Yeesh

A Repub Rep from Oklahoma went a little over the top as he was speaking at a town hall meeting recently (from TPM):

Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK) sent TPM a public apology Thursday after we obtained audio of the five-term Republican telling constituents at a town hall this week that he’d have to personally shoot members of the U.S. Senate to get a budget passed through the chamber.

Obviously, it's not good to suggest you might have to go all Saddam on them mutha-fuckahs; and it doesn't really help when you put out the standard un-apology.  But the thing that stuck for me is the reference he makes to the 28 Jobs Bills that he claims were passed by the House, but hung up in the Senate.

A little checking, and oh look - that rarest of natural occurrences - a politician lyin' his ass off.

Back in January, Crooks and Liars posted a pretty good breakdown of what this lunkhead considers "Jobs Bills".  (And BTW, the main clue that politicians might be lying - other than the fact that their lips are moving - is when they can't quite agree on the actual number of great things they've done for us lately).

To make sure they back up their public claims with what might appear to be "fact", they've built a page on the House of Representatives site with a list of their so-called jobs bills, which number 27 and not 30 as the Speaker claims. What follows is a list and a brief explanation of why they are not jobs bills. Feel free to share it widely with your friends who might be inclined to believe Mr. Tobacco Lobbyist Check Distributor without questioning it.

Why am I not surprised?  You get called out for coming really close to advocating physical violence against your political opponents; and then you issue a statement that you call an apology, but which is actually intended to deflect attention away from the fact that you're a strutting tin-plated Martinet.

"Yes, I was talking about wanting to murder people who disagree with me - but why is the media hung up on that and paying no attention to the totally fucked up legislation we've been pushing through?"

Fairly good question.  I'd usually say something like 'this is no accident', but I doubt this bozo is that smart.

And shit - I almost forgot.  Both sides do it, except when they don't.  Please show me the Dems who're saying they wanna shoot their colleagues.

Relaxed And Groovy

When Repubs are in the White House, we get Up With People and Pat Boone and Toby Keith - and it seems like everybody in the country's walking around with a big stick up their butts.

Put Dems in charge, and we get BB King and Derek Trucks and Mick Jagger - and even tho' we have plenty of big problems to sort out, and lots of very heated arguments to get through, it all just feels a little better now.  Dunno why.  It just does.

But - you know - all them politicians; they're all the same.  There's no difference.  

Are you fucking kidding!?!

Leadership is hard to put your finger on.  It doesn't lend itself well to objective measurements and the stuff they teach you in Business School about Planning and Action Items and Progress Metrics and the like.  It's difficult to see by direct observation, but leadership - management style - is always well-reflected in the postures and attitudes of the people in the organization.  Help people get their feet under them, let them get a little leverage, and you won't fucking believe what they can do.

It Just Slips Out

It's the old saw - "A gaffe is when somebody in politics accidentally tells the truth"

A big one at about :30.

(hat tip = TPM via Balloon Juice)

That's Great

My adopted home of Virginia is (deservedly, I'm sad to say) becoming the latest poster child for Stoopidly Brutal Government Intrusion.  You may have heard that our legislature has decided women need to be punished and humiliated - to get their minds right and to keep their place - whenever they feel the need to terminate a pregnancy.  If Gov McDonnell signs the bill, women seeking abortions will be required to submit to trans-vaginal sonography; and they will be required to view the pictures while being "counseled" by a clinician.

And the "procedure" has been given a name.  We call it "The Virginia Rape".  Now ain't that just wun-fuckin'-derful.

But guess who's defending this proposed atrocity - and with what kind of rhetoric?

(hat tip = Little Green Footballs, via Wonkette)


Not that it needs a lot of translation, but here it is in case you missed it: "Any woman seeking an abortion is obviously just a slut who wants to have sex with any-body, any-time, any-where, any-way, so what's one more little poke in the twat to a hag like her?"

Nothing could put a clearer focus on the simple fact that the Right Radicals in this country are no different than the Islamo-Fascists they say we need to hate.  As always, they are consumed by their zealotry, and they've become what they claim to despise.

There was a silent protest at the capitol in Richmond yesterday, and sources tell me there's a possibly huge push-back starting to gather steam among OBGYN clinicians.  Fingers crossed.

Ahh - Now I Get It

Let's connect some dots, shall we?

Rick Santorum is hell bent to stop abortion and to get them rascal wimmins off birth control.  Is it because he just luvs dem babies so much?  Well kinda, but not really.  At least not in the way he's been selling it to the rubes.

It's never about what they say it's about.

One good bite at about 1:55 ("What must we do to win?") with the big payoff starting at 2:25.  Give a listen.



Little Ricky's plan is all about beating Islam - by outbreeding them.  All of it.  Abortion, Contraception, Marriage, Immigration; the whole thing is about building up the Enemy into a mighty and malevolent threat, and making yourself out to be the man on the white horse - reluctant, but ultimately willing to lead the forces of good blah blah blah - sometimes my only wish is that I could spell the sound I make when I puke.

Silence Implies Consent - updated

Rick Santorum in 2011:


(hat tip = Democratic Underground)

He'd criminalize the abortion procedure; and he'd go after the doctors, but not the women seeking and/or consenting to the procedure.

Isn't that like saying you'd throw the bartender in jail, but not the drunk driver?

You'd go after the guy who shoots the husband in the face, but not the wife who hired him to do it?

I'm no scholar, but I think the Constitution works just a bit better than Little Ricky thinks it does - or wants it to.

And this is another one of those show-me-the-equivalence things.  Wingnuts like to get all frothy about "abortion on demand", but they just made that shit up.  I have yet to hear anything from "the left" that comes within a country mile of this kind of stupid.

So go ahead and run with this one, GOP - and you can kiss my ass good-bye for another 20 years.

(update) Leaving the woman out of the whole criminalization thingie is just more evidence that these Talibani Americanii aren't interested in anything women have to say about anything.  A woman has to "participate" beforehand, but once that part's over, then they can't possibly be trusted with any of the decisions that have to be addressed afterwards - only men get to do that stuff.  No soul and no honor.

Today In E'Ville

Winter in the Virginia Piedmont is usually just gray and damp and dismal, so we don't get many of these - where it snows a good bunch overnight, and the next day it's crisp and clear and all sparkly (added extra special bonus - the power stayed on the whole time - yay, and thank you, Jesus).  I'll take as many of these as I can get.

Here We Go Again - Maybe

Are we ginning up another war here?  I think prob'ly not.  This looks a lot like the kind of theater that gets put on when you're trying to work some of the levers internal to some other country.

(hat tip = Democratic Underground)



Of course, you can always count on Droopy Dog Lieberman to pretend Congress has anything at all to do with setting Foreign Policy; and the Press Poodles on DumFux News will run with it, especially when they can bring on a right-wing jughead to talk shit about Obama.

But this actually brings to mind a different point for me.  If you look at Americans who're likely to support the Iran-Must-Not-Go-Nuclear approach, I'll bet ass-wipes to Benjamins that demographic is gonna match up almost perfectly with people who say everybody's a lot safer when everybody owns a gun.  When a neighboring country owns nukes and ballistic missiles, how is that fundamentally different from your next-door neighbor owning shotguns and assault rifles?

A Small Question

Lots of righteous indignation this week when Darryl Issa (R-Haugpecker) held a committee hearing on the non-troversy over Contraception Coverage, neglecting to invite any women to participate.

Outrage was voiced by the pundits along these lines: "How does Congress debate a Women's Health issue without any women!?!"

I guess I'm wondering why anybody would accept any debate in Congress regarding ANY policy issue that doesn't include women.

You make your point stick a lot better if you can at least make it look a little less obviously political.

Rollin' 'Em

Along the same lines as the recent  "issue" of contraception, Obama follows it up with Eric Holder saying DoJ intends not to defend a provision in the Veterans' Bennies law that denies benefits to same-sex spouses.

It's not clear to me that they're saying the VA will stop denying those bennies, it's just that if you're denied and you challenge, then DoJ isn't gonna put up a fight.  Not quite as good as I think it oughta be, but they have to make it look like they're at least trying to follow the law.  There're still problems with the whole Torture and Illegal Imprisonment things out there, but hey - I'll take smallish improvements where I can get 'em.

Anyway, add this one to Contraception (and let's not forget DOMA), and we've got something that's starting to look like a pattern.

Obama is aware that the attitudes have shifted.  People who went along with the Right Radicals on the Culture War crap, thinking they'd get something good in return, are seeing now that there wasn't any real payoff at all - it was a gyp.  The Culture War is the agenda, and what you get for your trouble is fucked with your pants on.

So Obama rolls merrily along.  Once in a while he tosses a big hunk of juicy red meat out the window, and we all get to watch as a smaller and smaller pack of increasingly vicious feral dogs tear into each other trying to get at it.

One other little thing occurs to me.  I think this is looking like Obama is finding his footing, and learning how to use his expertise in Constitutional Law to drive the politics necessary to move his policy agenda forward.  Remember the big stupid show the House Repubs made of reading the Constitution, and requiring that every proposed bill include Constitutional compliance / justification?  I think Obama has taken that in hand like a blackjack and is in the process of wailin' the shit out of 'em with it.  I dunno of course, but it's more fun to watch now than it was just 6 or 8 months ago.

One Of My Questions

People in Red States collect more from Washington than they pay in.  So how come the voters in those states are usually the ones who're always screamin' the loudest about what a shitty deal they're getting from The Gubmint?

(hat tip = Balloon Juice)

Both Sides Do It

But one side ain't been tryin' this shit.

First, take a tweet from an Obama staffer:

Then, ignoring the the actual content (not just the context) of the Milbank piece Messina referred to, pretend that it's the Dems who're insulting Latinos.

And guess what?  Because they never check on anything, the rubes will swallow it whole.  Another bit of "evidence" is manufactured and another "truth" is born.

(hat tip = Wonkette)

Uh-Oh

I've seen a lot of posts in the last several months - on Lefty/Progressive websites mostly - that put up quotes or video clips from some "conservative" or another saying something that seems to be outside the norm for what passes for conservatives these days; asking what's happening to the Right Wing?  Why do these guys sound kinda reasonable all of a sudden?

Judge Napolitano on DumFux News:


Some are saying it's because the freaks that have been created by Rush and Rupert over the years are now out of the lab and threatening the villagers, so the propagandizers are trying to walk it all back a little.  Or maybe it's because Roger Ailes knows how to read, and he sees the polling numbers are softening to the point of meltdown.

Why does a media conglomerate that has no qualms about identifying itself as a proponent of an ideology suddenly veer away from that ideology?  I dunno, but I really do hope it's something mundane like Ad Revenues or Voter Disgust instead of my own little paranoid visions.

It pays to remember that the bad guys don't show up looking like the bad guys.  That's how they get in.  Tyranny and subjugation always arrive draped in a flag, clutching the scared text.

US Senate tries again on SOPA and PIPA.

Michigan's Public Act 4

Women In Combat

The obvious question: Is this what DumFux News claims is their unbiased approach to reporting the news during the day, and saving all the commentary for the evening shows?



But really, at about the 1:50 mark, Lizard-brain Trotta decides that the American fighting man is so outa control; so totally lacking in discipline and professionalism that of course he's gonna rape somebody - how can he help it when them wimmins is right there next to a big ol' steamin' hunk of love junk like his own bad self!?!

Yo, rubes - if you "honor the troops" so fuckin' much, how come you think they're all a bunch of slaverin' dogs?

Liz Trotta has no soul and no honor.

We Are Maybe No So Fucked - Yet

Privatizing certain things is not in itself a bad idea.  If we wanna build a new highway, we contract it out to private firms - that way, we don't have the on-going expense of keeping that capability in-house (and often idle between projects).  We also prevent some of the use-it-or-lose-it rationalization that goes on.

But there's a huge difference between privatizing the building of the road, and transferring ownership of the road from Public to Private.

Here's Maude Barlow talking about water (originally aired 2002).  Interesting by itself, but what really struck me was the bit starting at about 8:00.  Big Water (soon to rival, and then possibly dwarf Big Oil) is making significant progress in privatizing public water in places where there are some pretty bad governments.  This looks like a good thing is happening, but if Bad Government is the justification for privatizing, then it simply will become imperative for Big Water to support corrupt regimes in order to maintain the potential for expanding their market.



SInce Barlow's talk, people have won some of the battles against Big Water, but commerce never sleeps - the efforts continue.  Now we're seeing a change in tactics (I think).  The push now is towards consolidation of water districts.  If a local entity transfers control of its water services to a larger regional authority (eg: what's being discussed in Asheville NC), it gets a little easier for the water company to work their magic on the coin-operated politicians they've helped put in office at the state and national levels.

Don't bet against human nature.  Greed is a powerful motivator, but a figurative thirst for money and power is nothing compared with the real deal.

Both Sides Do It

Except they don't.

(hat tip = Democratic Underground)

A Thought

Ideology is a worldview held in spite of evidence to the contrary.

RIP

I don't spend any real time mourning the death of any given celebrity - whether I was a fan or not.  I can feel a selfish loss because they won't be putting out anything new for me to enjoy and/or learn from and/or bitch about; and I can sympathize with their families and friends, but beyond feeling varying degrees of "disturbance in The Force", my life goes on pretty much the same.

What I don't understand is why there are so many meat puppets who seem to go outa their way looking for excuses to tell us all how stupid they are.

(at Little Green Footballs - this is not pleasant - viewer discretion is advised.)

I don’t even know what to say about this any more. There’s a real sickness running rampant in the right wing; the Fox News comment thread on Whitney Houston’s death is yet another disgusting deluge of outright racism: Singer Whitney Houston Dies at 48 | Fox News.

There are almost 5000 comments posted in the thread — these are from the first few pages. Notice that the racist bastards deliberately misspell their slurs or insert random spaces, so they aren’t caught by word filters. And many of the worst comments have numerous “likes” from other commenters.

The comments at the DumFux News site have since been scrubbed up a little.

(hat tip = Balloon Juice)

Just Askin'

The Right Radicals think they have a huge issue with Obama's decision to mandate coverage for contraception by all employers with more than a certain number of people working for them.  BTW, this is what's known as "enforcing the law".  I realize this is a concept a lot of "conservatives" aren't familiar with, but trying to get everybody to follow the law is actually the president's job description according to the US Constitution, which is something else "conservatives" seem not to be overly familiar with, even tho' they run their mouths about it all the fucking time.

Anyway, if you're saying there are some outfits that should be granted exemptions because of principles they believe in; that they should be free to make their own decisions; that they have a Right To Choose - you're arguing in favor of the Pro-Choice position.

Or are you saying the Corporation has the right to decide, but not the people working for that Corporation?  And isn't that just a slightly different way of saying you want the Government to step in and make the decision for everybody?

What a bunch of fuckin' phonies.

It Gets Better

Wouldn't it be nice if every LGBT kid knew he could call a cop who actually gets it - and knew that cop was ready to kick ass to stand up for him if it turned out that's what was needed?
(hat tip = Balloon Juice)

Communication

Words.....................10%
Tone and Inflection.....20%
Body Language...........70%

St George Of Carlin

...the sanctity of life?  We made the whole fuckin' thing up.

Obamacraft

I'm kinda all over the place when it comes to supporting and/or trashing Obama.  He got elected partly because he had that Keep-Hope-Alive thing goin' on in a way Jesse Jackson  only wishes he could've pulled off back in the 80s.  So it seemed like he was making a lot of promises that "Libruls" love to hear, and anyway, after 8 years of Junior's Play Time Cluster Fuck how can you not vote for a guy like Obama?  But what I liked about him was that he talked about getting things back into a more conservative alignment with the US Constitution - Habeus Corpus, Gitmo, Military Commissions, Wire Taps, Reality-Based Gov't, etc.  I think the main reason he's disappointed me on some issues is that he ran up against a tangle of interlocking bureaucracies and constituencies that went into warp drive because of 9/11, and have no regard for Separation of Powers or State Borders or anything else that's supposed to do the whole Checks and Balances thing.

So anyway, here we are, nearing the end of his 1st term, and Obama's been lambasted by Right Radicals for everything forever; and he gets slammed from his left for being The Evil Centrist, and now with this flap over contraceptives, a lot of the "Lefties" are pissin' and moanin' about "why did he have to go and give those asshole Republicans an issue they can use to rally the rubes!?!"

Look at the numbers (hat tip = JG):

"Giving them an issue" in this case means they're likely to jump up and identify themselves as loud-mouthed bullies who're trying to impose their minority viewpoint against the majority of voters.  And that's exactly what's happening.

And what about the timing?  I have to think Sebelius laid this little land mine on purpose.  She did it just a few days before CPAC, which almost ensures it'll be topic number one, which makes all the big oily turds float to the top of the punch bowl for all the world to see.  I just can't help thinking Obama is pulling a classic Isolate-And-Bypass maneuver on these guys.

Seems to me that while Big O is pulling the body politic back to the left (ie: towards the middle where it belongs), he's finding ways to get the right radicals to help him by pushing from their end as well.

Call me an O-bot if you wanna, but to me this looks like the guy is startin' to roll 'em up pretty good.

Punish The Do-Gooders

A high school girls' basketball team wore pink unies as part of a fund-raiser for Make-A-Wish and the opposing team's AD and coaches used the "violation" to try to gain a competitive edge.

From NE (Nebraska) Prep Zone:

Before the third quarter began, Columbus coach Dave Licari discussed the uniforms with the officials. State rules require the home team's uniforms to be predominantly white.

The officials then called a technical foul on Burke, and a Columbus player sank both free throws. The Discoverers went on to win 62-47.

Some people have no soul and no honor.  Order solely for the sake of order is exactly the kind of bureaucratic tyranny that everybody rightly hates.

Today's Pix

Saul Alinsky

And BTW: when somebody sneers about "Obama's just a community organizer", I've taken to asking a couple of clarifying questions.

Does it mean you're against communities in general, or just the ones that are organized? 

--or--

When you say "community organizer" like that, do you really mean "uppity nigger"?

A Shortage Of Surprise

The rubes have become extremely well-conditioned.

Somebody took this:

PhotoShopped it into this:

And got this:

Influential conservative blogger Erick Erickson of Red State retweeted a link of the picture that said, “why oh why did Mitt Romney pose for this picture.”

Then there's this:

Now when I say "the rubes", it apparently has to include people like Erickson and at least one guy in the US House Of Representatives - people I would usually associate with propagating this nonsense; who I have always figured for cynical manipulators.  But when it's evident that these leaders of the cult have totally abandoned even small vestiges of healthy skepticism, I have to think we've turned some kinda corner into a very weird place.

I wish I was surprised by this, but I guess I'm not because it seems like a simple progression to the logical extreme.

Today's Pix

hat tip = AG

hat tip = JR

Banks vs The World

Minor throw-back tho'ts of "fuck the French" and "those pesky Germans are at it again".  But really, it's all about who owns the decisions when it comes to the money.

Testify

Gotta love this woman.

Remember

Where'd They Go?

For at least the last 15 years, I've been casting about, looking for anybody still visible and still with some power in the GOP who isn't totally upside down and backwards on every issue I care about.  And it's not a big list, but I don't feel the need to line it out right now because that's not my point.

Here's my point:  If you're wondering why it's so hard to find a Moderate in the GOP, it's because they're all Democrats now.

The graph is from voteview blog.  The big take away seems pretty obvious.  Once you get past Truman and Ike, everything trends in the "Conservative" direction.

Bamboozled - Again

NASA has come out with a new study that shoots holes in the last of the deniers' arguments  - that Solar Activity is the main cause of Global Warming.

Take a look at what's up at the NASA website:

Hansen's team concluded that Earth has absorbed more than half a watt more solar energy per square meter than it let off throughout the six year study period. The calculated value of the imbalance (0.58 watts of excess energy per square meter) is more than twice as much as the reduction in the amount of solar energy supplied to the planet between maximum and minimum solar activity (0.25 watts per square meter).

"The fact that we still see a positive imbalance despite the prolonged solar minimum isn't a surprise given what we've learned about the climate system, but it's worth noting because this provides unequivocal evidence that the sun is not the dominant driver of global warming," Hansen said.

Add this to a growing list of issues about which "Libruls" were right and "Conservatives" have been lying to us.

Corporate Taxes
Climate Change

Theatrics

We can look at National Security and think in terms of 'stupid' or 'farcical' or 'tragic' or 'melodramatic' or whatever - all of those things are pertinent if trivializing, but even if we're trying to apply more clear-eyed, bang-for-the-buck criteria, we're still losing.  We've thrown trillions of dollars at the War On Terrorism, and we've stripped away every meaningful protection for citizens' rights under the US Constitution, and we've accomplished nothing but the illusion of security.  And in fact, we've established a state of order in which our liberties are guaranteed only as long as a cop is feeling generous at any given moment.

from James Fallows:

The British couple, shown below in a photo via ABC, got in trouble for a slangy use of the word "destroy" in a Tweet.

And in the end, we're getting a near-exact duplicate (ie; Epic Fail) of the War On Drugs where lots and lots of junkies and casual pot smokers are sent to prison while hundreds of thousands of tons of every conceivable street drug make it to every neighborhood in this country.

In the ten years of Homeland Security, where the fuck is the real evidence that we're under anything close to a level of threat that would justify either the time effort and money, or the abandonment of our principles?

This is horseshit and we need to stop it.

Shoulda Knowed It

DumFux News is fond of saying the US Corporate Tax Rate is the 2nd highest in the world (35%), getting the rubes to pretend that the debate can just stop there.

Well, the non-rubes among us know that the Tax Rate has no meaning if nobody ever pays at that rate.

So guess what - the 'effective rate' is actually down around 12%.  And, the amount of Corp Taxes collected as a percentage of GDP is the lowest it's been since 1972.

So, once again, the "Libruls" were right, and the "Conservatives" have been lying to us.

From the Rupert Street Journal - full piece is behind the pay wall.

hat tip = Democratic Underground

Just Cuz

I think it would be all totally awesome and stuff to have somebody in the US Senate named Mazie.

A Tough Call (updated)

...but it looks like I have to say something along these lines:  Nancy Brinker (Susan Komen's sister) can go fuck herself.

Politicizing a healthcare issue is bad enough, but using a lame excuse to politicize it as a result of Guilt By Association because some prick in Congress is abusing his power - that's as low as it gets.

It's never about what they say it's about - listen for the telltale signs from what Lizz Winstead says at the end of this clip.



Support Planned Parenthood directly with a donation now.

Update via The Atlantic:

Hammarley explained that the Planned Parenthood issue had vexed Komen for some time. "About a year ago, a small group of people got together inside the organization to talk about what the options were, what would be the ramifications of staying the course, or of telling our affiliates they can't fund Planned Parenthood, or something in between." He went on, "As we looked at the ramifications of ceasing all funding, we felt it would be worse from a practical standpoint, from a public-relations standpoint, and from a mission standpoint. The mission standpoint is, 'How could we abandon our commitment to the screening work done by Planned Parenthood?'" But the Komen board made the decision despite the recommendation of the organization's professional staff to keep funding Planned Parenthood. (emphasis added)

This fish stinks from the head down.

The Great American Sing-Off

Obama opens with a quick Al Green bit:


And then there's Willard:


If you feel moved, and you need to sing, then you should sing - but Dude, if you insist on doin' it in public, ya gotta remember there's a hard and fast rule from Karaoke Nite: If you're not Delbert McClinton or Joe Cocker, never EVER follow the black guy.








O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country lov'd,
And mercy more than life.
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears.
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

War Tech

(hat tip = JG)
From Wired Magazine:

The U.S. military has been after self-guided bullets for years. Now, government researchers have finally made it happen: a bullet that can navigate itself a full mile before successfully nailing its target.

Got me to thinking - sometimes dangerous, always obsessive - and just a few quick Googlies later:

Tweety Speaks

Matthews is almost always going on about the politics of it all, no matter what weird shit's going on.  Maybe I've just not watched him that closely, but I've never heard this from him before.



Seems to fit with this:

Bumper Stickers, Pix Etc

Hoping

Maybe the reason the GOP wingnuts are trying all this weird crap now is that they're feeling the heat from an electorate that's finally starting to wise up to their bullshit, and so they feel the need to push a bunch of stupid initiatives before voters throw 'em all out on their bony red butts.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch this morning:

Bill to require ultrasound before abortion advances

A bill that would require a woman seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound took another step toward passage in the Virginia Senate Monday — but not before outnumbered Democrats rose to express their opposition in clinical terms.
Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Fairfax proposed an amendment — that any man seeking prescription medication for erectile dysfunction must first submit to a digital rectal exam and cardiac stress test.

Virginia has grown more moderate politically over the last several years - Falwell's dead and Crazy Ol' Pat is fading fast, and the DC suburbs are gettin' bluer all the time - so, as their hold on power continues to wane, the last of the die-hard crazies are going back to the well just one more time.

Differences Can Be Legit

Evidence that 'conservatives' and 'liberals' see the world differently.

From BBC (hat tip = Democratic Underground).

Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are studying liberals' and conservatives' reactions to happy or pleasant photographs and scary or sad ones in an effort to learn more about the cognitive underpinnings of political preference.

Watch the video (no embedding available).

Out On A Limb

Obama gets blasted a lot from a lot of different directions.  I'm not gonna put up a list here because this is a blog, and I can say whatever bullshit I feel like saying, and I don't have to back it up or nuthin', so there.

Here's what I think is happening.  Right now, I'm kinda back to where it looks like Obama really is way out in front of us, and we're just starting to catch up with him.

The short version is this: When he "fucks up" - eg: no Public Option, Taxes vs Cuts, etc - he's not looking for everybody to shut up and go along with him (he's not Jr Bush for fuck's sake), he's looking for as many people as possible to stand up and holler and make him do what we want him to do.

So sign the petitions and call your Congress Critter, and send emails and...well, you know, PARTICPATE, you lazy fucks.  The guy can't do it all by himself.

Yikes

I really do try to stay positive, but this kinda thing keeps popping up and I'm right back to  thinking it's just not gonna end well.

Both Sides Do It

..but can you show me examples of this kinda shit coming from the Dems?

Both Sides Do It

...except when they don't.  The centrist meme is that Repubs and Dems are equally fucked up because they all engage in some kind of demagoguery or dirty tricks or whatever.  My own sense is that while there's a kernel of truth to it (at least in the Political Mode O'Day), when I look closer, one side is a quite a bit wackier, and a lot more authoritarian, and a boatload more likely to be totally batshit fucking crazy.

From Wonkette:

Arguably the worst person permitted to make laws on behalf of America, Tennessee State Senator Stacey Campfield, author of the “Don’t Say Gay”bill, recently took part in an interview on Sirius in which he not only defended his already nightmarish views on homosexuality and AIDS...

-snip-

"Most people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community — it was one guy screwing a monkey, if I recall correctly, and then having sex with men. It was an airline pilot, if I recall. My understanding is that it is virtually — not completely, but virtually — impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex…very rarely [transmitted]."

Also from Wonkette:

A RESOLUTION
Declaring 2012 as the “Year of the Bible” in Pennsylvania.

WHEREAS, The Bible, the word of God, has made a unique
contribution in shaping the United States as a distinctive and
blessed nation and people; and

WHEREAS, Deeply held religious convictions springing from the
holy scriptures led to the early settlement of our country; and

WHEREAS, Biblical teachings inspired concepts of civil
government that are contained in our Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution of the United States; and

WHEREAS, Many of our great national leaders, among them
President Washington, President Jackson, President Lincoln,
President Wilson and President Reagan, paid tribute to the
influence of the Bible in our country’s development, as
exemplified by the words of President Jackson that the Bible is
“the rock on which our Republic rests”; and

WHEREAS, The history of our country clearly illustrates the
value of voluntarily applying the teachings of the scriptures in
the lives of individuals, families and societies; and

WHEREAS, This nation now faces great challenges that will
test it as it has never been tested before; and

WHEREAS, Renewing our knowledge of and faith in God through
holy scripture can strengthen us as a nation and a people;
therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives declare 2012 as
the “Year of the Bible” in Pennsylvania in recognition of both
the formative influence of the Bible on our Commonwealth and
nation and our national need to study and apply the teachings of
the holy scriptures

Please, gentle readers, go out there and find something I can put in my little blog here that shows Dems or Indies doing anything even remotely like any of this. Tell me where to look.  Tell me what I'm missing.  Enlighten me.  Let's put it all side-by-side for a real comparison.

For all you centrists and all you freeloadin' poseurs who say "fuck 'em all, I refuse to take part" while the rest of us do all the work - try to remember that this is the shit we get when we don't pay attention; when we don't own our responsibilities as citizens.

And lastly, don't be fooled by the rhetoric of (mostly) the Repubs when they tell you we need to beat down the Federal Gov't and let all the power devolve to the states.  State governments are chock full of shit-heels like Stacey Campfield, who call themselves conservative, but are truly radical.  They don't want you to be free, they want you to be obedient.  They don't want reform, they want revolution.  And what is it they're likely to deliver to us if their revolution against American Democracy succeeds?

Confirmation Bias Update

Another great example.  Newt scores points in a TV debate by getting huffy with John King for asking a question he doesn't like - big points because the rubes in the crowd are well-conditioned to cream their jeans whenever somebody publicly spanks a Press Poodle.  Later, on CNN, King follows up and tells us Gingrich's campaign staffers confirm the story.

But it doesn't fucking matter.  The rubes don't watch CNN, and nothing they see on DumFux News is ever going to contradict their preconceptions.  It seems the Fox commentators have been instructed to slam Newt, but you're not going to see anything on their air that gives the rubes any reason to question the cult's orthodoxy of Fox Good; All Others Bad.

(hat tip = Crooks and Liars)

Differentiatin'

I've been watching politics for a while now, and one of things that's been hard to miss in the last 25 years or so is that Repubs and Dems are a lot more sharply divided.  (Brilliant observation, Mikey - please tell us more)  Right.  No news there, but the way it's evolved into the current depiction of GOP=Man, and Dem=Woman is pretty interesting.

It was there back in the 90s when the narrative was "Dad's the hard-working Republican who puts food on the table and protects the family, while Mommy is the Democrat who spends all the money."  We've heard that repeated in one iteration or another for what's getting to be a long time.  Hell, Ahnode Schvartzenbooger said it straight out when he called the California Legislature a bunch of girlie men.  It could be that the Dems now have a chance at turning it back on the Repubs.

So here's what we should all push the Repubs to ask of their candidates:  I'd like to see Gingrich shoot a few baskets, and I wanna see Romney throw a football.  Seriously, take a look at how these guys carry themselves some time and then try to convince yourself you're not thinkin' about the kid in grade school who always got picked last when you were choosing up sides for kickball - even if you do feel a little guilty when you're thinking it.

The point is that the rubes are so macho-centric, I'm thinkin' it won't take more than 30 or 40 seconds of Newt and Mitt playin' a little catch on YouTube to make sure nobody ever hears from either one of those buttheads ever again.

It's A Wonderment

In a democracy - Representative Democracy; Democratic Republic; Republican Democracy; whatever - shouldn't it actually be a good thing for the government to grow in size appropriate to the population?

In 1790, there were about 33,000 people for every Congress Critter in the House of Representatives.  Right now, every Critter "represents" more than 700,000 Americans.

If we're supposed to be self-governed; if the individual is supposed to have the power; then why do we insist on diluting that power by keeping the number of Reps the same while the population increases?  Every Critter "represents" 21 times the number of citizens now as they represented in 1790.  It may not be a straight 1-to-1 thing, but to me that means each Critter's power is something like 21 times greater than it used to be, and each citizen's power has gone down by 95%.

I don't like Big Government any better than I like Big Union, or Big Oil, or Big Anything - but if we simply go blindly along with this knee-jerk rhetorical aversion to 'gubmint', then we're delivering more and more power into fewer and fewer hands - which makes the government "bigger" in the only way that matters - thereby accomplishing the very thing we say we're trying to avoid.

It's a wonderment.