The Ryan Repugnican budget is NOT about the deficit!

[Photo from here.]

One of the things we must remember about Repugnicans:  They never mean what they say, and they never say what they mean.

The Repugnicans have engaged in class warfare.  It's the rich against the rest of us.  At the moment, the rich are winning.

The infamous budget proposed by the Repugnican representative in the House, Paul Ryan (R. Wis.), is not about reducing the deficit!  Just as the recent brouhaha in Ryan's home state made clear that the budget proposed by Governor Walker had nothing to do with the state deficit, but rather was about union-busting and establishing corporate power at the expense of the people of Wisconsin, so Ryan's budget, while having no impact on the federal deficit, will commence to fulfill the Repugnican wet-dream of so many years - to rid our country of the safety net for its most vulnerable citizens and create a permanent class of elites to rule over the rest of us.

Joshua Holland, writing for AlterNet, details the essence of Ryan's devastating plan in his article, "How Fraudulent Is the GOP Budget Plan?  It Wouldn't Even Make a Dent In the Deficit!"

It is so radical, says Holland, that "According to an analysis by the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the plan would slash all public spending other than Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid by almost three-quarters by 2050.  And because the 'budget does not envision defense cuts in real terms,' what this means is that 'most of the rest of the federal government outside of health care, Social Security, and defense would cease to exist.'"

Holland continues:  "And it's not just a matter of bait-and-switch; the entire proposal is a fraud.  Just consider this:  while selling their plan to the public as a 'serious' and 'bold' attempt to reduce the federal deficit, Republicans are overstating how much it would cut the budget gap by ten-fold."

In other words, what the Republicans claim about their budget is not in line with reality!  And not only have they claimed reductions which are invalid from the start, but they've made several math "errors" to make the budget look better than it is.  For example, one "math error ... exaggerated how much we'd save in interest payments by $230 billion over the next decade - a number significantly higher than the amount of deficit reduction they'd get out of the plan."

The worst  of it, as Holland notes, is that "while the plan's deficit reduction is largely fantasy, the pain it would impose on working Americans is very real.  Almost two-thirds of the $4.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years come from programs that help those with lower incomes."

There is much more.  The main thrust of Holland's article is that, as usual, under any Repugnican plan, the rich get richer and the rest of us get screwed!  Royally.

Now, the original tea party folks didn't like getting royally screwed by the royalty in England.  Our tea party folks have been conned by our "royalty" here at home.  The Koch brothers, for example, operating in the shadows, have garnered an army of middle- and lower-income people to work against their own best interests.

Anyone who is not a multi-millionaire and votes Repugnican has a death-wish.

This is a class war and it's just beginning. 

Read all of Holland's excellent article here.

God Weighs In

Dennis Baxley, radical christianist theocrat of the American Taliban

[AP photo from Yahoo News.]

Dennis Baxley has been once again elected to the Florida Legislature.  He served in the House previously, where he perpetrated a variety of pernicious and dastardly legislation.

Baxley is from Ocala, which, while a nice place to live, is representative of the worst of redneck, right-wing, christianist politics. At one time, he headed up the Florida division of the theocratic Christian Coalition which has as its goal the overthrow of our current governments (local, state and national) and their replacement by christianist governments, based upon a fundamentalistic christianist interpretation of that hoary old collection of nonsense, the christianist Bible.

At various times, Baxley has fought the teaching of evolution in our public schools; he has fought for the right to carry weapons on to the property of one's job site; he has argued in favor of vouchers which would provide religious kooks taxpayer money to send their kids to parochial schools to be taught goofy religious delusions and mythologies, including Creationism; he has promoted the notion that a fetus is a person; he has claimed that Christians teaching on college campuses are being persecuted; he implied that perhaps President Obama's "Muslim" upbringing (which is a myth in itself) may lead Obama to go easy on Islamic radicals; he has further implied that Obama's former association with the infamous Rev. Wright casts suspicion on Obama's claim to be a Christian; and the list goes on and on. Baxley stands on the far right fringe of American politics: he is a theocrat; he is dangerous to our democratic system and to the ongoing viability of our Constitution.

Now, along with most every other Repugnican in the Florida legislature, Baxley is focusing on issues which have no relevance to a secular democracy and are of little concern to most of our citizens.  For example, because he is a right-wingnut christianist, Baxley thinks abortion is wrong. That's fine and that's his right. He shouldn't have one, then!

But because he is a right-wingnut christianist with a direct pipeline to his god, Baxley has concluded that he has the right to impose his religious views on every woman in the state of Florida! So, he is sponsoring an amendment to the Florida Constitution which would make it impossible for any woman to obtain any money from the state for an abortion, no matter what the reason.

What's really crazy about this is that it will cost over $90,000 to do the necessary footwork in Florida's 67 counties to get this amendment on the ballot in November. But in the last three-year fiscal period, the state of Florida spent about $3,000 on Medicaid abortions. Now this is the same guy who cries about deficits and how we must not raise taxes on the poor corporations, blah, blah, blah...but he's willing to toss about $100 thousand dollars of your money and mine to foist his particular religious viewpoint on the rest of us!

Baxley, probably because he's a man of some substantial financial means being part-owner of a funeral home is not concerned about jobs, housing and the homeless, the environment, saving the Everglades, global warming, health care, etc. or other issues that impact regular folks like you and me. Unfortunately, that is also true of most every other Repugnican in the Florida Legislature!

Baxley has said that this amendment, which is really about banning all abortions in the state and a means to get a foot in the door to reverse Roe v. Wade, is the most important thing he's ever done.


It's sick! When are the people of Florida going to stop electing these ass-hats to be legislators?

Yours and Mine

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Bradlee Dean, christianist weirdo, friend of Michele Bachmann, gives prayer in the Minnesota legislature

From Crooks & Liars:

Bradlee Dean, an evangelist preacher and death metal drummer who is known for his anti-gay rhetoric, was invited by Minnesota Republicans to deliver an opening prayer in the state House chamber Friday.

Praying before the Minnesota legislature in a track suit, Dean suggested that President Barack Obama wasn't a Christian.

"I end with this," he said. "I know this is a non-denominational prayer in this Chamber and it's not about the Baptists and it's not about the Catholics alone or the Lutherans or the Wesleyans. Or the Presbyterians the evangelicals or any other denomination but rather the head of the denomination and his name is Jesus. As every President up until 2008 has acknowledged. And we pray it. In Jesus' name."

The Minnesota Independent noted that Dean has a history of controversial remarks, "including advocating the incarceration of gays and lesbians, that the LGBT community is trying to usher in Sharia law in Minnesota, that gay men molest an average of 117 children “before they get caught,” and that Muslim nations that execute gays are more moral than American Christians."

Republicans were forced to call in the chaplain to redo the prayer after Dean left.

Republican House Speaker Kurt Zellers later apologized in a floor speech.

"I denounce him, his actions and his words," Zeller said.

The prayer came as Minnesota lawmakers were considering a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage.

Dean is known to be close with Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Why the hell can't we get rid of christianists praying in our state legislatures and national Congress?  I know there is historical precedent for this, but precedent be damned.  There was historical precedent for slavery.  That doesn't make it right.  

Religious leaders of whatever persuasion or cult have no place promoting their god in our political houses.  Let them pray in their own damnable houses!  

Michele Bachmann has some very strange and nasty friends.  You can read all about that and her special relationship with Bradlee Dean here at Mother Jones.

Noah has landed on the taxpayers in Kentucky!

There was no great flood.  There was no Noah's Ark.  There was no Tower of Babel.

These stories drifted down through centuries of mythological waters and ended up in the Hebrew Bible.  They are not factual.  They are, and always have been, myths promoted by ancient people to try to better understand the world in which they lived or their god who made life so damn miserable!

In the 21st century, millions of people all over the world continue to cling to the notion that these biblical tales represent real events from away back when.  And in the USA such ignorance is endemic to fundamentalist Christian culture.  Especially in the south.  Some southerners, usually fundy christianists, still can't get over the fact they lost the Civil War.  They can't even grasp the fundamental concept that the Civil War was about the enslavement of human beings.  And the Civil War happened a mere 150 years ago.  Thus, to believe in mythologies that go back about three or four thousand years, is no problem whatsoever.

In the US of A, you can believe such silliness if you so desire.  You have that right.  Neither the government nor any other human agency can force you to give up your beliefs no matter how stupid or unrelated to reality they are.

But it's unfortunate that so many live in an intellectual and historical void where darkness and ignorance reign.  These are the same people who refuse to accept the scientific theory of evolution even though all of science is built upon it.  These are the same people who disavow global warming even though the earth is already feeling its effects.  As one woman from Tennessee told me, people in Tennessee don't like Al Gore!  Why?  Because he's stirring up a lot of unnecessary trouble complaining about global warming.  Plus, he's a "librul."


It is no secret that our state legislatures are infested with christianist fundamentalists who think evolution is of the "devil," who refuse to accept the fact of global warming, who want to toss our Constitution and allow christianist prayers in public schools and the right to post their religious beliefs on courthouse walls and disallow abortions and stem-cell research because their christianist god, they think, opposes such things.  These are the people who trample our Constitution giving away taxpayer monies to various religious groups including parochial schools.

Most unfortunate is that the state of Kentucky has succumbed big time to their influence.  A group of christianist fundamentalists got together awhile back and decided they could make a lot of money by building an amusement park featuring "a full-size 500-foot-by-75 foot reproduction of Noah's Ark, a Tower of Babel, and other biblical exhibits on a 800-acre campus outside of Williamstown, KY.

They floated this idea around and suggested it would be much easier to do if the state of Kentucky gave them some financial incentives.

The state of Kentucky should have told them to go to hell!

But, noooo.  The state of Kentucky, rife with christianist fundamentalists who hold very weird beliefs, and actually think there was a great big ark a long time ago on which a guy named Noah collected two of each species so that life would be preserved while a loving god who was thoroughly pissed off at his creation went about the process of destroying most every person and critter on earth in order to get revenge on the people who had failed to heed his warnings about how to live, whatever they were.  Why all the animals had to die, too, was not explained.  I mean, really, what the hell did they do wrong?

The guv of Tennessee, Steve Beshear, who happens to be a Democrat (damn it!) thinks this biblical amusement park is a great idea.  The reason for that is because he believes the park will create a few jobs for which he can take credit.  Needless to say, he sees no constitutional issues whatsoever in the use of taxpayer money to help fund the park.


So on May 19, the State of Kentucky approved $43 million in tax credits for the park.  Not only so, but it is likely the people of Kentucky will also have to pony up another $11 million to "improve a highway interchange near the site."

The people of Kentucky are getting screwed!  Alex Seitz-Wald, writing at Think Progress, says that these "tax breaks for an amusement park come at a time when state leaders are asking residents to sacrifice as they cut important social programs.  'The state has gone through eight rounds of budget cuts over the past three years, [including cuts] to "education at all levels" and a pay freeze for all teachers and state workers."

Not only so, but Kentucky has cut funding for Medicaid by sending recipients to managed care plans which creates a bigger bureaucracy and makes it more difficult to obtain care and which will also increase costs by some 20 percent.


Many leaders in the scientific community are dismayed.  Dan Phelps, a geologist, said Gov. Beshear's support of this park "embarrassing for the state."  Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is threatening to sue Kentucky.  The Rev. Barry Lynn, who heads up Americans United says, rightly, that "The state of Kentucky should not be promoting the spread of fundamentalist Christianity or any other religious viewpoint.  Let these folks build their fundamentalist Disneyland without government help."

And all the smart people said "Amen"!

At the amusement park

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Florida - sinking in a swamp of greed under Rick Scott

[Rick Scott cartoon from here.]

Rick Scott is known for shady dealings.  Most people are aware of the fact that he should be in jail for his involvement in the most massive Medicare fraud in history.  Most of us are also aware that he used a portion of his ill-gotten gains ($73 million) to buy the governor's office in the state of Florida.

It is likely, I believe, that at some point this nogoodnik will overreach and the short arm of the law will catch up to him and he'll be indicted and convicted and impeached.

Another option would be a recall petition, but there is currently no mechanism to achieve this.  One of Florida's Democratic legislators has introduced a bill that would allow elected officials to be recalled but whether this will ever become law is problematic what with a Repugnican-controlled state house.

His amorality, however, as I suggest above, may ultimately prove his undoing.  One of his pet projects is to have all state employees and welfare beneficiaries in the state of Florida tested for illegal drug use.  One can't help but wonder why this suddenly has become an issue.  The reason is clear.  Scott was co-owner of Solantic, a company involved in drug-testing, among other things.  But when two conflict-of-interest complaints were lodged against him, he transferred his stake in Solantic to his wife's revocable trust and finally sold his interest.  Of interest, though, is that the Florida Ethics Commission threw out the two complaints saying there was not enough evidence against him.

There is a pattern here.  It appears he frequently operates on the edge of legality.  He claims authority that less worthy people lack.  He personifies the amoral corporate mindset in which profit is god and that the end justifies the means.


How many of the common folk of Florida are able to devote money and time to lobby the state legislature for laws favorable to their interests?  I don't know, but it doesn't take a genius to conclude that the number would be very few.

The corporations, however, along with the rich and powerful, spend big bucks to lobby the state legislature.  Kathleen Haughney and Aaran Deslatte, writing for OrlandoSentinel.com, note that "Florida utilities, casino operators, local governments and a host of other interests spent more than $55.1 million to lobby Tallahassee lawmakers and the governor during the first three months of the year [2011]..."

Specifically, $1.28 million of that total was spent by AT&T.  "For the past several years, the company has pushed for a bill that would deregulate land-line telephones, meaning AT&T and other telecoms that offer land lines could raise their rates without approval from the state.

"This year the bill passed."  Read that again.  And again.  Here's what the Florida legislature is telling us common folks:  "Screw you!  We don't give a damn about you!  You can't help us stay in office where we will become rich!"

The efforts of another lobbying group, this one dedicated to establishing Vegas-style casinos in Florida, came up short but they'll be back!

As we shall see, the Florida legislature is all about ensuring the rich get richer and the middle-class and poor  in Florida get screwed!  Jeb Bush was bad enough.  Rick Scott is a disaster!


If you are old and unwell in the state of Florida, the state legislature has made certain that your life will become a living hell!  Scott Maxwell, also writing for OrlandoSentinel.com, says "Florida is stepping back into the dark ages when it comes to nursing-home abuse and neglect.

"The industry is facing fewer regulations.  Staffing requirements are being lowered.  The watchdog program is being neutered.  The state is even trying to muzzle the watchdogs who dare speak up for the elderly.  And all of this is happening while cases of horrid abuse - the likes of which you would barely believe in a Stephen King novel - are on the rise.

Maxwell gives several examples such as the case of  a 71-year old South Florida "man with schizophrenia [who] died from burns he received in a bathtub.  At the same [nursing] home, staff failed to stop residents beating one another with 2-by-4s."

Maxwell notes that "Homes throughout the state are regularly caught using illegal restraints" and the elderly are "actually dying at a rate of nearly once [sic] a month as a result of abuse and neglect."

Since Scott took office, he threw out Brian Lee who led the state's watch-dog program who had also pissed-off the nursing home industry!

It's an incredible mess led by Scott and the Repugnicans!  Why?  To increase the profits of the nursing-home industry.  Anything goes in the name of the corporate god:  profit!


The above relates to what the St. Petersburg Times calls "Devaluing the lives of poor, elderly."  The Florida legislature passed "four bills that would it harder to bring personal injury cases and cap the damages that courts can award."  This means that "lawmakers have closed or curtailed access to the courts for thousands of injured Floridians ... [and] makes it far more likely that the cost of catastrophic injuries due to medical malpractice or a faulty vehicle design will shift to taxpayers."

The bad guys, in other words, get a pass and the rest of us get screwed!

Furthermore...the poorest among us will "no longer have their injuries due to medical malpractice compensated to the same extent as others."  In addition a cap of $300,000 on "pain-and-suffering damages" means that few attorneys will be willing to take malpractice cases as they are very expensive to litigate!

Another piece of stupidity is a bill (SB 1676) which gives "medical faculty at the University of Miami the same 'sovereign immunity' - or protection from major malpractice judgements - when teaching at Miami's public Jackson Memorial Health System."  The University of Miami, though, is a private institution and should not be shielded in such a manner.


The bozos in Tallahassee also passed a law that would, according to TBO.com (Tampa Bay Online), write "taxpayer-funded religious discrimination into our state constitution by incorporating an exemption to anti-discrimination laws ... for example, a house of worship hiring a cook for a taxpayer-funded shelter could advertise 'Catholics, Jews, Protestants or Muslims Need Not Apply.'"

Even scarier, under Joint Resolution 1471, "Florida could not bar funding to a religious group based on its anti-Semitic, racist or other extreme religious views.  Why?  Because 1471's affirmative language provides the unfettered constitutional rights to taxpayer dollars for all religious groups, including religious extremists, of which there is no shortage in Florida."

This Joint Resolution has not yet become law.  But it is part and parcel of a larger attempt, funded largely by ultra extremist right-wing christianists.  One of their dreams is to destroy public education and bills that they have written and underwritten are finding their way into state legislatures around the country, often reading the same, word-for-word.  We can expect a huge assault on our traditional values by these christianist extremists who are working day and night to get Creationism taught in our classrooms instead of real science; to push for  christianist prayer at public school events; and to press for an expansion of the "voucher" system would be a wonderful boon for all the wacky christianist fundamentalist schools in our state.  They could continue their nefarious education with taxpayer money!


Here's how things are already working out.  In November, thanks to the christianist fundamentalists in the Florida legislature and Rick Scott, "Voters will have a chance to repeal Florida's ban on state aid to churches and other religious organizations. ...

"The proposal would lift the threat of legal challenges to voucher programs that send disabled and low-income children to parochial and other private schools at taxpayer expense.

As to Medicaid, the elderly got screwed again.  Big time!  HB 7109 "makes major changes to the Medicaid program, putting the care of nearly 3 million beneficiaries into the hands of private companies and hospital networks."  If anyone should know how to screw the people and the government at the same time, it's Rick Scott.  He's had lots of experience.  HB 7109 is in the pipeline in spite of the fact that a pilot program was determined to provide "providers with big profits by scrimping on patient care."

Hello?  Is anybody listening?  Are the people of Florida going to rise up and throw these christianist bastards out of office?


The unemployed got hit hard.  Their maximum state benefits were cut from 26 to 23 weeks.

The teachers really got screwed.  Teacher pay would be based on "merit."  Hah.  As a former teacher I know from experience there is no way to do this!  Every classroom is different.  Every subject is different.  Most administrators know very little about what makes a good teacher.  This is a horrible assault on the teaching profession.

Not only so, but the tenure system has been abolished for new hires.  Well, good luck with that.  Anyone agreeing to teach in the state of Florida without some sense of security has got to be crazy.  Teachers are constantly under the gun by people who know nothing about education and if it wasn't for teacher unions and the tenure system our educational system would be even worse than it is now!

The Senate's budget cut $1 billion from our schools!  In Marion County, Florida, the superintendent is "demanding" a 4-day week under the threat of teacher layoffs.

Teachers and other public employees, for the first time, must pay three percent of their wages into their retirement fund.  What is so nasty about this is that public employees "gave up pay raises decades ago in exchange for full public funding of the [pension] plan.  Also, state workers now are going into a fifth straight year without an across-the-board pay raise."

Scott is pushing for more charter schools, even though there is no evidence these are in any way superior to the regular school system and some evidence they are worse!

Did you know that Eric Smith, Florida's education commissioner has resigned.  Scott has not found the time to meet with him.


The legislature did a reverse and over-rode former Governor Charlie Crist's veto to pass a law allowing our "legislative leaders to raise unlimited special-interest money and funnel it to the campaigns of their hand-picked candidates."

The legislature also made it much harder for women to have an abortion.

The gave cops the authority to ask for a person's "immigration documents" if the cop suspected he or she was in the country illegally!

A rather large deregulation bill was reworked because of consumer complaints, but it still deregulates moving companies and auto mechanics.  Another example of exactly how your elected officials work for - no, not you - their corporate owners!


Let's see how Gov. Scott and the legislature did on job creation.  You will remember that Scott ran for office saying he would see that Florida created a massive number of jobs.

He was lying.  Again.

What he's done is cut jobs!  Twenty-nine people are being let go in the Florida Department of Community Affairs.

According to Newsherald.com (Panama City, Florida), 650,000 state employees will find their paychecks cut in order to balance the budget.  The legislature didn't raise taxes.  They cut employees and wages.  In other words the people got screwed again!

"The budget will eliminate nearly 4,500 state positions, about 2,000 of which are vacant, while 1,700 jobs are in prisons slated to be privatized.  Schools districts also are anticipating layoffs and furloughs due to state spending cuts.

"Some private sector employees who depend on state funding, such as road builders and nursing home workers, also may get the ax."

Now, listen to this.  Corporate taxes were cut!!!  Also, "...lawmakers ... found enough money to cut taxes by $308 million -- mostly at the expense of water management districts - and pay for dozens of their pet projects.


Another bill, HB "7207 would make sweeping changes to the state's 25-year-old management system, substantially reducing state oversight of local land use decisions.  The bill shifts the burden of proof to citizens who file legal challenges and lift requirements that developers pay for needed roads and schools."

Scott, you understand, thinks regulations are bad because they keep companies from creating jobs.  It's a laughable position, and tragic, for it has been debunked over and over ever since Reagan the clown started our country on the road to financial ruin!

But for Scott, it's all a game.  The people are the pawns and the corporations manipulate them through their fully-funded legislators!  You see, "Scott threatened to veto the entire budget if lawmakers failed to cut Florida's corporate income tax."  They finally agreed on a $30 million cut, which Scott said was a "first step."


Perhaps Brad Ashwell, a spokesman for the consumer group, PIRG, said it best:  "The majority party, emboldened by a two-thirds majority, aggressively went after the courts, voters, labor groups, trial lawyers and anyone else they deemed a threat to their power.  Middle class Floridians will see higher insurance rates, higher phone rates, more sprawl, and more obstacles to having a voice in their elections."

Which reminds me we haven't even begun to discuss our return to the days of Jim Crow in Florida when it comes to voting.  But that's another article.

Evidence for an invisible sky friend

I

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Harold Camping is crazy and the world is not going to end on May 21!

[Photo of Harold Camping from here.]

If our media would refuse to give free publicity to the assholes in our midst, we'd all be a lot better off.

There's an ignorant and stupid old man by name of Harold Camping who resides in California and promotes his peculiar christianist nonsense and ignorance over the radio to a variety of poor souls who know even less than he does!

He considers himself a student of the Bible which is wildly inaccurate.  He has no clue what the Bible is all about.  Nevertheless, he has written a bunch of books on the so-called "Rapture," one of which predicted it would happen about the middle of September in 1994.

Obviously, his Jesus did not return to earth and there was no Rapture, and he is a failed prophet.  But that didn't stop the old fool from promising that now it will take place on May 21 of this year.  Yup, and you'd better believe it, 'cause it's gonna happen.  He won't brook any questions as to the authenticity of his prediction - "...God is not playing games," says this moldy old coot, as if he has a pipeline to some deity!

All of this crapola is based upon Camping's campy interpretations of obscure biblical passages which are almost impossible for anyone to decipher - even real biblical scholars - but none of them have anything to say about our time.

The Bible was written by men who were even more ignorant than 89-year old Camping; men who knew very little about the world, almost nothing about medicine, philosophy, the human mind, or the universe, and were  throwing sacrifices to their god(s) in order to influence these deities to be benevolent toward them because they believed their fate rested in the hands of what were inscrutable, horrible, and arbitrary gods living above the firmament which they "knew" to be a hard place high in the sky!

If you believe that there really was a Jesus such as reported in the Synoptic Gospels, then you ought to know enough to keep your damn mouth shut about when the world is going to end.  This Jesus is reported to have said that no one knows.  He didn't even know.  And he's the son of man.  Of course, in the Gospel of John he's God hisself!  So even God doesn't know when the end is coming.

But Camping does?

This is all really too silly.  Yet our newspapers pretend that Camping is saying something that people need to know about.  He's interviewed by our magazines.  Other christianist goofballs like Tim LaHaye are consulted as to whether they think Camping is onto something.


What a world we live in!  There is no evidence whatsoever for the old biblical tales of Abraham and Moses, etc.  The men who wrote the Bible lacked any scientific understanding of the world and the stories they concocted reflect that lack.  How can anyone still believe a great fish swallowed a man and then spewed him up to go preach to sinners in this day and age?  How can anyone believe in talking serpents?  How can anyone believe that a virgin had a baby after being impregnated by a spirit!  These kinds of things happen only in the realm of mythology.

Unfortunately, people who believe in all this nonsense and more are running our country.  The problem of Harold Camping goes far beyond Harold Camping.  Camping is not any crazier than most of our leaders, religious and otherwise.  He's just a different kind of crazy.  The Mormons believe the unbelievable and one of them wants to be president.  Catholics think that little cracker actually becomes the flesh of the mythical Christ (a spiritual being to begin with!) when the priest says the magic words!

But it might help if our media representatives didn't scratch and claw to best one another with an ever more sensational story.

Let Harold Camping and others of his ilk sulk in the cave of their ignorance.  Let the rest of us ignore them!

Now, if I had heeded my own admonition, I wouldn't have written this rant.  But I had to write the rant.  Someone needed to say these things!

Mike Huckabee's "friend," Janet Porter, and why you should never vote for old Huck

This is from an article by Tim Murphy at Mother Jones.

We've got some really weird Repugnicans running about this country:  Newt Gingrich, who doesn't seem to know what he believes but every time he opens his mouth vileness spews forth; Mitt Romney, a seemingly "nice" guy who believes all that Mormon religious crap; Michele Bachmann who gives stupidity a good name; Sarah Palin the quitter who loves money and god, and Mike Huckabee, among others.

Most of the above want to become president and actually believe they could handle the job.  Most of them can't handle folding the laundry!

Mike Huckabee had the presidential itch and he scratched it up until a couple of days ago when he said he would not be a Repugnican candidate in 2012.  (I think he's making too much money and having too much fun being a FAUX News 'celebrity!)

Huckabee is a Baptist preacher would ought to immediately disqualify him in the minds of most people even if it doesn't disqualify him so far as our Constitution goes.  But his religious views are so extreme, so strange, so other-worldly that to see him in the Oval Office is mind-boggling!

I've written about the religious kook, Janet Porter, before.  It turns out that Janet Porter is a close friend and confidant and adviser to Mike Huckabee!  At one time she was "co-chair of Huckabee's Faith and Values Coalition."   Old Huck calls her "his 'prophetic voice.'"

Here's a few or the things this "prophetic voice" has said, according to Tim Murphy:

1)  "Obama represents an 'inhumane, sick, and sinister evil."

2)  "...she has warned that Democrats want to throw Christians in jail merely for practicing their faith.

3)  "She's attributed Haiti's high poverty rate to the fact that the country is 'dedicated to Satan.'"

4)  "...she suggested that gay marriage caused Noah's Flood."

5)  "And there's this:  In a 2009 column for conservative news site WorldNetDaily, Porter asserted that President Barack Obama is a Soviet secret agent, groomed since birth to destroy the United States from within."

Where the hell do these fruitcakes come from?  How do they get so crazy?

There's more.  According to Murphy, Porter doesn't much like the people who she saw as Huckabee's competition for the 2012 Repugnican nomination.

"She publicly suggested that former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson might be the anit-Christ."  Now I think Thompson is a scumbag but the anti-Christ?  Please!

In a TV ad, Porter has attacked Mitt Romney and John McCain.

More recently, Porter seems to have outdone herself.  "Last summer, she lost her syndicated radio show after organizing a rally at the Lincoln Memorial to urge Christians to take over the United States government.  And this spring, she made headlines by summoning a fetus to testify on behalf of an Ohio measure banning abortions after a heartbeat has become detectable."

Huckabee, according to Murphy, endorsed that bill!


It's fortunate that Huckabee has declined to run for the office of president of the United States.  He's so utterly ill-equipped to handle the job.  Having a Janet Porter as an adviser should, in a just world, disqualify him immediately!

It's unfortunate that many of the current "candidates" are just as bad or worse than Huckabee.

He's got you covered

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Texas, God and Insanity

[Photo of the clown, Gov. Rick Perry]

The Texas governor believes in a god.  Not one of the ancient gods; his god is only a few thousand years old. The Texas governor is a clown.  Or one could say that his actions give reason to question his sanity.  One could say the same thing about the Repugnicans in the Texas legislature.

Bill McKibben, in an article at AlterNet, notes that Texas governor Rick Perry has called for the people of Texas to pray to his god that the deity might ease the drought that is of historic proportions; worse, even, "than at the height of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s."

McKibben says the drought is no "great mystery."  We've got trouble all over the world because "We're heating the planet:  the CO2 we've poured into the atmosphere means that we now trap about 3/4 of a watt extra solar energy on each square meter of the earth's surface.  That's enough to throw our planet out of balance.  The science is simple:  as a NASA team put it three years ago, above 350 parts per million CO2 we can't have a planet 'similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted.'  And right now that number is 390 and rising two parts per million per year, simply because we're burning so much coal and gas and oil.

"A lot of that fossil fuel gets burned in Texas.  In fact, its carbon emissions are higher than the next two states (California and Pennsylvania) combined."  One might think this would make the guv of Texas and his Repugnican cohorts take a closer look at the situation, but Perry, being an "evangelical" christian of the fundamentalist ilk, thinks global warming is a laughing matter.  God wouldn't let us destroy the earth and all this global warming talk is liberal goofiness.  Ha, ha, ha!

When Perry took office "he signed legislation to try and speed construction of 11 new coal plants for the state.  As recently as January--in the middle of the drought--his attorney general argued in federal court against even the most modest EPA restrictions on greenhouse gases.  Perry's GOP holds 23 of Texas's House seats, and 22 of those Representatives voted earlier this month [April 2011] to deny the fact of global warming (the 23rd abstained)."

To deny something for which there is incontrovertible scientific evidence is further evidence of insanity!

So, Perry, not caring to understand why this terrible drought, tells his people to pray.  But he did not specify which god.  Doubtless it was his god of fundy christian understanding but it ultimately doesn't matter.  They could pray to Zeus or Buddha - no one's listening!  And even if there was a god who had his hearing aids in, he or she is paying no attention.

As we've noted on several previous occasions, scientists and clergy have studied the problem of prayer and have found it does not work.  In fact, sick people who were prayed over and knew they were the subject of prayer became sicker!

That won't stop the stoopids in Texas.  And the drought will continue.  And things will get worse.


When the Repugnicans get control, the world goes to hell.  Always has and always will!  

There is no hell!

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Stephen Hawking and really weird news!

AOL, in its inimitable manner, has a home page section called "Weird News."

Yesterday, in that section, appeared an article about the theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking.  Evidently, Hawking has said that there is no god and no heaven or afterlife and AOL, in its inimitable manner, thinks this is "weird."

In Hawking's view, the human brain is a computer and when it breaks down it's all over!  The notion of a heaven or afterlife is "a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark."

What's weird about that?

What IS really weird, which AOL neglected to mention, is the fact there are billions of people around the world who believe in heavenly fairy tales!  Many are so convinced that these fairy tales are true they discount this life in the hope that the next one will be better.  Some fundamentalist christianists are further convinced that only those people who have "accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior" will go to heaven or experience an afterlife.  

It doesn't get much weirder than that, because there is absolutely NO evidence of any kind to justify believing in any kind of afterlife or heaven.  NO EVIDENCE!  NONE!

Hawking isn't weird, it's belief in heavenly nonsense that's weird!

Little Ahmed

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Florida, once a paradise, is becoming hell on earth!

Hell on earth!  Florida.

What is wrong with the people who voted for the criminal, Rick Scott, to be the governor of the State of Florida?  He told them what he would do.  He promised them pain and misery!  He warned that he would screw the middle-class and the poor and make the rich richer!

How could the people vote him into office, knowing full well that if justice had been served Scott would be in jail for perpetrating the biggest Medicare fraud in history!

I'm hearing a lot of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth from those same folks who put their X's by Scott's name!  Hindsight won't fix things though.


People used to flock to Florida because it held out the promise of a semblance, at least, of paradise:  Warm weather, low-cost housing, good medical care, excellent universities and passable schools, surrounded (almost) by blue water, and a gazillion golf courses, plus Disney World.  How could you go wrong?

Well, it's a hot place, and in the summer you may get run over by a hurricane or smashed into the earth by a tornado, but people living in Florida have been willing to take their chances as it is arguably better than trying to survive in the frigid north in the winter, especially in places like New Jersey!

But now, thanks to our criminal governor and his Repugnican conspirators in the legislature, Florida is rapidly becoming one of the worst places to live - especially if you're old, or sick, or homeless, or unemployed, or in need of an education!


For example...

1)  From the St. Petersburg Times:  "Out-of-work Floridians would receive fewer state benefits while businesses pay less tax under a controversial proposal approved Friday [May 6] by a divided legislature."

Unemployment benefits are cut 11.5 % and the number of weeks to receive benefits was cut from 26 to 23.

Not only so, but "The change also cuts by 10 percent the business tax that pays for unemployment benefits.

Not only so, but "The bill also makes it easier for a business to show employees were fired for cause, preventing them from receiving benefits.


2)  The teaching of evolution is also under attack in Florida (as in many other states).  Senate Bill 1854 necessitates a "thorough presentation and critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution" in Florida's public schools.

This is a typical creationist ploy to create controversy and doubt relative to evolution and thus introduce the alternative religious view of creationism, which is an ongoing dream of the Christianist theocrats in our midst.

Unfortunately, it makes for stupid students in Florida!


3)  Scott and his Repugnican cohorts in the Florida Legislature are busy undermining laws protecting Florida's environment.  Leslie Kaufman, writing in the New York Times, says that "Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, has proposed eliminating millions of dollars in annual outlays for land conservation as well as cutting to $17 million the $50 million allocated in last year's budget for the restoration of the dwindling Everglades."

Kaufman quoted David Guest, "the managing attorney for the Florida office of Earthjustice, a national environmental law firm," who said "...Scott's budget was 'the most radical anti-environmental budget' he had seen in two decades of environmental work..."

Scott "has asked to cut staff members  to 40 from 358 at the Department of Community Affairs, which regulates land use and was created to be a control on unchecked urban sprawl."

And some people actually thought he was about creating jobs and not eliminating them!!!

According to the Miami Herald, "the Florida House passed a bill to ban implementation of water quality standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration.  Gov. Rick Scott ... asked the agency to rescind a January 2009 determination that the federal rules are necessary for Florida."

In other words, let the polluters destroy our waterways.  Florida Repugnicans certainly wouldn't want to make it more difficult for polluters to do their damage!  And who cares about clean water to drink and swim in anyway?


4)  In Florida, education is taking a huge hit while the rich are getting their taxes reduced!  Teachers are under assault.  Promises bonuses are not being paid.  Annual and step pay raises have been abandoned.  Teachers must now pay 3% of their meager salary toward their pensions - which is something new and may force many teachers living on the edge already out of the profession!

Class sizes will grow and classes will become more unmanageable.  Unions are losing their clout to protect teachers from the ravages of ideology-driven legislators and meddlers.

All of this is part of the national effort underway in state legislatures to destroy public education and replace it with private schools and vouchers paid for by the tax-payers.  The money behind this effort comes from far right-wing christianists!  We can be sure Florida is a major target with a pathetic but sympathetic governor and christianist-dominated legislature.


5)  This is from Erika Wood, Deputy Director, Democracy Program, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU -

March 10, 2011:  "In less than an hour yesterday, Florida Governor Rick Scott denied the right to vote to hundreds of thousands, maybe as many as a million Florida citizens, turning back the clock decades and making Florida the most punitive state in the country when it comes to disenfranchising people with criminal convictions in their past."

[The irony here is that the governor should have been convicted of fraud and sent to jail but instead worked a deal where he left the company with $300 million, about $70 million of which he used to buy the governorship of Florida!]

"The Florida constitution denies the right to vote for life to anyone with a felony conviction, unless he is granted clemency by the governor.  Essentially it gives the governor, an elected official, the power to decide who will (or won't) be allowed to vote in the next election.

"The new clemency rules not only roll back reforms passed by former Governor Charlie Crist, they are far more restrictive than those in place under former Governor Jeb Bush."  Suffice it to say that these rules will effectively disenfranchise mostly African-Americans which is a Repugnican delight as African-Americans tend to vote Democratic."

Welcome to the "good ol' days," when Jim Crow ruled in Florida.  And "Florida's law is now the most restrictive in the country."


6)  From The Associated Press and Ocala.com -

April 24, 2011.  "The Florida Legislature is poised to cut the popular Bright Futures scholarship program, meaning thousands of college students and their parents will by paying higher costs and less affluent families may have to take out loans, seek other financial aid, get jobs, or maybe even go on a low-cost diet.

"Cuts to the merit-based scholarship program would come as the Legislature is also raising tuition at public colleges and universities."

So, once again, the Florida budget will be balanced on the backs of those least able to afford it.


7)  Citizens Property Insurance is a state-run company for those people who are unable to obtain insurance from other carriers.  It is a life-saver for millions of Floridians.

From Ocala.com, April 23, 2011:  "Gov. Rick Scott has secretly pushed to kill Citizens Property Insurance before his first term ends ... "

Even some insurance folks think Scott has gone too far.  "The industry lobbyists protested that Florida carriers could not absorb all of Citizen's business ... The gap would force many Florida property owners to turn to the unregulated surplus lines market, where rates are unchecked and policies are not backed by a state guarantee fund."

A word of warning:  If you plan to come to Florida and buy a house anywhere near the ocean and cannot afford exorbitant hurricane insurance, be prepared to let your house blow away when a hurricane comes.  Nobody in Tallahassee, including the governor, gives a damn!


8)  Also from Ocala.com, April 24, 2011:  Florida is a haven for scam artists who prey on the young and old alike.  Always has been!  It is reported that "the state's main consumer hotline registers more than 40,000 complaints annually."  And it is more than likely that this is a small fraction of the number of people who have been ripped off by unscrupulous individuals or businesses.

Most Repugnicans don't like any regulations on business.  As Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, said:  "Our concern is - number one - getting out of the way of business."  Let the buyer beware!  [Sheeet!  I thought it was about creating jobs?]  And so the Florida House passed a bill, sponsored by Rep. Hukill, which reduces "business licensing requirements."  It's such a bad deal that even some Repugs are against it!

A word to the wise:  If you live in Florida or plan to visit Florida in the future, watch your back.  Folks doing business in the state will have a free hand to rip you off seven ways from Sunday!


Here's one last comment from Rachel Maddow:

Florida Republicans have also decided to start mandatory drug testing of Florida residents receiving public benefits -- not people who are suspected of drug abuse, but everybody forced drug testing by the government.

And the state will have to pay for those forced drug tests for the folks who aren`t, you know, on drugs. Or they will reimburse those forced drug tests. The bill also says you actually have to front the money for your forced drug test. You have to front the money for your forced drug test.

Just paying for those forced drug tests could cost the state of Florida $1 million to nearly $8 million. If you -- you have to front the money to pay for your forced drug test. And then if you turn up clean, they`ll reimburse you the money. So, the state is then paying for it. If you don`t turn up clean, then you`re the one who has paid for the test. That`s their new small government system.

So, Florida is slowing down their own economy in a way that doesn`t help the deficit, in a way that hurts the worse-off people among them, in a way that spends a bunch of money in order to expand the government to a never-before-seen size. So, the government in Florida, it will now be big enough that it can seize your bodily fluids even if you are not suspected of anything amiss with those fluids.

This is the world according to the Republican Party in the state of Florida, which is now as always the great Petri dish of American politics.

Watch Maddow's program here.

I would add to this that according to my information, the proposed drug testing will be performed at offices of Solantic, which is a company co-owned by Gov. Scott.  When he took office he transferred his shares to his wife.  Although he claimed he had no interest in the company some time ago, he sold his interest just a few days ago (May 13, I believe).

Someone told me the other day that he wasn't too worried about Scott because he said at some point Scott will do something so overtly illegal and criminal he will be forced to leave office.  I hope my friend is right.  And it can't happen soon enough!

Koch Brothers Exposed

Thanks to The Brave New Foundation.

Bin Laden murdered! Joy to the world!

First of all, let's set the record straight:  Georgi W. Buski did little or nothing to locate and eliminate Osama bin Laden.  If Bush had taken action when he learned in the summer of 2001 that bin Laden through al Qaeda planned to fly planes into American buildings, it is likely that 9/11 would never have happened.  Much of the blame for 9/11 must be laid at the foot of ex-president G. W. Bush who was too busy lying to the American people about his plans to send troops into Iraq to do anything to locate terrorism planned by bin Laden and afoot in the U.S!

Furthermore, in the months and years following 9/11, Bush made a conscious decision to let bin Laden and troupe hide without harassment for he had more important things to do, namely invade a country that posed no threat to the United States.  Bush lied over and over again about his reasons for said invasion but it was obvious to much of the world that it was all about capturing Iraq's oil fields for his "pals" in the energy cartel.

So, when Elliot Abrams, a foreign policy advisor for G. W. Bush, whines that Obama is deliberately hogging too much of the spotlight and the credit for the killing of bin Laden, Abrams is blowing smoke.  Abrams said that Obama should have given much of the credit to the Connecticut cowboy because "this work [of seeking and destroying bin Laden] began under President Bush."

The fact is that any effort to find and slay the bin Laden dragon by the Bush administration was weak and cursory.  In fact Bush himself said he wasn't much worried about bin Laden and wasn't going to waste time and money looking for him.  As we have learned to our sorrow, Bush had other things to worry about and spend BORROWED money on - Iraq and Afghanistan, two ongoing disasters which still threaten to bring our country down!

Now, lots of Repubs have commented about the murder of bin Laden.  Most don't bother to mention President Obama at all.  Some hinted that Obama might have had something to do with it, but it was really Bush's victory.  Eric Cantor (R-VA), in his snide, sneering manner, said something about Obama carrying on Georgi's "vigilance ... in bringing Bin Laden to justice."  What a bunch of asshats!


Finally, does it bother anyone else that when these Repugnican clowns talk about "justice," they are referring to a cold-blooded murder?  Bin Laden was a bad guy, a "terrorist," and we seem to "know" he did lots of bad things - indeed he admitted doing them.  Perhaps even worse is the fact that he was an Islamist and not an American.  That in itself seems to be the criteria in this country now for committing murder.

Before I go further, I must say that deep down in the murky depths of my own heart, I am glad that the son-of-a-bitch is dead!

But I still must ask, does our Constitution and our legal system not apply to people we hate?  If we hate someone enough, and if they are, in our eyes, bad enough, then do we set aside all the constitutional guarantees of which we claim to be so proud?  Furthermore, there's the moral question.  Is not murder something we shun, not celebrate?  Is not murder a no-no according to the Ten Commandments which most of our leadership and much of our military hold in high esteem?  Or have we slid down that slippery slope where the ends always justify the means?

We can whoop and holler and sing our national anthem or "God Bless America" 'til the cows come home, but that does not alter the fact that Americans under the orders of our president, committed a cold-blooded murder.

Perhaps that why our leaders like the term, "War on terror," for war "justifies" many atrocities and less-than-legal procedures.  And we've been torturing our "enemies" for years (thanks to G. W. Bush for that, too) so what the hell's another murder?


Please understand that I'm conflicted about this.  As I said, I'm glad bin Laden is dead and buried at sea.  I think.  There may be some horrendous repercussions arising out of this for us in the future and that's a bit scary 'cause we're not very good at guerrilla warfare which is the MO of the Islamist terrorists.

But it also bothers me more than just a little that I haven't heard of one single American in a leadership position question the manner in which bin Laden's demise came about.  Murder, under any other name, is still murder.

And the main thing sticking in my craw is that our actions resemble too closely those of our so-called "enemies."  To many Islamists, Obama is doubtless considered a terrorist, a terrible person who leads a country that commits terrible crimes against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and no doubt these Islamists believe it would be a great victory to murder Obama in the White House.

How, exactly, do we differ from the Islamists?

I'll close with a quote from an article by David Sirota, titled "'USA!  USA!' is the wrong response," at Salon:

"For decades, we [Americans] have held in contempt those who actively celebrate death.  When we've seen video footage of foreigners cheering terrorist attacks against America, we have ignored their insistence that they are celebrating merely because we have occupied their nations and killed their people.  Instead, we have been rightly disgusted -- not only because they are lauding the death of our innocents, but because, more fundamentally, they are celebrating death itself.  That latter part had been anathema to a nation built on the presumption that life is an 'unalienable right.'

"...in the years since 9/11, we have begun vaguely mimicking those we say we despise, sometimes celebrating bloodshed against those we see as Bad Guys just as vigorously as our enemies celebrate bloodshed against innocent Americans they (wrongly) deem as Bad Guys.  Indeed, an America that once carefully refrained from flaunting gruesome pictures of our victims for fear of engaging in ugly death euphoria now ogles pictures of Uday and Qusay's corpses, rejoices over images of Saddam Hussein's hanging and throws a party at news that bin Laden was shot in the head."


So, perhaps yelling "Hallelujah" and shouting "USA, USA!" is a problematic response which might also be very much premature.  Maybe sober reflection rather than celebration would be a better way to deal with the murder of Osama bin Laden.

God of the gaps

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.