What We Have Here, is a Failure to Think

Tags

Congress, GOP, social issues, teabaggers

I have to laugh. Truly I do. Not out of some sense of arrogant snotty, look down your nose kinda attitude. Out of real sympathy. Sincerely.

Oh, you know me too well.

I am lovin’ it. I am lovin’ the super-duper mess that the GOP has gotten itself into. I am chortling that after having a massive study of “HOW THE HELL DID WE LOSE?” they are pretty much going to ignore the results.

They are really debating whether its NECESSARY to appeal to women, gays, immigrants, or all those host of other folks they have managed to offend in the last ten plus years, oh hell, make that ever since every stinkin’ Dixiecrat joined the Republican party as the last vestige of what’s white and right in America.

Now, let us remember that less than a year ago the GOP was wringing its collective hands and weeping that civilization as we know it would end should we not elect one Willard Romney, wizard businessman to cure our collective ills. He would get our economy zipping along, return unemployment to historical lows, and all the while, manage not to offend anyone as he guffawed that the White House was a tad small by his standards but he was ready to rough it for the good of the country.

It was all jobs and deficits and the sky is falling in GOP land.

Today?

Not so much.

So far the GOP has gone-a-lynching in Benghazi, the IRS, the NSA, and come up dry. Nary a suitable lynchee to be found. This after failing to turn “fast and furious” into the downfall of the Administration it was always touted to be. And before that, it was birth certificates and pallin’ around with terrorists and downright squishy softness when it came to A-rabs. If there was a teflon-Don well, then there most assuredly is a teflon-President.

Or could it simply be that there was nothing to find.

All the while that the Congress was busy picking lint from its navel, the Republican held legislative bodies across the land have been busy too. Busy about the people’s business. If you set out with the intention of electing majorities across the land with an R emblazoned on their forehead, well you might have saved a lot of time and money by just going down to the local cattle lot and choosing any cow that could stand without help and installing them as State Senators and Representatives. They would surely know as much.

These folks are priceless, and in some cases led by ELECTED governors of the R persuasion to boot. And as I said, they have been busy doing the people’s business.

If  you believe that the people’s business is enacting more and more restrictive laws regarding abortion access, deliberately tailoring laws to put a legitimate business out of business (Planned Parenthood), and systematically making voting about as easy as working your way through a corn maze at midnight on a moonless night.

This is your democracy at work folks.

In Missouri, the livestock elected to its legislature passed a bill that made it illegal to enforce federal gun laws. It made it a crime for a journalist to publish the names of  gun owners. It nullified other federal laws, lowered the age to get a concealed weapons permit, authorized guns in schools, and on and on.

The Missouri governor vetoed the bill as unconstitutional on its face. Money well spent doncha think? The uber righties are calling for Governor Nixon’s impeachment so more money can be wasted. (where are the jobs Republicans?)

In South Carolina, the screams election night were loud. VOTER FRAUD! The State Attorney General was up in arms. Investigate! Prepare to arrest those cheaters. After all the time and money spent on this investigation what do we have? Not a single case found. NOT ONE. (where are the jobs Republicans?)

In Wisconsin, in the dead of night, on his way out the door governor Scott Walker, signed into law legislation requiring women to undergo and VIEW ultrasounds before getting an abortion, and then required that all clinics doctors have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. This from the people who demand “small government” and government that isn’t regulatory in business matters. Walker mansplains that it’s all to help women make informed decisions. Lawdy doc, that’s a BABY in there?  (where are the jobs Republicans?)

This crap goes on everywhere the GOP has a majority.

In Congress, the House is poised to hold the debt ceiling hostage once again in order to force the President to enact Paul Ryan’s budget. Now they tell me that Paulie was ultra sure that he and Willard were going to win last November, so perhaps he didn’t get the memo. . . .YOU FREAKIN’ LOST YOU DIMWIT. Nobody cares about your budget and more cuts to SNAP and MEDICARE and MEDICAID.

And immigration? Oh, no, that ain’t going to happen either. They now call it the “Steve King” problem. Ya see, King and the belly crawlers of his ilk don’t want ANY pathway to citizenship. They want a permanent underclass of non-citizens (think South Africa before Mandela) to pick the lettuce and live in camps. Or better yet, haul your ass back to Mexico (all South Americans call Mexico their “home” didn’t you know?) until the next picking season.

Boehner ain’t apparently going to fight the TeaNutz by bringing the Senate bill to the floor for a vote up or down, since he found out that the Speaker ship granted him five extra days in the tanning machine and two extra weeks of golf. I mean what’s important here? A man doesn’t work that hard to get to the free ride good life for nothin’ you know.

I could make a list of this crap that would cover the entire Washington monument, and still have enough to drape the Lincoln Memorial.

This is your tax money at work.

Why are you sitting there?

Have you seen what’s going on in Cairo? It’s called feet. You walk on them, stand on them. Arms, they hold things. Like signs. Ones with the words spelled correctly.

Petition your damn government to either start addressing the people’s real business or start packin’.

 

 

I Have Nothing to Wear to a Funeral

Tags

fundamentalism, gay rights, GOP, religion, social issues, teabaggers, women's rights

Disclaimer! This is not original thought. I give all credit to Andrew Sullivan in his thought-provoking remarks here. He makes some very cogent points, and when you add up the evidence, I think he might well be right.

Sullivan argues that the GOP as it exists today has ceased to be a political party. It no longer acts rationally, from a national party point of view, but rather has been captured by a group and is being forced to take on its persona.

He argues that the GOP is now nothing more than a religious party.

Think of a snake devouring a furry mouse, swallow by swallow until it simply disappears and is digested to be no more.

National political parties exist for the purpose of ostensibly giving voice to their constituents. We can of course argue that neither the Democrats nor the GOP exist for that purpose any more, but rather as a vehicle by which to motivate their constituents to vote them into office with the promise that it will benefit them. The book of apologies for not doing that is of course at the ready and is every two or four years, dragged out and used to “explain” why it was not possible to do most of what was promised.

National parties, however, tend to the flock if you will, by making it appear that they truly care.

We have terms for the political spectrum. Libertarian, Progressive, Liberal, Conservative, Reactionary, Anarchist, and so forth. Those terms are defined, and have over the eons of political discourse starting at least in Athens, come to mean something. But in this country, Sullivan argues that the term Conservative no longer means what it means around the world. For in this country, so-called Conservatives don’t act that way at all.

In England and in Australia, the Conservatives support gay rights. It is logical that they do so. They see it as a conservative thing. Since the objections to marriage equality come almost exclusively from the religious sector of society, true conservatives are determined to keep religion out of the governing region, as we too, by our Constitution, claim to desire.

Yet in this country, people who call themselves conservatives are vehemently opposed marriage equality. Moreover, these same people are exceedingly happy to have the state involved in women’s bodies.

Across the country in states controlled by Republican majorities, we find bill after bill  determined to interfere with Roe v Wade, bills  that are patently unconstitutional on their face. Planned Parenthood, the rallying point for so many Tea People, is facing such an onslaught of legislation deemed “regulatory” that it is closing offices all over. Women who wish abortions now face the real problem of transporting themselves hundreds of miles to find a provider. This is intended. It is working.

Every means is being used to embarrass and shame women, by forcing them like children to view sonograms, and endure body probes, and various “counseling” because surely women don’t understand what’s in their uterus.

These are not conservative actions. They are actions of those who wish the government to be MORE, not less intrusive in their lives. Except of course the rub is obvious–they don’t intend the intrusion to be in their lives–just yours.

If that is true of conservatives, what can be said of Libertarians who are even more hysterical at the idea of government. Yet Rand Paul, the libertarian + teabagger, finds himself not only opposing abortion and apparently in favor of all these attacks on women’s rights, but is also against marriage equality, finding, as insane as it sounds, that it will surely lead to marriage with animals.

A true conservative would be in favor (one would think) in their being as little government intrusion into the sacred sphere of voting. Yet across the land, conservative-held states are enacting again and again laws that make it more difficult to vote, at least for certain segments. Tea baggers, without batting an eye will tell you that they aren’t really sure that non-property owners should vote.

While some of the old-timer Republicans see the necessity of reaching out to the gay community and the Latino community as a means of party survival, not so the teabaggers. They figure that there must be a way to.” get more “white people to vote for them.” Do you hear that? Let’s become the White Party! What could be wrong with that?

And indeed, I suspect that the average teabagger, uneducated as they usually are, would agree. In the fundamentalist world they live in, Cain was that dark one who was banished. The mark of Cain has always been “being born black” to that crowd. It remains such, no matter how much the rhetoric changes. It spawns the “playing the race card” defense and the “uncle Tom black Republicans” we see today.

Couple that with the conservative love for loyalty to one’s “tribe” and suspicion of those not “one of us”, and you have all the makings for a racism that simply over rides common sense and evidence.

It brings you the likes of Phyllis Schafly and her continuous assertions that Latinos aren’t “our kind“, and should be ignored by the new GOP.

But it brings forth more than racism.

It brings forth the true agenda of the new GOP.

It has everything to do with theocracy. It has everything to do with scrapping the Constitution in favor of a new one that keeps the white folk in charge, and the “right” church pews filled.

In Pennsylvania, a right-winger blocked the floor speech of a fellow legislator, using a technical procedural objection, simply because he believed that his colleague was going to “speak against God’s law.”

Did you get that?

A elected legislator stopped another duly elected legislator from speaking on the floor of their state house, because he was going to, (he thought) speak against God’s law (as he interpreted it of course.)

How insane is that?

I assumed that following the whippin’ the GOP took in 2012, they would purge themselves of the virus.

I was wrong.

You see some attempt to do so in the Senate, but Cruz ignores the Old Guard.

Boehner is too in love with being called Mr. Speaker to stop them. He’s allowed them to control the House, and will reap the rewards of that decision in the future one hopes.

But an effective party?

The GOP is fading into oblivion and is being transformed into a party of crazy white people who have an unhealthy and wrong understanding of Christianity. They are pretty much convinced that all would be well if only “we” weren’t here, or in charge, or having any say in the way things are done.

So, yeah, it’s a funeral. And frankly, I’m going to miss the GOP. The New GOP? Be afraid. Be very afraid.

And Then There Was Just Willard

Tags

economic issues, Election 2012, gay rights, GOP, Herman Cain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, racism, safety net, social issues, teabaggers, Women's issues

With Ragin’ Ricks departure, that would seem to be the end of it. Don’t tell our intrepid Newtsie though, because he thinks that all that Ricky love will now be coming his way and make that long-ago uttered statement, “I think it’s clear that I’m going to be the nominee” a prescient truth.

Meanwhile, all the courageous Refreakricans are coming out of the woodwork to through their imprimatur upon the oily anointed one. Even our own Terry Branstad leapt to indorse the candidate Willard as his new BFF.

Not to be outdone, that moral champion NOM, offered its heartfelt support. Finally Willard got the tit-for-tat that he bargained for. After all, a check for $10,000 and a pledge to fight the gay agenda until death was not too much to ask of the etch-a-sketch presidential wannabe.

 ¶

At Foxy, a mole is turning out some interesting video. It seems that our Willard was about to be interviewed by fav idiot boy Sean the Hannity, and the two were chatting it up before the cameras rolled. Willard was talking about his wife’s “warmbloods” which are the best horses of course for dressage (pronounced dra-saj for your unFrench types), while he himself preferred the smoother gait of his Missouri Foxtrotter. They both then chortled about how such a discussion would not be helpful on camera. And then, so we are told, Willard made some gay-type giggle about a pink tie. Since I can’t watch video, please tell me if the video doesn’t support my statements.

¶

Herman Cain has been talkative as of late. First he encouraged Willard to hire on the great disgraced Alan West as his running mate. West dutifully said that he would serve is called up, and then dutifully said that all those pesky social issues he’s been rabid about, aren’t important at the moment.

But Herm didn’t stop there. No, he decided to help Willard out with his woman issue. Herm, being the great woman’s advocate, had this to say about why women are flocking to President Obama:

CAIN: Yes, President Obama is very likable to most people, if you just look at him and his family. But if you look at his policies, which is what most people disagree with, it’s a different story. And I think many men are much more familiar with the failed policies than a lot of other people, as well as the general public.

You see, women are “other people” and they aren’t informed on important issues like the economy, so they are swayed to support the President because he is likeable and has a nice family. I’m both dumb and other in three sentences!

Thank you Herm. Keep on sending in your checks to NOW.

¶

Which has nothing to do with the poor sap legislator in Wisconsin who said that scrapping the employment equality enforcement was okay since, men care more about money than women do.

¶

Meanwhile, Chris Christie says America is turning into a paternalistic entitlement society, “with a bunch of people sitting on their couch waiting for their government check.” Well, first I might ask how he knows so much about couch potatoes? And then I might ask how he thinks that giving the rich more money to squander on pretty things at Tiffany’s helps put food on the table for those folks who have had their checks removed. Are they to become clerks at Tiffany’s?

¶

Just a laugh. Mikey Huck started his new radio show and his first call-in question was full of praise for the Huck and his refreshing new point of view. Turns out however that the caller was staged and a fake listener and was actually one of the executives of his own show. Oh Huck, that’s mighty unChristian doncha think? Lies are sinful Mike.

¶

I don’t know if you heard all the kerfuffle yesterday about George Zimmerman. He called Sean the Hannity and had a nice chat. But his lawyers were unaware, and when they called Sean, he was mum. And then they (the lawyers) said they had never actually met their client, only talked to him on the phone. And then they quit. Sort of. And George is not supposed to be in Florida, but maybe in Cuba. It’s all confusing, and well Willard was pissed at being pushed off the top story. Field Negro has an interesting take on it all. Ain’t it nice to know that in America if you are accused of racism, your naturally go for safety to Fox Noise? Yeah.

¶

We don’t, as individuals, spend a lot of time imagining what it’s like to walk a mile in somebody else’s shoes. We should. It’s called empathy. Feministing alerted me to this fine article at The American Prospect. This is deep and important look at the awful practice of trying to “undue the gay.” Anyone who suggests that gayness can be therapeutically “fixed” is both wrong and dangerous.

 

The Definitive Answer to the Greek Economic Meltdown

Tags

abstinence only, Congress, gay rights, GOP, Herman Cain, sex education, sexual harassment, social issues, wingnut pundits

9-9-9!

Oh wait.

Seriously. If you come to this blog for international news, you are in a world of trouble.

I can barely make sense out of what is going on in this country, and I’m a life-long resident.

It’s not that I don’t pay attention. I sit quietly and politely each evening as the PBS News Hour attempts to explain all this EU ruckus.

Frankly, in my naiveté, I thought it was all fixed last week, but this Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou fellow seems to have gummed that up. I think he’s up for a vote of confidence tomorrow. I can tell you that I have no confidence in him. If that matters.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.

We are in an economic crisis of our own, and people would like to eat. And to eat, they need jobs. So our brilliant Congress spends my tax dollars re-affirming that it is in God We Trust. I was confused. I thought it was Krishna, or The Earth Goddess. But, even though confused, I get unconfused real fast whenever I pick up any MONEY, you idiotic fools.

I was born and raised in Michigan.  Michigan is in an economic crisis, in case you missed it. They people who are relatively more hungry than say Iowans are, across the board at least. And to eat, they need jobs. So their brilliant Senate passed what is universally defined as a “blueprint for bullying.”

Basically it bans bullying, and then explains that if you bully for the right reasons, it’s not a crime at all. This piece of dog poo was dreamed up and supported by. . . . (drum roll). . . .yes you guessed it, the GOP! Voting along strict party lines, the GOP pushed through the bill, which now goes to the House for its consideration. The right reasons? Anything that has to do with moral or religious beliefs.

Along with brains (see yesterday’s post) the GOP suffers from an absence of heart.

♦

Once upon a time, there was a woman. She was hungry for attention, and more importantly money. So she looked upon the political landscape, and found a place for herself. As an extreme political pundit. And she worked hard to be extreme.

But, other women came along, and suddenly she wasn’t unique, and her books started to lay gathering dust.

So, she got more extreme.

Hermie Cain is struggling with the sexual harassment thingie. And the Right, is “playing the race card” claiming that the Left are just a bunch of racists trying to destroy the real deal black man because they fear him so much. So our intrepid “trying to remain relevant” pundit lady says:

 “our blacks are so much better than their blacks” because “you have fought against probably your family, probably your neighbors… that’s why we have very impressive blacks.”

“Obama… is not a descendant of the blacks that suffered these Jim Crow laws,” that he was “not the son of American blacks that went through the American experience,”

Ann, dear, you awful excuse of female gender, psst, we don’t OWN people any more. They aren’t “our blacks” you racist b**ch! Return to under your rock now, please you little grifter. Oh, and if you think Ann might just have been having a “moment” you can read her extensive defense of “her blacks” here.

♦

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.

Rushin’ for drugs Limpaugh is not to be out done by the likes of Annie, my time has passed, Coulter. No, Rush doesn’t think much about sexual harassment at all. It’s just a bunch of liberal clap trap, used by women to score some money.

LIMBAUGH: You know what sexual harassment is? You know what it really is? It’s a political tool. It is a political tool invented by the left. And — for the express pur– just like political correctness is a political tool of the left to shut people down, sexual harassment is a political tool of the left to get rid of people, or to score money gains, whatever is most desired.

How are ya, folk– no, I’m not saying sexual harassment doesn’t happen. I’m just saying that it doesn’t happen a whole lot of times people admit to it happening. They’ll make a settlement out of court rather than go to court to litigate it just to get rid of it. It’s become an accredited way for malcontent women to score some money. There’s no question about it. [Premiere Radio Networks,The Rush Limbaugh Show, 1/11/11]

We hear ya Rushin’. We hear you loud and clear. Look up the word misogynist okay?

♦

Michele Bachmann said some things. . . . .

♦

Economic woes are being felt in the state of Wisconsin. Lots of people are hungry there. They need jobs to make some money to feed themselves. The GOP controlled Senate spent tax money to institute an abstinence only” requirement in teaching sex education and NOT speaking a word about contraception.

As anyone who bothers to check would know, a full discussion of ALL manner of prevention works best and in states where abstinence only is required, there is universally a higher incidence of teen pregnancy. But the vote when on, predictably, along party lines.

♦

** I cleaned up the sidebar yesterday, removing the link categories of crafting, food, gardening, and religion. Obviously this blog has changed over time, and basically revolves around all things political with a smattering of personal interest posts. I have a faith blog and a food blog, and so retaining links here seems unnecessary. To those very few who were lopped off but are followers here, never fear, I have not dropped you from my reader and continue to read your lovely blogs.

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He Deserves to be in Hell, Just Not on the Same Floor as Hitler

Tags

Christianity, fundamentalism, GOP, Herman Cain, Jesus, John Boehner, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, social issues, teanutz

I apologize to Jon Stewart, but his line last night was priceless. He was paraphrasing good old Pastor Jeffers who said of Romney’s faith something like this:

“He’s a good moral man, but Mormonism is a cult. That is what evangelicals believe.”

Mitty (I am so trying to be just your average Joe) Romney cannot catch a break. No matter what he does, his poll numbers don’t move one millimeter. Not one. The crazy Right flirts with candidate after candidate, boosting them upon their shoulders in some increasingly desperate attempt to infuse each one with some modicum of sense and electability, only to find each one gorging on every donut in town, and eventually weighing them down until they are squashed to the ground.

It seems that they have plumb run out of people willing to walk the plank. (Wait, I can mix a few more metaphors if you are patient!) So, now it’s either Cain, who is seriously just awful, or Mitt.

And Mitt will continue to be dragged through the swamp with pictures like the above, showing him glorying in his “corporate raider” glee, as he and his buddies do everything but roll naked in thousand dollar bills. This will not be playing well in the shredded landscape that is referred to as “Middle America”.

Mitt will continue to be plagued by the provable and “film at 11:00” clips of saying the exact opposite thing on a whole host of subjects. Can it be made any more clear that Mitt is the malleable Ken doll who can be programmed in repeat the latest poll results as “his belief.”

What is his belief? I can see only one. He believes that he should be President. Beyond that, he has no principles on anything. A week ago he considered the OWS people as “dangerous” and “promoting class warfare.” Now of course, he “understand their frustration”.  You see, it didn’t play well to be backing up the 1% against the 99%.

As the OWS phenomenon has grown and prospered, the GOP tune in general has had to change. Oh not with the diehards such as Glenn (is anybody out there?) Beck and Blush Limpaw, and Sean (I still get mail!) Hannity. They continue their demented sewage even though only the rabid wrecks of rusting trailer park renters still tune in. But the silly Cantors and McConnells and Orange slushies, well, they have sought to tame the rhetoric.

I think it’s starting to sink in. There are no more bible-clutching “white” knights on the horizon. The GOPers are stuck with Herm (I love the Koch brothers and they love me) Cain, Ricky (if I could only run a campaign without speaking) Perry, or the ever-morphing Mitty (I can catch the nomination) Romney.

And that is some very lousy reality to live with I bet.

I think backing Obama is starting to be a very comfortable place to be.

♦

 Herm is having more than enough trouble with his stunningly silly 9-9-9 plan. And so he figures it’s a good thing to introduce more stupid remarks. His latest is to suggest that we build a big old fence across the lower border and electrify it, with signs warning that death may attend any attempt to climb over.

Now Herm says that was a joke. Sort of. I’m sure Latinos across the country are splitting their sides in roars of laughter.

And he suggests that immigration should be a state’s right thing. In other words, each state should make up its own immigration rules and enforce them. Does Herm have any clue? Next he will be in favor of each state having its own DOD.

I’m seriously thinking that running a pizza empire must be a pretty brain-lite job.

But simple plays well to the simple-minded.

♦

This banner was flown over a golf course where Speaker of Orange was playing in California. Cute ain’t it?

Thanks to Joe.My.God

♦

Meanwhile, Newt (send my dinner bill to one of my donors) Gingrich, continues to amaze the world with his brand of “I can say something more stupid than you” antics.

Only this is not an antic. It’s deadly serious and is but one example of what happens when grifters get into the game of politics and turn serious legislation aside in pursuit of “points” on the campaign trail.

Read this please, and know what a thoroughly wretched individual Newt Gingrich really is. It is called Newt’s Personal Hypocrisy on “Death Panels“. And just so ya know, my “own” Chucky Grassley took the same approach.

♦

Proof that too much pizza addles the brain:

Herm is only a conservative because the big guy, as in J E S U S, was one. Yep.

Now, I’ve read a boatload of books about Jesus Christ. I’ve read many of the most respected theologians and biblical experts on the subject. A few make a reasonable case that our Lord was a radical zealot, but very few. Most see him as someone apart from the “political” field, even though his teachings certainly impacted on both political and social mores.

But I don’t know a single one who would argue that he was a conservative. That is, unless you define conservatism in exactly the opposite fashion than it has traditionally been defined. And I don’t know a single one who would argue that the Roman Empire nor the Sanhedrin were the “liberal” forces who destroyed him.

But Herm does.

The liberal court found Him guilty of false offenses and sentenced Him to death, all because He changed the hearts and minds of men with an army of 12…..Never before and not since has there ever been such a perfect conservative.……For over 2,000 years the world has tried hard to erase the memory of the perfect conservative, and His principles of compassion, caring and common sense.

And Herm has more to tell you about Jesus. How he was unemployed but never asked for an unemployment check, and how he healed the sick without any government health care plan, and how he answered his detractors without benefit of being “Mirandized.”

Go read it. This stuff is priceless, and Herm is crazy as the perverbial loon.

See, you’re not selfish, your just a good Christian. Yeah right.

 

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Shut ‘er Down?

Tags

budget, GOP, Margaret Sanger, religious right wing, social issues, teabaggers

I read a piece yesterday by Michael Tomasky that posited a couple of theories about what the GOP was about in this budget battle. He basically saw it as two possibilities. One is that Boehner is up to his neck in poo, knowing that a shutdown will reflect badly upon the GOP. The other is that they really think that if they stop this economic recovery with a shutdown, Obama will suffer in 2012. The latter is clearly the more sinister and evil of the two.

I’m more inclined to the former. I think Boehner is being squeezed and is desperately trying to hold on to his job. He wants to make a deal, yet he is held hostage by the freshman extremists who are much like the those who went out to watch the “opening” battle of the Civil War. Sitting with tea and crumpets, they soon were horrified at the slaughter and ran for their lives. It’s just that the extremist teabaggers, haveing learned only “revisionist” history, have no clue what they are bringing about.

My understanding through days of listening and reading is that the parties are close enough on the actual numbers. One would think that enough, but the GOP, beholden to its crazies, and deeply afraid of them now, keep moving the end zone lines. What it now comes down to, is not the size of the cuts, but the actual cuts themselves.

Pense, that idiotic buffoon, demands a shut down if the PPH is not defunded. And the extremists are fanning the flames by, so  I’ve read, blanketing Boehner’s office with white sheets. This is to symbolize that Margaret Sanger, the long DEAD founder of PPH was alledgedly supportive of the KKK.

Ms. Sanger has also been charged with believing in eugenics, and from that we get the ugly billboards suggesting that PPH’s aim is the genocide of the African-American people. Forget the real reason that African-Americans seek PPH’s abortion services more often than whites.

Such nonsense is just that of course. Pense claims that his purpose is to stop funding PPH because the “American people are clear that they don’t want the government funding abortion.” Of course there is already legislation to that effect and PPH’s budget from Congress funds health care issues separate and apart from abortion, such as mammograms and cervical cancer detection as well as family planning assistance. All this to women who cannot afford these services elsewhere.

Another pet project is NPR. The GOP wants it defunded for no other reason than they think it left leaning and that’s not helpful to them. The fact that Fox Noise and all manner of other “conservative” institutions receive federal dollars is conveniently ignored. This is nothing but another means to kill the opposition, union killing and voter suppression, wild gerrymandering, being others.

The EPA is another target. Damn us for wanting clean air, and water, and support for alternative energy sources. Big Business doesn’t like pollution control interferring with profits. That is masked by idiots on committees who claim that “God has promised that the earth will never be destroyed.” Well there you have it. We can foul our nest all we want, God is our janitor! Such unspeakable misinterpretation of scripture is nothing but misdirection and slight of hand. It’s all about business.

Ryan and his silly “revolutionary” budget is aimed at only one thing–the thing the GOP always aims at, keeping money in the hands of rich people. It’s desire to destroy Medicare and Medicaid under the guise of taking down the deficit, might have some legs were it not for the fact nothing is done to address the tax cuts for the wealthy.

This is all nothing new. The GOP hates with a passion anything that smacks of “income redistribution”. In their world there would be no social security either. They did not put forth any of these social reforms, they hate them, always have. They believe they are at the top of the heap due to their own talents and frankly, my dear, they don’t give a damn about any of the masses.

Charity, to borrow from the extremist right-wing religionists, should come from the individual, which is what Jesus wanted (doncha just know). When people give of their own volition, of course, they work for their own salvation, which is all that really counts, and the “right” kind of poor are taken care of, and the rest? The rest, will either do the ditch-digging jobs with just enough to subsist, developing into a stable underclass we can count on forever. They will do it or die.

We will, they dream, build a righteous land run by God’s natural leaders–white men who with benevolence, (their version) make the US into a mighty, unassailable ruler of the world. Anyone who doesn’t like it, well, we got plenty of bombs.

And if you don’t think this is exactly what they truly want, you are deluded.

End of Rant.

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Disarming In a Cheeky Sort of Way

Tags

Affordable Health Care, climate change, Elizabeth Taylor, Entertainment, fundamentalism, GOP, Herman Cain, Islamaphobia, religeous extreme right, Sarah Palin, science, science education, social issues, teabaggers, theology

“Sarah Palin is going to Israel next week on a fact-finding tour. She wants to find out things like where is it and who’s their king. She says she’s very excited to visit the Wailing Wall, because whaling is illegal in Alaska.” – Jay Leno

About the only thing I’ve seen reported about Sarah and her trip to “create some foreign policy cred” is that she claims to have “lots of Israeli flags” which she displays everywhere. Like in the powder room, and the breakfast nook, ya know, just to remind herself of her close ties with her home away from home.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget that Israel is necessary because of that Armageddon thing, and all the Jews will either convert or die. She believes that too. But that plays no part in her “we are all Israeli’s” love fest. For a Christian, doncha wonder why she didn’t bother to visit any Christian sites while there?

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By the by, the Christian wacko right thinks the Christian left is starting to be a force. That must be good news. I’m guessin’ they don’t see it that way. In a video and accompanying text, TIkkun gives a good summary of why the right extremists don’t think that it’s a good idea to care for the less fortunate in this country and tax a few more of the outrageously rich in order to do so.

Again, I always come down on the fact that their “theology” is so damned convenient for them. It keeps their money in their pockets, “because God wants it there.” God is for justice and there ain’t no justice in feeding and tending to those who are deemed “lazy and deserve their status.”

Theology of convenience is almost never good theology. In fact it ought to be a rule, if I find God’s call easy and right up my alley, it’s probably not God’s call.

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You no doubt have heard of the passing of Elizabeth Taylor at the age of 79. Ms. Taylor was truly one of the giants in the old studio system. She was a giant of a talent, and it should not be forgotten that she was one of the first to come out for funding for AIDS research. She did that when it was still highly unpopular.

As with most of you, she was part of my life since I had one. Most all of these icons of the silver screen are gone now. But a few remain.

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Big Think has a good article on the difficulty the science community has in conveying its “science” to the outlying public. Traditional methods of “education” are often seen as elitist and snobbish arrogance. A new approach is essential of the public is to be informed and to find reason to adopt scientifically generated claims such as climate change that require adoption and implementation.

This issue is critical since Republicans in the House are busy trying to undue everything the EPA is doing these days, all based on their “climate change is a theory that hasn’t been proven” rhetoric. They have even gone so far as to want to declare that carbon dioxide is not a greenhouse gas. (Moe at Whatever Works reported on this today.)

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If you remember, the GOP and all its crazier element was determined to stop Affordable Health Care a year ago. They screamed, they ranted, they raved. They prophesied the end of the world, the end of civilization as we know it, the end of democracy, death to countless people, the death of industries and on and on.

Funny thing happened on the way to its second year, not a one of those things has happened. NOT A ONE. Yet they are still predicting it will. Yes, probably true, and the sun will expand incinerating the earth. Just give it enough time. It certainly will.

Media Matters has even more great quotes. This stuff is really fun to read.

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My dad was a pretty much life-long racist. He progressed from the N word to black, but he could say black in a way that left little doubt what he truly thought. I remember on one of his last hospital stays, when he was near death that he was less concerned that one of the attending doctors attempting to help him was an African-American. He was simply grateful at that point to be alive.

Herman Cain, Republican and wanna be president, expressed relief that his surgeon was a Arab Christian and not a Muslim. This kind of ugliness cannot go unaddressed, and We are respectable negroes does just that. Read it.

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What’s on the stove? Homemade pizza.

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