With Congress getting ready for a major overhaul of the tax code, this is the perfect opportunity for the Banking Cartel to destroy their competition once and for all.  They’ve been bombarding the Washington DC area with print and radio ads as well as bribing their prostitutes in Congress.

The credit unions’ federal tax exemption ends up costing taxpayers roughly $1.6 billion a year.  Let’s see, a multi-trillion dollar bailout for Wall Street vs. a $1.6 billion tax exemption for credit unions…

Credit unions depend on this tax exemption, since — unlike banks — they can’t raise capital through public stock offerings.  The president of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions said:

“They'll have to convert to banks, which is what the banks want.  Then they'd have, for lack of a better term, a monopoly.”

Mission Accomplished.

Vladimir Putin has INSULTED the United States of America

Vladimir Putin wrote a New York Times op-ed piece titled “A Plea for Caution from Russia.”  In this slanderous libelous article, Putin said:

“Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan 'you’re either with us or against us.'”

He even questioned American Exceptionalism, saying “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.”

Americans are properly outraged at such blasphemy.  House Speaker John Boehner (R—Jack Daniels) said “I wuzh inshulted.”

John McCain said:  “Putin's NYT op-ed is an insult to the intelligence of every American.”

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said:

“First and foremost, we have to understand that President Putin should be the last person to lecture the United States about our human values and our human rights and what we stand for.”

Damn right!  The NERVE of some tinpot dictator lecturing the United States about human rights???

How

DARE

He???

America’s Hottest New Couple: Ted Cruz and Jesse Helms

Ted Cruz, the Senate’s fast-rising teabagger, has been gushing over his longtime idol, Jesse Helms (R—Dead).  Starry-eyed Ted was swooning to an audience from the Heritage Foundation:

“The willingness to say all those crazy things is a rare, rare characteristic.  And you know what? It’s every bit as true now as it was then. We need a hundred more like Jesse Helms in the U.S. Senate.  I know if Jesse Helms were still with us, he would not shy away from this stuff, ‘cause they were all beating up on him, they were coming after him hard, and I thought it wasn’t right.”

In a heartwarming Horatio Alger moment, Ted Cruz told the audience about his first political donation:  He contributed $10 to Jesse Helms.  It took him twenty weeks to save up that $10 out of his allowance.

Ted Cruz needs to remember something else about his swashbuckling hero:  On the day Jesse Helms died, the entire country celebrated with fireworks.

Richmond, CA might use Eminent Domain to Seize Underwater Mortgages

A lot of city and county governments have been debating this idea, but Richmond, CA might be the first to actually go through with it.

Here’s how it works:  If the City of Richmond offers to purchase an underwater loan at market value, and the bank rejects that offer, the City will go ahead and seize the loan using the power of Eminent Domain.  The city government will then pay the bank the previously-rejected market-value amount, and will refinance the homeowner’s loan with lower monthly payments.  The homeowner now has a better chance of keeping his/her home.

Everybody wins — unless you’re a bank executive.  And that’s a big “Unless.”  That’s why so many local governments have been debating this idea but are afraid to implement it.  The local government might get sued.  By whom?  On what legal grounds?

The other main scare tactic is fear of a “boycott” by Wall Street:  No aspiring homeowner in this town will ever get a mortgage loan if the city goes through with this Communist power grab.

[sigh]

This is just another variation on the endless rightwing blathering about “Businesses will leave if (insert name of environmental/consumer protection law) gets passed!”  If ONE employer actually left every time somebody yelled “businesses will leave if ________________,” there wouldn’t be a single American worker still employed.

If there are actually any teeth in that vague threat of being boycotted by Wall Street, that’ll be an incentive to get your home loan through a credit union or local bank instead of a Wall Street conglomerate.

Again, everybody wins.

Let’s hope Richmond actually puts this Eminent Domain idea into action, and that hundreds of other localities will follow suit.  Enough with the endless debating and hand-wringing.  Grow a pair.  Do It.

Chuck Norris’ Advice to Obama on Syria

What if Syria WANTS us to invade their country and get trapped in another Middle Eastern quagmire?   Chuck Norris has a theory:

“Syrian President Basher al-Assad launched sarin gas on its citizens in the hope of moving the U.S. like a chess piece into his civil war and deeper onto the Middle East war map.”

Whether it’s an accurate guess or not, it’s yet another reason NOT to attack Syria.  Chuck Norris continues:

“Proof of the president’s shortsightedness is his naive strategy of a ‘limited’ military campaign in Syria.  What a joke and mockery to any opponent or rational mind! What professional fighter says, ‘I’m going to go into the ring and throw a series of blows and then get out,’ as if the opponent has no bearing on counter measures? One can’t limit an attack when you’re kicking hornets’ nests or throwing matches on gasoline!  It is no exaggeration to say that a single, unilateral U.S. strike on Syria could spark fires that lead to the inferno of World War III.”

Gotta agree with him.  Now, where was Chuck Norris eleven years ago when Dumbya was whipping the country into a foaming mass hysteria over Saddam Hussein?  Oh well, better late than never.

He makes a good point about the absurdity of a “limited” war.  As several other people have already pointed out, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor was just a “surgical strike.”  It’s never a “limited attack” or “surgical strike” when YOUR country is being attacked.

Most Americans — most of the world, for that matter — do NOT want us to attack Syria.  I have no idea who’s pulling Obama’s puppet strings, unless it’s the pro-Israel Lobby.  Tell these AIPAC chickenhawks to shut the fuck up.

America has been Israel’s Bitch long enough.  President Obama (and Congress):  Just Say No.

If America Had Actually Invaded Every Country that John McCain Wanted to Invade…

Imagine a parallel reality where the United States has bombed a sovereign nation every time John McCain opened his pie hole and started spewing out his war-mongering drivel.  What would the world look like?

Here’s the map of Battlefield Earth.

It would probably be a shorter article if Mother Jones had just named the countries that HAVEN’T been threatened by McCain.  Here’s John McCain on Syria:

“Providing military assistance to the Free Syrian Army and other opposition groups is necessary, but at this late hour, that alone will not be sufficient to stop the slaughter and save innocent lives. The only realistic way to do so is with foreign air power.”

Translation:  We need to be al Qaeda’s air force.

You’d expect McCain to have wet dreams about missiles penetrating deep deep deep into Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and all the rest of the usual suspects.  But Russia?  Sudan?  Mali?

Anyway, please check out the article.  It’s chilling and funny at the same time.  Each war-mongering McCain quotation is rated in terms of shrillness by the number of Angry McCains.  The most hysterical foaming-at-the-mouth war whoops — directed at Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Libya — have each earned five Angry McCains.

His war rhetoric against Kosovo is dialed down to just four Angry McCains.

Georgia, Russia, Mali — two Angry McCains.  And his incoherent blubbering about China only gets one Angry McCain.

And so on…

Ted Cruz, Rand Paul — You Go Guys

No, I haven’t turned into a teabagger or anything.  Like they say, a broken clock is right twice a day.  And this whole Syria controversy is sure making some strange bedfellows.

For once I’m glad to see congressional Republicans obstructing Obama‘s agenda, even if it’s for all the wrong reasons (i.e. “if that there Kenyan Muslim is for it, we’s agin’ it”).  And the civil war between GOP factions is as amusing as ever.  Newt Gingrich has urged Congress to vote No on the authorization to attack Syria.  John McCain says whatever Obama wants to do in Syria, it’s too little too late.  And Donald Rumsfeld — “I think with the brain I have, not the brain I wish I had” — says Obama is a pitiful weakling for not bombing Syria into smithereens yesterday.

Ted Cruz nailed it by calling the U.S. military “al Qaeda’s air force” if we attack Syria.  We have absolutely no idea who’s who over there.  They know a lot more about us than we know about them.  The Sun Tzu command to “Know Your Enemy” is followed almost everywhere in the world except here.  If we stage a “surgical strike” against Syria, it’ll be the umpteenth time we’ve waded into somebody else’s civil war and “helped” a group of “victims” who later turn on us.  Either that, or we end up supporting the most corrupt bloodthirsty dictator in the world just because he’s anti- (Communist, Muslim — whoever our villain of the moment happens to be).

Rand Paul insists he’s not going to filibuster the authorization bill, which probably means he IS planning to.  Either that or he’s hoping to muster up enough votes against the bill to make a filibuster unnecessary.

And what’s with this Syrian Electronic Army we keep hearing about?  It this just an urban legend?  Supposedly Syria has an “army” of computer hackers who will hack into America’s computer systems — the computers that control all of our weapons, banks, all commercial websites, you name it — if we attack Syria.

I first heard of this concept about twenty years ago, when Mainland China kept threatening to “re-unite with” (i.e. invade) Taiwan.  (This was before China had made their huge technological advances.)  Taiwan supposedly had an army of hackers who were ready at a moment’s notice to disable China’s missile systems and aircraft and stop them dead in their tracks.

I never knew if that was true, and I have no idea whether the Syrian Electronic Army is for real or not.  But I hope so.  It has a great deterrent effect.  It’s like the NRA’s famous slogan about “an armed society is a polite society.”  If every country in the world — no matter how poor, how small — is able to hack and disable every other country’s military and financial institutions, there won’t be much incentive for large countries to prey on smaller ones.  A world armed with hackers is a polite world.

Health Insurance Industry’s Prostitute of the Quarter: Georgia Governor Nathan Deal

HMOs have set the bar pretty high for those contestants vying for the coveted Prostitute of the Quarter plaque.  But Governor Nathan Deal (R—Hands Around His Ankles) is the hands-down winner.

Half a million dollars worth of anonymous bribes — er, I mean “campaign contributions” — have been contributed to Nathan Deal’s secret Political Action Committee, Real PAC.  Most of this money is from Aetna, Humana, United Health care, Blue Cross and other corporate parasites who are threatened by President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Real PAC hasn’t filed any tax information or financial disclosures for two years, and the most recent information they provided, two years ago, turned out to be false.

In order to “earn” this money from his insurance johns, Nathan Deal and his right-hand skank — Georgia State Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens — have done everything imaginable to obstruct the implementation of Obamacare in Georgia.

A spokesman for the activist group Better Georgia said:

“He goes out and he does their bidding.  He’s working for them instead of working for the 650,000 Georgians who don’t have insurance at all or access to the Medicaid expansion.  What’s remarkable about this isn’t that there’s money in politics.  We all know there’s money in politics. He knew that this was so wrong that he didn’t want to tell anyone. He tried to keep it a secret for two years.”

Last week Ralph Hudgens was caught on tape bragging to an audience about obstructing Obamacare by deliberately interfering with the government-employed “navigators” whose job is to help consumers choose the right health insurance policy to fit their needs.  As his corporate audience cheered “Amen,” Hudgens said:

“Let me tell you what we’re doing about Obamacare.  Everything in our power to be an obstructionist.”

Nathan Deal and Ralph Hudgens should each be forced to wear a sign around his neck, with a huge arrow pointing to his mouth, and the inscription “Aetna’s dick goes HERE.”

As long as people are dumb enough to keep voting against their own interests, corporate prostitutes like Nathan Deal and Ralph Hudgens will keep getting elected.

Bayer Throws Tantrum over Pesticide Ban, Sues Europe

At this rate, Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta will be starring in their own dystopian documentary — “It Sued The World.”

Bayer and Syngenta are suing the European Union in order to preserve their right to keep dousing the world with pesticides.  Scientific research has concluded that neonicotinoid pesticides — manufactured by Bayer and Syngenta — are the cause of the worldwide honeybee die-off.  In response, the European Union established a two-year ban on neonicotinoid pesticides, in the hope of saving the bee population.  Or in other words, saving the world’s food supply.

Hence the lawsuit. 

Here are some more links.

If the Poison Industrial Complex is successful in their lawsuit against the European Union, who will they sue next?

Please sign this petition asking Bayer and Syngenta to drop their lawsuit against the European Union.

Entire NFL season CANCELED over Alcohol Concerns

There will be no NFL games this season, due to officials’ growing concerns over consumption of alcohol among football fans in the stadiums and parking lots.

Alcohol is a powerful drug which lowers a person’s inhibitions and curtails judgment.  This alcohol-induced uninhibited behavior leads to hundreds of thousands of assaults and accidents every year.  In addition, the health hazards of alcohol include — but are not limited to — heart disease, ulcers, pancreatitis, liver failure and certain types of cancer.

The official press release reads in part:

“NFL organizers have worked with city officials to reduce health risks at these games, but in view of these occurrences, the safest course is to cancel the rest of the season.”

And NFL officials said in a statement:

“Because there is nothing more important to us than our patrons, we have decided in consultation with local officials that there will be no games this year.”