Are We There Yet?

Tags

Barack Obama, Catholic Church, contraception, Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Scott Walker, Wisconsin

I didn’t put much credence in this at first. The Contrarian brought it to my attention as an genius evil machination of the Obama administration. But I’ve now read it other places, and well, there could be something to it. At least the timing seems fortuitous.

I mean let’s face it, before Tuesday, it was hard to find a cartoon about Ricky S. He was a non sequitur. He was old “frothy mix”, an extraordinarily rabid right-winger outlier, who like Dr. Paul, was desirous of spreading the message rather than having any grand expectations of getting a nomination.

Well, times change, and the desire to find ANYBODY GOD, JUST ANYBODY BUT MITT, has led us to Ricky. And, if you believe that Obama and his team are seriously brilliant, the contraception “issue” was dragged forth at precisely the right moment to give Ricky a platform to spew his crazy religious mantras and light a match under the mostly apathetic crazy Right.

And thus: upset the Romney apple cart once more.

Now I don’t know if that is true, or even plausible, but it sure was convenient wasn’t it? Now the two, stand poised to speak to CPAC that joyful religious/reactionary love fest being held in Washington D.C. Romney, as we know, enters with fear and loathing, for these are not his people. This is not a case of “I know my sheep and they know me.” On the other hand, Ricky enters the convention coming near to walking on water. Two more different approaches could not be found.

And you can hear the love across the conservative air waves. The pundits, pretending to be fair all the while they are not, talk about how Ricky is just being Ricky, the tried and true, never-changing, beacon of C O N S E R V A T I S M. From David Brooks to Peggy Noonan to RushiePushie, they are all looking adoringly at the new “favorite son”.

Ya just gotta wonder. How does Mitt stand it? Being so despised by so many. It’s not hatred, it’s just YUCK. It’s that creepy crawly feeling of revulsion when you hear the name, when you see the dopey pasted on grin, when you see him stand with hand on hip, trying to look casual, when you are sure that he has a butt plug lodged tightly up his ass at all times as some sort of penance for God knows what. Mitt may just not make it folks. Money is still favoring him, but heck, Ricky has dealt a pretty nasty blow with virtually none.

¶

There is a rather long but very well done analysis of Obama and his Presidency to-date from James Fallows. He’s got some decent credibility and the piece is largely devoid of partisanship. I saw him interviewed last night, and I was impressed. He points out Obama’s strengths and weaknesses, I think fairly. You may not agree with all he says, and I didn’t, but I also thought it was well done.

¶

Wisconsin voters can feel secure that when they vote to boot out Walker this year, they are making a sound decision. As most of you have no doubt heard, the banks are paying out several billions of bucks in wrongful foreclosures. The monies are going to the states, as the result of the actions of 48 State’s Attorney’s General actions. Well, dear old hard-heart, is taking 25 million of their settlement (of a 140 million total) and applying it to the state budget deficit rather than give it to the afflicted homeowners.

I guess he figures it will be a better argument to claim he’s “balanced the budget” instead of helping out homeowners.

He’s a turd. I bet him and Karl float around in the same toilet.

¶

Well, it’s harsh, but I’ll say it. I agree. Under the LobsterScope points out that the moral outrage of the Roman Catholic Church is a fine diversion from its perennial moral deficit–the child abuse problem that won’t go away. The reason it won’t go away? Because the Church continues to try to sweep it under the rug as best it can, although the lump in the rug is so damn big, everybody notices. (My rant). And they talk about the immorality of contraception!

And while we are at it, where is their moral outrage when African women contract AIDs because they are not allowed to use condoms and their infected husbands turn a deaf ear to their pleas for continence. (My rant ended).

¶

Ricky, giddy with new-found appeal, is as anyone would know, already steppin’ in it. He’s so far said we are on the road to the apocalypse, compared the Obama-led America to France heading to the guillotine, suggested that Obama would force the Roman Catholic Church to hire women priests, reminded us that global warming is a hoax, suggested that Obama has a “wink, wink, nod, nod” relationship with Iran’s nuclear desires in return for getting some oil, claims that the recession was caused by high gas prices, and now suggests that women shouldn’t be in combat because of “other types of emotions.”

Oh yeah, bring on the Rickster! Heck Obama can stay home and play hoops.

Related articles

• Enough Of The Fake Outrage Over Contraception (angrydd.wordpress.com)

If There was a Vote:

Tags

astronomy, Donald Trump, Election 2012, GOP, immigration, Joe Arpaio, Newt Gingrich, Scott Walker, Wisconsin

He ain’t a witch, but rather a warlock. But wicked he is. He is poster boy for everything that is wrong in America, and the worst of law enforcement.

I speak of course about of Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County Sheriff, known for his “camps” for arrested undocumented aliens in Arizona. Arizona of course is home to the draconian immigration law that served to galvanize the Right in its attempt to prove tough on immigration.

Joe, has endorsed Ricky Perry for President by the way, which tells you a lot about how desperate Ricky is these days.

As is true of many small communities,  El Mirage contracts out for police services. The county sheriff may have several communities that it serves in this fashion. Internal investigations show that Joe and his crew failed to investigate some 32 claims of sex abuse, one at least involving a child aged two. Need we add that almost all of the reports were made by undocumented workers? This, while suspects were KNOWN in all but six cases.

All told, some 400 cases were ignored state-wide.

This is what Arpaio thinks justice is about. Of course, given the calls for his resignation, he is apologetic now.

“If there were any victims, I apologize to those victims,” the sheriff said in his office’s most detailed public comments about the cases.

If?

I apologize, but frankly, should I find Mr. Arpaio along the highway in need of assistance, I would be hard-pressed not to just walk on by.

♦

I suppose you have heard.

The Donald has shaken “The Hair” and much like Sarah, decided that people aren’t paying him enough attention–again. So the Donald has manufactured a “debate” and he will be the moderator. All the usual clown candidates have been to visit the Donald in his throne room and kissed his ring, though for the life of me, I don’t know why.

To their credit, both Paul and Huntsman have said, thanks but no thanks and called it what it is, a circus led by the chief clown.

Go and read Joe Klein’s great piece on the meeting of the Grifter and the Hair. But we could not let you miss this great statement by the Paul campaign:

“We agree, of course, with former Speaker Gingrich — this is a country of people of enormous talent. Those who deliver thousands of babies like Dr. Paul and those who spend their time focusing on promoting themselves for profit. We even have those who lobby, but don’t call it such because, as they say, they can make $60,000 per speech. While those of us in the Paul camp might disagree with Newt Gingrich about whether Donald Trump is the right man to host a serious political debate, we do agree New York is a wonderful place to go at Christmas. We are sure two average Americans like Speaker Gingrich and Donald Trump will have a wonderful time picking out gifts for their wives. We suggest a place called Tiffany’s, we hear it is quite nice this time of year and given their celebrity status they can probably get special deals and $500,000 lines of credit.”

Oh, if only I could make money doing this, it is just so much fun. Klein, by the by isn’t all anti Gingrich. He claims that Gingrich’s ideas about child labor came from him, albeit in a rather different mode, one that on its face would be rational. Klein doesn’t point out strongly enough that Newt twisted his idea and turned it into something that reflects his true feelings about African-Americans and the poor in general.

♦

I’m packing my bags.

I’m getting my bus ticket.

I’m heading to Kepler 22-b.

It’s sista-earth to you not in the know. It’s got a sun in the sweet spot. It’s our long-lost kin.

It’s a big sista, and has a median temperature of 22C. I have no idea what that is, since here in America we don’t bother to learn anything about celsius. But it sounds good.

I figure it would be a nice place to spend Christmas. Wonder if they have any ham there?

It’s only 600 light-years away, so I figure a couple of days by bus.

♦

We kinda figure that Scott Walker, temporary Governor of Wisconsin, is feeling the love. I mean with only twelve days in, the “fire the turd” Wisconsonites have managed to garner over half the signatures needed to throw the bum out.

So, Scotty (please beam me up Mr. Koch) Walker, has decided that a suspension of freedom to assemble and petition the government is in order.

A group of 4 or more (a family in other words) must obtain permission to gather in state buildings. And groups of a 100 or more may be charged with police costs and clean-up.

According to Michael Moore, this is only slightly less draconian than policies in place in Brunei, which has come under criticism by Human Rights organizations.

 

 

 

 

The Palinator Syndrome Strikes Again

Tags

Congress, debt ceiling, deficit, economy, Islamophobia, Oslo, Reince Priebus, right-wing fundamentalists, RNC, Scott Walker, terrorism, voting, Wisconsin

We all know that Sista Sarah is the Queen of Whine, but really this does take the cake.

First we had John Bolton, Mr. Unconfirmable, tell us that this was “a classic terrorist effort” and specifically “Islamic terrorism.”

Then of course plenty of other right-wingers did the same.

What are we talking about? The Oslo massacre. Of course, it turned out that the actor was a Christian fundamentalist, steeped in a whole lot of anti-Muslim hate.

So who are the victims? The dead? The wounded? The family of those slain and injured? The nation of Norway? My heavens no.

The real victims are the right-wing anti-Muslim movement. Gracious me.

So says the right-wing rag FrontPageMag. Their cause has been harmed by the Norwegian who went on a shooting spree killing dozens. Now the Left will be using the event to point the finger at them. After all it was “perfectly reasonable” for everyone to assume that the Oslo killings were at the hands of Islamic Jihadists.

But the Left will use Breivik to divert attention from worldwide jihad, to advance their cultural Marxism, and to demonize the defenders of freedom.

Yeah, whine on you awful people.That is some serious chutzpah. . .or as Michele says Choots-pa.

♦

I was watching the Daily Rundown with Chuck Todd this morning on MSNBC. He had a couple of “expert” Washington watchers. Both agreed that this Congress may well be the most dysfunctional of all time. One of the guys went on to say something that I think explains it all quite well.

Basically he claimed that both parties now act like parliamentary parties, in other words, they are entirely ideological. There is no longer a middle. But they are not in a parliamentary system of government where the majority simply enacts its laws. Instead the GOP is now functioning as a party of NO to every and all legislation proposed by the Democrats. Their goal is not to govern and do what is right for the country, but to deny the other Party of any “wins.” Newt Gingrich authored this manner of retaliation back in the 90’s. It is in full flourish now.

The Democrats did the same basic thing between 2006-08, though we of course would argue that it was to effectively stop the horrible actions of the Bush administration. In any case, he argued, there is no courage exhibited by anyone to do the right thing–only the politically “right” thing. 

Perhaps we will see the beginnings of a new party, or just a growing number of folks running as “Independents”, beholden to neither side, who will act on behalf of us. We can but hope.

♦

Remember the lovely Reince Priebus? You know who I mean. Head of the RNC? Well I was reading a post from Brilliant at Breakfast yesterday about his call-out to the faithful to send money in the wake of the Democrats and their “insatiable hunger for ever higher taxes, greater government growth, reckless spending and massive trillion-dollar deficits”.

Jurassicpork has coined (or at least I think he/she has) a new term, that frankly left me chuckling on and off all day. Reince Priebus = Rinsed Penis.

Well, heck a laugh is a laugh…and I thought it a mighty good one.

♦

Oh, and I also read Moe’s great post on the deficit. The chart really explains it all. I just wish Obama would grab some prime time, set up the charts, and SHOW the public the real numbers.

♦

Reason 3,739 which Rethuglians are unfit to “govern.” Remember our old friend Scott Walker? Ya know who I mean, union buster and about to be recalled Walker? Well the thug is at it again. Among other awful things, his band of GOPers and he have managed to disenfranchise tons of Wisconsinites with their new voter ID law.

We all know that this is aimed at reducing the number of Democrats able to vote, and thus help them win elections when they are truly not the favored candidate. But knowing that the Democrats will do everything in their power to help seniors, students, and the poor to get those ID’s, Walker figured out another good ploy to deny the desires of the people.

At that would be? Why closing ten DMV offices statewide–all of which are in heavily Democratic locations and extending the hours to get those voter ID’s in typically Republican areas.

The GOP is upfront: they will change the rules to cheat and win. Meanwhile a  Brennan Center for Justice study shows that voter fraud nationally accounts for 44 one millionths of one percent of all votes cast.

Does Walker think that voters won’t remember?

♦

Gosh, I went and gone and done it again. Screwed up.

A week or so ago, the Contrarian and I went to the SS office to get my name changed. (Okay so I am a bit lazy, but really there was no good reason to do it until now when we are about to apply to SS in a few months.)

So anyway, I arrived with a “copy” of my marriage certificate as requested. Except they corrected that to the “original” so a trip to the Clerk of the Court ensued. Back to the SS office and I finished the paperwork. She swung the screen around and I tried to make out the information on the screen with my bifocals. And said it looked “fine.”

I got my card. Middle name wrong. I changed my middle name from Ann to my maiden name of McCameron. I just use the initial M. So I call them.

Yeah, you guessed it, I gotta go back. I failed to catch THEIR error. My bad.

A fine example of bureaucracy in action.