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Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Dan Maes and Teapot Crackpots
[Photo of Dan Maes taken from his website which you can look up for yourself if you like pain.]I've been around a long time and I'm getting old. Maybe that's why it's hard for me to understand what is happening in the good ol' US of A.
In my youth I was taught to believe in my country because of its inherent concern for truth and justice and its devotion to democracy - the whole notion of government of the people, by the people, for the people. Americans, my elders said, stuck together, cared for each other, and tried to ensure everyone got a fair shake.
Hah! As any historian knows, that is bullshit. Those things may have been the ideals upon which the country was based, but it has never lived up to them. From the very beginning it has been a fight to keep the elitists, the rich, the corporatists and the religionists from taking control and turning the nation into their own fiefdom!
But, and this is important, Americans, in the past, often pretended to want to do the right thing. Few politicians anywhere would dare step into the public eye to say he or she didn't care about the poor or the unemployed. Even fewer would stand on a soap box and brag about being wholly owned by various corporations. And with the exception of certain southerners, members of Congress were generally quite careful when it came to making racist statements.
Today, that reticence has all changed, particularly on the Republican side of the aisle. The Republican Party has, for the past couple of decades, bared its soul and there's nothing there! It is bereft of character and its innards are rotting in a core of hate and spite wrapped up in a boiling brew of religious idiocy and racism that will, if the GOP has its way, bring our president and country down. The Republican Party has become, in its current incarnation, quite similar to the Afghanistan Taliban. Read the platform of the Texas Republicans. Or read this.
Which brings me to the Teapot Crackpots, most of whom are so damn dumb they have no idea they are being supported, sponsored and manipulated by the billionaire Koch brothers who want nothing more than to destroy President Obama! (For more on Charles and David Koch, go to Jim Hightower's website here.)
(The following comes from Think Progress, via AlterNet.)
Denver, Colorado has, since 1992, been a member of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, "an ... association that promotes sustainable development and has attracted the membership of more than 1,200 communities, 600 of which are in the United States."
That's the first part of the story. The second part has to do with Denver's mayor, John Hickenlooper. Hickenlooper is a Democrat and is running for governor of Colorado. A few months ago, Hickenlooper started a bike sharing program which has been a big success. One would think he would earn some plaudits for his efforts, even from those who are mentally challenged.
But no! A Repugnican by name of Dan Maes (also running for governor) thinks the bike program is part of a sinister plot to turn "Denver into a United Nations community." It's a hidden conspiracy which "will be exposed," says Maes. Yessiree. Hickenlooper is part of a dastardly UN plot to destroy our beloved country!
Now, not only is Maes probably insane, but he may be crooked as a shepherd's staff, too. The resume posted on his website seems to be "inaccurate," or as he says, "out of date." In other words, it's full of lies. See more on that here.
Not surprisingly, Maes is a darling of the Tea Party crackpots. Soulless and stupid, Maes epitomizes the Repugnican Party in 2010.
And here is a group of rightwing freaks, scary as all hell, who are endorsing Maes for governor.
You might want to run for cover!
The Colbert Report - Laura Ingraham
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Laura Ingraham | ||||
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A few nights ago, wandering through a Barnes & Noble, I espied a "new" book by the hateful, far-right lover of god, Ms. Weirdness, Laura Ingraham. The book? Oh, yes, it's called The Obama Diaries. Needless, to say, but I will anyway, it is all fiction, and consists of the mindless meanderings of Ms. Ingraham's overtaxed brain, mindless meanderings, often racist in character, which she attributes to our president.
It continually amazes me how these christianist creepos (Ingraham is a "devout" Catholic, which could mean most anything these days!) who claim to be all for Jesus and God's rule in our country simply ignore most everything their legendary Jesus said and did as recorded in the fictional Gospels.
One big no-no which would sink Ingraham at the Pearly Gates is the instruction not to bear false witness. Oops. Obviously, she doesn't believe in hell. If she did she would not write malicious attacks on the president of the United States.
Matthew 19:18 - "Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not give false evidence; etc..."
Go to hell, Ms. Ingraham!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
World Changers suing Collier County (FL) school district
"Aw, jeez Ma, World Changers ain't allowed to pass out Bibles to the students in my school anymore on Religious Freedom Day. Whatever are we gonna do?"
"Well, I'll tell ya, sonny, we is gonna sic that God-fearing Liberty Counsel on their evil little asses!"
Yep, and that's what has happened. Down in Collier County, Florida. World Changers of Florida, based in Tamarac, Florida, is your typical fundamentalist bunch of christianist wackos who want to remake the US of A into a wacko fundamentalist christian country where everybody loves Jesus or else!
World Changers, having the "Truth", naturally believes it is their right to distribute Christian propaganda (the Protestant version of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament) to students in the Collier County school district.
And they used to get by with it. Until 2008 when the Collier County school said enough. No more. Take your bibles elsewhere. Shove 'em up your ass. Nah, they didn't say that, but they should have.
World Changers, being head-bangers for Jesus and the 12 apostles (whoever they were) and the sainted Paul and Peter and other sundry folks from the first century common era, hired a "Christian" legal firm, Liberty Counsel to sue the school district. Yes, they did, based on the skewed notion that World Changers has certain rights, such as the right to promote their particular religious views to the children in Collier County. I mean there is no such thing as "separation of church and state" in the Constitution, right?
Wrong.
So Liberty Counsel, founded by the nogoodnik christianist goofball, Matt Staver, is arguing that if other groups like Little League, 4-H, and the YMCA can hand out their literature to students, World Changers should be able to hand out their literature (the Bible) too!
It's their "right," they claim.
Yeah, right! It's not their "right." It crosses the sacred line dividing church and state and is thus forbidden by our Constitution! Bibles do not belong anywhere near our public schools. My God, there's a damn church on almost every corner of every street in every city and town in the state of Florida. They've all got Bibles. If a kid needs a Bible, he or she would have no trouble finding one!
But public schools are "public" schools, not captive audiences for christianist fools who want to impose their cranky beliefs on the students! No religious literature of any kind should be distributed to public school students.
Let's turn this around. Suppose a Muslim group insisted it was their "right" to pass out copies of the Koran to public school students in Collier County. Do you think Liberty Counsel and World Changers would be banging on the legal doors demanding the Muslims be granted that "right"?
Hell, no.
God don't like them Muslim folks. Jesus died for Amurricans!
[The info for this rant came from an article by Adrienne S. Gaines at Charisma magazine which you can read here.]
And you can read all about World Banger, er, World Changers here.
Rachel Maddow - Obstinate GOP removes jobs from jobs bill
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Welcome To This World
This is the kind of crap that is taught in fundamentalist Christian churches day after day after day! Which would be fine except that those children taught this crap grow up and become senators and representatives and some of them want to become president so they can force their sick beliefs upon all citizens of the United States.
h/t to Gods is for Suckers.
Keith Olbermann - Tea party candidate runs on 'non-whites' platform
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But no, there aren't any racists in the Tea party pot!
Sarah ain't goin' to the weddin'
Seems like Bristol Palin and the father of her baby, Levi Johnston, are gonna tie the knot in August. Bristol's daddy, Todd, according to "sources," plans to walk his daughter down the aisle.
But mommy Sarah, former governor of Alaska who quit before her term was up, ain't gonna attend. Nope. She ain't goin'!
Probably too busy hunting mooses or liburals!
Dontcha jest love her family values!
Michele Bachmann the Welfare Queen
This from Joshua Holland at AlterNet.Michele Bachmann, the Republican goofball from Minnesota, is a Tea Party "darlin" and an anti-government broomstick.
She's also one of the world's biggest hypocrites. Or, let's just call her a Welfare Queen!
As Holland points out:
1. She is paid by the U.S. Government - that "big" government that she hates so much. Not enough, of course, to turn down her paycheck, though.
2. And every year, Ms. Bachmann receives over $200,000 in farm subsidies "for her family's agriculture operation" from that big government that she hates. Or as Holland reminds us, "she hates the way government takes care of people."
3. Plus, she is involved in another "family" business, Bachmann and Associates, Inc., a "Christian" counseling service. And I'll be damned if she hasn't "claimed nearly another $30k in 'big government' payouts for this business. That in spite of the fact that this counseling center is openly Christian. No wonder she likes to claim there is no separation of church and state in the US of A.
You can read the entire Holland piece here.
The Real U.S. Government - by Glenn Greenwald
One might say the U.S. Government is out of control. Not, however, in the manner described by the Tea Party crackpots and those goofballs who point to the president and scream "Obamunist"!
Mr. Greenwald, in an article at Salon.com, references a Washington Post investigative series by Dana Priest and William Arkin which describes "the sprawling, unaccountable, inexorably growing secret U.S. Government," which Priest and Arkin dub "Top Secret America."
Greenwald called attention to our secretive government about a week ago "when writing about the Obama administration's escalating war on whistle blowers:
"'Most of what the U.S. Government does of any significance -- literally -- occurs behind a vast wall of secrecy, completely unknown to the citizenry....Secrecy is the religion of the political class, and the prime enabler of its corruption. That's why whistle blowers are among the most hated heretics. They're one of the very few classes of people able to shed a small amount of light on what actually takes place.'"
In his Salon article, Greenwald quotes the first sentence in the WaPo series:
"The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work."
What we have here is "an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight."
Thus, says Greenwald, "We chirp endlessly about the Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court, the Democrats and Republicans, but this is the Real U.S. Government: functioning in total darkness, beyond elections and parties, so secret, vast and powerful that it evades the control or knowledge of any one person or even any organization."
Greenwald further comments on one of my major concerns -- that government is increasingly owned by the private corporatists and operated for the sake of those corporatists with little or no concern for "we the people." Speaking of the "secret world" that is our government, Greenwald says, "This world is so vast, secretive and well-funded that it's very difficult to imagine how it could ever be brought under control. That's particularly true given its inextricable intertwining with the private sector: the billions upon billions of dollars funneled from the Government to its private-sector 'partners' .... "
How this works out in practice becomes painfully obvious when Roger Altman, investment banker, insists the only way to bring Obama and the business community together is "if the political class is willing to 'fix Social Security' -- i.e., to slash Americans' retirement security."
Greenwald quotes George Carlin: "And now, they're coming for your Social Security money - they want your fucking retirement money - they want it back - so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all from you sooner or later. Because they own this fucking place. It's a Big Club: and you're not in it."
At this point I have not seen the Priest and Arkin series. Only the first installment has been run. But I intend to do so, especially after reading Greenwald's article.
And, as Greenwald points out, it really isn't important if Sarah Palin can't spell or read or write. Unfortunately, however, our media will obsess about the tweets from the twit from Alaska, while ignoring the real story which is in process of being written behind our backs by those in the Big Club in Washington!
Please read Greenwald's entire article here.
Mr. Greenwald, in an article at Salon.com, references a Washington Post investigative series by Dana Priest and William Arkin which describes "the sprawling, unaccountable, inexorably growing secret U.S. Government," which Priest and Arkin dub "Top Secret America."
Greenwald called attention to our secretive government about a week ago "when writing about the Obama administration's escalating war on whistle blowers:
"'Most of what the U.S. Government does of any significance -- literally -- occurs behind a vast wall of secrecy, completely unknown to the citizenry....Secrecy is the religion of the political class, and the prime enabler of its corruption. That's why whistle blowers are among the most hated heretics. They're one of the very few classes of people able to shed a small amount of light on what actually takes place.'"
In his Salon article, Greenwald quotes the first sentence in the WaPo series:
"The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work."
What we have here is "an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight."
Thus, says Greenwald, "We chirp endlessly about the Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court, the Democrats and Republicans, but this is the Real U.S. Government: functioning in total darkness, beyond elections and parties, so secret, vast and powerful that it evades the control or knowledge of any one person or even any organization."
Greenwald further comments on one of my major concerns -- that government is increasingly owned by the private corporatists and operated for the sake of those corporatists with little or no concern for "we the people." Speaking of the "secret world" that is our government, Greenwald says, "This world is so vast, secretive and well-funded that it's very difficult to imagine how it could ever be brought under control. That's particularly true given its inextricable intertwining with the private sector: the billions upon billions of dollars funneled from the Government to its private-sector 'partners' .... "
How this works out in practice becomes painfully obvious when Roger Altman, investment banker, insists the only way to bring Obama and the business community together is "if the political class is willing to 'fix Social Security' -- i.e., to slash Americans' retirement security."
Greenwald quotes George Carlin: "And now, they're coming for your Social Security money - they want your fucking retirement money - they want it back - so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all from you sooner or later. Because they own this fucking place. It's a Big Club: and you're not in it."
At this point I have not seen the Priest and Arkin series. Only the first installment has been run. But I intend to do so, especially after reading Greenwald's article.
And, as Greenwald points out, it really isn't important if Sarah Palin can't spell or read or write. Unfortunately, however, our media will obsess about the tweets from the twit from Alaska, while ignoring the real story which is in process of being written behind our backs by those in the Big Club in Washington!
Please read Greenwald's entire article here.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Keith Olbermann - Beck University (ha, ha, ha, ha!)
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In this segment, Keith and his guest demolish Beck's pretensions and polish the sheen of his ignorance.
Keith Olbermann - Beck Worst Person in the World
From Crooks and Liars:
Keith Olbermann shoots down Glenn Beck's hackery for claiming that there's a conspiracy theory because he can't seem to find any footage of the late Sen. Robert Byrd filibustering the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in his Worst Persons segment.
Olbermann: Live television coverage of the Senate floor didn’t begin until June 2, 1986. T.V. cameras were not permitted onto the Senate floor until Dec. 1974 and were then used only to broadcast the swearing in of Vice President Rockefeller. Prior to that T.V. or film cameras were never permitted on the Senate floor, only occasionally in committee hearing rooms. No cameras as the Civil Rights Act debate of 1964.
And maybe it’s not necessary for Glenn Beck to know this obvious fact of the history of his own profession, nor for Tiffany to and it’s nice she got work after the singing career fizzled out by the way. But the answer to his fulmination is available on Google by typing in “Senate televised” and waiting, you know, two seconds!
Founding a university… this guy is not qualified to found a Magic 8-Ball. Lonesome Rhodes “Where’s the film of Congressman Brooks caning Senator Sumner in 1857? Huh? Huh? The communists stole it” Beck, todays Worst Person in the World!
Runners up were Sen. Jim DeMint for embarrassing the state of South Carolina again and Mel Gibson for making more idiotic bigoted comments.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
How the American people are conned, used and abused
This is a guest post by Bob Poris.
The New York Times has a very important article on how the oil companies are reaping billions of dollars in subsidies. Talk about corporate welfare! Read it here.
In addition to this article you may wish to read the current Time magazine story on the cost of lobbying; how it works to change legislation before it is voted on in ways that are not read before being voted upon! The lobbying industry saves many industries and companies BILLIONS in taxes each year, forever.
The starting date of the new laws are often delayed a year or two, before becoming effective, which saves BILLIONS TOO. The turnover of young people working for a few years as bureaucrats and then being hired as lobbyists at very high salaries is usually only a few years! We now have thousands of registered lobbyists, where we used to have a few hundred.
Lobbyists also dole out campaign funds to both sides of the aisle which essentially allows them to write the laws; guarantees they will be voted into law and and further gives them the inside track on avoiding or redefining laws they dislike once said laws have been enacted.
Lobbyists for big business number in the thousands; lobbyists for consumers number about three people!
No wonder we have such inequities and the consumer or average tax payer is picking up the bill! We pay whatever the tax code demands while corporations pay from zero to a fraction of actual profits!!!!!
The Tea Party folks and anti tax public is being taken to the cleaners every day. Our large industries paid billions to prevent health care reform and banking reform. We the people end up subsidizing the entire oil industry, the transportation industry, the clean air industry; anti
pollution efforts, even car dealers among others. It is mind boggling and it works!!!
We, the tax payers have very few resources or people with which to even try to compete with the special interests that use the media, campaign financing, corruption, and huge law
firms, etc., to perpetuate their goals. We are manipulated by them in many ways and they are skilled at appealing to our ignorance and our emotions. They form organizations with great sounding names, set up rallies with preprinted placards, organize the transportation, write the scripts that people shout out at public meetings, etc., all designed to whip up anger and hatred of just about everything.
Most people could care less about inheritance taxes on estates of over a million dollars. But when the discussion was changed by the words, "death tax," a lot of folks became terribly agitated. The same kind of thing happened when it was suggested we increase taxes for those earning over $250,000 a year. The great majority in this country earn less than $100,000.
These corporate funders of anti-government sentiment use wonderful bumper stickers that
have little to do with the average person. And the latest attack is now focused on Medicare and Social Security in another attempt to privatize, which means we may well lose everything if the stock market tanks again! Bush tried the privatization route and it almost worked. Think where most of us would be if he had been successful!
The New York Times has a very important article on how the oil companies are reaping billions of dollars in subsidies. Talk about corporate welfare! Read it here.
In addition to this article you may wish to read the current Time magazine story on the cost of lobbying; how it works to change legislation before it is voted on in ways that are not read before being voted upon! The lobbying industry saves many industries and companies BILLIONS in taxes each year, forever.
The starting date of the new laws are often delayed a year or two, before becoming effective, which saves BILLIONS TOO. The turnover of young people working for a few years as bureaucrats and then being hired as lobbyists at very high salaries is usually only a few years! We now have thousands of registered lobbyists, where we used to have a few hundred.
Lobbyists also dole out campaign funds to both sides of the aisle which essentially allows them to write the laws; guarantees they will be voted into law and and further gives them the inside track on avoiding or redefining laws they dislike once said laws have been enacted.
Lobbyists for big business number in the thousands; lobbyists for consumers number about three people!
No wonder we have such inequities and the consumer or average tax payer is picking up the bill! We pay whatever the tax code demands while corporations pay from zero to a fraction of actual profits!!!!!
The Tea Party folks and anti tax public is being taken to the cleaners every day. Our large industries paid billions to prevent health care reform and banking reform. We the people end up subsidizing the entire oil industry, the transportation industry, the clean air industry; anti
pollution efforts, even car dealers among others. It is mind boggling and it works!!!
We, the tax payers have very few resources or people with which to even try to compete with the special interests that use the media, campaign financing, corruption, and huge law
firms, etc., to perpetuate their goals. We are manipulated by them in many ways and they are skilled at appealing to our ignorance and our emotions. They form organizations with great sounding names, set up rallies with preprinted placards, organize the transportation, write the scripts that people shout out at public meetings, etc., all designed to whip up anger and hatred of just about everything.
Most people could care less about inheritance taxes on estates of over a million dollars. But when the discussion was changed by the words, "death tax," a lot of folks became terribly agitated. The same kind of thing happened when it was suggested we increase taxes for those earning over $250,000 a year. The great majority in this country earn less than $100,000.
These corporate funders of anti-government sentiment use wonderful bumper stickers that
have little to do with the average person. And the latest attack is now focused on Medicare and Social Security in another attempt to privatize, which means we may well lose everything if the stock market tanks again! Bush tried the privatization route and it almost worked. Think where most of us would be if he had been successful!
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