Remember that pivotal moment in history when the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1576? Yeah, me neither. Silly, little gaffe? Okay. Give him a break? Absolutely not. Simpletons should not even be considered for the most powerful position in the world."One of the reasons we fought the revolution in the 16th century was to get away from that kind of onerous crown."
~Rick Perry answering questions after last night's New Hampshire debate.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Dumbass Quote of the Day
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
The Right Wing Pushback to Occupy Wall Street
I came across this today on my Facebook page:
Only in America do minimum wagers fight for the rights of millionaires to keep their collective foot on the throats of the "have-nots."
A new website has cropped up called, "The 53%." This is a response to the Occupy Wall Street protesters, and according to their cute, little pictures with their signs, they seem perfectly happy working multiple jobs to make ends meet, pay for college and don't understand why the OWS protesters, "want something for nothing." (I put that in quotes because I've seen it on multiple signs.) Their failure to understand what the protests are about is painfully obvious.
This isn't about partisan politics. This isn't about Democrat vs. Republican, Liberal vs. Conservative. This isn't about getting something for nothing. This isn't about iPads or smart phones or new cars. This is about a matter of fairness.
These people are protesting the fact that Wall Street has the government's economic policy by the balls, with one party in their pocket while the other party plays along as well. Both parties collect plenty of coin for their campaign coffers from Wall Street.
As former, and hopefully future, Congressman Aman Grayson so elequently described in last Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher, and which I'll paraphrase here, the people standing on the streets day in and day out are there because Wall Street basically wrecked the economy three years ago and no one has been held responsible for it. No one's been indicted. No one's been convicted. Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme bilked people of $50 billion in investments and retirement savings and that made the front page headlines for months. But $50 billion is a fraction of what Wall Street's games cost the country - 20% OF OUR NATIONAL NET WORTH - you and I as taxpayers bailed them out so we wouldn't fall into a catastrophic collapse. And yet here we sit three years later and absolutely nothing has changed in terms of their practices to avoid flirting with the edge of the financial abyss again. In fact, they received multi-million dollar bonuses for their efforts. Does that seem fair to you? Even GOP candidate Buddy Roemer (yes, a Republican) agrees with and backs the OWS movement.
Does it seem fair that Bank of America has decided to earn an extra $3 BILLION a year simply by charging it's customers $5 a month to use their debit card for purchases? Does it seem fair that Citibank arbitrarily raised credit card interest rates to 29.99% for no reason other than to skim some more of our hard-earned money before credit card legislation stopped (or at least slowed down) their loan sharking ways?
This isn't about hating the rich. I don't have a grudge against rich people. For those who earned their way and clawed their way up the financial ladder, good for them and their fortunes. For those who were born into money, well who am I to moan about it? But if I'm paying 28-33% in federal taxes, they'd better pay the same goddamn rate. What's wrong with that? Why should they pay less? Reinvestment for job creation? Please. Enough with the "job creators" bullshit. How many stock brokers create jobs? Why should a hedge fund manager or a stock broker have a lower tax rate than a teacher or a carpenter or a sanitation worker or a research scientist?
If you think someone playing with other people's money should be entitled to a lesser tax rate than someone who works as hard as the misguided person holding this sign, then it's time to recalibrate your moral compass.
ADDING... Although I assert this is not about right versus left, the title of this post remains relevant as the something-for-nothing-get-a-job-hippies-welfare-queens attitude of the anti-OWS voices screams of right wing memes.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Crazy Quote of the Day
"Now, no matter what you think of the mythical separation between church and state, it is not possible for there ever, in the United States of America, to be a separation between God and government because God is the source of every single right that government has a sacred duty to protect. I submit to you that not a single one of our unalienable rights will be safe in the hands of a president who believes that we evolved from slime and that we are the descendents of apes and baboons.”
~Bryan Fischer, Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association at the Value Voters Summit.
This is the same event that every Republican running for their party's nomination attended save one. So... religious rights? No problem, as long as that religion is Christianity. And no, Mormonism doesn't count. Human rights? Of course, as long as you're not gay. Science? What's that?
The more things change...
What Occupy Wall Street Is About
Here's Alan Grayson, former and hopefully future member of the House of Representatives explaining in simple terms what the Occupy Wall Street movement is all about.
PJ O'Roarke can act like the clown and try to divert attention and misdirect in response to the logic that Grayson is espousing, but that's just more proof of Grayson being a serious figure when it comes to important matters concerning the country while O'Roarke just comes across as an asshole.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
An Open Letter to ECI
Posted by Nowhere Man
To: The Powers-That-Be at Emergency Committee for Israel
Re: Queensborough Bridge Not For Israel Billboard.
I recently came across your billboard as I was heading into Manhattan, showing a picture of President Obama shaking hands with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas with the caption, "Telling Jews They Can't Build in Jerusalem. Not Pro-Israel."
The people of Israel are also divided on the building of more settlements on the West Bank. Do you consider them to be traitors or just simply not friends of their own country? Why is it that a President of the United States isn't considered a friend of Israel unless he kowtows to every single Israeli right wing policy? If your friends disagree with something you do or say, are they no longer your friends? President Obama didn't say anything critical, although he should have, about Israel's massacre of 1,500 Palestinians in the Gaza conflict, did he?
Did I miss something or has President Obama stopped sending Israel $3 billion a year in aid? Newsweek is reporting that President Obama sold Israel bunker-buster bombs in 2009 - something even former President Bush wouldn't do - and yet it is Obama that isn't a friend of Israel?
The real injustice is that the Arab Spring has dramatically changed the Middle East but the US is impotent to try to forge broad relationships with these new governments because as always, the President and his State Department are the marionettes of Israel and are not allowed to freely conduct broad relationships with other Arabs and Muslims... you know,the people who "attacked" us. Your billboard is so pathetically disingenuous that it reminds me of the propaganda the Nazis used to hide the truth. What Israel is doing to the Palestinians is no different from the apartheid that was practiced in South Africa. I would also appreciate it if for once you'd let us be free to conduct our own independent foreign policy without the typical smears and maliciously intended misinformation.
Must Reads
Asjylyn Loder and David Evans: Koch Brothers Flout Law Getting Richer With Secret Iran Sales
Hunter: Newt Gingrich says as President, he'd ignore the Supreme Court
The Rude Pundit: An Inarticulate Articulation of Why Occupy Wall Street Doesn't Need to Articulate a Damn Thing
Justin Rosario: Ron Paul: Libertarian? Only When It’s Convenient
Alexander Bolton: Reid Triggers ‘Nuclear Option’ to Change Senate Rules, End Repeat Filibusters
Friday, October 7, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Sarah Palin Not Running
I could have told you Sarah Palin wasn't running for the nomination a year and a half ago. The only reason she chose to make her announcement was because she saw all the attention NJ Governor Chris Christie was attracting when he decided to have a press conference to state the same thing he's been saying for a year now. And as we all know by now, whether it be Christie or Michele Bachmann or Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin is so goddamn shallow she can't stand not being the center of attention.
Palin's not running?! ...Yawn....
Blame Yourself
Outsourcing doesn't matter. The greatest recession since the Great Depression doesn't matter. The Too Big To Fail Banks who played Las Vegas with our money and lost it all, than had to be bailed out with taxpayer money doesn't matter. Herman Cain, who is running for President of the United States, thinks if you lost your job, and can't get ahead, you have no one to blame but yourself.
Herman Cain: "I don’t have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration. Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself! [...] It is not a person’s fault if they succeeded, it is a person’s fault if they failed."
A word of advice to Herman Cain: if you don't have facts to back something up, then keep your mouth shut.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Steve Jobs Dies at 56
Jobs is now looking down from his iCloud and observing how he changed the world.Chicago Tribune: CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Apple announced Wednesday that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs has died.
...In January, Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, took his second medical leave of absence in two years, raising serious questions about his health and the leadership of a company.Jobs, 56, has been instrumental in turning Apple into the dominant producer of portable music players, a leader in the smart phone business and, with the iPad, the inventor of a new category of modern tablet computers.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Christie Not Running
Chris Christie is having a press conference at 1pm to announce that he is not running for the Republican nomination for the presidential race. In other words, he's making news by announcing what he's been saying for the last twelve months.
Now let's give Christie a little credit. Even though sources say he was reconsidering his position after hearing the outcry of voters who aren't satisfied with any of the eight current nominees, he was smart enough to realize that even if he were ready to be president, he's nowhere near ready organizationally to run a national campaign.
The question will soon shift to who will the voters clamor for as their next flavor of the week?
Monday, October 3, 2011
Rick Perry and "Niggerhead"
Is Rick Perry a racist? He doesn't seem to be from what those who know him are saying. Was he a little more than insensitive in this situation? Absolutely, especially for a public servant.
Here's the insensitivity:WaPo: "In the early years of his political career, Rick Perry began hosting fellow lawmakers, friends and supporters at his family’s secluded West Texas hunting camp, a place known by the name painted in block letters across a large, flat rock standing upright at its gated entrance.'Niggerhead,' it read."
Perry has a record showing he is not a racist, naming African-American justices and staff members during his tenure as Governor, but in trying to avoid the subject because it's not politically convenient at the current time shows he's more interested in damage control than having the courage to address this issue head on."...the name of this particular parcel did not change for years after it became associated with Rick Perry, first as a private citizen, then as a state official and finally as Texas governor. Some locals still call it that. As recently as this summer, the slablike rock — lying flat, the name still faintly visible beneath a coat of white paint — remained by the gated entrance to the camp."
Sunday, October 2, 2011
More Like This, Please
President Obama: “We don’t believe in the kind of smallness that says it’s OK for a stage full of political leaders — one of whom could end up being the President of the United States — being silent when an American soldier is booed. We don’t believe in that. We don’t believe in standing silent when that happens. We don't believe in them being silent since. You want to be commander-in-chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it’s not politically convenient."
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Must Reads
The Rude Pundit: What Matters: A Contrast in Two Photos
Eugene Robinson: Chris Christie’s Big Problem
Melissa Harris-Perry: Black President, Double Standard: Why White Liberals Are Abandoning Obama
Patrick McGeehan: N.J. to Repay U.S. $95 Million Over Hudson Tunnels
Michael D. Shear: Imagining a Christie Campaign for President
Bob Cesca: Progressive Racism, Careerism and Delusion
Friday, September 30, 2011
Will O'Reilly Quit If Taxed at a Higher Rate?
Absolutely not. And he said as much on The Daily Show.
Here's Jon Stewart taking Bill O'Reilly to the woodshed yet again. I would truly love to see O'Reilly in a serious discussion with Stewart regarding the issues they speak about, instead of his insistence in trying out a punchline here and there. I do believe he's a smart guy - but I also believe he knows where his bread is buttered and therefore leans towards conclusions with which he might not otherwise agree.
The Solyndra fiasco was reported, or shall I say regurgitated by the media before all the facts were made known.
And the $16 muffins? That's already been debunked as well. Too bad Stewart didn't know anything about it.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
So Much for Savior Perry
Herman the pizza guy beat Rick Perry, the GOP's flavor of the month, in Florida's straw poll after his performance in the most recent GOP debate. And I have to ask: what the hell is wrong with Republican voters? Arguably, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman are the most sane, responsible politicians vying for the GOP nomination, but they're not even close to what the polls say the voters want.Herman Cain, the former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza, won the Florida straw poll today, defeating second-place Rick Perry after the Texas governor worked the crowd of activists with a breakfast speech Saturday morning.Mr. Cain won nearly 40 percent of the 2,657 people who voted, more than doubling Mr. Perry’s total and that of Mitt Romney, who came in a close third.
First it was Donald Trump, until he exposed himself as a complete buffoon when he jumped on the Birther bandwagon. Then came Michele Bachmann, whose buffoonery is usually excused until she suggested that the HPV vaccine could cause "mental retardation." Then it was Rick Perry, who got cheers for 234 Texas executions under his leadership, but jeers for his Texas Dream Act where illegal immigrants who came to this country when they were children are given a chance to go to college. They were also too quickly reminded of the 43rd president when Perry tripped over his tongue while trying to attack Mitt Romney. And we may as well forget the other six candidates, including Cain, considering the fact that week after week GOP pundits and talking heads are constantly touting new candidates and hoping they'll get in the race.
This week they're returning to the idea of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie yet again... until they take a cursory look and realize he called the fringe right wing "crazies" when it comes to their anti-Muslim rhetoric and the whole "banning Sharia law" thing in places where Sharia law doesn't exist and will never exist. And as of this writing, he had once again stated he's not interested in running for president in 2012.
Who'll be the flavor of the week next week?
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Hypocritical Family "Values"
Funny - I was more upset when I found out Nancy Grace was going to be a contestant on Dancing With The Stars than Chaz Bono, and I don't even watch the show. Lewis Black was on the same wavelength.
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