Jeb Bush looted Florida pension funds to fund his brother's presidential campaign

When word got out that creepy Jeb might be running for prez, the crap started hitting the fan.  The crap being that he was more moderate and more intelligent than his brother.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  He is a true member of the Bush clan.  They've never found a rich man they didn't like or think deserved special handling by the government.  Never turn your back on a member of the Bush clan!

There were many things he did wrong while governor of Florida, but this may be one of the most egregious and we're just learning about it now.  What does that say about our MSM?


While Jeb Bush was governor of Florida, state pension officials committed at least $1.7 billion to financial firms whose executives were “Pioneer” fundraisers for his brother’s presidential campaigns. To achieve Pioneer status, the fundraisers had to amass at least $100,000 worth of bundled contributions to one of George W. Bush’s campaigns.

An International Business Times analysis of Florida government documents and a list of George W. Bush’s bundlers compiled by Public Citizen found that 11 firms that received new Florida pension investments under Jeb Bush were Pioneers. IBTimes also analyzed data from the Florida Division of Elections and Political Moneyline to determine how much money executives from those firms donated directly to Jeb Bush’s campaigns, George W. Bush’s campaigns, the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Florida between 1998 and 2006.


The crooks really have been in charge!

This story from Daily Kos.  Read the entire piece HERE.

Religion's a Killer!

Losing our religion? Two thirds of people still claim to be religious

• 63% of people polled say they are religious
• China is the least religious country with twice the amount of convinced atheists than any other nation (61%) followed by Hong Kong (34%), Japan (31%), Czech Republic (30%), and Spain (20%).
• Thailand is the most religious country globally (94%), followed by Armenia (93%), Bangladesh (93%), Georgia (93%), and Morocco (93%).

New research this Easter shows that worldwide six out of ten (63%) citizens say they are religious, while one in five (22%) say they are not and one in ten (11%) consider themselves convinced atheists. In Africa and the Middle East more than 8 out of 10 people (86% and 82% respectively) portray themselves as religious while 7 out of 10 say so in Eastern Europe and America  (71% and 66% respectively) and 6 out of 10 (62%) in Asia, say they are.


The above is a poll from WIN/Gallup, International.

I'm not going to claim there is a causal relationship between war/violence and religion because we know that war can have multiple causes, but there is enough anecdotal evidence in hand garnered over a period of several thousand years to at conclude, at the very least, religion does not for peace make!

That's history speaking.

Now to the moment.  At this moment, 63% of the world's people claim to be "religious," whatever that means.  The most religious people can be found in Africa and the Middle East where a whopping 80% consider themselves religious.  The U.S. of A 66%) comes in line with Eastern Europe (71%).

Tom Cotton will love that.  We're not only very religious here in the US of A, but we're war-mongers.  So maybe he's right when he argued today that Americans don't dislike war, they just don't like losing wars.  What a guy!  Jesus loves him.  But for any sane person, he's an ignorant and very dangerous son-of-a-bitch!

Sorry about that Cotton bit, I got carried away.  Actually, I'm not sorry, but back to the moment.

Obviously, religion per se, today, still does not make for peace.  In some areas, it is painfully obvious that religion is indeed the cause of violence.  Rather than cast stones, however, we need to look at this country:  We still have troops in Afghanistan and some in Iraq.  We are now providing military resources (and probably troops - consultants, ya know) to help fight ISIS.  We are supporting Saudi Arabia's fight in Yemen.  We have military bases and troops and ships and missiles everywhere!  War is one of our largest American-made products and exports!

Now, while not all Americans are Christians, a large part of the population does claim to worship the "Prince of Peace."  It's fascinating to me to see that so many of these so-called Christians really like war.  They'd hang their Prince of Peace in a heartbeat!  They hate with a passion - just about anybody who is not "one of them," who is different, who believes in other mythologies, or who believes in none.

Evangelical Christianity, after successfully taking over much of Congress, the U.S. Supremes, the state legislatures, city councils, county commissions and school boards across the land, is licking its collective chops at the prospect of taking over the White House for Jesus so they can take this country "back" (whatever that means!) and start more wars!  Maybe even bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.


A final note:  If I hear one more time some moron tell me you can't be good, have ethics or morals, without religion or believing in some deity, I'm gonna do some bomb, bomb, bombing of my own.  Nah.  Just kidding.  I really don't believe in that violent stuff.


You can read the full article and all about religious belief around the world HERE.

Fukushima and You - What Else Aren't They Telling Us?

[Note:  Photo is of the deserted town of Namie in the Fukushima nuclear zone.  From the Telegraph.co.uk]

According to government experts, “‘Astounding’” levels of radiation [have been] measured in [the] U.S. from Fukushima — Around 500,000 times our normal levels….’We have never seen anything even close to that …’"

“Scientists detect Fukushima radiation on North American shores…”

National Geographic reports: “Newly discovered mass mortality in sea creatures along California coast - Body parts falling off, animals ‘wasting away’ - Researchers fear sea star epidemic has spread.”

“‘Such a bizarre thing’ off California coast - ‘We’re seeing multiple aborted fetuses every day’ - 100,000s of seabirds that nest in area now missing…’ ‘Huge, unprecedented die-off like we’ve never seen’ - many baby seals dying after mothers led them to a cliff edge.


Read all about it here.


I have some questions:  Why are we not hearing about this in the MSM?  What exactly is the danger to human life along the Pacific Coast?  Is the United States Congress working on the problem to determine what can be done to protect our people or is it too busy worrying about allowing kids to bring weapons to school, taking away the right to an abortion, taking away the right to vote, putting the Christian Bible in public schools, giving the rich even more tax breaks, cutting the safety nets for our older citizens, bringing down Obama, going to war somewhere, anywhere, in the Middle East, banning gay marriage, etc., etc.

h/t to Firedoglake

The Next Generation of Transportation !

Treason and traitors and just plain stupids

Scott Walker, unfortunately for Wisconsin, is the governor of that state.  He's running for prez.  He has vowed to “revoke a nuclear deal with Iran if elected president.”  Mr. Obama suggested that Walker doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground, which is, of course, absolutely true.


Tom Cotton, one of the most rotten people ever to sit in Congress, sent a letter to Iranian government signed by 47 other traitors in our Congress saying they would nullify any agreement between Iran and Obama.  He wants to bomb Iran.  War with Iran would be a picnic, thinks Cottonmouth.  Go enlist, you SOB! 


Rand Paul, the doctor who won’t take the doctor tests because government, ya know…has announced he plans to run for president. 

He’s going to “take our country back.”  I wonder what he means?  His party is owned by the oligarchy that runs the country and controls both houses of Congress as well as the Supreme Court.  Is he going to take it back from his Republican friends and run it all by himself?  Is he going to take us back to the good ol’ days when the Repugnican Bush Jr. was in the White House - the days of war and death and bank failures and Wall Street corruption and financial collapse and loss of jobs and huge tax cuts which produced only huge deficits?

No thank you, Mr. Paul.


From Crooks & Liars:  The Republican governor of Illinois cut autism funding in his state on World Autism Day.


The hateful Christian pizza parlor people in Indiana have received over $800k in donations from hateful Christians and other nogoodniks.  Amazing!  WWJD?


Kansas - just the name brings bad thoughts these days.  The gov, Sam Brownback, was happy to sign an atrocious antiabortion bill as well as a bill allowing gun owners to carry concealed weapons without a permit.  He was also happy to note that because of his budget which cut taxes on the wealthy and services to the poor, schools in some areas of Kansas will close early this year.  But there’s more “good news” from Kansas…

The following is from Think Progress:

The Kansas legislature has sent a bill to Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) desk that limits welfare recipients to withdrawing just $25 a day from their benefits and enacts a range of other restrictions.  Think Progress tells the tale:

"If Brownback signs the law, recipients of the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program would only be able to withdraw $25 a day with their benefits cards from ATMs, which act like debt cards. No other states or the federal government currently limit withdrawals.

While one of the backers of the bill asserted that recipients could take out more at a bank counter, the cards can’t be used at counters and many poor people lack access to bank accounts given the need to maintain balances and pay fees. Seventeen million Americans are unbanked, going without formal financial products. Meanwhile, during debate over the bill state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau (D) pointed out that many recipients need to withdraw hundreds of dollars some days in order to be able to pay rent.

The bill bans welfare recipients from using their benefits or withdrawing them at movie theaters, nail salons, pools and spas, liquor stores, jewelry stores, casinos or racing facilities, tattoo and piercing parlors, cruise ships, and other locations.

It also imposes hard caps on how long recipients can get benefits. After 36 months, poor people would hit the lifetime limit and not be able to get any further benefits unless they could prove they had an extraordinary hardship such as sexual assault, in which case they could get 12 additional months. The federal lifetime limit, on the other hand, is five years. It also bans anyone with two felony drug convictions from ever getting welfare and suspends anyone who tests positive for drugs after enacting a drug testing program in 2014 that has cost $40,000 and only turned up 11 positive tests out of 2,783 applications. State Sen. Michael O’Donnell (R) said he wanted the bill to go “back to the ‘T’ and making sure this is ‘temporary.’”



Dick Cheney thinks that Mr. Obama is the worst president ever.  This from a 4 or 5 time draft dodger, who made secret deals with the energy companies behind closed doors, who lied us into a Middle Eastern quagmire, who made torture an instrument of U.S. foreign policy, who failed totally to control the goons on Wall Street who brought the economy to a screeching halt and millions of Americans to abject misery!



From Daily Kos.  This just in.  The NRA is holding its convention in Nashville April 10, through April 12.  There will be a ton of exhibits and booths and speakers and goofballs, but no operational guns.  All of the tons of guns available to ogle and giggle over will have their firing pins removed.  Any guns purchased at this ammosexual event will have to be picked up at a licensed gun dealer and the picker upper will need to have proper identification - you know, just like if he was gonna vote.  Ain’t that cute?

So, the NRA, who wants kids and teachers and just about everybody else on the planet to be able to run around carrying loaded weapons on their person doesn’t want any loaded guns at their convention.  Is it possible the NRA thinks they will attract a bunch of crazies (Ted Nugent, Bobby Jindal, Teddie Cruz, Benny Carson, et. al., will be speaking!) who might just start shootin’ up the place when push comes to shove?  Could it be the NRA, in the middle of the shovin,’ is afraid they might get shot?

Them damn guns might be dangerous after all!

Florida House tries to kill public education

TALLAHASSEE — Without a word of debate Friday, the Florida House approved a controversial proposal that could require school districts to share tens of millions of dollars in construction funds with rival charter schools. The bill was one of four high-profile education proposals that won the support of the Republican-dominated House to end the week.

The others would:

• Ease the penalties for schools that fail to comply with the constitutionally mandated limits on class size. 

• Create a pilot program to give principals more control over hiring and budget decisions.

• Encourage school districts to adopt mandatory school uniform policies for children in grades K-8 by offering incentive money.

RELATED NEWS/ARCHIVE

Controversial campus guns bill advances in Florida Senate 3 Weeks Ago

The Buzz: House approves adoption bill on bipartisan vote 3 Weeks Ago

House panel approves bill allowing armed teachers 3 Weeks Ago


The above is from Tampabay.com.  My response:  First of all, the state has cut funding for Florida's public schools on a regular basis. Our governor, the King of Corruption, wants to privatize everything as that's how he made his money...in a private company cheating Medicare. 

The man responsible for the charter school bill is tied directly to charter school companies. Republicans have for years tried to kill our public schools in Florida, first with vouchers and then with charter schools. It doesn't matter to them that vouchers are unconstitutional and/or that charter schools have failed miserably in the state. The Florida legislature is filled with the most corrupt of the corrupt! 

The campus guns bill would allow people to carry loaded weapons on the campuses of our colleges and universities. Just what we need with immature kids into drink and drugs! 

The adoption bill would allow adoption agencies to discriminate against gays - disallowing them to adopt children. 

If you've ever taught in Florida schools, you know that one of the last things we need is armed teachers. A lot of them can't even carry a book much less a gun!

 Read the entire article from Tampabay.com here.

God is fine with marriage equality

[The following article is by Max Mills and appears at americablog.com]

The Presbyterian Church USA has made an important decision. With a landslide vote in favor, they have changed the definition of marriage to include homosexual couples. This decision has created a flurry of extreme responses.  Churches have received threatening letters, some have left the denomination, and they have lost hundreds of thousands of members. Some are even asking whether the Presbyterian Church USA is still Christian.

In the midst of this controversy, and with this recent addition to the pro-LGBT Christian movement, it is important to examine the arguments that progressive Christians (like myself) use to defend homosexuality from all of the arguments other Christians use against it:

It Is An Abomination

The first verses that inevitably come to mind when discussing homosexuality are Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. They both say roughly the same thing:

“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” – Lev 18:22

“If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” – Lev 20:13

I want to kick off our analysis of these verses by taking a look at the Hebrew word translated here as “abomination”.

The general understanding is that this word is condemning these acts as intrinsically, objectively immoral. This understanding is false. The Hebrew word, to’ebah, is most accurately understood to mean “that which goes against the accepted order”. Dr. Friedman offers several examples in his book, The Bible Now:

“…in the Bible the term is in fact relative. For example, in the story of Joseph and his brothers in Genesis, Joseph tells his brothers that if the Pharaoh asks them what their occupation is, they should say that they are cowherds. They must not say that they are shepherds. Why? Because, Joseph explains, all shepherds are an offensive thing (tō‘ēbāh) to the Egyptians. But shepherds are not an offensive thing to the Israelites or Moabites or many other cultures. In another passage in that story, we read that Egyptians do not eat with Israelites because that would be an offensive thing (tō‘ēbāh) to them. But Arameans and Canaanites eat with Israelites and do not find it offensive. See also the story of the exodus from Egypt, where Moses tells Pharaoh that the things that Israelites sacrifice would be an offensive thing (tō‘ēbāh) to the Egyptians. But these things are certainly not an offensive thing to the Israelites. 

A former student of ours pointed out that right here in the list of laws that we are considering in Leviticus 18, naming acts that are tō‘ēbāh, are some that prohibit actions that the great patriarchs of the Bible had done. For example, Abraham marries his half sister Sarah.. (Gen 20:12) But the law in Leviticus explicitly forbids such relations with a half sister… (Lev 18:9) So what is not a tō‘ēbāh in the generation of the patriarchs has changed and become one in the generation of Moses. In a somewhat different way, the land itself can change from not being a tō‘ēbāh and can become a tō‘ēbāh as a result of the behavior of its residents on it. The prophet Jeremiah says: You defiled my land, and made my possession into an offensive thing (tō‘ēbāh). (Jer 2:7) An act or an object that is not a tō‘ēbāh can become one, depending on time and circumstances.”

Please continue reading by clicking here.

Sylvia Allen & Mikey Huckabee - Two nuts from the same tree

Two items from People for the American Way


The first one is rather silly but emphasizes the dilemma we are in today with so many stupid people voting into office even more stupid people.


Sylvia Allen is an Arizona State Senator.  The best way to characterize her is simply to say she is quite stupid and ignorant and has no problem trying to force her idiocies on the rest of us.

For example, she “defended uranium mining in her state by insisting that the earth is a mere 6,000-years old.”  Now lots of people believe that crap and disbelieve in Evolution because of the BS they learn from their ignorant and reprehensible pastors, but these are precisely the people that should never get within shouting distance to any kind of political position.

Sylvia also loves guns.  She thinks there’s no problem with allowing people to carry concealed weapons in public buildings.  Why does she believe this? Because it’s “individual souls — not guns — [which] are the real source of gun violence. […]

Therefore, saith Ms. Allen, “we should be debating a bill requiring every American to attend a church of their choice on Sunday.”

Dumb, de dumb, dumb!

Just watch, Sylvia the gunslinger, will soon be wanting to run for president, ‘cause of all these pesky gay people and stuff.

 
One sleaze bag who IS running for president is Mike Huckabee.  And Mikey is soooooo upset that people are complaining about these “religious freedom” bills being bandied about in Indiana and Arkansas and other states.

Why, these statutes are just trying to protect good Christians from being forced to violate their consciences, dontcha know?

Mikey is also irate with Walmart?  Walmart, from his own state!  How could that company complain about good Christians living out their faith-hate?

It’s all the fault of liberals, says Huckabee.  There’s no war on women - the libs made that up.  There’s no war on gays - that’s liberal nonsense.  But Huck also thinks that it’s the gays and their liberal friends who are beating up on all of the good Christians!

In fact, right now gays are working toward getting rid of all Christian churches.  Yep.  That’s what they want to do!  “It won’t stop,” claimed old the old hick, Huck, until there are no more people who are spreading the Gospel…”


Read more of these kinds of stories Right Wing Watch, “a project of People For the American Way."

Sam Brownback, The State of Kansas and the State of the Wild, Wild West

 [Image of Sam Brownback from the Huffington Post.]

Sam Brownback is the Repugnican governor of Kansas.  We've all heard the stories how he believes in and has followed the mantra of a "trickle-down" economy in that state which has turned out to one big horror story.

Giving huge tax breaks to his (and the legislature's) corporate friends in the belief that they would, out of the goodness of their hearts, return money to the state coffers by enlarging their business efforts and creating new jobs, turned out to be nothing more than a Repugnican con job.

But everyone should know by now that the "trickle-down" thing has, since the beginning of time, been a ruse used by the Repugnicans to pick the pockets of the taxpayers in order to line their pockets and the pockets of their wealthy friends with freshly-minted cash.

And, at this moment, the state of the State of Kansas' economy is in the toilet.  Kansas is dying.  Everyone is in trouble including the schools.  Sam Brownback, though, being a fine lover of Jesus, thinks this is just what Jesus wants.  More for the rich, and less for the poor.

Now, Mr. Brownback, maybe not so much stupid as he is crass and incorrigible - like an educated criminal - along with his sing-in-tune legislature, has decreed that shortly (July, I think) any Kansas citizen may carry a loaded gun hidden in their pocket or belly button or  the crack of their ass with neither any training nor a permit.

Just like in the old west.  The Wild, Wild west.


But, dear reader, that's NOT the way it was in the old west.  Not even in Dodge (Ks), Mr. Brownback.  Guns were feared in the old west.  The people of the old west were smarter by far than the NRA goons and their paid supporters in our Congress and state legislatures.  They knew how dangerous guns were, especially if in the hands of the young, the crazy and the stupid.

So, in most places in the old west - the Wild, Wild west - unlike what you see in the movies - you were NOT allowed to carry a gun, concealed or not, permit or not.  When you came to town, the first thing you did was to turn your gun in to the sheriff where it would be kept safe until such time as you decided to leave town.


Finally, Mr. Brownback, not being a Constitutional scholar, or a scholar of anything else (including the Bible which he claims to love so much), said that this new Kansas law is necessary and right because the Constitution gives everyone the right to own and carry guns.

Mr. Brownback is dead wrong.  I would guess there will be not a few incidents in Kansas come July to prove him dead wrong.  The Constitution does no such thing - it does NOT (and the Supreme Court is dead wrong here, too, just like they were dead wrong about slavery some years back and about Corporations being people more recently) - give anyone the right to carry a gun!

The Constitution gives the state the right to assign certain people in the STATE MILITIA the right to carry a gun in case the state needs defending.  That's it.  That's all there is to it.  It does not give anyone else the right to carry a gun.

Here is the 2nd Amendment:

A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Notice that the "right" to keep and bear arms is within the context of a "well-regulated Militia."  In other words, if the free state is threatened, people will be allowed to keep and bear arms as part of a well-regulated militia" [such as the National Guard]. 

You'd have to be crazy to allow anyone to carry a gun without training or a permit. 

Guess what that makes Mr. Brownback and the NRA and all the goons who bow at the altar of the latter?

Passover Pesach 2015 Seder Rube Goldberg Machine from Technion in Israel

h/t to Bob Poris

A Dose of Stupid

This is April 1st.  April Fool's Day.  Maybe all the assholes who inhabit the dark caverns of the U.S. Congress, state legislatures, county commissions and city councils, as well as the myriads of other committees and organizations that comprise our political life will "come out" and tell us they've just been fooling around.  They're really not as stupid as they seem and they really do care about this country and its people and they are finally going to get down to business and take care of business.


Don't hold your breath.  And here's some reasons why:

The US is sending troops to Ukraine to train their armed forces.  Unfortunately one Ukraine unit, the Azov Battalion, is comprised of neo-Nazis.  It “uses Nazi symbols and openly declares its belief in white supremacy and antisemitism.”

Well, what the hell.  We've supported all kinds of crazy, brutal, anti-Semitic dictators down through the years.  If it's good for General Motors (read the Corporate Oligarchy) it's got to be good for the rest of us, right?


You would hope that the bigots like Mike Pence and his friends in Indiana could at least be honest as to what they’re doing.  But NO, they retreat into spewing nonsense phrases or complaining they've been misunderstood and insist they’re not about discrimination which is, of course, total bullshit.  It's ALL about discrimination!

All of the anti-gay rhetoric and anti-gay legislation has NOTHING to do with religion or religious beliefs.  It has EVERYTHING to do with bigotry and hate.  If these religious fruitcakes were concerned about religious things they would be involved in many other crusades - based on the Bible.  They would want to stone children who do not observe the Sabbath; they would raise hell about women who have the audacity to speak up in church; they would be most concerned to follow the WHOLE LAW for their legendary Jesus said he came to ensure that every jot and tittle of the Jewish Law be obeyed; and all these bigots who have been married and divorced or involved in faithless affairs would shut up about the "sins" of others as their passage on the road to hell has already been paid for!


Will FAUX News please fire the compulsive and repulsive liar Bill O’Reilly?  It’s time for him to go.


Arkansas is in process of passing an Indiana-type anti-gay law.  (Today the Arkansas guv said he ain't signing it until it's been "fixed.")  Georgia is working on one.  The other southern states will soon follow.  Sometimes, even though I live in Florida, I think it would have been best to let the south secede and go their own way.  Of course, the U.S. would probably have had to be giving them foreign aid down through the years.


Florida’s criminal governor Rick Scott, has forbade his minions to use the terms Global Warming or Climate Change.  Wouldn’t want to scare off the tourists walking around downtown Miami in knee-deep water.


Arizona passed a law signed by the governor, an ice-cream CEO, Doug Ducey, which forces doctors to tell women that drug-induced abortions can be reversed even though that is junk science and not true.  It also blocks the purchase of insurance on the Obama care exchange that includes abortion coverage.


Jeb Bush, the guy who screwed up our state (Florida) royally during his time as governor thinks that Obama is not defending NSA spying on US citizens as well as he should.


Scott Walker, the gov of Wisconsin who wants to be president is just plain stupid.  He can handle the office of the presidency, he says, because he was an Eagle Scout.


Everytime Ted Cruz opens his mouth a pile of stupid falls out - not that he’s stupid but he’s full of stupid.  Things would be much better in this country, said Mr. Stupid, if Texas was the U.S. Capital.  He thinks the White House should be moved to Texas.  He didn’t say where in Texas.  Maybe Brownsville?  El Paso?  Mineola?


On Easter Sunday morning at the National Mall, there’s going to be a sunrise service at the Lincoln Memorial.  Pastor Amos Dodge and his Capital Church have done this 36 times times.  The Lord told him to “reclaim America for Jesus.”  Yeah!


There’s a megachurch in New Jersey which has four “campuses” in the area. They plan to hide 100,000 Easter Eggs for the kiddos to find on Easter Sunday morning.  That sounds about right.  What would Jesus do?


Rick Santorum - you remember him…the faux Christian douchebag - says that ISIS is all Obama’s fault.


Texas - Jesus, what a state!  It has the 3rd highest HIV infections in the US, but Repugnican legislators there voted to take $3 mil from the HIV/STD prevention program and give it to abstinence-only sex ed programs.  The latter have been proven not to work, but what the hey, it’s the thought that counts.


Ted Cruz again, cruzin’ to victory.  When he made his coming out speech at the fundy college, Liberty University (which is pretty much a joke kept running at taxpayer expense), he ranted about the educational Common Core standards and how he would repeal “every word” of them.  The problem is there’s nothing to repeal as these standards appear in no federal law. 


Rand Paul, the doctor who won’t take the doctor tests, says he’s against gay rights and gay marriage because…well, he’s against them.  Oh, he wants to be president, too.


There's much more, but I've suddenly got a headache!

Climate Change a Hoax!

Armed Anti-Government Contingent to Swarm Carson City

Armed Anti-Government Contingent To Swarm Carson City On Tuesday

It seems like the best way to celebrate the one year anniversary of the Bundy Ranch Seige: a big Teabag protest where a tax-dodging, bigoted Mormon garnered the sympathy of fellow ammosexual anarchists. In Carson City, tomorrow, the Nevada Assembly will vote on a few controversial bills, one being AB408. Outspoken Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy told…

From White Sheets to Spreadsheets by Greg Palast

From White Sheets to Spreadsheets By Greg Palast for Truthdig I hate to spoil a happy ending. The movie “Selma,” like this week’s commemorations of Martin Luther King Jr.’s march from Selma, Ala., 50 years ago, celebrates America’s giant leap from apartheid. Half a century ago Alabama state troopers and a mob of racist thugs beat African-Americans and others as they marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, demanding no more than the right to vote. By the time King led 25,000 demonstrators singing “We Shall Overcome” into Montgomery, the state capital, on March 24, the president of the United States had introduced the Voting Rights Act. Free at last—to vote. Roll credits. Yet, just a few months ago, Martin Luther King asked me, “How long until African-American citizens of Alabama—and Mississippi and Georgia—get the unimpeded right to vote?” Obviously I was not speaking with King Jr.—a bullet stole him from us in 1968. The question was posed by his son, Martin Luther King III. I spent an afternoon at his home in Atlanta, where we pored over the latest evidence that Americans of color were blocked at the doors to the polls in the 2014 midterm elections—by the hundreds of thousands. As King’s 6-year-old daughter serenaded us with her toy drum set, we dived into a massive, secretive database used by elections officials—almost all of them Republicans—in 28 states. The scheme, called “Interstate Crosscheck,” threatens to disqualify the ballots of over a million voters, overwhelmingly citizens of color. It took six months for my investigations team, in coordination with Al-Jazeera America, to get its hands on the names of those tagged for the voting rights slaughter. According to the GOP officials, these citizens had voted twice in the same election, in two different states—a federal crime. As punishment, their mail-in ballots would be junked and their registrations annulled. But no reporters had seen (or, for that matter, asked for) the lists. State officials, the modern-day equivalents of Bull Connor, refused our requests on grounds that these Americans were all suspects in a criminal investigation and therefore the files were confidential. Nevertheless, we managed to get hunks of the lists—2.1 million names of a total 3.5 million “suspected double voters.” Who are these criminal voters? A typical example: Kevin Antonio Hayes of Durham, N.C., allegedly voted a second time in Virginia as Kevin Thomas Hayes. The Durham Hayes, however, swears to me that he has never used the alias Thomas or set foot in Virginia. Another: James Elmer Barnes Jr. of Georgia allegedly voted a second time as James Cross Barnes III of Arlington, VA. The lists go on like that: huge numbers accused solely on the basis of sharing a first and last name with a voter in another state. It is clear what attracts Republican Katherine Harris wannabes to this absurd method of   Greg Palast's  Billionaires & Ballot Bandits - The Movie (out in 2016) is currently in full production  Support the film by making a tax-deductible donation and earn a screen credit    identifying fraudulent voters. The prevalence of name-sharing among black Americans is a legacy of slavery. The “Crosscheck” name-match game is also a darn good way of knocking off Hispanic voters. (According to the national census, at least 91.5 percent of Americans named Aguirre are Hispanic and, according to Gallup, two out of three vote Democratic). I was suspicious—if Kevin Hayes really voted twice, authorities should have arrested him. They should have arrested 589,393 “criminal double voters” in North Carolina alone. But they busted none. Nevertheless, the officials got what they wanted: For example, enough voters of color were blocked, purged and disqualified to help knock a Democrat out of the U.S. Senate this past November. This situation deeply concerns Martin Luther King III, founder of the Realizing the Dream Foundation. Fifty years after Bloody Sunday and the Voting Rights Act, he said, “The irony is that when you look at Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, where you have significant African-American populations—Mississippi close to 50 percent—those states still have leadership that is totally Republican.” The black vote should have turned those states solid Democratic blue. What happened? Meet the New Jim Crow. Fifty years ago, African-Americans were kept from the polls by the threat of beatings and lynchings. Today, Jim Crow has traded in his white sheets for spreadsheets. He’s Dr. James Crow, systems analyst. His method is lynching by laptop. At the end of the film “Selma” we are told that the brutal, racist county sheriff was tossed out of office by newly enfranchised black voters. True. But today, Dr. James Crow has a magic machine that can reverse the Voting Rights Act. Here’s one example uncovered by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: On the night of Nov. 5, 2002, it appeared that Democrat Gov. Don Siegelman, the favorite of the African-American voters, had won re-election. But at 11 p.m., the white, Republican elections officials of Baldwin County declared they needed to recount the ballots. The county courthouse doors were locked. No press (or black Democrats) were allowed inside. By dawn, the white officials announced they had corrected a “glitch” in the count. Upon recounting, the tally for Siegelman dropped miraculously by 6,334 votes, handing the race to his opponent. Could we see the ballots? Of course not; they were simply tallies on computer files. The files had been “corrected”—and Siegelman, the choice of the black voter, was gone. (Siegelman was warned not to complain. He did—and before long he was imprisoned on corruption charges that Kennedy dismisses as “laughable, ginned up by a cast of crooked GOP attorneys.”) Purging phantasmagorical “double voters” and finding thousands of votes in magical computer systems are but two of the methods at Dr. James Crow’s disposal. Working with Kennedy, I’ve counted nine sophisticated, racially dubious methods for blocking the black vote, costing—by a conservative estimate—5.9 million Americans their voting rights. Despite the glorious story of the Selma march, the truth is that the USA and Old Dixie in particular are marching backward over the bridge. Disenfranchisement—a fancy word for ballot-box apartheid—is worsening, especially since June 2013 when the U.S. Supreme Court nullified key provisions of the Voting Rights Act. It would be wrong and demeaning to the memories of those who gave their lives to this cause—including the fathers of King and Kennedy—to say that we’ve won no voting rights victories. This weekend we can congratulate ourselves on America’s great strides against racism at the ballot box. But let’s remember that Dr. King had to lead a dangerous march from Selma for voting rights that were supposedly guaranteed a century earlier by the 15th Amendment to the Constitution—rights won after 600,000 Americans fought to their deaths between Bull Run and Gettysburg. The struggle for civil and human rights did not begin 50 years ago, and it will not end in another 50. It is a centuries-long story of advance and retreat. And that’s the lesson. The movie’s over, but not The Movement. It is left to us to march over the bridge again. And again. And again.

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Billionaires & Ballot Bandits , The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Armed Madhouse and Vultures' Picnic. Palast's writings on racially-biased vote suppression tactics received the December 2014 Sidney Hillman award for investigative reporting. Support Palast’s renewed investigation into the return of Jim Crow voting tactics. Palast is a Puffin Foundation Fellow for Investigative Reporting. Follow Palast on Twitter | Like Palast on Facebook | Forward to a friend   Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter | Podcasts Share this with    Copyright © 2015 Greg Palast, All rights reserved. You are receiving this Newsletter because you are a subscriber. Our mailing address is: Greg Palast PO Box 90 Greenport, NY 11944

Dan Fisher, et. al. Oklahoma fraudsters and purveyors of nonsense!

Please meet Dan Fisher [pictured above], who along with other nogoodnik Republicans in the Oklahoma State Legislature [Google them] have voted to ban high school Advanced Placement American History classes.  These fraudsters want to bring “God” back into the schools, to teach American “exceptionalism,” that the U.S. was founded by evangelical Christians, that this is a Christian country, evolution is a lie, etc., etc.

Advanced placement courses, which are essentially first-year college courses, ask students to think, to pursue truth, to reason, and not to faint when they discover that the United States is not the “perfect” country, nor is it the Christian “God’s” country, and that it has an assortment of warts comparable to most every other country on this rapidly destabilizing planet earth.  It may be wonderful but is not "exceptional."     

The poem below is for Dan and his friends - purveyors of nonsense and pompous proponents of idiocy - who should never be in positions of authority for they know not whereof they speak and thus promote views antithetical to the American experiment and lies which ill-serve the youth of their state.

Purveyors of Nonsense

You pitiful bastards belong in a zoo
to be poked at, prodded, laughed at too
self-styled warriors for what is untrue
eyes dulled by the wasted days of your youth.

Pompous proponents of nonsensical views,
you promote stupidity, you ignorant fools
you're servants of evil, salacious tools
who take aim at the young - the young you fear -
to cut off their heads in the coming year ...

... terrified of what your children may learn
how your old mythologies deserve to be burned
you right-winged fraudsters in the service of state
would leave to your youth a miserable fate.

Caught up in your propaganda machine
they’ll miss what an education should mean
you fraudsters would force-feed what you think is right
but your ideas won’t stand up to the light ...

... they pervert our nation’s history
and falsify what it means to be free.

Surprise! Bill O'Reilly is a Liar!

It turns out that O'Reilly was not in a war zone in south America, that he did not see combat in the Falklands, that he did not see nuns shot dead, that he was not present when his friend committed suicide, that he really was guilty of sexual harassment...

But why would anyone be surprised at any of O'Reilly's lies.  It has been obvious for years that veracity is not one of his strong points, that he makes things up on the fly, that he is a bully which is how he gets by doing all of this...

He also works for FAUX News, which is not a news organization but the Republican Party's Office of Propaganda.

Personally, I don't care whether he gets fired or not.  FAUX News has a whole stable of other horse's asses ready to take his place.

But it is rather fun to see him so degraded that he has to threaten other real reporters and news people; to see him get red in the face; to see him reduced to blubbering and blathering, to see him sink lower in the slime.

Karma's a bitch, Bill!  Enjoy!

Wisconsin's Guv takes on ISIS in his state

Scott Walker, the nogoodnik governor of Wisconsin, who bows to the the wishes of the Koch Brothers, and whose economic policies (cutting taxes on the rich) have created a huge deficit in the state's budget which Walker intends to fix by reducing or eliminating pensions and other benefits as well as slicing funds for education (the University of Wisconsin will take a $300 million hit)...

...this Walker wants to be prezident of the U.S. of A.  He figures he's qualified and has real foreign policy bona fides because he stood up to and took on the men and women who protested his attempt to bust the unions in Wisconsin (this backward state just passed a "right-to-work" law which will probably do the job).

He's a tough guy, this Walker.  He's proven that because as he said, the union protestors were just like ISIS and if he can take on the unions, well he can handle just about any international crisis!

John Hagee - A Great Pretender!

John Hagee, (who runs a mega-church operation in San Antonio), is a non-Christian pretender of the faith.  I know lots of pastors/preachers who claim to have known Christ since he was a corporal but couldn't pick him out of a line-up comprised of imams and popes.  

In other words, they are phonies!  They are pretenders.  They are hypocrites. They get rich by fooling desperate people and conning them out of their savings.  But their message has nothing to do with the Jesus of the Gospels. Nada!  

Hagee claims to be a student of the Bible but knows very little about it other than the standard fundamentalist crap that insists every word is god's word to the human race, and only people like himself can interpret correctly what it all means.  That's a crock, even if he can quote chapter and verse!

Hagee also claims to have studied world history and he has learned he says, that “the nations that blessed Israel prospered and the nations that cursed Israel were destroyed by the hand of God.”

So, watch out America because translated that means if Obama doesn't bow down and kiss Netanyahu's ass, god’s gonna get the good ol’ US of A!

Jesus Christ!  What mind thinks like this?  Is he of the opinion the Holocaust is a myth and never happened?  

Hitler and the Nazi bastards murdered over 6 million of god's chosen people, Stalin was no piker, either, and both Germany and Russia are doing relatively well today.  Many nations, especially in the Middle East, are decidedly anti-Semitic and prospering!

John Hagee is a moron who preys on the souls of the ignorant and needy.  If there is a hell, he’s sure to slide into the muck and the fire the minute his black heart stops beating!

A Parade of Weirdos and Nogoodniks - mostly Republicans

Pat Robertson, the elderly man of junk science pictured above, opposes mandatory vaccinations because freedom.  He also thinks fluoride in the water could give your kids mumps or measles.  Of course, he also believes Jesus is his savior and when he dies he will live forever at the right hand of God.  

Congressman Sean Duffy (R-Wi) thinks he knows what is best for his children and therefore the government should not force him to vaccinate his kids because freedom.  An “oppressive” state, like these United States under President Obama, doesn't have any right to tell him what to do.

People like Robertson and Duffy are two of the group of monstrous Republican assholes who want to control female reproductive processes because … well, just because they’re assholes and are afraid of women.  On the other hand, using the oppressiveness of the state to ban abortions and contraception is just fine.

In North Carolina, Sen. Thom Tills, a retrograde Repugnican, is against forcing workers at Starbucks to wash their hands after using the bathroom.  Because freedom.  This is the same moron who when he was a state legislator, promoted ID legislation, cuts to unemployment benefits, tax cuts for the rich and restrictions on abortion.

Mike Huckabee:  Same sex marriage is like bacon to Jews.  Huh?  Well, what he said was that a restaurant that has to serve gays is the same as making Jews sell bacon-wrapped shrimp.  This is the same guy who keeps telling the world that states don’t have to follow federal laws they don’t like.  He doesn't seem to have heard about the Civil War and how that ended.  

Rep. Aaron Schock, who thinks he’s god’s gift to women, has redesigned his Congressional office to replicate the manor in the TV series, “Downtown Abbey.” 

Did he need to do this?  No.  Did he pay for it out of his own pocket?  Ha, ha, ha.  Did you and I pay for it with our taxes.  You bet.  Is Schock a putz.  You betcha!

Ron Paul, who claims to be an M.D. said, among other things, that vaccines can lead to mental disorders.  Howard Dean, a Democrat and also an M.D., said Paul’s statement disqualifies him from the Oval Office, because it shows he will deny what he knows to be true in order to win a political campaign.

Gov. Bobby Bob Booby Jindal down Louisiana way, assisted in putting together a specifically Christian spiritual event where people prayed and sang and heard sermons and prayed some more for four horrible hours!  Jindal told the crowd about how he came to Jeebus and insisted that we can “save” the nation only by praying and voting Republican.  We have to repent ‘cause god wants our prayers so we can “fix our nation.”

Poor god.  Evidently he can’t see us struggling down here and doesn’t realize the US of A is going to hell in a handbasket because of sin and stuff.  Or maybe he can see us and just doesn’t give a damn.  So pray, pray, pray - maybe the ol’ god will wake up and do sumthin! 

Or maybe god is mad as hell that Jindal is desecrating our Constitution by engaging is such an event.  He’s not a pastor, he’s a governor of ALL the people of Louisiana whether they be Xtns or Ignostics or Agnostics or Atheists or Muslims or Hindus or Pagans, or god forbid, fundy Christianists... 

The 56th time is gonna be the one!  The House of Representatives, headed by weepy Rep. Boner, has now voted 56 times to repeal Obamacare aka the Affordable Care Act.  Guess what?  They did this even though they know thousands of people will lose their health care if their stupid bill becomes law but they don't give a damn!

Rep. Mo Brooks, a Repug from Alabama, thinks ‘illegal aliens” may be the reason for the recent measles outbreak that started in California.  I think he’s wrong.  I think it’s Jenny McCathy’s fault and the fault of all the men who masturbated to her Playboy centerfold picture.  God's punishing us with measles because of those terrible sins.  Were you one of those, Rep. Brooks?

Ben Carson, who has never held an elective office, thinks that the measles outbreak is because of “undocumented people.”  Is that the same as "illegal aliens"?  Why is it that so many of the MD’s who enter politics are just plain assholes?

“Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me.”  Jesus

Back to Mo Brooks of Alabama.  He doesn’t like Obama’s executive action re immigration and wants the federal courts to find that Obama violated the law. And if it turns out Obama doesn’t withdraw his executive order he might be subject to “the wrath that comes with a contempt citation with potential fines and jail time.”

Here are a few of the problems we face in this country and some suggestions: 

Global warming

The need for clean energy

Regulating Wall Street and the banks

Fixing our infrastructure which is in danger of failing

Providing all the necessary assistance to our veterans so private groups don’t have to take on that responsibility

Deal humanely with the immigration “problem”

Ensure that everyone has adequate health care

Protect the safety nets upon which millions of Americans rely - Social Security, Medicare, Food Stamps, Welfare, etc.

Start closing the gap between the Middle Class and the very rich by taxing the hell out of the rich

Provide much needed funding and assistance to our public schools

Close down charter schools which have been shown to be ineffective 

Stop using taxpayer money for private/religious schools which is unconstitutional

Demand our police departments stop acting like the military 

Demand our police departments return their military equipment 

Make certain that our environment is protected from the predators who would destroy it

Reclaim our western government lands from rapacious ranchers like Clive Bundy who are currently defying the law by grazing cattle on government land, thereby destroying it

Stop pretending the US is “exceptional,” for it is not nor are its people

Reign in the Pentagon and their weapons of death

Force the the CIA to follow the law

Stop the NSA from spying on Americans just because they can

Repeal the Patriot Act which is anything but patriotic

Put an immediate end to fracking 

Reverse the Supreme Court ruling that corporations are “people” and thus have the rights of people under the Constitution 

Design comprehensive campaign finance reform

Stop pretending the 2nd amendment is a blank check for anyone who wants to carry any kind of gun and pass sensible gun control and close the loopholes

Let's be clear.  These are real problems that need real solutions now!  What has our Republican Congress (the only branch of government that can create laws!) done about them over the past six years?  Nada.  Nothing!

Kentucky.  Ken Ham, creationist wingnut of Answers in Genesis is trying to build a theme park - Ark Encounter - with a real big Noah’s Ark.  The State of Kentucky had planned to provide $18 in incentives ‘cause you know, tourists.

But then Ham and his ignorant cohorts wanted a special exception so they could discriminate and hire only employees who shared their creationist views.  The State of K said no, you can’t do that.  So Ham, et. al. is suing the State of K, insisting that not allowing him to discriminate is discrimination on the part of the State.  

This is one of the strangest invocation and prayers you ever will see.  June Griffin, a "longtime crusader for Christian values," gave the opening prayer for the Tennessee Senate this morning. After taking special prayer requests, she went right into a downright bizarre prayer to end any effort to expand Medicaid in Tennessee (thanks to the Nashville Scene for the transcript):

I pray for the people of Tennessee who have been so downtrodden by the wicked courts from on high that they have been subject to tyrannical judiciary. And I pray that you would save Tennessee from the edicts of Washington DC that would go against the plain wishes of the people of Tennessee, particularly pertaining to the 9th and 10th Amendment. 

I pray that you would sanctify this state, that it would be holy and would be a leader among the other states. That they would see that there is a God that lives, that you love the people of Tennessee. That you gave your life that we might be saved from our sins. I pray that you would forgive the many sins of carelessness or lethargy or desperation. The compromises. 

Oh lord save Tennessee for Jesus sake, and I pray that your will would be done that you would be our coverage, that we would not be forced into these edicts from Washington DC or any other quarter, but let the people know that our coverage is the same as with Moses and the children of Israel when they went through the wilderness with only the divine providence of almighty God. 

So I pray that everywhere there are meetings, and there is considerations and deliberations, that you would give these men and women who have been elected, give them the backbone and the remembrance of the Tennessee Declaration of Rights, Article 1, Section 2 — we are ordered to resist arbitrary power.

[I'm sorry, I can't remember where I got the above.  The Griffin is a freak and a prayer like this never ever should happen in a political legislature in this country!] 

Scott Walker, the Koch Brothers' puppet governor of Wisconsin, has, through his “help the rich get richer” shenanigans, created a $2.2 billion deficit.  Now, he’s decided he must cut some programs.  So, the University of Wisconsin is getting a $300 million cut.  However, Walker also wants to build a sports stadium which will cost multi-millions of dollars.The man’s an idiot and a true nogoodnik.  The people of Wisconsin have elected him twice and therefore deserve what they’re getting.  It’s just all so sad.

Brandon Browner is a football player with the NE Patriots.  He got miffed awhile back when President Obama didn’t mention him in person when the team met with the president last year.  What gall.  He plays football.  Football is a game!  He does nothing for the betterment of society or our country.  Who the hell cares and who the hell would miss him if he suddenly decided to concentrate on ballet?

Obama tells it like it is at National Prayer Breakfast and the rightwing nuts go nuts!  The NPB is a joke, anyway, and should be tossed in the garbage where it belongs!  It’s a gathering for fundamentalists to pray for our godless president and whine that god’s gonna destroy the country because Obama and homos.   President Obama should tell the wingnuts he’s not going to attend and give any credence to their stupidity.  But in his speech, he mentioned that ISIS was bad and noted that Christians have done bad things, too, and perhaps a little humility is in order. 

Oh, boy.  He obviously hates Christianity and is now blaming ISIS on the Crusades says a witless Michelle Malkin.  The other creeps that crawled out of their dark spaces said much the same thing.  Dereck Hale was outraged by Obama’s defense of Islamic violence by attacking Christianity.  These so-called Christians are anything but and will use any means possible to vilify the president.

Back to Alabama.  What a great state this is.  There must be more nimrods, morons, rednecks and just plain stupid people there than in any other state - well, except for South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, Loosiana,Texas, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee…and maybe even Florida! 

One of the 'Bama morons is a Public Services Commissioner for the state by name of Chip Beeker.  Good ol’ boy Chip says measles is caused by same-sex marriage.  And America is failing because Obama, taking god out of public schools, socialism, daycares in public schools, moral decline, blah, blah, blah.

Years ago I liked Larry Gatlin.  Then he found Jeebus and became a total asshole.  Now he went to FAUX News where his good buddies hang out and told them about a song he was gonna write about assaulting a black lawmaker because the lawmaker insulted Larry’s state, the State of Texas.  Jest gonna beat the crap out of that liberal! 

What’s with these Christians who are just aching to beat up on anyone who doesn’t agree with them or doesn’t bow down and kiss their holy asses?

I’ve never much liked Brian Williams - too much of a Ken of the Ken and Barbie duo.  Brian needs badly to be important and to hang around with the rich and famous and he works for NBC, of course, which is one of our largest corporate monstrosities which claims to be a news station but is mostly a place where Republican politicians can regurgitate their hate for Obama and socialism.   

Brian, who promotes a squeaky-clean image, has feet of clay like the rest of us.  He lied about being in a helicopter that was shot down in 2003 in Iraq.  Williams has apologized for that lie. 

Hmmm.  Could he have made other stuff up like when during Katrina he saw a body float by his hotel window in New orleans or that his 5-star hotel was overrun with gangs while he was sick and he was rescued in a stairwell by a cop? 

It’s the squeaky-clean ones that get you every time!

And that's the way it is on this February 5, 2015.