When Nobody Loves Ya

Tags

Adam West, elections, electoral college, Humor, marijuana, Mitt Romney, satire, social security, the 1%, what's happening today

One of the funniest things in this election cycle, is the admitted lukewarm embrace by fellow Redumplicans of their main man–the Willard. I mean they shrug and, for maybe the first time in their lives, speak the truth.

Rubio, Latin wonder of Florida said this: “There are a lot of other people out there that some of us wish had run for president — but they didn’t.”

Former NRCC chairman, Tom Davis said this: “He may not be Mr. Personality. You know, he’s the guy who gives the fireside chat and the fire goes out.”

And now, John Boehner has said this: “Listen, we’re just politicians. I wasn’t elected to play God. The American people probably aren’t going to fall in love with Mitt Romney.” And then he said this: “some people” will want to vote for Romney — specifically, Romney’s “friends, relatives and fellow Mormons” — but everyone else who backs Romney will be doing so, not because they think he’ll be a good president, but because they hate President Obama.”

I mean really, they don’t even like the guy, or frankly trust him much I suspect.

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I understand these are available for purchase. I kinda like them don’t you?

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Our favorite Tom of the month, disgraced Col. Alan West of Florida, advises that those who receive social security are participating in a form of “modern day slavery”. This windbag of crap insults tens of millions of Americans by suggesting that they too are just lazy no-good welfare recipients who would do better to get off their retirements and disabilities and get a job.  What a piece of pooh.

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Ya know I know that smoking that weed causes the munchies, but folks this is ridiculous doncha think? I mean, leave that stuff alone:

Authorities now suggest that the dude that was killed because he wouldn’t stop eating the face of a poor guy in Miami, was not whacked on bath salts which had been previously thought. Turns out the only thing they could find in his system was cannabis, which to those of you not in the drug-know is POT.

So, hey, if your friends insist on smoking the dope around ya, I’d advise you wear a locked hockey goalie helmet at all times.

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Squatlo has a great little video about Willard that you should not miss. You know the Dos Equis guy? The “most interesting man in the world” ads? Well go and meet the “least interesting man in the world–Mitt.” I mean it is seriously funny.

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Now, I am not a rich person. I admit that. I didn’t go to any fancy finishing school or private one for that matter. I did not go to the more prestigious of our universities. But I managed to get pretty darn ejukated, if I do say so for myself. But ya see, I’m told now that I’m not at all book-learned up, and for that reason, and perhaps because I don’t drive the BMW or summer in the Hamptons, I’m missin’ just how awful THAT darkie in the White House is screwin’ up some folkses Merika.

So says, a social elite, interviewed on her way into the big do’ins thrown by the Koch’s for their mouthpiece-Willard:

“I don’t think the common person is getting it,” she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. “Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them.

“We’ve got the message,” she added. “But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies — everybody who’s got the right to vote — they don’t understand what’s going on. I just think if you’re lower income — one, you’re not as educated, two, they don’t understand how it works, they don’t understand how the systems work, they don’t understand the impact.”

Another high muckity muck chimed in:

“It’s not helping the economy to pit the people who are the engine of the economy against the people who rely on that engine, . . .”

Ya see, the Republicans are really doing us a favor by trying to make it hard for us to vote. We just aren’t smart enough to make a good decision. We should just leave it to them–ya know, the one’s who were driving blind to the cliff. Over we go, and kiss your sweet butt goodbye!

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What this country needs is a good old-fashioned discussion about the Electoral College.

Now before you start to snooze, listen.

Really, I mean it.

There is a good article written at 3quarksdaily and you ought to read it. You might surprise yourself.

 

 

 

Related articles

• Our betters, fretting in the Hamptons (digbysblog.blogspot.com)
• The Best Quotes from Guests at Romney’s Hamptons Fundraisers (theatlantic.com)
• The Obscure Charm Of The Plutocracy (tbogg.firedoglake.com)
• The Best Out-Of-Touch Quotes From Romney’s Swanky Hamptons Donors (businessinsider.com)
• Speaker Boehner: ‘The American People Probably Aren’t Going To Fall In Love With Mitt Romney’ (mediaite.com)
• Boehner: Americans ‘Aren’t Going To Fall In Love’ With Romney (washington.cbslocal.com)

Coming Out of the Bunker

Tags

Boehner, death penalty, DODT, economy, elections, electoral college, GOP, Michele Bachmann, Pennsylvania, Rick Perry, the Fed, voting rights

I took a peek out of the bunker this morning, having no clue what I might find.

I was wary to say the least. But, oddly enough, the sun was shining, there was a light breeze, and nothing seemed untoward.

I scratched my head and wandered to the television to see if they could straighten out my puzzlement.

But not a word.

Not a word of all the mayhem and destruction that I was expecting. I mean Pat Robertson and Bryan Fischer and all those right-wing evangelicals had assured me that the minute, nay the very second that DODT was ended, that God’s wrath would descend upon the Old US of A.

I can only conclude that God is tricking us, waiting until all us bunkered-down types feel safe enough to sleep in our own beds. Then he’s gonna whack us. Yeah, that must be it. Robertson and all the rest couldn’t be wrong could they?

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Ironic when you realize that yesterday we, in our ending of DODT, re-affirmed the fullness of life, and the reverence for it being full, long and filled with open love. Today, Georgia is hell-bent it seems to kill. Troy Davis’ appeal to the Parole board has been denied and he is scheduled to die this evening.

I don’t know a lot of the particulars. I just know that as a lawyer, I know all to well the limitations of eye-witness testimony. It is often faulty, and in this case there is even more reason to think it thus. It may as well be the result of intimidation by those with power against those with none.

I always wonder this. It may be more likely that the convict is guilty, it may be most likely in fact. But if there is any doubt, any reasonable doubt, and surely recanted testimony should be deemed so, and most assuredly when there is no scientific and physical evidence, then isn’t it just sensible to err on the side of life?

Beyond all the ideological reasons why capital punishment is or should be a relic of a less evolved creature, beyond that is simple decency. How do you find closure as the family of the victim when you will FOREVER have the nagging knowledge that the killer still walks the streets? 

Yet, when at a recent debate, when it was asked of Perry how he slept at night given that Texas executed well over 200 people, leading the nation, before Perry to smartly proclaim that he “slept very well,” the audience of Republicans shouted with approval and joy at the killing field that is Texas. 

Where do you go from there?

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 It’s becoming pretty common knowledge that the GOP is set upon letting the economy flounder rather than pass anything that Obama could be credited with. To that end, Robert Reich reports that House Speaker Boehner sent a letter to the Fed, actually telling them to do NOTHING to stimulate the economy.

While, as always, it is couched in terms of “not doing anything that is not proven to improve things” the threat is obvious: “nothing you could do is proven as far as we are concerned.”

As Reich points out, it is “highly unusual” to comment on the Fed at all, as the Fed is “above politics” and it is not just a breach of etiquette, but rather a dangerous interference with global economics. It just goes to show how much the GOP is willing to do (meaning screw America) in their goal of returning themselves to power.

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Two tidbits from the wacky world of the Silly Candidates forum:

• Michele (where are my peeps?) Bachmann proves her stupids once again. Standing in front of dead beef carcasses in a meat-packing plant, somewhere in Iowa, Ms. “Eyes” said something to this effect: “I call upon President Obama to deny entry to the United States to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”  Please tell the idiot about the UN’s INTERNATIONAL status!
• Ricky (I’m readin’ a book about foreign policy right now!) Perry, intervened in the expected move by Palestine to ask for recognition as an independent state, saying all kinds of nasty things about Obama, and declaring that “as a Christian” he is called upon to support Israel.” Well, even Joe Scarborough thought Perry ventured too far. He slammed both Perry and Mitt (It’s slippin’ away from me) Romney who also tried hard not to be ignored on the issue. Andrew Sullivan weighs in as well.

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And of course, it wouldn’t be a day in America without another example of how Republicans strategy is to win elections not with votes anymore, but by rigging the election so that their minority party will still win. None other than Ricky (oh don’t Google me please)Santorum explains how Pennsylvania Republican Governor, Tom Corbett’s plan, will insure the Republicans win no matter what.

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Just a short word on the blog “What’s on the Stove?” I’ve got about twenty recipes up now, and a shopping list that you may find useful to cut and paste into Word and then columnize. Also, I revised the “menus” from here, and included another page for that. And in addition, there is now the bare bones of a “tips and tricks” page which might be useful to some. Enjoy it or not as you see fit. I add about three or so recipes a week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related articles

• GOP Houser leaders urge Fed to further depress economy, apparently to ensure Obama loses in 2012 (americablog.com)
• Republican Leaders Urge Federal Reserve To Resist New Stimulus (huffingtonpost.com)

Who Popped All My Balloons?

Tags

African Americans, basketball, Bryan Fischer, Butler, class, economy, elections, judges, racism, right-wing crazies, UConn, Wisconsin

It was a yawner, a dud, it was Much Ado About Nothing. Close your eyes, and miss nothing. You might have confused it for a high school state championship game.

About the best you can say, is that UConn played good defense. Butler? Where they even there?

Two jokes I came across. One is a WordPress blog post entitled:

“They should have shown Hawaii-5-0. There was better shooting.”

or this one:

‘If you compared Butler’s shooting percentage against the sobriety meter, you could have legally driven.”

After all the great games leading up to the final, this just didn’t deliver. UConn “won” mostly because they were there, occasionally putting the ball into the hoop. It won’t be one people “talk about” in future decades.

Wonder what’s happening in hockey? Are my Redwings doing anything?

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It comes as no surprise that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Vanity Fair puts it in some perspective with a nice piece. Our lopsided rich/middle/working/poor scale is akin to that of Russia and Iran, while Western Europe is much healthier. Yeah, lets keep gutting programs for the poor, and keep reducing taxes on the rich. That’s the ticket.

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Today is a biggie in Wisconsin. They are voting on judges. Self-defined conservative David Prosser is trying to keep his seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where he can “maintain the conservative” control and be a “complement to Governor Walker and the GOP controlled legislature”. Prosser called the Chief Judge a “bitch” and explains why that was not really his fault to Fox, you know, the place all the GOP comes to pitch their “fairness.” A left-leaning assistant attorney general is running against him. Apparently as of now, the numbers voting are extremely high. We are keeping our fingers and toes crossed.

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It always seems to me that the Uber Right hate just about everyone. Everyone that is except whites and the right kind of Christians. Super hater, Bryan Fischer is at it again. Now he wants the entire welfare system ended. In him pea brain, the increase in poverty is because we have welfare. And get this, it just encourages those people to “rut like rabbits.” Yeah, he actually said that. Read the full remarks at Right Wing Watch.

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Here’s an interesting question. If you  could  “be” someone else for a day or so, who are some folks you’d like to see from the inside out? Angry Black Lady Chronicles has some interesting choices. For me, Cleopatra, Hypatia, Mary Magdalene, Katherine Hepburn, Socrates, Einstein come to mind.

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I’ve said it a dozen times here at least. The extremist right-wing Christians are no different from radical Islam. Both want to force their religious views on everyone else. Br. Dan at Dating God, makes precisely this argument about Terry Jones, the moron who burned a Qur’an and undid a whole lot of progress in Afghanistan in one moment of madness. When hate is your mantra, you simply have turned your back on God.

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Chauncey DeVega poses a very interesting question about black pride and white prejudice. In a new world where Fox and tea parties turn racism on its head accusing blacks of being racist and portraying whites as the new black, how do we judge these terms. What do they mean? Are they different for blacks and whites? It has been the contention of most African-Americans I know, and something deeply instilled in my from years of working for African-Americans, that only white people can be racist. As DeVega says, blacks can be mean and awful in every prejudiced way, but never racist. Read and see what you think.

Carry on!

Related Articles

• Honorary Co-Chairman Of David Prosser’s Campaign Resigns (dekerivers.wordpress.com)
• Sarah Palin endorses hard-right Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate David Prosser (americablog.com)

Breathe IN and Smile

Tags

atheists, Charles Grassley, denialism, elections, Elena Kagan, fundamentalism, gay rights, GOP, Mark Souter, Newt Gingrich, Rand Paul, SCOTUS

Truthfully, I feel a weight has been lifted. I, a few days ago, mentioned that I was done with arguing with fundies and atheists, finding it utterly unproductive, since both operated from some psychological need, on the closed mind theory. No controversial idea shall pass here!

And, as part of that commitment to sanity, I’ve rather ruthlessly deleted most all blogs of folks that adhere to such strangling ideology. A couple, I have hesitated, since they tend toward actual intellectual curiosity and I’m holding them a bit.

One, I thought might be worthwhile was a blog called SharperIron, mistaken by me with SharpIron, a very legitimate mainstream religious blog. Anyway, SharperIron was engaged in a multi-part series I wasn’t particularly interested in, and so, I was awaiting what might come next.

The next was a post about a tea party partisan, and I read it, and then thought to comment on a point or two. Going to the comments, I found I have to sign up–annoying but acceptable, so I clicked to do so, and then. . . well what a surprise. I was required to sign some oath that I believed in the utter inerrancy of the Word along with other such bull crap, and well, I deleted that blog rather soon after.

Just goes to show ya, I guess, just how closed a mind can be. No comments are allowed that don’t agree with the blog owner in principle at least. Some kinda dialog there!

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I read a delicious post on denialism yesterday, and you can read it at NewScientist.  The upshot was that it’s pretty much impossible to get them to listen. It’s all very psychological and such, which they don’t of course perceive in the first place. It gets all conspiratorial and then of course the leeches who pray on folks like this, fill them with all kinds of pseudo-science swill and we are then off to the races.  The best advice is to calmly make your case with truth and verifiable facts and don’t get personally involved in a debate.

A few great poster on FB especially have kept me adding one great blog after another to my reader, which has made it unmanageable in terms of size.  Which has led to a major clearing out it, discarding blogs I never read. I took the total down below 200 again, and that is somewhat manageable at least. Hopefully I can bring you the best in reliable links.

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The elections yesterday were interesting and frankly, I think the Dems are in pretty good shape. The Murtha seat was the critical won, and the Dem won handily there, which was somewhat of a surprise to the GOP I think. The Kentucky election, well, it seems the Teabaggers took that one, but Mr. Paul seems rather intent on destroying himself before November.

Guess our own Senator Grassley doesn’t quite get the message yet. He says voters are unhappy with their politicians, but not him of course. He claims his mail is generally not critical of what he has been saying and doing. Guess he doesn’t read mine.

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I’m surely not the only one who is highly pissed at the right wing attack on Elena Kagan for speculating on her sexual orientation. It has zero to do with anything, although they try to couch it in such. Don’t we have a right to know how her sexuality might impact her opinion on Don’t ask, don’t tell they whine? NO. No more than it would have been right to  burrow into the Negroness of Clarance Thomas, since he might have to look at affirmative action cases. It’s just an attempt to raise some public outcry from the homophobic right wing bigot machine, disguised as necessary inquiry. Shaddup already and crawl back under the rock please. Btw, Elizabeth Keaton has a great post on this today at her blog, Telling Secrets.

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Don’t know about you guys, but spring is in full swing, and we are busy planting everything not nailed down. Dogs and cats stay outta the way! We have nearly all the garden in, and I’m working on flowers. I bought 2 flats of assorted lovelies today and will plant Saturday. Getting a touch of rain tonight possibly and cool tomorrow, and then up into the 80’s! Hurrah!

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And the hypocritical ass award for the week goes to that great purveyor of abstinence only and anti AIDS info, homophobe,  and all around creationist nut: Indiana ReThug Rep. Mark Souter! (Drum roll, trumpets and all around clapping!). Doin’ the nasty with an aide, not his wifey. When will these self-styled “soooo goodly paragons of virtue” learn to shut the phuck up! And they wonder why the atheists have such a field day against ’em.

And speaking of which, Newt, the thrice married, twice divorced, I just discovered religion can be my ally in being important, Gingrich, has been vilified by those that usually like him. Seems his new book which just excoriates the Obama administration as a “secular socialist machine” heading straight for Nazi Germany, has enraged even the right.

And the oil slick still threatens to destroy the Gulf Coast and much of the marine life in the ocean. McCain continues to backtrack and support more and more repressive racist behavior in AZ. AZ keeps doing what its doin, which is hating everything not white. The sun keeps shining and the stars keep converting hydrogen to helium at fantastical rates. I’ll be back with more tomorrow, mostly likely. Meanwhile, listen to the birds and plant some radishes.

Learning from Iran

Tags

civic responsibility, democracy, elections, Iran, protests, voting

If you are like me, you’ve been keeping a close eye on Iran, and the results of the last election. I at least, have remained measurably hopeful. I don’t suppose that is very realistic.

A country that cheats as inelegantly as Tehran has done, probably is not likely to respond with a “my bad” when their deception is uncovered both at home and abroad. I don’t expect they will be announcing a “do over” any time soon.

It is painful to watch as people struggle to just have a fair election, where their voices actually count for something.  I think we take that for granted here in the US. Everyone alive in this country has never known anything different if they were born here.

Of course, we are not free from our own dirty tricks. There are plenty of election shenanigans to go around, mostly in attempts to suppress the votes of opposition voters through “legal” objections to voting rolls. But by and large, we think they are pretty fair. I mean if ever there was one that wasn’t, we can look to 2000, and Gore bowed to the right of the SCOTUS to have the final word. He signaled that that stamp was authoritative and was “fair.”

Because of this overall complacency, we are in danger here, and few realize it, or even believe it. We stood by as the Bushites pushed through “Patriot Acts” designed to take away freedoms such as privacy and speech, making it seem “unpatriotic” to oppose such legislation.

We’ve learned that there are ways around Congresses sole right to declare war, and we have now lost that means of control over our government as well. Plenty of people when polled, are happy to give up rights we claim to hold dear in the name of “national security.”

While we have been busy with life, our elected officials have had their power eroded and controlled by mega conglomerates, beholden to only themselves. They dictate just about everything these days. Obama and his team promise a dismantling of all this, but it’s so far unclear how much they can and are willing to do. Much too much ends up being aimed at re-election rather than the public good.

You can ask, and I invite you to, and plenty of folks will tell you that unfair police practices are okay, because, like national security, crime must be stopped, and “honest” people have nothing to hide, right?

I used to get asked a lot, and still do occasionally, how I “can/could” represent criminals when I “thought they were guilty?” The short answer is that because the law doesn’t assure them a lawyer who believes they are  innocent, but a lawyer to hold the state to its burdens of proof.

The long answer is that we have a country of laws. If lawyers don’t have to represent those they deem guilty, then why have courts or juries at all. Let the cops do justice on the street by personal whim. If you, your child, or loved one were charged with a crime, you’d want the best lawyer in town, not the ignorant sap who “believes” you.

We’ve grown soft in democracy, or federalism as you wish. We actually think we are doing our civic duty by voting. Precious few of us can even bother with that. Far fewer than that go to town councils meetings, and join groups who actively work for issues. I’m not wagging my finger at you, because I fall in the same category. I try, but fail, to convince myself that blogging is my contribution to improve the “public discourse.” Uhuh.

And don’t tell me that this happens to all democracies. We have the lowest voting record of any of them I believe. We are complacent. Well, not all of us. White people are complacent. When we move off that  demographic, there is at least a lot of folks who have been the recipient of our less than “fair” democracy. Like African Americans, Latinos, American Indians, Asians, all the non-whites actually. Yet even here, there is  a lack of co-ordinated voting of any kind, and poor turnout as well.

Can you imagine Iranians not voting because they had something better to do? Or Iraqis? Perhaps it is our less than long history of oppression in a real and obvious way that allows us to sink so rapidly into shrugging our shoulders and assuming nothing bad will happen. I don’t know, but I do know, that Iran is important.

Important, not just because we could use some more rational people to deal with there on big issues that face them and the region. We can look repression dead in the face, and place ourselves there, on those streets, in that fear of what will happen next? Will I get out of this alive? Will I be free to say and do what I wish?

We have lost any sense of how precious our freedom is, until of course, we wish to strut it around as giving us permission to dictate to the world on any issue under the sun. They we parade it and our flag high and strong. I find that I can use a remark of  Jesus’ often and well. America, remove the plank from your eye before you go about instructing the rest of the world how to live. Iran reminds us, we recently retreated from the edge, and we can peek over the edge once again all too easily.

Freedom requires vigilance. We best not forget that, or we too may one day face the streets, the batons, the water hoses, and the bullets.

Short Takes on the Day 10/17/08

Tags

abortion, cheesecake, Constitution, Election 2008, elections, John McCain, lobbyists, racism, Recipes, Reproductive Rights, succession, voting, women's issue

Distributor Cap NY  has a nice little piece that describes how the election would be determined given a death of a candidate at different points in the process. It’s worth your while to read this. The information is well worth knowing and understanding.

Brilliant at Breakfast  has a great critique of McCain’s blowing off of women with his air quote of “women’s health” as if it were not a legitimate concern in the arena of abortions. Nice of the old man to write off such a huge chunk of women voters in one fell swoop. He is incredibly senile it seems these days.

Oh it’s starting already. The name calling, the backbiting, and the finger pointing. Bill Kristol and McCain’s campaign team are trading insults. Kristol of course has told McCain to fire the lot of them, the team returns the favor by grousing that Kristol is the one who saddled them with Sarah Palin. It seems we don’t have to wait post election for the inside dirt to begin to fly. Anybody got a poo repellent suit? I think you might need one before walking into the Republican morass. Weeeeeeee. Welcome to our newest political blog, EmptyWheel.

Garrison Keillor reminds us of the momentous thing that we will be doing on November 4. Just maybe, electing the Most  qualified individual and doing so while not paying any attention to ethnicity. It’s really a big thing when you really think about it isn’t it. Keillor of course says it so very much better than I ever could. Go and enjoy the treat.

We flipped around the stations following the debate the other night, and were watching CNN at the time that the huge panel was arguing back and forth about McCain’s performance. On balance they thought McCain did quite well, so of course that all fell by the wayside when the polling data arrived and voters rejected McCain but again. Gergen’s response o A. Cooper’s question of where does McCain go from there was “Beat’s the hell out of me.” This was followed by much laughter. Seriously Gergen continued that McCain should spend the remaining time trying to shore up the down ticket where he could and try to change the tone of his campaign to salvage as much of his dignity as possible. Of course McCain will do no such thing. HIs vicious anger will force him to try to scorch the earth in departing.

McCain has of course groused about the K Street gang and how they have to be cleaned up. Of course McCain himself, being heads and shoulders among the rest of us in integrity, self-control and other related virtues, can use these lobbyists with impunity and not become beholden to them in any way. Seems his Verizon connections have been kind to him. Not only do they run his miserable campaign, but they seem to have erected towers on his property free of charge. The McCains need to be able to communicate you know, with Joe Plumber and Sarah Moose, and Joe Sixpack. It’s My Right to be Left of Center  has the story for you, via the Huffington Post.

I baked a apple pie this morning. I like pies, cream pies more than fruit ones. Liberality, ever the smart sassy political blogger was kind enough to post her favorite recipe for cheesecake. Nobody doesn’t like cheesecake, and this one looks really good. So slip over, and copy furiously and then make it, and then eat it. Please follow the order as given. It doesn’t work well otherwise.