Thank heaven for Alan Grayson and — still! — Howard Dean. Harry Reid? Not so much.
If you don’t read Toothpaste for Dinner, you should!
In closing: 10 ways to get fat; pretty pictures; revisionist “history” (go ahead and read the Constitution, Newt); fearmongering; reality check. Sorry, I’m just not feeling like a long post right now.
Can we please all stop with the name-calling?
Seriously, I don’t care if you’re liberal or conservative, we need to stop hurling around insulting names. It doesn’t do a bit of good, certainly doesn’t persuade anyone to your way of thinking, and it makes everyone who agrees with you look like an asshole.
I’m tired of hearing about Mooselini, the Chimpinator, McLame, Speaker Boner, Rummy, General Betray-us, Tweetie, Slick Willy, George Snuffleupagus, the O-Bomber, Wiener’s wiener, Rahmstein, Bachman-Poptart-Underdrive, Al Frankenstein, the Koch-heads, Dumb-o-craps, Repuglicants, MoDoDo, GingGrinch, and any other creative insults you can think of. Can’t we refer to people with their names and/or titles like civilized adults? “The President,” or “Senator So-and-so”, or “Mr. Clark”?
Now, I will concede a handful of exceptions. The Governator earned his nickname fair and square. So did “Heckuva Job” Brownie — the President himself gave him that nickname. To refer to Pat “Go F*** Yourself” Leahy is a compliment to his restraint. The Cyborg Dick Cheney, well, he is a cyborg.
The rest of it? Knock it off, already! It’s a distraction from real issues, like our eroding Constitutional rights, the developing American oligarchy, the endangered social safety net, the disappearing middle class, our crumbling infrastructure, the failed War on Drugs; our anemic economy, and the elimination of women‘s rights.
In Closing: Dam, dam, dam; Hollywood‘s out of ideas; the most sensible thing I’ve read about the Wal-Mart ruling; it’s a good start; and exercises at work.
Gee, isn’t it peculiar that right after a very close election in Wisconsin, a voting official with a history of not exactly doing things the proper way happens to find just enough votes for one particular candidate to avoid a required recount, against pretty much every rule of computer programming and common sense?
Good thing there’s paper ballots. Somebody better pick those up before the mysterious fire. You never know when a mysterious fire can happen. You might be experiencing one right now!
In closing: the contents of Notorious B.I.G.’s pockets when he died; have a Koch and a smile; escaped leopard menaces children; blast from the past; Fox News through history; stop coddling the kids, they know better; yeah, because clearly Eric Holder has nothing important to do; it’s never been about deficit reduction (go ahead! shut the government down! but stop paying the worthless congresscreeps who got us here!); on the middle class; How to tell if your neighbor is cooking up explosives; what’s that doing in this century?; Detroit; the truth about how California reduced malpractice costs; make sure you are both on the mortgage; I doubt this seriously (did anybody bother to compare cost-with-coupon to cost of store brand?); stop tweeting ads; earthquake art; whistleblowers; and a cat with a gun.
I am completely disgusted with pretty much all politicians, and even more so with politicians that try to position themselves as “I’m a [insert noun] first, not just another politician.” Those ones are dangerous because half the time they don’t understand what the heck they are dealing with. I’m talking to you, Dr. Joe Heck!
I’m tired of politicians who think we can balance the budget without increasing taxes.
I’m tired of politicians who think we can balance the budget without addressing our 2 1/2 wars.
I’m tired of politicians who think that just because I’m not 55 yet, I just need to kiss Social Security goodbye.
I’m tired of politicians who are so ignorant of history that they think there can be a “private sector” solution to Medicare.
I’m tired of politicians who use the phrase “death tax,” when only a few thousand people will ever pay it.
I’m tired of politicians who use coded words to whip the ignorant into a frenzy. (“Domestic enemy”? Why not just call him Satan or the Anti-Christ? What a shame that you really mean he’s an “uppity ******”!)
And most of all, I’m tired of the other politicians who won’t call them out on this nonsense. Don’t even get me started on the media that lets them lie on the air and call it the truth.
Go ahead. Close down the government. Do it! Do it right at “tax day” and completely screw yourselves.
In Closing: defense; a man and his boat; two takes on dessert sushi; WHY??; if you won’t stop for humane reasons, or justice reasons, how about fiscal reasons?; about time; I like Kathy; it’s all about cheap labor; gaming inflation through housing prices; if you haven’t heard about the real Tea Party yet, watch it today; resist BAMTOR; I knew this would happen! Throw the book at them!; and a picture of a random cat. If anybody knows the source, put it in comments so I can attribute it:
The very first news item I encountered this morning as I opened my computer was the death of Geraldine Ferraro. By many standards, she did enjoy a good life: former member of Congress; Vice Presidential candidate (the first female one in the United States — there wouldn’t be another for over 2 decades); TV host; she had a loving husband (that’s one!) and 3 grown children. Yet none of this is what I remember most about Ms. Ferraro.
I remember the 1984 Vice Presidential Debate.
But let’s step back.
The first Presidential Election I have any recollection of was the 1976 contest between Gerry Ford and Jimmy Carter. However, the first debate I can recall sitting through was in 1980 between Carter and Ronald Reagan. That’s the one with the famous Reagan catchphrase “There you go again.”
In those days, the debates were run by the League of Women Voters.
By 1984 we had — heaven help us all!!! — a woman candidate for Vice President. How could this be? Can she possibly be qualified?? Quick! Somebody set up a debate between Geraldine Ferraro and the Republican candidate, George H.W. Bush (later known as “President Bush” or “Bush 41”). It wasn’t the first Vice Presidential debate, but it is the first one Generation X is likely to remember.
The woman, who normally wore sharp little suits like this, showed up in a rather unflattering grey sweater. Even to a child it seemed like a thinly disguised attempt by some patriarchal campaign handlers to make her seem “friendly,” “feminine,” and god help her “momlike.” She stood there, next to a former CIA director, former Ambassador, former RNC Chairman in his blue wool suit with the red silk tie, and looked like she was ready to take the class on a field trip. I can’t recall a word of what was said. From where I sat, this moment lost the election for Mr. Mondale.
But onward to 1988, when Dan Quayle was the Vice Presidential candidate. The poor man is right that he took a lot of heat for statements that wouldn’t have gotten a second glance had they come out of the mouth of his running mate’s son. Again, a debate, but now under the auspices of the Commission on Presidential Debates — a wholly owned subsidiary of the two major political parties.
I’ll skip such fine moments as “Gridlock!” and “Oh no say it ain’t so Joe!” and move on. In 1992 they were honest enough to include a third candidate in the debates, the popular if mercurial Ross Perot and his running mate. This would be the last time the CPD would include any “undesirables.”
The Republican field is already starting to populate with Presidential candidates and wanna-be candidates. Before the year is out, we will be subjected to various debates between them where the only thing they actually agree on is that President Obama stinks, is too liberal, might be a socialist, might be a communist, might be a Muslim, might be the anti-Christ, might be Kenyan. In short, they will call him everything except a nice Blank man. By this time next year, the running will be between a short list of 2-5 players. By 18 months from now, we will have had a couple of Presidential Debates and maybe a Vice Presidential one or two.
What will be missing from this picture is all the third party candidates. And this brings me to a proposal.
Let’s have a big, televised debate next spring or summer with all the “other” candidates. And I do mean all of them! Everybody who can get his or her name on the ballot is welcome to come on (at their own expense), answer questions, and talk about their views.
I predict that two things will happen. Most of the candidates will come across as having serious holes in their platforms — if not being completely loony. Some of the candidates will actually have a good idea or two, and perhaps some of these ideas will either create a credible third party or get co-opted by one of the mainstream parties. Either way, this is a win for both the candidate and the country.
In closing: a job fit for a dog; more like this please; insanity; interesting but not happening; way down; when did Jim Bakker start talking sense?; a lousy graph; the good old days?; dangerous; sakura; and even Time thinks it’s odd.
Now here’s the thing. Go ahead and call the records office of the county where you were born. Tell them you need a copy of your birth certificate. It might cost you $10. I am willing to bet that 9 out of 10 of you will end up with a fresh computer printout of your birth certificate, rather than a certified copy of the “original” one with the signature of the doctor who delivered you. So by wingnut standards, you can’t prove you were born in the United States.
Furthermore, Hawaii is part of the United States. If you don’t know this, you really shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
And don’t even get me started on Boehner and the Budget. As Ezra Klein said on NPR this morning, if anybody in Washington were serious about cutting the deficit, they wouldn’t have extended the Bush tax cuts!
In Closing: 7 kinds of malicious hackers; truth; crime victims need not apply?; Susie‘s right; the House may have shoved it through, but the Senate can still stop the PATRIOT Act from being renewed; please tell me this was no shock; taking Kate to task; collider; and lessons of Star Wars.
Ok, this is what appeared in my RSS reader this morning. CNN can’t seem to decide if the President’s budget “takes a sharp knife” to spending, or “only boosts spending.” Apparently it went unnoticed that these are opposites. I guess they don’t teach things like logic and rhetoric to journalism majors anymore.
Granted, with Democrats like this, who needs Republicans?
But with news media like this, how can any normal person be expected to separate truth from fiction. I recently saw a bumper sticker that said “Confuse a Liberal: Use Facts and Logic.” I suppose that might work if you get to choose which facts you think are true.
In closing: the grocery gap; milk and sugar cause acne?; this will just mean more student loan debt; must be nice; gotcha; silly cops, you can’t go abusing upper-class kids; in the long run, we all lose; we could use some of this; it’s about public health, not baybeez; so much for no earmarks;
Seriously. If I write about any of the crap spewing from Washington — whether from Congress, Timmy Geithner, or our gutless President who is more conservative than Nixon or Reagan — I’m likely to say something regrettable. So here’s what some other people have to say. As it is, I use a little more salty language than normal, so deal with it.
Here’s something on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. You know, the group of fatcat businessmen that President Obama was begging to create jobs? What a bunch of “greedy fucks.”
Here’s what an 11 year old girl has to say about Gitmo. Notice where she admits that some of her information may be biased? I have hope for the critical thinking skills of the next generation, somewhat less hope that the War on Terror will ever end.
There’s a lot to be said about Egypt today. How about we start with a picture:
But really, this sums up my thoughts well.
There’s really a lot to say about the Anti-Woman forces calling themselves “Pro-Life”, but I’ll let Nancy start the parade. Remember, HR3 has a much wider reach than most people know. That’s even before we start talking about conscience clauses that would allow ignorant ******* to turn people away whose pregnancies can kill them. That’s before we talk about the fact that if these ******** had their way, women whose “babies” would be born with fatal birth defects would be forced to carry that corpse to term, endure dozens of well meaning people asking “Is it a boy or a girl? Have you picked a name??”, go through all the complications of pregnancy including the possibility of death in labor, all so some ******** can pretend he — and I do mean HE — is preventing abortions. People who think that is acceptable can rot in hell. Republicans want to cut family planning too, so we know they don’t really give a damn about preventing abortions.
Here’s something on states declaring bankruptcy to get out of paying people the retirement funds they were promised — and remember, state employees pay no Social Security taxes, so those pensions may be all they’ve got.
Speaking of bankruptcy, here’s something on how the bankruptcy “reform” of a few years back contributed to the foreclosure mess.
Nobody seems to remember that almost all regulations are put in place to protect somebody. Of course it’s dumb to say that regulations are automatically “job killing.” If the people whining about “job killing” gave a shit about jobs, maybe they wouldn’t be trying to cut and gut jobs programs! Here’s an urgent message for our elected officials: JOBS are still the number one issue on Americans’ minds. Put people to work, and some of the other problems — national deficit, social security, foreclosures — might start to fix themselves.
But this one really makes me mad. Ornery has it right when he calls the move to cut emergency funding for heating in the middle of a colder than average winter “so fucking tone deaf it boggles my fucking mind.” Heaven forbid we should raise taxes on people making, say, a million dollars a year when we can just freeze Granny to death! Who needs a death panel when you’ve got a blizzard? Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot!
See how mad I am, and all I’m really doing is quoting other people? Over the weekend I promise to have something happier to say… about something.
In Closing: Kafka-san; tip of the iceberg?; junk fees and foreclosure; too lazy; secret air travel; pot of gold; is it snarky if it’s true?; the status quo is bad; on conservatives and the Bible; city-states; zero tolerance means zero thinking; vaccinate; the budget.
Republican leadership in the House took a gamble on an expedited procedure to get the PATRIOT Act extended and lost. Moreover, 26 Republicans crossed party lines to vote against renewal, including 3 “Tea Party Caucus” original members and 9 newly-elected Congressmen. Let’s hear it for democracy.
In Closing: 100 views of Edo; create 1.5M jobs; no jobs; what??; criminally bad; damn straight; joblessness.
It’s hard to know where to begin.
Yesterday, Joe Biden announced the White House’s attempt to slam the barn door after the horse is gone. Or rather, “try again” to end tax cuts for the rich. Mr. Obama already had that opportunity: it’s called a veto.
Let’s not forget Joe LIEberman and the so-called “Internet Kill Switch” that has been getting a lot of press coverage lately — especially since it turns out Egypt can and did turn of the Internet this week. Senator LIEberman of course denies that his bill contains any such provision, but with bills being multi-hundred page monstrosities often partly written by corporate interests, who can tell. Of course the truth is that this is old news, recycled for the new year (how very environmentally friendly). More truth, it would be difficult to implement in the United States, to say nothing of probably unconstitutional. Not that this matters to the current crew in Washington.
Speaking of “who cares about whether it’s constitutional,” the PATRIOT Act is up for renewal. Further, it looks very much like it’s going to be quietly rubber-stamped while everybody is busy arguing about gun control, the National Debt, Social Security, austerity, and tweaks to last year’s health insurance “reform” bill. If you think that sucks scissors, click here and voice your objections. Look everybody from MoveOn to the Cato Institute thinks it stinks; let’s get rid of it.
Once we’re done with the PATRIOT Act, perhaps we can have some meaningful reform (or abolition) of the TSA, who decided this week that they aren’t going to let any airport exercise their legal right to opt out of having TSA grope their passengers. This despite the fact that “”Nearly every positive security innovation since the beginning of TSA has come from the contractor screening program….”
While we’re on the topic of unilateral decisions by government agencies that fly in the face of public opinion, the USDA has decided that not only can farmers plant genetically engineered alfalfa, it won’t even keep track of how much is out there or where it is. Since alfalfa is bee-pollinated, the genetic material from these plants cannot help but to spread wildly. This means, in the words of Alternet, that “you can now kiss organic beef, dairy, and many vegetables goodbye.” It also puts every farmer at risk of owing Monsanto a royalty for foolishly allowing bees to deposit proprietary genes on their land. (Yes, it has been a long time since I quoted Alternet).
But back to Congress. Is there anybody here who thinks it’s a good idea for girls 10, 12, or 14 years old to be having babies? Anybody? Bueller? Well, John Boehner and 173 co-sponsors think that’s just fine. At least, they don’t want any of their precious tax dollars or even your dollars in your own tax-exempt Health Savings Account to be used for an abortion if it turns out your daughter is molested. They have proposed that “rape” be redefined as “forcible.” So, drugged at a party and wake up with no underwear and find out you’re pregnant a couple months later? Pony up your own abortion funds or live with the “consequences”, sweetie. Your sister who was left quadriplegic in a car crash and was subsequently molested by somebody at the rehab hospital? Hope you’ve got cash. But clearly, I’m just being “emotional.”
Maybe John Boner is one of the few people to whom I should ascribe a special nickname. He’d be in rarefied company with Joe LIEberman, Pat “Go f*** yourself” Leahy, and That Asshat Michael Chertoff.
In closing: at this rate we’re on target for another record year of bank closures (and even bigger “too big to fail” institutions); too young not to work, too old to get a job; compare and contrast; HealthSouth; more VW; and 8 wacky jobs at great companies. Sorry, these positions are all filled.
