With the launching of the Global War on Terrorism, Islamism succeeded Communism as the body of beliefs that, if left unchecked, threatened to sweep across the globe with dire consequences for freedom. Those who Washington had armed as “freedom fighters” now became America’s most dangerous enemies. So at least members of the national security establishment believed or purported to believe, thereby curtailing any further discussion of whether militarized globalism actually represented the best approach to promoting liberal values globally or even served U.S. interests.TeaBaggers and others who keep trying to pass themselves off as conservatives are little more than John Birch-style radical ass-hats wrapped in American flags and clutching their bibles - both of which they bought really cheap down at Wal-Mart who brought it all in from China.
Sep 25, 2012
Boykinism
The American Conservative is a pretty decent place to get some good old fashioned conservative info. And who the fuck coulda seen that one comin'?
A Quickie
Something's been buggin' me about the whole 47% thing - I mean something other than the douchebaggery of WIllard saying it, and the oral flatulence of Limbaugh and Noonan and Bobo as they try to pretend it was all about clumsy wording or inept campaigning or conniving libruls who like to play "gotcha games". There was something else. Something very much in keeping with how Repubs do things, and it took me a while to figure it out, but here it is:
For a lot of people, Willard's attempts to dodge US taxes make him a bit of a hero. Government is evil and all taxation is theft, so anything you do to screw the IRS is a noble gesture. For these folks, Willard is the Self-Service version of Robin Hood.
So how come they don't see "the 47% who don't pay taxes" in the same light?
There's a guy flippin' burgers who used to work for the county as a civil engineer to keep the paving contractors honest, but he got laid off when they had to cut the budget to make up for tax cuts. He doesn't pay Federal Income Tax because he doesn't make enough. He'd love to get back to where he pays taxes again. And there it is. He wants to pay his taxes; he wants to pay the bloodsuckers their tribute; he's brainwashed; he's corrupt; he's not one of us. And before you know it: "he must be eliminated"
So in GOP Oppositeland, you can't be virtuous if you're not out to fuck somebody over, and even tho' they actually believe the 47% are trying to do exactly that, the GOP must have an enemy, so the enemy is us.
For a lot of people, Willard's attempts to dodge US taxes make him a bit of a hero. Government is evil and all taxation is theft, so anything you do to screw the IRS is a noble gesture. For these folks, Willard is the Self-Service version of Robin Hood.
So how come they don't see "the 47% who don't pay taxes" in the same light?
There's a guy flippin' burgers who used to work for the county as a civil engineer to keep the paving contractors honest, but he got laid off when they had to cut the budget to make up for tax cuts. He doesn't pay Federal Income Tax because he doesn't make enough. He'd love to get back to where he pays taxes again. And there it is. He wants to pay his taxes; he wants to pay the bloodsuckers their tribute; he's brainwashed; he's corrupt; he's not one of us. And before you know it: "he must be eliminated"
So in GOP Oppositeland, you can't be virtuous if you're not out to fuck somebody over, and even tho' they actually believe the 47% are trying to do exactly that, the GOP must have an enemy, so the enemy is us.
Gettin' It Done - 42
Today's installment on what Obama's done.
Sep 24, 2012
Gettin' It Done
We usually hear more about how rotten the opponent is rather than hearing anything good about the guy we're pulling for. So here's a little countdown. Hopefully, I'm going to post something every day until Nov 6 that lists some things Mr Obama has done in his first term.
You can take whatever it is as good or bad, of course - I'm just puttin' it all up. Here's the down payment:
50. Killed the F-22: In 2009, ended further purchases of Lockheed Martin single-seat, twin-engine, fighter aircraft, which cost $358 million apiece. Though the military had 187 built, the plane has never flown a single combat mission. Eliminating it saved $4 billion.
49. Helped South Sudan Declare Independence: Appointed two envoys to Sudan and personally attended a special UN meeting on the area. Through U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, helped negotiate a peaceful split in 2011.
48. Provided Payment to Wronged Minority Farmers: In 2009, signed Claims Resolution Act, which provided $4.6 billion in funding for a legal settlement with black and Native American farmers who the government cheated out of loans and natural resource royalties in years past.
47. Expanded Stem Cell Research: In 2009, eliminated the Bush-era restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, which shows promise in treating spinal injuries, among many other areas.
46. Recognized the Dangers of Carbon Dioxide: In 2009, EPA declared carbon dioxide a pollutant, allowing the agency to regulate its production.
45. Expanded Health Coverage for Children: Signed 2009 Children’s Health Insurance Authorization Act, which allows the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover health care for 4 million more children, paid for by a tax increase on tobacco products.
44. Pushed Broadband Coverage: Proposed and obtained in 2011 Federal Communications Commission approval for a shift of $8 billion in subsidies away from landlines and toward broadband Internet for lower-income rural families.
43. Created Recovery.gov: Web site run by independent board of Inspectors General looking for fraud and abuse in stimulus spending, provides public with detailed information on every contract funded by $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Thanks partly to this transparency, board has uncovered very little fraud, and Web site has become national model: “The stimulus has done more to promote transparency at almost all levels of government than any piece of legislation in recent memory,” reports Governing magazine.
You can take whatever it is as good or bad, of course - I'm just puttin' it all up. Here's the down payment:
50. Killed the F-22: In 2009, ended further purchases of Lockheed Martin single-seat, twin-engine, fighter aircraft, which cost $358 million apiece. Though the military had 187 built, the plane has never flown a single combat mission. Eliminating it saved $4 billion.
49. Helped South Sudan Declare Independence: Appointed two envoys to Sudan and personally attended a special UN meeting on the area. Through U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, helped negotiate a peaceful split in 2011.
48. Provided Payment to Wronged Minority Farmers: In 2009, signed Claims Resolution Act, which provided $4.6 billion in funding for a legal settlement with black and Native American farmers who the government cheated out of loans and natural resource royalties in years past.
47. Expanded Stem Cell Research: In 2009, eliminated the Bush-era restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, which shows promise in treating spinal injuries, among many other areas.
46. Recognized the Dangers of Carbon Dioxide: In 2009, EPA declared carbon dioxide a pollutant, allowing the agency to regulate its production.
45. Expanded Health Coverage for Children: Signed 2009 Children’s Health Insurance Authorization Act, which allows the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover health care for 4 million more children, paid for by a tax increase on tobacco products.
44. Pushed Broadband Coverage: Proposed and obtained in 2011 Federal Communications Commission approval for a shift of $8 billion in subsidies away from landlines and toward broadband Internet for lower-income rural families.
43. Created Recovery.gov: Web site run by independent board of Inspectors General looking for fraud and abuse in stimulus spending, provides public with detailed information on every contract funded by $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Thanks partly to this transparency, board has uncovered very little fraud, and Web site has become national model: “The stimulus has done more to promote transparency at almost all levels of government than any piece of legislation in recent memory,” reports Governing magazine.
Sep 23, 2012
A Little Football
The take-away quote:
(hat tip = The Atlantic)
"Tim Tebow's throwin' arm is proof that there is no God."
(hat tip = The Atlantic)
Buncha Dopes (cont'd)
I put up a post yesterday that ended with my standard bitch about SIlver Spoon Legacy Pukes.
see Buncha Dopes
My contention is that if I leave a ginormous estate to my kids, then there's not much incentive for them to work at anything, and to participate in a world (ie: an economy) that doesn't function properly unless practically everybody participates in it in roughly the same way. I'm not talkin' about trying to make the field perfectly level by straight-up confiscation and redistribution. That's been tried and it doesn't work for shit either. I'm just talkin' about putting in some rules that make it a lot harder for your great great granddaddy to have greased the skids for you to the extent that you decide to grab for some real power by running for national office just because you haven't much of anything else to do.
Now think about conversations you've had with almost any "conservative", and tell me what they've had to say about "welfare has made multiple generations dependent on government largesse" - and/or - "if you just give stuff to people without making them work for it, they'll decide not to work at all". And of course, these are almost always the same people who scream so loudly about the sheer horribleness of "The Death Tax".
Aristocracy sucks. It's what an awful lot of brave souls decided to overthrow back in the late 18th century. And, weirdly, Inherited Entitlement seems to be kinda the "natural order of things". But that's what we said we weren't going to do anymore. We said it may well be what happens everywhere else, but not here. We're the exception.
see Buncha Dopes
If you can manage it, then you should leave your kids something to get 'em goin', and good on you. But we're not doing ourselves, or them, any favors by plowing the road so perfectly that we end up with cretins like Luke Russert and Chris Wallace and Meghan McCain and GW Bush and Willard-fucking-Romney in positions of real consequence.Something occurs to me when I think about my own disdain for inherited privilege and advantage, that hooks in pretty well with the arguments coming from The Grover Fluffers at places like Club For Growth and The TeaBaggers and practically all of the GOP.
My contention is that if I leave a ginormous estate to my kids, then there's not much incentive for them to work at anything, and to participate in a world (ie: an economy) that doesn't function properly unless practically everybody participates in it in roughly the same way. I'm not talkin' about trying to make the field perfectly level by straight-up confiscation and redistribution. That's been tried and it doesn't work for shit either. I'm just talkin' about putting in some rules that make it a lot harder for your great great granddaddy to have greased the skids for you to the extent that you decide to grab for some real power by running for national office just because you haven't much of anything else to do.
Now think about conversations you've had with almost any "conservative", and tell me what they've had to say about "welfare has made multiple generations dependent on government largesse" - and/or - "if you just give stuff to people without making them work for it, they'll decide not to work at all". And of course, these are almost always the same people who scream so loudly about the sheer horribleness of "The Death Tax".
Aristocracy sucks. It's what an awful lot of brave souls decided to overthrow back in the late 18th century. And, weirdly, Inherited Entitlement seems to be kinda the "natural order of things". But that's what we said we weren't going to do anymore. We said it may well be what happens everywhere else, but not here. We're the exception.
Sep 22, 2012
DumFux News
When it gets this bad, you're goin' over the cliff.
There has to come a time when nobody is unaware of how fuckin' stupid everybody thinks you are if this is where you get the information necessary to participate in the world and to conduct the actual living of your life.
Viewer Tip: hit PAUSE a few times at the end so you can read the "corrections".
There has to come a time when nobody is unaware of how fuckin' stupid everybody thinks you are if this is where you get the information necessary to participate in the world and to conduct the actual living of your life.
Viewer Tip: hit PAUSE a few times at the end so you can read the "corrections".
Stay Tuned
Reports are coming out of North Africa now that have Libyans storming some-to-several camps or buildings and militia headquarters and killing at least 2 people in protest of the attack on the American consulate in Bhengazi last week.
From The DailyTimes:
From The DailyTimes:
Libyan protesters ousted a militia from its headquarters and seized a raft of other paramilitary bases in second city Benghazi early on Saturday in heavy clashes that left four people dead.
The seizure of the headquarters of Ansar al-Sharia - which has been accused of, but denied, involvement in the murder of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans last week - came after tens of thousands took to the streets on Friday to protest against the power of the militias.It bears watching.
"Buncha Dopes"
Chris Wallace tries to be legit, but he almost always falls a little short. I get the feeling he's not happy with his position at DumFux News, and I think it's because he knows the jig is up - even a big chunk of the die-hard centrists who tune in for Wallace or Bret Baier or Shep Smith have recently come to understand just how crassly partisan Rupert's Playhouse really is.
So, when Chris has to do a promo spot with the boneheads on the morning show, he can barely disguise his contempt; and apparently, the feeling is mutual.
And BTW - Chris Wallace is another reason I'm so totally against supporting any but the absolute minimal kind of intergenerational handoff.
If you can manage it, then you should leave your kids something to get 'em goin', and good on you. But we're not doing ourselves, or them, any favors by plowing the road so perfectly that we end up with cretins like Luke Russert and Chris Wallace and Meghan McCain and GW Bush and Willard-fucking-Romney in positions of real consequence.
No more Clintons, no more Bushes, no more Rockefellers, no more Roosevelts, no more Kennedys etc etc etc
No dynasties, no aristocracy, and no Sliver-Spoon Legacy Pukes allowed.
So, when Chris has to do a promo spot with the boneheads on the morning show, he can barely disguise his contempt; and apparently, the feeling is mutual.
And BTW - Chris Wallace is another reason I'm so totally against supporting any but the absolute minimal kind of intergenerational handoff.
If you can manage it, then you should leave your kids something to get 'em goin', and good on you. But we're not doing ourselves, or them, any favors by plowing the road so perfectly that we end up with cretins like Luke Russert and Chris Wallace and Meghan McCain and GW Bush and Willard-fucking-Romney in positions of real consequence.
No more Clintons, no more Bushes, no more Rockefellers, no more Roosevelts, no more Kennedys etc etc etc
No dynasties, no aristocracy, and no Sliver-Spoon Legacy Pukes allowed.
Sep 21, 2012
Racist Asshole Alert
From Addicting Info:
And, yes, Obama’s race is a factor, contrary to what conservatives will (and always) say. Lynching a black man – even symbolically – in the South is a deliberate statement. It’s meant to invoke the “good ol’ days” when white southerners could terrorize the African American community with impunity. When contacted about this by Burnt Orange Report, Johnson responded, “I don’t really give a damn whether it disturbs you or not. You can take [your concerns] and go straight to hell and take Obama with you. I don’t give a shit. If you don’t like it, don’t come down my street.”This is terrorism. Luckily, this particular act is on the low end of the Terrorism Spectrum, but I can't help thinking it's just more evidence that we're a little closer to pickin' up the Civil War where we left off.
Sep 20, 2012
Connections
I don't know what's up here, but it smells really bad and I just wanna get something posted that maybe starts me stroking in the right direction.
From Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone:
From Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone:
The great mystery story in American politics these days is why, over the course of two presidential administrations (one from each party), there’s been no serious federal criminal investigation of Wall Street during a period of what appears to be epic corruption. People on the outside have speculated and come up with dozens of possible reasons, some plausible, some tending toward the conspiratorial – but there have been very few who've come at the issue from the inside.
We get one of those rare inside accounts in The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins, a new book by Jeff Connaughton, the former aide to Senators Ted Kaufman and Joe Biden. Jeff is well known to reporters like me; during a period when most government officials double-talked or downplayed the Wall Street corruption problem, Jeff was one of the few voices on the Hill who always talked about the subject with appropriate alarm. He shared this quality with his boss Kaufman, the Delaware Senator who took over Biden's seat and instantly became an irritating (to Wall Street) political force by announcing he wasn’t going to run for re-election. "I later learned from reporters that Wall Street was frustrated that they couldn’t find a way to harness Ted or pull in his reins," Jeff writes. "There was no obvious way to pressure Ted because he wasn’t running for re-election."And from Reuters (via The Agonist):
With less than two months to go before the U.S. presidential election, a new survey found 61 percent of Americans say a candidate's commitment to rooting out corporate wrongdoing will be key in deciding who gets their vote.
Along with keen interest in knowing each candidate's plans to fix the struggling economy, voters want government to do more to fight corporate misconduct - which they say helped cause the financial crisis.
"In these difficult economic times, Americans are mad as hell about corporate wrongdoing and are going to do something about it in the November elections and beyond," said Jordan Thomas, a partner at law firm Labaton Sucharow, which commissioned the survey and which represents corporate whistleblowers.
This is the first I've heard of a continuing disgruntlement over Corruption Inc - it seemed to me that it had been pushed way down the list of priorities. But when I stop and put some thought into it, I start to see it making some real sense. How do you fix the problem of Too Much Big Money In Politics if you don't fix the problem of Private Up-Side and Public Down-Side?
Oh yeah - no more thing. When your clear-eyed and sensible Repub friends start yammerin' about how we need lots more deregulation to "unleash the mighty power of unfettered American free-market know-how", see if this rings a bell for 'em (from an AP story cited in the comments at The Agonist referenced above - and got practically no mention anywhere):
Oh yeah - no more thing. When your clear-eyed and sensible Repub friends start yammerin' about how we need lots more deregulation to "unleash the mighty power of unfettered American free-market know-how", see if this rings a bell for 'em (from an AP story cited in the comments at The Agonist referenced above - and got practically no mention anywhere):
A Texas company that profited for decades by supplying mentally disabled workers to an Iowa turkey plant at wages of 41 cents per hour must pay the men $1.37 million in back wages, a federal judge ruled late Tuesday.
The judgment against Henry's Turkey Service in Goldthwaite is the third of more than $1 million against the company after state authorities in 2009 shut down a dilapidated bunkhouse in rural Iowa where the men had lived since the 1970s.
Pic O' The Day
Obama should win this thing, but don't get cocky. Make sure your ass is registered today, and in line early to vote on Nov 6th. And just to be sure - go to the nearest OFA office and make some phone calls or somethin'. If you want this to stick, then ya gotta help turn people out. Most people have already made up their minds, so turnout is everything now.
Almost Missed It
So, Willard - that bit about "one nation, under god; indivisible..."? What the fuck, douche-nozzle?
Even Peggy Noonan?
It's a pretty bad sign when practically every pundit who pretends to be down the middle bails on your campaign.
Peggy Noonan, Rupert Street Journal:
BTW1: In spite of all the pearl-clutching and pleas to "party elders, to the extent you exist...", Noonan and the "Smart Right" are helping the TeaBaggers put up the context that will push the GOP even farther to the extreme right.
BTW2: how does Peggy Noonan keep getting paid to write this junk? A true testament to Wingnut Welfare.
Peggy Noonan, Rupert Street Journal:
It’s time to admit the Romney campaign is an incompetent one. It’s not big, it’s not brave, it’s not thoughtfully tackling great issues. It’s always been too small for the moment. All the activists, party supporters and big donors should be pushing for change. People want to focus on who at the top is least constructive and most responsible. Fine, but Mitt Romney is no puppet: He chooses who to listen to. An intervention is in order. “Mitt, this isn’t working.”--snip--
Romney always seems alone out there, a guy with a mic pacing an empty stage. All by himself, removed from the other humans. It’s sad-looking. It’s not working.Maybe he seems alone because he's leading the charge of the minority. As it becomes more and more obvious that he appeals only to an ever-shrinking number of insiders, why would anybody be surprised to see him campaigning in front of ever-dwindling crowds, while being accompanied by fewer and fewer GOP stars?
BTW1: In spite of all the pearl-clutching and pleas to "party elders, to the extent you exist...", Noonan and the "Smart Right" are helping the TeaBaggers put up the context that will push the GOP even farther to the extreme right.
BTW2: how does Peggy Noonan keep getting paid to write this junk? A true testament to Wingnut Welfare.
The Great Debunking
Wonkette is possibly the best place on the planet. I wish I could vacation there.
Favorite comment:
As it turns out, we need not see what was in those missing two minutes of video from Romney Gone Wild: 47% Of His Clothes Off. Willy Mittens is now declaring the video “debunked and selectively edited” for some reason.
Favorite comment:
Sep 19, 2012
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