It’s Monday and it’s Stoopid

Tags

GOP, John Kasich, John McCain, Libya, Michele Bachmann, minimum wage, Mitt Romney, New Hampshire, Ohio, teabaggers, unions

I fear for there will never be a day again on planet earth that is not weighed down with the collective sluggishness of the stupid element.

I still wonder at the insanity of the GOP. With the polling decidedly against them, they continue on blithely with their agenda. Case in point was John Kasich, governor of Ohio and designated spokesperson to “respond” to the President’s weekly speech.

Kasich, the second most disliked GOP governor, only silly Scott in Florida fares worse, rattled off the usual GOP talking points of “lower taxes on corporations (oops, I meant job creators) and relief from regulations” and then took to slamming the unions once more as “job killers”.

Now Kasich, faced with a landslide of anger at his attempt to Wisconsinite unions in his state, chose to do that. I mean with full knowledge that he is gonna lose in his own state on that very issue. Did the GOP hold a gun to his head? Or is he just that stoopid?

Kasich, by the way, tried to get the progressives to come in to “discuss” the union issue now that it is quite clear it will be overturned by the people. Of course the progressives smiled and said no thanks. No stoopid there.

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Meanwhile, New Hampshire’s GOP controlled legislature continues to waste its people’s time. In a worthless move, it eliminated the minimum wage in the state, saying that it was wasted on the teens who weren’t “worth” minimum wage, and besides, minimum wages are “job killers.” Yes, I agree, every corporation would love to employ people for a dollar a day if they could. And, more to the point, NH’s minimum wage is the same as the federal one, and that now simply takes over. So nothing changes morons, except you have pointed out again that you care only for the rich and their “victimization at the hands of the poor.” Stoopid here.

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Did ya hear? Mitty (I’ve been running for years”) Romney  is tearing down his 3,000 square foot beach house in La Jolla, California to make way for a new and improved $12 million dollar one that comes in with a sweet 11,000 square feet of bliss. Not in yet is whether he will insist on non-union labor. I guess he can argue that he’s just being a good job creator. Somehow I suspect this will not sit much better than Johnny “mean old man” McCain’s inability to remember exactly how many homes he owned, or should I say his trophy wife owned. Way up on the stoopid scale Mitty.

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Ricky, (aww shucks I could do the job) Perry must think we are stoopid. He wrote a book called Fed Up in which he argues that nearly all of the social programs of the last 70 or so years are actually unconstitutional. Although the book is only nine months old, his staff is already trying to claim that it reflected his views then but not now. Except that when Perry was confronted by a voter in Iowa about entitlement programs, he snapped, “read my book!” No it’s Ricky who is stoopid.

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Two relics of evolutionary failure, Johnny (I hate the world for not electing me President) McCain, and his obnoxious bunk buddy Lindsay (I dream of Johnny with the light blond hair) Graham, has the audacity to praise Europe and the Middle East for their actions against the Qaddafi regime. This while they “regret the delay caused by the insufficient air power offered by the US. Is there ANYTHING ON EARTH THAT YOU JACKASSES WOULD APPLAUD THIS PRESIDENT FOR? It would be a pleasure to strap both of you to a nice little rocket and send you both to Qaddafi with a ribbon tied to your genitals gentlemen. ( the full statement can be viewed here.) You’re both stoopid, and one of you knows it.

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Michele (aww I just hate your guts Perry) Bachmann, is excusing her multiple gaffes by a “busy schedule”. I suppose that is an answer, though what in the world does she think the President’s schedule might be like? I would put it down to that she’s just stoopid.  Bachmann is reported to have offered to show her panties if the media would stop covering Ricky Perry so much. (remember stretching the incredulity muscle!)

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 I do believe I could make this stuff up and you wouldn’t know the difference. It’s just that stoopid out there.

He’s a Bungler!

Tags

African Americans, class warfare, corporate America, decision making, economy, GOP, John Kasich, Michele Bachmann, Michelle Obama, Ohio, political theory, poverty, psychology, racism, Rick Perry, taxes, teabaggers, unions

H/T to LOL GOD

Or what a difference a week makes. 

It was only a few days ago that I was sure the Ricky Perry was so capturing the goofballs known collectively as the TeaNutz® that he was a shoo-in to grab the GOP ball from boring old “I wanna be president” Mitt.

But, bungler that he apparently is, Ricky “No Lucy for you” is gummin’ up the works from the git-go. A series of duh moments has alerted even the know-nothin’ TeaNutz® leadership that they may have a real clunker here.

So, I’m not at all sure that Ricky will capture the brass ring, and that leaves us, ya know, the boring but ever willing to change his mind on ANYTHING, Mitty.

 And I was so hoping for more fun. Course it’s now about even money that the Neo-cons will travel five hundred miles on their knees to grovel at the throne of Chris (burp) Christie. Will Chrissy be like Caesar? No, NO, NO, oh if you insist!

Do stay tuned.

Meanwhile Newt is hot to trot in that bed of GOP voters, HA Why HE. Yeah, the grifter keeps getting a small cadre of really really really extra stupid wingnuts to give him money so he can live the high life.

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I don’t know if you saw The Daily Show the other night. Jon went on a super rant about the pundits on False Noise who continue, in true Randianesque form to whine that 51% of the people in the US don’t pay any taxes at all. They have dubbed this “class warfare” and now are arguing that the poor should “give some skin” before they ask the rich folk to ante up a dime.

What is simply stomach wrenching about this ugly claim of theirs is that they use Randian terms such as calling the poor “parasites”, “leeches”,  “takers” and frankly worse. The rich are portrayed as the true “makers” and “creators”. This is such unbridled hatred of a “class” that it’s a wonder they don’t choke on their own words.

Of course a HUGE portion of those who don’t pay any taxes, are those who, when the few tax deductions they are entitled to take are subtracted from their income,  have zero owing. Somehow this is their fault. “Stupid poor people who don’t make enough money!!”

And do you notice that calling the rich “creators” is a lot like calling them GOD? And that might be a suggestion that they are to be “trusted” as any Creator would be? Do ya think that is all just coincidence?

And of course let’s not forget that the poor pay most all of their income out in essential services, like utilities, rent, and food, all of which are taxed.

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When do you make decisions? Well, making a good decision depends on timing in part. So I would suggest that you follow the link and read all about how to make ’em good and stop screwing up! It’s a lengthy article from the NYTimes Magazine.

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There are two Michelle’s in Washington. One is in the White House, the other is on the campaign trail in the hopes of making it her home. Are they treated differently by the press? It would appear so. Read Sophia A. Nelson’s great article in The Grio.

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Professor Alexander Keyssar puts the GOP narrative into a historical perspective. Interestingly, I had used the same term to the Contrarian–they want a return to the Gilded Age of America where business had unfettered freedom to do as they wished. And that wish included, if you recall, child labor, unsafe working conditions, virtual slave wages, and long hours and no unions. Say Robber Barons. And of course, dismantle all social programs such as social security, medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, food stamps, education grants. . .well go on and on. This is the world they envision.

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I’d suggest you pop over and read Chauncey de Vega’s really good post on racism in America. He distinguishes two kinds: a white racial frame, and symbolic racism. These distinctions are terribly important and de Vega really explains what the phrase “take back America” means to the Teabagger mentality.

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If you thought the Wisconsin recall votes were not all that important, think again. Similar crap was pushed through in Ohio by the now beleaguered Governor John Kasich, and now guess what? The governor is trying really hard to placate the left in his state.

Kasich had pushed through a “kill the unions” bill through his Rethuglian-controlled legislature. But 1.3 million Ohioans have voted to put that very bill back on the ballot where they can put in their two cents. Under a weird little law, Ohioans had ninety days to get a bit over 231,000 signatures, and got, ummm 1.3 MILLION.

Kasich is trying to get the progressives to come on in and discuss the “issue.” 🙂

Related articles

• The Daily Show Takes On Fox, Again – Update (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Andrew Sullivan on Rick Perry (via Seniors for a Democratic Society) (allianceforanidiotfreeamerica.wordpress.com)

Fresh Out of Compromise

Tags

budget, debt ceiling, economy, GOP, John Boehner, Ohio, Paul Ryan, recall movements, Sarah Palin

I’m starting to fume about this debt ceiling thing. I’m particularly pissed at GOP members who know better. They are playing with fire, and with the basic ignorance of the American people. Polls show that a rather large majority of people in this country, who don’t know any better, think we should not raise it. In other words that we should default.

The GOP is fanning the flames by putting the argument in a fallacious framework. They liken it to a family. Expenses are higher than income. What does a family do? It cuts spending. This of course makes perfect sense. EXCEPT THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT A FAMILY.

Government spending can be used to create new jobs, and new building. This pumps the economy, and creates additional income. (Of course almost all of this could have been avoided if the Bush tax cuts for the rich hadn’t been extended [a significant loss in revenue] and if we reasonably taxed corporations instead of doing as the GOP demands, give them deeper cuts.) If we must pursue the family analogy, then think of it this way. Even though we are in debt, we might want to spend some money on job training or college courses to give us a chance for a higher paying job in the future.

The GOP has so far been quite successful in pursuing a game of chicken. So far the Democrats have blinked each time. They demand cuts when we know we should be spending our way into a  more healthy economy. They threaten to shut ‘er down, and we give up a fair amount to avoid that.

Boehner is scared to death it seems of the teabaggers, those ill-educated, ill-informed jackasses who cannot see their true target–corporate America, who is playing them like a fiddle. The GOP is huffing and puffing and threatening to throw the country into bankruptcy unless the Administration caves in some major ways with “debt reduction.” This all most surely will be an attempt to gut Medicare and Medicaid, and possibly social security as well.

The GOP, hates these programs, because it hates it’s earned money being given to other people. It turns red at any hint of “redistribution of wealth.” It personifies this in rhetoric that is peppered with “socialism” and sometimes even “communism”. The extremists within them have no problem referring to all progressives as “commies” who would “take away our freedoms”.

Here is what I suggest. The president needs to call upon about 3-4 of the top economists in the world. Sit them down, and have a conversation about the economy, how to make it grow, what to do about the debt ceiling, what to do about the debt. He should ask the questions, garnered from questions submitted by the public.

And then, he should NOT bend  on the debt ceiling. No more cuts. Take it or leave it. If the GOP wants to be the orchestrator of the economic doom of this country, then so be it. The considered opinion of the “economic roundtable” will be recalled soon enough. The GOP will destroy themselves.

My opinion. It’s all a ruse as all the others have been to get their way. Their way, is to cut spending, stall the economy, and hope this places them in a better position come 2012.  The Democrats must remain firm, and draw the line HERE. No more. Raise the ceiling as we have done many times before, or face the consequences. There is plenty of bluster on the part of the GOP, but I don’t think all of them have reached the point of being suicidal. Rational heads still control the numbers, as loud as the pissants teabuggers are.

NOT ONE MORE CONCESSIONS. And frankly, I think it’s possible that the Administration knew that this was the fight that mattered, and after giving in again and again, they can stand hard on this, and know that it will be the GOP who will blink first.

That’s what I think. You?

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Things are heating up in Washington state making it the “new” Wisconsin. Again, over union issues. Some people have a hard head. Meanwhile in Ohio, Democrats are introducing a recall bill, seeing Governor Kasich’s anti-almost everything not white and business, stance as unseemly. His approvals are plummeting. The legislature is controlled by the Rethugs but a message is being sent. Your time is short Teabagger!

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Paul Ryan, guru extraordinaire of budget slashing, is getting plenty of air time spewing his let the rich-get-richer-and-the-poor-get-poorer routine. The is nothing new here–in Ryan that is. Just more of the same, money belongs to the creative rich people who make it, workers are for doing the dirty work.  Ryan, a follower of Ayn Rand, would privatize social-security, making “everyone capitalists”. Now doesn’t that sound just lovely, until the stock market crashes, like it did in ummmm, not so long ago…2008? Anybody remember?

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Through all this, one name has faded from the public. One can but imagine what is going on in Wasilla these days. Sarah has been relegated to being “interviewed” by some unknown judge now on Fox. No more O’Reilly or Hannity for her! She’s been marginalized plain and simple. In the last one I saw, she went on about how Obama was “using the military family as pawns” in the budget battle, and how utterly appalling that was. And she continually referred to presidential wanna be Donald Trump as “the Donald” in some attempt to marginalize him as well. Looks like the lady is getting desperate.

Sadly her clone Michele, nobody’s belle, Bachmann, just ain’t the same. I’m gonna miss the old girl. She was fun to kick around.

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What’s on the stove? Homemade tomato soup and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.

Related Articles

• GOP: Votes don’t exist to lift debt ceiling without conditions (thehill.com)
• GOP mixing social, fiscal agenda on budget unwise (sfgate.com)
• Budget Battle: Analysis Suggests Republicans Won First Round (huffingtonpost.com)
• Budget Deal Postmortem: Who Won?, Who Lost?, Does It Matter? (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Schumer: Holding down debt ceiling plays with fire (cbsnews.com)
• The Republican Playbook for the Debt-Limit Fight (swampland.blogs.time.com)

In Case You Care

Tags

bechamel sauce, enchiladas, GOP, Mexican food, Ohio, Recipes, unions, wacko right wing

Blitzkrieg literally means “lightning war”. It became the Nazi method of surprise attack with overwhelming force. In American terms, think “shock and awe”.

It seems to me, that the assault on public employee unions is much the same. It seems to have been a plot hatched deep in the bowels of Republican bunkers, unleashed after a favorable 2010 election cycle. Strike while the iron is hot as they say.

Republicans in state after state are facing bills introduced by lock-step following drones of the Party hierarchy, all designed to destroy the union movement in America, and thus attempt to weaken if not utterly destroy the Democratic Party who gets most of its votes.

This is all being done against the wishes of the electorate. Poll after poll, even the deeply flawed and uber right leaning arm of the GOP, the Rasmussen, says that the public is overwhelming in its support of the rights of public workers to unionize. The people are not buying the rhetoric of the right plain and simple.

They are not buying the attempts of Fox and other wacko pundits to paint the union workers as grossly overpaid, and not sharing in the pain of “everyone else.” This from the mouths of jackasses who make millions a year. They are not buying the claims that the demonstrators are largely “paid socialists and commies”. In fact Stephen Colbert caught Fox in another of its deliberate lies. It claimed with appropriate footage that demonstrators were from other states, and were “agitators”. Trouble was the agitators were wearing t-shirts and there were palm trees in the background as they marched. Not exactly Madison I’m thinking.

Nothing is too much to achieve their business currying ends. In Ohio, Republican Senate leadership, removed a fellow GOP committee member and replaced him with another GOPer. Why? Because the sitting Republican was not going to vote for their union killing bill. So they just replaced him with one who would. Yeah, that is the lengths these evil people are prepared to go. No democracy for them. No. Just blatant blitzkrieg, good old shock and awe.

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Okay, so I try to keep my word, so here is the awesome enchilada recipe I concocted. Well, the new and revised version since I really, really don’t like Velveeta®. It’s not the taste so much, it’s the viscosity that leaves a gluey like lip smackin’ sensation. Not good.

What this recipe is designed to do is to eliminate the issue I have with traditionally baked enchiladas, namely the soggy, disintegration of the tortillas during the baking process. The sauce, just melts them away.

This is how I fixed that problem.

Sherry’s Basically Great Enchiladas

Poach a good-sized bone in chicken breast with the usual onion, celery, salt and pepper, bay leaf, until done. Or buy a roasted chicken and shred, or use some left over chicken you already have.  Set aside, cool, and debone and cube. I’d say around 3-4 cups. (Any other meat or seafood is also acceptable)

Meanwhile, in a microwave-safe bowl, place 4 oz of creamed cheese, 1 tsp each garlic and onion granules or powder, a pinch of salt, 1/3 tsp pepper, 1 Tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, 2 tables fresh cilantro chopped, 1 chopped jalapeno. Microwave just long enough to make the cream cheese stir-able. 

Add chicken and loosen with a bit of milk if it’s too thick to stir easily.

Take your tortillas, flour or corn as you desire. Heat a burner (I have an electric stove, use a griddle pan if you have gas), lay each tortilla on it until it just begins to smoke, turn over and do the other side. Repeat with remaining tortillas (about 6). This leaves nice burnt bits here and there on the tortillas.

Fill the tortillas with about 2 Tbsp of the chicken. Place in a foil lined and oiled baking pan. When finished cover the pan with foil and set aside. I do this in the morning and leave them until ready to warm up for dinner. Otherwise place in oven at 275° for 30 minutes or long enough to warm through.

Meanwhile, make a roux of 1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp flour in a pan. when melted and mixed, add 1 C warm milk. Bring to boil until thickened. Add 1 C shredded cheddar, Monterey jack, or other cheese of choice. Add 1 jalapeno diced, 1/3 c of green pepper.  Loosen the mixture with a bit of milk again. You want this to be ladle-able.

Place the enchiladas and cheese sauce on the table, along with sour cream and salsa (home-made if you like –my recipe is on this blog under I think condiments or Tex-Mex) and green onions and ripe olives sliced for garnish, along with thinly sliced shredded cabbage. I know this sounds weird but the crunch is wonderful. (add it to the top of the enchiladas before the cheese sauce.)

That’s it! 

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• Walker Losing Support from Senate Republicans in Wisconsin? (news.firedoglake.com)
• Cracks In Republican Support For Governor Walker Anti-Union Bill (dekerivers.wordpress.com)
• “Wisconsin Republicans Preparing to Break With Union Busting Gov. Walker?” and related posts (guerillawomentn.blogspot.com)
• Republicans to debate Ohio union bill for weeks (reuters.com)
• GOP In Danger of Losing Younger Voters in Wisconsin? (themoderatevoice.com)

Lies, Lies, Damnable Lies

Tags

Bruce Braley, Carl Paladino, Catholic Church, Democrats, food stamps, fundamentalism, gay rights, GOP, immigration, Iowa, Latinos, Nazis, Newt Gingrich, Ohio, patriarchy, Politics, right-wing crazies, social issues, violence, women

Private monies funding attack ads are favoring GOPers about seven to one. And there are no reins on them either. Truth, Smuth. Who cares. It’s winning that counts.

Here in Iowa, they are out in force against Bruce Braley (D-IA), from the 1st district. The little dweeb running against him, just bought his first suit, or so it looked at their debate. Yet something like $800,000 is being spent by outside sources to defame Braley, telling Iowa voters that he is responsible for their individual taxes going up a cool $1600 per person next year. A bold-faced lie, but of course his opponent need only shrug and disclaim any responsibility.

This is taking place all over America. The GOP is not funding these “loser” races, because it cannot, but big business can. And they are. Further, as was noted on PBS News Hour, candidates in the future know what they will face.

Of course ads besmirching the character and actual policies and actions of  Democratic incumbents and candidates is only a part of the problem.

The other is the character and policies of the GOP-Teabagger candidates themselves. Paladino, in New York continues to try to walk back his ugly comments about gays.

”I just think your children and my children would be better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don’t want them brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option–it isn’t.”

What he included in his written speech but didn’t actually say, and later denounced was this:

“There is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual. . .[which] is not how God created us.”

Paladino has since tried to walk back his comments claiming a great love for all things gay, except marriage,  but his campaign manager continues to defend his statements as “exactly equivalent to the Catholic church.”  As David Wilson points out in the Commonweal piece, whether Paladino is in line with Catholic teaching or not, is this the way it should be expressed? He asks whether the hierarchy owes some statement about the tone being set by Mr. Paladino.

It is no secret that the Catholic church does not support active homosexuality. In this I would argue that it is categorically wrong and probably on some level realizes it among its scholars at least. However, having painted itself it a corner on many of these issues (the Church being protected by the Holy Spirit and being incapable of error on matters of doctrine and morality), She is having a mighty hard time figuring out how to get in step with modern exegesis and ethics.

To hide behind the Church’s skirts, if you will, is no defense at all to Mr. Paladino. Two wrongs don’t make a right as they say.

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I had to laugh yesterday when I was perusing the political blogs and came upon a reference to Cantor and his claim that the Ohio wannabe congressman who participates as a Nazi in WWII re-enactments had gone a bit too far. The writer, and I have no clue who it was now, suggested that FINALLY we have found something so outrageous that even Republicans are offended! Not the desire of such folks as Angle and Miller to disband and social security, medicare and Medicaid, and unemployment benefits. Nay, that is just forcing folks to look out for themselves. Not gay bashing, and treating undocumented workers as criminals who deserve hanging. Nay, that is just upholding morality and homeland security. But Nazi sympathizers? That just might be too much.

Cantor probably should speak to DeMint and the cuckoo clock in Delaware, I’m not so sure they would agree with him.

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Oh Newt the Snoot is at it again. Newt is another of those GOPers who still doesn’t GET that what he said before is actually written down and SAVED. Newty is urging his fellow slugs to start calling the Dems the “party of food stamps.” Except there Newty, you forget! Perhaps there is a limited brain capacity of the average sluggo, and that explains Newty’s failure to recall how he supported  Bush’s rather blatant attempt to increase food stamps for immigrants in the hopes of enlarging the Hispanic vote for the GOPers. Oh Think Progress, don’t miss a thing!

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It seems to awful to be true, but it is true. And Ahab at Republic of Gilead has done a great job in investigating and reporting on the strong ties between violence against women and children to the religious right. Indeed, it is their screwy interpretation of scripture that endangers women and children every day in this country. Read this and know thy enemy.

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Hope the day is finding you well and happy.

Related Articles

• Paladino offended gay pride parades’ bumping and grinding (nydailynews.com)