Conservative says Tea Partyers are "irrational" and "ignorant"

http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2011/01/05/bruce_bartlett_on_tea_party_monumental_insanity/index.html

Bruce Bartlett is a historian whose résumé includes stints as a domestic policy advisor during the Reagan administration and a Treasury official under George H.W. Bush. 

Money Quote: The problem is that the Tea Partyers are nuts. That is my point. They are irrational, they are ignorant, they don't know anything about financial markets and they think that they are standing up for God and the balanced budget.

OK, I'll stop

(hey, you see George Will said Sarah Palin is unelectable?)

ok, stopping for real.  

How you like Scott Brown now, right wingers?

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/us_senate/index.html?story=/news/feature/2010/12/18/dont_ask_dont_tell_repealed

I remember hearing his election was a watershed moment for turning back progress (or progressives as you call them) but it looks like America will join the rest of our allies in letting gays serve openly in the military instead of in secret. 

Rollins has problems with Palin too...boy they're coming out of the woodwork now

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/12/01/rollins.palin/index.html?hpt=T2

 Ed Rollins, .... He was White House political director for President Ronald Reagan and chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Taking our ball and going home or We really aren't serious about all the deficit reduction talk that got us elected

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101201/ap_on_go_co/us_democrats_lame_duck_politics




So, these tax cuts that have been in place for years didn't stop 10% unemployment and the worst recession since the 1930s, what proof is there that extending them won't prolong a shitty economy, it didn't prevent one.

A middle finger from Jesus

It's clear that Palin can't even teach the slightest amount of decorum to her own children (oh yeah, and stop them from getting pregnant when they're 16 and living under her roof) but she's going to tell America how to live (Why is the right so ok with a Palin being an unwed teenage mother, they hate that stuff when it's poor people or minorites). See the other daughter's anti-gay rants on Facebook from last week. Clearly they stay on message when there are handlers around for People Magazine interviews, but off the cuff the reality comes out.


CLASSY

Just like Jesus said:

Palin, 20, the daughter of conservative politician Sarah Palin who reached the finals despite get low judges' scores for six weeks, said on Wednesday that prayer had got her through the controversy, which included an anthrax scare on the set.

"It is faith that got me through this and just praying all the time and just relying on God and knowing that He is on our side and we'll get through this," Palin told People magazine.

But in a comment on Tuesday's broadcast, Palin said winning the contest and the glitzy mirrorball trophy "would be a great middle finger to all the people who hate my mom and me."

The Queen of the Tea Party holds court on our North Korean "allies"

This woman wants to be President, (even though she's afraid of Katie Curic...imagine how scared she'd be of someone like Putin)


These words are sheer genius...thanks for the insight (even if she can't form a complete sentence)...I guess this is all Bush's fault...he had 8 years and did NOTHING about N Korea, right?

Sarah Palin is asked by Glenn Beck on his radio show what we should do about the current North Korea crisis:

“Well, North Korea, this is stemming from I think, a greater problem when we’re all, you know, sittin’ around askin’, ‘Oh, no, what are we gonna do,’ and we’re not having a lotta faith that the White House is gonna come out with a strong enough policy to sanction what it is North Korea is gonna do, so this speaks to a bigger picture that certainly scares me in terms of our national security policy, but obviously some stand with our North Korean allies we’re bound to by freedom; we’re also bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies. And to my North Korea, well, we’re not gonna reward bad behavior and we’re not gonna walk away and we do need to press China to do more to improve pressure on North Korea.”

As the Tea Party begins it's journey toward continued irrelevance

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/11/17/how-gm-ipo-proves-the-tea-party-wrong.html





http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/11/17/5483303-ap-calls-it-for-murkowski

Rubio just another GOPer

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/11/14/20101114rubio1114.html

 

The other day, when I pointed out the utter failure of most big name Tea Partiers on election day, my old Bushie buddy, who now fancies himself a tea partier, he claimed Rubio was a signature win.  This article makes the point I attempted to make, but much better. 

Juan William doesn't know what "censorship" is?

Juan (who's had the quickest most lucrative firing in the history of broadcasting) claims that his firing by NPR was censorship.  Shouldn't a journalist know what censorship is?  Saying things that piss of your employer causing them to fire you is THE FREE MARKET, it's not censorship.  His words weren't censored by a government he was fired for saying something stupid "I think all Muslims are terrorists".  That's dumb and probably not something a person should say if they want to keep their journalism job.

But the Fox Right Wing Nuts are having a field day, but I wonder why when they were screaming for Helen Thomas to be fired for commenting on the foreign policy of a country (remember she never said "Jews scare me", she spoke about Israel's foreign policy) they didn't care about free speech then?  Why silent when Rick Sanchez was fired?  When  Peter Arnett was fired for speaking out against the Iraq war...they didn't care then.

It seems to me that the Fox/Right Wing/GOP stance is Free Speech only applies to saying shitty things about Muslims.  But you damn well not say anything bad about Israel or a Republican politician.

Freakin hypocrites.

The best the GOP has to offer?

This is the best the GOP has to offer? You'd think the Republican nominee for Senate would be at least casually familiar with the 1st Amendment, especially when she's always wrapping herself up in the document.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miwSljJAzqg&feature=player_embedded

Seriously, what is it with the "tea party" candidates. Paladino in NY. You've got the fake Doctor in Rand Paul, The Thug up in Alaska using the military to detain American Journalists on American Soil at public events, California's tough on immigration candidate who employs illegal immigrants, crazy lady in Nevada and the most sad of all, O'Donnell in DE.

Seriously is the the best the GOP has to offer? This group of clowns will be the further undoing of the GOP. At least Rove had the balls to say that about O'Donnell. No Republican can think this is good for the Party.

My (humble) review of "Let the Great World Spin" Colum McCann

I'll start by saying I don't feel qualified to "review" a book like this, don't have the training, the education or well-read enough. I don't even read a lot of Modern fiction, but I've read everything McCann has published, except "Zoli". So, I'm very much a fan of his writing.


Also, I think many of us like to believe we have a book or two in us, especially when you see what passes for writing these days and even more so when you know who gets book deals. I know I've thought, "Maybe I could do this", but then you read a book like "Let the Great World Spin" and realize "I could never do THIS". It's just so well done that it makes you not want to attempt it because you know you could never achieve something like this even if I had the discipline to start and finish the effort.

This book is extremely well-written as are McCann's other books. I've always loved his descriptions of everyday things and scenes, he does in a way that make images so vivid and real but without cliche and in such a manner that you've heard before.

What captured me most about this book was the creative and inventive story-telling. Sometimes the genius of the story-telling made me pause and I had to leave the narrative to contemplete the brilliance of the ideas within the story. To sit up and say "jesus, that's brilliant". I loved the characters, even when I didn't "like" the characters.

It is one of those books where you wish there was more because you enjoyed the journey so much you don't want it to end.

Why I'm still not buying a Kindle

Recently read an article complaining about prices for new eBooks and how publishers had become greedy and were running the risk of putting off adoption. This is a great example.

An electronically delivered eBook costs next to NOTHING to produce, no printing costs, no transportation, virtually zero storage costs (probably less than a penny for server storage space maybe???), yet this book is only 80 cents less than the hardcover book. A book I could later sell and even if I only got a $1 for it I come out ahead.

I don’t buy the idea that I’m going to pay for the privilege of carrying around a Kindle instead of a real book, even if I can carry 25 books on it (how many books do people read at a time anyway?).

Until publishers get less greedy, out of principle I could very well put off my purchase of a Kindle

Cover Songs

I think I rant about this from time to time, but it's apparently important to me.  COVER SONGS.  I love a great cover song and I've been putting together some rules about music in general (10 year statute of limitations for ALL bands for example) for the folks at work, but the Cover song rule is easy. 

MAKE YOUR VERSION OF THE SONG YOUR OWN.

This was brought home most recently in the course of a day in listening to Sirius in the truck.  Exhibit A- Devo's version of "Satisfaction".  Not my favorite cover song, but I"m not a big Devo Devotee (ha) but that song is their own.  it is the epitome of a great cover song.  They made a Stones Classic into their own.  It's recognizable which is part of it, but making it their own ...damn it it sounds like a Devo song.  You know it's Devo, not jsut from the voice, but the whole sound.

Exhibit B- 10,000 Maniacs Doing "Because the night" a near note for note cover indistinguishable from the Patti Smith version.  WHY FREAKING BOTHER?  Is it to prove you can read music and simulate the exact notes and sounds of another artist...NO ONE CARES.  In fact, this version of the song has made hate 10kM since the time I first heard it.  You wanna hear exact copies go listen to Mini Kiss. 

Other great covers that come to mind, that fit my rule above.  Anthrax doing "London" (The Smiths),  "Sweet Dreams by Marilyn Manson (Eurythmics), Johnny Cash doing "Hurt" , and pretty much any cover song that Dwight Yoakam ever did. And "All along the Watchtower" by Jimi goes without saying (yet, there I said it).

So damn it "artists" don't show us how you can copy another's song exactly, do something with it.  Hell if I was a record company executive I'd never let some of that crap get released...too lazy and a waste of vinyl.

Fox's lies reverberate through ill-informed masses

from a tweet @markos 1/3 think Obama raised taxes. 50% think they stayed the same, only 8% think taxes have gone down. Only 8% are right. http://is.gd/fctct

Change in plans for the right wing fringe...and a chance to give Beck/Palin even more money

Now that the book burning is called off, you can give some more money to multi-millionaires,Beck and Palin as they profit off the deaths of 3000 Americans.


Again, they have MORE than the right to do this, but it's pretty crass and shows what Palin and Beck are really about. Selling the fear they generate to make even more money. Classy. These are the leaders of your party. Good show.


Palin, Beck team up on 9/11 event

(CNN) - After a wildly successful rally on the National Mall, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are teaming up again - but this time for a cost.

The two conservative rock-stars are set to appear together in Alaska on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks in an event that costs a minimum of $65 to attend.

"We can count on Glenn to make the night interesting and inspiring, and I can think of no better way to commemorate 9/11 than to gather with patriots who will 'never forget,'" said Palin on her Facebook page earlier this week. "Hope to see you there!"

But in sharp contrast to the free event in Washington last month, tickets to this latest Palin-Beck affair run as high as $225 – a price tag that some Democrats are making hay about given the somber timing of the event.

But Christopher Cox, the Anchorage-based promoter of the event, told the Anchorage Daily News the date is purely coincidental and was originally scheduled for a week earlier.

Trying to figure this out

So according to the right wing fringe, Obama is a Muslim, but 2 years ago he was unfit to be President because of his 20 year relationship with a "crazy, racist" Christian minister.

He's also an idiot, who can't form a sentence without a teleprompter, but he also orchestrated the downfall of Capitalism and the American Republic and instituted an entire new economic system of Socialism in 18 months.

I wish the right wing fringe would stick to a narrative longer than a few minutes. I know it's not confusing to the mental midgets that comprise the unruly mob, but for anyone with a brain it seems a bit disingenuous. Kudos to the puppet masters at Fox for knowing that facts and consistency don't matter in riling up the masses so they have no qualms about being inconsistent...they know their audience isn't that bright.

the Palin/Beck/Gingrich army

i wonder if those on the far right will continue stoking the Anti-islam fires until someone gets murdered. Palin, Newt and the rest should be proud that they can bring out this behavior in their minions.

Sad day in America

While we all know that far right fringe that is running the GOP these days has long since abandondend any sort of adherence to the Constitution (save Amendment #2), but it was shocking to see the hatred expressed over weekend in NYC by the anti-Islamic groups (anti-freedom is more like it). Did it not remind you of protests in the south in the late 1950s? Those times in the fifties are looked back on with shame by most Americans and this anti-muslim/intolerance/abondonment of Bill of Rights rhetoric will also be a source of shame in years to come. But for now, it seems ok that that's even more shameful (Did you know...Gov. Faubus was included among the "Ten Men in the World Most Admired by Americans", according to the Gallup Poll for 1958...per Wikipedia).

Sarah Palin and her ilk will be looked on with the same shame in coming years. Shame on her and shame on Fox news for stirring up this hatred of all Muslims...Shame. Our forefathers, the real Tea Party, are rolling over in their graves right now at this dispicable use of their cause and their name to justify this intolerance.

If only reality was part of the right wing's knowledge base

I know the basic fundamentals of the issue are not known to the right wing nuts, so I thought I do him the service that Sarah Palin’s Facebook posts and Glenn Beck aren’t doing.

Prayers have been going on at this site for nearly a year…

and

The "Ground Zero Mosque" that we have been and will be hearing so much about is not exactly a mosque, nor is it at Ground Zero. Here's why: you can't see Ground Zero -- the former site of the World Trade Center -- from the future site of the Cordoba House.

From 45 Park Place, the former Burlington Coat Factory building that will make way for the Cordoba House, it's two blocks, around a corner, to get to the WTC site. Park Place doesn't lie between the construction site and any mass transit stations, so you would need to go out of your way to have it offend you.

In addition, the building planned for 45 Park Place is a cultural center with a prayer room -- not a single-purpose house of worship for Muslims, which is probably what we should reserve the word "mosque" for. As Haberman also explains, "That it may even be called a mosque is debatable. It is designed as a multi-use complex with a space set aside for prayer -- no minarets, no muezzin calls to prayer blaring onto Park Place."
The 92nd Street Y, on which the Cordoba House is explicitly modeled, has a whole host of Jewish events take place inside of it, but no one calls it a synagogue. There's no good reason why Cordoba House should be misleadingly called a "mosque." I've been guilty of using this word too, in conversation and in writing, but it's inaccurate. Muslims already read the Quran and pray at 45 Park Place, but that does not and will not turn it into a "mosque."
There's one more catch for the opponents of the so-called Ground Zero mosque: by the same logical leap you can call the Cordoba Center a "mosque," you can also call Ground Zero as it already exists a giant, open-air mosque. Muslim prayers are already taking place right on the edge of the construction site, and not for world domination. Families are going there to pray -- for the souls of the dozens of innocent Muslim victims who died on September 11.

White, Straight, Christian Males are apparently the ONLY group in America that has never shown any bias

Just proves again (from the bashing from the right wing nuts) that anyone who is not White, Straight or Male has to "explain" or prove that they will overcome their "inherent bias' in not being Straight, White and Male. Straight White Males (and Christian too) are not asked to prove that they won't favor their own demographic in their rulings, but everyone else is (Can you imagine if a Muslim was nominated for the Supreme Court???). When Sotomayor was being confirmed she had to prove she wasn't biased toward hispanics because of her heritage, while Sam Alito was praised for his Italian heritage during his confirmation.

As we all know Straight White Males have never had any biases in the history of America.

It just shows how this country still believes that straight white and male is the "normal" state of things and anything else MUST be explained.

Why wouldn't a straight judge be biased toward his own sexuality? A question that would NEVER even be asked, but for a gay judge...





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gay judge has proven record of impartiality
ON U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE VAUGHN WALKER
February 09, 2010
Vaughn Walker almost lost his chance to reach the federal bench because of claims that he was anti-gay and hostile to civil rights. Two dozen House Democrats, led by Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, opposed his nomination because of his alleged "insensitivity" to gays and the poor. His first appointment, from President Ronald Reagan in 1987, stalled out in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
His nomination was renewed by President George H.W. Bush in early 1989.
Back then, Walker struggled to assure skeptical liberals that, as a judge, he could rule with impartiality even though he had represented the U.S. Olympic Committee in its successful effort to prevent an athletic competition in San Francisco from being called the Gay Olympic Games. He was harshly criticized for putting a lien on the home of a gay-games leader who was dying of AIDS. Walker insisted that he was not anti-gay and was only doing his best to serve his client.

Walker also was under fire for his membership in San Francisco's all-male Olympic Club. He resigned during the nomination process, which helped cement his confirmation.
Those who understood the distinct roles of lawyer-advocate and judge recognized that a person of ethics and fidelity to the law could separate his or her personal views and experiences from professional duty.
Today, at age 65, Judge Walker is presiding over the challenge to Proposition 8, which may well determine how quickly gays and lesbians achieve full marriage equality in this country. We now know what Walker never bothered to reveal when he was being castigated as anti-gay: He is gay, which changes neither his legal history nor his fitness for this assignment.
A judge's sexual orientation does not inherently shade his ability to read and interpret the U.S. Constitution with clear-eyed wisdom. Assuming this case advances on appeal, no matter how Walker rules, there almost certainly will be jurists who will need to set aside their religion's teachings - and, quite likely, the impact of their ruling on close friends or even a family member - as they do their utmost to uphold the meaning of the Constitution.
Walker did not think his private life was relevant to his ability to preside with fairness in the Prop. 8 trial. There is nothing in his long and laudable career to suggest otherwise.

Why doesn't the media's love affair with Palin include some actual Journalism?

I know we all just love to her about how the great Alaskan quitter has witty quips about Obama or tells us that the AZ governor has balls (is there a citizen without a radio or tv show in America that gets more positive press than this woman? The right wing media even turned her into hero for being the parent of an unwed teenage mother), but why do we never see any journalism investigating some of her claims?

http://www.politicususa.com/en/palin-steals-500-million

Palin’s Phantom Pipeline Steals $500 Million from Taxpayers

Some of that pesky truth you'll never hear on Fox

Deportations have soared under Obama administration

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38548026

Statistics put together by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University show that more illegal immigrants were removed from the United States during the first nine months of this fiscal year than during the same period in 2008. That is when Republican George W. Bush was in the White House and his administration controlled Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In fact, the number of those ejected from the country between Oct. 1, 2009 and June 30 of this year is nearly twice as much as it was in the same period ending June 30, 2005.

During the first nine months of the fiscal year, TRAC, using Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, figures that 136,714 "criminal aliens'' were deported. That same figure in 2008 was 85,334.

Did you also know that when Brewer first decided the Immigration was going to be her go-to relection issue she DEMANDED Obama send 250 additional troops to the AZ border, Obama responded by sending 524 plus additional border agents. THEN she has continued to have the balls to get on Obama for not doing enough, even though he did TWICE as much as she wanted.

Why does Newt Hate America's religous freedoms and the Constitution?

I know the Former Speaker thinks that Saudi Arabia should be the model for America's policy in re: Religous Tolerance (although I assume their take on Adultery I assume he has less in agreement with), but why does a man who has made a career out of deriding the East Coast Liberals in New York be so concerned about a community center?

HYPOCRISY

I can't wait for the "apology" blaming his words on our stupidity for hearing them

the head of the GOP is a little unclear on what America's been doing in Afghanistan for the past 8 years

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/07/obama-gop-rival-michael-steele-in-hot-water-over-afghanistan-comments-1/1

I can't wait for the retraction where he "apologizes" for everyone being too stupid to actually listen to the words that came out of his mouth and realize that he didn't mean that, but the exact opposite. (I apologize for anyone who misunderstood me...it will go)

Even after he chalks this up to miscommunication, shouldn't the head of the party be better at communicating?

Utilizing the Fox "News" standard for climate analysis

Considering whenever it snows during December in Minneapolis Fox and the rest of the anti-science crowd like to use that to "prove" that global warming is bunk, I'd like to submit the same standard of concrete proof of global warming.

Here in Phoenix, AZ at 9:52AM MST- the temp is 101 degrees. Yesterday's low was 82, the high 110. More of same today, with high of 110 predicted.

Another reason why American don't like Soccer

Adding to my points about how Americans don't like the faking and the falling down that happens way too much in Soccer, I've got to add that referee's have wayyyy too much power. I was watching the Australia-Germany game a few days ago and the AUS star gets a red card on a tackle where he had actually drawn his legs back up in order to avoid contact. Yet, some other time a much more aggressive foul didn't even result in a foul forget about a card. The fact that a referee has unreviewable power to force a team to play a man down at any time is stupid and I don't think Americans like that as if violates a sense of fair play. Aus wasn't going to beat Germany, but playing a man down helped give GER two more goals.

And the red card with all it's inherent power is used too much. ON that same day, Sunday maybe, all three games had a red card. I guess it's one thing to kick a guy out for a flagrant foul, but for his team to play down the rest of the game is too much of a punishment, especially with the subjectivity of what action results in a Red Card.

It's almost like the Republicans have been watching the Democrats on how to screw up politically

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100617/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_bp_s_ally

Imagine the outrage if a Democrat apologized to the head of a foreign company...that was destroying American's property and likelihoods with no end in sight. Idiocy so egregious that even the far right wing of the GOP was outraged at his stupidity.

Although I absolutely love that he claims that the entire world "misconstrued" his words as an apology, even though he used the words "I apologize". He even said he didn't want to live in this country (you know Rush would be spinning it that way).

In classic political apology fashion, he didn't really apologize for what he said or did, but only to those who "misconstrued" his words....ASS

Right Wing Media breaks FOUR YEAR OLD STORY...

Again, one can be against illegal immigration, but I feel I must shed a little truth that you probably won't hear from Fox as it doesn't fit the talking points. 1- The Sherriff quoted is from Pinal County which is NOT a border county, but he has become a poster boy for the right on the issue because the Sheriffs of the border counties don't support the AZ legislature's recent laws, as they believe it does nothing to help them or WORSE harms their efforts at law enforcement. (It's telling that the quote about crime on the border quotes only from a sheriff whose county isn't on the border, no?) 2- The park in the story was closed 4 YES FOUR YEARS AGO. Yet, this headline screams "recent events", otherwise why is it a "news story"??? 3- Violent Crime is AZ is at historic lows: "According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the violent crime rate in Arizona was lower in 2006, 2007, and 2008 -- the most recent year from which data are available -- than any year since 1983. The property crime rate in Arizona was lower in 2006, 2007, and 2008 than any year since 1968."
Additionally, "FBI Uniform Crime Reports and statistics provided by police agencies, in fact, show that the crime rates in Nogales, Douglas, Yuma and other Arizona border towns have remained essentially flat for the past decade"

Again, people can be against illegal immigration on it's own merits without distorting the reality of the situation. Despite what you may have heard, those of us in Arizona are not locked down in our houses in fear.

It would be nice if both sides had a little more respect for the truth and reality of what's going on here.

Finally, here is a FWS press release clarifying that the Park is NOT closed and points out that violence in the less than .02% of the park (yes 99.98% of park is open) is down significantly since 2006: http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/arizona/buenosaires/PDFs/USFWS%20MediaAdvisory%20BorderRefugeRemainsOpen%206%2016%202010.pdf

Seattle cop punches women in face

This story has everything.

This is the kind of solid defending of the public well-being that gives pissed off cops the "justification" to demand your papers in Arizona. Thank God, this officer was protecting the citizenry of Seattle form the scurge of jaywalking.

Chuck will no doubt join with the Union's position on this, he always seems to side with Police Unions when cops are doing something bad like Punching Women or shooting unarmed teenagers. Ironic considering his recent call for the elimination of unions, no? (I remember once in Portland where a cop let a felon get away because he was too fat to stop him and chase him as he ran away from the patrol car WITH handcuffs on. The office who weighed about 300 pounds was vigoursly defended by the union despite his inablity to do a very basic and simple policing task like running.)

Finally, what kind of solid individual punches a women in the face? Is that the kind of mentality you want in a peace officer? It takes a special kind of mindset to punch a women in the face.

It's interesting that the women who "grabbed" his arm is charged with "Assault", yet simply because he wears a badge he gets to punch women in the face. if that had been her boyfriend/husband he'd be in jail right now. Nice hall pass.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/06/16/police.jaywalker/index.html?hpt=T2

Former 'Family Values' CA Legislator Ashburn Comes Out In Favor Of Gay Rights

How many members are there in this club? The one comprised of Republican/"Family" values politicians and Religious leaders who spent their careers doing everything they can demonize gays and deny them basic human rights only to be gay themselves. I'm not psychiatrist, but i'm guessing it has to do with some sort of self-loathing they feel for what they really are. It seems the most vehement often are most likely to be trying to cover up their true selves. It's sad b/c they've been told "it's wrong" so they go to the extreme to prove their bona fides with the anti-gay crowd and deny what they are.

In my own experience, it's the ones who appear to be least secure in their own sexuality that seem to be the most outwardly homophobic (I mean that in the literal sense of "feaful" of homosexuality).

We manipulate ...you decide

watch the whole video...both versions

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/24/fox-obama-applause-speech/

This is why the "right" is so woefully ill-informed. It's not their fault, they really think Fox is a news organization.

Here you can watch Stewart catch them to it too

http://www.examiner.com/x-15870-Populist-Examiner~y2010m5d24-Cadet-applause-missing-from-Fox-News-video-of-Obama-West-Point-speech

This is what passes for rational thought among the right

A friend made a comment on FB that stated that illegal immigration in AZ had resulted in a "Massive Crime". I responded that crime is down DRAMITICALLY over the past 4 years while illegal immigration is suposedly exploding. Violent and property crimes down to levels from the 60's and 70's.

Another person responded, first conceeding that this was accurate and then claiming the proof that illegal immigration caused the "massive crime" was b/c the falling crime rate was not falling as fast as in other parts of America.

So, according to the logic of the right "massive crime" waves can be defined by historically low levels of crime, but those historically low levels not being lower...that is "massive crime". How exactly do you have a rational discussion with someone who "thinks" like that?

YOu can oppose illegal immigration on it's merits, you don't have to rely on hyperbole and outright lies to make the case. Although, I didn't realize that all those Canadian widow snowbirds living in Sun City overstaying their visas were such a crime risk, nor the Russian Software Engineer working beyond her H1-B visa. But i guess that's what they're saying.

Arizona...like 1950's Alabama with less humidity

So, the summer of Insanity in AZ continues with AZ banning "ethnic studies". Does this mean that AZ schools can't teach about Columbus Day, St. Patrick's Day? In fact, the way I read the law it would seem that most history would be banned, like how do you teach about WWII without bringing up one ethnic group versus another.

i can blog from my Droid

See

"Drill baby drill" crowd: Care to comment?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/29/louisiana.oil.rig/index.html?hpt=C1

All the Republicans were for drilling off shore...off someone else's shore. No one wanted it off their own coast. I wonder what the Drill Baby Drill crowd will say about this. This ain't going to help the cause. I guess we can ask Governor Bobby how he feels now. For that matter, ask Obama.

Supposedly 70% of Arizonians support new immigration bill?

Got this an email about the Rasmussen Poll from a teabagger.


I wish you'd make up your mind on polls. When they show that most Americans support a Public Option for health care it's irrelevant, when most Americans support a women's right to chose, it doesn't matter. When polls show that a vast majority of Americans feel that George W. Bush's unnecessary war was a complete disaster, "we dont' run the country by polls". But as soon as one support you, you're Mr Populace. I wonder what the polls showed in Alabama about segregation in 1950. (In a statewide referendum in Alabama in 2004 to remove the segregation in education language, long since Unconstitutional, from the Alabama Constitution changing the language LOST...yep 6 years ago. Arizona's racism is directed toward Latinos.)

it's clear from the most vocal supporters of this measure that they don't know what it entails. It's is legalized racial profiling. BY DEFINTION. If the purpose is to stem the tide of illegals from Mexico by definition it means that cops will be pulling over latinos and asking for their papers. They sure as hell won't be asking for Canadians who live here in the summer to verify their visa status. They won't be asking Russian software engineers to show their H1-Bs.

if the governor is serious about not tolerating racial profiling, she's completely made the law useless because without racial profiling you can't very well be checking the status of every brown skinned person in Arizona. COnsidering 30% of Arizona is hispanic that's a lot of innocent people who need to verify their right to be where they are for the arbitrary whims of cops. It also makes that 70% approval number very suspect.

SO, if the police pulled you over as you walked down the street, could you PROVE you're here legally? Your driver's license doesn't prove shit, so you're ready to go to jail or will you be carrying your passport and birth certificate with you.

Again, all you good Teabaggers are always bitching about freedom but that "freedom" only applies to white, Christian, straight people. if it's the government screwing gays or dark skinned people, that's not about freedom b/c they're not really "americans" are they?. Really, is it America where we ask people to show their papers for no other reason than they look Mexican. (What does a person with an expired visa look like? What does a person with a Green Card look like? What does an American citizen look like?)

Oh yeah, and the Arizona Police Chiefs Association said this will do NOTHING to impact illegal immigration, it will make their jobs harder and take resources away from stopping real crime.

Remember when ARizona wouldn't pass the MLK Jr. holiday? It took the NFL saying they wouldn't hold the Super Bowl here any more to get them to overcome their racism. Racist state laws are bad for business and for a state that depends so heavily on tourism, it will be the reality that racist laws impact tourism that will cause a change.


Finally, I know you hate the Constitution but:
Under the Constitution's "supremacy clause," the Constitution and federal law trump state law. Article 1 of the Constitution, which spells out Congress' powers, specifically gives U.S. lawmakers authority to establish a "uniform Rule of Naturalization" and to regulate commerce with other nations.

Arizona...national joke

My old Bushie aquaintance says that the new AZ law doesn't allow police to demand their status unless they believe a crime has occurred, but in a fantastic case of circular logic, the crime they need to be suspected of is being illegally in the country.

Oh if that were only the case.

The crime you speak of is that the person looks like they don't hold US Citizenship, a visa, are a refugee, an asylee or otherwise vaild reason to be in the US? How exactly can you tell that from looking at someone? I ask you. In fact, the law REQUIRES that police ascertain whether the person is in the country legally. REQUIRES if there is suspicion (again, how can you guess a person's citizenship/visa status from looking at them?)

I don't know why I keep making this mistake, but I thought that for all the talk about Obama's socialist government and "intrusiveness" and "freedom" that you might be offended by cops pulling any person for them to prove that they are a citizen or have a visa, but I often forget that the "Freedom" you speak of is The freedom of White, Christain, Straight Men to be free from paying taxes while sucking at the government teat without the slightest acknowledgement of their own hypocrisy.

Actually, you might want to put that on a sign and carry that at the next Tea Bagger rally.

Welcome to Arizona...a little taste of Johannesburg circa 1979

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/19/arizona.immigration.bill/index.html?hpt=T2

How would I prove my immigration status if I got pulled over? Am I to carry my birth certificate with me?

Is there anything more totalitarian than having a police officer demand "your papers"?

The sanctity of marriage

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/15/larry.king.divorce/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Pro-Christian bias in the MSM

Despite all the right fringes constant catterwalling about how "Christians are always under attack", the reality is much different...as usual. In case you needed more proof of the Mainstream media bias toward Christians and a gripping fear at offending them, notice that this terrorist group (of Christians) has not once been called a Terrorist organization nor have I even heard the words "terrorist" mentioned in reference to them. You can be DAMN sure that if this was a Hindu/Muslim/Buddhist group or Individual they'd be called a "terrorist" in every article and not a "militia" with all its Constitutional referenced romance. if these charges aren't terrorism, nothing is: seditious conspiracy, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, teaching the use of explosive materials and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence. Shameful.

Yet when that guy lost his shit at Fort Hood he was instantly branded a terrorist based on his name not the reality of that guy's past as a pissed off loner(Don't believe me? You can read the article in Esquire about Ft. Hood http://www.esquire.com/features/fort-hood-shooting-0310?click=main_sr from last month that tells the story that Fox "News" ignored)

More good news

Obama on his way to fixing Bush's recession

(the incendiary subject line just to get the base fired up)



Manufacturing growing at fastest pace since ’04
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36131832/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/

__________________________

WASHINGTON, April 1 (UPI) -- First-time claims for U.S. Unemployment Insurance benefits fell for the fifth consecutive week, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday. Claims fell by 6,000 to 439,000 last week, and in the past five weeks they've dropped by an average of 12,000 per week. The U.S. jobless rate remained unchanged at 9.7 percent. State statistics lag one week behind the national report. The biggest increases in claims for the week ending March 20 were reported by Illinois with...


___________________________

Dow average up for fifth straight week as oil tops $85 a barrel
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks on Thursday started the second quarter on an upbeat note, with oil and other commodities rallying as economic reports from the U.S., Asia and Europe combined to lift hopes of a global recovery.

Greenwald on another right wing hypocrisy

How today's "Conservatives" love big government

From the Libertarian Party Press release about the current CPAC summit going on today

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 18, 2010

Contact: Wes Benedict, Executive Director
E-mail: wes.benedict@lp.org
Phone: 202-333-0008 ext. 222

Libertarians criticize CPAC conservatives

WASHINGTON - As the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) holds its annual conference, Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict offered the following statement:
I'm sure we'll hear an awful lot about "limited government" from the mouths of CPAC politicians over the next few days. If I had a nickel every time a conservative said "limited government" and didn't mean it, I'd be a very rich man.

Unlike libertarians, most conservatives simply don't want small government. They want their own version of big government. Of course, they have done a pretty good job of fooling American voters for decades by repeating the phrases "limited government" and "small government" like a hypnotic chant.

It's interesting that conservatives only notice "big government" when it's something their political enemies want. When conservatives want it, apparently it doesn't count.
• If a conservative wants a trillion-dollar foreign war, that doesn't count.
• If a conservative wants a 700-billion-dollar bank bailout, that doesn't count.
• If a conservative wants to spend billions fighting a needless and destructive War on Drugs, that doesn't count.
• If a conservative wants to spend billions building border fences, that doesn't count.
• If a conservative wants to "protect" the huge, unjust, and terribly inefficient Social Security and Medicare programs, that doesn't count.
• If a conservative wants billions in farm subsidies, that doesn't count.

It's truly amazing how many things "don't count."

Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh can't ever be satisfied with enough military spending and foreign wars.

Conservatives like Mitt Romney want to force everyone to buy health insurance.

Conservatives like George W. Bush -- well, his list of supporting big-government programs is almost endless.

Ronald Reagan, often praised as an icon of conservatism, signed massive spending bills that made his the biggest-spending administration (as a percentage of GDP) since World War II.

Some people claim that these big-government supporters aren't "true conservatives." Well, if a person opposes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, opposes the War on Drugs, opposes border fences, and opposes mandatory Social Security and Medicare, it's hard to believe that anyone would describe that person as a conservative at all. Most people would say that person is a libertarian (or maybe even a liberal).

Obviously, most liberals don't want limited government either. It's just that their support for big government leans toward massive handout and redistribution programs.

The fact is, liberals and conservatives both want gigantic government. Their visions sometimes look different from each other, but both are huge. The only Americans who truly want small government are libertarians.
An article posted at CNS News, linked prominently from the Drudge Report, noted that the Obama administration is on track to beat the Franklin Roosevelt administration in terms of average federal spending as a percentage of GDP. However, the article failed to note that the Reagan Administration already beat the Franklin Roosevelt administration easily. Roosevelt's average was 19.4 percent of GDP, while Reagan's average was 22.3 percent of GDP. (Source: White House OMB data)

Bush thought this guy should be in charge of protecting the Homeland

Bush’s Homeland Security Nominee gets 4 years: (I wonder if he looked into his soul like he did Putin’s)

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18/kerik.sentence/index.html?hpt=T2

Oh yeah, he’s Rudi Giuliani’s BFF

Fox is really good at propoganda

Main Entry: pro·pa·gan·da
Pronunciation: \ˌprä-pə-ˈgan-də, ˌprō-\
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin, from Congregatio de propaganda fide Congregation for propagating the faith, organization established by Pope Gregory XV †1623
Date: 1718
1 capitalized : a congregation of the Roman curia having jurisdiction over missionary territories and related institutions
2 : the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person
3 : ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause;"

I guess I always knew that Fox was very effective at getting out their message, but just recently it hit me when I heard the same exact talking points made by two ardent Bushies who've never met and live on other sides of the country and who use Fox as their only information source. The level of hypocrisy was astounding as they complained about Obama doing things that George W. Bush did 3x worse. Complained about "transparency" in the Obama administration...really they did. Yet, 2 years ago they defended Cheney's secrecy about everything AND the wiretapping of every Americans' phone. THEY DEFENDED THAT. They were complaining about Obama NOT undoing the very same things that Bush did that won their praise.

These people are educated, with advanced degrees in fact, but the amount of critical thinking they leave to Hannity and Beck to do for them is amazing. We often ask how could a populace follow lockstep with some of the great atrocities in human history perpetrated by dictators, but what Fox does is little different in terms of how they achieve this suspension of critical thinking. Only the scale is different, but I have no doubt with very little effort they could incite their minions to violence.

They will regurgitate items that Beck/Hannity have made up, that have no basis in fact and when presented with evidence and data it makes no difference...they've accepted the words of their leaders unconditionally. Truth and reality have no place in their minds. They can hold opposite opinions about the same exact behavior depending on who engaged in that behavior. The Fox news treatment of the Christmas underwear bomber was the perfect example...it was the same exact thing as the Shoe Bomber. Yet Fox uses that to prove that Obama is soft on Terror, but the Shoe Bomber was proof that Bush was awesome on terror AND NO ONE who prays at the Alter of Ailes bats an eye. AMAZING. How do you reason with someone like that?

Hero of the far right fringe turns out to be a terrorist

I know the Foxies are unaware of this story b/c Fox is ignoring it, but one of their heroes turns out to be a terrorist.

For years we've been hearing about how terrorists will work to destroy the communications infastructure in AMerica. I just didn't expect this attempt to interrupt the communications of American Government would be at the hands of one of the Right wings most beloved soldiers.

You can be damn sure that if Michael Moore was caught trying to mess around with the telecommunications equipment at the Capital the connection to terrorism and interrupting communication would have been thrown around freely.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35083861/ns/politics-more_politics/

Shameful...

So, much for that radical socialist agenda. His actions in this area seem to indicate he's more like BUSH III than some crazy liberal.

Shameful silence from the media...again

more proof that the media is not only NOT liberal but shameful in it acquiescence to the right wing in its ongoing turning a blind eye to the horrible things that happened under the Bush administration.

http://www.slate.com/id/2241948/

But hey, if 38 people show up at a Glenn Beck incited tea party, you can bet that every network will be there.

Republicans depart further from reality

Both parties have their share of crazies, but as the GOP dwindles in numbers it also seems to dwindle in sanity and rationality. I keep hearing how Palin is some sort of Republican paragon of virtue. Honestly? That’s the best the GOP has to offer? I wonder b/c besides Palin, the only other people I hear from on the right are Hannity, Beck and Limbaugh. Convinced that ACORN stole an election in upstate rural NY where the GOP acted like the Democrats with it’s ridiculous infighting that cost it a seat it’s held for 130 years? Where does that “belief” come from, it’s not from any sort of factual analysis.

All sanity seems to have evaporated. I can see lots of reasons to be against whatever the latest version of the health care bill is, but comparing it to the holocaust? Death Panels? A sane party would discuss reality, not just shout “Socialism” and “Nazism” (at the same time…say wha?).

The part that makes me worry most for your party is that there doesn’t seem anyone from the grown-up rational thinking part of the party is willing to speak up for sanity, reason and real principles. (It’s really hard to take people seriously who claim that providing health care to the uninsured is the end of America and the most egregious affront to civil liberties in the history of America, when those same people shouting this drivel were completely silent, nay full supportive, of a GOP’s adminstration’s policy of tapping the phones of every American and holding Americans without consul indefinitely).

The NY23 debacle shows that the radical fringe of the GOP has no tolerance for any sort of moderation. It just seems that unless some principled and rational members of the Republican party steps up that the GOP will continue it’s march toward ridiculous fringe party. For all the silliness of the Democrats, they have never let the far left vegan/PETA/ecoterrorist/ fringe element run the show. It seems to me that the far right Eric Rudolph wing is in full control of the GOP and I just can’t take you guys seriously any more.

Appears the terrorists have defeated the right anyway

Ridiculous

I really believe that if Barack Obama ran into a burning building and saved the lives of a dozen children there would be an uproar from millions of Americans decrying the horrific Federal intervention into the lives of everyday Americans.

NY 23

It seems to me that the far right overplayed its hand in District 23. Honestly, it’s something you’d expect from the Dems. Obviously the GOP has some internal issues right now. For all the apologists claiming that this didn’t show a civil war in the party, there were twice as many rightwingers talking about how Sozzafava was a “Faux_republican” or Republican in name only. Which seems to make the clear case that the far rightwingers “running” the party these days feel there is no room for a moderate voice…I’m sure that surprises no one. But for all the talk of the big tent of diverse ideas, the very notion of disagreeing to the slightest degree with the far right will result in your ouster.

It’s fine with me, b/c this further proves how far out on the fringe the GOP is these days. And they are leaving millions of “centrist” Republicans with nowhere to go. They’ll either stay home on election day or vote for Democrats or third party candidates (that’s a good thing). In the meantime, the Far Right fringe cost the GOP a seat in the House it hasn’t lost in over 125 years. That takes SOME doin’.

Well played.

rebranding, opening up new markets

I was going to crack wise about how they need the money so they’re stepping up the marketing and branding. The bankruptcies and events that led up to them haven’t really been great for recruitment.

But I read an article and it’s clearly about money because they are going let them keep their own customs/rules. They’ll be Catholic “in donations only”

Pope Benedict XVI approved a church provision that will allow members of the Anglican church -- known as the Episcopal Church in the United States -- to become Catholics while maintaining many of their distinctive spiritual and liturgical traditions, including having married priests.

The Married Priest thing seems like a pretty big deal in terms of changing doctrine.

LeGarrent Blount might be reinstated

First, I have moved into the space where I believe WAYYYY too much was made of this. It is still the talk of college football a month later, while the Michigan guy who punched a guy on the field during the game got no mention. The ranting has diminished, but that first ten days it was talked about non-stop. A guy smacked talked and got punched…OMG the end of sports in America. He acted like a tool afterward indeed; do you know how many baseball fights there have been since this? Did the world end? Did a baseball player even get suspended for acting crazy and having to be restrained? NOPE.

Right now Blount’s punishment is the same one Dante Stallworth got from his league. That seems a bit out of whack to me.

Frankly I don’t care if he comes back or not although I’m partial to the notion that UO should stick to their punishment. He’s still got a future in the NFL if he keeps his act together. If he sits out this year and does well in the NFL, the university did the right thing. If they re-instate him and he does something dumb in the next couple of years and/or flames out in the NFL the University looks bad. I think letting him practice and go to school for free is a good compromise.

That's impossible, this doesn't happen in America...

Yes, I’m an old man and I have a rheumatologist, but I was on their website today and this is what it says:

Team Structure of Care at AARAA chronic shortage of rheumatologists exists
throughout the US. In most practices, waiting times for a new patient to
see a rheumatologist is 2 to 6 months, and many rheumatologists struggle to meet
the needs for follow-up care of existing patients. The shortage is projected to
worsen over the next 20 years.

How can this be? Americans don’t wait for Medical Care, that only happens in Communist dictatorships like Canada and France. That's what Republicans keep telling me.

BloodPhones?

Sound and Fury and Complete Bullshit

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090720/ap_on_go_ot/us_health_care_overhaul

I absolutely love the RNC and GOP tactic of just screaming “Socialism” at every thing they don’t like, even though they seem to love Stalinist moves like wiretapping every American without a warrant and arresting people and locking them up with judicial review. But again that was then this is now (Like how somehow it’s awesome when Sam Alito talks about how his judicial decisions are formulated against growing up poor and Italian, but 2 years later if you’re Hispanic it’s somehow a crime…Why has no one mentioned Alito’s bias towards Italian-Americans in Ricci? Why? Double standard? Racism? Or just plain politics?...speaking of Ricci I am fascinated how this has become “her” decision in the ignorant Right-leaning media that America lives under. A decision that was decided in trial and her court unanimously upheld (meaning they found no errors in their reaching their decision), then 4 Supreme Court Justices agreed with her court’s decision. Somehow b/c of the way one SC Justice voted she’s now some idiot or has a bias. Shameful)

But that is not my major problem with this “discussion” on health care as overly simplistic as they make it out to be. It’s this fallacy that today in America “you and your doctor” are the only people who decide your care. What a bunch of crap. There is already someone in between you and your doctor and that is a profit motivated bureaucrat in some office in Hartford. I’m not saying that I want a government bureaucrat making medical decisions, but if I’m going to have someone in the middle (and we ALL do today) I guess I would rather have the person who doesn’t have a financial incentive to deny me care.

I have a pretty good plan here, but numerous times I’ve had to jump through ridiculous bureaucratic hoops to get care. I’ve had prescriptions written by MY DOCTOR refused by my health plan and told to try something else, not a generic version for which I have no problem, with but a different drug altogether. So, let’s stop this false dichotomy of today it’s “Me and my doctor” vs tomorrow it’s “Me and the government”. Because unless you’re paying for your healthcare out of your own pocket you’ve already got someone with a financial incentive to minimize your care in between you and your doctor.

All socialism is created equal, just some is more equal than others.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/21/house.dealerships.closures/index.html

Panel member Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said his concern goes further than
that.

"Every day I guess I get a little more concerned about what the
administration is doing in regard to the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies. It seems
to me that literally the administration is declaring war on capitalism," Smith
said.

So, this stalwart of Capitalism is going to use CONGRESS to re-open unneeded dealerships that the auto companies decided should be closed. I guess they’re all for capitalism and the free market when it happens to someone else (say Michigan), but not in my backyard. Like many senators tried to do with the funding of 7 more F22s that the military doesn’t want or need, fortunately, most took their head out on that one and common sense prevailed. But hey if a plane is made in 44 different states it’s almost impossible to stop making more even if the Military doesn’t want or need them. Everyone is for capitalism and common sense unless it hurts their chances for re-election….IDIOTS ALL. To paraphrase Orwell. All socialism is created equal, just some is more equal than others.

So obvious

Robinson's comment here is so engrained that I never even really thought about it, but it is totally how politicians (especially white male Republicans) view the world:

Reaction to the Reaction

I'm not shedding a tear today for Michael Jackson. Firstly, I was never a fan of his. I certainly grew up during his heyday, but when I was younger I was listening to Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Stones and the like. Although, there was a period of time when it seemed like you had to pick Michael or Prince, I went with Prince. Not so much b/c I thought he was a musical genius when I was 16 years (although clearly he is), but b/c he was not Michael Jackson. I watched "Thriller" on MTV, what choice did I have, it was on a loop, but I attended Prince's Purple Rain concert, and never bought a MJ album or CD. Prince was the "freak" back then, but in later years that turned around didn't it?

The tragedy for me, is that a 50 year old man died why before he should have. I feel for his friends and family as I would with any stranger who dies at such a young age.

Much like when Princess Diana died, or Kurt Cobain I really don't get how people lose their minds over someone they've never met. I often look at these people and wonder if they carry on in such a way when their grandmother died, I wonder how much of the outward grief is for public consumption and a sense of commandeer with other mourners (Look at me, I'm like you, we are emotionally ravaged by the death of a guy I didn't know and never met). It all seems like so much theater to me, and it's not just Jackson fans, it's whenever something like this happens. I wonder how much of this is mourning the loss of their youth instead of a guy they didn't know. What is missing in their lives that causes them to so closely "identify" with a stranger?

I know that some of his work was good, maybe great. "Off the wall", "Thriller" and some of "Bad" are great. Some great songs, but he wasn't a revolutionary, maybe not even an evolutionary artist. Sorry. He was a great entertainer and dancer. I still remember the day after he Moonwalked on National TV, it was the talk of my suburban/rural central New York school the next day. It was an event, but it wasn't a musical revelation...it was a dance move. I don't even know the song he was singing when he did it.

His contributions to Music Video are undeniable. He made MTV in the 80's, but you have to wonder how lasting that contribution to the arts is when you consider that MTV and VH1 don't even play music videos any longer. The form is all but dead. Is "Thriller" a great song without the video? Is "bad"? No doubt he had other great songs ("PYT", "Wanna be startin' somethin'"), but he should be remembered for his contributions to Videos which is huge, where his contributions to music are less.

I read poll yesterday where the question asked was Jackson the "greatest pop star of all time". Besides being a flawed survey geared toward people with no sense of history, the other choices were The Beatles or Madonna. I would have voted for the Beatles, but what about Sinatra or Louie Armstrong or a host of others with longer and more influential careers? Even if you go for straight Pop Star cred, Madonna's career as a relevant artist is longer than Jackson's as he has turned into a Late Night TV joke and resided there for the past 15 or 20 years. He's tabloid fodder, not even an entertainer any more.

He sold more albums than anyone else, no doubt. He was a music sales machine, but sales/revenue has never been the standard for artistry. Otherwise Brittney Spears would be one of the greatest "musicians/artists" ever. Michael didn't invent Pop or even expand the genre very much. His whole deal is just a continuation of the work of James Brown and others who came before. James Brown invented genres of music, while being the consummate entertainer. Michael entertained, but simply followed the path Brown set for him and others.

Jackson was a man so seemingly ashamed of his blackness that he did everything he could to radically alter his appearance turning himself in a grotesque caricature. While Brown was singing "I"m black and I'm proud" Jackson spent untold monies on erasing the image of that kid who sang in the Jackson Five.

Sitting her today with ESPN on, I keep hearing about how magnificent he was. First, the strained effort to make this into a sports story is just annoying and second...it appears everyone has forgotten about the past 15 years of his life. Like it didn't happen.

This is my memory of Michael. Outside the Moonwalk and the videos, my thoughts are most about weirdness. Bubbles, John Merrick's bones, charges of molestation, Emmanuel Lewis, Neverland Ranch, buying the Beatles catalog and selling the songs for commercials, huge amounts of debt, dancing on Limo roofs in his pajamas and of course the mutilation of his face. This is the legacy he left. You can't ignore the charges against him and even his own creepy answers about sleeping with little boys. Dancing to a funky beat doesn't absolve him of that, despite everyone seemingly forgetting that in the past 24 hours.

Look, I'm sorry he's died. I don't hate the guy, but I always thought he was overrated and the Canonization of the man I've seen for the past 24 hours is disturbing. The post is about the reaction to his death. He was a great entertainer, he didn't change music but you can't ignore all the other things just b/c he's gone now.

All that said...RIP Mr. Jackson

Democracy come from the people...

Things are going well in Iran for Democracy. People are rising up, that is how DEMOCRACY comes to power. If Iraq proved nothing else, it proved that you can't force democracy upon a nation with the guns of another country. Freedom and democracy come form the people and the PEOPLE are doing the rising up in Iran. Let the Iranians focus on changing there government, that is what they are doing. The current Iranina government would LOVE nothing more than for America to get involved so that they can turn the populace against an outside enemy (fortunately, the "Bomb Iran" faction of the GOP didn't get their way, b/c if they had this would not be happening). Don't believe me? Ask yourself, after America was attacked on 9/11 did you worry about petty partisan bickering ? No, you didn't. You focused on the common enemy.

If America tries to interfere here, they create the common enemy that all dictators need to keep power. America should keep it's collective mouth shut and the the PEOPLE of Iran determine their future. Iran has a growing young secular and westernized population, theocracy was not going to last forever and let's hope the time has come for moderate voices in Iran to carry the day

Let's hope he overplayed his hand with stealing the election

It seems that Iran has a large part of the population willing to take to the streets and challenge the Islamist fanaticism the controls many countries in the region. As I've told my wacked out Bushie "friends" that attacking iran is exactly what the government wants b/c it would turn sympathy toward the government against a common Western enemy. I strongly believe that iranians are capable of taking their country back from the zealots. They are a secular population who doesn't want to live under the yoke of religous tyranny...in time Iran's young people will take the steps themselves to rid the country of the zealots.

My hope is that the government has gone too far this time for the citizens of Iran.

methinks Obama's less bellicose tone is winning the hearts and minds against extremism

In Pakistan
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31267869/

And Lebanon:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-11-voa53.cfm

NCAA stupid...again

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/31245888/


Don’t get me wrong, my disdain for Alabama is right up there, just below Notre Dame. But this penalty seems a little harsh, it’s not like they shaved points or used ineliglbe players. As usual, the arbitrariness of NCAA penalties is on display. It doesn’t even rise to the level of bad oversight of the program, short of having a member of the Athletic Department walking around 24/7 with every scholarship athlete, who do you monitor this behavior?

NCAA atheletes can get DUI’s and beat up their girlfriends and the NCAA is silent, but get an extra textbook and they bring the hammer.

And don’t forget this is the group that brings you the BCS every fall.

More Right Wing Extremists and their defenders

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/feature/2009/06/10/dhs_report/index.html

It's funny to me that Republicans are so terrified of putting untried "enemy combatants" in Super Max prisons in the US next to other terrorists, rapists, murderers, cannibals, pedophiles, etc. BUT if you call out domestic terrorists, who are killing today in our streets, they defend those groups...Interesting, no? Playing to the base, maybe?

Is the Supreme Court going to say the creepy science teacher can force your teenage daughter to take of her clothes?

This is most disturbing. Who exactly could support this? Obviously the Left would not support such behavior, Libertarians wouldn't want it.

ON the Right? Well, the right wing is constantly going on and on about how incompetent the public education system is, how lazy teachers are, what a bunch of losers they are. They just had all these tea parties. YET, are they going to claim that these same people who are incapable of teaching Johnny to read are capable of stripping their daughters down and inspecting them for Advil? What exactly is so time urgent that law enforcement couldn't be called in. Honestly, if you think some kid has a weapon or weed in his ass or in her cooch, a call to the local PD while the alleged culprit sits there in full view of the staff is unreasonable? They can't wait 10 minutes? A call home to Mom and Dad?

What happens when the new 24 year old assistant principle decides that Suzy looks like she's hiding something, so he takes her into his office and makes her disrobe? Really? Is this Saudi Arabia? Can he do a cavity search too?

I see no defensible position to school adminstrators ever forcing children to take their clothes off. No reason that is so urgent, parents and law enforcement can't be called.

I can't wait for the next 8th grade teacher caught with her student to claim that she is just conducting a strip search for Tylenol. Fuckin A.

If Texas secedes can they take some other states with them?

here's a classic:

To sum up briefly:

You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get Bill Gates. You get Ken Lay.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs.You get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to make the red statespay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro choice and anti war and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home.
We wish you success in Iraq and hope that the WMDs turn up but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.With the Blue States in hand we will have firm control of 80% of the country's fresh water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the nation's fresh fruit, 95% of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90% of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the US low sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and SevenSister schools plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States you will have to cope with 88% of all obese Americans and their projected health care costs, 92% of all US mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, RushLimbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory, 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.
We're taking the good pot too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

How is hating America so much being a Patriot?

Can you imagine the outrage if Michael Moore or anyone for that matter suggested seceeding from the Union? Seriously Chuck (and the Governor of Texas), you lost the election, a democratic election. obama didn't invade America and impose tyranny...in fact he has returned America to a place where the President believes laws and the Constitution apply to him, not like his predecessor. The Constitution is safe, safer than it has been in 8 years since Bush determined he was not bound by it's "quaint" provisions.

What a bunch of whiny hypocrites. Their silence while Bush arrested people and held them without access to the judicial system (IN THIS COUNTRY), tortured people overseas and held secret meetings that would have made any despot proud. Now all the sudden they've got religion again and remembered what "Conservativism" used to stand for, but as usual they make up shit and get all hysterical in their overreaction to actions that they accepted up until Jan 21st.

Shameless, igornant and hypocritical. Pathetic.

GOP grandstanding

I absolutely love how the GOP is turning a report on Domestic Terrorism into political hay. After years of anyone left of Sean Hannity being called a terrorist and someone who "Hates" America all while they did everything they could to fire up the right wing masses with their anti gay, anti-immigrant, shit, anti-everything not "American Enough" and xenophobia. Creating the very groups this report talks about. While doing NOTHING to support America's veterans, not providing adequate health care for Injured vets and extending tours 2 and 3 times while guys lost their minds..NOW these hypocritical assholes are going to wrap themselves up in "the Military" b/c some of them might come home and join the right wing groups. HOLY SHIT what an absolute bunch of hypocrites. Since when is calling out possibilities of threats to America UnAmerican? Since when are neo-nazi's and their ilk people we defend? Even on the "Right".

Especially ironic is a quote from an AZ state Rep who said the memo was like the worst propaganda put forth by Germany in the 1930s. Besides the blatant stupidity of such a hysterical statement, but I bet the irony is lost on our good man in his quest to further fire up the very groups mentioned. To criticize a document that says Neo Nazi's are a possible threat by comparing that very document to that created by the Nazi's is not only ironic and absurd, but proves how much ignorance pervades today's GOP.

They have called it a "threat to the Constitution" and "free speech"... Are you shitting me? The same group that wouldn't allow a dissenting opinion anywhere for 8 years, who shouted down anyone who dared say that wiretapping without a warrant is Unconstitutional are now wrapping themselves in the very document they despise to this day and pissed on for 8 years under Bush? really? Hypocrites, which they have often been, but now they are making up shit to fire up the masses. (Like the Fox Sponsored "Tea Parties")

Shameful, misleading and making political points with a serious memo on domestic threats. I didn't think it were possible to have any less respect for the GOP, today i have less.

My absence

it's been too long since I last posted. Too much goings on with work and too much spending my blogging capital on Facebook. I hope to get back to it and after watching Fox News for about 45 min this AM at the gym, I must put fingers to keyboard.

Republican's still fear-mongering

And a very interesting point that I'm sure these "highly principled" Republicans would never admit:

UPDATE: The crime for which Omar Abdel Rahman was convicted and
for which he's currently serving a life sentence in Colorado is the February 26, 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, of which
Rahman was the alleged "mastermind." That terrorist attack took place just
seven weeks after Bill Clinton was inaugurated, but after that attack -- to use
the Beltway parlance -- Clinton kept us safe, for the rest of his
presidency. No more foreign Terrorist attacks on the Homeland.
It wasn't until Clinton left the Oval Office and George Bush became
President were Islamic Terrorists able to strike the Homeland
again.

Therefore, using the reasoning of Bush followers everywhere, this means that
Clinton's counter-terrorism policies -- i.e.: trying accused Terrorists in
civilian courts and incarcerating them in U.S. prisons -- have been proven to be
extremely effective in keeping us safe (since, as any beginning student of Logic
will tell you: if A precedes B, then it means that A caused B -- as in: A = "waterboarding, torture and GITMO," and B =
"no Terrorist attack on U.S. soil from 2002-2008"). Using that same
"logic": A = "trying Terrorists in civilian courts and imprisoning
them in the U.S.," and B = "no foreign Terrorist attacks in the U.S.
from February, 1993 through the end of the Clinton presidency."

late-comer to facebook; impacting my blogging

I don't seem to blog anymore. I tend to spend some time on FB instead. not obsessively, but the spare time I do have seems to end up being spent there instead of here. Damn Facebook.

Kennedy withdraws

At first her throwing her hat in the ring didn't bother me beyond the usual dynastic sense of entitlement, but it's not something the Kennedy's invented. Think of names like Adams, Taft, Udall, Bush and Clinton all have used their name to political advantage, some deservedly and some undeservedly (George W. Bush being the 3rd most qualified son of G. H.W. Bush comes to mind). But as I thought about it more, it did piss me off a bit. Clearly, she wasn't the most qualified New Yorker to be a Senator, there are others. And a last name isn't a qualification by itself...so i was glad when she withdrew.

But the cynic in me thought that maybe she was thinking that Uncle Teddy was not long for this world and that the political failout from trying to become the Senator from Mass would be less trying. This article appears to contradict that, but nonetheless I'm glad she's come to her senses.

Articles I had to send to a guy who I considered well-versed in politics.

This Reagan one is a bonus...
Myth of Reaganomics
http://mises.org/story/1544

Torture isn’t cool just b/c WE do it:
All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side ... The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them
George Orwell

It’s probably better surmised here:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/01/08/nuremberg/index.html

and here:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/12/24/torture/



These are about torture and abuse. And “we’re America so we can do it” isn’t a defense. No one every commits war crimes without saying they were just defending the homeland.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/16/terror/main680658.shtml

http://www.newser.com/story/45080/senate-report-pins-torture-on-rumsfeld.html

Waterboarding:, a war crime we executed Japanese for:
http://www.newser.com/story/39975/secret-white-house-memos-okd-waterboarding.html

http://www.newser.com/story/28074/ex-detainee-describes-gitmo-tortures.html

Extraordinary rendition:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/02/14/050214fa_fact6

Panetta is bad choice for CIA

I understand Obama's point, the need to clean out the partisans in the agency, but those appointees should be gone anyway. The professionals should remain and even a professional Intellegence person can make that happen and is probably better suited to do so. Just my thoughts.

GOP has lots of work to do.

Looks like Republicans have a lot of work to do and wresting control away from the Bushie/NeoCon/RightWing Theocrats can’t happen soon enough:

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Republican Party has hit a new low.
Just 34 percent of Americans in a Gallup Poll released Thursday say they have a favorable view of the party, down 40 percent from a month ago, before the election.
What’s worse: 61 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party.
According to Gallup , that unfavorable rating is the highest the polling organization has recorded for the GOP since the measure was established in 1992.
The poll of national adults was conducted on November 13-16 with a three percent margin of error.
The numbers are slightly up from a CNN poll released last week that indicated a 54 percent unfavorable rating for Republicans. Only 38 percent of those polled had a favorable rating for the party.
Meanwhile, Democrats continue to bask in the glow of President-elect Barack Obama’s historic victory on November 4. The Gallup poll suggests that 55 percent of Americans hold a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, with 39 percent saying they have an unfavorable view. Those numbers are mostly unchanged from a mid-October survey

What Barack will do...

My Bushie friend asked me what Obama will do as President. I responded:

Well, he’ll stop torturing people. He’ll stop arresting people without warrants and locking them away in secret. He’ll stop wire-tapping every phone in America without a warrant. He’ll stop using the justice department as his own political tool. He’ll stop the assault on science and not use his twisted notion of religion to explain the world and how it works. (Hint: Dinosaurs and humans did not co-exist 3000 years ago). He’ll replace name-calling with maturity.

You know this. I know education and intelligence are frowned upon within the GOP these days, but you don’t have to act stupid for us. We know you’re smarter than that, you can stop the act now. You can be smart and educated and STILL be a “REAL” American, despite what the former mayor of the meth capital of Alaska tells you.

Speaking of little Miss Unethical behavior, she went on and on about socialism while she’s the governor of a state that takes money from the oil companies and gives it directly to the citizens of her state…talk about redistribution of wealth (SOCIALIST IDEAS). Thanks to Jon Stewart for making me realize the irony of the governor of a state funded by socialism calling Obama a Socialist…pure comedy. Too bad the Honorable Governor isn’t bright enough to see the irony…after all she doesn’t even know what the Vice President does or the rights afforded by the First Amendment.

Hopeful

Like most Americans, apparently, I'm pretty happy with the election results. The long national nightmare is over. Kudos to Obama on a fantastic campaign.

The only sad part is what McCain did to himself in his seemingly endless desire to be President. We all remember the John McCain that we liked back in 2000, then he ate the shit that Karl Rove made for him in South Carolina b/c he wanted it so bad. Then during this campaign the independent minded guy we liked turned into the right wing attack dog that the Bushies won with, but America was tired of that shit.

The McCain that we loved was back in last night's concession speech, but it was too late. He changed, he got bad advice and of course his disasterous selection of the unqualified former mayor were his doom. I seriously doubt that he would have lost EVEN with the shackles of the Bush Presidency if he had ran as the guy he once was.

I hope he goes back to being true to himself.

Are McCain supporters really this stupid or are they just ignorant of what is going on in the world?

it's Clear Palin is not qualified, she doesn't even know what the Vice President's job is, nor does she understand the first amendment. But McCain supporters new cry of "Socialism" is laughable considering McCain's support of the recent bailouts pushed by our Republican president. The fact that in the past few months the Party of McCain and Bush has federalized banks and insurance companies. Talk about socialism, it's already here.

It's hard to have respect for people so woefully ill-informed, people who just through out buzz words and buy into the GOP fear machine. The fact that they blindly accept this bullshit is exactly how you end up in a fascist state. The dictators always talk about how the state will protect you from enemies seen and unseen, and the first thing they dictators do is attack the intellectuals and the liberals...just like the GOP has done for the past 8 years. They've attempted to make knowledge and learning BAD THINGS. (Ignorance is Knowledge).

I'm sick of being told I'm not a real American because I put myself throught grad school and happen to think for myself instead of listening the non-sensical rantings of the lunatic minds of the GOP.

WAKE UP AMERICA (I'm talking to you McCain supporters).

btw- I won't be surprised if the GOP steals the election with their classic voter suppression efforts in cities and outright fraud by the Diebold Republican Vote Generating machines. After the GOP stole one election, they can do it again.

Palin is the perfect Bushie

The Palin's, like the Bushies, feel they are above the law and don't feel they are accountable for their actions. No wonder the Bushies love her, I'm just surprised the Bush WH didn't find her before and make her secratary of the Navy or something (she's been on a boat). Being unqualifed, having contempt for the law and loving guns and hating abortion are all you need for a Bush appointment and sadly McCain continues that practice with this HORRIBLE choice

Fiscal Reformer???

Read it quick before the Conservatives who control the media kill the story.



Maybe she should have kept the plane…


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26616212/

ANCHORAGE - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

Palin charged the state a per diem for working on Nov. 22, 2007 -- Thanksgiving Day. The reason given, according to the expense report, was the Great Alaska Shootout, an annual NCAA college basketball tournament held in Anchorage (WISH I COULD GET PAID TO GO TO SPORTING Events)

One event was in New York City in October 2007, when Bristol accompanied the governor to Newsweek's third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange, and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room.


Meanwhile, Todd Palin spent $725 to fly to Edmonton , Alberta , for "information gathering and planning meeting with Northern Alberta Institute of Technology," according to an expense report. During the three-day trip, he charged the state $291 for his per diem. A notation said "costs paid by Dept. of Labor." He also billed the state $1,371 for flight to Washington to attend a National Governors Association meeting with his wife. (I wish my company paid to fly my partner to for my business trips)

The family also charged for flights around the state, including trips to Alaska events such as the start of the Iditarod dog-sled race and the Iron Dog snowmobile race, a contest that Todd Palin won. (Did the state pay his entry fees too?)

In the past, per diem claims by Alaska state officials have carried political risks. In 1988, the head of the state Commerce Department was pilloried for collecting a per diem charge of $50 while staying in his Anchorage home, according to local news accounts. The commissioner, the late Tony Smith, resigned amid a series of controversies.

"It was quite the little scandal," said Tony Knowles, the Democratic governor from 1994 to 2000. "I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam -- you pay yourself to live at home," he said.

I asked for 20 qualifications that Palin has to be VP or Prez...I got one

The one thing I got was she was Governor of a state with 600,000 people for 20 months. And a bunch of crap that Obama has no executive experience (neither does McCain and Newt Gingrich is the only Republican I've heard admit that fact)

So, I thought clarify Obama's experience:

While I wait for the 19 other qualifications she brings to the table.

I just wanted to clear up some fallacies you appear to be operating
under.

Obama has EXECUTIVE Experience.

• He was the PRESIDENT of the Harvard Law Review ( I can’t wait to hear how that’s not executive experience)
  
• He was also the DIRECTOR of Chicago ’s
  Developing Communities Project and I know you hate poor people and like to mock
  those who actually help out in their communities unless it’s bombing abortion
  clinics, but this too is EXECUTIVE Experience.
  
• He was CHAIRMAN of the Health and Human Services Committee in the Illinois Senate (damn, more leadership experience)
  
• He is CHAIRMAN of the Foreign Relations subcommittee on European Affairs (Even more leadership and with International Experience).
  

Now, again I know it’s not raising taxes to build a new hockey rink, but it IS Executive Experience.


I’m glad we can put that to rest now.


But again, we should be comparing McCain’s resume with Obama’s and Biden’s with Palin’s. I know you don’t want to do that b/c Obama’s and McCain’s experience is in the same damn job and Biden’s knowledge of Economics and International Relations is some of the best in America . I can understand why you’d resort to name calling (like when you pretend to care
about experience and your only response to Bill Richardson’s resume is to call
him a buffoon. Funny how you changed the subject from Experience to name-calling
when presented with the most qualified candidate in America…you must be a
racist)

A "maverick" selection...not so much

While the GOP has been breaking their arms patting themselves on the back for putting a woman on the ticket and calling it some radical new idea, I got to thinking that it’s really not all that radical. (Especially when you consider the vitriol they have spewed toward Hilary Clinton for the past two decades)

The Democrats did it 24 years ago. 24 years!

The Libertarians did it in 1972 and Toni Nathan was the first women to ever receive an electoral vote.

Then I did some research

The 2008 Green Party has an ALL FEMALE ticket and have had at least one woman on the ticket since 96. The Libertarians did it again in 1992 and 96. Lyndon LaRouche did it, as did Pat Buchanan. All before the Republicans…seems like they are pretty late to the party. Here is a list:


Wikipedia has a list of over 100 women who have been a various parties Tickets going back to 1870

Soliciting sex acts in bathrooms is "free speech"?

I hear Larry Craig, the disgraced Senator from Idaho who hates gay people, except when he's having sex with them, is going to claim that tapping his foot to initiate sex in a public rest room is protected by FREE SPEECH.

How awesome is that? Again the hypocrisy. The Republicans who HATE free speech now are using it to defend the solicitation of bathroom sex...WOW. The next time you get busted for solicitation of prostitution, you should claim it's Free Speech.

You've got to admit that the Republicans do have balls. They can stand in Congress and rail against gays while they still smell of manlove. they try to force their version of "family values" while they hire prostitutes and have affairs.

But the free speech thing is AWESOME. Balls the size of Idaho