There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear, cont'd

So here we are, another week gone by. This weekend I have done nothing but sit on the couch. I have done laundry (clothes still in the dryer so it may not count as being completed.) and played on facebook and read a little bit on these wonderful tubes we have. I am enjoying today with the Panthers having a bye. It's a good Sunday. So let's recap the last few days, shall we?

So I'm on facebook and see this post.  And I realize, 2012 is either going to suck or it will be vindicating. If the GOP power grab for theocracy and plutocracy, these United States will be done. Only 230 some years....poof! in 30 short ones.
Then I see this quote

The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations. -Thomas Jefferson, 1816

and it is really creepy to think that and then see that quote. Freaky I say.

Then there's Tom Brokaw. I know I'm in the minority but I have always been annoyed with him. And that voice? fuck, I cannot take that. I just realized that he was the first David Gregory, except better looking. (which really isn't a compliment) So it's always nice for me when someone smacks him down. It's a rare and beautiful sight. So please, enjoy these two wonderful posts. Here  and here. 
I need to add Charles Pierce to the side over there. Also too, if you're liberal, and let's face it, if you're here, you are. You should also check out politicsusa.com
I need to add them too.

Let's see what else have I been reading? I love Chez's Tebow take.
And the CBS article is pretty good too, though I don't agree with the way when everyone talks about him they have to say, "now he's a good kid and I like him" or some variation. Just because some idiot religious fanatic equates what you think of Tebow with what you think of their Jesus. Fuck that. I don't like any of them, Tebow or his fans.

To read the post this quote comes from, click here.

In a recent interview, a top Ohio Republican defended this in a curiously belligerent way, one that may reverberate in the race’s final days: He claimed lawmakers don’t need to take a pay cut in the spirit of shared sacrifice, because “I earn my pay,” adding: “Republicans earn their money.”

And if you're not reading Steve Benen daily, you are missing one of the best.

I found out that Stephen and Tabitha King never let me down.
I also learned, again, that international media is usually better than American corporate media. here we have The Guardian talking about ALEC. Have you heard about ALEC? Another one of those shadowy, right-wing organizations destroying our democracy. Only Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell have even mentioned them. Keith Olbermann might have, but since he went on his firebagger rant, I don't watch him anymore. That's not to say that when the Murdoch empire is burned to the ground by the arrogance and incompetence that is Murdoch, I will watch him again. No one enjoys taking down Murdoch than Keith. And me. :)
Also, if you don't read al-Jazeera English, you should. Nothing but actual journalism about world events. It's refreshing actually. For instance, did you know Pakistan arrested people for assassinating Bhutto? You didn't? Huh....that corporate media. Read it here.

If the state of the current crop of nutjobs who want to be president are bumming you out, you could do what Rachel Maddow and Eugene Robinson are doing, enjoying the performance art that is Herman Cain. Me? I've been freaking about it until I watched Rachel and Gene, then I saw this and it made it better.

So that's what's going on around here. I will leave you this week with one of my favorite things. I love the Hubble Telescope. It's some of the best money we've ever spent. Check out what's it's showing us.

So what's going on around you? Did you move your money yesterday? I didn't, I'm waiting until the beginning of the year. Lots of changes, hopefully, coming financially for me and I want to start the year off clean. Have you been to an Occupy event? I'd love to hear about your stories.

WTF? and Firebaggers and Teabaggers

I just posted and refreshed and looked at the labels. It really is no accident that the tags 'wtf?' and 'firebaggers and teabaggers' both have the same amount of posts.

Again, sad and not surprising.

There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear.....

Since my last post, Occupy gatherings have garnered national and international media attention. For some silly reason, the corporate media can't seem to read the signs people are holding and can't figure out what we, the 99%, want.
Dahlia Lithwick wrote a good article on this very phenomenon. You can read it here.

Think, for just a moment, about the irony. We are the most media-saturated 24-hour-cable-soaked culture in the world, and yet around the country, on Facebook and at protests, people are holding up cardboard signs, the way protesters in ancient Sumeria might have done when demonstrating against a rise in the price of figs. And why is that? Because they very wisely don’t trust television cameras and microphones to get it right anymore. Because a media constructed around the illusion of false equivalencies, screaming pundits, and manufactured crises fails to capture who we are and what we value.

Matt Taibbi has a detailed, long but worth it article on the 'Texas Miracle' the corporate media thought (before he opened his mouth) would be the GOP 'saviour'. (And doesn't that beat everything? the baggers (fire and tea) like to think those who support our current President think of him as a 'saviour'....amazing projection skills.) Go read The Best Little Whore In Texas here.

Another bit of the glorious bagger legislating in my own little home state, there's this....the one bill where Governor Bev Purdue's veto didn't matter. The federal judiciary put a hold on the worst part of this entirely anti-woman legislation in their quest to live in my uterus. Shameful. It just amazes me that there are people out there who don't see the false claims during the health care debate about government getting in between you and your doctor, yet they want to make it legal to get between my doctor and my uterus. I swear, maybe there is something in the water, other than fluoridation. You can read about the NC legislation that gets all in my uterus without my consent here. And now that I feel oh so dirty, let's move on to more educational posts, shall we?

One of my Facebook friends writes for Mother Jones and The Washington Monthly. You can read his historical view of what the Founding Fathers would think about the Occupy movement here. And what is that you say? There is an inaccuracy? What?! Look in the comments and you will see what an actual journalist does when he realizes their is an inaccuracy. That's what you never see in corporate media.

My friend Chez had this quote from Jon Stewart about Pat Robertson calling out the field of GOP Presidential candidate. Seriously. Pat Robertson calling others too crazy....it really is a moment of surreal reality.

James Fallows thinks Herman Cain's new ad is the Best Ad Yet. Again, surreal reality.

How have we gotten to 2011? It really is amazing, scary, funny and lots of other adjectives I won't write. If you are the 1%, you aren't reading this so that makes you the 99%. Call your congresspeople, call your governors, call your friends and family....if you can, go to an Occupy event. You can find one where you are here.

So that's what I've been up to this week. The title of this post is an oldie but a goldie and seemingly more relevant than when it was released. How quaint the late 60's and early 70's seem today. So enjoy the video.....

wait....what?!

I really don't understand the faux news nutjob view of what happened in Egypt. How do supposed strong, real Murkens don't see what they are saying about liberty? I don't think they realize that what they think is 'freedom and liberty' really isn't. They have always said it should happen in the Middle East and it does and what do they do? Run like little girls saying you can't give people democracy and freedom...exactly what they want to do to this country. Maybe there is something to the flouride in the water conspiracy.....maybe it leaves some of us to be susceptible to seriously crazy things. It is breath-taking.

To Hell with You, Voters

what do repubs/teabaggers say to voters who disagree with them?

As for the voters, the message from their TeaBagger representatives is clear: piss off and shut up. One can imagine many other Republican Confederate controlled State Houses following the lead of their comrades in Jefferson City.

damn skippy

I don’t think conservatives and their anti-choice activist allies should be given a pass and permitted to “sidestep” this debate. Let’s talk about why they tried to get this through, and their position on rape, minors and the health and welfare of women and girls, or, “pregnant females”. It must have been pretty damn important to rank right behind repealing health care reform.
What was this all about, and why the lying and dissembling and backtracking when it came to light?

For the last year we have heard nothing from repubs except "where are the jobs?" So what is first on their agenda? Repeal the ACA. Change the definition of rape. The largest, fastest growing industry in this country, aside from low paying service jobs, is the health care industry. another damn fine reason for regulation. and they want to kill it. how does this help the economy? it doesn't. it's red meat for the base. the base, the nutjobs and teabaggers, love nothing more than the government to invade our bedrooms and our vaginas. clean air? non-poisoned food? nope. not in their vision. fuckers.

the quote is found here.

Angry Black Lady says it all......

I am posting it in its entirety. You should go and read all her stuff. It is very much worth the click.....

I just got a panicked call from my mother asking me if I had heard what happened.  I hadn’t checked the news yet today because I’m frantically working on a brief.  She said that there had been a shooting.  My first thought was “Oh my god, they got him.” So I checked the news and found out that Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head, a federal judge, a 9-year-old, a Democratic aide and multiple others were killed.  Shot in the fucking head.  Killed.  Dead.  Where did this happen?  Tucson, Arizona –
ONE MILE FROM WHERE MY PARENTS LIVE.

A gunman opened fire Saturday onto a crowd at a public event held by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Ariz., killing at least five people and critically injuring the congresswoman.
The dead included U.S. District Judge John Roll and a 9-year-old girl, President Obama said in a brief statement Saturday. Giffords, who was shot in the head, was among at least 13 people injured, according to the Pima County, Ariz., sheriff’s office.

This is where our country is heading, and this is where certain politicians and pundits want this country to go.  When politicians and pundits talk about revolution, and rebellion, and the fucking tree of liberty being refreshed from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS.  Political idealogues convince themselves that what they are doing is right, and just, and patriotic.  And when tragedy strikes, those who have actively created an environment where such tragedy is inevitable throw up their hands and say “Aw, what a shame.”
I remember writing about being outraged by Sarah Palin’s cross-hair map. I remember thinking what an absolutely stupid move it was.  And now some crazy fuck has put her plan into action, and she has the nerve to say “Wha?!  What’d I do?”
That’s what pisses me off  the most —  the utter hypocrisy of those who wanted this to happen — or at the very least, created an environment where this was bound to happen — now claiming to be sorry and to offer support to the friends and family of the dead.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin issued a statement on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting, writing on Facebook:
“My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today’s tragic shooting in Arizona. On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice.”
Ms. Palin is receiving criticism over her past call for supporters to “reload” and “take aim” at Democrats. Ms. Giffords was amongst a group of Democrats “targeted” by Ms. Palin’s SarahPAC.
The Alaska Republican’s Facebook page, at one point, carried a map featuring 20 gun sights, one for each of the Democrats targeted by her political action committee.
Ms. Palin defended the choice of words at the time, “Those are fine. They’re used all the time.”
The former Alaska Governor has repeatedly tweeted to her Twitter followers: “Commonsense Conservatives & lovers of America: ‘Don’t Retreat, Instead – RELOAD!’”

No.  No. No.  You don’t get off that easily.  You don’t get to foment racism, hatred, and anger, and then when the shit goes down, sit back and play dumb.  You don’t get to say “I didn’t mean it.”  You don’t get to say that “people use those words all the time.”  You’re a goddamn public persona.  You don’t say those things, and if you do, you reap what you sow.  It becomes your responsibility.  YOURS.  It happened when Bill O’Reilly called Dr. Tiller a baby killer over and over and over until finally someone murdered him in cold blood — walked into his church in the middle of service and shot him in the head.
And it has happened again.
This is what Jon Stewart was talking about at the Rally for Sanity — about toning down violent rhetoric:

“I can’t control what people think this was. I can only tell you my intentions. This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith or people of activism or to look down our noses at the heartland or passionate argument or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear. They are and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies.
But unfortunately one of our main tools in delineating the two broke. The country’s 24 hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems but its existence makes solving them that much harder. The press can hold its magnifying up to our problems bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected dangerous flaming ant epidemic.

If we amplify everything we hear nothing. There are terrorists and racists and Stalinists and theocrats but those are titles that must be earned. You must have the resume. Not being able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers or real bigots and Juan Williams and Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate–just as the inability to distinguish terrorists from Muslims makes us less safe not more. The press is our immune system. If we overreact to everything we actually get sicker–and perhaps eczema.

Because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false. It is us through a fun house mirror, and not the good kind that makes you look slim in the waist and maybe taller, but the kind where you have a giant forehead and an ass shaped like a month old pumpkin and one eyeball.
So, why would we work together? Why would you reach across the aisle to a pumpkin assed forehead eyeball monster? If the picture of us were true, of course, our inability to solve problems would actually be quite sane and reasonable. Why would you work with Marxists actively subverting our Constitution or racists and homophobes who see no one’s humanity but their own? We hear every damn day about how fragile our country is—on the brink of catastrophe—torn by polarizing hate and how it’s a shame that we can’t work together to get things done, but the truth is we do. We work together to get things done every damn day!
The only place we don’t is here or on cable TV. But Americans don’t live here or on cable TV. Where we live our values and principles form the foundations that sustains us while we get things done, not the barriers that prevent us from getting things done. Most Americans don’t live their lives solely as Democrats, Republicans, liberals or conservatives. Americans live their lives more as people that are just a little bit late for something they have to do—often something that they do not want to do—but they do it–impossible things every day that are only made possible by the little reasonable compromises that we all make.
Look on the screen. This is where we are. This is who we are. (points to the Jumbotron screen which show traffic merging into a tunnel). These cars—that’s a schoolteacher who probably thinks his taxes are too high. He’s going to work. There’s another car-a woman with two small kids who can’t really think about anything else right now. There’s another car, (referring to the Jumbotron blowing in the wind) swinging, I don’t even know if you can see it—the lady’s in the NRA and she loves Oprah. There’s another car—an investment banker, gay, also likes Oprah. Another car’s a Latino carpenter. Another car a fundamentalist vacuum salesman. Atheist obstetrician. Mormon Jay-Z fan. But this is us. Every one of the cars that you see is filled with individuals of strong belief and principles they hold dear—often principles and beliefs in direct opposition to their fellow travelers.
And yet these millions of cars must somehow find a way to squeeze one by one into a mile long 30 foot wide tunnel carved underneath a mighty river. Carved, by the way, by people who I’m sure had their differences. And they do it. Concession by conscession. You go. Then I’ll go. You go. Then I’ll go. You go then I’ll go. Oh my God, is that an NRA sticker on your car? Is that an Obama sticker on your car? Well, that’s okay—you go and then I’ll go.
And sure, at some point there will be a selfish jerk who zips up the shoulder and cuts in at the last minute, but that individual is rare and he is scorned and not hired as an analyst.

Because we know instinctively as a people that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light we have to work together. And the truth is, there will always be darkness. And sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the promised land. Sometimes it’s just New Jersey. But we do it anyway, together.

If you want to know why I’m here and want I want from you, I can only assure you this: you have already given it to me. Your presence was what I wanted.

Sanity will always be and has always been in the eye of the beholder. To see you here today and the kind of people that you are has restored mine. Thank you.”

I can’t say that I feel “strangely calmly good.”  I feel expectedly pissed off and angry, not only because this tragedy occurred a mile from where my parents lived, but also because the sensible among us– the Jon Stewarts among us — are losing.  The Palins, O’Reillys, Coulters, Limbaughs and Becks — they are the ones who have a frightening stranglehold on the consciousness of America and they are winning!  People are scared, and rather than alleviate those fears, these thugs seek to exploit those fears for their own monetary and political gain.  These thugs don’t give a fuck about helping their fellow man; they are crabs in a barrel clawing up to the light and pushing other crabs down in their desperate bid to have the light shine only on them.  They want a reality show, or a gig as a Fox News correspondent, or to hold office just long enough so they can launch themselves into a cushy lobbying or Wall Street gig.  These people don’t care about America.  They say they say they do, but their disdain for Americans and our problems is palpable, and it’s disgusting.
So while you may want to sit around and gripe about who Obama chose for his Chief of Staff, think about what you stand for.  Then think about what the other guy or gal stands for.  Think about whether you have more in common with your neighbor than you do with the talking head on the teevee. Then pull your head out of your ass and let’s work together to make sure that the O’PalinBeckbaughs don’t drown us all in a whirlpool of hateful rhetoric.  Let’s kick these fuckers to the curb because if we don’t, we’ll have only ourselves to blame.

the link to her blog is here. You can also find it to the right of where you're reading...I believe she's top of the list.

A federal judge and a 9 year old...dead. Thanks John McCain for bringing Sarah Palin in our lives and everything that has happened since you decided you 'deserved' the presidency. And thanks to Saint Reagan for opening the doors and all the windows and let this bad wind blow through my beloved country. Fuck you McCain and Saint Ronnie. And all of you who think the rhetoric the last 2 years that has come from Sarah, Newt, Rush, Beck and every person on faux news (possibly excepting Shep Smith)...Fuck You for being irresponsible, un-American

....the world is spinning round and round, out of control again.....

NPR is reporting  Representative Giffords has died along with 6 other people.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and six others died after a gunman opened fire at a public event on Saturday, the Pima County, Ariz., sheriff's office confirms.
The 40-year-old Democrat, who was re-elected to her third term in November, was hosting a "Congress on Your Corner" event at a Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.

However, I am listening to MSNBC and there is a Sheriff that says he is told she is alive in critical condition.

Jim Morrison once said people are strange.....

I just think we're stupid. In this age of instant gratification and our Veruca Salt I want it now mentality, we forget that shit takes time to clean up. And Obama, and us, have miles to go before we get the basics back. For those of you who are firebaggers or are just wanting everything to magically be good again, I offer this.

Yesterday morning, the Labor Department released its employment data for December, showing that the U.S. economy ended the year by adding 113,000 private sector jobs, knocking the unemployment rate down sharply from 9.8 percent to 9.4 percent — its lowest rate since July 2009. The “surprising drop — which was far better than the modest step-down economists had forecast — was the steepest one-month fall since 1998.” October and November’s jobs numbers were also revised upward by almost 80,000 each.

must read....

You absolutely have to read this....

In this article, Matt Taibbi tells the unvarnished truth about Washington. He also informs me that there is a tea party person out there who agrees that the repubs caused the mess we're now in. weird.

Littleton recounts some of the ways the party has tried. One tack was dazzling the hayseeds with splendor and bullshit. During a visit to Washington, for instance, Littleton was meeting with Republican officials to go over "nitty-gritty" stuff like monetary policy, when an aide suddenly stopped the session. He was surprised, he told Littleton, that they were bothering with all this serious stuff — he thought the Tea Partiers just wanted to meet famous politicians. The aide's attitude, Littleton recalls, was: "I thought we could just throw you a bone, and bring in my rock star, and you're just really so impressed by him that you're going to smile and hug him and go out and do whatever we need you to do." Another time, when the Tea Party was making noise about a farm subsidy, a staffer for a prominent Republican congressman simply called Littleton up and asked him to be quiet. "Hey, would you mind leaving that issue alone?" the staffer said. "The congressman would really appreciate it — we work with a lot of farmers." Littleton was amazed that Republican leaders seemed to think the Tea Party was engaged in a collaborative effort to keep Republicans in office, but this is just the way things are done inside the Beltway.

and while I don't agree with Littleton regarding the debt ceiling or shutting the government down, here is what I have never heard from a teabagger....

In this regard, the contrast between Boehner and Littleton, the Tea Party leader in Boehner's home state, is interesting. The two men live in the same place, the small township of West Chester near Cincinnati, so Littleton is very familiar with Boehner. But Littleton's opinion of the Republican establishment couldn't be lower: It was precisely programs like the Medicare drug benefit bill and No Child Left Behind, programs he considers unacceptably wasteful and intrusive, that moved him to get into politics. "These were all Republican programs," Littleton says. "If you look at Republican congressmen from Ohio, they all voted for this stuff."

go read the whole thing.

....and the beat goes on....

the guy is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.....

Every president since George Washington has used recess appointments; it's a power explicitly given to the president in the Constitution. Rubin and Gaziano, however, envision yet another hostage scenario -- the White House would have to commit to the Republican Senate minority that the president won't exercise his own authority or the GOP will simply refuse allow any nominees to receive any votes to any office for any reason.
The president might not be inclined to pay such a ransom. Of course, if he resists, I'm sure conservative bloggers will be there to insist the White House has "shed any pretense of bipartisanship."

that the American people buy this shit amazes me...that our media encourages this enrages me....go read the whole post here....

I have nothing to add....

So let me explain this very, very simply:

All Modern Conservative theory springs from the corrupt fountainhead of St. Ronald Reagan's pronouncement that "Government is the problem".

All Modern Conservative tactics spring from the corrupt fountainhead of Richard Nixon's win-at-any-cost Southern Strategy.

Everything that has happened on the Right in the last 30 years comes down to nothing more than the destructive antics of the ever-more degenerate and horrific political mutations caused by the factory-farm inbreeding of these two corrupt ideas over and over and over again.

And the idea that these clowns on the Right are now fighting in the rubble of the ruin they made over which of them is the bigger dick would actually be hilarious if they hadn't fucked up my country so badly in the process.

You're welcome.

you should read the whole thing here

agreed

John Cole nails it.....


firebaggers and teabaggers......thank you Ronald Reagan. And shrub...I refuse to give him the respect of typing his name until he is indicted...and evil too....gotta come up with a better name for him....thanks to you two, the pot is boiling....just what we needed...*sigh*