Et tu, Tom?

As you can tell from the post below I am not a fan of "cap-and-trade." Yet however weak it may be for cleaning up carbon pollution, and strong for lining the pockets of the Wall Streets assholes who fuck up this "free market economy" on a regular basis and get away with it, it may be better than doing nothing.

Well don't tell that to our good U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, liberal hypocrite when it comes to environmental issues. Here's what the late-Paul Wellstone's bestest buddy said of the "cap-and-trade" bill crawling out of the U.S. House:"The fact is the House bill, I think, does disproportionately hurt some of our Midwestern states, and we're going to have to get that rectified in the Senate[.]"

In other words my "liberal" Democratic U.S. Senator is standing in the schoolhouse door to protect one of the major air polluters in the country, MidAmerican Holdings, parent company of my utility company MidAmerican Energy,q.v. Des Moines Register, June 14, 2009.

In a news story by Thomas Beaumont in this morning's edition of The Des Moines Register:

Sens. Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley both have senior roles on committees related to energy policy, and they both say the House-passed bill unfairly penalizes Midwestern utilities and faces long odds in the Senate.

That hasn't stopped MidAmerican Energy Co. from conducting an ad campaign criticizing Iowa Democrats' support for the bill in the House. The utility says the bill would require it to raise rates in order to comply with provisions aimed at lowering carbon emissions.

U.S. Reps. Leonard Boswell, Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack say they backed the bill despite reservations because they were happy with changes that helped farmers and rural electric co-operatives. Boswell and Braley described MidAmerican's ads, in print and on the air, as misleading and intended to justify a rate increase.

Well, jesus christ, Blue Dog Boswell and Braley just may be on to something. And why would this "investor owned"--Omaha-based billionaire Warren Buffett being the most major investor--utility company and polluter of Iowa skies seek a rate increase? Back to Beaumont's news story:

The bill would require utilities to obtain government allowances for the amount of heat-trapping carbon they emit. The number of allowances granted would be reduced over time, to compel power companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Half of these carbon credits would be awarded based on a company's emissions, and the other half would be awarded based on its annual sales.

Some large companies such as Seattle City Light, which provide emissions-free electricity to millions of customers, would be allowed more credits than they need, according to the formula.

MidAmerican, which operates mainly coal-fired power plants, would need to buy credits on a regulated market. The utility, the state's largest electricity provider, had fewer than 550,000 residential customers in Iowa last year.

In other words, MidAmerican will be a big loser in the "cap-and-trade" shell game. Warren's good investment doesn't look so good now. I mean he's in the business of making money from making money and if MidAmerican has to actually use some of its capital to invest in clean(er) electricity generation the value of its stock may take a temporary nose dive. We can't have that, can we? That must be why the "obsessively, relentlessly at your service" MidAmerican has been asking its customers to kick in a buck or ten for renewable energy for the past five years or so.

Well, fuck Warren Buffett and the Dairy Queen he rode in on.

And the usually reliable Beaumont either sallowed MidAmerican's, "we're just a li'l, ol' ma and pa Iowa utility company" bullshit or he was too lazy to "Google" MidAmerican Energy Holdings. Hell, the figure Beaumont quotes "...the state's largest electricity provider, had fewer than 550,000 residential customers in Iowa last year[,]" seems suspiciously low.

Oddly enough, while the Des Moines-based company keeps mum about the real number of its Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois customers, it has no problem telling anyone with enough dough to buy a big block of its holding company stock that subsidiaries PacifiCorp has 1.7 million customers in Oregon, California, Washington, Utah and Idaho, or that CE Electric UK is ...responsible for delivering electricity to over 3.8 million properties across the North East of England, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire[.]

Yet according to "liberal" Democrat Tom Harkin, poor li'l MidAmerican Energy is just a struggling li'l ol' Iowa utility that can't meet its obligations under the terribly flawed and too-little-too-late Waxman-Markey Climate and Energy Bill.

R ECs grow Astroturf to fight "crap & trade"

First of all I think the carbon cap-and-trade legislation, now wending its way with all the alacrity of a tortoise though the Halls of Congress, is kind of goofy. I mean the government "auctions," these "pollution permits," emissions permits in polite society, to all the electricity generating and coal-burning plants in the land. These "pollution permits" tell all the carbon-smoke producing industries know just how much carbon dioxide, CO2, the federal government will let them pump into the atmosphere every year. By selling these "pollution permits" to smoke-stack industries, like electricity generating plants, the federal government will supposedly rake in a ton of dough.

Now here's where it get screwy. After all the "pollution permits" are handed out and all the carbon-smoke belching industries find out how much they are allowed to continue polluting Company X sees that it doesn't pollute the atmosphere nearly as much as Company Y. So Company X sells its excess "pollution permits" to Company Y, for a profit, that can now go on its merry way spewing black clouds of CO2 into the air we breath.

As far as I can figure the theory behind this shell game is that the guys running Company Y will get tired of being screwed by the guys at Company X so this gives the guys at Company Y an incentive to clean up their act and in turn sell their "pollution permits" to some other Smoky Joe of a company. Of course, this being American, land of the "free market economy," we gotta have middle-men, brokers if you will, to set up and sell these "pollution permits" in some sort of "free market" stock exchange thingie. And this is where the real money will be made. The general public gets slightly cleaner skies while the assholes who bought you the Dot Com-bubble, the Housing-bubble, and last summer's Oil-bubble get to wax even fatter on the coming "Crap-and-Trade" Bubble.

But this being the United States there are always a few dipshits too lazy or too cheap or just too stupid to know a good thing when they see it. Either that or they just want to be spoilsports and wreck the good times ahead for the Wall Street fucks with their "cap-and-trade" bullshit because they're making a shitpot of dough doing what they've been doing for the last seventy years, thank you.

In this case the spoilsports are some of the good folks of theNational Rural Electric Coopertive Association, NRECA". It seems that a group of these "privately owned, democratically governed" businesses in the Chesapeake Bay region, North Carolina and Iowa just don't want to play ball. So they've sent up an Astrotruf organization called Find A Balanced Solution.com.

Here's what these guys are pitching to the bib-overall set out here in Iowa

We can't afford not to act on the issue of climate change. We also can't afford soaring energy costs. The answer is a balanced solution.

We can have a clean environment AND a healthy economy.

We need a balanced climate change policy that reduces emissions without raising the cost of electricity. The current cap-and-trade proposal before Congress will tip the balance, sending energy costs soaring at a time when reliable, affordable energy is essential for our economic recovery. The effects will be felt in every sector of our economy, in every business and every home.

We need a balanced policy that focuses on new technology, innovation and American ingenuity. Iowa's member-owned cooperatives are already addressing this issue by investing in energy efficiency, clean technologies and renewable resources. We can't let Congress tip the balance with policies that will drive costs up and drag our economy down. Work with us to tell Congress we want a balanced solution.

Act now. Tell your congressmen you want a balanced solution to climate change.


Member systems of CIPCO, NIPCO and Corn Belt Power Cooperatives

What the fuck does this double-talk supposed to mean?

As near as I can figure what this is supposed to mean is that you, Mr. and Mrs. Corn-fed Rural Iowan will see higher electricity bills if this "cap-and-trade" bullshit goes through Congress and President Oreo signs this steaming pile of crap into law. Well, d'uh, Mr. and Mrs. Corn-fed Rural Iowan, you are going to get higher electricity bills in the near future with or without "crap-and-trade" anyway, so what the fuck? You're screwed no matter what.

And as far as the "balanced solution?" My take on the above gobbledygook is, first: "We didn't try nothing and it didn't work so we're just gonna keep on doin' what we been doin', 'cause it makes us money"; and secondly: "We'll get around to 'clean' energy generation just as soon as the price of coal goes up. Trust us." Like that's ever going to happen since coal, the real villain in this melodrama, is the continental United States' number-one fossil fuel. We have more of the shit than nearly anywhere else in the world. And that's why the assholes in Washington, D.C. are playing around with this "cap-and-trade" garbage in the first place.

So either way, "cap-and-trade" or doing nothing, we, the American people, are screwed.

Look, if we lived in a sane country the electric utility industry wouldn't be in private, for-profit hands. At the very least if we just had to have private, for-profit entities own the electric grid, it should be highly regulated like the old AT&T was when it had a virtual monopoly on telephone service. Before divestiture AT&T was a highly profitable company that provided excellent service, in spite of Lily Tomlin, and everybody, except the boys at Bell Labs, was happy with the arrangement.

As far as I'm concerned, "cap-and-trade" is a load of bullshit. The only real way to get these polluting sonsuvbitches in line is to threaten them with legal action if they don't mend their ways. All "cap-and-trade" will accomplish is making the pricks who ran this country into the economic ditch it now finds itself in the first place a little richer and assuage the the consciences of a few well placed and well-known limousine liberals, who will undoubtedly also pad their bank accounts at the same time.

batshit crazy: Iowa Republican Party

The big political story going around the Internet is that all the "smart" Republicans want to keep Sarah Palin about as far from them as possible, I guess so her cooties don't rub off on them.

But not to fear. The Iowa Republican Party, the party that gave you Fifth U.S. congressional District Congressman Steve "Crazy Train" King announced today

The Republican Party of Iowa is hot after Sarah Palin to headline the state GOP’s annual Reagan Day Dinner this fall, state party executive Director Jeff Boeyink told The Des Moines Register today.

“Absolutely we are pursuing Sarah Palin,” Boeyink said, responding to Sen. Chuck Grassley’s comment that Palin would be a good fund-raising draw. That effort has accelerated since the Alaska governor’s surprise announcement last week that she planned to resign.

[T]hey are hoping Palin agrees to headline the state GOP’s Reagan dinner, the party’s premier fall fund-raiser.

“That’s the concept. We would love to have her be our headliner for our traditional fall event,” Boeyink said. “We would need a very large venue to make that happen.”
Tom Beaumont, The Des Moines Register.com

Damn, like I said a day or two ago, we ain't seen the last of this idiot woman. That's because she attract lunatic wing nuts like a corpse plant draws carrion flies.

More

More “Birther” Nonsense: Obama’s 1981 Pakistan Trip

Posted using ShareThis

Right Wing Lunacy From the Inbox

I have no idea where this bullshit comes from or who thinks it up because as usual there is no attribution, no references cites and certainly no name of anyone who wants to take "credit" as author. Anyway, here's the latest from the wing nut world of tin-foil hats:

Very Interesting questions

More questions, and this time some good questions.

While I've little interest in getting in the middle of the Obama birth
issue, Paul Hollrah over at FSM* did so yesterday and believes the issue can be
resolved by Obama answering one simple question:

What passport did he use when he was shuttling between New York, Jakarta , and Karachi ?

So how did a young man who arrived in New York in early June 1981,
without the price of a hotel room in his pocket, suddenly come up with the price of a round-the-world trip just a month later?

And once he was on a plane, shuttling between New York , Jakarta , and
Karachi, what passport was he offering when he passed through Customs and
Immigration?

The American people not only deserve to have answers to these questions,
they must have answers.

It makes the debate over Obama's citizenship a rather short and simple one.

Q: Did he travel to Pakistan in 1981, at age 20?
A : Yes, by his own admission.

Q: What passport did he travel under?
A: There are only three possibilities.
1) He traveled with a U.S. Passport,
2) He traveled with a British passport, or
3) He traveled with an Indonesia passport.

Q: Is it possible that Obama traveled with a U.S. Passport in 1981?
A: No. It is not possible.
Pakistan was on the U.S. State Department's "no travel" list in
1981.


Conclusion:
When Obama went to Pakistan in 1981 he was traveling either with a
British passport or an Indonesian passport.

If he were traveling with a British passport that would provide proof
that he was born in Kenya on August 4, 1961, not in Hawaii as he claims.
And if he were traveling with an Indonesian passport that would tend to
prove that he relinquished whatever previous citizenship he held, British or
American, prior to being adopted by his Indonesian step-father in 1967.

Whatever the truth of the matter,the American people need to know how he managed to become a "natural born"
American citizen between 1981 and 2008..

Given the destructive nature of his plans for America ,
as illustrated by his speech before Congress
and the disastrous spending plan he has presented to Congress,
the sooner we learn the truth of all this, the better.

If you Don't care that Your President is not a natural born Citizen and in Violation of the Constitution, then Delete this and go into your cocoon.

Destructive nature of his plans for America as illustrated by his speech before Congress? Which speech? What destructive plans? Continuing the Wall Street bailouts begun by George W. Bush's Treasury Secretary Henry "ex-Goldman Sachs CEO" Paulson? The stimulus package designed to keep welfare queen Red States like Texas, Alaska and South Carolina in the fiscal black?His willingness to talk to leaders of countries that wing nuts don't like, such as Fidel Castor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or the Russian two-headed monster Vladimir V. Putin, and Dmitri A. Medvedev?

And where is the proof that Obama traveled to Pakistan in 1981 with either a British, Indonesian or any other passport other than a U.S. passport? There is none in fact,...American citizens traveled freely to Pakistan in 1981. FactCheck.org, June 5, 2009, More "Birther" Nonsense: Obama's 1981 Trip to Pakistan

Every time I read some right wing lunacy like this I get a little more steamed. Why? Because I am devoted to the truth, no matter how ugly, no matter how unsettling. And what really steams me is that somewhere there is some one or, more likely, some organization funded by the same folks who surreptitiously funded reactionary Christian fundamentalists like R.J. Rushdoony, Jerry Falwell, Bill Graham; funded right wing talkers like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and FoxNews.

Is there a conspiracy?

Yeah! There is a conspiracy. It is a conspiracy to keep Americans at each other's throats over trivia like whether or not the United States is a "Christian" nation, it is not, and whether we should all walk around with a pistol strapped to our hips; whether queers have the rights to fight and die for their country and get married and go through the joys of divorce court. Oh, fuck, that's real important shit. Whenever the history of this era is written, future historians will undoubtedly conclude, early Twenty-first Century Americans were some of the pettiest, stupidest human beings ever to infect the face of the Earth and the tragic fate that befell them couldn't have happened to a more deserving group of people.

In some ways I wish John McCain would have won the 2008 presidential election; then like William Henry Harrison die a month after taking the oath of office leaving us in the tender mercies of President Sarah Palin. Then the dumb bitch could start another unwinnable war, this time with Iran.

At least with a President Palin the death march of the United States would be over quickly. What we are experiencing now is a death by inches.

*Family Security Matters (FSM) originated in 2003 as a project of the Center for Security Policy, a hawkish security policy think tank and advocacy group. Soon after its formation FSM claimed to represent "security moms". While generally supportive of President George W. Bush's domestic and international security policies, FSM have had their differences with the Republican administration over issues such as immigration policy[1], U.S. policy towards Russian Presdient Vladimir Putin[2]. Since the Democratic ascendancy in the 2006 mid-term elections, FSM have also published criticisms of the Bush administration -- such as those by Newt Gingrich -- for being too cautious in their strategy in the Middle East.[3] SourceWatch.org

Consortiumnews.com

Consortiumnews.com

Posted using ShareThis

Consortiumnews.com

Consortiumnews.com

Posted using ShareThis

Sarah Palin, crazy like a foxy MILF

Y'know I just wish this dumb bitch would just go away. But I don't think she will.

In spite of the announcement yesterday, July 3, 2009, that she was resigning her post as governor of Alaska later this month, speculation is running rampant on her motives, from

Sarah Palin Indictment - Alaska Governor Sarah Palin reportedly resigned because of a federal indictment pending in an embezzlement scandal that allegedly involves her receiving huge financial favors from Spenard Building Supplies.
Jim Brogan, PostChronicle.com

to, one of the wing nuttier theories

But it keeps coming back to Trig.

From the moment Palin was nominated for V.P., the attacks on Trig began. First there were the rumors, spread by Andrew Sullivan and others, that Sarah Palin was not Trig’s mother, that there was a grand conspiracy of hundreds if not thousands of people to cover up that Bristol Palin was Trig’s real mother.
LegalInsurrection.blogspot.com*

to not being able to take the heat of Republican in-fighting

The 2008 vice presidential nominee was seen as a likely presidential contender in 2012 and had proved formidable among the party's base. But the last week brought a highly critical piece in Vanity Fair magazine, with unnamed campaign aides questioning if Palin was ever really prepared for the presidency.
Rachel D'Oro, AP.com

And of course there are those who aver the MILF From Wasilla has just committed political hari-kari

CBS) If Sarah Palin thinks quitting the Alaskan statehouse is going to help a 2012 presidential campaign some pundits speculate she's mulling, she's mistaken, according to longtime Republican strategist Ed Rollins.

Rollins contended that, "She diminished the job of governor. I think, at the end of the day, I've never -- I've been in the business four decades, I've never seen a governor ever walk away from the job at mid-term, and I think, at the end of the day, that's what's gonna affect her."
CBSNews.com

O' dear, my pretties, I do think we all misunderestimate Caribou Barbie. I mean here it is the Fourth of July, 2009 and the Internet, the TeeVee and whatever accounts for a daily printed news media is yet chattering about the soon-to-be erstwhile former beauty queen governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. Any way you look at it, Palin's rambling, often incoherent resignation speech on the Friday before the holiday is a brilliant piece of political theater.

In some aspects it was rather reminiscent of the late Richard Milhouse Nixon's petulant statement upon losing the 1962 California gubernatorial contest to liberal Democrat Edmund "Pat" Brown:"You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more. Because gentlemen, this is my last press conference." But we all know that like the mythical phoenix Nixon arose from the ashes of that campaign to take the presidency from a divided Democratic Party in 1968 and, proceeded to alter the trajectory of U.S. history from Free World powerhouse to Third World shitholedom.

So I don't think we have seen or heard the last of Sarah Palin. Nor do I think this is the end of her political ambitions. There is a certain segment of the American right that...well logic and critical thinking do no apply. Acting tough, reacting strongly to perceived slights and insults, hyper-patriotism, hyper-religiosity, hyper-materialism and hyper-love of family characterize the personality types to whom Sarah Palin appeals. I am sure my Republican union steward, who manfully told me, "I'll hunt for my family's food," when I asked him what he would do if George H.W. Bush privatized the Postal Service and fired all us union workers, is the kind of guy who idolizes le jeune femme Palin. And remember with this crowd looks account for a lot and, like it or not feminists, Sarah's got a right purdy ass.

*the blogger is one William A. Jacobson, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Cornell Law School, Ithaca, NY (Kinda scary ain't it.)

Pity the poor physician

I was just wondering what the average yearly income is for...say... your average physician is in the good ol' USA and I Googled upon a cool little Web site with that very information, StudentDoctor.com. Here's what I learned:

Family practice, $204,000

Internist, $176000

Neurology, $228000

Cardiology, $403000

General Surgery, $291000

Cardiovascular Surgery, $558719

Plastic Surgery, $412000

There's no reason to go on, for as you can see, doctors in the United States are well remunerated for their education and expertise. And if you're interested in the average yearly incomes of other medical specialties click the SutdentDoctor.com link above.

Now why I bring this up is that it is clear to me that the primary and unstated reason the American Medical Association is so vehemently opposed to any "publicly" financed health care insurance scheme. They are worried their income will fall. Oh, fuck, what a catastrophe that would be. But, please, don't cry for the doctors for if this country ever went the way of the United Kingdom they would yet be among the richest guys in town. Our American physicians, should we wise up a go with a single-payer health care system, would still be members in good standing of the coordinator class.

Sanford disappears to hike Appalachian Trail (on Naked Hiking Day) | csmonitor.com

Sanford disappears to hike Appalachian Trail (on Naked Hiking Day) | csmonitor.com

Posted using ShareThis

Rightwing Website Sells

Rightwing Website Sells “Shoot A Liberal” Product

Posted using ShareThis

Hey, Public Library of Des Moines, thanks for making a little girl cry

I just sent this email to the PLDM:

I just returned from the North Side Branch Library.

Until just that minuet when I walked up and the automatic doors did not open did I have any idea that the branch would not open until 1 P.M. For me that is no big deal

However at the same time that I arrived at the North Side Branch another fellow and what appeared to be his grand daughter approached. When the little girl learned the library was not open it broke her heart.

I am sure the change in opening times is due in part to summer vacation schedules for library employees. I am also equally certain that the change in library opening times is due to budgetary constraints. Of course the library and all other city departments would have adequate funds if we in the neighborhoods were not forced into subsidizing all the tax credited, tax forgiven and tax increment funded development projects in downtown for the well-heeled and well-connected.

I understand this. But a little girl does not.

Thank you, Public Library of Des Moines, the city council, Polk County, the State of Iowa and the United States government for our skewed, regressive tax system that is ruining an economy and making a little girl cry.

Presenting Her Highness the Princess Meresamun

Getting By On Her Looks

The ancient Egyptian Meresamun, who lived around 800 B.C., was a working girl, a priestess-musician who served Amun, the preeminent deity of Thebes. Her mummified remains, sealed 2,800 years ago in a skintight coffin of cartonnage (layers of linen and plaster), were examined by researchers at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute in September 2008 using the latest in CT scanning technology, a "256-slice" machine that produced startlingly vivid images. For months, she has since been the immensely popular subject of the Oriental Institute Museum's exhibition, The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt.

Josh Harker, a forensic artist who lives in Chicago and was originally trained as a sculptor, worked digitally, leveraging the latest software and imaging technology.

Ancient Egyptian records talk about the ideal sense of womanly beauty. "A lot of the descriptions are about breasts and hips and coal-black hair," says [Egyptologist at the Oriental Institute Museum, Emily] Teeter [...curator of the Meresamun exhibition.] "But they do talk about sweet lips for kissing--and Meresamun's got very sweet lips!"

George W. Ahmadinejad

Now that the Iranian election is in the books and the protesters have taken to the streets one must ask the musical question: Why did the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his puppet master, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fix the results in such a ham-handed fashion?

I mean, really now, if Ahmadinejad and his party had let the vote count go on in a normal manner the sawed-off mouthpiece for the heirs of cross-dressing reactionary political and religious leader, the late Ayatollah Khomeini, most likely would have won.

Yet many observers, especially here in the West, question the results based on the speed with which the hand-marked paper ballots were counted. In this country when we had ink-marked ballots counted by hand, the results were known on the same day or at least very late at night, after all Abraham Lincoln was declared the winner of the 1860 presidential race late that November 6 Tuesday night. In the case of Iran, however, Ahmadinejad's "landslide" was announced mere minutes after the polls closed. And that was the other think that raised Western as well as the bushy eyebrows of opponent Mirhossein Mousavi.

But without the guiding hand of a Karl Rove-like figure the good ayatollahs of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council obviously did not have enough confidence in the urban and rural poor of Iran who are Ahmadinejad's most fervent and loyal supporters to deliver the vote. Had Ahmadinejad's handlers used a lighter more subtle touch-- like throwing out a few absentee ballots, losing a box of ballots somewhere on the way to the county courthouse or challenging ever ballot with the first name Muhammad in the signature--they might have gotten away with it. Sure there would have been some protests for sure, but people would have accepted the result and gone on with their pathetic lives, it was a three-way race after all.

But the ayatollahs pushed their luck and fixed the election, declaring their boy, Ahmadineja, the winner with a 63% plurality. Now they've stepped in it. But the reason they did so remains why?

Observes Stephen Zunes at Alternet.org

The only people happier than the Iranian elites over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's apparently stolen election win Friday, were the neoconservatives and other hawks eager to block any efforts by the Obama administration to moderate U.S. policy toward the Islamic republic.

By now it is ancient and arcane American history that advisers to then-candidate Ronald Reagan had secret talks with members of the Iranian revolution during the 1980 U.S. presidential election. Those of us old enough to remember recall how the American hostages held by the Iranian revolutionaries at the U.S. embassy in Tehran were released just as the divine Reagan was giving his first inaugural address.

Which leads me to speculate that elements of America's reactionary right may have had contact with elements of Iran's SCRC. Perhaps clandestine promises were made to surreptitiously aid Iran's faltering economy, perhaps secretly buy some oil for Israel or supply the Iranian air forcer with spare parts. We'll never find out the truth.

From an American NeoCon/reactionary Republican perspective keeping the runty bogeyman Ahmadinejad on television scaring the shit out of the dull witted American electorate, is right where they want him.

Wonkette : A Few Vaguely Related Palin-Letterman Thoughts, And More!

Wonkette : A Few Vaguely Related Palin-Letterman Thoughts, And More!

Posted using ShareThis

Consortiumnews.com

Consortiumnews.com

Posted using ShareThis

Michael Moore's new film trailer

Right wing hypocrite calls for Letterman's firing

Should have seen this one coming.

Under fire for a risque joke last week, David Letterman has apologized to Gov. Sarah Palin and her supporters. But a group urging CBS to fire the host says it's still not enough.

"I'm glad he's acknowledged we're right," said John Ziegler, a creator of the film "Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted" and who this month began a new show on KGIL. "I think it's a good first step in the right direction, but I don't think it's enough." Part of the problem, he added, is that Letterman made a "horrendous attempt at an apology" last week, when he devoted several relatively light-hearted minutes to the controversy, invited Palin on his program and repeated the joke.

Ziegler said he was not sure what sanction Letterman should face, but options should include suspension and firing. The host could also donate to a charity of Gov. Palin's choice, he said. Meanwhile, the group is still planning a rally Tuesday outside the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, where Letterman tapes his show.
LA Times.com

So where was this asshole Ziegler when Don Imus was calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy headed ho's?"

Well here's the kind of hypocritical right wing asshole John Ziegler is:

John Ziegler was fired Wednesday by WHAS Radio, but Thursday, Ziegler told WLKY NewsChannel 32's Abby Miller that his firing had nothing to do with the remarks he made about former Fox41 morning anchorwoman Darcie Divita.

Ziegler made comments last week about his private relationship with Divita, called her a liar and shared intimate details, Miller reported. He then went back on the air Tuesday and reported that the matter had been resolved, but was fired shortly before he was scheduled to go on the air Wednesday morning.

"To discuss the intimate details of a person who is not related to his job or any way, shape or fashion is totally inappropriate," [Divita's attorney Thomas]Clay said.
WLKY.com

That was in 2003, six years latter he's a protector of the fairer sex. Utter nonsense.

NOW isn't that stupid?

I wasn't going to post anything on the extremely stupid topic of David Letterman versus Sarah "Pit Bull with Lipstick" Palin but it came to my attention today that the National Organization for Women, NOW, is on the side of Governor Palin and her supposedly aggrieved 14-year-old daughter, Willow. NOW is standing up for "Pit Bull" Palin and daughter Willow because, as far as I can tell, both possess viginas and mammary glands.

On its Media Hall of Shame Web site writes indignant communications director Lisa Bennett:

The sexualization of girls and women in the media is reaching new lows these days -- it is exploitative and has a negative effect on how all women and girls are perceived and how they view themselves. Letterman also joked about what he called Palin's "slutty flight attendant look" -- yet another example of how the media love to focus on a woman politician's appearance, especially as it relates to her sexual appeal to men. Someone of Letterman's stature, who appears on what used to be known as "the Tiffany Network" (CBS), should be above wallowing in the juvenile, sexist mud that other comedians and broadcasters seem to prefer.

On that point, it's important to note that when Chelsea Clinton was 13 years old she was the target of numerous insults based on her appearance. Rush Limbaugh even referred to her as the "White House dog." NOW hopes that all the conservatives who are fired up about sexism in the media lately will join us in calling out sexism when it is directed at women who aren't professed conservatives.

Oh, so the ladies of NOW think that race-baiting, misogynistic wing nuts will join them in fighting "sexism" in the media when it's aimed at a "liberal" women? That's just about the stupidest fucking thing I think I read in all this Letterman-Palin imbroglio.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Interestingly in her Today Show interview Governor Palin nearly quotes verbatim Keith Olbermann and Craig Crawford's discussion of Letterman's supposedly offensive, to both flight attendants and "Pit Bull" Palin, phrase "slutty flight attendant" in the Today Show interview.

So we better not refer to "Pit Bull" Palin looking like a slutty flight attendant or to her daughters' abstinence-only preteen sexuality in any way shape of form. Moreover we should ban all words with anything even hinting at sexual innuendo or double entendre in order to protect the dear sweet Palin women from nasty, immature, juvenile sexist television comedians.

But really now, should we give the prudish, Puritanical, bluenosed ladies of NOW a big ol' tip o' the spoon for legitimizing "Pit Bull" Palin's phony baloney victimization.

Consortiumnews.com

Consortiumnews.com

Posted using ShareThis

Consortiumnews.com

Consortiumnews.com

Posted using ShareThis

Consortiumnews.com

Consortiumnews.com

Posted using ShareThis

Like government managment never lies

This in from Radio Iowa

Boswell defends Pelosi in water boarding flap
Monday, June 8, 2009, 10:26 AM
By O.Kay Henderson

Congressman Leonard Boswell, a former member of the House Intelligence Committee, is defending House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has come under fire for saying she was "misled" by the Bush Administration about the interrogation techniques used on terror suspects.

Boswell, a Democrat from Des Moines, was on the House Intelligence Committee in September 2002.

That's when Pelosi says she was never told the technique of water boarding was used. Boswell suggests at that time he and other Democrats on the committee were upset about water boarding and a letter of complaint was sent to the Bush Administration.

Iowa Republican Party chairman Matt Strawn issued a written statement in response to Boswell's comments. "It is disappointing that Congressman Boswell is falling in partisan line behind the Speaker and rejecting calls for the briefings in question to be declassified," Strawn said.

Obviously Mr. Strawn has never worked for any federal agency. I recall numerous occasions when Postal Service management lied to carriers.

That CIA officials under direct orders of the White House lied their asses off at a "classified" meeting with the House Intelligence Committee should come as no surprise. That Republicans, however, are defending a shadowy federal agency for its veracity is.

By the way, Strawn must have missed U.S. House minority leader John Boehner's performance on the Wolf Blitzer show a couple of weeks ago.

Sieg heil! mein teacher!

Oh, key-rist, as if this country is militaried-up enough already, now idiot Des Moines Independent School District Superintendent Nancy Sebring proposes setting up a "charter school" along military lines, reports this AM's Sunday Des Moines Register

Des Moines school officials want to open a charter school for boys that draws from traditional military principles, such as leadership and self-discipline.

A formal proposal and price tag are months away, but Superintendent Nancy Sebring said it could include a separate facility for an estimated 50 middle school boys. Fall 2010 is the target opening date, she said.

The military theme is more about resilience and physical well-being than rigid reform, Sebring said.

I have no problem with public schools requiring kids to wear uniforms. Nor do I object to public schools experimenting with single-sex class rooms whereby teaching is geared to the needs and intellectual developmental levels of the two sexes. But a military charter school? Aren't the Boy Scouts and ROTC enough?

According to The Register news story Sebring thinks, a military-themed charter school will somehow, perhaps magically, lower the Des Moines School District's dropout rate. Huh?!

Why doesn't the dumb bitch just ask the kids at Des Moines' high schools why they might drop out? Why doesn't she order some sort of outreach and survey program toward kids who've already dropped out and ask them why they quit school? I'll bet you the reasons why kids drop out have little to do with lack of self-esteem or self-discipline. I'd hazard a guess that most kids drop out for economic reasons, like helping mom pay the rent. And I'll bet there are even some kids who drop out because they're aren't intellectually challenged by the school curriculum.

But this brilliant school administrator's idea is to take the district's hardest cores, put them in one school, give them bootcamp-style training and expect them to come out model citizens. If anything the little bastards will graduate from Sebring's charter bootcamp as better gang leaders or cops (also a criminal gang.)

No word on opinions of Sebring's proposed charter bootcamp from the Des Moines School Board's resident nutcase Jonathan Narcisse.

Update!

Stale news story from Thursday's Washington Post

ATLANTA -- The U.S. Marine Corps is wooing public school districts across the country, expanding a network of military academies that has grown steadily despite criticism that it's a recruiting ploy.

The Marines are talking with at least six districts _ including in suburban Atlanta, New Orleans and Las Vegas _ about opening schools where every student wears a uniform, participates in Junior ROTC and takes military classes, said Bill McHenry, who runs the Junior ROTC program for the Marines.

None of the Chicago military schools made "adequate yearly progress" last year, meaning they fell short of basic standards under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

AUDIO: Randi Rhodes vs Randall Terry

AUDIO: Randi Rhodes vs Randall Terry

Shared via AddThis

Consortiumnews.com

Consortiumnews.com

Posted using ShareThis

Oooooo...I just "hate" being so right

Update on the "suicide" of actor David Caradine from this morning's Washington Post:

By Tim Johnston
Special to the Washington Post
Friday, June 5, 2009; 7:44 AM

BANGKOK, June 5 -- Thai police officers investigating the death of David Carradine, the American actor who made his name in the "Kung Fu" television series in the 1970s, say he most likely died of asphyxiation, possibly when an auto-erotic sex game went wrong.

Carradine, 72, was found naked in a closet in an upscale Bangkok hotel on Thursday with cords around his neck and his genitals. The police are checking DNA found on the cords, but say they found no signs of a struggle, suggesting that Carradine might have either tied himself up or submitted voluntarily to his incapacitation.

And I never imagined I'd ever use the "erotic asphyxiation" label ever again.

David Carradine dead...suicide?

According to ABC News

David Carradine, star of the 1970s drama "Kung Fu," was found dead in a Bangkok, Thailand, hotel room from an apparent suicide by hanging, according to police and local media. He was 72.

...Citing unnamed police officials, the Nation newspaper reported Carradine was found dead this morning by a chamber maid at the Park Nai Lert Hotel, where he was staying while shooting his latest film, "Stretch."

Carradine was reportedly found naked in the room's closet hanging from a rope, possibly from the curtains, according to the Nation and police.

"He was found hanging by a rope in the room's closet," Lt. Colonel Pirom Jantrapirom of the Lumpini police station in Bangkok told Reuters.

Suicide?

Now why would a guy hang himself in the middle of filming? Did Carradine know the movie would be that bad?

For my money the star of Kung Fu and Kill Bill vols 1&2 when the way of Vaughn Bode and INXS frontman Michael Hutchence.

Et tu, Brute?

So you think the Democratic Party is the party of the little guy? You think the Democrats stand shoulder to should with union leaders? You think Democrats even give a shit about the union members whose campaign donations they plead for every election cycle?

How Corporate America Has Outmanueverd Organized Labor
Is Card Check Dead?

By ADAM TURL
The fight for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) appears to be stumbling, with Corporate America increasingly confident that it will defeat the most "controversial" parts of the pro-union legislation.

If passed in its current form, EFCA would make it easier to form unions by giving workers the option of gaining representation when a simple majority of employees signs union cards, a method often called "card check." EFCA would also increase fines on employers for violating workers' right to organize and make it harder for companies to weasel out of initial union contracts by imposing binding arbitration if negotiations stall.

In May, the president argued for compromise on EFCA, saying "I'm supportive of it, but there aren't enough votes right now."

But because of the timidity of Democratic politicians and their backers in the union movement, big business has been able to project its case against EFCA. The result is that an upside-down "bizarro" version of what workers actually face predominates in the mainstream discussion of the legislation.
CounterPunch.com

Should have seen this coming. Well, I sort of did because on all fronts, on nearly every campaign promise to he made to the working American man and woman, President Oreo is in full retreat into the cozy confines of his corporate overlords arms.

Face it. We are fucked. I'm sorry I voted for the guy. I thought he would listen but, instead, he's just the make-up artist putting new lip stick on the same old sow.

Iowa Idiots make national headlines

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I didn't watch the Rachel Maddow Show last night because I was viewing a rebroadcast of all three parts of the excellent companion documentary to UCLA geographer Jared Diamond's, 2005 book Guns, Germs, and Steel:The Fates of Human Societies. So I missed Rachel presenting a rogues' lineup of Scott Roeder fans, all from the state of Iowa.

First up is Steve Deace , a queer hating, fetus-hugger who loves Jesus.

If you ever heard WHO Radio 1040AM, the 50,000 watt voice of the Middle West, for anything other than University of Iowa football and men's basketball you'll soon realize it is to the right of FoxNews.

Morning wing nut Jan Mickelson and Rush Limbaugh in the WHO lineup were bad enough, but a couple of years ago the station management decided to really descend into the gutter by adding former jock-talk radio host Steve Deace, pronounced Day-ess.

Well little did HO management know, or perhaps they did, that the rotund Mr. Deace is a Bible-thumping Christian of the most fundamental kind. A Christian Taliban if you will, to the right of the pope.

Also to the right of the pope when it come to abortion is Dave Leach, who I've profiled earlier, and one Dan Holman who told a CNN reporter:

"I was cheered by it(Dr. George Tiller's murder) because I knew that he wouldn't be killing any more babies. And I expect that would happen when all legal and moral -- legal ways of trying to stop it has been exhausted, as they have tried to prosecute him for giving abortions to people in violation of Kansas law.

I don't advocate it, I don't support it. But I don't condemn it, and I believe that what he did was justifiable."

And so it goes. And I bet you thought Iowa was an enlightened, "blue" state because our Supreme Court ruled that, yes, homosexual people have the same rights as heterosexual people to get married.

Sorry to disabuse you.

Let's "save" the old building by moving it, selling it on eBay

What's the logic in this:

A preservation group in Des Moines is turning to a popular auction website in hopes of finding a buyer for a historic structure.

The opening bid on eBay is $26,000 for the Continental Oil Company building.

It opened in Iowa's capitol city in 1933 as a gas and service station. The 26-by-44-foot building with a terra cotta roof is in the architectural style of Spanish Mission Revival. It was saved from the wrecking ball by being jacked up and moved, but now needs a permanent home.

Sarah Oltrogge, spokeswoman for Des Moines' Historic East Village, says too many buildings in the area are being flattened. "We really didn't want to see another building go down and this one particularly has inspired so much conversation because it is unique looking," Oltrogge says.
Radio Iowa

Now hold on for a second, why do we need to move the old gas station in order to save it? I mean it is was in a perfectly good location for, quoting Ms. Oltrogger again,"...a coffee house... or "...a great small office for someone. I mean there are new condos, shops, office complexes and a couple of gay bars in the neighborhood so the old Conoco/Dewey Ford gas station should stay in situ as it were.

But things ain't that simple here in the city of real estate developers and insurance company kingpins. Last August JSC Properties Inc, owned by James Cownie, a relative of Mayor Frank Cownie, decided a parking lot would look pretty nice at the old gas station's 203 E. Grand location.

Rather than fight Cownie the residents and business owners of Des Moines newly fashionable "East Village" ponied up funds to move the old gas station and put it up for auction on ebay.

I'm sure the "East Villagers" are hoping that some wealthy, community spirited local will purchase the structure so they can continue enjoying it.

I'm hoping that since they didn't stop Cownie's parking lot plan that some well-heeled pick from California or Texas buys the old building and ships it, brick-by-brick to Los Angeles or Houston.

Dope on the new dopes at GM, Chrysler

The biggest hoax ever foisted upon the American...hell, world...public is that an asshole with a master's of business administration, MBA, knows everything there is to know that is humanly possible about successfully running a business and a national economy.

From their recent track record one would think that MBA's would be getting run out of every town, hamlet and Middlesex on a rail. But no.

Writes Steve Parker at The Huffington Post.com

[Y]ou'd have thought Detroit and Washington might have learned the past few years, the Harvard MBAs in the auto executive suites wouldn't know a good car if they got run over by one.

Robert Kidder will be the new chairman of Chrysler and Al Koch will be "chief restructuring officer" at that's left of The General.

Kidder's résumé includes a stint as CEO of Duracell. He currently is a lead director at investment firm Morgan Stanley and CEO of 3Stone Advisors of Columbus, Ohio, which manages a private equity fund focused on investing in water-quality testing. Great -- Nardelli did such a wonderful job at Chrysler after his hiring by private equity fund Cerberus.

Koch, a managing director with AlixPartners LLP, is a veteran turnaround specialist who helped Kmart Corp. through its bankruptcy protection reorganization. He will lead the separation of the automaker's assets into a "New GM" and the remaining parts of the company that will form "Old GM." Koch will lead the management team that winds down the "Old GM" company once the automaker emerges from bankruptcy.

Another finance guy from another private equity firm.

The problem is that in this country we tend to worship the ground any moron from any of the Ivy League universities walks upon, especially Harvard. Our current president is an Ivy League product, Columbia University and Harvard law. Likewise the former resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue received his "gentleman's C" from Yale then an MBA from the Harvard School of Business.

Karl Rove's observation, "I know lots of stupid people who went to Ivy League schools," meant to disparage Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, may just be closer to the mark than we are willing to admit.

Just because they "love" fetuses it doesn't mean they can't be terrorists

The big news item Sunday was the murder of Dr. George Tiller, a Wichita, Kansas doctor who had the balls to perform so-called "late term" abortions in the buckle of the Bible belt, by one Scott Roeder, a known anti-abortion terrorist.

For some reason the mainstream media, M$M, treats anti-abortion lunatics with kid gloves. I typed in "roeder" in the Google News search engine feature. In scanning the synopses not one news story uses the term "terrorist" to describe the white, fundamentalist Christian Roeder.

Sure terrorist is an inflammatory word but if the suspect is black and a Muslim the M$M has no problem in using that descriptive term:

Shooting of Soldiers Called "Terrorist" Act

(Little Rock) -- A suspect is in custody in connection with the shooting of two Army recruiting officers in Little Rock Monday.

One of those soldiers died and the other is being treated for non-life threatening wounds.

Local law enforcement officials say they have 24-year-old Abdulhakim Muhammad in custody.

He's a U.S. citizen who changed his name from Carlos Leon Bledsoe after he converted to the Muslim faith.
Ozarks First.com, June 2, 2009

Now to be fair, and I always try to follow the journalistic ethic of fairness and balance, the headline of an analysis of Roeder in the Christian Science Monitor.com reads, Concerns mount that suspect in abortion-doctor shooting had extremist ties, and the headline of the anti-abortionist Web site LifeNews.com screams, Abortion Activists Call Pro-Life Advocates "Terrorists" in Wake of Tiller Shooting. So at least one long-time news organization is willing to hint that Roeder might, just maybe, have ties to other extremists while another has the balls to use "terrorists" in its headline. Albeit in a way pejorative towards the opponents of its editorial viewpoint.

In this morning's edition of The Des Moines Register reporter Tony Leys introduces Des Moines businessman and anti-abortion "activist" Dave Leach

A Des Moines abortion opponent said Monday that the killing of a Kansas doctor could be justified as a way to prevent what he sees as the murder of unborn babies.

The activist, Dave Leach, said he did not condone the shooting death Sunday of Dr. George Tiller, but he wouldn't condemn it.

"I grieve for Dr. Tiller," Leach said. "I rejoice for the babies who will not be killed."

Many leaders of large anti-abortion groups have condemned the killing. But Leach has gained national attention for his statements about the justification of violence against abortion providers, including Tiller. He publishes Prayer and Action News, a newsletter and Web site that focus on stopping abortion.

Even more revealing is the comments from supporters of Mr. Leach. To Wit:

urby_guy wrote:
Before all of you abortion supporters and advocates shed a tear for this Tiller fellow, think, "did I shed a tear for any of the 1000's of lives that were ended at the hands of this guy?" The 1000's (by his own admission) of hearts and lives that ended up in the dumpster outside of his office never made the news, but the death of this guy does, go figure? Something else to think about, while abortion is "legal" by our laws, so was the extermination of millions of jews by the laws of Nazi Germany, yet if someone were to have killed Hitler, that person would have been celebrated as a hero. I don't condone murder by anyone, and Tiller's murderer should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, but at least no more lives will be snuffed out by Tiller.

wdmthompson wrote:
What people need to realize is that abortion is OUTRAGEOUSLY WRONG. It is so wrong, that people will become crazy over it. The person who killed abortionist Tiller probably was crazy. Still, it's very hard for me to feel really bad about Tiller's death.

RW_Extremist wrote:
The same people who don't want terrorists having water poured on them to save innocent lives are the same people defending the mass murdering Tiller the Baby Killer. To the left, killing the innocent is acceptable. No wonder they reject GOD's words.

adelguy wrote:
It was predicted that the left-wing liberal media would use this tragedy to hammer pro-life supporters. On cue, the DMR found a nut case who by his own admission has few followers, and make him the poster-boy for pro-life believers. What trash.

No need to continue. This discussion board will go on and on in this vein all day.

By the way, I am banned from posting comments at The Des Moines Register because I offended some of the above Register posters and had the temerity to call the right wing, anti-immigrant MinuteMen "wussies."

Oh, Gee-Zus Key-Rist

I just got home for the Village Inn Restaurant. There was a very small group of "bikers" wearing their colors featuring a large Christian cross and the legend, "Believers, D.M. Iowa M.B." The "M.B." I'm given to understand means "Motorcycle Brotherhood" as opposed to the usual "One Percenter's" M.C. or motorcycle club. So I concluded these were "Christian" bikers.

It gives one pause to wonder, what model Harley would Jesus ride?

Wing Nut direct mail king sez: Obama a "socialist"

Here's the May 20, 2009 email update from the godfather of wing nutty, direct mail stupidity, Richard Viguerie:

91% of Conservatives Believe Obama is a Socialist, Marxist, Communist or Fascist

MANASSAS, VA -- An online poll by the ConservativeHQ.com

Web site found that 91 percent of 1,848 self-identified conservatives believe President Obama is a socialist (46 percent), Marxist (24 percent), communist (11 percent), or fascist (10 percent).

Only 7 percent considered him to be a liberal (5 percent), or a progressive (2 percent).

Richard Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, commented on the results:

"While this is not a scientific poll of conservatives, it is a meaningful indicator that most conservatives (the GOP base) see Obama as a dangerous radical.

"Rather than Americans coming together as a result of the election, it appears that America is becoming much more polarized.

"Because so many conservatives see President Obama as a radical leftist, Republican politicians will be under pressure to step up their criticism of President Obama and the Democrats who are closely cooperating with him.

"It will also make compromise more difficult for GOP officials. Any Republican who wants to be a national leader will feel obligated to view Obama as the vast majority of the GOP base sees him."

The poll, conducted from May 12 through May 19, asked, "How Would You Describe President Obama's Political Philosophy?" The complete results* from conservatives were:

* Socialist 46% (842)
* Marxist 24% (437)
* Communist 11% (200)
* Fascist 10% (193)
* Liberal 5% (87)
* Progressive 2% (41)
* Moderate 1% (24)
* Other 0% (9)
* Populist 0% (8)
* Conservative 0% (7)
* Libertarian 0% (0)

* Percentages may not add to 100% because of rounding)

Additional information is available on the poll results at the ConservativeHQ.com Web site at http://www.ConservativeHQ.com/active-polls/

NOTE TO EDITORS: Richard A. Viguerie pioneered political direct mail and has been called "one of the creators of the modern conservative movement" (The Nation magazine), one of the "conservatives of the century" (The Washington Times ), and one of 2008's "top 25 influencers" among Republicans (NewsMax magazine). He is the author of Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.

I really don't know how much further to the "right" idiots like Viguerie want to go? Attlia the Hun? The "divine right of kings?" Gather-hunter tribes?

And why do Republicans need ...to step up their criticism of President Obama and the Democrats who are closely cooperating with him[?] Fuck there are plenty of Democrats who've already stabbed President Oreo, and the rest of the country, in the back. Moreover Obama's shown on a couple of occasions that in reality he is nothing more than your typical, run-of-the-mill, centrist, milquetoast Democrat. So what's to complaint, wing nuts?

The Department of You Get What You Pay For

In an effort to save the taxpayer some money the Des Moines City Council in its infinite wisdom "privatized" the groundskeeping duties of the city parks to one A + Lawn and Landscape. Reports Jason Pulliam in the May 30, 2009 edition of The Des Moines Register:

City officials say lackluster groundskeeping over the Memorial Day weekend will prompt them to issue refunds to people who rented shelters at a south-side Des Moines park.

The City Council earlier this year voted unanimously to privatize mowing and custodial services at 73 public parks as part of a larger plan to save taxpayers about $3.3 million a year. But the appearance of Ewing Park, 5300 Indianola Ave., and some others has not measured up.

The privatization of mowing and custodial services was a key piece of a plan to save taxpayer money and help address a tight city budget. Parks department personnel made up the bulk of 88 employees who lost their jobs to help fill a roughly $7.5 million hole in the 2009-10 budget. Some of the employees were rehired after the parks department restructured.

Said moronic Better Business Bureau chief and Des Moines city councilmember-at-large, Chris Coleman: "It can be frustrating, but I haven't heard any complaints, and I'm not going to overreact and say this is some way related to the privatization[.]"

Yeah, right, Chris.

California, government as good as its people, part 2

At one time I though a Southern state like Mississippi or Alabama was the stupidest state in the USA. Then I was sure Texas was. Now I'm convinced California is.

Before this state’s May 19 vote on five initiatives intended to solve the state’s chronic fiscal difficulties, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — in person on the stump and via TV ad blitzes up and down the state — told voters that if the measures did not pass, the resulting budget cuts would be “draconian.”

In the days after the measures went down in flames, the announcements have come rapid fire, and various constituencies are reeling — calling the cuts “beyond draconian.”

Some 235,000 state workers will have to take a 5 percent pay cut. Of the state’s 279 state parks, 200 will be closed. Schwarzenegger’s plan to dismantle the Cal Grant program — considered one of the nation’s best programs to help poorer students cover full fees or tuition at public colleges — would make California the first US state to eliminate student financial aid while raising tuition.
Christian Science Monitor, May 30, 2009

There's more. Reports the LA Times:

Schools would be hit by $680 million in new cuts to classrooms and by $315 million in cuts for transportation. The state's social safety net would lose $1 billion more in funding for the poor, disabled and aged. Cities and counties would lose an additional $242 million in transportation funding.

Schwarzenegger would save $100 million by suspending laws requiring the state to pay for a variety of local government services, including offering absentee ballots before elections, resolving child custody problems, investigating deaths at mental hospitals, posting safety signs on beaches, collecting DNA samples from bodies, caring for abandoned pets and many more.

State workers, already under orders to take two unpaid days off each month, would also receive a 5% wage cut, saving the state an additional $470 million, as part of Schwarzenegger's new plan.

Mirroring that proposal, the University of California, long besieged by controversy over its high executive salaries, announced 5% pay cuts for about 30 top administrators in the wake of the governor's plans to slash higher education funding. Many of them earn more than $300,000 a year.
LATimes.com, May 30, 2009

So, O.K., being a smug Iowan I didn't follow this story very closely. I've been led to believe, though, turn out for the May 19 special election was low leaving the field open for the heirs of anti-tax demigod Howard Jarvis.

To be honest no one with half a brain willingly raises a tax on himself*...that's why you elect politicians, so you have some one to blame for raising your tax. But, given the nature of our "free market" economy and it's built-in inflationary tendencies, if one wishes to enjoy the services that only an organized political entity can provide it is necessary to raise taxes once in awhile. And the only way to keep that equitable is through a progressive tax system. Well ever since the 16th Amendment went into effect reactionaries have been, successfully I might add, rolling back the only fair system of public taxation ever invented by man.

So what we witness in California is the end result of years and years of anti-tax propaganda whereby the good citizens of the "seventh largest economy in the world"** have just fucked themselves royally.

*The "smart" citizens of the State of Iowa now have the privilege, through the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) , to raise the regressive sales tax a penny, "only for a limited number of years (lol)," on themselves.

**According to the California Department of Finance as of 2003

Libertarians dream of seagoing "Sea World"

Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! Alternet.org posted a really funny article by Brad Reed headlined, Seasteading: Libertarians Set to Launch a (Wet) Dream of 'Freedom' in International Waters.

Imagine a group of egoistical, coordinator class* assholes on a platform at least 200 miles from any recognized, national shoreline setting up their own philosopher king and queen republic.

It begs the obvious question: Who'll take out the trash? I mean, here in collectivistland isn't that why coordinator class libertarians hire illegal immigrants?

* a tip o'the spoon to Eric Patton for his definition of a pervasive, though little studied, class.

Stirring the pot when it doesn't need stirring

The Senate confirmation hearings have not even begun and already I'm experiencing "Sonia Sotomayor ethnicity" fatigue. I mean why should it make any difference if President Oreo's initial nominee for the United States Supreme Court is "Latina" or not and will it effect her decision making?

Of course it will but what the fuck! I'm sure Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr's decisions are influenced by the fact that he grew up a white boy in a managerial/coordinator class household in an affluent, small Indiana town on Lake Michigan.

So CNN this morning asked the musical question:Sotomayor nomination: Is it about ethnicity? To their credit CNN reporter Rachel Rodriguez ends the news story by asking "Are we focusing too much on her ethnic background rather than her judicial history and qualifications?" By that I think she must mean the mainstream media as I don't give a flying fuck.

Karl Rove on Ivy League grads

Shitstorm alert! Top Obama donors get ambassadorships

Batten down the hatches, boys and girls! President Oreo has just named the top three contributors to his successful presidential campaign to the ambassadorships of the United Kingdom, France and Japan!

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Three of President Obama's top fundraisers are getting plum jobs as United States ambassadors.

Among the 12 ambassadors named last night by the White House, three -- Charles Rivkin, Louis Susman and John Roos -- were so-called "bundlers" for candidate Obama.

Rivkin (named ambassador to France) and Roos (named ambassador to Japan) both raised $500,000 or more for Obama, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
MSNBC.com

Oh, fuck! Has anything like this ever happened before??!!!

Bush’s patronage appointments to ambassador exceed father’s, Clinton’s
Posted on June 25, 2007 by Dr. Denny

During the presidency of George W. Bush, nearly four out of every 10 of his nominees for ambassador have been “non-career appointees” — or what many would consider “political” appointees. Neither his father nor President Clinton had such a high percentage.

President Bush’s 36 percent rate exceeds the 29 percent of President Clinton’s ambassadorial nominees who were non-career appointees. During George Herbert Walker Bush’s presidency, about 31 percent were non-career appointees.

Many of George W. Bush’s nominees have been significant donors to his election campaigns or have personal and political connections to the president.
Scholars & Rogues.wordpress.com

Is everybody in Alabama this stupid or only Sessions?

Jesus Christ, is everybody in Alabama this stupid or only U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions?

The Senate Republican who is charged with grilling Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor during her confirmation hearings told USA TODAY's Matt Kelley this morning that she needs to explain a 2001 speech in which she said a "wise Latina woman" might make better judicial decisions than a white man.

"The American people need an answer before she goes on the bench as to exactly what she meant by that," said Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee.

"It's on its face a troubling statement," Sessions continued. "It goes against the idea of color-blind justice -- blind justice, not just color-blind justice."
USAToday.com, May 28, 2009

To it's credit the USAToday article linked to the original 2001 speech

...Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am not so sure Justice O'Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.

Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society. Until 1972, no Supreme Court case ever upheld the claim of a woman in a gender discrimination case. I, like Professor Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. As Judge Cedarbaum pointed out to me, nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown.

Keith Olbermann and his guest Eugene Robinson busted this canard on Countdown last night. I guess the stupid Sessions didn't get the memo.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

California, government as good as its people

It should come as no surprise that the California Supreme Court in its ruling on Proposition 8--a voter initiated, voter approved amendment to the state constitution codifying marriage between a man and a woman as the only legally recognized state of matrimony thereby cutting the so-called LGBT community out of the marrying business--handed down a decision yesterday guaranteed to please no one and solve nothing.

In their infinite wisdom the California Supreme Court justices decided to keep Proposition 8's constitutional limitation of marriage while recognizing the legitimacy of the 18,000 lesbos and queers who had the foresight to get "married" before last November's election. So of course the religious right is disappointed that the state can't tear up the marriage licenses of those 18,000 same married carpet-munchers and fags while the rest of California's unmarried dykes and fairies have their tits in an uproar because they can't legally march down the wedding aisle.

A base of what ails California is one of the late Nineteenth-early Twentieth Century Republican progressive and Democratic populists' best ideas gone very, very wrong, direct public initiative and referendum. From its inception in 1912 until 1978, Californians wisely used their initiative and referendum sparingly and only in the face of general legislative incompetence.

Proposition 13 changed this pattern.

The success of Proposition 13 marked the beginning of a new trend. The initiative was no longer viewed as a means to correct the Legislature. Rather, it became an instrument to govern. Between 1982 and 1988, voters passed 22 measures. In the 1990s, they passed 24 more. In the 20 years since Proposition 13, Californians passed more initiatives than in the preceding 6 1/2 decades.

Many of these measures further limited the Legislature's ability to govern.

The initiative remains popular among all segments of the California electorate. Liberals are still wedded to the dream of popular sovereignty, and once-skeptical conservatives embrace it as a way to remove many issues from the jurisdiction of elected officials.

In truth, the initiative has, in effect, strangled the republic and made California less governable.
Why the California Initiative System is Undermining Democracy, By Jules Tygiel, HNN.us, October 31, 2005

Since California's initiative and referendum system are only as good as its citizens one wonders how many heterosexual, serial monogamous "Christians" voted for Prop 8 to keep the "light-in-the-loafers" crowd out of the state's overworked divorce courts? Then again, how many of California's minority citizens, victims of past and on-going racial discrimination, voted for Prop 8 because homosexuality is taboo in "their" community (RuPaul, ain't gay, he just dresses that way!)

With the passage of Proposition 8 Californian got what they deserved.

A little bit about a lot of things

First up in America's hit parade of stupidity is 13-year old Daniel Hauser and his mother Colleen who ran away from Minnesota last week because the poor little flower just couldn't stand any more chemotherapy. I guess the poor little bastard couldn't take anymore puking and hair loss so it was off to Mexico for some herbal enemas while U.S. authorities spend a bazillion bucks trying to drag the little s.o.b. and his goofy mom back to Minnesota.

Let me clue you in, folks in Minnesota law enforcement, if the kid's parents want to kill their kid with herbal teas, let them.

Let us now move on to our president. Over the weekend the lapdog media (MSM) widely reported that President Oreo was under no pressure to appoint a woman, replacing retiring centrist and life-long milquetoast, David Souter, to the Supreme Court. So this morning the MSM is all gaga over Oreo's pick, a Puerto Rican-born, New York woman,Sonia Sotomayor.

It can only get better if she's a lesbian-Catholic who is for on-demand abortion and the confiscation of all firearms. At least the reactionaries would have something legitimate to bitch about. It'd even be better if on the first first Monday in October she rolls up a copy of the U.S. Constitution and sticks it up Scalia's ass! But that ain't gonna happen. What we are in for is a long, hot summer of idiot Republicans smearing the poor dumb bitch while the feckless Democrats, her allies, mince around like a bunch of sugarplum fairies. Oh, she'll be confirmed but Sotomayor will most likely be President Oreo's Clarence Thomas, though with better hygiene (no pubes on the Coke can.)

What other really stupid things can I bitch about? Oh! How about this letter-to-the-editor of in today's edition of The Des Moines Register:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is smart, articulate and knows his stuff. I still remember the two vice-presidential debates in which he participated. With his straight forward, quick witted, no-nonsense debating style, he easily won those debates with opponents Joe Lieberman and John Edwards. The fact that the main-stream media scored it different is proof of its bias and fears.

Now Cheney is taking on President Barack Obama. A review of the two speeches last week that has people abuzz reveals the former vice president is someone who can still maintain command of an audience with articulate oratory while the president is aloof and naïve and has to rely on teleprompters to be effective. I scored it Cheney 1 and Obama 0.

As a Republican, it’s our misfortune that Cheney never ran for president. He would have been a great one. Thank God, though, he’s still center stage in the public debate surrounding national security and the issues that confront us today. Right now, America can use a man with Cheney’s talents. He speaks truth to idiots.

— Jeff Jorgensen, Treynor

hmmm...Is Mr. Jorgensen referring to himself in his concluding sentence? That's enough stupidity for one day.

I seen some stupid things but...

So yesterday I go with the old man to decorate his parents' and grandmother's graves in Indianola, Iowa. Afterwards we stop at a local roadside cafe, which has been there for what must be a thousand years though I've never eaten there, for lunch (which, by the way, was excellent if you have a hankering for a deep-fat fried pork tenderloin and onion rings.)

Anyway there was a group of people in their motorcycle togs and on a nice day that's no big deal.

However I did notice one of the ladies in the group was coving her head with a stylish American-flag design "do-rag." This led me to conclude she was undergoing cancer chemo-therapy as she was hairless, the portions of her body that the public could see at any rate. Really nothing out of the ordinary here.

Bear in mind, Iowa's a good place to go organ harvesting in the summer. We have a strong lobby of rugged individualists who successfully make the claim that wearing a helmet when riding one's motorcycle at 40-miles over the posted 65 miles per hour speed limit on primary two-line highways is an infringement of their First Amendment rights. So nary a helmet was in sight as the group of Harley-Davidson-licensed, official sportswear clad folks mounted their gasoline-fueled steeds to ride off into...the rest of the afternoon.

I seen some stupid things but here was a lady fighting a life-threatening disease and the only thing between her head and the hard, hard pavement of U.S. Highway 65-69 was an American flag do-rag.

Shitstorm clouds loom over Iran

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran could be within one to three years from developing a nuclear weapon and time is running out for diplomacy to defuse the problem, the top U.S. military officer said on Sunday.

The United States and other Western powers are concerned that Iran could combine elements of its uranium enrichment and missile programs to create a nuclear weapon, although Tehran denies it intends to do this.
Reuters.com Iran within 3 years of nuke: U.S. military chief, by Alan Elsner, May 24, 2009

Oh, crap! Iran could, maybe, have a nuke in one year...or three...it depends.

Please, everybody cut the crap, because it's the worst kept secret in the world that Israel has had nuclear bombs since the Sixties. In fact one-eyed Israeli defense minister Moshe Dyan was so shook at the early success of Egypt and Syria during the 1973 Yom Kippur War that he contemplated nuking both of them.

Here's what the Federation of American Scientista says in the introduction of an essay on Israel's nuclear capability:

Israel has not confirmed that it has nuclear weapons and officially maintains that it will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East. Yet the existence of Israeli nuclear weapons is a "public secret" by now due to the declassification of large numbers of formerly highly classified US government documents which show that the United States by 1975 was convinced that Israel had nuclear weapons.

Here's old ET's common sense solution to this Middle Eastern nuclear conundrum: Force Israel into fessing up that it indeed possesses nukes, then proceed with disarmament talks between them and the other nuclear power(s) in the region, Pakistan and Iran. The U.S. could step up and unilaterally get rid of a few of our old, out-dated nuclear warheads as a gesture of good faith and example. Simple, no?

Unfortunately, the dumb fuckers who run this world will never let that happen.

It's been a long time since I posted anything

And, as of right now, I'm not in the mood to write. I've hit one of my periodic writer's blocks plus the fact that others are more eloquently saying what I am thinking.

But, the other day I changed my Internet browser homepage because the editorial content was utterly ridiculous. It seems that the editor of BuzzFlash.com took exception with a bit of fluff posted at The Huffingpost.com.

I'm not going to rehash the topic, suffice it to say, however, it was a prime example of where the "ideologically" pure left and the reactionary right agree, the further shores of politics and all that. In fact it is distressing how the reactionary right and the ideologically pure left agree on so many topics, though attacking from different angles.

The biggest bugbear of both the ideologically pure left and the reactionary right is pornography.

I've little interest in pornography, though I will admit to enjoying photographs and printings of nubile young, and the occasion not so young, women in various stages of undress. A predilection that indicates I am a fairly "normal" heterosexual male.

But it was a fairly innocent, albeit stupid, bit of fluff on celebrity "boob jobs" posted at The Huffington Post.com which got BluzzFlash.com's panties in a bunch. To which I say, so what.

From now on I will keep my eyes and ears peeled for the further shores of politics.