Monday, April 22, 2013

Moments in Asshatery from the Great State of Maine

Anyone who voted for this assclown deserves what they are getting.

I've been trying to ignore this ignorant asshole, but the latest barf out of his piehole just set me off, so I have compiled a short list, by no means all-inclusive of this ignorant git's misguided at best and destructive more than often than not governance of my beloved state.

Here we go:

LePage orders removal of labor mural, sparking outcry
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 
AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage has ordered the removal of a 36-foot mural depicting Maine's labor history from the lobby of the Department of Labor.

He hadn't been in office more than two months and the "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs," governor took down the labor mural. Yeah, sure - jobs... Then we get this:

 Maine Governor Gets Testy With N.A.A.C.P.
Gov. Paul LePage of Maine directed a graphic insult at the state’sN.A.A.C.P. leaders on Friday after they questioned his decision to pass on attending Martin Luther King Birthday events in Bangor and Portland. 
[snip]
When the reporter asked Mr. LePage to respond to the suggestion that he had a pattern of slighting theN.A.A.C.P., he replied, “Tell them to kiss my butt,” adding, “If they want to play the race card, come to dinner; my son will talk to them.”

Supposedly he has an adopted son who is black - I pity the boy.

Benjamin Todd Jealous, the president and chief executive officer of the N.A.A.C.P., said that Mr. LePage’s “decision to inflame racial tension on the eve of the King holiday denigrates his office.”

Just like everything else he does.“His words are a reminder of the worst aspects of Maine’s history and out of touch with our nation’s deep yearning for increased civility and racial healing,” Mr. Jealous said in a statement on Friday. “Our goal for more than 100 years has been to build One America, and One Maine. From defending Franco-American Catholics from the Klan in the 1920s to fighting mistreatment of Muslim Americans and racial profiling of black Americans today, we are proud of our history in the state of Maine.


Next:

Governor LePage: Maine Wind Turbine Runs On ‘A Little Electric Motor That Turns The Blades’

This is the one that set me off. I really couldn't believe it. Can't we have an I.Q. test for Governors to qualify to run for the seat, please? 


Maine Governor Paul LePage accused the University of Maine of turning on an electric motor when the wind wasn’t blowing their turbine to fool people into thinking that “wind power works.”
LePage was not joking when he made the comment to the Skowhegan Area Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, as Mike Tipping with the Bangor Daily News reports:
Now, to add insult to injury, The University of Maine, Presque Isle — anybody here been up there to see that damn windmill in the back yard? Guess what, if it’s not blowing wind outside and they have somebody visiting the campus, they have a little electric motor that turns the blades. I’m serious. They have an electric motor so they can show people that wind power works. Unbelievable. And that’s the government that you have here in the state of Maine.
No, you stupid shit - that's science... You're the reason government doesn't work in the State of Maine.
  

Asked about this curious claim, the University spokesperson’s first response was to literally laugh out loud. There is no motor. The project is actually a success story for the university, and for Maine. This was the first mid-sized turbine installed by a university in the state, has a 600 kilowatt capacity, and has produced 680,000 kwh worth of clean electricity in its first year. That’s $100,000 off the University of Maine at Preque Isle’s utility bill, and 572 tons of CO2 not burnedinto the atmosphere.
Dumb Fuck, he did not add, but I would have.  

Now we have the latest demonstration of just how low his I.Q really is: 

LePage touts his plan to grade Maine schools

A through F
"It's so hard to read all the mumbo-jumbo in a detailed report on how schools are doing", he did not say. "Let's dumb it down so even I can understand it", he implied.

How does an obviously unqualified yokel get elected to the highest office in this state? 



LePage’s Koch Brothers connection revealed
If you're looking for a poster child for the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics, you'd have a hard time doing better than the American Legislative Exchange Council.
ALEC is one of the nation's most powerful and most secretive lobbying entities, and it focuses exclusively on state legislatures. Disguised as a non-partisan professional association for legislators, it is actually a corporate-funded mechanism to allow business interests to write their own bills without leaving fingerprints for the public and their elected representatives to see. ALEC hands out model laws to willing or naïve legislators — including some in Maine — which are drafted by secret task forces and approved by ALEC's corporate donors, who provide virtually all of its funding. Major donors include the infamous Koch Brothers, the American Petroleum Institute, ExxonMobil, and big drug and tobacco companies. The laws seek to deregulate industry, protect the powerful from responsibility for their misdeeds, or dismantle and privatize government. Hundreds of ALEC-written laws are passed in state houses every year, usually without anyone realizing who really wrote them.
Guess who is the new corporate chair of ALEC for the state of Maine?

Confidential documents from ALEC's annual meeting last month in New Orleans obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy reveal it is none other than Ann Robinson, a trusted advisor to Governor Paul LePage who simultaneously maintains her day job as a corporate lobbyist at Preti Flaherty Beliveau & Pachios. (Her legislative co-chair is Senator Richard Rosen, Republican of Bucksport.)

Read more:
 http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/126378-lepages-koch-brothers-connection-revealed/#ixzz2REuBMHLr
Oh and don't forget about this little tidbit:Federal official confirms Maine Labor Department probe; state workers union seeks independent review of LePage
AUGUSTA, Maine — Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Seth Harris told Gov. Paul LePage during a telephone call late Wednesday that an audit of the Maine Department of Labor’s handling of unemployment claims came in response to complaints of inconsistencies, not due to comments the governor allegedly made last month during a Blaine House lunch.
Meanwhile, the Maine State Employees Association said in a press release Thursday morning that it is calling for an independent review of the state’s unemployment system and potential attempts by LePage to intimidate unemployment hearing officers into ruling on the side of businesses.

[snip]

Ginette Rivard, president of the union that represents the majority of state workers, said LePage’s recent reported comments to unemployment hearing officers at a Blaine House lunch constituted “attacks on the integrity of the entire system of unemployment compensation.”

And the hits just keep on coming. 2016 can't come soon enough for me.
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Note - Sorry about the poor formatting, I was in a snit. The content is real.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Spruce Head Home for the Emotionally and Socially Disturbed



Hi Friends. I am finally moved into my new place on an island, connected by a causeway, in Spruce Head. I am no longer in a conservative neighborhood - aka surburbia hell.

This is my view off my back deck. Fuck it. I deserve it. So do the Greendaykids. Can't afford it, but what else is new. I'll make it. Like I tell the kids, "Have faith in your skills and abilities".

Everyone is welcome. Especially you Suze and Busted. I can't wait to see you. I have a spare room, actually plenty of room for all.

You can borrow my boots, you Ornery Bastard.