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.

Separated At Birth???

Gasp!!! Oh, The Phony Outrage!!!!!!

Wot A Bitch!

McCain/Palin, Drillin' in ANWR

YouTube: "If I Were A Terrorist"

Unintentional Haw-haws

Here's a item currently being sold by one of my favorite mail-order/Internet retailers:

Wear your pride on your sleeve (and every place else) with this very patriotic Polo. Classically styled Shirt has images of both the U.S. Flag and the Declaration of Independence printed on it.

100% cotton knit with 3-button front, rib-knit collar and cuffs. Straight hem with side-split seams to ensure unencumbered flag-waving. Double-stitched hem. Machine wash / line dry. Imported[!!!!!!!!]

Now, don't get me wrong, I buy a lot of clothes from this particular retailer, and I won't embarrass the company by including an Internet link. I still want to buy things from'em. And they've embarrassed themselves enough by prominently displaying this "patriotic" shirt on the cover of their current mail order catalogue.

I'm sure the company will sell plenty of these shirts and the majority of the purchasers will never see the irony in a shirt emblazoned with the American flag and Constitution made in China, Bangladesh or some other Third World shit hole.

A fighter for the non-bitter, "common" man

I guess Hillary's ready to go out and slop some hogs, chew some chaw, noodle some catfish and maybe, just maybe, talk Chelsea into enlisting in the All Volunteer Force because it's such a great job opportunity.

I had the TV on during breakfast this morning and caught the tail-end of some ridiculousness about Hillary Clinton and John McCain's campaign saying that Barack Obama insulted small-town, under- and unemployed Pennsylvanians for pointing out that these people are in fact bitter and cynical after twenty-five years of political pandering, outsourcing, layoffs, tax breaks for the rich and a no-win war where their kids go to die.


It seems the elitist, effete, intellectual Obama had the temerity to say:

Here's how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn't buy it. And when it's delivered by -- it's true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laugher), then that adds another layer of skepticism (laughter).

But -- so the questions you're most likely to get about me, 'Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What's the concrete thing?' What they wanna hear is -- so, we'll give you talking points about what we're proposing -- close tax loopholes, roll back, you know, the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama's gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we're gonna provide health care for every American. So we'll go down a series of talking points.

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Mayhill Fowlers, Huffington Post.com April 11, 2008

But these good Pennsylvanians aren't bitter, responds Ms. Clinton. They're just happy-go-lucky "folks" who think that stocking shelves and chasing down shopping carts in the parking lot is the best job in the world, now that the steel mill moved it's operations to Bongo-Congo in order to remain competative in a worldwide "free market" economy. Said Ms. Clinton of these happy-go-lucky "folks":

"It's being reported that my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who've faced hard times are bitter. Well, that's not my experience. As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive who are rolling up their sleeves. They're working hard every day for a better future for themselves and their children. Pennsylvanians don't need a president who looks down on them. They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them."

Certainly these non-bitter, resilient optimists know how Ms Clinton fought for workers' rights during her six-year tenure as board member and general counsel for Wal Mart. And they must also know she fought her husband, Bill, tooth and nail over the ratification of NAFTA.

That was yesterday. Today this tireless fighter for the little guy, Ms. Clinton said:

"[I'm]taken aback by the demeaning remarks Sen. Obama made about people in small town America."

"Sen. Obama's remarks are elitist and out of touch, they are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans, certainly not the Americans I know, not the Americans I grew up with, not the Americans I lived with in Arkansas or represent in New York."
CNN Political Ticker.com

Now if that kind of crap isn't enough to make one bitter and cynical you're just not paying attention.

More Who Writes This Shit??

The things one finds in his email Inbox:

DO I HAVE THIS STRAIGHT?

HIS FATHER WAS AN BLACK AFRICAN MUSLIM FROM KENYA.
WE HAVE SEEN PICTURES OF HIS AFRICAN FAMILY.

HIS MOTHER WAS A WHITE AMERICAN ATHEIST FROM KANSAS.
WHERE ARE THE PICTURES OF HIS AMERICAN FAMILY?

HIS FATHER DESERTED HIS MOTHER WHEN HE WAS ONLY TWO YEARS OLD AND WENT BACK TO AFRICA BY WAY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. HOW? WAS HIS FATHER WEALTHY?

HIS MOTHER MARRIED AN INDONESIAN MUSLIM AND THEN MOVED TO JAKARTA WHERE HE WAS ENROLLED IN A MUSLIM SCHOOL.

WHEN HE REACHED HIGH SCHOOL AGE HIS MOTHER SENT HIM TO HAWAII TO BE WITH HIS WHITE GRANDPARENTS AND HE WAS PUT INTO AN EXPENSIVE PRIVATE SCHOOL. HE LATER WENT TO HARVARD UNIVERSITY. HOW? WERE HIS GRANDPARENTS RICH?

HE LIVES IN A $1.4 MILLION HOUSE OBTAINED THROUGH A DEAL WITH A WEALTHY FUNDRAISER. HOW?

HE "WORKED" AS A CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST IN CHICAGO. HE HAS NEVER HELD A PRODUCTIVE JOB OR RECEIVED A PAY CHECK THAT WAS NOT GOVERNMENT-FUNDED AND/OR TAXPAYER SUPPORTED.

THE PRESIDENCY IS NOT A CIVIL RIGHTS POSITION, NOR IS IT SUBJECT TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION SET ASIDES; ON-THE-JOB TRAINING WON'T CUT IT.

HE ENTERED POLITICS AT THE STATE LEVEL AND THEN THE NATIONAL LEVEL WHERE HE HAS MINIMAL EXPERIENCE.

HE IS PROUD OF HIS "AFRICAN HERITAGE" (A FATHER WHO GOT A WHITE GIRL PREGNANT AND DESERTED HER).

WHERE IS THE PRIDE IN HIS "WHITE HERITAGE"? (A MOTHER WHO FLAUNTED CONVENTION AND DID NOT BELIEVE IN GOD).

SOME MIGHT THINK THERE WAS NOT MUCH TO BE PROUD OF EITHER WAY.

HE BELONGS, AND HAS BELONGED FOR OVER 20 YEARS, TO AN "AFRO-CENTRIC" CHURCH IN CHICAGO THAT HATES WHITES, HATES JEWS, AND BLAMES AMERICA FOR ALL THE WORLD'S PERCEIVED FAULTS. (INCLUDING CREATING THE AIDs VIRUS IN ORDER TO INFLICT IT ON AFRICANS).

HE REPEATEDLY WHITEWASHES THE PASTOR, HIS CHURCH AND THE MEMBERS WHO CHEERED AFTER HEARING VITRIOLIC TIRADES AGAINST AMERICA.

HE COULD NOT CONFRONT HIS PASTOR BUT HE WANTS US TO BELIEVE HE CAN CONFRONT NORTH KOREA AND IRAN ?
YEAH RIGHT ! !

DURING HIS VERY BRIEF TIME IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE HE HAS MANAGED TO AMASS THE NUMBER ONE ULTRA LIBERAL VOTING RECORD OUT OF THE ONE HUNDRED MEMBERS.

HE HAS VOTED CONSISTENTLY FOR BIGGER GOVERNMENT AND HIGHER TAXES. HE HAS VOTED FOR BIG ENTITLEMENTS AND LEGISLATION THAT WOULD SEVERELY CURTAIL AMERICA'S ABILITY TO FIGHT TERRORISM AND TO PROTECT OUR BORDERS AND OUR NATIONAL INTERESTS AROUND THE WORLD.

BUT, HE IS A GOOD ORATOR. ISN'T THAT A COMFORT?

YEAH, I THINK I SEE HOW WELL HE COULD UNITE THE COUNTRY.

I THINK THE TRUTH IS THAT HE HOPES NO ONE WILL PUT THE PIECES TOGETHER.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO OUR NEW CHIEF PILOT. HE HAS NEVER FLOWN AN AIRPLANE, IN FACT HE HAS NEVER EVEN SAT IN THE COCKPIT, BUT HE SAYS HE HAS RIDDEN ON PLANES BEFORE. WE ARE SURE HE WILL GUIDE US SAFELY THROUGH THE STORMS WE MAY ENCOUNTER ON THIS FLIGHT. PEOPLE WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD THE STORY ABOUT THE WOLF HIDING IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING SO HE CAN DESTROY THEM FROM WITH-IN ? THE HAND WRITING IS ON THE WALL, DO YOU NOT HAVE EYES TO SEE IT ?BINGO IS THE ONE !

THINK LONG AND HARD BEFORE YOU VOTE FOR THIS GUY!

You would think that by now people would be savvy enough, sophisticated enough to question an anonymously authored, unattributed email purporting to be truth. But, alas, no.

Of course the most stinging "criticism" this list of half-truths and innuendos raises against Obama, besides being mothered by an atheist and being pastored by a "racist," Black, Christian minister, is that he never in his life worked a "productive" job, meaning in the private sector for a bank, lending institution, real estate, so on and so forth.

Of course this e-missive overlooks the fact that the never-mentioned "Senator" John McCain has sucked off Uncle Sugar's tit for his entire life. He was born on a Navy base in the Panama Canal Zone, both his father and grandfather were admirals in the U.S. Navy; after graduating fifth lowest in his Annapolis Naval Academy class of 1958 he went on to an distinguish himself by promptly getting shot down over North Vietnam and taking up residence in the so-called Hanoi Hilton for five years.

Here we pick up the narrative of McCain's life from the Web site Biography.com:

Though McCain had lost most of his physical strength and flexibility, he was determined to continue serving as a naval aviator. After a painful nine months of rehabilitation, he returned to flying duty, but it soon became clear that his injuries had permanently impaired his ability to advance in the Navy.

His introduction to politics came in 1977, when he was assigned as the Navy's liaison to the U.S. Senate. In 1980, after marrying his second wife, Cindy Hensley, McCain moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and began working on establishing connections in politics. He was first elected to political office in 1982, easily winning a seat in the House of Representatives when his well-known war record helped overcome doubts about his "carpetbagger" status.

So were is McCain's experience in the vaunted "private" sector. The only reference I find is this line from the Web site Keep and Share.com, "In 1980, McCain married Cindy Hensley and moved to Phoenix, where he went to work for his father-in-law's Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship." So two years working in his father-in-law's beer distributorship is all the experience in the "private" sector John McCain has on his resume. Two years later off to the U.S. House and back on Uncle Sugar's tit up to the present. Talk about your "Washington insider."

Of course our wing nutty friends rationalize this away. "Duh, McCain spend five years prisoner of war...he hero...he only get from 'Murican people what he deserve."

And, as I've pointed out before, this garbage works particularly well on white, suburban men, and women, who like to proclaim loudly and often how hard working they are at down at the bank, lending institution, real estate office and so on, as they put their feet upon the desk and lace their fingers behind their heads. The other audience for this type of propaganda are lower-working class whites, those most adversely effected by the looming economic depression (which "President" John McCain says he will do nothing about.) Perhaps this email, and others like it along with electronic lynchings by association, helps explain McCain drawing even with Obama in the latest presidential polls. These types of sub rosa campaigns are very effective because they appear to be written by an average Joe, like me, and so appear to echo the thoughts of the person, or persons, forwarding the email. But they are dishonest.

Once again let me paraphrase Jimmy Carter in noting that America deserves a government as good as its people. And if John McCain wins in November that can only mean that the American people are truly stupid, easily influenced, emotional babies who get exactly what they deserve.

News item: Obama aide calls Clinton "monster"

Samantha Power, the able foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama who referred to Hillary Clinton as a "monster," has quit her role with the Obama campaign.

Power's comment about Clinton was a rough one: "She is a monster, too -- that is off the record -- she is stooping to anything... You just look at her and think, 'Ergh.' But if you are poor and she is telling you some story about how Obama is going to take your job away, maybe it will be more effective. The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive."

But let's be a little serious here: What Power said is no different from what campaigners say about their opponents on a daily basis -- except perhaps for the use of the rather sophisticated word "monster" as opposed to the usual explicatives. It's just that Power said it in a setting where her attempt to take the word back with a "that is off the record" grasp was not going to work.

No good comes from sidelining frank and outspoken "rookies." Obama and Clinton both need more aides like her. And we all need to accept that campaigns and campaigners can make honest mistakes -- indeed, the mistakes are what tell us these are human endeavors, as opposed to mere spin machines.
John Nichols, The Nation

O.K., Samatha Powers has now apologized, something I do not think she need have done. And she has quit the Obama campaign as unpaid foreign policy consultant.

Well done, Mainstream Media! Bravo! You've done Hillary's bidding and you've done it well. You've kneecapped Obama's campaign. And you've looked to other way as Clinton staffer Howard Wolfson likened Barack Obama to Bill Clinton's nemesis Kenneth Starr, chief semen-sniffer of the Lewinsky affair.

And of course no one in the upper echelons of the Clinton campaign have apologized, publicly at least, for this:

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Kenyan elder who presented Barack Obama with a traditional outfit that fueled false rumors he was Muslim says the garb was cultural, not religious — and that had President Bush visited he could have "dressed him the same."

Pictures of the Democratic presidential candidate wearing the robe and turban over his Western-style clothing spread on the Internet.

The gossip and news Web site The Drudge Report said the photo was circulated by the campaign of Obama rival Hillary Rodham Clinton. But Clinton aides said the campaign had never sanctioned its distribution.
AP, march 8, 2008

No word if the "volunteers," who slipped the offending photograph the way of Internet sleazemeister Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report, have resigned. The Clinton campaign does acknowledge that unnamed "volunteers" who sent e-mails alleging Obama's adherence to Islam have quit though.

What unsubstantiated smear on Obama will slide from the Clinton campaign? Will be the above mentioned Samantha Powers--author, lawyer, human-rights activist and "professor of practice and founding executive director of the Carr Center at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG)"Harvard Crimson, July 29, 2005--, often described as one of Obama's closest advisors and friend, be rumored as the "other-woman" in Obama's life? She is, after all, 38, tall, pretty and, most importantly, white.

And a cheating husband is something Hillary Clinton has experience with.

From Bill's Private Stash

Hillary lookin' better than she has a right to be

Success In Afghanistan

My friend's daughter

Who woulda thunk

Digging her own grave

CLINTON WON'T COMMIT TO RENEW CONSTITUTION...Illinois Senator Barack Obama has finally signed the American Freedom Pledge, joining his fellow Democratic presidential candidates in encouraging the restoration of basic Constitutional principles after the battering they have taken during the Bush-Cheney era.

All the Democrats, that is, except New York Senator Hillary Clinton.

The effort to get presidential contenders to sign on the American Freedom Pledge has been promoted by organizations ranging from the Center for Constitutional Rights to Human Rights Watch, MoveOn.org , Amnesty International USA, the Brennan Center for Justice, the Campaign to Defend the Constitution, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and True Majority.

The pledge is anything but radical. It simply asks candidates to affirm a statement that reads: "We are Americans, and in our America we do not torture, we do not imprison people without charge or legal remedy, we do not tap people's phones and emails without a court order, and above all we do not give any President unchecked power. I pledge to fight to protect and defend the Constitution from attack by any President."

The often embarrassingly cautious Obama campaign had been slow to sign on to the pledge. Earlier this week the American Freedom Campaign, which is promoting the pledge, revealed that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Alaska Senator Mike Gravel had signed the pledge, while former North Carolina Senator John Edwards and Delaware Senator Joe Biden had responded with supportive statements. After a release from the freedom campaign noted that Obama and Clinton had not committed to the Constitution, Obama's aides moved quickly.
The Nation.com/blogs

In light of Super Tuesday...

A repost from Weekly Spoon, June 7, 2006.

My buddy in Oregon send my a link to the neonatal political party Unity08. Catchy, what?

Now there a couple of things I like about Unity08's agenda, but, of course, being "bipartisan" and "centrist" there should be something for everybody. I do, for example, partially agree with the following statement:

Unity08 divides issues facing the country into two categories: Crucial Issues – on which America’s future safety and welfare depend; and Important Issues – which, while vital to some, will not, in our judgment, determine the fate or future of the United States.

In our opinion, Crucial Issues include: Global terrorism, our national debt, our dependence on foreign oil, the emergence of India and China as strategic competitors and/or allies, nuclear proliferation, global climate change, the corruption of Washington’s lobbying system, the education of our young, the health care of all, and the disappearance of the American Dream for so many of our people.

By contrast, we consider gun control, abortion and gay marriage important issues, worthy of debate and discussion in a free society, but not issues that should dominate or even crowd our national agenda.

In our opinion – since the disintegration of the Soviet Union – our political system seems to have focused more attention on the “important issues” than the “crucial issues.” One result: The political parties have been built to address the interests of their “base” but have failed to address the realities that impact most Americans.

Well, I'll give'm that. Gun control, abortion and gay marriage are "...not issues that should dominate or even crowd our national agenda." In fact I wouldn't even consider these "Important Issues". They're just plain stupid. Anyone who votes for a political candidate based on what Unity08 calls "Important Issues" is stupid and deserves to get screwed.

As for Unity08's "Crucial Issues", yeah, they sound good but watch out. If you take a gander at the group's "Founders Council" you'll see that it's heavily larded with disaffacted Republican moderates, entrepreneurs, (probably rich) college kids, a sprinkling of lawyers and Carter administration chief-of-staff Hamilton Jordan (pronounced Jerr-dan). So don't expect any denunciations of a "free market economy," or anything that might fundamentallly upset the socio-economic status quo, i.e. Rockefeller Republicans and the "New" Democrats of the Democratic Leadership Council.

But what is most destrubing, to me at least, is this statement:

Goal One is the election of a Unity Ticket for President and Vice-President of the United States in 2008 – headed by a woman and/or man from each major party or by an independent who presents a Unity Team from both parties.

This is my worst nightmare. But, of course, Unity08 is honest in dissolving the illusion of a "two-party system." But what man, and what women fit Unity08's bill?

In the time that I posted the above how little has changed. The corportocracy and its lapdogs the Mainstream Media, in the space of 18 months, has maneuvered the electorate back to the snide. I mean what are the meaningful differences between the laughing witch and the man with the lopsided face? Both of them voted with Bush on the Iraq war resolution and both of them are against the Bush tax cuts for the idle rich. Yippee-fucking-skippee.

There is one difference between June 7, 2006 and now. Unity'08 has suppended operations. It seems a couple of the group's big-wigs are pushing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a "third-party" alternative. Total and unmitigated bullshit. Bloomberg's just the third pea in the pod.

Ann Coulter: Hillary is more Republican than John McCain

If one needs anymore reason not to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Who Needs The GOP?

"I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

"Her list of favorite presidents - Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Truman, George H.W. Bush and Reagan - demonstrates how she thinks." From the Hillary Clinton for President Web site, December 12, 2007.

Another reader responds

A reader comment to my entry Who writes this shit?? clears up much:

For information about the CARIBE program, you can simple go to http://www.caribeprogram.com/refservices.html

This program is to assist refugees from the Caribbean and is part of the State of Florida Refugee Services. From their site:"Eligible students may receive vouchers to pay for vocational training, tuition, materials and fees for programs offered at Erwin, Leary, Tampa Bay Tech and Brewster Technical Centers."

I also found information about the WAIT program from Reinhardt College. From the site:"WAIT stands for Working Adults Into Teaching. This new degree completion program at Reinhardt College will help working adults earn a degree in Early Childhood Education."

So, in a simple summary, the above author is probably correct that the unbacked story is probably false, but programs are out there that can make it easy for non-citizens to get a free education in this country. However, there are a lot of programs out there for citizens too. You just have to get off your lazy behind and do some of the leg work that a few non-citizens have been willing to do to get a free ride.

If you have received this email, don't just forward it, read it fact check it and if you don't like what you come up with, do what I do and contact your legislators. I you take an active part in the government, then they can't run over you as easily or as frequently.

A big ol' tip o' the spoon to waif69 for the info!

The CARIBE Program is an Adult and Community Education project that provides free English language, GED, and Hi-Tec vocational training to recent Cuban, Haitian, and other entrants with refugee or asylee status.

According to the Web site the CARIBE Program... is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement and administered by the Florida Department of Children and Families. The program is administered by the Hillsborough County Public Schools, therefore it is not a nationwide program. Hillsborough County, Florida is were the city of Tampa is located.

Reinhardt College, which administers the WAIT Program, is a "Private liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church," ePodunk.com. So, again not a national program. And not restricted to immigrants, legal, illegal or otherwise.

Why didn't she get an abortion?

The latest pretty-white-girl-goes-missing-pretty-white-girl-found-dead story concerns one Maria Lauterbach, USMC, who reportedly wandered away from Camp Lejeune sometime before Christmas. She has been found murdered along with the fetus she carried since an alleged rape sometime in April of last year.

On discovering the burned bodies of Lauterbach and her fetus in a shallow grave Saturday Onslow County, NC. Sheriff Ed Brown said,"...[The] little hand was about the size of my thumb. The little fingers were rolled up[.] One of the things that will probably stick with me for a long time, and forever, is that little hand, the way those fingers were turned, that had been burned off the arm. That is bizarre. That is tragic. And it's disgusting." And disgusting it is. But that little hand also begs the question: If Maria Lauterbach is a rape victim why did she decide to carry the child of a brutally, violent act to term? Why did she not get an abortion?

From the little personal information in cyberspace about Ms. Lauterbach one can neither conclude that abortion was not an option because of religious conviction or she was, indeed, involved romantically with her killer, Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean.

But if she had had an abortion, after reporting the alleged rape, she might yet still be alive. And if not at least a fetus would not be a murder victim.

This is a case where abortion really would have been a blessing.

On Obama's church and economic mal-distribution

hey et, this was an email i got from a co-worker on obama - my response are on top.

thought you would find it interesting.

they seem more a black PRIDE church than a black SUPREMIST (sic) church

• To have a church whose theological perspective starts from the vantage point of Black liberation theology being its center, is not to say that African or African American people are superior to any one else.

• African-centered thought, unlike Eurocentrism, does not assume superiority and look at everyone else as being inferior.

• There is more than one center from which to view the world. In the words of Dr. Janice Hale, “Difference does not mean deficience (sic).” It is from this vantage point that Black liberation theology speaks.


what's wrong with being a muslim (sic)?

and you can get in trouble for sending this kind of politic and religious stuff at work.


Now I do know that we get a lot of stuff through our email, but this one certainly is an eye opener!!

Obama mentioned his church during his appearance with Oprah. It's the Trinity Church of Christ. I found this interesting. Obama's church: Please read and go to this church's website and read what is written there. It is very alarming. Barack Obama is a member of this church and is running for President of the U.S. If youlook (sic) at the first page of their website, you will learn that this congregation has a non-negotiable commitment to Africa. No where is AMERICA even mentioned.
Notice too, what color you will need to be if you should want to join Obama's church... B-L-A-C-K!!!
Doesn't look like his choice of religion has improved much over his (former?) Muslim upbringing.
Are you aware that Obama's middle name is Mohammed (sic)? Strip away his nice looks, the big smile and smooth talk and what do you get? Certainly a racist, as plainly defined by the stated position of his church! And possibly a covert worshiper of the Muslim faith, even today. This guy desires to rule over America while his loyalty is totally vested in a Black Africa!
I cannot believe this has not been all over the TV and newspapers. This is why it is so important to pass this message along to all of our family & friends. To think that Obama has even the slightest chance in the run for the presidency, is really scary.
Click on the link below: This is the web page for the church Barack Obama belongs to:


http://www.tucc.org/about.htm

I want to thank my friend Older Music Geek for forwarding this bit of unadulterated race-baiting. Again this e-mail begs the question, who writes this shit and why?

Well the "why" is very clear. It's the oldest con in American history: divide the poor and working class along racial lines so they won't fight back against their wealthy, corporatist exploiters.



And anyway what's so unusual about an all African American church? Christian church denominations in the United States, whether we like it or not, are and historically have been segregated due to past and present prejudices, attitudes and mere physical location within a community. Does that mean the de facto racial separation of American Christian denominations is inherently bad? I don't know? Yet should we not be equally outraged that Mike Huckabee was pastor of the predominantly "White" Beech Street First Baptist Church of Texarkana, Arkansas from 1986 to 1992? Or how about Hillary Clinton's nominal affiliation with the predominantly "White" United Methodist Church? And about Mitt Romney's Mormonism, I won't go there. But a word of caveat here: The above named politicians all desire to rule over American while their loyalties are totally vested in White Europe!

Furthermore the denomination, United Church of Christ, of Obama's home church is not a "tradition" black church denomination. In fact its roots are embedded in the soil of Congregationalist New England, not the slavocracy of the old South. In other words, Barak Obama's church is black with white roots.

But what really galls the writer of the above e-mail is found in Trinity Church's mission statement:

We are called out to be "a chosen people" that pays no attention to socio-economic or educational backgrounds. We are made up of the highly educated and the uneducated. Our congregation is a combination of the haves and the have-nots; the economically disadvantaged, the under-class, the unemployed and the employable.

The fortunate who are among us combine forces with the less fortunate to become agents of change for God who is not pleased with America’s economic mal-distribution!

Imagine that. A Christian church daring to question the validity of the "free market" economy! Daring to challenge the "some are winners the rest losers" mentality of too many, mostly white, suburban and young, Americans.

And what a heretical revelation! "God" is not withholding "his" anointing from American because of "fags". Nor is "he" displeased with abortion. Nor does "he" love guns almost as much as "he" loves the Jews. No. "God" is pissed that a mere ten percent of the American people control almost 72% of the nation's wealth and out of that ten percent, the upper one percent control nearly 35 percent to that total. "God" is pissed because income for the average American hasn't appreciably risen since 1973! "God...is not pleased with America’s economic mal-distribution!"

No wonder the Huckabees, the Romneys, the Clintons, the Bushs don't want this message to get out.

Who writes this shit??

Be on the alert, a new wing nut hoax e-mail is on the loose:

THIS IS

A MUST READ . . . . WAKE UP



This is a subject close to my heart. Do you know that we have
adult students at the school where I teach who are not US
citizens and who get the PELL grant, which is a federal grant
(no pay back required) plus other federal grants to go to
school?



One student from the Dominican Republic told me that she didn't
want me to find a job for her after she finished my program,
because she was getting housing from our housing department and
she was getting PELL grant which paid for her total tuition and
books, plus money left over.



She was looking into WAIT which gives students a CREDIT CARD for
gas to come to school, and into CARIBE which is a special
program for immigrants and it pays for child care and all sorts
of needs while they go to school or training. The one student I
just mentioned told me she was not going to be a US citizen
because she plans to return to the Dominican Republic someday
and that she "loves HER country."



I asked her if she felt guilty taking what the US is giving her
and then not even bothering to become a citizen and she told me
that it doesn't bother her, because that is what the money is
there for!



I asked the CARIBE administration about their program and if you
ARE a US citizen, you don't qualify for their program. And all
the while, I am working a full day, my son-in-law works more
than 60 hours a week, and everyone in my family works and pays
for our education.



Something is wrong here. Right?



I am sorry but after hearing they want to sing the National
Anthem in Spanish - enough is enough.



Nowhere did they sing it in Italian, Polish, Irish (Celtic),
German or any other language because of immigration. It was
written by Francis Scott Key and should be sung word for word
the way it was written The news broadcasts even gave the
translation -- not even close. Sorry if this offends anyone but
this is MY COUNTRY



- IF IT IS YOUR COUNTRY SPEAK UP -- please pass this along.



I am not against immigration -- just come through like everyone
else. Get a sponsor; have a place to lay your head; have a job;
pay your taxes, live by the rules AND LEARN THE LANGUAGE as all
other immigrants have in the past.



PART OF THE PROBLEM Think about this: If you don't want to
forward this for fear of offending someone -- YOU'RE PART OF THE
PROBLEM!



It is Time for America to Speak up If you agree -- pass this
along, if you don't agree



-- delete it!

This is a new, steaming pile of reactionary shit. So fresh, in fact, that the venerable Internet hoax-busting site Snopes.com hasn't yet determined authenticity.

Well old ET smells bullshit.

The first indicator of right wing bullshit is the lack of authorship. That's standard operating procedure. Of course, as this turd travels through cyberspace it'll wind up in the inbox of some real professor and he or she will forward it on, without comment, thereby becoming the de facto author. Then he or she will issue a retraction, that will not have the traction of the original or be read by nearly as many idiots. The damage done, the professor's standing in academia is diminished. Chalk one up for the forces of anti-intellectualism.

So anyway in this e-mail there is no author, no locale, no Web site address. There is, however, the Pell Grant program. This higher educational grant program is real. If you want all the ins and outs of obtaining a Pell Grant ask your high school counselor or college grant administrator. But what about the other two federal grants programs mentioned, WAIT and CARIB?

Since Snopes.com did not have any pertinent info I Googled "wait"+"program and found Wildlife and Industry Together, W.A.I.T., Program, an environmental initiative somewhere in South Carolina that has something to do with sewage and waste water treatment, and It's Great to WAIT, Sexual Abstinence Until Marriage. On the first page of my Google search the closest I came to was a stale news headline:Sale of student loan portfolio must wait: Program expected to yield. Well that did satisfy "wait" and "program" and it does mention "student loans." But not as a federal program handing out low interest credit cards to students for gasoline purchases so they can drive back and forth to college.

Then I Googled "carib"+"immigrants"+"child"+"care" and found nothing pertinent.

So then I clicked onto the Government Benefits, Grants, and Financial Aid Web page at http://www.usa.gov/. Nothing there. So I tried USA.gov's search for WAIT program and found nothing about federally issued low interest credit cards so college students can buy gasoline.

So, O.K., I've struck out on "WAIT" so what about the "CARIB" program? Again nada, nothing, zip, zilch. See for yourself http://usasearch.gov/search?input-form=simple-firstgov&v%3Aproject=firstgov-only&query=CARIB+immigrants+program and http://usasearch.gov/search?input-form=simple-firstgov&v%3Aproject=firstgov-only&query=CARIB+child+care+program&x=35&y=13. If anybody can find such a giveaway program for immigrants they're a better man than I. And when you do let me know at spoonreport@hotmail.com.

As for the "I am sorry but after hearing they want to sing the National
Anthem in Spanish...". Well, I'm sorry but a Spanish language version of "The Star Spangled Banner" has been around since 1919. So whoever you are who wrote this bullshit, fuck off.

And note to whomever author's these hoax e-mails, I think you are a coward, a very slimy sort of coward. I can tell you have professional writing experience and know something of psychology because you know which buttons to push to get a reaction in the reptilian and infantile portions of the brain of homo Americanus. You know flags, puppy dogs, eagles and hatred of foreigners, "Liberals," and, most laughably, Hillary Clinton.

As for those of you who forward this bullshit because you believe every word let me talk to you like a Dutch uncle: You're really, really very stupid and deserve to be hoodwinked, conned, bamboozled and swindled out of everything you have! You're a mark, a sucker, a rube and a pigeon. You're gullible, stuffable, childish and (did I say stupid?) stupid!

...A Three-dollar Bill

Indeed, on the Republican side Mike Huckabee sank the hopes of Mitt Romney and the Republican establishment in part because of his far more persuasive version of economic populism. Of course, he did rally the evangelical Christians, but it's foolish to see this as evidence only of Bible thumpers on the march. In Iowa, Huckabee's votes came from the Republican underclass: formerly independent farmers and, more broadly, working class, church-going folks. The wisdom had been that a Republican candidate would ride to victory by swearing to seal the southern border, cut taxes, and go to war on Iran. Huckabee's substantive record is one of tolerance toward immigrants, compassion toward convicted criminals, and straightforward abolition of the most hated agency in the United States--the IRS--with installation of a sales tax, whose regressive features would be balanced by rebates to the poor.
Alexander Cockburn & Jeffery St. Clair

When it comes to Huckabee, all the talk is about religious conservatism, even as conservative publications like the Weekly Standard have very recently acknowledged that Huckabee's economic message is what has propelled him to victory.
David Sirota

Incredible as it seems, three astute, make that two and a half, observers of the American political scene are taken in by Mike Huckabee's "populist" bs. Can a backwoods politician be called a "populist" if he improves his state's general welfare and budget on the back to the working class?

It seems that most of Arkansas' fiscal health under Huckabee was achieved by increased sales taxes and state fees:

- Imposed an income tax surcharge of 3 percent on tax liabilities of individuals and domestic and foreign corporations (Act 38, 1st special session of 2003). (It was temporary until revenues improved. The legislature repealed it in 2005.)

- Increased the sales tax by 1/8 of one percent by initiated act (but it was a personal campaign by Huckabee, who campaigned across the state for it and took a celebrated bass boat trip for 4 days down the Arkansas River holding press conferences in each river city to urge passage of the act)

- Increased the sales tax by one-half of 1 percent (Act 1492 of 1999)

- Increased the sales tax by 7/8ths of 1 percent and expand the sales tax to many services previously exempt from the tax (Act 107, 2nd special session of 2003)

- Collected a 2 percent tax on chewing tobacco, cigars, package tobacco, cigarette papers and snuff (Act 434 of 1997)

- Levied an additional excise tax of 7 percent on tobacco (Act 38 of 1st special session of 2003)

- Increased the tax on cigarette and tobacco permits (Act 1337 of 1997)

- Increased the tax on cigarette and tobacco – cigarettes by $1.25 per thousand cigarettes and 2 percent of the manufacturers’ selling price on tobacco products (Act 434 of 1997)

- Increased the tax on cigarettes by 25 cents a pack (Act 38, 1st special session of 2003)

- Levied a 3 percent excise tax on all retail sales of beer (Act 1841 of 2001 and extended by Act 272 of 2003 and Act 2188 of 2005)

- Revived the 4 percent mixed drink tax of 1989 and added a 4 percent tax on private clubs (Act 1274 of 2005)

- Increased the tax on gasoline by 3 cents a gallon (Act 1028 of 1999)

- Increased the tax on diesel by 4 cents a gallon (Act 1028 of 1999) Note: Contrary to what Huckabee has said repeatedly in debates, speeches and TV shows, the 1999 gasoline and diesel taxes were not submitted to the voters and approved by 80 per cent of them. It was never submitted to a vote. It was the governor’s bill and it became law without a vote of the people. What the voters did approve in 1999 was a bond issue for interstate highway reconstruction but it did not involve a tax increase. Existing taxes and federal receipts were pledged to retire the bonds.

- Increased the driver’s license by $6 a person, from $14 to $20 (Act 1500 of 2001)
Arkansas Leader.com, November 30, 2007

The Arkansas Leader essay, which the above list is swiped, concludes by noting that factoring in all the corporate "...incentives enacted by the legislature under Clinton," Huckabee's claims to be a tax cutting, fiscally conservative Republican are unfounded.

Huckabee's most egregious tax proposal was the notorious $525 a day bed tax of 2001 to bail out Arkansas' ailing medicare program. According to the Arkansas Leader it seems the Huckster was offered a large sum of cash by tobacco interests to veto a competing cigarette sales tax increase, the proceeds of which would go to the state's Medicare program.

Now "populist" Huckabee is offering a so-called "fair tax" plan, being nothing more than a national sales tax. Hucakbee claims that his form of regressive taxation will cure a host of economic ills ranging from globalization to prostitution! Mother Jones.com has a good critique of Huckabee's "fair tax".

In my estimation Mike Huckabee is nothing like Huey Long, who taxed the shit out of the big oil companies operating in Louisiana at the time so poor kids could have free text books. Huckabee approved of regressive tax hikes to balance his state's budget, then promoted a one-time tax rebate to aid the gubernatorial election chances of fellow Republican Asa Hutchinson (who lost to current Democratic Governor Mike Beebe.)

Really, the only why in which Huckabee is anything like The Kingfish is his willingness to except expensive gifts from well-heeled supporters. And why would a self-professed Christian deplete the Arkansas govenrnor's office emergency fund to destroy computer hard drives?

Geezush, I'm lossin' it.

I can't believe I defended Mike Huckabee in response to an op-ed posted at BuzzFlash.com by one Martha Rosenberg. I wrote:

Regardless of what you think about hunting and hunters, whenever I read an ill-informed, ignorant anti-hunting screed, such as this, I am reminded of an illfated experiment carried out in the New Jersey Pine Barrens in the 1950s or 60s.

What I remember is reading an article in Natural History Magazine or perhaps in what was then The Iowa Conservationist magazine years ago, before the Internet, of the State of New Jersey's effort to increase the deer population after World War II. The article said that the New Jersey fish and game department fenced off a sizable portion of the Pine Barrens and left it untouched for ten years.

When agents and scientists of the New Jersey fish and game department returned to the fenced-off area of the Barrens they found anything but a healthy eco-system. They did find diseased and malnourished deer and depleted vegetation due to overgrazing. Once the fence was torn down, predators, including human hunters, were reintroduced, the deer population rebounded.

So, Martha, let me ask you this: Is it more humane to let wildlife, where human interference has disrupted the balance between predator and prey, overpopulate and overgraze an area and ultimately die of stavation and disease or allow hunting to cull the herd under the various state departments of natural resources supervision? Would you rather see more deer and other prey animals slaughtered along our Interstate highways, as they are now anyway, or dispatched by an arrow, shotgun slug or bullet?

Fine you don't like hunting, Martha, but Mike Huckabee doesn't seem to be a slob hunter. If you want to lambaste him on his sleazy use of religion to pander to right wing Christians be my guest, it's unconstitutional anyway. But essays like this drove many good Democrats into the Republican Party in the 1980s and the poor jamokes have been voting against their own best economic self interests ever since.

p.s. I had a great-uncle who was a Disciples of Christ minister and he hunted, and the the Methodist minister of the church I went to when I was a kid. His kids were kicked out of high school for wearing black armbands to protest US involvement in Vietnam. Their case went all the way to the Supreme Court, I believe.

Now that I re-read it it's not much of a defense. But, Christ, these vegan, nature lovers are such ignoramuses it's not even funny. And all these dopes do is make assholes like Ted Nugent look good. Stupid fuckers all of 'em.

Gee, and I though "Liberals" didn't have a sense of humor

I've never posted a reader comment before but this one, in reaction to "Humorous" wing nut e-mail" from yesterday, must be read by a wider public.

stevej said...
You said American (sic) has enjoyed "the highest standard of living the world has ever known under 'liberal' presidents FDR, Harry Truman, JFK and Lyndon Johnson."

So what is it about the welfare state and the leftist tax-and-spend philosophy that has been such a boon to the economy? How about a little economics lesson for the unenlightened?

By the way, remember the abysmal years of Jimmy Carter, who was far more liberal than the aforementioned presidents? (Actually, you probably don't. Judging by your juvenile overuse of f-words here, you're probably pushing 17 or so. Am I right?)

hmmmm...now really, Mr.j. I did resort to the "F-word" twice, once in its past progressive tense form for the act of coitus and once in its simple past tense form to mean a state of extreme inebriation. I mean, fuck, if I'd used "fuck" more than that I think I'd fucking know it.

As for economics, and I admit I left out Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration which did nothing to fundamentally alter the New Deal programs of FDR, though Ike did halt Truman's "creeping socialism."

As the Cold War unfolded in the decade and a half after World War II, the United States experienced phenomenal economic growth. The war brought the return of prosperity, and in the postwar period the United States consolidated its position as the world's richest country. Gross national product, a measure of all goods and services produced in the United States, jumped from about $200 thousand-million in 1940 to $300 thousand-million in 1950 to more than $500 thousand-million in 1960. More and more Americans now considered themselves part of the middle class.
CountryStudies.us

and

During the 1980's employment grew rapidly in the United States, prompting many analysts to label the U.S. economy the great American job machine. But while aggregate employment increased rapidly during the 1980's, many did not benefit from the expansion. Among less educated prime-age males, unemployment rates rose and labor force participation rates declined sharply. Moreover, although job growth was high, many argued that the quality of American jobs as measured by wages, benefits, and job security deteriorated. The decline of jobs in the high-paying manufacturing sector and the growth of jobs in the low-paying services sector, the growth in part-time and temporary employment, and the general decline in real wages among less-educated, less-skilled workers have been presented as evidence of an erosion in job quality.
Susan N. Houseman

Mr. j lists his occupation as "liver salesman."

Ron Paul picks up an important endorsement

From The Des Moines Register:

Minuteman leaders give support to Paul
By JASON PULLIAM • REGISTER STAFF WRITER • December 28, 2007Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul Thursday picked up endorsements from several individual leaders of the Iowa Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, an anti-illegal immigration group.

Ron Duncan, the deputy director of the group's Iowa chapter, and Mark Land, Taylor County Minuteman leader, each offered the Texas congressman their personal endorsements.

"As a citizen, I kind of lean towards Ron Paul, but I don't really want to jump out there too strongly because of my position," Halverson said.

Halverson added that the bulk of another Iowa grassroots group, Citizens for Tom Tancredo, has also backed Paul.

"Humorous" wing nut e-mail

The first time I received this particular e-mail I did what any "liberal" would do: I deleted it. It's not funny at all and, on the whole, puerile and rather stupid. Well, yesterday a fellow liberal sent this bit of "conservative humor" to me, so I added my own commentary, in parentheses and like a Catholic Bible in red, and returned it to him.

History lesson:
Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

1. Liberals; and
2. Conservatives.

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of griculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early umans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery (If this were the case all humanity would yet be living in one village,obviously drunk off our asses, and the rest of the earth would be left to the wildlife. Hmmm...certainly wouldn't have to worry about global warming, would we.) That's how villages were formed (This is bullshit, the archaeological record proves that villages came into existence before agriculture, but you can't tell this to a Neanderthal.)

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement (That came to a crashing end in 5,000 B.C. when the Conservatives were too hung-over and bloated to protect the village after a night of binge-drinking and eating barbecue.)

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing (And fucking their women because the Conservatives drank so much they had chronic limp-dick-itis, aka sexual impotency.) This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.

Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girliemen (Wow! I didn't know Arnold Schwarzenegger was that old!).

Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats (which killed the rat, that ate the malt, to brew the beer yaddy-yaddy-yadda,) the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting (Like this is a bad thing??? Oh, that's right without a King, Emperor, Fuhrer or god a Conservative doesn't know when it's time to wipe his ass, pick his nose or tell everybody that he's "a big boy now and can make up his own mind.") to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided (Well, somebody had to. The Conservatives were too fucked up on all the cheap beer they'd been guzzling to even know which way was up!)

Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant (which are on the verge of extinction from habitat loss, due to over population--because even using a rubber is too complex for your average Conservative--and ignorance of simple "conservation" practices. ) Liberals are symbolized by the jackass(Most of whom I see behind the steering wheel of Dodge Ram pick ups, Ford Broncos and Chevy Suburbans.)

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added),( How come the guys I see guzzling that Mexican swill-beer Corona usually are self-styled "rednecks?") but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish (What?! You badass Conservatives admitting you're pussies when it comes to eating survival food?) but like their beef well done(WTF?). Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare.

Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men (Hold on, just a few lines up it says "Liberals" evolved into women or girliemen? You mean to tell me there are "Liberal" men?). Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals (Does this list include Robert Novak, Charles Krauthammer {he was a psychiatrist before he became a wing nut columnist}, cartoonist Frank Miller of "300" fame, "comedian" Dennis Miller, Bruce Willis, Charlton Heston and John Wayne?). Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat (The DH rule was "invented" by the American League, the league of Conservatives' favorite baseball team, The New York Yankees.)

Conservatives drink domestic beer (Which on average are lower alcohol than European or small-batch domestics or home brews, especially the watered "light" domestic beers favored by Conservatives) They eat red meat (If you can call the mystery glop McDonalds and Burger King serve "red" or "meat") and still provide for their women (In other words, as long a Mr. Badass Conservative keeps bringing home the paycheck to wifey, he just might get some sex....once a month...if he's lucky.) Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers (the majority of whom are now "illegal" immigrants from Mexico and Central America. Think I'm lying? Just check out any work site of the biggest highway contractor in you area next summer) , firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives (I guess some one had to work these drones in. But why?), athletes, Marines, ( Sounds like a list of the characters from the Village People) and generally anyone who works productively (Got to exclude insurance salesmen, used car salesmen, furniture salesmen, real estate salesmen, stock brokers, skip-tracers, right-wing talk show hosts and wealthy heirs then.) Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living (at slave-wages because they're too smart to join a labor union. This is called "taking it up the ass without the Vaseline and liking it.")

Liberals produce little or nothing (Except the highest standard of living the world has ever known under "liberal" presidents FDR, Harry Truman, JFK and Lyndon Johnson.) They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production (This sounds more like your average American CEO the majority of whom are overwhelmingly Republican.) Liberals believe Europeans are more
enlightened than Americans (At this time in US history, this statement is the only thing I agree with.) That is why most of the liberals remained in
Europe when conservatives were coming to America . They crept in after the
Wild West was tamed (These are all the creeps whose last names end in vowels or ski or vich, who thump their chests about how their great-grandparents came here LEGALLY through Ellis Island and want all "illegal" immigrant deported back to Mexico) and created a business of trying to get more for
nothing (I call these folks Libertarians.)

Here ends today's lesson in world history: It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before forwarding
it (Didn't forward it because it's the stupidest, god damned thing I ever read.) A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute
truth of this history (They all must have flunked history then or played hooky) that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers (Yes, belief is easier than thinking, after all) and to more liberals just to piss them off.

What do Europeans know about border security?

What do Europeans know about border security that we "smart" Americans don't? Here's what a report from the German Der Spiegal.de says:

On Friday, for the first time ever, Germany and Austria will no longer have passport checks on any of its borders except on the frontier with Switzerland. Nine new countries -- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Malta -- will officially become part of the Schengen Agreement, the European treaty that allows for border-free travel. Switzerland will, in 2008, join Norway and Iceland as non-EU members of Schengen. As of this weekend, travelers can go from the easternmost tip of Estonia all the way to the Atlantic coast in Portugal without encountering a single border official (airport checks are to remain in effect for the first few months of 2008).

Meanwhile we "intelligent," "brave" American must surrender a passport at the Canadian and Mexican boarders after January 31, 2008.

Des Moines Register endorses Clinton, McCain

Well, no surprise here. Milktoast anyone?

Mike Huckabee's new campaign slogan

Mike Huckabee, Bill Clinton without the blowjobs!!!

Too funny. Too true