Today's Pix

Reconfirmed

Low-Effort Thought Promotes Political Conservatism

1. Scott Eidelman eidelman@uark.edu
2. Christian S. Crandall
3. Jeffrey A. Goodman
4. John C. Blanchar

Abstract

The authors test the hypothesis that low-effort thought promotes political conservatism. In Study 1, alcohol intoxication was measured among bar patrons; as blood alcohol level increased, so did political conservatism (controlling for sex, education, and political identification). In Study 2, participants under cognitive load reported more conservative attitudes than their no-load counterparts. In Study 3, time pressure increased participants’ endorsement of conservative terms. In Study 4, participants considering political terms in a cursory manner endorsed conservative terms more than those asked to cogitate; an indicator of effortful thought (recognition memory) partially mediated the relationship between processing effort and conservatism. Together these data suggest that political conservatism may be a process consequence of low-effort thought; when effortful, deliberate thought is disengaged, endorsement of conservative ideology increases.

I lifted the whole abstract from Personality and Sociology Bulletin, dated March 16 this year (full text is behind the Pay Wall).  This thing looks pretty much like a "me too" study that confirms at least a coupla previous studies that arrived at the same basic conclusions - that an awful lot of people we call "conservatives" aren't thinking for themselves.

I'll take one more step and say it means they're just kinda going along; it's fashionable to bitch about government and taxes and spending and Welfare cheats and and and.  Most of us don't have the luxury of time to stop and think things thru.  We're under the gun to perform at jobs where we keep working a little harder and keep getting treated a little shittier.  But we're told we're lazy and we aren't working hard enough.

We see The Dow peek up over 13,000, and we hear a fair bit about how well the really Big Companies are doing, but if we stop to take account of where we are in our own lives, the contrast seems pretty stark.  Company Pensions practically don't exist, and 401k's or 403b's or whatever got scrubbed clean in 2007/2008.  Banks screwed the pooch so badly that tens of trillions of dollars in Net Worth for "average" families simply disappeared.  But what are we told now?  We're told we haven't saved enough.

We try to get the kids ready for launch, but the price of schooling is thru the roof.  And I'm not just talking about the ridiculous costs of college here.  "Free Public Education" my ass.

We look for jobs that we can do, only to find that most of the jobs are all about National Security or Defense Industries.  And what we're told is that we haven't kept up with our own retraining and continuing education.  Which just means that we haven't spent the last 8 years in the military, having our opinions and attitudes drilled into us.

So anyway - there's a lot of general fucked-up-edness right now, and there's a lot reasons for that general fucked-up-edness, and believe it or not there's a lot we can do about it.  But none of it fits on a fucking bumper sticker.

If "liberal" is opposite "conservative", and if "conservative" means you're reactionary and reflexive and you don't think for yourself, then OK - call me liberal.  But ya gotta remember the rules - if you're calling yourself a "conservative", then you don't really don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

A Quick Tho't

Almost got into it a bit with some Goddies (on facebook; where else?) over a CS Lewis quote about how he (Lewis) couldn't very well not believe in god since god gave him the capacity for belief in the first place - or some such malarkey.  Anyway, as it almost always does, one of the places the thread got to was the question of "where do think you'll spend eternity?" - and - "don't you care what happens after you die?" - and - "it's better to believe because what if it's true?"  blah blah blah.

Here's the thing:  these bible-thumpers are really really hung up on the part of eternity that comes after they're dead, but nobody - and I mean NO-fucking-BODY - ever mentions anything about wondering where they spent the part of eternity that came before they were born.

Affordable Care Act

From healthcare.gov, with a hat tip to Balloon Juice:

If you have a new health insurance plan or insurance policy beginning on or after September 23, 2010, the following preventive services must be covered without your having to pay a copayment or co-insurance or meet your deductible. This applies only when these services are delivered by a network provider.

BTW: Can somebody please explain to me how the fuck the GOP has managed to make this whole thing about "sluts wanting free birth control pills"?  And then, I'll need you to explain to me how the Press Poodles can't figure out how to say something to these assholes like, "You're being an asshole".


Covered Preventive Services for Adults:
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm one-time screening for men of specified ages who have ever smoked
Alcohol Misuse screening and counseling
Aspirin use for men and women of certain ages
Blood Pressure screening for all adults
Cholesterol screening for adults of certain ages or at higher risk
Colorectal Cancer screening for adults over 50
Depression screening for adults
Type 2 Diabetes screening for adults with high blood pressure
Diet counseling for adults at higher risk for chronic disease
HIV screening for all adults at higher risk
Immunization vaccines for adults--doses, recommended ages, and recommended populations vary:
  Hepatitis A
  Hepatitis B
  Herpes Zoster
  Human Papillomavirus
  Influenza (Flu Shot)
  Measles, Mumps, Rubella
  Meningococcal
  Pneumococcal
  Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis
  Varicella
Learn more about immunizations and see the latest vaccine schedules.
Obesity screening and counseling for all adults
Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) prevention counseling for adults at higher risk
Tobacco Use screening for all adults and cessation interventions for tobacco users
Syphilis screening for all adults at higher risk

Covered Preventive Services for Women

(Including Pregnant Women):
Note: Services marked with an asterisk ( * ) must be covered with no cost-sharing in plan years starting on or after August 1, 2012. See Affordable Care Act Rules on Expanding Access to Preventive Services for Women.
Anemia screening on a routine basis for pregnant women
Bacteriuria urinary tract or other infection screening for pregnant women
BRCA counseling about genetic testing for women at higher risk
Breast Cancer Mammography screenings every 1 to 2 years for women over 40
Breast Cancer Chemoprevention counseling for women at higher risk
Breastfeeding comprehensive support and counseling from trained providers, as well as access to breastfeeding supplies, for pregnant and nursing women*
Cervical Cancer screening for sexually active women
Chlamydia Infection screening for younger women and other women at higher risk
Contraception: Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling, not including abortifacient drugs*
Domestic and interpersonal violence screening and counseling for all women*
Folic Acid supplements for women who may become pregnant
Gestational diabetes screening for women 24 to 28 weeks pregnant and those at high risk of developing gestational diabetes*
Gonorrhea screening for all women at higher risk
Hepatitis B screening for pregnant women at their first prenatal visit
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) screening and counseling for sexually active women*
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) DNA Test: high risk HPV DNA testing every three years for women with normal cytology results who are 30 or older*
Osteoporosis screening for women over age 60 depending on risk factors
Rh Incompatibility screening for all pregnant women and follow-up testing for women at higher risk
Tobacco Use screening and interventions for all women, and expanded counseling for pregnant tobacco users
Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) counseling for sexually active women*
Syphilis screening for all pregnant women or other women at increased risk
Well-woman visits to obtain recommended preventive services for women under 65*

Note: Services marked with an asterisk ( * ) must be covered with no cost-sharing in plan years starting on or after August 1, 2012. See Affordable Care Act Rules on Expanding Access to Preventive Services for Women.

Covered Preventive Services for Children:
Alcohol and Drug Use assessments for adolescents
Autism screening for children at 18 and 24 months
Behavioral assessments for children of all ages
  Ages: 0 to 11 months, 1 to 4 years, 5 to 10 years, 11 to 14 years, 15 to 17 years.
Blood Pressure screening for children
  Ages: 0 to 11 months, 1 to 4 years, 5 to 10 years, 11 to 14 years, 15 to 17 years.
Cervical Dysplasia screening for sexually active females
Congenital Hypothyroidism screening for newborns
Depression screening for adolescents
Developmental screening for children under age 3, and surveillance throughout childhood
Dyslipidemia screening for children at higher risk of lipid disorders
  Ages: 1 to 4 years, 5 to 10 years, 11 to 14 years, 15 to 17 years.
Fluoride Chemoprevention supplements for children without fluoride in their water source
Gonorrhea preventive medication for the eyes of all newborns
Hearing screening for all newborns
Height, Weight and Body Mass Index measurements for children
  Ages: 0 to 11 months, 1 to 4 years, 5 to 10 years, 11 to 14 years, 15 to 17 years.
Hematocrit or Hemoglobin screening for children
Hemoglobinopathies or sickle cell screening for newborns
HIV screening for adolescents at higher risk
Immunization vaccines for children from birth to age 18 —doses, recommended ages, and recommended populations vary:
  Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis
  Haemophilus influenzae type b
  Hepatitis A
  Hepatitis B
  Human Papillomavirus
  Inactivated Poliovirus
  Influenza (Flu Shot)
  Measles, Mumps, Rubella
  Meningococcal
  Pneumococcal
  Rotavirus
  Varicella
Learn more about immunizations and see the latest vaccine schedules.
Iron supplements for children ages 6 to 12 months at risk for anemia
Lead screening for children at risk of exposure
Medical History for all children throughout development
  Ages: 0 to 11 months, 1 to 4 years, 5 to 10 years, 11 to 14 years, 15 to 17 years.
Obesity screening and counseling
Oral Health risk assessment for young children
  Ages: 0 to 11 months, 1 to 4 years, 5 to 10 years.
Phenylketonuria (PKU) screening for this genetic disorder in newborns
Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) prevention counseling and screening for adolescents at higher risk
Tuberculin testing for children at higher risk of tuberculosis
  Ages: 0 to 11 months, 1 to 4 years, 5 to 10 years, 11 to 14 years, 15 to 17 years.
Vision screening for all children

Politics And Capitalism

"Conservatives" love to carp about "lefties" bringing politics to the marketplace until of course some bonehead like Dan Cathy at Chick-Fil-A steps on his own dick.  But even then, it's still not supposed to be about the stupid politics of being stupidly anti-gay; it's supposed to be about the "freedom" of a very powerful business empire to fuck over anybody it chooses to fuck over.

(God love The Onion)

"The Queer-Hatin' Cordon Bleu is our company's way of showing our firm commitment to strong, Christian family values," said Chick-fil-A spokesman Robert Gary, before adding that the vehemently anti-gay rights sandwich comes served in a combo with waffle fries and a medium soda for just $6.95. "From the very first morsel of this savory meal to the very last bite, customers can envision gays burning in hell with their sodomizing cohorts, and know that our sandwich is on their side.”

If I needed another reason to avoid fast food, this is it.

Today's Pix

Don't be fooled - there's something very wrong with the GOP right now.

May 1, 1947 - 23-year-old Evelyn McHale jumped from the observation deck of the Empire State Bldg.

Brood Parasitism

The Brownheaded Cow Bird is one of those species that uses the nests of other birds to lay its eggs, leaving it to other bird parents to raise its young.  It evolved this strategy because it was so busy following the bison herds on the Great Plains of North America, that it could never make it back to a nest of its own to lay eggs, so it took whatever opportunity that presented itself.

The Cow Bird is an open country bird, so it's Interesting that it's become a problem here in Virginia until you stop and consider the rather extreme deforestation that's gone on for the last 150 years.  Anyway, it's a threat to the songbird species on the east coast now, and I'm bringing this up only because there's a lot of these "little evidentiary things" that really start to add up to a big fuckin' problem after a while.  Kinda important to pay attention to 'em.

So actually, I dunno what to think about having found this egg on the top rail of the pool fence behind the house today - are Cow Birds kinda dumb?  Do they stop wherever they happen to be and lay an egg when they just can't go any farther?  Or...what?

Two From Mr Orwell

“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ”

--and--

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

--George Orwell

No Hell Below Us; Above Us Only Sky

Heaven is almost always a vision of what we value most - and don't possess.

Tell me what you think heaven is and I'll tell you what's lacking in your life right now.

Vaccination Against Idiocy

Top 25 Creationist Fallacies - also, a useful primer for doing combat with the Common Wingnut.

Urinalysis

This one makes the rounds every so often.

I was thinking that if one of you "conservative" geniuses ever once tho't of challenging the Pee Test in the courts on 4th and 5th Amendment grounds (eg), maybe you'd feel a bit less inclined to shit on poor people all the fuckin' time.  Cuz that's really it, right?  You need to be absolutely sure that you never have to admit that the guys you're always voting for are bending you over the table and fucking you with your pants on; you can't stand thinking that everything they've told you over the last 30 years is total bunk; and how they're using you to do their dirty work on everybody else.

So it just can't be that you're allowing yourselves to get fucked over.  It's really all about how you need that shit to roll on down the hill, so you can feel a little better about the whole filthy mess - that you helped create - that you help perpetuate every time you buy into this cynical manipulation.

Would this be a bad time to start talking to you about accepting responsibility for your part in turning this country into the giant FUBAR that you're always pissin' and moanin' about?

Today's Quote

"I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism and demonism, and really see nothing but the latter in the being worshipped by many who think themselves Christians."

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard Price, Jan. 8, 1789

(Richard Price had written to TJ on Oct. 26. about the harm done by religion and wrote "Would not Society be better without Such religions? Is Atheism less pernicious than Demonism?")

And Now...

...Mr Diety himself - Brian Dalton, at Imagine No Religion in Canada last year.

It cuts early at the end, but it's just Dalton doing some plugs for the Mr Deity series.

God-Given Rights(?)

The First Step

From the premier episode of The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin's latest attempt to remind us of the true greatness of what (and who) we once were; and to get us to think about how we can be great again.



As usual tho', reading the comments is depressing.

Today's Bumper Sticker

via Democratic Underground

Romney Loves America The Way A Tick Loves A Dog

A Real Comparison(?)

Sometimes I have a kind of Love/Hate relationship with myself.  Especially when I do shit like this.  It feels like I'm goin' along with the crap I absolutely loathe about our current state of "debate".

That said, how am I supposed to resist an opportunity like this?

Let's see if we can spot some tiny hint as to the difference in the work ethic of our major party candidates this time around.

Vacation 2012

Spending some time back home in Colorado.  I'm never not amazed at how spectacular the weather can be here.  Just the fact that it can be a roasty toasty 90˚ during the day, but if you sit in the shade, it's not bad at all (the wonders of low humidity).  But the best part is that when the sun goes down, it cools off.  Practically no such thing as 85˚ and muggy at 11 o'clock at night.

So anyway - I'm being kinda lazy, so the prospects of getting any serious blogging done for the next several days are pretty slim.

Today's Quote

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute -- where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote -- where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference -- and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish -- where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source -- where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials -- and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

    -- John F Kennedy, address to the Ministerial Association of Greater Houston, September 12, 1960, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom 

ACA Starts To Pay Off

Don't let the Repubs know, but Obamacare is starting to come thru in a way that's gonna piss off "conservatives" somethin' powerful.

A friend in Charlottesville is a small business owner; single, 2 not-quite-grown-and-gone kids.  She's almost always somewhere between OK and Ah Crap, with the occasional tight-roping along the edge of Holy Fuck.  The way an awful lot of people have had to live for  a good 20 years or more.

Today, she showed me this little slice from her insurance carrier, informing her that they've cut her a rebate check because they didn't quite meet the new 80/20 Rule.  Under ACA, insurers have to maintain a Medical Loss Ratio of 80%:20%.  Simply put, of all the dollars in premiums they collect, they get to keep 20% of it for Admin and Salaries and Bonuses and Shareholder bennies (profit), etc - but they have to pay out at least 80% of that money to Healthcare Providers (docs, nurses, hospitals, etc) in the form of Medical Care Claims.  If they don't come up to that 80%, they have to divvy up the leftover money and pay it back to their subscribers.  So my friend is getting a check for about 80 bucks.  She won't be vacationing in St Bart's or putting in a pool, but it's better than it was and that's good for now.

I wonder if any of my "conservative" friends have gotten the same thing - and if they have, I wonder if I'll ever hear about it.

Here We Go Again(?)

“The Republicans say they don’t want to raise taxes on the middle class, and I don’t want to raise taxes on the middle class, so we should all agree to extend the tax cut for the middle class. Let’s agree to do what we agree on,” he said in the East Room of the White House, flanked by people who would benefit from the extension. “Let’s not hold the vast majority of the Americans and the entire economy hostage while we debate the merits of another tax cut for the wealthy.”

Read more at Politico.


C'mon, "conservatives" - you sat there all night; you had a nice dinner; you downed some decent wine; you had a whole squad of cocktails; you listened to the band, and you even got up and danced a little - but now the check's here and somehow it's Obama's fault that you have to settle up?

Repubs love pissin' and moanin' about somebody getting a free ride; so how come they refuse to pay for their own shit?  Buncha fuckin' pussies.

From Outa Da Past

Some of my earliest memories of music are pegged to my mom's collection of Leroy Anderson's records.  This one's a fave - along with The Syncopated Clock and Trumpeter's Lullaby from the same album (I think).  She'd put this on and plop me down in the dining room - and then go do what moms did around the house on a random weekday in the middle 50s.

Here There And Everywhere

Repubs never seem to understand that information has become really really portable.  Actually, it seems they've confused the portability of facts with the pretense that reality is fungible; but then again, the difficulty of "conservatives" even to recognize facts as facts is getting to be a very old story.  So maybe, because they understand that facts are pretty much immutable, they have to work as hard as they do to convince people otherwise.

Anyway, here's a pretty good one (kinda dated, but this silliness apparently must be repeated and revisited because, well - see the paragraph above).

via Addicting Info:

In 2009, Michael Steele, then chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC,) called President Barack Obama’s plan to overhaul health care “socialism,” at a National Press Club event.

Mr. Steele obviously was not aware of the fact that his very own party- the GOP helped Iraqi lawmakers to draft and pass their constitution with a single-payer guaranteed healthcare system for all Iraqis, in 2005.

Moyers

Ol' Bill gets a bad case of the "Centrisms" once in a while, but he can stand on my back anytime he wants to repeat this one.

(hat tip = The Agonist)

Vote Suppression

People with power use their power.  Sometimes to get more; sometimes to keep what they have; sometimes just to make sure we all know who has it.

From Balloon Juice, here's a pretty good rundown:

(from the Pennsylvania voter ID law)

All photo IDs must contain an expiration date that is current, unless noted otherwise. Acceptable IDs include:
• Photo IDs issued by the U.S. Federal Government or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania:
•Pennsylvania driver’s license or non-driver’s license photo ID (IDs are valid for voting purposes 12 months past expiration date)
•Valid U.S. passport
•U.S. military ID - active duty and retired military (a military or veteran’s ID must designate an expiration date or designate that the expiration date is indefinite). Military dependents’ ID must contain an expiration date
•Employee photo ID issued by Federal, PA, County or Municipal government
•Photo ID cards from an accredited Pennsylvania public or private institution of higher learning
•Photo ID cards issued by a Pennsylvania care facility, including long-term care facilities, assisted living residences or personal care homes

All the "liberal" complaining about this really doesn't look like a standard conspiracy theory.  This looks a lot like Repubs (who hold governorships and who control state houses in OH, PA and FL) are cooking up ways to tamp down on some pretty significant voter demographics that are known to lean towards voting for Democrats.  I know that's a bunch of equivocation, but while there's practically no similar efforts in places where Dems hold power, and the fact that these laws are almost exclusively being jammed thru in battleground states, AND that there's practically no evidence of anything even close to the level of Voter Fraud these restrictions are aimed at preventing, we still have to make sure we're not just stampeding over the cliff, saying all Repubs are power-mad assholes who want a lockstep totalitarian dictatorship.  The thought has crossed my mind - in fact it's crossed my mind often enough to have worn several easily followed trails into it.  I'm just not ready to point and yell, "J'acccuse", that's all.

One thing I really don't like about this is that the Press Poodles seem not to be looking closely at it at all. As if glossing over it or ignoring it helps their Horse Race approach by working to make Obama's lead look narrower than it is.  One tho't on that: because it's too one-sided, reporting on it would make 'em look biased, so until they can come up with something the Dems are doing that they think can "balance it out", they'll continue looking past it.

Today's Pix

What About The Women?

If abortion is illegal, what should happen to a woman who breaks that law by having an illegal abortion?

Beware The 9th Of July

Per snopes.com, this is a real thing and you should prob'ly check it out.

via Better Business Bureau's website:

Scammers in Estonia infected computers worldwide with malware that turned off virus updates and redirected consumers to fraudulent websites. When the FBI busted the scam ring last November, they set up clean servers to replace the ones running the scam. Victims have been redirected to those new servers ever since, usually without any knowledge they’d been infected in the first place.

While this appears legit, there's always that chance it's a good enough hoax to fool everybody.  But what I find truly delicious is that there's probably a whole big bunch of rubes out there who'll believe this is some kind of nefarious attempt on the part of Obama and Eric Holder to spy on the 'Merikun people.

I'm seriously considering planting the seeds on facebook (eg) that "consevatives" should avoid this at all costs, especially if they own any guns, or have ever searched for anything online concerning weapons, ammo, or anything that could be construed as survival gear, etc, etc.  And if they've visited any websites the gubmint might consider rightwing, whoa boy - better not go near this thing.

Could be loads of, but I'm likely too late for all that - what're you willing to bet that some wingnut's already put out the alarm?  Be afraid, Conservative Pussies - be very afraid.

Yo, Rubes...

...this is your guy?

From Mother Jones:

The Stericycle deal—the abortion connection aside—is relevant because of questions regarding the timing of Romney's departure from the private equity firm he founded. Responding to a recent Washington Post story reporting that Bain-acquired companies outsourced jobs, the Romney campaign insisted that Romney exited Bain in February 1999, a month or more before Bain took over two of the companies named in the Post's article. The SEC documents undercut that defense, indicating that Romney still played a role in Bain investments until at least the end of 1999.

So let's see some of what we got here:

• Romney made a boatload of dough disposing of "humans" (ie: living, fertilized embryos).
• Romney, as MA Gov outsourced a consumer call center in India to the tune of $160k/month
• Romney scratched tens of thousands of jobs as he and his partners pocketed millions of dollars - a lot of which came from the pension funds of the people who'd spent their entire adult lives working for and building those companies.

This ain't the guy, Repubs.  His foreign policy team is almost all NeoCon retreads, and his economic guys are all the boneheads who got us into this mess to start with.  Pick somebody else.

Connections

Bank of Credit and Commerce Int'l (drug money laundering scandal)
The First Gulf War
Big Tobacco
Fracking

What's the common thread?  Hill & Knowlton

The Sky Is Pink

It seems pretty important that we get this one right.


THE SKY IS PINK from JFOX on Vimeo.


And BT-fuckin'-W, it's time to consider something I've been proposing for a very long time on how to make sure these corporate buggers are telling us the truth about the effects of their operations on any given local water supply (eg).  Once a month, the whole executive committee plus one of their family members have to show up and drink a full glass of water straight from the tap of a homeowner selected by his/her neighbors.  Let's see how long it takes to clean this shit up.

Ed Note

We got slammed pretty hard by the storms last Friday.  We're OK, but electrical power is a problem.  We bought a generator during the monster snow storm of 2009(?), so I can power the fridge and the computers and a couple of window AC units.  We're far better off than lots of our neighbors, but there's very little about this whole thing that doesn't suck.

One thing - Americans behave like spoiled children the majority of the time, but when the real shit happens (like 80mph Derecho winds that knock the crap outa the power grid), people tend to rally together in a weirdly self-sufficient way.  I don't know how to describe it.  Like I said, our situation is considerably better than most, but when I offer the neighbors refuge in our relatively cool family room, they've all thanked me kindly and said more or less, "we're doin' OK for now" or "maybe take you up on that in a day or two" etc etc.  It just feels a little odd; like people don't wanna admit they're struggling with it or something.  I dunno.  Weird.

Anyway, even tho' I've got power for the PC, the DSL's been up and down the whole time, and blogging isn't a big priority right now.

Grandstanding

This is about as bad as it gets.

via Little Green Footballs:

The Justice Department announced today that the House Republicans who voted to find Eric Holder in criminal contempt are a bunch of grandstanding buffoons.

Not in so many words, of course: Justice Department Won’t Pursue Case Against Holder.

So Darrell Issa makes a big show of "investigating" Fast & Furious, building up a head of steam that finally explodes on Eric Holder in a dramatic vote to hold the AG in Contempt of Congress - knowing the whole damned time that NOTHING WILL COME OF IT.

The vote itself may have given us a wee peek at how "seriously" everybody was taking the thing: YEAS = 95, NAYS = 14.  Keep in mind the entire House of Reps voted on this piece of shit, and there were 324 NO VOTES.  435 Representatives, and almost 75% of 'em either registered NO VOTE or skipped the little charade altogether.

“The longstanding position of the Department of Justice has been and remains that we will not prosecute an executive branch official under the contempt of Congress statute for withholding subpoenaed documents pursuant to a presidential assertion of executive privilege,” says Deputy Attorney General James Cole in a letter to the House speaker, John Boehner.

The letter notes that during the Reagan administration, DOJ took the position that the contempt statute could not constitutionally be applied to an official who asserts the president’s claim of executive privilege. That policy was first articulated in a memo written by Ted Olson when he was at DOJ in 1984.
Cole writes that the position has been asserted several times since then, most recently during the Bush administration in 2008.

He concludes by saying that the Justice Department has determined that Holder’s response to the House committee subpoena “does not constitute a crime” and the Department will not refer the matter to a grand jury “or take any other action to prosecute the attorney general.”

It's all just a fucking game with these assholes.

Everybody Pays

Here's WIllard talking with DumFux Cavuto about having just signed the Romneycare bill into law in 2006.

Highlites = 2:00, 4:00, 5:30.

"We already have universal healthcare..."



When it comes to Obamacare, it's not hard to accept the notion that "conservatives" aren't against the policy - they're against Obama.  That makes a kind of weird political sense to me here in 2012.  What I really don't get is that so many people are so adamantly opposed to something that brings a solid benefit to them, and fits with the "stand on your own feet" approach (Individual Mandate), AND which fits the Competitive Markets model.