Rand Paul For President!

Tags

Glenn Beck, GOP, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Rand Paul, tea People, wacko media

Uh, NO!

Perhaps the most amusing moment during Hillary Clinton’s testimony before Congress yesterday, was her encounter with the weird Randal. Son of the famous Ron Paul, the Libertarian who whines that nobody gives him his props as a serious candidate, Randal represents the fair state of Kentucky, where of course, his stable mate is Mitch “the Turtle” McConnell.

Now Randal has delusions of being president. He plans to carry the GOP banner in 2016, after fending off the likes of Bobby Jindal and Marco Rubio, two who can at least claim foreign-ness as a bonus point. Randal can only claim stupid (his under understanding of the Constitution is rather stellar), with a strong dose of crazy mixed in.

Yesterday, Randal tried to go toe to toe with Hillary. And he hitched up his jammies and told Hillary that well you can read it for yourself:

I think that ultimately with your leaving you accept responsibility for the worst culpability for the worst tragedy since 9/11. And I really mean that. Had I been president at the time and I found that you did not read the cables from Benghazi, you did read the cables from Ambassador Stevens, I would have relieved you of your post. I think it’s inexcusable.

Of course, I was hoping for something utterly dry like, “Well, on so many levels, Senator, we are assured that THAT won’t be happening!” But she is a diplomat after all.

Worst tragedy since 9/11? Wow, that leaves out Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, Aurora, Sandy Hook, and a half-dozen tornadoes I can think of. It leaves out the fairly senseless deaths of all those killed in Iraq and probably a goodly number of those killed in Afghanistan.

When you go for the killer punch Senator, it’s so tempting to make something so much bigger than it really is. When you are on national TV and all, and have an ego as big as Texas and have delusions of being POTUS, yourself.

You’re an idiot. Go sit in the corner and suck your thumb Randal.

¿

Johnny S. McCain promised us that he had a lot of questions he wanted answers to. He didn’t ask any. He just pontificated. The old war-horse who never met a war he didn’t want to send somebody’s kids to fight (so they could enjoy all the fun he had), claims that Ambassador Stevens told him personally that security was not up to snuff in Benghazi. Whom did he tell?

No one as far as anyone can ascertain. And how about those Republican holds on funds for security in Libya and other places? John had nothing to say about that either.

Same old Johnny. Just a lot of angry old complaints that amount to “I woulda been a better President than him, I would have!”

Old record, John, and it’s beginning to skip. I think the record is scratched.

¿

I loves me some conspiracies.

So good with a nice cup of hot chocolate.

Nobody is better at the game of conspiracy hunting that that dear boy Glenn (where went my fame?) Beck.

Beck, if you didn’t know, runs that rag The Blaze, which is on the sleaze factor one point up and over from WorldNetDaily, and one point down and over from the other twin  bunker Breitbart, home of the Breitbots, which is an oxymoron, cuz nobody there is in any way deserving of the adjective “bright”.

Beck having found no fun in Texas, is back in the Big Apple trying to re-invent himself. And since Glenn is all about conspiracies, his latest is something of a tongue-twister. So hold on to your hats, private parts, or the porcelain throne as it fits your predilections.

Beck suggests that we must rid ourselves of all those OLD Conspiracies, they being the birther issues, and the Sandy Hook conspiracy. Sandy Hook conspiracy your gasp? What is that about? Oh, didn’t you hear? The Obama administration did Sandy Hook. Killed those little kids just to use it as a focus for taking away your guns! Boy, now it makes sense right?

Oh.

Well, Beck, says, whoa, you know, how many people would have to be involved in such a plan–to shoot up a school, and all that? No, that’s CRAZY!

Beck says, that all these conspiracy theories are just things that Obama USES to deflect your attention so that you don’t see the REAL conspiracies. I know, I know. Let me start that again. Slowly.

The crazy theories exist out there in the ether. And Obama grabs onto them, and feeds them surreptitiously to keep your conspiracy-lovin’ noggin occupied. All the while, the REAL conspiracy is going on behind your back. You know the one I mean–all the NEW WORLD ORDER ILLUMINATI DRACONIAN PLANS BY THE CAPITALIST-HATING, FASCIST/SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST/ LOVIN’ O-B-A-M-A.

Glad you know the truth? I bet you are. Shine up that AK-15, cuz baby you are gonna be using it soon against those black helicopters headin’ your way.

Don’t believe me? Think I made it up? Ha!

So, now that your mind is functionally unable to do anything else but count dust bunnies under the bed, I’ll leave you dear reader until tomorrow.

Or, leave an incoherent, but pithy, and funny, if at all possible, comment.

Related articles

• Glenn Beck to Devote Whole Show To ‘Debunking Conspiracy Theories About Sandy Hook’ (sgtreport.com)
• GOP Senator Pushes Gun-Running Conspiracy Theory During Benghazi Hearing (thinkprogress.org)
• Video: Sen. Rand Paul Goes On A Condescending Rant Towards Hillary Clinton At Benghazi Hearing (sensico.wordpress.com)
• Hillary Clinton 69, Rand Paul 10 (thehill.com)

He’s NOT a Hoarder, So He Says

Tags

Alan West, Election 2012, Foxy Noise, GOP, Humor, life in the meadow, Mitt Romney, racism, wacko media, Women's issues

The problem with most men, is that they have a tendency to have failed to grow up. It’s called “arrested development”.

You’ve heard me before about the peanut butter jar. Lid askew, peanut butter smeared on the side, a sticky knife stuck to the counter–that’s how we leave the scene.

No female, even a young one, would leave such a mess, but boys never grow up on this issue, or at least a substantial number of them don’t.

As many of you know, we’re in the midst of packing to move. Make that “I”m in the midst of packing to move.” The Contrarian has so far “packed” one drawer of ‘tools’ which now lies on the floor. He’s “planning” his next escapade into the closet any day now.

Meanwhile, I’m on my second tour, now packing haphazardly all the small items that are not at this date deemed essential. And clearing off out shelves of throw-aways so the piece of furniture can be picked up and toted out with ease.

So this morning, I’m clearing off the side board, which has been cleaned out, but still harbors a ton of “stuff” on top. I have a garbage bag at the ready to deposit the throw-outs, such as a forlorn pair of partially used candles and the corner off a bird-feed container. (Let’s just say, I’ve decided that housework is a joke at this point) Anyway, as I pick up this or that and stick in a general box for shipping, I come across a stone-like whitish object laying on the top.

“What is this?” I turn holding it for his perusal.

“Oh,” he grins a bit sheepishly, and then smiles, “that’s my tooth.”

Now, he had had a loose tooth for years, and finally it gave up and fell out. This was old news. Several months old, which tells you how long it has been since I took a serious clear the decks attitude toward that side board.

“YOUR TOOTH!!!” I shrieked. “What is YOUR TOOTH doing there?”

“Well, I didn’t exactly know what to do with it, ya know.”

“Well I can tell you where I would put it, you hoarder!”

“I am not a hoarder!” he wailed.

Uhuh, if you can top that one, please do tell.

¶

We purchased a car yesterday, and feel quite satisfied with our find. It was in our price range, in our model range, and seems to be in good working condition, nice body, and clean. It’s at the end of the driveway awaiting our leave-taking.

Much of this has been like somebody giving you a spoon at the Hoover Dam and telling you to dig a hole through it. For the longest time, you seem to make no dent, then a trickle of water is seen, and well, then, watch out! We are at that tipping point in the move where things are starting to really move fast. I’m actually starting to get excited.

¶

The lie that Willard promotes the most often is that “under Obama’s watch, over 800,000 jobs have been lost”. And of course he knows that it is not true. All the more egregious because the way he arrives at that number is to play a dishonest accounting game that should be beneath a guy why claims so much economic gravitas.

What Willard does, is start the counting on January 1, 2009. But Obama wasn’t even sworn in until January 20, 2009. As of March 1, 2009, the Economic Recovery Act had just been signed and little of the money disbursed yet, and the economic team was not yet assembled.  If you start the clock at the March 1 date, then the net loss was only 102,000 jobs, and then the tide turns and the numbers climb upward from that point.

Willard obviously knows this, yet it serves his meme to continue misleading people with this unfair time frame.

¶

Willard doesn’t want you to think that he shares the GOP agenda to put women in their places. So he has taken to surrounding himself with females in photo ops. The trouble is, the women he chooses are women who voted against the Lily Ledbetter Law and the Paycheck Fairness Act. I’m not sure how that is supposed to help, unless it’s to point out that Willard doesn’t agree with these laws either. In which case, he embraces I guess the GOP position enunciated in Republican-controlled legislatures all over the country–of controlling women’s lives and their bodies. If you would like the truth on the claim that 92% of the jobs losses were women, which is also a lie, then read this post with some good graphic evidence.

The man simply lies and lies.

¶

I assume that our delightful Rep Alan West figured it was a good idea to guesstimate that some 75-81 Congressional Democrats were Communists. Course he’s denying it now, but of course there is video, here. The Communist Party also had some things to say about the allegations.

That should sure help him out in his delusional idea that he might get a nod as VEEP.

¶

Oh this is just funny doncha think?

I just giggled when I saw it.

I wish I was some kind of artist.

But I’m artistic with words.

Or perhaps I’m not. But I enjoy thinking I am.

¶

That George Zimmerman chose to run for “help” to Fox Noise is no accident. It’s par for the course. It’s how Fox  is viewed, and no amount of denial on their part can fix that. It didn’t occur in some vacuum. It’s because of the things that are said there. And no greater proof of that is that on their website, they cannot keep the comment section scrubbed of the vile racist diatribe that is constantly being posted there by their followers. K Street has a link from Daily Kos and a listing of some of those comments with all their “likes” attached. You can read about ten before you have had enough.

Let’s Talk About It

Tags

conservative, Fox News, liberal, morality, Politics, right wing extremism, wacko media

We are all walking pretences. Relatively speaking of course. Some of us more than others.

Politicians most of all? Yes, most would agree.

A retired military man speaking on Morning Joe, suggested that when you get a couple of Democrats and a couple of Republicans in a room together, you can have a pretty reasonable conversation. When you open the door, and the red light comes on, each will spew a very different version of the talk.

Jonathan Haidt, working at U of Virginia, and a psychologist, is exploring morality and politics. You can go there and sign up and help out by taking a number of their quizzes. I referenced him a few days ago regarding his book about the differences between conservatives and liberals. His work suggests that we are quite different from what we think of ourselves.

We create personas, and to a greater or lesser degree, we become them. We may be cynical about it, knowing exactly what we are doing, or we may be largely oblivious to it. In some ways, I’d prefer the cynic to the one who has no clue he is not who he thinks he is. I can confront the first type and, given the right incentives, I can cause a change. The person who buys his own rhetoric? I’m at a loss to change.

While I am quick to point out the relative racist/homophobic/Amerocentricism of a lot of folks, especially those of, shall we say, lesser educational attainment, I am fascinated by them as well. I have come to see that they have incorporated a finely wrought (not by them of course) set of principles that alleviate their guilt, and reassure them of their moral rectitude in the ugly tenets they adhere to.  

My real anger is at those who actually know better, and are nothing more than grifters on a small or large scale, using the opportunity presented to make money, corporate or personal, off the stupidity and ineptitude of people who can’t or won’t think for themselves. My enemies are Fox Noise, Hannity, Limbaugh, Malkin, Beck, and a host of politicians too numerous to list. Most of them, if not all, play to and present a rationale to the great masses that means coin in their coffers or votes or both.

The other day, I linked to Fox regarding a hateful spew of comments regarding the death of  Whitney Houston. When I went there, I found no comment section, found no way to “sign up”, and relied on a couple of websites who printed out parts of the comment section. I’ve since learned that nobody can now see the comments–they have been taken down, apparently without comment. This would be Fox’s way of course–never point out that they were appalled at what they read, but rather simply being appalled that they were “found out” and trying to hide the facts.

Fox is but one of course. The Fifth Column points out in her post, there are plenty more to choose from.

It’s easy to avoid this bilge. And I understand why people, given limited time, would rather spend time with “uplifting” fare, and material that is in agreement with what one naturally thinks. I’m not urging you to abandon me for goodness sakes. I’m just saying one needs to familiarize oneself not so much with the poor souls that listen to the sewage, but those who manufacture the sewage. We ignore it at our peril.

It is one thing to make fun of crazy people who are poised to put on the tricorner hat, tinfoil though it may be, grab the musket and go looking to join the regiment to “get back our freedoms”,  but unfortunately the musket is really a high-powered rifle, and the ammo is suited to kill. These people can be triggered, at least some of them can, and now and then, one of them goes off all by themselves, given their underlying psychosis. They cause a lot of pain. As a group they can cause a lot more.

So do pay attention. And do inform yourselves about what Fox and others of their ilk are saying. Do respond. Do set the record straight. Do speak truth. Something about what happens when “good men do nothing” seems appropriate here. Oh and good women too.

End of rant.  

Related articles

• Speaking of conservatives (snohomishobserver.com)
• Why Conservatives and Liberals see the world differently (dangerousminds.net)
• Why Religion Gets Emotional (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)

What This World Needs is a Good Shirley Temple

Tags

"Mittens" Romney, Barney Frank, Constitution, corporate America, economy, environment, Eric Cantor, Humor, Judeo-Christianity, Newt Gingrich, Occupy Wall Street, wacko media

Hey it worked in the 30’s. Or so they tell me. I have no personal knowledge. I’m not that old. I refer to those old reels of celluloid to inform me.

Back in the 30’s this country, like today, was reeling from pessimism. The economy sucked and people had lost faith. So, those great minds in the country told Hollywood to get on board, and make lots of feel-good movies.

And they did. And Shirley saved America.  We just need another Shirley is all. Simple.

♦

Having saved the world before noon, let us move on. Did you know that back in the 20’s and 30’s that corporate Amerika fought Child Labor laws tooth and nail? Did you know that the first act passed by Congress, the Keating-Owens Act, was struck down by the US Supreme Court as a constitutional infringement on a child’s right to contract his or her own labor?

Do rational people believe that anything has changed in Corporacracy? The GOP continues to blame the economic woes of the country on “regulation” of business by Democrats. They assure us that our Corporate benefactors will “do the right” thing when it comes to safe working conditions, safe products, and otherwise fair business practices.

How low does your IQ have to be to believe that? Does anyone remember the company town? Does anyone remember the Triangle Shirtwaist fire? Does anyone remember GM strikers being attacked and beaten by corporate goons?

Yeah, I sure believe that the Koch brothers are lookin’ out for me. Sure I do.

♦

Just how clearly does our Constitution follow the commandments of the Christian faith? Beeryblog has a post you better darn read if you want to know. It’s an eye-opener.

♦

Don’t know if you heard or not, but Gingrich called for the arrest, trial and imprisonment of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd as the ” real perpetrators” of the economic collapse in this country. When the moderators suggested that that was said tongue-in-cheek- surely, Newt the Toot, doubled down and assured everyone that he meant every word of it.

Barney Frank responded with this:

“I wish I knew that he was willing to listen to my advice, I would have given him some: I would have told him not to impeach Clinton, I would have told his successors not to go to war with Iraq, and I would have told DeLay not to go on the dance show. He’s been having a bad year, you know — this self-styled intellectual leader of the free world struggling to stay ahead of Michele Bachmann in the polls is unsettling him so he talks even sillier than he sometimes does.”

H/T to Joe.My.God

♦

The nutz on the right continue to not know what the willies to do about the Occupy Wall Street phenom. Eric (everybody’s nerdish little brother) Cantor has gone from calling them “mobs” to folks who are folks who are “justifiably frustrated.” Read how Cantor tries to backtrack and still manage to tell everyone how different this group is from his beloved (let me kiss your feet) TeaNutz®.

As the movement grows across the country, the GOP is rethinking its initial condemnation of “all those dirty hippies” and “anarchists” who are out to “divide our country” and “pit Americans against Americans”. It’s a fun thing to watch I gotta admit.

And Herm, I would be guessin’, ain’t going anywhere near the “mobs” with his “stop whining and get a job” routine.

♦

If you need another primer on the economy, Robert Reich has that for you in seven lies about the economy that are being pushed by the Right. 

♦

A couple of nice finds at Political Irony. The first is a Democratic website where you can go and watch Mitt (somebody called me Mittens and I thought that was cute) Romney flippin’ and floppin’ on a huge number of issues. All out of his own mouth. Go here for that.

Or go here for late night humor.

♦

There’s two guys chasing after one brain-cell award: Beck interviewing Hank Williams Jr. on his being fired from ESPN for being just plain too stupid to exist. Of course you get that Blaze, so no link is required. You would not want to read it after all.

♦

Did you know that erasers have magical properties? Well they do. Whatever they erase, ceases to exist. At least on planet TEX-ASS. You see, for years TEXAS has contracted with Houston Advanced Research Center to report on the state of Galveston Bay. And they did so this year. And the water levels are rising, and the scientists said it was important proof of climate change and human causation.

References to the rising water and projections of future rising were simply erased by Rick’s boys and girls who don’t care for that kinda stuff. It’s all a left-wing hoax didn’t ya know?

♦

I’m living in a land somewhere west of Andromeda this day. I awoke to a husband who out-of-the-blue and for no-definable-reason, offered to cook dinner. I had a roast out defrosting and he said, “save it until tomorrow, I’ll go down and get the liver and fix that. I know you don’t like to cook liver.”

I immediately began looking around for MY husband. But I’m thinkin’ I may keep this imposter around, at least until after that liver is cooked. I do love me some liver ‘n onions on occasion.

 

Related articles

• Barney Frank Rips Newt Gingrich for Suggesting He Should be Jailed (towleroad.com)

I’M CONFLICTED!!!!

Tags

basketball, Butler, Donald Trump, GOP, UConn, wacko media

I’m seldom conflicted about sports. I like some, don’t like others, and am ambivalent about a few. Usually when I am watching an event, I either don’t have a horse in the race, or I do.

It definitely pays not to move around the country. I’m on my third state of residence, and nearing a fourth. The price I pay is conflict. And it is a heavy price indeed.

Having attended MSU, I’m naturally a Spartan, which causes conflict when MSU plays UConn or U of Iowa. This pertains to basketball only as to UConn, (they don’t typically field a decent football team) but pertains to football as well as regards MSU and U of Iowa.

Getting confused?

Well then, add in a generous love for USC and Notre Dame, and more conflict is possible.

I don’t like conflict. It makes me itchy and bitchy, and I start wringing my hands. Worst of all is a conflict that is a nail biter. Then I’m near frantic.

I don’t like my favorite teams to be in nail-biters. My very LIFE depends on them winning. If they knew that they would no doubt try even harder. I’ve thought perhaps I should drop them a line and tell them, but no doubt I’m not alone in this, so I figure they get the drift.

I cannot bear a three-hour period of ups and downs, a rolling stomach, taken to the heights of ecstasy and to utter despair. I’m worn to a frazzle by the end, and need a vacation.

I had to go through that on Saturday. Butler and VCU, both Cinderella teams, went down to the wire for the most part. Butler is not really a Cinderella team, but close enough as an 8 seed. VCU was the phenom team coming in at #11. I wanted both to win. I couldn’t take sides. This was a fairly difficult emotional ladder to climb.

As to the other game, UConn played Kentucky. At #3 and #4, it figured to be close, and did not disappoint in that regard. Well, it disappointed me, because I was a basket case by the end, with a one point win by UConn.

Tonight is the championship game, and Butler, the little engine that could is up against an always perennial favorite UConn. My old and hole-ridden UConn t-shirt is still buried deep in the drawer. I, who normally functions on the theory of “haven’t used it in three years, throw it out” can’t bear to part with my cute Huskies Tee.

Sigh. I don’t know what to do tonight. Truly I don’t. My heart is torn in two. It is what the Manning’s must feel like when Eli and Peyton face off in football. I can’t bear to think of either of them losing, though one must. If you have a remedy for what will surely be an awful tomorrow, please send it along!

♦

I’m in love with the Republican party. It just gets wackier and wackier and there is no end in sight. Sadly, at least for people like me, Sarah’s star seems to be turning into a white dwarf. Does anybody even mention her much any more? But Michele is babbling faster and more often, and everyone is listening to her, if only for the giggle factor. She is simply a walking joke.

So is Mikey, as his remarks get more outlandish by the minute. And Herman Cain is simply a hoot as “step and fetch it”. But the new butt-funny on stage is none other than one Donald Trump, the man with a head of “hair” one would just like to dissect to see how he grows it in a circle. (I actually saw a man when I was teenage who grew the fringe at the back of his head, and then wound it around in a bizarre configuration so that it covered his nearly bald head.)

Anyway, Trumpy has resurrected the “birther” issue, which makes us all happy, since that turns off virtually anyone with any claim to sanity. Now he is joined by Hannity and supported by Limbaugh and Beck in thinking that we need to retake Iraq and seize the oil and get our “damned money back.” I mean, it’s all their fault that we invaded in the first place, and they were supposed to fund our mess there.

This all leads to one very serious conclusion. Trumpy may  be a good businessman, and that’s a mighty big may,  but he’s nuttier than aunt Bonnie’s choke-on-it fruit cake on matters outside business. Given that the world is facing a corporate take-over, we must conclude that lunacy is coming our way.

Meanwhile across the land, the GOP will reap the whirlwind for its attempt to destroy its opposition by union busting and voter suppression. Traditionally conservative and GOP supporting Firefighters and Police unions are joining up against the GOP as a result of their sordid attempts to hurt workers in America.

I’m reasonably sure that what sane heads remain in the GOP see all this as a necessary cleansing. A serious drubbing in the 2012 cycle should help to purge them of the Teabugger element, allow them to continue to court, without doing a damn thing, the religious right, and recapture some sanity within their ranks.

We shall see.

♦

What’s on the stove? Homemade sub sandwiches and homemade potato salad. It’s spring after all!

Endangered Species: WASPS

Tags

Family Research Council, Fox lies, Fox Noise, GOP, John McCain, Libya, Reproductive Rights, right-wing wackery, Sarah Palin, Tea Party Nation, teabaggers, unions, wacko media, WASP

We’ve had this discussion before. The teabuggers are quick to insist that they are not racists. No they really aren’t. They can’t help it if the only rational people who can understand their deep fear that Barack is a African Muslim are old white farts. They really can’t.

And we do believe them. Right?

What has puzzled me is why they are so darned much against things like population control? Why so against small families? Or no families? They suggest that somehow this is un-American.

And from their point it is. They point to that “command” to “go forth and multiple” and in their literalist way, smirk, that that is how God wants it. Indeed? Or perchance, is there something more, shall we say, “self-serving” at work?

A suspicion that that may be the case comes from Tea Party Nation itself. In an e-mail to its loyal followers, it speaks of a massive conspiracy, composed of all the lefties and their friends, designed to, well, do read on:

What is keeping America’s fertility rate up are immigrants – both legal and illegal. There are those in America who are continuously attacking the family, bent on redefining marriage and have established anti-family government programs. This has led to downward pressure on our national total fertility rate. All of these actions are done in the name of various causes such as: reducing unwanted pregnancies, delaying child bearing to further career goals and even promoting childlessness and promoting adoption as a better option. Child bearing has become something distasteful to many women, an unwanted and painful experience to be avoided rather than embraced. All of these programs, ideals and ideologies are doing one thing and one thing only – reducing America core TFR to the point of no return. The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) population in America is headed for extinction and with it our economy, well-being and survival as a uniquely America culture. This county is dying not because it is aging, it is dying because of infertility as public policy.

Catch the last couple lines? If whitey goes, so goes the economy, well-being and survival as a uniquely American culture.  I mean wow. I mean don’t beat around the bush! Apparently those of brown, black, yellow, red, persuasions are incapable of sustaining an economy, a good life, or survival itself. One wonders how all those ancient civilizations have managed to endure down through the ages in their various ethnic trappings?

The orders have been issued: Breed you white ladies, breed! Life depends on it. And God® wants you to! [h/t to Joe.My.God.]

♦

If there was any doubt about it, well, there never really was. The GOP and their masters, corporate America are in full assault on labor and its unions. We reported a few days ago about a Wisconsin professor was hit with a FIA to determine if he were engaged in any way with the unions in Wisconsin. Now a uber conservative think tank in Michigan has sent the same request to three professors who teach labor relations in universities in the state.

And in Wisconsin, a uber conservative wacko is running to unseat the “left-leaning” Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, calling her a “bitch” and that he will “destroy her.” He is being backed by Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council, which is organizing all the usual lying ads claiming that their toady will “keep politics out the Supreme Court.”

♦

News Alert: this is not news. I don’t lie, but of course Foxy Noise does, and they are pretty darn honest in one respect. They aren’t afraid to admit it when smoozing with other like-minded uber wacko rightists on a rightist sponsored cruise ship vacation. Fox Washington Managing Editor, admitted he pushed a wildly speculative notion that Obama was a socialist during the run up to the 2008 election. He called it “mischievous speculation” that he personally thought was “far-fetched”.

All is fair in the name of winning an election it seems. And it’s not as if the Fox followers would know. They aren’t much for thinking for themselves beyond deciding on pizza versus fried chicken for dinner.

♦

John McCain seems to have taken a page from his buddy Newt the garden slug. The both operate on the “whatever that black dude says, I say the opposite.” Case in point. A mere 19 months ago, said John of Sleazy  was supping with Moammar Qaddafi at his “ranch” in Libya and calling the meeting Interesting and Qaddafi the same. Now of course, he wants the President to “take him out.” [I can’t make the link for some reason, but it comes from The New Republic blog, and is entitled “That’s it, I’m never inviting John McCain to my house!”

♦

Sarah, oh Sarah, life without you will never be as fun. Foxy had the Quitter on to talk about Libya. She is all for takin’ out that madman, how she doesn’t venture. But in a prized moment for us Sarah watchers, she pondered whether Libya was a war, an intervention or a squirmish. And I dare ya to refudiate that!

♦

What’s on the stove: T-bones, salad, and parmesan roasted potatoes.

Related Articles

• Polling tight in Wisconsin Supreme Court campaign (dailykos.com)

You Can’t Process me with a Normal Brain

Tags

editorial, Essays, unions, wacko media

So says Charlie Sheen. You can process me with a normal brain I think. I’m sane. Charlie is not. Sad to see him falling apart in front of the public. I’d guess bi-polar, but I’m not an expert, I’ve just known a couple of them as good friends.

Frankly, it’s hard to process much of anything going on in the world these days with a normal brain. It all seems otherworldly if I may borrow from science fiction. I mean, I don’t recall any of the prognosticators mentioning a Sarah Palin, a Middle East explosion of freedom seeking people, a dictatorial governor who bows to business as his only god.

Last night we watched a PBS offering on the Triangle Fire, back in the early 1900’s. Over a hundred women died in a fire where they made shirtwaists (blouses). The conditions, of course, were unsafe, the exits were locked to prevent women from “using the bathrooms during working hours”, and they were on the 8th floor. Many jumped to their deaths, others fell down the only working elevator shaft.

Most of the shirtwaist factories in NYC had unionized. There had been city-wide strikes. But not the one in the Triangle building. The owners would not budge. So they couldn’t bargain for any safe working conditions. A  few pails of water were all that were provided should a fire occur. It was not enough. Fire trucks arrived, but their ladders only went to the sixth floor.

These women were paid two dollars a day, and out of that they paid for their thread, needles, and any “mistakes”. The unions garnered other women in other factories, fair wages, safer conditions, limitations on child workers, and myriads of other things. The fire so incensed the public that dozens of new laws were passed to address the ills of unfettered business practices.

Anyone who thinks that they can “bargain” individually with their employer absent a strong union presence in the country is simply deluding themselves. Sure, you don’t have to be unionized, but unions set the standards that other businesses must in the end adhere to. Without unions, we will regress to those awful times when people worked outrageous hours, under outrageous conditions, for a mere pittance of remuneration.

People like to point to Henry Ford as someone who paid good wages to his workers. And indeed, they were good, for their time. Something like five bucks an hour. What they don’t know are two things. Ford only paid the extra monies in a lump sum at the end of the year, (conditions were so lousy on the line that workers quit at a horrendous pace), and Ford did it so that his workers could buy his car, the Model T. His own wealth you see was what motivated him, not any benevolent feeling for those he employed.

With almost no exceptions, business is about itself. It will NEVER give a damn about workers or consumers (other than to cater to what they think will make you buy the product–what it might do to you in the long run is of NO interest to them).  If unions in this country are destroyed as the Republican Party desires (being stooges for the business elite), then slowly but surely, wages will drop, everything that costs anything will be passed onto the worker. Benefits will be cut and cut and finally disappear. Pensions? No money for that.

I know I speak to those already convinced of these things. It is the sad workers whose glazed eyes and ears are glued to Fox and Rush  and Glenn and all those who lie to them, claiming that union workers and their fat contracts are another of a growing list of “others” who are keeping from them what would otherwise be theirs. Muslims steal their safety, Mexicans  steal their jobs, union workers steal their raises, and African-Americans steal their taxes with welfare grants. Fox keeps up the chant, “You could make it in America, if not for “them.”

And them is embodied in one person. Barack H. Obama. He is the very face of OTHER. And they hate him, hate him with a venom I’ve seldom seen. And Rush and Glenn walk out the door, breath deeply, and go off to a gourmet meal at some high-priced restaurant, laughing at the masses who follow their blatherings. And make plans for a trip to the seaside home where they sip martinis and hobnob with their wealthy leaders.

Well, that’s the way I see it anyway.

***

I got some inspiration about a new way of doing some enchiladas. Velveeta of all things. I know, sounds kinda gross. But if it turns out I’ll give you a recipe. Nothing horrifically original, just a blending of a few recipes I had in my head. Ain’t experimentation fun? I feel sooooo creative! lol.

***

My webpages for WordPress are really funky, so I truly hope this posts. I hate losing all my thoughts!

Related Articles

• “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: Some basic information” and related posts (theboweryboys.blogspot.com)
• Jackie K. Cooper: “The Triangle Fire”: An American Tragedy (huffingtonpost.com)