I love the fact that new-ish technologies are getting to be common enough (and easy enough to use) that people of not inconsiderable talent have good ways to let it all out.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Fire With Fire
From Dayton Daily News:
Before getting a prescription for Viagra or other erectile dysfunction drugs, men would have to see a sex therapist, receive a cardiac stress test and get a notarized affidavit signed by a sexual partner affirming impotency, if state Sen. Nina Turner has her way.I've lost count of the times some good smart Dems have stepped up and put themselves on the line over these issues, and I hope we can look forward to a lot more.
(hat tip = Democratic Underground)
Saturday, March 10, 2012
The Right To Free Speech
You have the right to speak freely. You have no right to demand a paycheck for it.
Speak your mind at the bar or at church or on the street corner, and you have a reasonable expectation to be left alone to say whatever you wanna say (within certain limits).
When you're being paid to speak, you have an obligation to stay within guidelines that your employer gets to draw. Stick to your script - get paid. Go off on your own, and you're on your own. And we wish you the very best of luck in all your future endeavors.
I'm not crazy about boycotts because they tend to hurt local business people (ie: neighbors) while leaving the big dogs more or less untouched. That said, I still think it's a really good idea for consumers to vote with their feet if they feel the need, and with their emails whenever they get a chance. Smart companies know they have to listen to their customers. They spend many millions every year trying to convince us they're in line with the trends they spend other millions trying to get us to tell them about. When we take a few minutes to sign a petition or send an email thru their websites or leave critical comments on their facebook pages, they notice.
So when Rush Limbaugh gets slapped around (finally) for being - for having been for a very long time - a complete punk-ass rent-a-con, what we may be seeing is a kind of self-correction; the immune system of the body politic at work.
I dunno, of course, but it looks a lot like cause and effect to me. Pay a guy to do something and that's what he does. Stop payin' him to do it and he's likely to stop doin' it.
(hat tip and inspiration = driftglass)
Speak your mind at the bar or at church or on the street corner, and you have a reasonable expectation to be left alone to say whatever you wanna say (within certain limits).
When you're being paid to speak, you have an obligation to stay within guidelines that your employer gets to draw. Stick to your script - get paid. Go off on your own, and you're on your own. And we wish you the very best of luck in all your future endeavors.
I'm not crazy about boycotts because they tend to hurt local business people (ie: neighbors) while leaving the big dogs more or less untouched. That said, I still think it's a really good idea for consumers to vote with their feet if they feel the need, and with their emails whenever they get a chance. Smart companies know they have to listen to their customers. They spend many millions every year trying to convince us they're in line with the trends they spend other millions trying to get us to tell them about. When we take a few minutes to sign a petition or send an email thru their websites or leave critical comments on their facebook pages, they notice.
So when Rush Limbaugh gets slapped around (finally) for being - for having been for a very long time - a complete punk-ass rent-a-con, what we may be seeing is a kind of self-correction; the immune system of the body politic at work.
I dunno, of course, but it looks a lot like cause and effect to me. Pay a guy to do something and that's what he does. Stop payin' him to do it and he's likely to stop doin' it.
(hat tip and inspiration = driftglass)
Friday, March 09, 2012
Significant If True
This could just as well be a hoax, but even if it is, it's fun to think that this is what the result of solid political action sounds like.
(hat tip = Daily Kos)
(hat tip = Daily Kos)
Where To Fight
It's good to show up at marches and rallies and protests and such - the meatspace is a very important thing. But cyberspace is where more and more of the good stuff is happening.
So get yourself up on facebook and whatever other interwebs thingies you can think of and make your presence known.
And remember that you can set up a facebook account under any alias or pseudonym you want - all you need is an email account, which can also be anonymous.*
Participate - democracy is not a spectator sport.
Bob McDonnell (aka Gov McVaginalProbe)
Robert Hurt (US House of Representatives - VA5)
Rob Bell (VA House of Delegates - District 58)
*facebook tries to prevent this, but it can be done if you're sensible about it.
So get yourself up on facebook and whatever other interwebs thingies you can think of and make your presence known.
And remember that you can set up a facebook account under any alias or pseudonym you want - all you need is an email account, which can also be anonymous.*
Participate - democracy is not a spectator sport.
Bob McDonnell (aka Gov McVaginalProbe)
Robert Hurt (US House of Representatives - VA5)
Rob Bell (VA House of Delegates - District 58)
*facebook tries to prevent this, but it can be done if you're sensible about it.
Presidents Speak
From way back when Repubs weren't just fingers in the mouth, jumpin' up and down crazy.
(hat tip = Crooks and Liars)
(hat tip = Crooks and Liars)
Ladies And Gentlemen - President Feckless
From the comments:
Mitt is funny. He's too chicken to stand up to Rush Limbaugh, and he calls Obama feckless? Mitt is an amorphous jellyfish who HAS no actual positions on anything. (I'm seriously starting to wonder if he sleeps in a bucket at night.)
Thursday, March 08, 2012
Oops
Attention: Doomsday Fans
Since the Mayan calendar made no allowance for Leap Year, today's date is actually July 28, 2013 - so the end of the world is now about 7 months overdue.
Good luck gettin' refunds for your Apocalypse Cruise or whatever.
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
The New Jim Crow
This is gonna be a tough one for a while, I think. I'm still not convinced Voter ID is anything more than the typical Solution-In-Search-Of-A-Problem. Especially when Dems benefit more than Repubs when more people vote, and that the GOP is almost always the side pushing for more restrictions on who gets to vote - so there's ample cause for suspicion.
Until somebody can show me real evidence of real Voter Fraud - and not the crap about a few random idiots who're just out to fuck with the system trying to get famous - I have to assume these laws are intended to keep people away from the polls.
(hat tip = Democratic Underground)
Until somebody can show me real evidence of real Voter Fraud - and not the crap about a few random idiots who're just out to fuck with the system trying to get famous - I have to assume these laws are intended to keep people away from the polls.
(hat tip = Democratic Underground)
Dubious Associations
Papa Bear says it perfectly at the end of the last clip.
(hat tip = Wonkette)
But don't forget to vote for Newt cuz he's gonna get us all the gas we want at $2.50 a gallon.
(hat tip = Wonkette)
But don't forget to vote for Newt cuz he's gonna get us all the gas we want at $2.50 a gallon.
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
Say What?
(hat tip = Crooks and Liars)
One of the great opening paragraphs of all time:
A coupla things that stand out for me - in keeping with the usual Repub habit of taking full responsibility for your actions, and then blaming everything on everybody else when your chowderhead policies take the economy into the shitter, just like everybody you're now blaming told your dumb ass they would.
First, at about 1:40, "the federal government failed to act". I tho't he told us the federal government was one of the big problems and that he wouldn't be needing them for anything.
Second, by about 2:00, he's flipped all the way over and starts reciting practically every point the evil libruls have always said were essential to a healthy economy, all of which Mr Walker has done nothing but deny and refute - basically, Education and Infrastructure and Living Wage Jobs.
Yo, Guv - if this where you were going anyway, then what the fuck have you been doing for the last 2 years!?!
One of the great opening paragraphs of all time:
Wisconsin is the only state that's been bleeding jobs for a straight six months, and the Walker administration is truly puzzled. Gov. Walker followed every single recommendation in the Wingnut Book of Corporate Wishes, resulting in a huge pile of manure, and yet he still can't find the free market pony. If only there was something he could do to change things - you know, things like go back in time and not lay off all those teachers and public workers whose spending helped stimulate the economy:
A coupla things that stand out for me - in keeping with the usual Repub habit of taking full responsibility for your actions, and then blaming everything on everybody else when your chowderhead policies take the economy into the shitter, just like everybody you're now blaming told your dumb ass they would.
First, at about 1:40, "the federal government failed to act". I tho't he told us the federal government was one of the big problems and that he wouldn't be needing them for anything.
Second, by about 2:00, he's flipped all the way over and starts reciting practically every point the evil libruls have always said were essential to a healthy economy, all of which Mr Walker has done nothing but deny and refute - basically, Education and Infrastructure and Living Wage Jobs.
Yo, Guv - if this where you were going anyway, then what the fuck have you been doing for the last 2 years!?!
Monday, March 05, 2012
Wait...What?
Most of the rationale behind most of the GOP's efforts to downsize government, and to cut spending, and to ease the 'tax burden' has been built around the basic tenet that "the government is broke" - especially the state governments. So Repubs have been runnin' around making a lot of the usual weird noise about how the voodoo bullshit of Tax-Cuts-Equals-More-Tax-Receipts isn't just a fever dream due to an overuse of Rectum-Derived Statistics (hat tip = Bill Maher).
Anyway, they keep saying they have to fire cops and teachers and firefighters and street maintenance crews, and kill the unions because those rotten unionized workers just cost too darned much. Every shitty thing they wanna do is because the gubmint don't got da money no mo'.
But then, this headline from Cincinnati.com:
The normal scenario here is that Kasich makes the news by "bucking the system" (he's a maverick; a take-charge guy; somebody who knows how to get shit done). Then once the news cycle has passed and the Press Poodles are chasing the next shiny thing, the feds will come in quietly - "let's not be playin' politics with people's lives, Mr President" - and things will go along as they usually do, even if the help is too late for a few of the poor suckers who're always caught in the middle of this kinda shit; and the only thing that anybody will see or remember or care about is what makes it into the campaign ads or the coverage of Candidate Kasich - that he handled the tornadoes of 2012 like a seasoned executive blah blah blah. And we can all be pleasantly surprised if the rubes don't just keep swallowing it.
Anyway, they keep saying they have to fire cops and teachers and firefighters and street maintenance crews, and kill the unions because those rotten unionized workers just cost too darned much. Every shitty thing they wanna do is because the gubmint don't got da money no mo'.
But then, this headline from Cincinnati.com:
Kasich turns down federal disaster aid
Ohio Gov. John Kasich said thanks but no thanks to immediate federal disaster relief Saturday, even as governors in Indiana and Kentucky welcomed the help.
Kasich did not rule out asking for assistance later, but his decision means tornado-ravaged towns in Ohio will not get federal aid now and are not eligible at this time for potentially millions of dollars in payments and loans.
The governor said Ohio can respond to the crisis without federal help and he would not ask federal authorities to declare the region a disaster area.Oh, I get it. The state's too broke to pay a decent wage to people who bust their asses to teach the kids and chase the bad guys and make sure the roads are safe, but there's plenty to go around when a camera hound like Kasich gets a chance at a little national exposure. And of course, this can't possibly have anything to do with setting himself up for a run at The Oval in 2016, now can it?
The normal scenario here is that Kasich makes the news by "bucking the system" (he's a maverick; a take-charge guy; somebody who knows how to get shit done). Then once the news cycle has passed and the Press Poodles are chasing the next shiny thing, the feds will come in quietly - "let's not be playin' politics with people's lives, Mr President" - and things will go along as they usually do, even if the help is too late for a few of the poor suckers who're always caught in the middle of this kinda shit; and the only thing that anybody will see or remember or care about is what makes it into the campaign ads or the coverage of Candidate Kasich - that he handled the tornadoes of 2012 like a seasoned executive blah blah blah. And we can all be pleasantly surprised if the rubes don't just keep swallowing it.
It's Not About That
It's never about what they tell us it's about, so when a Repub says "this is about...", you know you're gonna get a load of finely shredded and heavily composted mulch dumped right on top of your pea-pickin' little head.
In a weird way, this is NOT about contraception - but it's definitely not about big bad gubmint pissing on your faith either. It's about Repubs giving every business a chance to shitcan The Affordable Care Act for any stoopid "reason" they care to come up with over a few highballs after work. Notice that the attempts (eg: The Blunt Amendment) are all aimed very generically at letting employers opt out of practically anything they have "a moral objection" to. Fairly simple for the GOP to fit it in with all the other flimflam they get the rubes to swallow every time out. To wit: "I think this is socialized medicine, and I believe it's immoral to forcibly confiscate any of my employees' hard-earned rewards in order to pay for somebody else's abortions, or whatever ".
Stick to your guns, Dems. And somebody please tell Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to stop arguing about whatever these assholes want her to argue about and start looking for the real shit for a change.
In a weird way, this is NOT about contraception - but it's definitely not about big bad gubmint pissing on your faith either. It's about Repubs giving every business a chance to shitcan The Affordable Care Act for any stoopid "reason" they care to come up with over a few highballs after work. Notice that the attempts (eg: The Blunt Amendment) are all aimed very generically at letting employers opt out of practically anything they have "a moral objection" to. Fairly simple for the GOP to fit it in with all the other flimflam they get the rubes to swallow every time out. To wit: "I think this is socialized medicine, and I believe it's immoral to forcibly confiscate any of my employees' hard-earned rewards in order to pay for somebody else's abortions, or whatever ".
Stick to your guns, Dems. And somebody please tell Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to stop arguing about whatever these assholes want her to argue about and start looking for the real shit for a change.
Sunday, March 04, 2012
Stick to The Point
Lots of fury over the latest giant pile of steaming Limbaugh.
From Balloon Juice, mistermix posted a good one, quoting Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon:
Here's really the only thing that matters as far as I'm concerned:
There are many good reasons for women to have unrestricted access to "contraceptives", and while everybody's wellbeing is of some concern to all of us in a generic kinda way, what a woman chooses to do with her lady-parts is NONE OF MY DAMNED BUSINESS.
Ya want people to be left alone? Then try it sometime, ya fuckin' jerk.
From Balloon Juice, mistermix posted a good one, quoting Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon:
"Some women aren't even taking the birth control pill for contraception! They need it for cramps/endometriosis/etc."
Every time you say this, a right winger wanting to imply that women who have sex for pleasure are sluts gets his wings. This statement and all variations on it feeds into the right wing claim that a) contraception is not health care and b) that women who have sex for pleasure are so indefensible that you have to lean on off-label uses for a contraceptive drug to justify its existence. It also does absolutely nothing to defend the non-pill contraception that's covered by the health care act, such as IUDs or sterilization. Plus, that gives them an easy out, which is to say that they're fine with insurance covering pills that are prescribed for non-contraception use, but just object to prescriptions for women who use them to prevent pregnancy.It's one of the debate tactics that "conservatives" use all the time - first, they claim you agree with them that women are always and only either Mary Mother of God, or that they're always and only Devil-Fuckers. And second, that since you agree on the first point, then you're encouraging woman to have sex with Satan. And that means you're the one who is "anti-woman".
Here's really the only thing that matters as far as I'm concerned:
There are many good reasons for women to have unrestricted access to "contraceptives", and while everybody's wellbeing is of some concern to all of us in a generic kinda way, what a woman chooses to do with her lady-parts is NONE OF MY DAMNED BUSINESS.
Ya want people to be left alone? Then try it sometime, ya fuckin' jerk.
Friday, March 02, 2012
Spotlight Virginia
It seems The Old Dominion is one of the big battleground states for this election cycle, so here we go again, kids - the heat is on.
I've joined Team Obama as a campaign volunteer, and I'll have a table set up for Voter Registration at Kelly's Corner between noon and 4 tomorrow - assuming they don't run me off. Let's just say it wouldn't surprise me to find out that lots of people in this part of the county assume it's illegal to be anything but Republican.
Anyway, one of the marquee races this time is between George Allen (R-Macaca) versus Tim (The Chubby Leprechaun) Kaine (D-Happytown).
Thought I'd give you a friendly reminder about ol' Georgie boy:
This could be fun.
I've joined Team Obama as a campaign volunteer, and I'll have a table set up for Voter Registration at Kelly's Corner between noon and 4 tomorrow - assuming they don't run me off. Let's just say it wouldn't surprise me to find out that lots of people in this part of the county assume it's illegal to be anything but Republican.
Anyway, one of the marquee races this time is between George Allen (R-Macaca) versus Tim (The Chubby Leprechaun) Kaine (D-Happytown).
Thought I'd give you a friendly reminder about ol' Georgie boy:
This could be fun.
And There It Is
The exposure parade continues. Sec'y Sebelius tries to explain to US Rep Tim Murphy (R-Brainfart) how contra-ception works, but he can't hear what she's saying because God is stomping around in his head, making too much awesomely righteous noise up there or some-damn-thing.
(hat tip ThinkProgress)
One last thing: according to Ayn Rand, (approx - The Fountainhead) "...evil is when a man sees the truth - recognizes it for what it is - and denies it."
(hat tip ThinkProgress)
SEBELIUS: There also is no abortifacient drug that is part of the FDA approved contraception. What the rule for preventive care…
MURPHY: Ma’m that is not true…Is the morning after pill or something like that an abortifacient drug?
SEBELIUS: It is a contraceptive drug, not an abortifacient… It does not interfere with a pregnancy. If the morning pill were taken, and a female were pregnant, the pregnancy is not interrupted. That’s the definition of abortifation.
MURPHY: Ma’m that is your interpretation, and I appreciate that’s your interpretation.
SEBELIUS: That’s what the scientists and doctors…
MURPHY: We’re not talking about scientists. Ma’m we’re not talking about scientists here, we’re talking about religious belief. Ma’m, I’m asking you about a religious belief. In a religious belief, that is a violation of a religious belief.And there it is. Science doesn't matter. Fact doesn't matter. Reality doesn't matter. If truth goes against my religion-fueled ideology, then truth must be dismissed and ignored and condemned.
One last thing: according to Ayn Rand, (approx - The Fountainhead) "...evil is when a man sees the truth - recognizes it for what it is - and denies it."
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