The Request Line

I've decided to start yet another regular feature here at NFTF....The Request Line! I've had several people make requests for a certain topic over the years...some of which I have responded to....but I guess I wanted to formally do it now under this umbrella in light of the emails and comments I have received over a particularly hot issue of late. So, we'll start off with the McChrystal firing.

As most of you know, I like Stan McChrystal. In fact, I wrote a piece about him awhile back and strategically, I thought he was the right man for the job. Of course, he is only human and making the mistake of talking to Rolling Stone magazine probably wasn't the brightest thing to do but I still don't begrudge him his views. Clearly, he was frustrated much in the same way that Eric Shinseki was frustrated with the Bush Administration. What's amusing to me (of course) is how the Cult is responding in the exact opposite way they did with Shinseki.

Back then, when General Shinseki questioned Rumsfeld and the handling of Iraq, he was a traitor. Now that McChrystal is doing the same thing, he is a hero. Why? Because his views have been co-opted into the "Liberals are Weak, Can't Handle the Military" lie. The simple fact is that the Cult can't accept Barack Obama as president and are salivating at any minor chance to play gotcha. Even more amusing is that they equate their own cognitive dissonance and epistemic closure with people like myself who criticized George W. Bush. There is quite a large difference but there is no way in hell they are EVER going to get it. But let's get back to McChrystal.

My opinion is that both men spoke their mind and, because we have civilian leadership of our armed forces, were asked to step aside as a result of their views. They were out of line but probably thought they were doing the right thing...in their opinions anyway. Neither man is a traitor and both are honorable men in my opinion. Incidentally, both Shinseki and McChyrstal have far more access to intelligence and defense information than I or many other commenters do so to make anything more than a rudimentary judgment is really....in all honesty....pure farce.

What is ROTFLMFAO material is the Cult's sudden and sweet embrace of the "liberal-commie-pinko rag" Rolling Stone. Remember, everything else you read in the piece of shit is wrong. And Marxist. For example, it wasn't the private sector that caused our financial problems of the last few years. It was all the government's fault. I guess Rolling Stone is just dandy if it fits the Cult's narrative.

And, with David Patraeus taking over now for McChrystal, I'm wondering if the Cult will now be speaking of betrayal.

Yep.

Al Shabaab...they are just like Sean Hannity is here. Same thing, no difference.

---my Somali cab driver last night.

Now I know why the Cult loathes cultural diversity.

Rules Need Not Apply (Bastard Spic Edition)

Apparently, the new Arizona immigration law isn't good enough. Neither is the United States Constitution.

Russell Pearce, a state Senator from Arizona, is introducing legislation to make all children of illegal immigrants, born here in the United States, also illegal and deny them citizenship. Mr. Pearce must be unaware of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution which states:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Seems pretty clear to me. Of course, I'm not in the Cult.

"It's been hijacked and abused," Pearce said. "There is no provision in the 14th Amendment for the declaration of citizenship to children born here to illegal aliens."

I'm wondering what version of English he speaks. Must be the "Fuck You, Spic" version.

I'm also wondering exactly what Mr. Pearce envisions as being an acceptable way to deny citizenship to babies and children. Under the new immigration law he voted for, doesn't that mean they would be deported along with their parents? I can see it now...images of brown people being put on trains and herded out of the country because of the "Papers Please" law. But shit, though. I can't compare them to....that time in world history, can I? Nah, no similarities whatsoever...

Many folks would say that Pearce is dreaming if he can pass this law. Fifteen years ago I might have agreed with them. But with the power of the Cult, things have changed. The BP oil spill, for example, is now the fault of our fascist/socialist/leader Barack Obama. And he should apologize to the warm and golden corporation for ever questioning anything they are doing.

So, Pearce has an excellent chance of passing this law regardless of what the Constitution says. After all, rules need not apply.

Rules Need Not Apply (Local Boy Makes Bad)

I think I've figured out why the Cult hates the government so much. To put it simply, they don't like laws. In fact, I think their entire collective would be happy if there weren't any laws and they could all be ass hats about whatever they wanted.

In other words, they don't like people like me because I stand in the way of them getting to be a dick whenever they want.

With this sentiment in mind, starting today we are going to see a new regular feature here on NFTF similar to the vein of Grab Bag and Liberal Media Watch. It's called "Rules Need Not Apply" and it will showcase examples of this disdain for law. I have a few nauseating examples that I'd like to get out over the next few days so let's start with a local one.

Meet Mayor Phil Young of Eden Prairie. Phil was a Tea Bagger before the name was even invented. He ran for mayor on the idea that government should be extremely limited and private funding could take on many of the city's needs. Sound familiar? It should because it's one of the central creeds of the Cult.

Problem is, though, that Phil used taxpayer money to reimburse himself for meetings he never went to and that were canceled. He received almost $1,000 in tax payer funds for his per diem.

City Hall records show that for 2008, 2009 and the first three months of this year, Young claimed $35 per diem amounting to $980 for 28 meetings of the Minnesota Regional Council of Mayors, which meets under the auspices of the Urban Land Institute in downtown Minneapolis.

But he attended just two of the 28 meetings, according to attendance records kept by the Land Institute.

So what exactly does this mean?

Plymouth police investigated the claims and submitted evidence to the county attorney's office. Last week Freeman said his office considered a charge of felony theft of public funds but declined to prosecute. After Freeman declined to file charges, Plymouth Police Chief Mike Goldstein said he planned to ask the Plymouth city prosecutor to review the matter for possible prosecution as a misdemeanor. Proper procedure, however, requires the Eden Prairie prosecutor to review the case and decide whether to pursue it further, Goldstein said.

So, basically the city of Plymouth (acting as an impartial investigator) has declined to prosecute a felony theft and may not even charge Young with a misdemeanor. Why?

Young committed a crime and he is skating away free. He's also a complete fucking hypocrite. He won office due to his "belief" that the government shouldn't waste taxpayer money and he did just that. Basically, Phil believes, as many in the Cult do, that the rules don't apply to them.

Not surprisingly, Cult members showed up at a recent city council meeting and demonstrated support for Phil.

Many of those who spoke described Young as a committed, caring community leader who has the city's best interests at heart and is the victim of a political witch hunt."I grant you that Phil's bookkeeping is lacking a bit, but he didn't collect; he was busy doing the people's work for the city," said Don Opheim, a city resident since 1968. "Phil Young is the best mayor I have had the good fortune to know in my 42 years in Eden Prairie. I hope you run again. I hope Phil stays on."

Ah, I get it. So we can rip the "race mongers" when they play the victim card all the time but not Cult members who are "great community leaders." Pardon me while I barf all over my fucking keyboard. In other words, "It's Not ______ when we do it!!!"

And the rules need not apply.

Happy to be Wrong

There are some days, like today, when I am just happy to be wrong. Actually, happy is too light of a word. Giddy...yeah, that's it. I'm giddy...and filled with a whole bunch of snuggly warmth. Why?

Apparently, the shit kickers and hillbillies are starting to warm up to the fags.

Honestly, I thought it would never happen but today's column in the Strib has proved me wrong.

Some rural communities are rolling out the welcome mats for their GLBT residents and visitors. It started a few years ago in Pine City (pop. 3,400) -- with East Central Minnesota Pride -- but other Minnesota communities are getting on the bandwagon.

And to think just six years ago, we had such vitriol and hatred towards the gay and lesbian community on a national level. I thought it would take decades to even begin to get to this point. I was wrong.

But today, more and more rural communities are holding their own events to build social capital among the otherwise isolated. Perhaps it has something to do with support at the national level. President Obama, for instance, proclaimed June to be GLBT Pride Month in the United States for the first time since Bill Clinton was in office.

My guy did that? I didn't even know. Cool.

West Central Minnesota Pride was started in 2009 because no other organization existed in the area surrounding Willmar specifically for the GLBT community. Brainerd held its first-annual GLBT pride picnic last year as well. The event was hosted by the Lakes Area Diversity Council, although the Brainerd area had several other support groups -- such as the Brainerd High School Gay-Straight Alliance, the Staples High School Gay-Straight Alliance, OutFront MN, the Central Lakes College Rainbow Coalition, Brainerd's GLBT Equality Coalition and the Rainbow Health Initiative -- to help with the cause.

There's a Brainered GSA? And a Brainerd GLBT? Brainered? FUCKING BRAINERD!!? The Lord works in mysterious ways.

"I feel that the value of pride has a deeper impact in rural Minnesota than it has in bigger cities, because we're less tolerated," said Paul Wilkins, president of the East Central Men's Circle, one of the organizations behind East Central Minnesota Pride. "If one loses the meaning behind pride, I'd encourage them to visit one of these rural prides to understand their value."

Amen, Paul. I suppose I need to start qualifying my usual derision directed at hillbillies. Sure, it will be extra work for me to check and see if they have a GLBT in a deep red county but I don't care. It's magnificently worth it.

And, as always, I'm warm, giddy and happy to be wrong.

The Unfettered Free Market in Action

This is how benign neglect works in reality.

Liberal Media Watch

Another Bartlett post that got my attention was this one entitled: Fox News and MSNBC: Not The Competitors They Should Be. Bartlett and I are exactly in line with the reality of media bias.

I give Rupert Murdoch enormous credit for recognizing a market opportunity to appeal to conservatives who have long felt that the traditional media had a strong liberal bias. And in the era from the 1950s to the 1980s I think the conservatives were right. The mainstream media did have a liberal bias, although it was never as strong as they thought.

Right. No harm in having a conservatively biased media outlet. If you don't like it, don't watch it. One thing I have noticed about FOX, though, is that where we see a lot of spin on MSNBC, we see outright lying on FOX. Both are obnoxious in their own way but FOX seems to have people on who simply tell lies where MSNBC tells half truths. Rachel Maddow, for example, will leave out facts which some might say is lying. But Sean Hannity will say that President Obama's nuclear treaty gives the Russians the keys to Europe. There is a difference between the two statements although I don't expect Cult members to understand this.

The problem is that since the 1990s the mainstream media has shifted to the right. I think the old liberal bias is completely gone and every major media outlet is pretty well positioned in the center of the political spectrum today. Liberals recognize this even if conservatives don't.

Yep. The Cult will whine until the end of time...blaming the "liberal media" for all of their problems in what is hilariously the very thing they supposedly bemoan: playing the victim. It is yet another example of how conservatives of today are like liberals of yesterday...idealists to a fault with no practical application in reality.

I just wish Fox would stop pretending that it isn't a mouthpiece for the Republican Party and come out of the closet so to speak. The real problem is that the left and the Democratic Party have no comparable outlet and I think they should have one. While MSNBC tends to be slightly to the left it is not nearly as far to the left of center as Fox is to the right, nor does partisanship and ideology permeate its entire schedule as it does at Fox.

Unfortunately, I don't think MSNBC is capable of positioning itself as the left/Democratic alternative to Fox as long as it remains part of the NBC News operation. It's forced to operate too much like a mainstream media outlet. Comcast, which now owns NBC, should spin it off and give it the freedom to become the anti-Fox. I think it would be much more successful than it is now.

So, before my usual commenters begin their predictable spasms, fits and howls of derision, I'll add this fact in what I hope will cause an extra few spasms of cognitive dissonance: MSNBC has a Republican (Joe Scarborough) who hosts his own three hour show that is quite popular. Does FOX have a Democratic equivalent? No.

MSNBC does lean liberal but it is not the all out Left Fest it could be with the likes of Pat Buchanan on the air all the time. And Morning Joe is, in all honesty, my favorite news show. I have to admit that I love the guy and Mika Brzezinski is hot:) If you ever get the chance, check out their show. It's a very unbiased show that looks at all the angles of the days news. It's on pretty early (5am-8am CST) but worth checking out as you get ready for your day.

So how is it with guys like Joe on the air that MSNBC is a Marxist outlet for information? Only the Cult knows....

Nope. Not Racist.

Make Bruce Bartlett's blog a daily stop. Politically speaking, he and I are of very similar minds. He's been writing about a few things lately that I am definitely going to be commenting on here.

First up is the new Washington Poll on the Tea Party. It's nice to have some aggregate data on their views on race, immigration, and gay rights. Not that this will matter at all to those members of the Cult who believe that 99 percent of the GOP is decidedly not racist. Their assertions, echoed here in comments, remind me of my son with his hand in the cookie jar looking at me with straight face and saying that he is not snitching any cookies.

Let's take a look at the data.

• 74 percent of respondents think that equal rights are important for blacks and minorities to succeed but it's not the government's job to insure that they do.
• 78 percent disagree that over the years blacks have gotten less then they deserve.
• 46 percent think that if blacks tried harder they would be as well off as whites
• 54 percent think that immigration is changing US culture for the worse.
• 88 percent approve of the new Arizona law.
• 23 percent think that welcoming immigrants is a good thing for the US
• 73 percent disapprove of President Obama's engagement of Muslim countries
• 63 percent think we should single out Muslims for screening at airports
• 18 percent think that gay and lesbian couples should have the right to marry
• 52 percent think that gays and lesbians have too much political power.

Bartlett nails it.

They are largely united in being unsympathetic to African Americans, militant in their hostility toward illegal immigrants, and very conservative socially. At a minimum, these data throw cold water on the view that the TPM is essentially libertarian. Based on these data, I would say that TPM members have much more in common with social conservatives that welcome government intervention as long as it’s in support of their agenda.

As Bill Maher said, not all conservatives are racist but if you are a racist, chances are, you're conservative.

I think these numbers accurately reflect the Cult's view on these issues. Before any of my usual readers do their interpretive re-direct dance, answer the polls questions...honestly. And then we can have a discussion about your answers.

Ah, Now I Get It.....

Many of you may be wondering why the unemployment number is not budging. I've wondered this myself. Well, now we have an answer.

Apparently, some companies aren't hiring people who are unemployed.

In a nearly identical job posting for the same position on the Benchmark Electronics website, the red print is missing. But a human resources representative for the company confirmed to HuffPost that the The People Place ad accurately reflects the company's recruitment policies.

"It's our preference that they currently be employed," he said. "We typically go after people that are happy where they are and then tell them about the opportunities here. We do get a lot of applications blindly from people who are currently unemployed -- with the economy being what it is, we've had a lot of people contact us that don't have the skill sets we want, so we try to minimize the amount of time we spent on that and try to rifle-shoot the folks we're interested in."

Well, that's just very fuck you fantastic. People are happier when they are employed...no shit, Sherlock. I know people that have been out of work (in their field) for two years or more. So companies aren't even bothering to read their resume and qualifications if they aren't employed? What a load of shit.

Actually, what's really galling is that it is yet another example of the idiocy of this country. Do any of these companies understand that what is holding us back from a full recovery is the high rate of unemployment? That this fact is coloring the perception of bleak economic outlooks? And it's all because a bunch of Marie Antoinettes out there don't want to associate with the riff raff.

On a scale from one to dragon, how much does this irritate the shit out of you? For me, it's Red Dragon.

Remember

Beaten By Corporate Force

Take a look at our president. A pretty sad fucking picture, isn't it? Not surprising, though, when you consider what he has now come to realize in the last few weeks: our country...our world, actually, is being run by corporations and there is nothing we can do about it. The United States government is completely powerless to stop this oil spill and must sit on the sidelines as British Petroleum attempts yet another Shemp like move in order to plug the damn hole. Not that the government would want to help anyway as so many of them have been bought off by the oil industry.

It's been mighty interesting these last few weeks listening to the Cult trying to spin this one away. This is Obama's Katrina, some say. Others like Sarah Palin say that it proves her "Drill Baby Drill" line was right all along. I'm not sure how that works. To be fair, some of them haven't uttered a peep because they know how royally fucked we all are. The United States government is bowing down to the corporate cock and there's not a damn thing we can do about it.

At the end of the day, it's example #343 of how the free market fantasy of the Cult has no practical application in reality. We've seen quite clearly what happens when private concerns have little or no oversight. In the case of the BP spill, take a look at five specific examples of the Mineral Management Services complete failure in doing its job of regulating.

• MMS's 2009 decision that acoustically-controlled shut-off valve (BOP) would not be required as a last resort against underwater spills at the site.

• MMS's failure to suggest other “fail-safe” mechanisms after a 2004 report raised questions about the reliability of the electrical remote-control devices.

• MMS granted a categorical exclusion waiver on April 6, 2009 to BP exempting it from National Environmental Policy Act's requirements including a detailed environmental analysis, concluding the spill risk in that part of the Gulf was “minimal or nonexistent.” Such NEPA waivers have become routine at MMS, and the Interior department approves 250 to 400 per year for Gulf of Mexico projects.

• MMS gave permission to BP and dozens of other oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits from another agency (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA) that assesses threats to endangered species — and despite strong warnings from NOAA about the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf. Those approvals, federal records show, include one for the well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and resulting in thousands of barrels of oil spilling into the gulf each day.

• MMS routinely overruled its staff biologists and engineers who raised concerns about the safety and the environmental impact of drilling proposals in the Gulf and in Alaska.

But why would MMS do this? Aren't they supposed to be regulating BP?

In September 2008, reports by the Inspector General of the Interior Department, Earl E. Devaney, were released that implicated over a dozen officials of the MMS of unethical and criminal conduct in the performance of their duties. The investigation found MMS employees had taken drugs and had sex with energy company representatives. MMS staff had also accepted gifts and free holidays amid "a culture of ethical failure", according to the investigation.

The New York Times's summary states the investigation revealed "a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch." Gee, I'm shocked.

And in May of 2010, after the spill, it was revealed that MMS regulators in the Gulf region had allowed industry officials to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil and then turned them over to the regulators, who traced over them in pen before submitting the reports to the agency. MMS staff had routinely accepted meals, tickets to sporting events, and gifts from oil companies.

Of course, none of these facts matter. In Cult Land, the government is still all powerful and tyrannical with President New Hitler at the helm sinking his leather boot heel into face of private industry. I guess it's up to the rest of us in the real world to solve this problem. Honestly, I don't have much faith that we will. Our culture and society have already shifted to be extremely distrustful of anything government related despite all evidence to the contrary.

Interestingly, though, a solution was presented in comments recently by none other than our very own Last in Line.

You all know that this could have been taken care of in 48 hours...the typical procedure oil companies and other governments have done many times in the past is to put a 100 yard tube down the well, send dynamite down the tube to blow up the well at the bottom, and pour concrete on top of it. Problem solved. What is going on is BP doesn't want to lose the well so they are doing all kinds of other half-assed crap that is further damaging the gulf region.

Why hasn't this been done yet?

The answer is quite simple, actually. Our "socialist" president doesn't want to be held responsible for BP losing money. He isn't going to allow the government to interfere in a private concern. In other words, he knows that corporations are running our world. He can't involve the government any more than it already is at present. Plus, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh would all up in the hizzy about the brown shirts again.

C'mon, last, don't you know that the government is completely evil? That they are forcing us to bend to their will with the butt of a gun? Let's just all get down on our knees and thank BP for all the black liquid love that is washing up on our shores right now in the Gulf. The Corporation is good....the Corporation is beautiful....anyone who thinks that the Corporation is anything other than pure goodness is a Marxist....(chant with me, touching yourself and Atlas Shrugged simultaneously)....The Corporation is good....the Corporation is beautiful....anyone who thinks that the Corporation is anything other than pure goodness is a Marxist....The Corporation is good....the Corporation is beautiful....anyone who thinks that the Corporation is anything other than pure goodness is a Marxist....The Corporation is good....the Corporation is beautiful....anyone who thinks that the Corporation is anything other than pure goodness is a Marxist....

Operation: Brainwash (Heroification)

Most of you know that I am a big fan of James Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me. In that book, he discusses how American History is taught using a number of poor methods and concepts. One such concept is heroification. He uses the excellent example of President Woodrow Wilson, a figure who is regarded in most history textbooks as a hero. In fact, President Wilson was probably the biggest bigot our country had ever seen, overturning decades of progress made by the Republicans in respect to rights and advancement of African Americans. The image of Wilson by our nation is one of the many great lies in our country's history.

Another great lie is one that got started by Ann Coulter and is now policy according to the Texas State Board of Education. Essentially, it's this: Joe McCarthy was a hero. Coulter said:

Everything you think you know about McCarthy is a hegemonic lie. Liberals denounced McCarthy because they were afraid of getting caught, so they fought back like animals to hide their own collaboration with a regime as evil as the Nazis.

Caught in what, exactly? Oh yes, that's right...anyone to the left of the Cult is a commie. Got it. It's also amusing that she brings up hegemony. The raison d'etre of the Cult is control through blind consensus. Once again, we see the Rove in action.

But this view of McCarthy is exactly what Texas school children are now going to learn...how he was a hero fighting against (in his own words) the treasonous Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. They will learn of a US government filled with dirty, stinking Commies many of whom "got away" and remained in power...in the form of the Democratic party. None of this, of course, is even close to being grounded in reality.

Coming a few years after we defeated the greatest army and threat the world had ever seen, McCarthy accused the Democrats of "twenty years of treason." He added twenty one after Eisenhower refused to acquiesce to McCarthy's demands. His paranoia knew no bounds as he went after the United States military. In one hearing he called Brigadier General Ralph W. Zicker, a WWII battlefield hero, a "five year old child not fit to wear the uniform." Ironic, considering McCarthy's outright lying about his own military record. His investigations into the US military turned the tide of public opinion well against him and his rampant alcoholism began to show in his Senate floor speeches. In fact, his constant changing numbers of how many communists were in the US government from the very beginning were evidence enough of his severe impairment and inability to think clearly.

None of this matters to that chapter of the Cult that has now changed the curriculum in Texas and perhaps nationwide. Commies were everywhere (ahh!!!!!!! look out...he looks funny...commie!!!) and still are. No matter that McCarthy was shown to be a liar very early on..he said pretty things so we loves him:) One need only spend a few minutes reading McCarthy's quotes to see that he was, in a myriad of ways, a founding father (along with Richard Nixon) of the Cult playbook. Say it and it's true...attack your opponent with what is, in fact, your greatest weakness (see the forthcoming comments below for what will be excellent examples of this), ignore facts, think with your guts and, above all, distrust anyone who doesn't think EXACTLY like you do. Joe McCarthy spawned the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. It's no wonder they are fighting tooth and nail to re-imagine him in history. All three of them, as well as the Cult, are still paranoid about Commies (ahh!!! Commies!!!) even years after communism FAILED and whatever remnants are left (save North Korea) are embracing capitalism or some quasi form of it.

I stated previously that I am nauseated by the clear heroification of McCarthy. Honestly, that's not much redeemable about him. Rarely do secondary school texts get it right when it comes to wrongdoing but the American Pageant does in their McCarthy entry. I wonder how many of the facts listed there will be completely left out. Ah well, no matter. Anyone critical of a Cult forefather is a lying Commie which would include yours truly. Cue the red herring of Venona.

As an educator, I am tasked to present the basic facts of what happened in any historical period. To leave out McCarthy's lying, alcoholism, assault on civil liberties, and attacks on distinguished members of the military like George Marshall would be historically dishonest. It would be like showing the happy go lucky side of Stalin and skip over the whole gulag thing. Stalin was an asshole who murdered people. McCarthy was an asshole who destroyed people's lives due to a psychosis that forced an ideology on people. This ideology has now morphed into a faux critical thinking devoid of reality.

Yet I would still be more interested, given all of the facts about McCarthy and what the Cult will now be teaching in Texas, what my students think about Joe McCarthy and why. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what my view is or what the Texas School Board's view is regarding McCarthy. It matters what they think and how they evaluate the facts.

Since close to 5 million students in Texas and perhaps more nation wide will be missing key facts, critical thinking skills have been hijacked. And that's the real fucking travesty.

American Family

To all of the families who have lost loved ones while serving...never doubt for a moment that their memory will always be honored and remembered by all of us...your American family. Thank you.

No Shit

In response to this article from the Washington Post, my friend Vincent had this to say.

Score another victory for corporate deregulation. Financial deregulation gave us the economic crisis, and energy deregulation helped give us this fine mess.

No shit, Vincenzo.

Certainly, I was mistaken when I predicted that the election of President Obama would make the Cult irrelevant. All I really needed to do was sit back and let their fucked up way of running things clearly demonstrate how ridiculously wrong they are in their borderline psychotic views on government.

Operation: Brainwash (Part Two: The Deists)

At the opening of the Texas School Board meeting last Friday, the meeting was opened with a prayer on behalf "of a Christian land governed by Christian principles." The prayer was made"in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." The invocation continued.

"I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the Spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses," board member Cynthia Dunbar said.

"I believe the entire Bill of Rights came into being because of the knowledge our forefathers had of the Bible and their belief in it... "I like to believe that we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion and as long as we do so no great harm can come to our country."

And so began the meeting to re-write history and commence the brainwashing of over 4 million students. I'm wondering why it's OK to open state meetings like this but not OK when it is done in Arabic...in Iran. More on that later.

One of the central tenets of the TSB's decision to change the curriculum is that our founding fathers were Christian and wanted our country to be a Christian nation. Sarah Palin has said as much in her recent appearances. As many of you know, I am a Christian so one would think that I would be happy with this.

I am not.

The founding fathers were Deists who loathed organized religion and its oppression combined with outright lies. So do I. They were products of the Age of Enlightenment which basically means they would have opened up a can on the Cult and those who proclaim themselves to be more "Christian" than everyone else. In short, they weren't evangelical Christians shepherding in a vision shared by James Dobson, Ralph Reed and the late Jerry Falwell. And this would be why the TSB has changed the curriculum to downplay people like Thomas Jefferson who had a lot of "kooky" thoughts on religion...like people should be free to choose their faith.

And that there should be a separation of church and state. TSB board members have said throughout these entire proceedings that they don't like this. “I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation of church and state,” said David Bradley, one of the conservative board members. "I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution.”

Send me my check, Mr. Bradley. Amendment #1:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Perhaps Ms. Dunbar needs to review the Bill of Rights as well.

Religion, not Christianity. And Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists is an example of why the TSB wanted him ejected in their new curriculum. There is only one religion and one way...the RIGHT way. The Cult's way.

I guess I'm wondering if this line, from the Treaty of Tripoli, will now be redacted as a result of the TSB's decision.

the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion

This was signed by President John Adams...a founding father.

The Cult wants our schools and our government to be Christian and Christian only. They are doing this because they see our nation changing and immediately assume, due to their hate filled paranoia and rage, that it means "the end." They want a theocracy that will inevitably lead to the same preaching we see today from the likes of Anwar al Alwaki...a man they have more in common with than they would care to admit. Essentially, this all comes down to the Cult ironically trying to make our nation more like the madrassas in the Muslim world.

Our country is not a Christian nation...it is a religious one. Our founding fathers believed that it was each person's right to choose their religion and practice it freely. Overall, they believed in a great architect of the universe who gave mankind the freedom to choose.They believed that the government should not interfere with this nor be a theocracy. The type of tyranny that the TSB is now legitimizing is the exact type of tyranny the founding fathers established this country against.

They want a theocracy, folks and they want to indoctrinate millions of children in their Cult. There is no freedom in indoctrination.

Operation: Brainwash (Part One)

I've tried to remain calm over the last few days since the Texas School Board decided to make up their own version of history last Friday but I just can't. Not only have they decided to fictionalize reality in an unbelievably insane way, but they have also re-written the role of religion in the state to be...well...just like Al Qaeda.

I have much to say about this decision but I wanted to begin with two things. First, why do I care since I am in Minnesota? And second, aren't they just "making things even" since liberals have "taken over education?"

I care because I'm an educator and it makes me fucking nauseated beyond belief that Joe McCarthy is now going to be seen in a more positive light by over 4 million students. Of course, I have no say in Texas curriculum...only Minnesota curriculum, right? Well, textbooks in Texas are used nationwide and it is considered a main source for social studies curriculum. So this is a national problem.

I say problem because this is the Cult in action once again. They start off by operating under the insanely false assumption that liberals have taken over the schools and are indoctrinating our children. In addition to being FUCKING WRONG, it is a paranoid delusion. The people that support this measure are not well in the head. They have decided that "things I don't like" (e.g US coup in Iran) are now "liberal." They don't like Ted Kennedy so he is now unimportant. They do like Phyllis Schlafly so she is now in the curriculum. It all comes down to their emotions not facts or logic.

The irony about all of this is that instructors around the nation are beholden to teach critical thinking. The stories you hear on Fox News about some teacher somewhere telling children that Cuba is a great country are fucking lies. Most teachers are asking question like...

Do you agree with the fundamental aspects of Social Security? Why or why not? Support your ideas with evidence.

Can you assess the value or importance of religion in the minds of the Founding Fathers? Based on which of their writings and why?

What judgment would you make about Joe McCarthy? Why?

These are questions that I have asked in the past and have gotten a myriad of responses. The truly sad fact is that this decision in Texas will only provide students with one answer: the RIGHT one in the eyes of the Cult.

I'll be spending the next few days on this but I wanted to start off straight away with dispelling the usual crap that comes up with this topic. Tomorrow, we will take a look (sadly, once again) at the similarity between the people that made this decision and the ones that flew airplanes into buildings on September 11, 2001.

Indeed

Check out this line from the latest on the oil spill.

The disaster has demonstrated the enduring laxity of federal regulation of offshore operations and has shown the government to be almost wholly at the mercy of BP, the company leasing the rig, to provide the technology, personnel and equipment to stop the bleeding well.

WAITAMINUTE!!! I have been told several times by my colleagues on the right that our government is the entity that has too much power and that private business is at the mercy of them. If you ask me, this entire disaster proves, once again, how incredibly WRONG they are on just about every issue.

Our government lacks the infrastructure and money to adequately deal with this catastrophe. And why? Because the Cult has had their paranoid on for the last decade so they, backed by millions of people, have been rendering the government ineffective. This has all been done with the BELIEF that private industry would be free of government intrusion and the free market (see: George Romero) would take care of us all.

Doing a pretty good job, aren't they? Corporate force, indeed.

Quiet Reflection

I can't post any political stuff today. My mind and heart are on the last ever episode of LOST which has completely blown me away on just about every level.

The implications of the series go beyond simply fantastic writing, acting, and creativity. If you get out of it what I did, you will see the next step in human evolution on a mental, emotional and spiritual level. This is why there is no doubt that it is the best show (and one of the best created works of any medium) I have ever seen.

Well done, cast and crew of LOST. Very well done.

Welcome to the Party

First of all, I want to assure all of you that I will be commenting on the Texas School Board decision yesterday. I've received bunch of emails and comments on the subject. Rest assured, I will be commenting early next week.

In the meantime, how about that Rand Paul? I actually felt sorry for the guy until he pulled out of his appearance on Meet The Press. What better opportunity to defend yourself than on the Cadillac of talk shows. But he canceled his appearance due to "fatigue." I think his handlers told him that he needed to stop talking for awhile. Jack Conway is probably dancing a jig now.

What did he think was going to happen when he spewed the Cult meme about business (see: They are Jesus)? I feel like Bruce Willis in "Die Hard."

Welcome to the party, asshole!

As of Yet, No Response

Ten days ago, Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball, offered to have any conservative on his show (appearance fee and all) to dispute any of the things Rush Limbaugh has been saying lately. He has added just yesterday that it could be something incredibly minor with which a GOP member disagrees...anything at all...

Thus far, there have been no takers. I'm not surprised.

When Rush says things like "The Obama administration is not of this country," he gets higher ratings. Those ratings mean more people and that's what the GOP desperately needs because more people means more votes. So, essentially, Rush Limbaugh is one of the heads (see: Cerebus) of the GOP.

Go against him for any reason and you are banished from Cult grounds.

What Would You Say?

Check out this video of First Lady Michelle Obama answering a question. Since many readers here have the immigration issue and new AZ law all figured out, what would you say to this young student? More importantly, what would you DO?

The Real Big Tent

The special election in PA-12 yesterday proved one thing beyond the shadow of a doubt: the Democrats have no purity test. And that's why, as I have been saying all along, the GOP might want to consider moving to the left if they want to see substantial gains in the fall.

I still think they are going to pick up around 17 seats in the House and 5 in the Senate but they could get more if they want to. They are going to have to move more to the center on some issues. This, of course, means compromise and that has about as much of chance of happening as me setting my DVR to a season pass of Glenn Beck. More importantly, they are going to have to tell the American people how they are going to create jobs. So far, they have done a poor job of this largely due to the fact that they are simply running on hate and fear. Mistakenly, they have turned their party over to the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and now they are paying the price.

Certainly, the Dems got a little bruised yesterday as well but it was a good thing. Sestak is much better candidate than "which party do I belong to again?" Spector. I was pretty happy at that one and thought President Obama was wrong to campaign for Spector. In addition to being part of the cover up of the coup d'etat in this country in 1963, Spector was 80 yeas old for crying out loud. Time to rent a room at Shady Acres, dude.

Getting back to PA-12, one has to wonder exactly what the strategy is for the fall for the GOP. Anyone care to guess? Mark Critz is one of the most conservative Democrats you will ever see. He is pro life, pro gun and anti Obama care. But he would never pass the Cult's purity test because he believes that government is not a four letter word. No problem, say the Dems. We can find some stuff that we have in common. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. And, by they way, we'll send President Clinton down there to help you win...win in a district that McCain won in 2008 and favors our current president at 35 percent.

Keep it up, Cult members. If things keep trending this way, I may revise my numbers above downward:)

Let Her Have Fun

I've been seeing an ad for a group on Facebook called "Send Sarah Palin Back to Alaska." I checked it out and there are a bunch of fans as well as your typical bullshit similar to the "Not Having George Bush as President" group. I guess I don't see the point.

Sarah Palin has waited her entire life for this moment. She has always wanted to be a media personality and make a shit load of money. Early in her career, she wanted to be an ESPN anchor which is why she named her daughter Bristol. She never really made it and got into the beauty queen thing. Then she saw an opportunity in politics, seeing that it wasn't much different than show biz, and she took it. It lead her to where she is today.

I think her job as mayor of Wasilla and her time as governor were just stepping stones to her overall goal which she has now clearly achieved. She has made 12 million bucks, has a large fan base who will believe anything she says, and stands to continue being successful. Yeah, she has no clue whatsoever about government, socio-economic issues, or international affairs but so what? She's achieved what she has set out to do and isn't that the very essence of the American dream?

I can't promise I'm not going to get upset and write about the outright lies that come out of her mouth (past, present or future) but these days I'm of the mind of...more power to her. And people that form Facebook groups to send her back to Alaska are silly. They should put their energy into something that they believe in...something that has merit...something that can produce results. Sarah Palin is going to be around a long time and it's absolutely pointless to try to "stop her."

Krugman a Go Go

Before the Pawlenty 13 year old girl view of world economics disappears from the bottom of the page, I thought I'd resuscitate it up here. For those of you who don't know, it's basically another example of appeal to fear by the Cult in the form of the phrase, "We are going to be Greece soon." Thankfully, we have Paul Krugman, professor of Economics at Princeton or, for those of you Cult members, a "fucking idiot who lies about stuff."

In a column from last week, Professor Krugman clearly illustrates why we are NOT going to be Greece...pretty much torpedoing much of the silliness we hear from the Cult.

Both nations have lately been running large budget deficits, roughly comparable as a percentage of G.D.P. Markets, however, treat them very differently: The interest rate on Greek government bonds is more than twice the rate on U.S. bonds, because investors see a high risk that Greece will eventually default on its debt, while seeing virtually no risk that America will do the same. Why?

One answer is that we have a much lower level of debt — the amount we already owe, as opposed to new borrowing — relative to G.D.P. True, our debt should have been even lower. We’d be better positioned to deal with the current emergency if so much money hadn’t been squandered on tax cuts for the rich and an unfunded war. But we still entered the crisis in much better shape than the Greeks.

Markets are about perception and not necessarily about hard numbers. The perception is that the Greeks are going to default. There is no perception that we will...except from the Cult who has a clear agenda which we will illustrated clearly at the end of this column.

Even more important, however, is the fact that we have a clear path to economic recovery, while Greece doesn’t.

Look under the hood of those troubling long-run budget projections, you discover that they’re not driven by some generalized problem of overspending. Instead, they largely reflect just one thing: the assumption that health care costs will rise in the future as they have in the past. This tells us that the key to our fiscal future is improving the efficiency of our health care system — which is, you may recall, something the Obama administration has been trying to do, even as many of the same people now warning about the evils of deficits cried “Death panels!”

So that's why health care was so important. Huh. You learn something new every day:)

The U.S. economy has been growing since last summer, thanks to fiscal stimulus and expansionary policies by the Federal Reserve. I wish that growth were faster; still, it’s finally producing job gains — and it’s also showing up in revenues. Right now we’re on track to match Congressional Budget Office projections of a substantial rise in tax receipts. Put those projections together with the Obama administration’s policies, and they imply a sharp fall in the budget deficit over the next few years.

That's true. Take a look at the chart below.

I pulled it from Christopher Chantrill's web site, usgovernmentspending.com. Make sure that you check out his bio before poo pooing the data, Cult members.

Take a look at where we have been as opposed to where we are right now. You can also see the sharp drop that Krugman mentions. All of this jibes with the White House historicals you can review here. See Table 1.2.

But let's get back to Greece.

Greece, on the other hand, is caught in a trap. During the good years, when capital was flooding in, Greek costs and prices got far out of line with the rest of Europe. If Greece still had its own currency, it could restore competitiveness through devaluation. But since it doesn’t, and since leaving the euro is still considered unthinkable, Greece faces years of grinding deflation and low or zero economic growth. So the only way to reduce deficits is through savage budget cuts, and investors are skeptical about whether those cuts will actually happen.

Investors are skeptical with Greece but not so skeptical with us because of the avenues that are being pursued by President Obama. Again, it comes down to perception. And we have our own currency as does Britain, which is in much worse shape than us, yet both the US and the UK can still borrow at relatively low interest rates. So?

In short, we’re not Greece. We may currently be running deficits of comparable size, but our economic position — and, as a result, our fiscal outlook — is vastly better.

Next Krugman gets to the Cult bullshit.

“We demand more than we’re willing to pay for,” is the usual line. Yet that line is deeply misleading.

First of all, who is this “we” of whom people speak? Bear in mind that the drive to cut taxes largely benefited a small minority of Americans: 39 percent of the benefits of making the Bush tax cuts permanent would go to the richest 1 percent of the population.

And bear in mind, also, that taxes have lagged behind spending partly thanks to a deliberate political strategy, that of “starve the beast”: conservatives have deliberately deprived the government of revenue in an attempt to force the spending cuts they now insist are necessary.

Yep. But why?

We should ignore those who pretend to be concerned with fiscal responsibility, but whose real goal is to dismantle the welfare state — and are trying to use crises elsewhere to frighten us into giving them what they want.

I have a few ideas about why they want to dismantle the welfare state. One of them is that they simply don't want to give up their money. On the surface, it seems there is nothing wrong with this at all. But these same people want to enjoy the benefits of those aspects of government they deem important. They are so myopic in their Cult's beliefs that they can't see that the government needs to be about more than just "protecting us from bad guys" as Glenn Beck tells them. Worse still, their narrow mindedness views ANY perception of government that is different from theirs as being totalitarian. As Lewis Black said last week, they have Nazi Tourettes. Actually, it's a Tourettes salad of Stalin, Hitler, and Pol Pot. Pick any frightening dictator and that's what will happen to us if we don't listen to every thing the Cult says!

So, basically, what Krugman is saying is what I have been saying all along: don't pay attention to the people running around saying "We are going to be like Greece." That would include White House Budget Director Peter Orszag who clearly said it for political reasons. As is always the case with the Cult, they are using logical fallacies again.

Just like most of the time, they will be wrong again. And quickly onto something else...never admitting their error. Same shit, different day.

Good or Bad?

In what is yet another example of Reaganesque behavior, President Obama is rallying to bring back the line item veto. I doubt he has a chance of getting it but at least he is making an effort. This is part of his overall strategy, through his bipartisan commission of lawmakers and economic experts, to produce a plan to reduce red ink.

Of course, this blows a hole in the Cult's theory that Obama is rampaging spender. In reality, it's Congress that is the rampaging spender and controls the power of the purse strings. Fisk any DC or politico web sites and you will hear rumbling of nerves on Capitol Hill. What will he want to cut? Will it be my shit?

That's basically the problem and it's an across-the-board red and blue issue. No one wants their little piece of the pie to be taken away. At this point, we really don't have a choice. We do have to cut spending to reduce our debt. While I don't think we are going to end up like Greece, we do need to be on more solid economic ground.

I'm predicting a showdown between Congress and Obama after the election. I think it's going to surprise a lot of people and I can't wait.

Perfect

Check out this video. It's a perfect example of my frame of mind when I talk to commenters over at TSM.

And some here.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Back in Black - Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette's
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Absolutely!

I don't talk enough about religion on here. That really needs to change. After all, I now have become good friends with THREE (count 'em, 3!) evangelical ministers. Most of you know that I am a believer in Jesus Christ as our savior and I think He, in guiding me on this path towards these three folks, is teaching me a lesson.

No...I'm not going to become an evangelical conservative. I know plenty of you are disappointed:) What he is trying to tell me, I think, is to check my bias at the door of His temple. I've always found the evangelicals to be restrictive, narrow minded, intolerant, and ignorant. The issue of homosexuality has always been the biggest dynamite stick. But there are times like this when I am happy to be proven wrong.

One of EM friends, a pastor from Missouri, sent me this link on Face Book the other day. It's something I have been saying for years.

In creating works of art, you are exercising your own freedom of expression, a freedom many people do not experience because they are bound by religious customs and unwritten codes and rules

So wonderful and true. But how does this relate to God?

The creative process is something God went through and goes through in the creation of our exposition, the very planet we live on.

When you create a piece of art, you are experientially understanding God.

Art matters, so keep creating, even as God is creating, for your pleasure and for His.

These are just the best bits from the post so please go and read the whole thing. I was pretty stunned that he forwarded this to me as I've always seen the evangelical conservative as being pro-censorship when it came to being creative and artistic...especially if those expressions were in any way, in their view, against the will of God.

I am proud to say that I was wrong. Perhaps there is hope after all. Hope through creativity and artistic expression...nice!

Never Owned

I get a lot of lip on here about how I am "owned" by some of the commenters here and all of them over at TSM. Given what has happened in the last few months, I'm curious....in what reality do they reside?

A few months ago, I was told by many members of the Cult that Toyota was the model for running a car manufacturer. Toyota doesn't have to deal with all the "socialist bull shit" of Detroit and President Hussein. Apparently, they don't deal with quality control as well.

This is but one example of the constant whining I hear about the "free market" and if government just stayed out of the business of private industry (see: turn the other way when we fuck people over and laugh all the way to our third vacation home), all would be well. Private industry can take care of itself and needs very little regulation or oversight (see: already happening). The free market is wonderful and all who earn profit are Christ like. All who are remotely critical of private industry and/or call for sensible oversight and regulation are communists who hate Jesus and want to send us all to re-education camps.

That is, of course, until private industry royally fucks up and comes crying to the government for help. And that's just what we have now with BP, Haliburton, and Transocean.

Of course, I could write post after post about how there needs to be more regulation but they will get me nowhere. It doesn't fit with Ayn Randian Cult narrative. Thus, we will always have 30-40 million people that will NEVER believe that private industry can fuck up this badly. Instead, I'm going to take a different tack.

I submit that whenever the come to Jesus moment arrives for those who worship the free market, they are fucking cowards. They will wiggle and squirt to deflect blame and not take any responsibility (as we see now with the testimony in front of Congress) ultimately ending up begging for help from the government they rip whenever they get the chance.

Believers of Ayn Rand can ignore reality all they want, as we see in nary a post regarding BP or Toyota at TSM, but sooner or later it's going to bite them in the ass. Actually, I would say a Jaws like chomp. When that happens, watch them fall all over themselves...yelling...that the government (see: Help Me, Daddy!) needs to help out with greater vigor. We've seen it already as some Cult leaders are saying that this is "Obama's Katrina."

As always, I'm willing to be proven wrong. So, what do you say, Ayn Rand zombies? Are you and the executives of BP going to roll up your sleeves and start cleaning oil off of fish and birds?

Or are the cleaners going to be the people you deride as tree huggers bent on destroying us all in the flames of fascism/communism/socialism?

Hmmm?

That's (Not) Racist!

The topic of affirmative action has come up again in comments and, as it usually does, made me chuckle. Bring up affirmative action in a group of conservatives and be prepared for an onslaught of wordy squirts. They will scream and stomp their feet about how liberals are racist because they support quotas...screwing themselves into a monumentally deep chasm of denial of their own racism. They completely fail to see that the reason why affirmative action laws were made in the first place were to insure that non whites got the same opportunity for education and jobs as whites. Back in the day, people didn't want niggers and chinks working at their place of business or going to their schools. So, they wouldn't hire them and thus we started to see these laws.

But things are different now. No doubt, there still are plenty of people who discriminate based on gender, sexual orientation, or skin color. As I mentioned yesterday, if you are one of these people, chances are that you are a Republican. More than likely, you are one of the people I mention above who scream and stomp their feet about how it's liberals, not conservatives, that are racist because of affirmative action.

A funny thing happened, though, on the way to equality. There is a small but growing number of liberal organizations in liberal states that have figured out a much better way to combat racism. The states of California, Michigan, and Washington, certainly not known as conservative strongholds, have banned school admissions and hiring practices based on gender, race or sexual orientation. At first glance, this may seem like an affirmative action ban. It's actually not.

In fact, it's fucking brilliant.

In each of these states, it is now ILLEGAL to not hire someone because they are black, for example. People must hire other people solely based on their qualifications and nothing more. So if the Acme Warehouse in Tacoma, WA refuses to hire someone who is black, they are subject to state prosecution. They have to prove that they have hired the most qualified candidate if any issue of racial bias comes up. In essence, they are forced to look past skin color and that's exactly the way it should be.

Schools and universities must admit students based on their grades and test scores alone. California schools noticed no drop off whatsoever of non white admissions after this law was enacted. Kids work hard and they get into school. That's just the way it should be but that's not even the best part.

The best part is that liberal organizations in these states have figured out a way to eliminate yet another "tap into your inner rage" issue from the Cult and render it moot. By hiring the best possible person for the job, there is nothing with which to have a ten year old temper tantrum. Yea!!! (clap clap:)) And anyone that won't hire Spics at their place of business is going to get a rectal probe by state authorities.

So, Notes From the Front is calling on all states to enact similar laws. Make it illegal to not hire someone based on their gender, sexual orientation, or skin color. Hire the best possible people for each job. Admit the hardest working students.

And show the Cult that their narrow vision is getting even smaller.

News On The March!!!

Big doings across our country today...

First of all we have the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court to replace Justice Stevens. I guess I'm wondering how someone without any bench experience should be on the SCOTUS. Add in the fact that she is going to have to recuse herself from over 90 percent of the cases the SCOTUS hears in the next year because she is now solicitor general of the United States.

As expected, both sides are all uptizzy about her nomination. The left wanted Wood, a more liberal judge, and thinks that Kagan was too much of a champion of Bush era executive power issues. The Cult thinks she's a liberal activist judge who wants to kill their babies, take away their guns, and send them to re-education camps so nothing new there.

My view is that she's just OK. I think he would've done better with Garland or Wood. The fact that they both have bench experience and could actually hear cases and rule on them make them better choices. I think President Obama had other factors in mind.

Moving out west I see that the GOP purity test has been given to Bob Bennett of Utah and he has failed. Voting for TAARP and trying to solve the health care issue with Ron Wyden added together means exile from the Cult. Doesn't he know that the golden glow of the free market would've easily solved the health care issue and the government always fails? What a fool. More and more, we are seeing the move further to the right on candidates from the GOP. Again, I must ask, how does that translate to victory when it's the middle of the country that decides elections?

I am still holding steady at 17 pick ups in the House and 5 in the Senate for the GOP in the fall election. That number could fall, however, if we see statements from Harry Reid's challenger in Nevada, Sue Lowden, similar to her solution to the rising costs of health care. Lowden said that "bartering is really good" to "get prices down in a hurry," and even urged people to "go ahead and barter with your doctor."Lowden subsequently doubled down, saying that in the old days, people traded chickens for health care, adding: "I'm not backing off of that system."

Finally...this just in...99 percent of the GOP are not racist. At least, that was what was asserted to me by all of my conservative friends after Bill Maher's recent comment on This Week on ABC.

Not all conservatives are racist but if you are racist, chances are you are probably a Republican.

True, indeed, Bill. Why is it so hard for them to admit this? The titanic level of denial is amazing to behold. The Democrats have a much longer history of racism in this country. As soon as Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act, however, Nixon employed his southern strategy and now all the former Dixiecrats are Republicans. It's not particle theory, folks. Take a look at this map.

See the giant concentration of RED in the Dixie states? That's where the people live who don't like black people and they all vote Republican. They are the base. So, please, stop insulting my intelligence and playing games. Maher is right. If you are a racist, chances are you don't like President Obama (he's black) and you are a Republican.

File this under: NO SHIT...which is where it fucking belongs.

Mystery Solved

For the longest time I have wondered where conservatives like Tim Pawlenty get their economic advice. Now I know.

"A few days ago," Minnesota Gov. Pawlenty related, "I was having breakfast with my wife, my 91-year-old mother-in-law and daughters, 17 and 13. On TV there was a news report about the financial situation in Greece. Out of the blue, my 13-year-old said, 'This is going to be us pretty soon.' I almost dropped my fork. This is an eighth-grader."

Wow. Awesome. A 13 year old girl is now an economic adviser for a GOP 2010 Presidential hopeful. That certainly explains quite a bit.

It's not surprising, though, that she thinks this as it has been a major talking point from the Cult over the last few weeks. Using FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) while simultaneously unleashing a load of wordy squirts, conservatives of our land have decided that Greece's economic woes are just a foreshadowing for what is going to come here...aka this:

















Of course, many Cult followers are under the impression that Greece is a socialist/communist/fascist country. In fact, it is a parliamentary republic. Israel is another example of a parliamentary republic. Yet another would be South Africa.

Per the usual vitriol, the reason given by the Cult that Greece is having so many financial problems is due to the commie run spend machine that runs their country. While there is no doubt that spending was a problem, there was nothing communist about it. In fact, one of the main reasons why there was such a crisis of confidence in the Greek economy was their complete failure to impose any sort of discipline on tax collections. When only 300 people report having swimming pools on their taxes out of the 16,000 that actually have them, one has to wonder where the Greek government gets their income.

Ironically, young Ms. Pawlenty is right about one thing. We should be worrying about Greece but not because we will become them someday. We ARE them right now in the sense that our economy is global. This is a tough nut to crack for the Cult who, on the whole, wish that "fir-ners would leave us alone with their pinko faggot ways." We are all in this together now, folks, and trying to isolate ourselves economically from the world is just plain stupid. China learned that lesson quickly and look where they are today. If someone farts in the Federated States of Micronesia and Wall Street doesn't like the smell, my IRA is going into the shitter. And this would be because, even more ironically, Wall Street is run by a group of people who have the emotional maturity of a 13 year old girl.

Now, I know many of you are wondering...what about all that spending? Well, take some time and research the historical tables on spending, debt, and deficits located here at the White House web site. Table 1.2 shows deficit spending at 14.8, 30.8, 23.3, and 22.0 percent of GDP for the years 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1945 respectively. During that time, we defeated the greatest army the world has ever seen and after that time we had the biggest boom in our country's history. Our deficit spending for last year was 10.9 and will be 11.2 percent for this year...both still considerably lower than any of the WWII figures.

Examine the federal debt in Table 7.1 for the same period and compare it to today. In 1946, we had a federal debt of 126 percent of GDP!! At the end of 2009 we were at 83.4. Certainly, this is high but consider the post war years and examine the decline. It took us five years just to get back to where we are today. And that time was considered an economic boom with virtually no one screaming about us becoming "like Greece."

We've weathered far worse than this, dear readers, and we still have our Triple A credit rating. We're not going to become like Greece and even a 13 year old can see the difference between our two countries...assuming, of course, that the 13 year old has not been programmed by the Cult.

The Cult In Action

Check this video out.



Apparently, Mr. Fitzpatrick thinks that President Obama has no legal right to be president. In addition, he thinks that Mr. Pettway has no legal right not to convene a grand jury in Monroe County, Tennessee to indict Mr. Obama. Because I know there is NO WAY any of this is racist, I'll leave that angle alone. Plus, the story gets even better.

After this video was released, Darren Huff "rose up" and demanded Fitzpatrick's release. Huff got in his truck -- emblazoned with the Oath Keepers logo on the side -- and drove to Monroe County with a Colt. 45 and an AK-47. Huff made it clear that he was armed and that he planned to go to the courthouse and arrest county officials -- who he called "domestic enemies of the United States engaged in treason"-- in order to turn them over to state police to put in jail. Not surprising, Huff had no success in arresting any Monroe County officials. Perhaps they were busy helping out with the flooding in other parts of the state (see: something that actually matters in reality as opposed to psychoville).

The next day, however, Mr. Huff starting talking about his experience in a broadcast. Huff said he told the county troopers: "I can probably think of five different ways to Sunday that you guys have violated [your] oath," by stopping him and trying to temporarily confiscate his weapons. "So the reality is I could place you under citizen's arrest for doing this. But we're trying to play nice here."

Probably not the wisest move in Mr. Huff's career as this broadcast got the attention of the FBI who said he had the means and intent to cause violence (see: no shit). They have since placed him under house arrest.

I predict we are going to be seeing a lot more of this in the next two years especially if the GOP sees minimal gains in the midterms as I predict they will. The question is how much of it has to happen before I get a conservative on here to say, "OK. Our side is worse. We do have a problem."

Where Exactly?

There's still much chatter on the Right about how President Obama has "failed" to help out regarding the oil spill in the Gulf Of Mexico. It's quite obvious they are trying to find a Katrina like event at which they can stomp their feet and point.

Setting aside the amusing fact that any mistakes Obama makes won't erase the enormous errors made by all levels of government during Katrina, isn't the Right all about strict interpretations of the Constitution these days? Answer: Yes. They scream about health care not being a right nor being commerce. They howl about spending, taxes, and states rights. Now, they are letting loose huge volleys of the wordy squirts about the federal government not doing enough to contain this oil spill.

But where exactly in the Constitution does it say that falls under federal power? Make no mistake, I think the federal government (who is US b to the w) should be helping out but that's because I'm not hyper paranoid about them. So, to the ones that champion the Constitution and think our government should help in the oil spill, what section of the Constitution details this responsibility?

All Politics Are Local (and mine blow ass).

A few weeks ago, I sat in the auditorium at the MN-03 Congressional District Convention and watched 83 Democrats vote for a fucking health care lobbyist to be their endorsed nominee to run against Erik Paulsen, the Republican who currently represents my district. Jim Meffert beat Maureen Hackett 83 to 72 and will face Mr. Paulsen in the fall election. Dr. Hackett would've had an uphill battle against Paulsen but certainly was quite a contrast to him. Meffert offers no real contrast to Paulsen and will be buried by GOP money and bullshit. He also used to peddle health care to the government for a living so I'm wondering just how far those 83 people had their heads up their asses.

Equally moronic is the Democrat's choice to run for governor in our state: Margaret Anderson Kelliher. Kelliher is the speaker of our state house and has a few ethical issues. She's also pretty far left and, in our state, that's a bad thing if you are running for governor. We like our gubnatorial candidates moderate and independent. Not to mention the fact that she's...well...fat. What kind of an image does that project to people when she talks about health care, specifically preventative medicine? The mayor of Minneapolis, R.T. Rybak, would've made much better choice. He had the youth and energy within and behind him and would've likely beaten either of the GOP choices.

The GOP decided on the "Old White People Paranoia" candidate, Tom Emmer who recently suggested that our state should throw out most federal laws and effectively secede from the union. I'm having a difficult time trying to figure out how moving farther to the right makes you a winnable candidate. The other candidate, Marty Seifert, would've cleaned up and won against Kelliher but alas, he was not pure enough. So, in our governor's race, I'm seeing another independent victory if the candidate has even a quarter of the charisma of former governor Jesse Ventura.

Essentially, I'm pretty pissed off. The Democrats had a golden opportunity to win back a seat in the US Congress and elect a Democratic governor. They will sadly have neither now and it's largely due to group think. They sit around and convince themselves that their candidate is the best in their little bubble but they never think about the general public and its mood. MN-03 is 50 percent independent and votes for moderates who are distinctive. That was Maureen Hackett and she had the best chance of winning. Every four years they put up the absolute worst fucking candidate for governor and scratch their heads after they lose wondering what went wrong. Well, they had a good candidate in Mayor Rybak and they fucked up...AGAIN!

Any protestations by people like myself, who are fairly active in the party, fall on deaf ears which makes the whole thing even more frustrating. One would think that yet another loss would change their minds. It won't.

Because you can add dumb and blind to the triad of idiocy that is the Minnesota Democratic Party.

Silly, Silly Cult

I figured it was only a matter of time before it cropped up in comments and now that I have received a few emails I might as well put up a post about it. The Cult is now comparing President Obama's response to the oil spill to President Bush's "response" to Katrina.

Setting aside the fact that they are two completely different situations (see: people died in Katrina and act of nature as opposed to act of a private corporation), I have to wonder what all the fuss is about. I was under the impression that when it came to private industry, the government shouldn't interfere. This accident was the fault of BP and shouldn't they shoulder the responsibility free from government meddling? Perhaps they (along with the Cult) should use their free market ideals inspired by Ayn Rand and clean up the spill. After all, the government only fucks things up more and will eventually enslave us in re-educations camps.

In fact, I remember a commenter over at TSM by the handle of Unix-Jedi who told me that the federal government shouldn't be expected to do anything. What could they possibly do anyway?