Saturday, October 30, 2010
Minnesota Teapot Crackpot knows not the Constitution
[Photo of U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D. Minn.] Judson Philips, said to be the founder of the Tea Party Nation, doesn't believe Muslims should be able to hold political office in the United States.
Mr. Philips sent out a letter in which he urged his followers to support the Republican candidate for the seat in the U.S. House of Representatives currently held by Keith Ellison, who is a Muslim.
One of the reasons people should not vote for Mr. Ellison saith Mr. Philips is because of his religion - his Muslim faith.
Ellison was elected by the people of Minnesota to the U.S. House in 2007. And he is a Muslim. In the time since he was first send to Washington, he has not destroyed the Congress, the presidency, the Pentagon, the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial. You wonder what the hell he's been doing there!
Philips, however, is an ignoramus. Echoing the cries of other teapot crackpots and morons like Newt Gingrich (who is not an ignoramus, but a dangerous lying dirtbag) Philips proves he is unfamiliar with our Constitution which specifically states there shall be no religious test for office.
Either that (he's an ignoramus) or he doesn't care what the Constitution says, which is worse, I suppose, because that would make Philips and his cohorts subversives engaged in treason.
But what else other than mindless demagoguery can one expect from members of the Teapot Crackpot Tea Party?
Muslims are a great danger in Oklahoma
Some of Oklahoma's politicians are just plain weird. The tend to be Very Conservative, Jesus-loving folks, which means they think God created everything that exists in six days, that they love guns and big bizness, and that they don't want no damn guv'mint to tell 'em what to do!
A few of Oklahoma's politicos are not very bright, either. Tom Coburn, who got hisself elected to the U.S. Senate, don't believe in global warming. No sirree, he calls global warming stuff a "pile of crap." I guess he would know a lot about crap 'cause every time he open his mouth more of it comes out to pollute our good earth!
In the state legislature, you'll find lots of wanna-be Coburns. And some have a good chance of attaining that goal - they are dumb enuf!
For example, back in June, the legislature, by an overwhelming majority, passed a law banning the use of Sharia law by Oklahoma judges and/or courts. This law will be voted on by the state's constituents next Tuesday. And it has the endorsement of none other than Newt Gingrich, that bastion of adulterous knowledge and common sense. Oh, stop laughing!
The danger of Sharia law being used in Oklahoma has the state's politicos' shorts tied in a knot. They probably don't sleep at night worrying about this problem. What they should be worried about, of course, is global warming!
I've got to admit it is funny. According to Harper's Magazine, Oklahoma's population is 0.81 Muslim! I recently drove through western Oklahoma. You can go 100 miles and not see anyone, much less a Muslim!
Such is the state of American politics today. Wacko!
The Great Predicament Facing Obama - by Jan Frel and Lawrence Goodwyn
This is a must-read for Democrats, democrats, and progressives of whatever stripe.
The article, "The Great Predicament Facing Obama," by Jan Frel and Lawrence Goodwyn, is a superb summary of what democracy in America means, what the GOP stands for, criminal bankers, the corporate threat to our well-being and the potential of President Obama.
Goodwyn, a noted historian, takes the "long view": "In my opinion, the energy among the democratic faithful to make the journey is still there. While ordinary folks have been put through a lot, do not underestimate the resolve that remains for the long haul. Unanticipated poverty is an enormous energizer -- and most of all for people who understand their fate to be utterly undeserved. In due course they will see through the sleight of hand and empty content embedded in corporate sound bites."
It appears Goodwyn is basing this "long view" on the notion that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. Thus, "...it will become increasing transparent in the coming year that the politics of the GOP is absolutely incoherent. Much of the Republican tent is simply flapping in the breeze behind a cascade of public lies."
To the Democrats, Goodwyn says "buck up!" "[...] long-term despair is unwarranted for Democrats. They need to harness their poise and undertake to be politically creative not just right now but for the next six years."
Goodwyn takes on the bankers and their industry. He underestimated, he says, "the capacity for sheer greed that drives American banking." In the banking industry there is no sense "of the cornerstone of [the] American democratic experience itself: the sense that a majority of us have had -- have always had -- that we are in this together.
"Bankers are not with the rest of us on this. Perhaps they have never been. All exceptions freely conceded, but the general reality still holds: they are killing the promise of this republic."
Obama has the very difficult task of trying to deal with the residue of the GOP's massive corruption resulting from their betrothal to their corporate masters. Those people Goodwn calls the "movers and shakers" want it all and believe "that they and they alone shall brandish the keys" to running the country. But, there's a problem. They "have way too much blood on their hands. The GOP can't be specific about it, of course, because it is their blood, too. So we have a national campaign that is now fully in place and fully operational. It is also fully fraudulent."
The blood on the hands of the GOP derives most recently from the years of Bush II - the destruction of a "balanced budget" to give the rich a trillion-dollar tax cut; the phony war in Iraq based upon Cheney's lies which cost another trillion; the prescription drug benefit (which benefited the drug companies) costing "more trillions"; and financial deregulation which fed the greed and avarice of the financial/banking industry.
And now "The entire country is ... experiencing the GOP's nationwide cover-up in the form of a suffocating blanket of television commercials that warps recent history ... "
Goodwyn reminds us of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, "the most radical single judicial decision in American history." This decision ushers in "a new form of American political propaganda, anonymous in origin, corporate-financed, and delivered with blanketing determination to every corner of the nation. In size and substance it is a campaign of deception that is without comparison since the creation of the republic."
The good news, says Goodwyn, is that "it probably dooms the Republican Party by yoking the GOP to a permanent defense of financial deregulation and the liberation of central banks from a connecting relationship to the surrounding national economy. It says goodbye to the unemployed millions. It says goodbye to 'we're in this thing together.'"
But Goodwyn sees light at the end of the tunnel. He offers a way out by walking us through some American history, by providing fascinating insights on our great American personages such as Thomas Jefferson,
Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt and by helping us understand the promise and potential of Barack Obama's presidency.
You can read it all here.
For more on Mr. Goodwyn, click here.
The article, "The Great Predicament Facing Obama," by Jan Frel and Lawrence Goodwyn, is a superb summary of what democracy in America means, what the GOP stands for, criminal bankers, the corporate threat to our well-being and the potential of President Obama.
Goodwyn, a noted historian, takes the "long view": "In my opinion, the energy among the democratic faithful to make the journey is still there. While ordinary folks have been put through a lot, do not underestimate the resolve that remains for the long haul. Unanticipated poverty is an enormous energizer -- and most of all for people who understand their fate to be utterly undeserved. In due course they will see through the sleight of hand and empty content embedded in corporate sound bites."
It appears Goodwyn is basing this "long view" on the notion that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. Thus, "...it will become increasing transparent in the coming year that the politics of the GOP is absolutely incoherent. Much of the Republican tent is simply flapping in the breeze behind a cascade of public lies."
To the Democrats, Goodwyn says "buck up!" "[...] long-term despair is unwarranted for Democrats. They need to harness their poise and undertake to be politically creative not just right now but for the next six years."
Goodwyn takes on the bankers and their industry. He underestimated, he says, "the capacity for sheer greed that drives American banking." In the banking industry there is no sense "of the cornerstone of [the] American democratic experience itself: the sense that a majority of us have had -- have always had -- that we are in this together.
"Bankers are not with the rest of us on this. Perhaps they have never been. All exceptions freely conceded, but the general reality still holds: they are killing the promise of this republic."
Obama has the very difficult task of trying to deal with the residue of the GOP's massive corruption resulting from their betrothal to their corporate masters. Those people Goodwn calls the "movers and shakers" want it all and believe "that they and they alone shall brandish the keys" to running the country. But, there's a problem. They "have way too much blood on their hands. The GOP can't be specific about it, of course, because it is their blood, too. So we have a national campaign that is now fully in place and fully operational. It is also fully fraudulent."
The blood on the hands of the GOP derives most recently from the years of Bush II - the destruction of a "balanced budget" to give the rich a trillion-dollar tax cut; the phony war in Iraq based upon Cheney's lies which cost another trillion; the prescription drug benefit (which benefited the drug companies) costing "more trillions"; and financial deregulation which fed the greed and avarice of the financial/banking industry.
And now "The entire country is ... experiencing the GOP's nationwide cover-up in the form of a suffocating blanket of television commercials that warps recent history ... "
Goodwyn reminds us of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, "the most radical single judicial decision in American history." This decision ushers in "a new form of American political propaganda, anonymous in origin, corporate-financed, and delivered with blanketing determination to every corner of the nation. In size and substance it is a campaign of deception that is without comparison since the creation of the republic."
The good news, says Goodwyn, is that "it probably dooms the Republican Party by yoking the GOP to a permanent defense of financial deregulation and the liberation of central banks from a connecting relationship to the surrounding national economy. It says goodbye to the unemployed millions. It says goodbye to 'we're in this thing together.'"
But Goodwyn sees light at the end of the tunnel. He offers a way out by walking us through some American history, by providing fascinating insights on our great American personages such as Thomas Jefferson,
Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt and by helping us understand the promise and potential of Barack Obama's presidency.
You can read it all here.
For more on Mr. Goodwyn, click here.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
A Day in the Life of a Teabagger
What it does is show the Teapot Crackpots don't have a clue as to what they're talking about!
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A TEABAGGER
The Teabagger gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised. All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now The Teabagger gets it too.
He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. The Teabagger's bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry. The Teabagger takes his morning shower reaching for his shampoo; His bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount of its contents because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained. The Teabagger dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some tree- hugging liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air.
The Teabagger begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay, medicals benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards The Teabagger's employer pays these standards because The Teabagger's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. If The Teabagger is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some liberal didn't think he should loose his home because of his temporary misfortune.
It's noon time, The Teabagger needs to make a Bank Deposit so he can pay some bills. The Teabagger's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some liberal wanted to protect The Teabagger's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression. The Teabagger has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten Mortgage and his below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided that The Teabagger and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.
The Teabagger is home from work, he plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to dad's; his car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electric until some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification. (Those rural Republicans would still be sitting in the dark) He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so The Teabagger wouldn't have to.
After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home. He turns on a radio talk show, the host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good.
(What that talk show host does not tell The Teabagger is that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit The Teabagger enjoys throughout his day.)
The ignorant Teabagger agrees with the radio talk show host: "We don't need those big government liberals ruining our lives," he mutters to himself.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Obama says Fox News is bad, bad, bad
[AP photo from the Huffington Post]And it's about time!
I don't think Faux (Fox) News should be shut down. The people that run this miserable excuse for a "news" station have the same free speech rights as do the rest of us. But that shouldn't mean they are free from criticism, or their perfidy go unremarked, nor should the fact that they have become the equivalent of a country crushing bulldozer...all in pursuit of the almighty dollar...be ignored.
It was in Rolling Stone that President Obama noted that the point of view promoted by Faux News "is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world."
That was, in my opinion, a very mild criticism, and I'm sure Mr. Obama felt a certain constraint when making his comment. He could have said much more. He could have said that not only in Faux News not "fair and balanced" as they love to claim, but the outlet is nothing more than a propaganda machine for the vilest and craziest politicos in our country. Day after day they do nothing but spew garbage all of which is geared toward one goal - bringing down Obama and the Democratic Party.
Perhaps other progressives and sane people still able to reason will follow Obama's example and begin to call Faux News what it really is and put a stop to its menacing steamroller of lies and destruction!
Internet freedom and you
Why is it that the dipshits we elect to Congress think they have the right to limit our freedoms?
I'm not referring to the kinds of things the teapot crackpots get all worked up about, such as not having to pay their fair share of taxes or insisting that the very rich get huge tax breaks, or that Obama is a Muslim and trying to impose Sharia law in this country, or that we should have people who believe in Jesus in charge, blah, blah, blah.
I'm talking about the tendency of the "freedom-loving" right-wingers on both sides of the aisle to mess around with our personal lives via disallowing abortions or gay marriage (and at least one of the teapot crackpots looking to become a senator thinks everyone in the USA should refrain from having sex at all [Christine O'Donnell], and to tear up the Constitution by giving the government the right to wiretap our conversations, photograph our driving methods, build huge data banks on every citizen in the country (for what purpose?), etc.
And now these same Congressional morons (on both sides of the aisle) have come up with something called the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA). What this would do, according to an AlterNet article by David Segal and Aaron Swarz, is "vastly expand the government's power to censor the Internet."
Read all about it here.
I'm not referring to the kinds of things the teapot crackpots get all worked up about, such as not having to pay their fair share of taxes or insisting that the very rich get huge tax breaks, or that Obama is a Muslim and trying to impose Sharia law in this country, or that we should have people who believe in Jesus in charge, blah, blah, blah.
I'm talking about the tendency of the "freedom-loving" right-wingers on both sides of the aisle to mess around with our personal lives via disallowing abortions or gay marriage (and at least one of the teapot crackpots looking to become a senator thinks everyone in the USA should refrain from having sex at all [Christine O'Donnell], and to tear up the Constitution by giving the government the right to wiretap our conversations, photograph our driving methods, build huge data banks on every citizen in the country (for what purpose?), etc.
And now these same Congressional morons (on both sides of the aisle) have come up with something called the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA). What this would do, according to an AlterNet article by David Segal and Aaron Swarz, is "vastly expand the government's power to censor the Internet."
Read all about it here.
Michael Moore on who controls the military
[Photo of Michael Moore from here]In a review of Bob Woodward's most recent literary exercise, Michael Moore concludes that good old Ike was right on when he warned us of the dangers inherent in a "military-industrial" complex.
While the United States is supposed to operate on the much-vaunted principle that the military is under civilian control, it actually doesn't operate that way at all, but the reverse.
Moore says that you may have "thought you voted for change when you cast a ballot for Barack Obama" ... but actually that isn't and will not be true "when it comes to America occupying countries that don't begin with a 'U' and an 'S.'"
In other words, it doesn't matter what Obama thinks or wants, because "The only people really making the decisions about America's wars are across the river from Washington in the Pentagon. They wear uniforms. They have lots of weapons they bought from the corporations they will work for when they retire."
Moore continues: "It matters not whom we elect. The Pentagon and the military contractors call the shots. The title 'Commander in Chief' is ceremonial, like 'Employee of the Month' at your local Burger King."
The president of the United States is beholden to and under the control of the military! Moore explains that it doesn't matter what's written in the Constitution because "the Constitution's just a piece of paper." In the real world, the president cannot fire all of his top military people to stop a war. A president who tried to do so "would be ruined before you could say 'bloodless coup.'"
And you thought Obama was reneging on his promise!
Read the Moore piece in its entirety here (especially the last paragraph or two!)
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