Salmon Alley

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Kwanza and Everybody Else

2011-12-24T09:25:00.008-05:00

Wow. I just realized that I haven't posted anything since Thanksgiving. Have to admit that the shorter days and the colder weather tend to drain my limited resources. Now that the days are getting longer and the "Holidays" are almost over I am looking forward to having more energy to funnel toward continuing the fight against corporate governance, political malfeasance, and not forgetting to have a little fun. Geeze, I didn't even have a post for Zappadan this year.

Anyway - here is my favorite Christmas Story, "A Wish for Wings that Work" by Berkley Breathed. In the 80's Bloom County was a staple of my daily comics page, bringing the Reagan years into a budding progressive's perspective - poking the bear from time to time. Then I saw this Charlie Brown style cartoon special which I think only aired once, not because it wasn't good, it was GREAT but it was too subtle for the general public and offended many with the adult nature of the art, dialogue and characters. Please take a few minutes and check it out and you'll see why it only aired once. I think the "cross-dressing cockroaches in crisis" line may have done the trick. Or it could have been Truffles the Pig who thinks he's a rinoceros accusing Bill the Cat of snorting "Little Friskies". Those are not lines that you will hear in many Christmas specials and there are many more excellent lines in there. One has to watch for the cool little effects like a guy in a picture yawning and listen for the subtle ironies that Breathed is so good at pointing out. Spoiler Alert: Opus the Penguin does indeed save Christmas. So sit back with the favorite beverage of your choice, maybe something leafy as well and enjoy. Seriously, this is very well done.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T11:23:00.002-05:00

If only....

And don't forget Arlo..

Bill Maher on Acid

2011-10-30T13:50:00.001-04:00

Please Make This Happen

2011-10-24T15:04:00.010-04:00

Fox News is the most rabidly dishonest of the corporate media. It's about time someone did something.

From Politicususa:
Anonymous Vows to Shut Down Fox News

By Anomaly100

"Remember Remember the Fifth of November"

It Is Saturday Night

2011-10-15T22:03:00.004-04:00

The Eagles - "Gettin' Out of Control"

Working Class Hero or Zero?

2011-10-14T10:03:00.008-04:00

I was skeptical of the Occupy Wall Street movement, concerned that it might only be a flash in the pan kind of spastic unorganized protest that shorts out in a week or so. But then it expanded to other cities, started to get some press/media attention - negative at first - then some in the press actually started to get a few things right. As soon as there was a WHIFF of legitimacy to the movement, the corporate conservatives mobilized to try to control the message through their massive corporate media machine. They have been flinging anti-hippie poo at the wall from all angles and so far the best they can get to stick is the 53%-ers - like this guy who really should be the poster boy for OWS:

As per KOS in response to this poor sucker's letter: [excerpt]

I understand your pride in what you’ve accomplished, but I want to ask you something.

Do you really want the bar set this high? Do you really want to live in a society where just getting by requires a person to hold down two jobs and work 60 to 70 hours a week? Is that your idea of the American Dream?

Do you really want to spend the rest of your life working two jobs and 60 to 70 hours a week? Do you think you can? Because, let me tell you, kid, that’s not going to be as easy when you’re 50 as it was when you were 20.

And what happens if you get sick? You say you don’t have health insurance, but since you’re a veteran I assume you have some government-provided health care through the VA system. I know my father, a Vietnam-era veteran of the Air Force, still gets most of his medical needs met through the VA, but I don’t know what your situation is. But even if you have access to health care, it doesn’t mean disease or injury might not interfere with your ability to put in those 60- to 70-hour work weeks.

Do you plan to get married, have kids? Do you think your wife is going to be happy with you working those long hours year after year without a vacation? Is it going to be fair to her? Is it going to be fair to your kids? Is it going to be fair to you?

[snip]

And is this really your idea of what life should be like in the greatest country on Earth?

Well it sure as hell isn't mine, or over 200 million Americans who haven't been brainwashed to the point where they are working themselves to death and think they found a pony. Dumb Fucks all. Social engineering at the corporate and media level - very effective.

Here's to you the dumbfuck 53% - keep up the good work! Nose to the grindstone, those corporate yachts aren't going to buy themselves you know...

Amanda Palmer playing cover of John Lennon's Working Class Hero song on Liberty Plaza at Occupy Wall Street.

7 Lies

2011-10-12T13:52:00.006-04:00

1. Tax cuts for the rich trickle down to everyone else.
2. Higher taxes on the rich would hurt the economy and slow job growth.
3. Shrinking government generates more jobs.
4. Cutting the budget deficit now is more important than boosting the economy.
5. Medicare and Medicaid are the major drivers of budget deficits.
6. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme.
7. It’s unfair that lower-income Americans don’t pay income tax.

Watch the Video and see Bob Reich shoot these lies down in flames, one by one in delicious slow-mo, Sam Peckinpah style. It is truly a thing of beauty.

Now, can we remember Bob's lessons when the Foxnewsican in the room starts to spout failed conservative dogma drilled into his/her lizard brain by corporate media?

The answer is a resounding YES! Practice... it'll get you to Carnegie Hall!

Go Buy Some of This and Support CounterCulture

2011-09-24T12:36:00.015-04:00

Is Ben & Jerry's 'Schweddy Balls' R-rated ice cream?

L.A. Times

"That's the assertion a group of mothers called One Million Moms is making after the ice cream company released a new seasonal flavor called "Schweddy Balls" earlier this month."

"The vulgar new flavor has turned something as innocent as ice cream into something repulsive," the group writes in a statement. "Not exactly what you want a child asking for in the supermarket."

"Fans of "Saturday Night Live" will recognize the phrase "Schweddy Balls" from a late '90s skit starring Alec Baldwin, Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon that parodied a monotonous public radio show out of the Midwest. The skit is rife with unsubtle double entendre and innuendo."

Here's the skit (sorry for the commercial):

So - fellow culture warriors, get out there and buy some Schweddy Balls and give some to your Fox News watching friends. To the most obnoxious, you may ask - "Would you like to lick my Schweddy Balls?". Endless opportunity for bridging the gap...

____________________________________________________________________________

Update:

Years ago I taught my then young children about words, how words derive their meanings and the culture that tells us if it is right or wrong. How some words were considered "BAD" and anyone who said them was going to get in trouble if they said them in the wrong place or at the wrong time. Then, I taught them that words are only sound vibrations carried through the air to alight on someones eardrum and the only reason we recognize that sound as words is because that is what we are taught as language. I also taught them that the "BAD" words are only made so by people who make those decisions.

On that day, and subsequent days that I chose to reinforce this lesson, I would choose a word to be the "BAD" word of the day. I remember the first one like it was yesterday - "marshmallow". I told my then pre-teen kids that anyone who said the word "marshmallow" was saying a bad word and could face consequences.

The lesson took and they realized that words are only vibrations in the air given meaning by culture and censorship. Later they learned to respect that some words are really hateful and not to be used but I wanted them to not be afraid first, then learn about how some words can convey hate. That stands true today. I am proud of my good citizens.

Goin' Fishin'

2011-09-08T10:33:00.010-04:00

It has been a long summer. Usually summers go by in a heartbeat and next thing you know the lawn furniture has a dusting of snow because I didn't put it away in time. This year was a little different and I sure could use some R & R.

My buds and I are going fishing one last time for this season in a beautiful place, almost Eden-like, on Moosehead Lake. We travel to the wilds of North-Central Maine, then get on a dirt road for 8 miles then turn off onto a lesser dirt road, sometimes washed out, for another 3 miles - dodging moose, deer and rabbits along the way. We arrive in the middle of a Game Preserve where there are cabins for rent. The animals who live around the site have lost their total fear of humans and will tentatively stop by your cabin to see if you are an OK person and have apples, carrots, nuts or other goodies to pass around. They are not tame, still wild but not hunted for over 100 years. On any given day you will see deer, geese, ducks, raccoons, moose, squirrels, chipmunks and more within walking distance of camp and sometimes right on the front porch.

The fishing is outstanding with Salmon, Lake Trout and Brookies in abundance. I have been going there for over 25 years. I learned of this place from my fishing mentors, "Old Timers" who taught me how fish with lead line, tie flies, sew on a smelt, dip my lure in sardine juice before trolling and so very much more. To me this is more like heaven than any evangelical could ever imagine.

Here is a short slideshow vid of the greendaykids and the greendaymom at Tomhegan way back when - with a Taj Mahal accompaniment - probably 2002, but some pics may be earlier.

I had to take the family on off weeks because the "old timers" and their sons and sons of sons wouldn't think about allowing women and kids into camp. We are just too nasty and crazy when we get together. Fact.

I have recently turned my conservative friends on to this haven and tried to pass on the respect for the area and skills that were taught to me. Sometimes a challenge, more often they are overwhelmed by the beauty and the experience.

Labor Day Weekend - Not Just for Barbecues

2011-09-02T10:14:00.007-04:00

As Union Membership Has Declined, Income Inequality Has Skyrocketed In The United States as Middle Class Income Shrinks

From Think Progress

"Across the country, right-wing legislators continue their attack on labor unions,claiming that they are saving their states money. Yet in waging these anti-labor campaigns, these politicians are ignoring one very simple fact: unions were a major force in building and sustaining the great American middle class, and as they declined, so has the middle class. As CAP’s Karla Waters and David Madland showed in a report they first published this past January, as union membership has steadily declined since 1967, so too has the middle class’s share of national income, as the super-rich have taken a larger share of national income than any time since the 1920s".

Here's Tom Morello

We need strong labor in this country. People need to make more money to drive the economy. This is a fact of American life that seems to escape FoxNewsicans and most politicians. Unfortunately, Multi-national corporations don't need us anymore with their expanding markets in China and in developing countries overseas. Are we to be discarded like a used bic lighter or will we fight for a living wage, for organized labor and the restoration of the middle class?

It is an uphill battle with the combined power of the corporate Media spewing anti-labor lies 24/7 powered by billionaires who see workers as just another commodity to be purchased at the least cost like another piece of equipment. How many dollars until the revolution?

Saw This POS on a Bumper Today

2011-08-27T13:23:00.007-04:00

I had taken my son back to college this morning, moved most of his crap.. er, useful stuff to the dorm, said my tearful goodbye, (I miss him very much when he is not here), and was on my way home when I saw this bumper sticker in 4 lanes of traffic, intown, headed for the highway. He was in front of me and we stopped at the next light. This gave me a chance to really read the sticker. He had another one as well, "Annoy a Liberal, Take Personal Responsibility".

Any of you that know the Greendayman well, will know that when the emotional bathtub is full it can't help but runneth over when the spigot of right-wing bullshit spews.

When the light turned green, I sidled up beside him, rolled down the window and hollered, "Do you mean the Reagan that raised taxes 11 times while he was in office? Or the Reagan that granted Amnesty to 3 Million illegal immigrants? I waited for a response, got the dull stare of the conservative zombie then I laughed. He looked at me like I was from another planet... but I get that a lot.

We have to fight right-wing bullshit wherever it resides whether on network news or on an 'effin bumper sticker. They never see it coming and don't know how to handle it when someone stands up to them.

Latest Update on Hurricane Irene

2011-08-26T18:25:00.011-04:00

Up here in Maine, there seems to be general panic brought on by Fox News, The Weather Channel and any other news agency with a camera and a spokes model desperate enough for ratings to blow this thing up into a National Catastrophe.

It is serious for those south of the Cape - this I understand, but in Maine? Some folk 100 Miles inland are laying in supplies and boarding up the windows like a Glenn Beck doomsday acolyte.

I've been through several "hurricanes" in the great state of Maine and lemme tell ya it ain't nothin' compared to what they get in the south, however - when we do get a little wind, we treat it just like the southerners do when they get a little snow! FREAK!

Coastal erosion sucks but I believe this will be no worse than a high-end Nor' Easter.

Here's why: "The Costanza Effect".

Don't worry, I'm a scientist - I'll explain:

Shrinkage. Ayuh, as we say on the coast - shrinkage. When Irene exits the warm Gulf Stream and hits the relatively frosty Gulf of Maine waters she will lose potency rapidly. Guys... ever go swimming in cool waters and witness the shrinkage phenomena? It works on female hurricanes too.

Here's an example:

Cause

Explanation

So, inland Maine dwellers... don't buy into the hype. Everyone else... good luck, seriously, and I hope everyone comes out ok when the sun comes back out.

I Fell Off The Facebook Wagon and It Only Took Me a Couple of Weeks to Blow it Up Again

2011-08-22T19:14:00.015-04:00

I have a very low tolerance for bullshit - therefore I am a lousy Facebook consumer.

I really liked re-connecting to my classmates before reunion and viewing the pics afterward. Very fun... but my fun soon turned to work as I read posts from other "friends" and felt the need to rise to the defense of poor people, out douche bags, and try to teach Demand Side Economics to thick headed conservatives just to name a few fights I chose. FB really lost it's luster, fast - I got nasty threats, I showed no quarter and my older neutral friends were appalled I am sure.

I just can't let it go. When I was a kid, I was riding my bike with one of my buds and some kids from the South End started throwing horse chestnuts at us. They hurt. I stopped my bike, my bud just wanted to keep going but I wanted to know why they were throwing shit at us. These guys never said a word, never let up and I was bruised for a week. Reminds me of Obama trying to run the Country today.

So, I am once again kicking Facebook cold turkey and hopefully won't feel the need to get back on until the next class reunion.

I've Had My Fun...

2011-08-20T20:41:00.002-04:00

Medicare for All Reduces the Debt by $400 Billion a YEAR!

2011-08-14T14:17:00.007-04:00

Here is the real deal from Dr. Quentin Young via FDL

Excerpts:

... if we’re to believe top lawmakers, Medicare is part of the problem, right? Aren’t we supposed to be talking about raising the eligibility age from 65 to 67, reducing benefits, increasing seniors’ co-pays and deductibles or, even more dire, abolishing the program altogether and handing seniors vouchers to buy private insurance?
Wrong. Despite its market-obsessed detractors and those who would weaken the program in the name of deficit reduction, Medicare is the solution, not the problem. More precisely, an improved Medicare for all – a single-payer health system – is the right prescription for treating not only our health care woes, but our ailing economy as well.
[snip]
The biggest albatross around the neck of our health care system is the private insurance industry, which remains firmly entrenched under the new federal health law. [my bold]

Thanks to companies like UnitedHealthcare, WellPoint, Aetna, Humana and Cigna, our nation’s patients, businesses, and health providers are chronically tormented by skyrocketing premiums, denials of care, endless paperwork and bureaucracy, and the spectacle of obscene CEO salaries and insurance company profits.

And what does this so-called system get us? Fifty-one million people who have no coverage at all; 45,000 annual deaths linked to lack of coverage; a million personal bankruptcies annually (62 percent of the total) linked to illness or medical debt; and World Health Organization indicators that put us in 37th place globally, even though we spend twice as much per capita as any other nation.

Waste in our system is staggering. Research shows about 31 cents of each U.S. health care dollar is currently spent on administration, over half of which is unnecessary. That translates into $400 billion wasted annually. If we recaptured that money and applied it to clinical care – as we could under a single-payer system – we’d be able to assure everyone comprehensive, first-dollar, high-quality coverage.

Read the rest here

Corporations Are NOT People

2011-08-13T17:03:00.004-04:00

I could not believe my ears or my lying eyes when I saw Mittens admit what all conservatives believe as gospel that corporations are people. Well... here are some other opinions:

Truthout breaks it down here

Here's the paradox in this whole concept of "corporate personhood." When it comes to rights, Republicans say corporations are people. But when it comes to the responsibilities of personhood - like paying taxes, being sued for negligence or criminal manslaughter, that sort of thing - their response is "Are you crazy? We're talking about corporations here, not people."

The right-wing radicals on the Supreme Court demonstrated this definitional two-step beautifully at the end of the Court's last term. In a pair of decisions that received very little attention, they managed to allow pharmaceutical companies the rights of personhood without the responsibilities. In Sorrell vs. IMS Health, the Court ruled that states couldn't stop drug companies from collecting prescription patterns for individual physicians and then using that data to encourage them to use more expensive drugs. Corporations are people, after all, and that's infringing on their freedom of speech.

But in a second decision, Pliva v. Mensing, the Court ruled that manufacturers of generic drugs had no obligation to tell people about the adverse reactions otherpeople have had to the drug they're selling. If the brand-name manufacturers didn't tell people about those reactions, then the Court said the generic manufacturers don't have to either - even if they know those reactions could lead to death, or to terrible reactions like tardive kinesis.

Corporations are the kind of people who get to say whatever they want to whomever they want - unless they don't want to say anything. People like you and me might not be allowed to collect data on our neighbors and then use it to sell them stuff. And people like you and me would get our butts sued if we sold you something we knew could hurt or kill you. But apparently some people are more equal than others.

[snip]

If corporations are people, they're very special people. They're people who, thanks to the Supreme Court and Citizens United, have the unlimited ability to express their "free speech" with billions of dollars in campaign cash and lobbying loot. Pharmaceutical companies alone have spent more than $2 billion in lobbying since 1998, while insurance companies spent $1.5 billion. When it comes to free speech, these "people" are real chatterboxes.

When it comes to corporate rights, Citizens United is your Supreme Court. Those two pharmaceutical company rulings are your Supreme Court on drugs.

All this corporate cash is creating a wave of deregulation, tax cuts, and other laws that benefit the corporate "people" and are ruining life for the flesh-and-blood kind. They're hijacking democracy. As one of Sartre's characters said in No Exit, "Hell is other people."

They can't do it alone, of course. Our corporate personages need help. And they get it - from their servants in the Republican Party, and from the many Democrats who are also eager to pitch in. It's a good thing for the corporations that they have so many friends in Washington. In fact, it's just like that Barbra Streisand song, isn't it? People who need people really are the luckiest people in the world.

So, what are we going to do about it?

How Many Dollars Left Until The Revolution?

2011-08-10T11:58:00.006-04:00

"Tens of trillions of dollars are being extracted from the United States of America. Democrats aren’t doing it, Republicans are not doing it, an entire integrated system, financial system, trading system, taxing system, that was created by both parties over a period of two decades is at work on our entire country right now," said Ratigan. "We’re sitting here arguing about whether we should do the $4 trillion plan that kicks the can down the road for the president for 2017, or burn the place to the ground, both of which are reckless, irresponsible and stupid."

Take a few minutes and watch Dylan shut up the bullshit and lay it on the line. Well worth it.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

If the video won't load - go here: Dylan Ratigan

The Day The Middle Class Died - A Letter From Michael Moore

2011-08-05T21:21:00.002-04:00

30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died ...a letter from Michael Moore

[Is there an echo in here?]

Friday, August 5th, 2011

Friends,

From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When did this all begin, America's downward slide?" They say they've heard of a time when working people could raise a family and send the kids to college on just one parent's income (and that college in states like California and New York was almost free). That anyone who wanted a decent paying job could get one. That people only worked five days a week, eight hours a day, got the whole weekend off and had a paid vacation every summer. That many jobs were union jobs, from baggers at the grocery store to the guy painting your house, and this meant that no matter how "lowly" your job was you had guarantees of a pension, occasional raises, health insurance and someone to stick up for you if you were unfairly treated.

Young people have heard of this mythical time -- but it was no myth, it was real. And when they ask, "When did this all end?", I say, "It ended on this day: August 5th, 1981."

Beginning on this date, 30 years ago, Big Business and the Right Wing decided to "go for it" -- to see if they could actually destroy the middle class so that they could become richer themselves.

And they've succeeded.

On August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired every member of the air traffic controllers union (PATCO) who'd defied his order to return to work and declared their union illegal. They had been on strike for just two days.

It was a bold and brash move. No one had ever tried it. What made it even bolder was that PATCO was one of only three unions that had endorsed Reagan for president! It sent a shock wave through workers across the country. If he would do this to the people who were with him, what would he do to us?

Reagan had been backed by Wall Street in his run for the White House and they, along with right-wing Christians, wanted to restructure America and turn back the tide that President Franklin D. Roosevelt started -- a tide that was intended to make life better for the average working person. The rich hated paying better wages and providing benefits. They hated paying taxes even more. And they despised unions. The right-wing Christians hated anything that sounded like socialism or holding out a helping hand to minorities or women.

Reagan promised to end all that. So when the air traffic controllers went on strike, he seized the moment. In getting rid of every single last one of them and outlawing their union, he sent a clear and strong message: The days of everyone having a comfortable middle class life were over. America, from now on, would be run this way:

* The super-rich will make more, much much more, and the rest of you will scramble for the crumbs that are left.

* Everyone must work! Mom, Dad, the teenagers in the house! Dad, you work a second job! Kids, here's your latch-key! Your parents might be home in time to put you to bed.

* 50 million of you must go without health insurance! And health insurance companies: you go ahead and decide who you want to help -- or not.

* Unions are evil! You will not belong to a union! You do not need an advocate! Shut up and get back to work! No, you can't leave now, we're not done. Your kids can make their own dinner.

* You want to go to college? No problem -- just sign here and be in hock to a bank for the next 20 years!

* What's "a raise"? Get back to work and shut up!

And so it went. But Reagan could not have pulled this off by himself in 1981. He had some big help:

The AFL-CIO.

The biggest organization of unions in America told its members to cross the picket lines of the air traffic controllers and go to work. And that's just what these union members did. Union pilots, flight attendants, delivery truck drivers, baggage handlers -- they all crossed the line and helped to break the strike. And union members of all stripes crossed the picket lines and continued to fly.

Reagan and Wall Street could not believe their eyes! Hundreds of thousands of working people and union members endorsing the firing of fellow union members. It was Christmas in August for Corporate America.

And that was the beginning of the end. Reagan and the Republicans knew they could get away with anything -- and they did. They slashed taxes on the rich. They made it harder for you to start a union at your workplace. They eliminated safety regulations on the job. They ignored the monopoly laws and allowed thousands of companies to merge or be bought out and closed down. Corporations froze wages and threatened to move overseas if the workers didn't accept lower pay and less benefits. And when the workers agreed to work for less, they moved the jobs overseas anyway.

And at every step along the way, the majority of Americans went along with this. There was little opposition or fight-back. The "masses" did not rise up and protect their jobs, their homes, their schools (which used to be the best in the world). They just accepted their fate and took the beating.

I have often wondered what would have happened had we all just stopped flying, period, back in 1981. What if all the unions had said to Reagan, "Give those controllers their jobs back or we're shutting the country down!"? You know what would have happened. The corporate elite and their boy Reagan would have buckled.

But we didn't do it. And so, bit by bit, piece by piece, in the ensuing 30 years, those in power have destroyed the middle class of our country and, in turn, have wrecked the future for our young people. Wages have remained stagnant for 30 years. Take a look at the statistics and you can see that every decline we're now suffering with had its beginning in 1981 (here's a little scene to illustrate that from my last movie).

It all began on this day, 30 years ago. One of the darkest days in American history. And we let it happen to us. Yes, they had the money, and the media and the cops. But we had 200 million of us. Ever wonder what it would look like if 200 million got truly upset and wanted their country, their life, their job, their weekend, their time with their kids back?

Have we all just given up? What are we waiting for? Forget about the 20% who support the Tea Party -- we are the other 80%! This decline will only end when we demand it. And not through an online petition or a tweet. We are going to have to turn the TV and the computer and the video games off and get out in the streets (like they've done in Wisconsin). Some of you need to run for local office next year. We need to demand that the Democrats either get a spine and stop taking corporate money -- or step aside.

When is enough, enough? The middle class dream will not just magically reappear. Wall Street's plan is clear: America is to be a nation of Haves and Have Nothings. Is that OK for you?

Why not use today to pause and think about the little steps you can take to turn this around in your neighborhood, at your workplace, in your school? Is there any better day to start than today?

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Here are a few places you can connect with to get the ball rolling:

Showdown in America
Democracy Convention
Occupy Wall Street
October 2011
How to Join a Union, from the AFL-CIO (They've learned their lesson and have a good president now) or UE
Change to Win
MoveOn
High School Newspaper (Just because you're under 18 doesn't mean you can't do anything!)

My 35th Class Reunion is Tomorrow, Here's to the Teachers Who Had To Put Up With the Class of '76

2011-08-05T11:39:00.003-04:00

Teachers are being demonized right now for their Union status. I had a lot of very good teachers in my time. Actually, I used to visit them after I was out of their classes because I missed them. This is not about teachers, it is about Unions. Love this guy - tells it like it is.

More from Matt Damon

Remember the teachers that affected your life? Me Too.

Debt Ceiling Ransom Delivered - Hostages May Be Shot Anyway

2011-08-01T15:28:00.008-04:00

Sorting out the wheat from the chaff:

The President Surrenders

By PAUL KRUGMAN

For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.

Start with the economics. We currently have a deeply depressed economy. We will almost certainly continue to have a depressed economy all through next year. And we will probably have a depressed economy through 2013 as well, if not beyond.

The worst thing you can do in these circumstances is slash government spending, since that will depress the economy even further. Pay no attention to those who invoke the confidence fairy, claiming that tough action on the budget will reassure businesses and consumers, leading them to spend more. It doesn’t work that way, a fact confirmed by many studies of the historical record. Read the rest here.

Ransom Paid

Robert Reich

Anyone who characterizes the deal between the president, Democratic, and Republican leaders as a victory for the American people over partisanship understands neither economics nor politics.

The deal does not raise taxes on America's wealthy and most fortunate -- who are now taking home a larger share of total income and wealth, and whose tax rates are already lower than they have been in eighty years. Yet it puts the nation's most important safety nets and public investments on the chopping block.

It also hobbles the capacity of the government to respond to the jobs and growth crisis. Added to the cuts already underway by state and local governments, the deal's spending cuts increase the odds of a double-dip recession. And the deal strengthens the political hand of the radical right.

More here.

The Four Big Problems With - And Four Silver Linings Around - The Debt Limit Deal

Progressives are furious. Conservatives aresomewhat less furious. And for the most part all anybody knows about the budget plan is that it cuts a lot of spending over 10 years, and includes no guarantees that anybody -- particularly the well-off -- will pay more in taxes. Thus, the anger: after huge tax cuts for the rich, two unfunded wars, and a financial crisis triggered by Wall Street greed exploded budget deficits, the people asked to narrow the gap are overwhelmingly regular folks.

All of this while the economy is still reeling. It might not be as bad as this, but there's certainly a lot missing here.

So with that background in mind, here are the four worst problems with, and four silver linings around the debt limit deal. More here.

The Blame Goes Beyond Obama For Debt Ceiling Compromise

Before any critic starts in, the proposed spending cuts and debt ceiling increase is not good and will not solve the problem of increased revenue. Now that is out of the way, the appropriate question is; just what was President Obama supposed to do? Although the deal is less than ideal, it averts a disaster of epic proportions that would cripple this nation’s economy to the point that America may well have never recovered. However, that is not really the issue, but since the nay-sayers are throwing words like sellout and President Obama caves again, it is worth a brief perusal of exactly who is at fault. More here

Fact Sheet: Bipartisan Debt Deal: A Win for the Economy and Budget Discipline

From the White House Web Site

Bipartisan Debt Deal: A Win for the Economy and Budget Discipline

Removes the cloud of uncertainty over our economy at this critical time, by ensuring that no one will be able to use the threat of the nation’s first default now, or in only a few months, for political gain;
Locks in a down payment on significant deficit reduction, with savings from both domestic and Pentagon spending, and is designed to protect crucial investments like aid for college students;
Establishes a bipartisan process to seek a balanced approach to larger deficit reduction through entitlement and tax reform;
Deploys an enforcement mechanism that gives all sides an incentive to reach bipartisan compromise on historic deficit reduction, while protecting Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries and low-income programs;
Stays true to the President’s commitment to shared sacrifice by preventing the middle class, seniors and those who are most vulnerable from shouldering the burden of deficit reduction. The President did not agree to any entitlement reforms outside of the context of a bipartisan committee process where tax reform will be on the table and the President will insist on shared sacrifice from the most well-off and those with the most indefensible tax breaks.

Mechanics of the Debt Deal

Immediately enacted 10-year discretionary spending caps generating nearly $1 trillion in deficit reduction; balanced between defense and non-defense spending.
President authorized to increase the debt limit by at least $2.1 trillion, eliminating the need for further increases until 2013.
Bipartisan committee process tasked with identifying an additional $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, including from entitlement and tax reform. Committee is required to report legislation by November 23, 2011, which receives fast-track protections. Congress is required to vote on Committee recommendations by December 23, 2011.
Enforcement mechanism established to force all parties – Republican and Democrat – to agree to balanced deficit reduction. If Committee fails, enforcement mechanism will trigger spending reductions beginning in 2013 – split 50/50 between domestic and defense spending. Enforcement protects Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries, and low-income programs from any cuts. Details here.

There you go kids - have at it.

It Is LABOR That Creates Wealth, Not The Other Way Around

2011-07-31T13:31:00.005-04:00

Check this out from Snarkipedia. Got this from Susie

Demand Side Economics - We can't survive without it.

Look, John Boehner - Who You Jivin' With That Cosmic Debris

2011-07-30T21:18:00.009-04:00

I know it's a little early, but don't they have Christmas in July? Dedicated to the failure that is John Boehner.

Just pass a clean debt ceiling bill already? Just do it.

The Adult in the Room

2011-07-23T14:15:00.003-04:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

One More For Sis (and me)

2011-07-22T17:09:00.004-04:00

This is hard.

For My Sister Who Passed Away this Morning

2011-07-17T11:07:00.005-04:00

She Hated corporate bullshit. Loved me like a son (she was 22 years older than me) and had a massive coronary. She loved music, everything from the Grateful Dead to the Beatles and Elvis. She loved Elvis. She would have loved these songs but I could never get her to accept (I build 'em) a damn computer so I could send music to her.

I love you Alice, and I will miss you so much it's hard to even think about it. The Greendayman family has had it's share of grief this year. But, no whining.

Here's some John Prine for my sister.

Hey America, It's Time To Be A Dick

2011-07-14T12:13:00.003-04:00

Whiny Ass Titty Baby Eric Cantor can't take the heat, whines about the "angry black man", and can't handle being questioned on his bullshit. None of those mealy mouthed republican assholes can stand it if someone stands up to them just like any school playground bully will wilt if confronted. Congrats to our President for showing some brass.

So, America - it's time to stand up to these republican assclowns on the economy and be a dick. I know it goes against our liberal nature but why should they get their corporate agenda passed at the expense of the American People?

Here is the real deal from the President himself (sort-of) from Funny Or Die:

Obama: I'm A Dick! - watch more funny videos

Happy Birthday Ringo

2011-07-09T21:26:00.003-04:00

Happy Fourth of July

2011-07-04T14:37:00.006-04:00

Here's Ray Charles with America the Beautiful

Grateful Dead US Blues

God, I'm Old

But wait, there's more...

The New War of Independence -- Against Corporate Politics

Via HuffPo

Excerpt:

"This is the age of corporatized politics. That means we may admire our leaders, but we can't depend on them. We're paying the price for Thomas Jefferson's unfulfilled desire to "crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

"That's why we celebrate July 4, not September 3, as our Day of Independence."

"That will disappoint the history-challenged right-wingers whose patriotic posturing is limited to speaking in their odd pseudo-military lingo, that echolalic Esperanto for fantasy revolutionaries. They don't realize that war is a tactic, not a system of values. And "independence"? Today's "Tea Party" wasn't named for the tea-dumping patriots of Boston, but for some self-entitled commodities traders shrieking "losers!" on cable television. They were sneering at struggling homeowners, mocking middle-class people like the Tea Partiers themselves. And they were enraged at the idea that ordinary families might be rescued the same way their own financier class had been rescued."

"They won. Nobody's rescued the middle class yet. Unlike them, the Founders believed in common purpose. They shared George Washington's goal of "protecting the rights of humane nature and establishing an Asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions." They understood what conservatives don't: There's a difference between declaring independence and telling people they're on their own."

"We fought for the principles of self-representation and economic freedom. Those principles are under attack again today. But there's no place for rhetorical violence (or any other kind) in today's debate. When corporations intimidate us with economic pressure and distorted information, the best responses are communication and mobilization."

"We resisted Britain's state-sanctioned monopolies in 1776. Today's government-sanctioned corporations hang out on Wall Street, not by the chartered Thames. The spirit of the East India Company lives in the five banks which now control nearly 96% of the derivatives market in this country. Our financial oligarchs receive Treasury Department money, Federal Reserve giveaways, and get-out-of-jail-free cards for a corporate crime wave that would make Al Capone blush."

Read the rest here:

If They Want To Cut Services They Have To Raise Wages

2011-06-29T13:40:00.020-04:00

What the fuck is wrong with these CEO asshats? Are they so profit driven that they have no humanity left? It's their fucking fault that working people are broke. They took all the money from increased worker productivity over the last 30 years and kept it for themsleves. Now they want to cut services ( through their bought and paid for Republican House) that feed people who are suffering because no-one (except hedge fund managers) can earn a living wage anymore. No labor, no unions, no minimum wage. Do we really want to be China?

How can we allow this to happen as a society? Are we not Americans? Where is that famous American Exceptionalism that we hear so much about but fails miserably when measured against facts.

People need to make money. Corporations do not want to pay money that cuts into their obscene profits. And now as a result of 30 years of conservative deregulation and tax reduction on the richest 1% Corporations have ALL THE MONEY which equals power and even free speech, according to the corporately owned SCOTUS, and the working class have next to none. Is this by design? I would hope not but the evidence is damning.

As a concerned citizen, a liberal, a patriotic American I can't help but feel that the betrayal of the social contract, a corporate conscience if you will, between the wealthy corporations that have done very well under our democratic system and the American worker has been shredded and they could care less if we fucking curl up and die. They don't need us anymore, they can sell to the newly minted middle class in China thanks to their new manufacturing base that the fucking assholes moved our jobs overseas for. They should all be lined up and shot as traitors. EVERY LAST ONE OF THE THEM. SHOT DEAD. For betraying this country. Traitors all.

Thom Hartmann explains in a less graphic way.

"Liberal talk show host Thom Hartmann went on a tear yesterday about income disparity in America, suggesting as President Harry Truman did 60 years ago that the Republican party is a wholly owned subsidiary of wealthy special interests."

“These CEOs are not job creators,” he said. “They’re stealing from the people who are the actual job creators: people like you and me, who actually buy stuff.

”Please take 5 minutes and watch this film.

A View on the Economy from the Reality Based Community

2011-06-22T10:01:00.004-04:00

From HuffPo

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich knows what's wrong with the economy, and he says he can explain to viewers in less than three minutes.

Since 1980, the American economy has almost doubled in size. But adjusting for inflation, most people's wages have barely increased, a fact Reich notes in a MoveOn.org video on YouTube. Indeed, the average American worker in 2008 earned $400less than in 1988, when adjusting for inflation.

Concentration of wealth among the richest Americans have also drained the country of its economic resources, consequently dividing the middle class and weakening demand, Reich continues.

"The only way we can have a strong economy," Reich says, "is with a strong middle class."

This three minute video explains why the US economy is so screwed now, that DEMAND SIDE ECONOMICS is the only way to build a middle class, and more.

Elizabeth Warren is a Potential 'Serious Threat to Our Financial System'?

2011-05-31T15:57:00.007-04:00

This is Crazy! This is Bizzarro world! This is unacceptable language coming from an elected official like Mitch (the bitch) McConnell who took an oath to serve the public and the citizens of the United States. ALL of us, not just the rich. He should be thrilled that finally someone can be on the side of 'the little guy'. What a crock of shit that line is. As read on "Evil GOP Bastards":

"Since the New Deal, Republicans have been on the wrong side of every issue of concern to ordinary Americans; Social Security, the war in Vietnam, equal rights, civil liberties, church- state separation, consumer issues, public education, reproductive freedom, national health care, labor issues, gun policy, campaign-finance reform, the environment
and tax fairness. No political party could remain so consistently wrong by accident.
The only rational conclusion is that, despite their cynical "family values" propaganda, the Republican Party is a criminal conspiracy to betray the interests of the American people
in favor of plutocratic and corporate interests, and absolutist religious groups. "

Prove.Me.Wrong.

What a sniveling weasel 'the Bitch' is. Watch this from Crook and Liars:

Typical Republican in the pockets of Wall Street, he could give a shit about the people being robbed by financial institutions EVERY DAY of millions of dollars in what should be illegal tricks, spin and obfuscation. I get so disgusted watching this ignorant fuck work his way around the shit-sandwich that is a lie from start to finish that we do not need a Consumer Financial Protection Agency or Elizabeth Warren. Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Hate Media AND the MSM all serve the Financial Industrial Complex very well by adding to the negative noise. This is all about the money. They love the money.

Republicans are all about the money. No Altruism, No sharing, no community all 'Atlas' all the time. This has been my experience for years and years. This focus on money is what makes a Republican a Republican in the 21st century. Sad.

Gil Scott-Heron - Rest in Peace, Your Music Still Carries Your Message

2011-05-28T09:55:00.008-04:00

The author of the song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" – which helped pioneer sounds that would fuse to become rap – has died in New York City. Musician Gil Scott-Heron was 62.

Scott-Heron recorded "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" in the 1970s in Harlem.

He mixed minimalistic percussion and spoken-word performances tinged with politics in a style he sometimes referred to as bluesology. He recorded more than a dozen albums. An American poet, musician, and author known primarily for his late 1960s and early 1970s work as a spoken word soul performer and his collaborative work with musician Brian Jackson. His collaborative efforts with Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues and soul music, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time.

As an impressionable young man in the mid-70's, I was impressed by the frank nature of his writing and song composition, edgy at the time with no fluff to be found. I hated fluff in the 70's.

Here are a couple of my favorites from Gil:

"Johannesburg" - a call to action against Apartheid.

"The Bottle" - this song hits a little too close to home for some people of all colors including white.

Thanks Gil for your work and your music. You will be missed.

Well, this Is It.

2011-05-21T09:53:00.005-04:00

I would gladly be proven wrong about "The Rapture" if it means all the Christo-fascists disappear today.

And for your "Rapturing" weather forecast, here's Bill Maher:

Negotiating with Republicans

2011-05-13T12:54:00.007-04:00

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, U.S. Representative for New York's 14th District has taken a stand on the Elizabeth Warren nomination for the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

She says: "Dear GOP: We Don't Negotiate With Hostage Takers".

Excerpt:

Last week, 44 Republican Senators signed a letter to President Obama declaring that they will refuse to confirm anyone as a director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) "absent structural changes that will make the Bureau accountable to the American people."

The changes they propose -- which match legislation being considered today by the full House Financial Services Committee-- would cripple the bureau and slow the reforms necessary to help avoid another financial crisis.

In other words, Senate Republicans have the CFPB, and if we ever want to see it alive, we have to meet their demands.

My good friend and colleague Barney Frank called this "the worst abuse of the confirmation process I've ever seen" and I couldn't agree more.

___________________________________________________________________

UPDATE:
Another Negotiation Technique.

How to Deal with Republican Hostage Takers: Make the GOP Cough Up the Details to Slash Medicare via C&L

Now is the time for Democrats to put all out pressure and make Boehner and McConnell cough up the details on their planned cuts. Make them caught up the details on how they envision gutting medicare and other programs, and hang those around their necks. We have already seen how these guys can get easily flustered if you put a little pressure on them and force them to deal with facts.

Democrats need to keep pushing them to cough up their plans on how they want to cut the deficit. Make them spell out the details on their plan to gut medicare. Now is the perfect time to turn that heat up even more.

Bush Failed - The Evidence is Overwhelming but Facts Have Never Stopped the Lying Bastards Before

2011-05-03T15:31:00.017-04:00

The re-writing of history was a lot easier before YouTube. Watch this fucking moron try to work his way through explaining why the US or his daddy's company the Carlyle Group was not interested in finding bin Laden.

From ThinkProgress:

Politico reports that supporters of George W. Bush are “irked” that the former president isn’t getting more credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden, despite the droves of conservatives lawmakers and pundits who have been rushing to give Bush equal credit as Obama.

But this praise for Bush relies on rewriting history to obscure the fact Obama re-prioritized the hunt for Bin Laden after Bush had largely abandoned the effort to focus on Iraq.

While many conservatives are triumphantly replaying Bush’s September 2001 declaration that he would find Bin Laden, just months later, by Bush’s own account, he was unconcerned about the terrorist mastermind. Asked about the hunt for Bin Laden at a March, 2002 press conference, Bush said, “I truly am not that concerned about him. I am deeply concerned about Iraq.” “I really just don’t spend that much time on him, to be honest with you,” Bush added.

By 2006, the trail for Bin Laden had gone “stone cold” and Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes said Bush told him that hunting Bin Laden was “not a top priority use of American resources.” (Indeed, there was a flailing war in Iraq to fight.)

That year, it was revealed that the administration had he shuttered the CIA’s Bin Laden unit in late 2005. As the New York Times reported at the time, the move reflected a shift in resources to Iraq:

In recent years, the war in Iraq has stretched the resources of the intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, generating new priorities for American officials. For instance, much of the military’s counterterrorism units, like the Army’s Delta Force, had been redirected from the hunt for Mr. bin Laden to the search for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last month in Iraq.

But Bush’s biggest misstep in the Bin Laden hunt occurred years before, in the early days of the war in Afghanistan. As a 2009 Senate Foreign Relations Committee report found, the Bush administration blew a critical opportunity to capture Bin Laden in 2001. Bin Laden was wounded and on the run, but top Bush national security officials rejected repeated pleas for reinforcements from commanders and intelligence officials fighting the terrorist leader in the caves of Tora Bora, despite the availability of resources:

Fewer than 100 American commandos were on the scene with their Afghan allies and calls for reinforcements to launch an assault were rejected. Requests were also turned down for U.S. troops to block the mountain paths leading to sanctuary a few miles away in Pakistan. The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the Marine Corps and the Army, was kept on the sidelines. Instead, the U.S. command chose to rely on airstrikes and untrained Afghan militias. [...]

Even when his own commanders and senior intelligence officials in Afghanistan and Washington argued for dispatching more U.S. troops, [Commanding Gen. Tommy] Franks refused to deviate from the plan.

The report “removes any lingering doubts and makes it clear that Osama bin Laden was within our grasp at Tora Bora,” but that decisions made by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, his deputies, and other top administration officials allowed Bin Laden to escape.

The consequence of this missed ooportunity are tremendous. As Lt. Col. Reid Sawyer, the director of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, told NPR yesterday, “if bin Laden had been killed in Afghanistan eight years ago in the caves of Tora Bora, al-Qaida might well have died with him. Now the organization is diversified enough it could weather bin Laden’s death — and hardly miss a beat.”

Moreover, as Rumsfeld himself acknowledged, Bush’s extra-legal torture and rendition policies did not help capture Bin Laden. Enhanced interrogation techniques did not work. Bush ordered one final push to capture Bin laden shortly before he left office, but this effort too was unsuccessful.
_____________________________________________________________________

UPDATE: This one's for you Busted. I won't be happy until I see them do the perp walk either.

Jim Hinde - Doin' the Perp Walk

Facebook Still Sucks

2011-05-03T10:04:00.012-04:00

My daughter posts a lot of her pics and art on Facebook, so I thought I'd check in and take a look. I have been deactivated for some time but by simply logging in - my account, full and complete, was still there like I had never left (slightly creepy).

After logging in, the first thing staring me in the face was a rant from one of my old classmates, forwarding a deceitful post on how Obama did not capture or kill OBL, Bush should get all the credit and if you believe this re-post it immediately!

I'm so sick of that shit. Juvenile, fact-free propaganda freely distributed designed to divide or make sure one complies or face the ridicule of the wingnuts on your "friends" list. Daughter, you'll have to e-mail me I am so done with Facebook.

Here is another reason:

Assange calls Facebook ‘the most appalling spy machine’ ever

In an interview with Russia Today (RT), Julian Assange explained that Facebook is “the most appalling spy machine that has ever been invented.”

“Everyone should understand that when they add their friends to Facebook, they are doing free work for United States intelligence agencies, and building this database for them,” he said.

More here.

Full Disclosure

2011-04-27T16:19:00.009-04:00

Since the President saw fit to release his Long Form Birth Certificate today to satisfy The Crazy, I felt as a responsible blogger I must present mine as well. So without further ado:

Oh, wait... wrong one - give me a minute here....

Zombie Jesus Day!

2011-04-24T11:15:00.006-04:00

Completely Stolen from the Original Zombie Jesus Day! Click and go see the real thing - it's very good.

Many people have been celebrating Zombie Jesus Day for years without even realizing it. Honestly, let's face a few facts:
	Everything that rises from the dead is a zombie.
	Easter is touted as the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
	So let's call a spade a spade...
	...eat lots of chocolate...
	...and celebrate Zombie Jesus Day!

Back To Our Scheduled Holy Week Expose

2011-04-22T11:39:00.019-04:00

There's nothing Christian about these people:

Conservative Christians Mark Holy Week With An Attack On Our Rights
By Rmuse via Politicususa

"This week is a special time for bunnies, peeps, and colored eggs as well as all of conservative Christendom who are celebrating their special holiday with the facsimiles of the instrument of torture that killed their religion’s namesake."

"In regional newspapers around the country churches have taken out full-page ads touting “holy week” and the wonders of knowing that a mythological character was tortured to death on a cross only to miraculously rise from the dead three days later."

"However, resurrection aside, there isn’t too much for conservative Christians to be proud of as of late based on the evil assault on women’s rights being waged by conservative Christians in Congress and state legislatures around the country. In fact, conservative Christians have targeted the LGBT movement and the American Cancer Society as well as women in their “holy war” on all things not emanating from the Christian bible."

"There are many different ways to be holy, but conservative Christians in America have bastardized the meaning of the word holy as well as the message of their savior who taught that neighborly love, charity, non-violence, and acceptance exemplifies what it means to be holy. Although there are a few conservative Christians who epitomize the embodiment of Jesus and his teachings, the majority are judgmental, mean-spirited, and vindictive toward anyone who refuses to go along with their satanic leanings."

"The Christian bible characterizes Satan as an angry, jealous being in opposition to god and his plan for humanity that Jesus personified. Based on the level of hate most conservative Christians have for non-compliant human beings, it sure appears that holiness has been redefined to mean something very different from what Jesus preached."

[snip]

"In California during the Proposition 8, same-sex marriage debate, Catholics and Mormons poured millions of dollars into campaign coffers to deny gay couples the right to marry. Besides forcing their holy belief system on all Californians, the groups used the pulpit to inform congregants on how to vote and aired fallacious television ads warning that second graders would be indoctrinated into the gay lifestyle. In the same elections, there were several holy priests that warned parishioners that if they voted for Barack Obama, they would not be allowed to partake of the cracker and grape juice or confess their transgressions."

"In the House of Representatives, holy Christian-conservative Republicans led by Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) are attempting to use their holy mandate to defund Planned Parenthood and deny access to birth control, cancer screenings, and pre-natal care for millions of poor women. Obviously, the holier-than-everyone Republicans have insight into the scriptures that unholy people lack because for the pittance Planned Parenthood receives from the government, there must be a command in the bible that informs Christians it is holy to deny poor women access to life-saving cancer screening. Who would believe that anyone, holy or not, would oppose cancer screening or cancer research for that matter?"

[snip]

"It is too bad that conservative Christians aren’t limited to just having one big holy week. If they were limited to just seven days of holiness, America would be a much better place. It would certainly be safer for women and gays if holiness abounded for a week instead of year-round. But the holy-roller Republicans practice their brand of holy all year and not just during holy week."

[snip]

"If conservative Christians were serious about being holy, they would follow Jesus’s example and not worry about telling the world they’re holy. They would stop being judgmental and start expressing neighborly love instead of being vile, vindictive fear mongers to gain power and riches. Republican legislators claiming to be holy would not deny poor women cancer screening or poor children food and shelter. A holy person would not call for a boycott of the American Cancer Society or compare cancer research to Nazis. But then again, there are very few holy people in America; if there are any, they’re not conservatives, Republicans, or teabags. As Jesus said, the holy are poor, tired, and hungry and they don’t have to announce that it’s holy week."

So - "Fuck off you opportunistic leeches", Jesus did not say but really, really wanted to.

Read the whole thing here.

A Break in Holy Week for 420 Day!

2011-04-20T09:57:00.011-04:00

A little history

http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

420 Meaning: The True Story Of How April 20 Became 'Weed Day'

Urban dictionary has a different take here

It's kind of ironic that 420 falls in holy week this year. I think one has to be high on something to buy the whole Zombie Jesus package.. probably something stronger than weed that's for sure.

Here are some modern day weed issues:

Stewie and Brian suggest that everything would be better with a bag of weed. Click the sifter for the video (no kidding).

Disclaimer: Neither Salmon Alley nor greendayman advocate the use of illegal marijuana.

"Throw the Money Changers Out of the Temple, I hate Banks it's Just that Simple", Mojo Nixon and Chris Hedges

2011-04-18T15:00:00.001-04:00

Throw Out the Money Changers

By Chris Hedges

These are remarks Chris Hedges made in Union Square in New York City last Friday during a protest outside a branch office of the Bank of America.

[Excerpts from this article below. I recommend reading the whole thing.]

"The two most destructive forces of human nature—greed and envy—drive the financiers, the bankers, the corporate mandarins and the leaders of our two major political parties, all of whom profit from this system. They place themselves at the center of creation. They disdain or ignore the cries of those below them. They take from us our rights, our dignity and thwart our capacity for resistance. They seek to make us prisoners in our own land. They view human beings and the natural world as mere commodities to exploit until exhaustion or collapse. Human suffering, wars, climate change, poverty, it is all the price of business. Nothing is sacred. The Lord of Profit is the Lord of Death."

"The pharisees of high finance who can see us this morning from their cubicles and corner officers mock virtue. Life for them is solely about self-gain. The suffering of the poor is not their concern. The 6 million families thrown out of their homes are not their concern. The tens of millions of pensioners whose retirement savings were wiped out because of the fraud and dishonesty of Wall Street are not their concern. The failure to halt carbon emissions is not their concern. Justice is not their concern. Truth is not their concern. A hungry child is not their concern."

"The priests in these corporate temples, in the name of profit, kill with ruthlessness, finesse and cunning. Corporations let 50,000 people die last year because they could not pay them for proper medical care. They have killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis, Palestinians and Pakistanis, and gleefully watched as the stock price of weapons contractors quadrupled."

"And after looting the U.S. treasury these corporations demand, in the name of austerity, that we abolish food programs for children, heating assistance and medical care for our elderly, and good public education. They demand that we tolerate a permanent underclass that will leave one in six workers without jobs, that condemns tens of millions of Americans to poverty and tosses our mentally ill onto heating grates. Those without power, those whom these corporations deem to be ordinary, are cast aside like human refuse. It is what the god of the market demands."

"The bankers and hedge fund managers, the corporate and governmental elites, are the modern version of the misguided Israelites who prostrated themselves before the golden calf. The sparkle of wealth glitters before them, spurring them faster and faster on the treadmill towards destruction. And they seek to make us worship at their altar. As long as greed inspires us, greed keeps us complicit and silent. But once we defy the religion of unfettered capitalism, once we demand that a society serve the needs of citizens and the ecosystem that sustains life, rather than the needs of the marketplace, once we learn to speak with a new humility and live with a new simplicity, once we love our neighbor as ourself, we break our chains and make hope visible."

Read the entire article here

Looks Like It's Holy Week at Salmon Alley

2011-04-18T12:32:00.003-04:00

I am especially pissed this year and cannot stand all the Jesus-ey crap around Easter with the extended family. How can one believe in a deity that has the power of life or death and lets the mother of two teenagers die well before her time?

There is no God as they understand him and if there were he would be one hell of an asshole.

Years past I have been able to hold my nose and nod my head at the yearly Zombie Jesus Easter family gathering. Not this year. I won't be attending.

Christianity, A Progrom of Promotion Rather Than Attraction With Passive-Aggresive Assimilation

2011-04-18T10:49:00.009-04:00

My daughter and her boyfriend were perusing the stacks at Borders on a lazy Saturday when they found themselves in the religion section and decided to check out a Quran. They selected one from the shelf, opened it and a million dollar bill fell out. It was a fake, of course, but the printing on the back was a litany of Christian propaganda ending with a website where one could go to repent where they ask, "Are you a good person?".

C'mon, cater to the insecure much?

The Christians and conservatives have a pact made in hell. The marraige of ideology and greed. That's why the million dollar bill. The Conservo-Christians project their love of money into outreach programs. I was disgusted as were my kids.

Is It 'Grease My Palm' Sunday Already?

2011-04-17T16:00:00.000-04:00

More Neighborhood Excitement

2011-04-14T14:55:00.009-04:00

I was driving my daughter to school this morning, had stopped at the first stop sign of three on the straight shot to school when what looked like an old Cordoba was backing up the street on the block ahead of us weaving slowly in our direction. They veered off well before they reached us and backed over a basic, cast-iron, yellow fireplug embedded in the sidewalk. It broke off at the stem and I thought for sure the water was going to fly. Much to our disappointment, the plug did not shoot geysers of water into the sky like Old Faithful. We waited a good three minutes to see when the water would come but it never did.

Mythbusters - WTF is up with this?

No-one was hurt or got wet and the driver was kind enough to place the plug back on it's base before he drove away.

"Can You See Me?" Jimi Hendrix - Thursday Art Post

2011-04-14T11:15:00.003-04:00

FACEBOOK SUCKS

2011-04-11T22:11:00.004-04:00

'nuff said - I'm done with it.

Finally, A Human Centered, Middle Class Enhancing,Common Sense Solution to the US Budget Issues

2011-04-11T15:36:00.015-04:00

House Progressives Offer Budget plan: Tax the Rich, End the Wars, Slash Oil Subsidies, Invest in Jobs

What a novel idea. A budget that will actually help the plight of the average American. How quaint, like the Geneva Convention. Most conservatives seem to be only invested in rich people and corporations. How do they manage to bullshit their base into believing them over and over again? (see post below on conservative brains).

Here we go:

"The broad sketch proposes to end the Bush-era tax cuts on high income earners, enact a surtax on millionaires and billionaires, increase the the estate tax and eliminate corporate tax loopholes and subsidies for oil and coal companies. It also aims to create a public health insurance option, end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and invest $1.45 trillion in "job creation," energy, housing and education programs."

"The revenue-heavy proposal (PDF) stands in stark contrast to the spending cuts-oriented plan put forth by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) -- and championed by GOP leaders -- that slashes $6 trillion in federal programs (including Medicare and Medicaid) while significantly reducing taxes for wealthy Americans and corporations."

The Ryan Plan - Virtually a Turd with Sprinkles (Thanks Dr.Zaius)

The Progressive budget, on the other hand...

"This budget is transparent, straightforward and realistic about where we are in America right now," Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), co-chair of the progressive caucus, told Raw Story.

"The Ryan plan, for all the credit it gets for thinking big, doesn’t reflect the reality of the American economy. It destroys the successful programs that made this country strong, especially Medicare and education, and doesn't even try to explain how it creates jobs. It reflects a faith that making government disappear will somehow create prosperity."

Unfortunately,

"The plan is a nonstarter in the GOP-led House and would have a hard time winning over more than a handful of Democrats in the Senate. But Grijalva and his progressive caucus co-chair Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) wrote a letter urging Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), the top Democrat on the budget committee, to consider their ideas in the Democratic counter-offer this week."

And the Suck continues.

The Police State in Action

2011-04-10T21:17:00.007-04:00

I had a hell of a surprise today when three Police Cruisers (reasonable facsimile thereof - pic on the left) graced my driveway behind one of my son's friend's car that had just pulled in. Now, I didn't panic - I know these kids. they are good kids, a little misguided like all of us these days, but good kids and I've known them for years.

Three, no four cruisers counting the cop who showed up late, Four fucking cruisers for two skinny teenagers. What the fuck.

I saw it all:

cops: "Hands on the hood!!! What weapons do you have? " LOUD

Jesus jumped up christ - I almost had a cow. These geeky kids wouldn't know a weapon if it bit them on the leg. They think a plastic broadsword at comic-con is lethal.

Search was non-conclusive - thank FSM they didn't have any weed on them.

At one point I did ask if they thought they had enough cops here. Luckily they did not come after me.

Then they split them up - asked lots of questions, filled out their little fucking notebooks, asked the same questions twice and three times.

Come to find out, one of them had taken a baseball bat to a construction marker after his girlfriend had broken up with him earlier in the day.

30 minutes later they let them go with a warning not to act like teenagers and grow the fuck up. Well, not exactly but that's what it sounded like to me.

The police state trying to justify their sorry existence. I imagine someday someone may ask, " Why do we need all these fucking cops?". And the cops will show them "The Notebook".

Fuck them - they are a revenue generation machine for the city - state, and that is all. They have never found any of the stuff that was stolen from me several times over the years and the cops have only cost me money in fines, lawyer fees etc. ALWAYS. That is not public service that is revenue generation. They excel at arresting teenagers and other harmless victimless crime suspects but where are they when something serious happens? They run, hide and plead impossible.

We do not need their police state. The town I grew up in was about the size of this town and we had two cops. There are WAY too many cops in this small town with not enough to do so they PREY on the locals.

I am appalled.

I told the boys this:

"Our town is a fishbowl. You boys need to know that there are way too many cops with not enough to do as evidenced today by the whole fucking force showing up to talk to two skinny teenagers so you need to not be stupid in public."

Actually, that was the whole message of today - Do Not Be Stupid In Public because someone in this police state fishbowl is always watching.

This is Why Conservatives Hate Science

2011-04-09T10:15:00.004-04:00

Brain structure differs in liberals, conservatives: study

WASHINGTON — Everyone knows that liberals and conservatives butt heads when it comes to world views, but scientists have now shown that their brains are actually built differently.

Liberals have more gray matter in a part of the brain associated with understanding complexity, while the conservative brain is bigger in the section related to processing fear, said the study on Thursday in Current Biology.

"We found that greater liberalism was associated with increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas greater conservatism was associated with increased volume of the right amygdala," the study said.

People with a large amygdala are "more sensitive to disgust" and tend to "respond to threatening situations with more aggression than do liberals and are more sensitive to threatening facial expressions," the study said.

Liberals are linked to larger anterior cingulate cortexes, a region that "monitor(s) uncertainty and conflicts," it said.

"Thus, it is conceivable that individuals with a larger ACC have a higher capacity to tolerate uncertainty and conflicts, allowing them to accept more liberal views."

"Our findings are consistent with the proposal that political orientation is associated with psychological processes for managing fear and uncertainty," the study said.

The Myth of a "Classless America"

2011-04-08T12:15:00.006-04:00

Robert Scheer outlines the blatant robbery of the hope of the middle class in this article:

The Peasants Need Pitchforks

A “working class hero,” John Lennon told us in his song of that title, “is something to be/ Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV/ And you think you’re so clever and classless and free/ But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see.”

The delusion of a classless America in which opportunity is equally distributed is the most effective deception perpetrated by the moneyed elite that controls all the key levers of power in what passes for our democracy. It is a myth blown away by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz in the current issue of Vanity Fair. In an article titled “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” Stiglitz states that the top thin layer of the superwealthy controls 40 percent of all wealth in what is now the most sharply class-divided of all developed nations: “Americans have been watching protests against repressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet, in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.”

And THEY did it.

“They did it. Yes, there is a ‘they’: the captains of finance, their lobbyists, and allies among leading politicians of both parties, who together destroyed an American regulatory system that had been functioning splendidly. …” They got to rewrite the laws to enable their massive greed over everything from the tax codes to the sale of toxic derivatives over the past quarter century, smashing the American middle class and with it the nation’s experiment in democracy." More here.

There is a club....

New Poll: After Promoting Birther Conspiracy, Donald Trump Vaults Into Statistical Tie For 1st Place

2011-04-07T09:59:00.008-04:00

This is just sad. Ignorance and avarice combined into one package - the republican Donald.

Embracing the crazy birthers pole-vaults Trump into a tie for first in the primaries. Disgusting and telling. Birthers do not care about governing, only that there is an "uppity nigger" in the White House that needs to be shown his place.

And for our follically challenged readers - Trump's elaborate comb over instructions here.

_________________________________

Update

From Zandar:

"Yet, Donald Trump has basically bet his career on becoming a professional Birther. But instead of being shunned by our "liberal media" who is "in the tank for Obama" Trump gets regular chances to say that Obama is conning the American people and keeps getting invited on TV again and again to peddle his own snake oil games."

"Don't think Trump is a serious threat yet? I do. He's running on Obama Derangement Syndrome, and entire campaign built on a single massive lie. And yet he's gaining on the GOP front-runners simply by giving into the far right-wing hatred of Obama."

"Do not underestimate this hatred. Nothing good will come of it."

Zandar has a valid point there.

DNC Chair: Ryan's GOP Budget - "Path To Poverty"

2011-04-07T09:42:00.005-04:00

More like this please.

"Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) comments on Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget proposal for FY 2012."

"Representing a large number of seniors in south Florida, I can tell you that this budget would be devastating for seniors and older Americans. This Republican path to poverty passes like a tornado through America's nursing homes, where millions of America's seniors receive long-term and end of life care," Rep. Wasserman Schultz said.

Video here.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the new DNC chair. She has more balls than past chair Tim Kaine will ever have. Get ready for a progressive run.

Nowhere Man - Remind You Of Someone?

2011-04-06T22:49:00.004-04:00

2011-04-06T17:01:00.011-04:00

Glenn Beck To 'Transition Off' His TV Program

"Fox News and Glenn Beck's production company have announced that Beck will "transition off" his daily television program later this year..."

My liberal dream come true!! One down, Rush and Ailes to go...

Glenn Beck and Fox News is the slime oozing out of your TV set. (Span. cap for your convenience).

Beck stole his blackboard gig from Frank. Check it out.

This Would Be So Cool

2011-04-06T16:27:00.004-04:00

With 100% of vote counted, Kloppenburg clings to narrow lead; recount expected

"Madison — Unofficial results Wednesday showed Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg with a paper-thin lead over Justice David Prosser after a race marked by massive voter turnout, Gov. Scott Walker's union bargaining plan and record spending by outside interest groups."

Please, oh please please please let this happen. (not begging, much).

Outrage Overload

2011-04-06T13:00:00.000-04:00

I can't stand it. The sheer volume of potential conservative destruction is hard to comprehend. If they love this country so much why are they destroying it? My head may explode. My own governor is one of the worst offenders. I'll be posting the LePage page to out that crass, ignorant son-of-a-bitch soon.

Been offline for a while (outrage overload) but I find that blogging is cathartic and may prevent head explosions.

House Budget Chair Paul Ryan (R) is Pond Scum

2011-04-06T12:13:00.010-04:00

Or at least has the intelligence of pond scum. Republicans are not fit to govern this great country. This fact has never been more obvious than right now.

Here's Robert Reich:

"Case in point: House Budget Chair Paul Ryan unveiled a plan today that should make every American cringe. It would turn Medicare into vouchers whose benefits are funneled into the pockets of private insurers. It would make Medicaid and Food Stamps into block grants that allow states to ignore poor people altogether. It would drastically cut funding for schools, and much else Americans need. And many of the plan's savings would go to wealthy Americans who'd pay even lower taxes than they do today."

Scum - plain and simple. I wish there was a cure for Ryan's affliction that we could administer to conservative assholes everywhere and turn them into caring human beings again.

More from Reich:

"Obama must show America that the basic choice is between two fundamental views of this nation. Either we're all in this together, or we're a bunch of individuals who happen to live within these borders and are mainly on their own."

And this is the crux of the biscuit - Do you believe in society and civilization or barbaric Randian individualism and greed?

Reich:

"The president needs to remind us that as members of the same society we have obligations to one another -- that the wealthiest among us must pay their fair share of taxes, that any of us who loses our jobs or homes or gets terribly sick can count on the rest of us, and that we have collective obligations to our elderly, our children, and the rest of the planet.

This is why we have government. And anyone who wants to shut it down or cut it down because they say we can't afford it any longer is plain wrong. We are the richest nation in the world, richer than we've ever been. We can afford to remain a society whose members are in it together."

Will we hear this kind of talk from the Obama administration? It would be nice for a change wouldn't it?
____________________________________
UPDATE:

Johnston and Gerard on the Devastating Effects of Ryan's Budget on the Elderly, the Disabled and Children

Concise and to the point - Ryan's proposal is cruel and unacceptable by any measure for civilized human beings

"...In Terms That Fat Assed Teabaggers Can Understand.."

2011-03-19T20:05:00.005-04:00

Mar. 11, 2011 Clip - Wage Against The Machine

One More

Maher: GOP governs like “a meth addict”

The Conflict is Not "Why Teachers Make Money and Have Benefits", It's "Why Doesn't the Rest of America?"

2011-03-04T13:39:00.008-05:00

The answer is the decline of Labor Unions and the Corporate Class War on the Middle Class. Plain and simple.

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

More of the Republican War on the Middle Class

2011-03-02T15:03:00.001-05:00

Who's the Fascist Now?

2011-02-23T11:50:00.014-05:00

Ole Ole Olson outlines a concise history of Organized Labor and compares that struggle to the Madison Labor Movement. Completely stole this from News Junkie Post

Photo by Jess Dennis

May 1933: Hitler Abolishes Unions

"On May 2nd, 1933, the day after Labor day, Nazi groups occupied union halls and labor leaders were arrested. Trade Unions were outlawed by Adolf Hitler, while collective bargaining and the right to strike was abolished. This was the beginning of a consolidation of power by the fascist regime which systematically wiped out all opposition groups, starting with unions, liberals, socialists, and communists using Himmler’s state police.

Fast forward to America today, particularly Wisconsin. Governor Walker and the Republican/Tea Party members of the state legislature are attempting to pass a bill that would not only severely punish public unions (with exception for the police, fire, and state trooper unions that supported his campaign), but it would effectively end 50 years to the right of these workers to collectively bargain.

[...]

Decimating unions has long been an objective of the rich and powerful. Growing out of trade guilds in Medieval Europe, they were banned starting with the Ordinance of Labourers 1349 and Statute of Labourers in England. It was not until the Industrial Revolution that labor began to organize again.

Every little gain for the rights of workers was hard fought and bitterly resisted by the rich and powerful. The photo above (see it here) shows the Lawrence Textile Strike (also known as the Bread and Roses strike) where mostly immigrant workers rebelled against increasingly harsh work conditions and lowered pay caused by mechanization. Specifically, state law mandated a reduction in working hours for women and children from 56 to 54 hours, and factory owners responded by cutting salaries, something the poor workers could not afford.

Over time, organized labor managed to abolish child labor all together, as well as institute an 8 hour work day, 40 hour work week, mandatory breaks, safety guidelines, grievance procedures, a minimum wage, the concept of a work free weekend, workers comp, pensions, health safeguards, and paid sick days, vacation days, and holidays. If you enjoy any of these things, thank a union member and support the passage of a strong Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)."

Read the rest here. Includes great pictures, charts and graphs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back describing each one. (thanks Arlo) An excellent read.

How Many Dollars Left Until The Revolution?

2011-02-20T11:45:00.011-05:00

Is Madison, Wisconsin Ground Zero for the Anti-Corporate Revolution?

William Rivers Pitt has written a great article on the details of the Madison uprising.

excerpt:

Volunteers of America

"Here's the deal, in case you've missed the news: Wisconsin's newly-minted Republican governor, Scott Walker, has wreathed himself in folly during the slender six weeks he has disgraced the office.

First, he imposed a series of ridiculous proposals on the state, which do nothing whatsoever to help the economy but cost upwards of $140 million.

Second, he ignored the judgment of the state's fiscal bureau - whose responsibilities are akin to the Congressional Budget Office - which said the state's financial situation was not nearly dire enough to require "austerity measures," and would in all likelihood finish the year with a surplus...said surplus prediction, it should be noted, got screwed out of existence by Walker's absurd and expensive policy initiatives.

Third, and in fulfillment of what appears to be a life-long loathing of anything relating to union or public-sector workers, Walker demanded that any and all collective bargaining rights be abolished, and that all state employees and union members eat what amounts to a massive and unprecedented pay and benefits cut across the board...cuts which, by the by, will do almost nothing to stimulate Wisconsin's economy, but will fulfill Mr. Walker's ambition to destroy union labor in the state."

more here

Time to start a revolution

Joan Baez and Jefferey Shurtleff ~ He`s A Drug Store Truck Drivin` Man

2011-02-06T16:33:00.003-05:00

The Festivities continue!

Happy Birthday Ronald Rayguns

2011-02-06T11:58:00.009-05:00

Thanks for destroying the middle class, asshole.

10 Things Conservatives Don’t Want You To Know About Ronald Reagan

Reagan's Epoch Shatters in Egypt

The Luckiest Pitchman Ever

The Feast of Saint Ronnie

Reagan Was the Corporate Puppet Who is Still Paying Dividends: GE Knows

Fox News is Still The Greatest Enemy of America

2011-02-03T18:56:00.007-05:00

I truly believe that Rush Limbaugh and Fox News are the most dangerous threats to our fragile American Democracy than any terrorist.

This works for me:

Ten Reasons Fox News Doesn't Really Care About The Egypt Story
by Eric Boehlert via Smirking Chimp

It’s true. Egypt is killing Fox News’ mojo.

Why? The short answer is Fox
isn’t actually a news-gathering organization in the traditional sense in that it
reacts and responds to breaking news around the world. Nor is it one strives to
inform its viewers. It’s just not. Instead, Fox News is a political
organization.
Read the rest here - well worth the 2 minutes.

Bill Maher Nails Dem Vs. Repub Economic Policy

2011-01-30T12:37:00.005-05:00

From Heather at Crooks and Liars

I couldn't say it any better than Bill:

MAHER: So it's no surprise that some 100 million Americans will watch the Super
Bowl next week. That's forty million more than go to church on Christmas. Suck
on that Jesus! It's also 85 million more than watched the last game of the World
Series and in that is an economic lesson for America, because football is built
on an economic model of fairness and opportunity. And baseball is built on a
model with the rich always winning and the poor usually have no chance.

The World Series is like the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills; you have
to be a rich bitch just to play. Where as the Superbowl is like Tila Tequilla,
anyone can get in. Or to put it another way, football is more like the
Democratic philosophy. Democrats don't want to eliminate capitalism or
competition, but they would like it if some kids didn't have to go to a crummy
school in a rotten neighborhood, while others get to go to a great school, and
their dad gets them into Harvard. Because when that happens, achieving the
American dream is easy for some and just a fantasy for others.

That's why the NFL literally shares the wealth. TV is their biggest source of revenue
and they put it all in a big Commie pot and split if thirty two ways. Because
they don't want anyone to fall too far behind. That's why the team that wins the
Superbowl in the next draft, picks last, or what the Republicans would call
“punishing success.”

Baseball... baseball on the other hand is exactly
like the Republicans. And I don't just mean it's incredibly boring. I mean their
economic theory is every man for himself. The small market Pittsburgh Steelers
go to the Superbowl more than anybody. But the Pittsburgh Pirates? Levi Johnston
has sperm that will not grow up and live long enough to see the Pirates in a
World Series. Their payroll is forty million. The Yankees is two hundred and six
million. The Pirates have about as much chance of getting to the playoffs as a
poor black teenager from Newark has of becoming the CEO of Halliburton.

That's why people stop going to Pirate games in May. Because if you're
not in the game, you become indifferent to the fate of the game and maybe even
get bitter. That's what's happening to the middle class in America. It's also
how Marie Antoinette lost her head. So you kind of have to laugh that the same
angry white males who hate Obama because he's “redistributing wealth” just love
football; a sport that succeeds because it does just that.

It's Just A Box Of Rain, I Don't Know Who Put It There

2011-01-29T20:28:00.004-05:00

It's Going To Be A Long 4 Years With This Asshole as Governor

2011-01-15T15:18:00.006-05:00

Here's what i have to look forward to for the next 4 years.

I really can't believe it. I didn't know Fox News had aquired so much of rural Maine.

I will be going to Augusta often by the looks....

Maine gov. tells NAACP to 'kiss my butt'

AUGUSTA, Maine, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Maine Gov. Paul LePage said the NAACP could "kiss my butt" when he was asked why he was not attending any events for Martin Luther King Day.

The governor's remark -- "Tell 'em to kiss my butt" -- triggered angry comments from other groups, the Portland Press Herald reported Friday.

"The governor's comments are creating, have the potential to create, a real racial dilemma for all Mainers," said Ralph Carmona, a spokesman for the United League of Latin American Citizens. "It is astonishing and troubling he would use this kind of rhetoric."

More here

_________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE: Distributor Cap NY has summed up this clusterfuck here. Please take a minute and give this a glance.

Krugman Sez

2011-01-10T18:04:00.005-05:00

Climate of Hate
By PAUL KRUGMAN

When you heard the terrible news from Arizona, were you completely surprised? Or were you, at some level, expecting something like this atrocity to happen?

Put me in the latter category. I’ve had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach ever since the final stages of the 2008 campaign. I remembered the upsurge in political hatred after Bill Clinton’s election in 1992 — an upsurge that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing. And you could see, just by watching the crowds at McCain-Palin rallies, that it was ready to happen again. The Department of Homeland Security reached the same conclusion: in April 2009 an internal report warned that right-wing extremism was on the rise, with a growing potential for violence.

Conservatives denounced that report. But there has, in fact, been a rising tide of threats and vandalism aimed at elected officials, including both Judge John Roll, who was killed Saturday, and Representative Gabrielle Giffords. One of these days, someone was bound to take it to the next level. And now someone has.

Read the rest here

Aggregate on the Attempted Assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords

2011-01-10T14:34:00.010-05:00

Republican Rhetoric, Right Wing Terror

Right-wing death threats rise: Republicans should condemn Rush Limbaugh

Sheriff Clarence Dupnik: Arizona 'Mecca For Prejudice & Bigotry'

Hate Speech: The Right’s Magic Bullet

Insurrectionism Timeline

And Lest We Forget...

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich". N. Bonaparte

When We Gonna Wake Up and Fight?

2011-01-09T18:14:00.005-05:00

Welcome the Hate
by Matt Osbourne from Crooks and Liars

This Is Protest

Read it all here...

Accessories to Murder in Tuscon

2011-01-09T15:08:00.006-05:00

Glenn Beck - Guilty
Rush Limbaugh - Guilty
Bill O'Reilly - Guilty
Sarah Palin - Guilty
Sean Hannity - Guilty
Roger Ailes - Guilty
Fox News - Guilty
Hate Radio - Guilty

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T11:06:00.004-05:00

I love these guys!

I refuse to grow up. They will have to drag me kicking and screaming into maturity.

Rush Limbaugh on Armed Services Radio or Wikileaks Access for the Air Force?

2010-12-15T12:16:00.005-05:00

How does Rush get a monopoly on Armed Services radio broadcast to our service people, spewing the most grotesque lies and outrageous conservative propaganda but Wikileaks is banned from the Air Force? Rush's unending stream of treasonous bile against all things Obama are certainly more seditious than Wikileaks truth telling.

It's a goofy 'ol world fur sure.

If You Break The Middle Class - You Own It

2010-12-13T15:00:00.010-05:00

Unemployment Checks, Free School Lunches, Food Stamps, Energy Assistance, Subsidized Housing, Medicaid, Social Security, Welfare... what goes around comes around.

Conservatives (with Big Dog help) broke the middle class with NAFTA, deregulation, tax breaks for offshoring jobs, union busting, etc. etc. ad nauseum - now you own it - and you have to pay for it.

Bring back manufacturing and Labor or see all the above as the major source of revenue for what used to be the middle class for the foreseeable future.

Still Miss You Like it Was Yesterday

2010-12-08T11:31:00.007-05:00

I've been feeling a little crippled inside my self these days.

Stop The War(s)

This one is dedicated to ConservaDems everywhere (oh, and our current caver-in-chief)

Does Kim Jong Il Watch Fox News?

2010-11-26T18:04:00.011-05:00

Where else would he get the idea that our American President was weak and now would be the time to test some boundaries?

Where else whould he get a steady diet of attacks on the President that "delegitimize" the authority of the administration minute by minute, 24 hours a day from Fox News, the biggest threat to our democracy in the history of our Republic.

Talk about empowering the terrorists, giving comfort and aid to the enemy. Jesus Jumped Up FSM this really burns my ass.

Add this to the steaming pile: Rupurt Murdoch Funds North Korean Regime

When are we going to arrest Rupurt Murdoch, this criminal, for treason against America from a foreign national, prosecute the motherfucker and get it over with. Ailes too for conspiracy with a foreign national to undermine the Untited States of America. Do it now.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T10:00:00.003-05:00

Don't Tase My Junk, Bro!

2010-11-23T10:39:00.003-05:00

TSA has been issued Tasers.

Somebody tell Digby.

Happy Veterans Day Uncle Buzz

2010-11-11T21:50:00.007-05:00

My Uncle Buzz fought in Italy during WWII. He made it out in one piece. When he got home, the CCC was waiting for him and he helped build most of the infrastructure in Central Maine. He passed a fews years back, but while he was alive, my daughter worshiped him on Veteran's Day. She would color him a picture and just loved him. He was a crusty curmudgeon but melted under my daughter's influence.

My father, who was too young for the first one and too old for the second one, was also part of the infrastructure building and helped build a dam, by hand, on Rt. 100 in Burnam shortly after the war. While on the job, he developed a friendship with a rather large individual who knew how to split big, unruly rocks - my dad asked him, "Big Eddie, how do you split those big rocks so easy?", Big Eddie told him - "Where I learn to do that, you don't get no pay".

I always remember that story. My Dad has been gone for 24 years, Uncle Buzz - 10. Time flies whether you are having fun or not. Miss those guys.

Tim Sample - The Strict Carnivore

2010-11-11T18:01:00.006-05:00

Tim Sample is a Maine humorist that actually tells jokes that out-of-staters get. I've met Tim on a couple of occasions and he's a lot of fun.

Check this out:

One More - With The Maine Accent This Time

The Juan Williams Pledge Drive Bounce

2010-10-23T11:57:00.017-04:00

I like to listen to NPR on Saturday mornings - "Wait Wait, don't Tell Me" is my favorite show (radio, TV, or Web). This is a fundraising week and as of noon today, they are well ahead of their projected pledges.

Must be the result of sacking that two-faced Fox News hack Juan Williams.

It has always been a serious disconnect for me that Juan Williams worked for NPR and was a contributor to Fox News and a panelist on Fox News Sunday. WTF?

The Bush administration bullied NPR with threats of de-funding and intimidation for years keeping NPR on the defensive, running Republican partisan stories they may not have run otherwise. I used to keep track of how much time John Kerry would get compared to Bush, before the 2004 election, during news hours. It was no contest, Bush cronies would get double and sometimes triple the airtime that the Kerry camp would get. The content from the repubs was always the same discredited bullshit. Drove me crazy. Then, watching Moira Liasson and Juan Williams on Fox News was the nail in the coffin that told me that they were trying a little too hard to please the conservatives.

And now the conservatives want to de-fund NPR. Big Whoop. They always want to defund NPR.

I read Mike Moore's article on this and agree that (paraphrased) ANYONE who shills for corporations and ignorance on Fox News is a traitor to this country, an idiot and deserves to be fired from a legitimate news organization like NPR.

Moira, you're next.

The Ant and the Grasshopper - 2009

2010-10-15T19:34:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Crooks and Liars for the Vid

Republicans Continuing to Shred Reality

2010-09-28T23:44:00.007-04:00

Just got This From Driftglass and is he pissed - check it out.

What if Everyone Had Medicare?

2010-09-28T15:54:00.003-04:00

From Common Dreams

"...Improved Medicare-for-all, by replacing our dysfunctional patchwork of private health insurers with a single, streamlined system of financing, would save about $400 billion annually in unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy. That's enough to cover all of those now uninsured and to provide every person in the United States with quality, comprehensive coverage."

"A single-payer plan would also furnish us with effective cost-control tools, like the ability to negotiate fees and purchase medications in bulk. It would permit patients to go to the doctor and hospital of their choice."

Read the rest here

Robert Reich on Where We Stand

2010-09-28T10:55:00.002-04:00

Via TPM Robert Reich on the state of the economy, the Great Depression and his new book 'Aftershock'. And look at the statistical correlation he notes between 1927 and 2007.

Katy Perry Will Never Be As Cool As This

2010-09-27T17:40:00.008-04:00

I'm not happy about it..(Katy's Cleavage Conundrum) Most kids that watch this show see more tits in a day than you or I in a year.. but Sharia law is coming... from the American Taliban

Katy Perry Is Not Cooler Than This, Either

..." I just got out of a Scandanavian Jail and I'm on My Way Straight Home to You..

2010-09-24T20:03:00.003-04:00

Evil Has More Money

2010-09-21T20:31:00.007-04:00

Working my Way Back...

Click to EmBiggen

I used to be a lobsterman and knew more than one guy like Eddie.

Breaktime - Going Fishing

2010-09-21T19:54:00.001-04:00

"They Talk About Me, Like a Dog..(Talk About the Clothes I Wear..

2010-09-06T21:40:00.003-04:00

..But They Don't Realize... They're the One's Who's Square.)

Live, From NBC - A HUGE Slap In The Face From Your Corporate Overlords

2010-08-23T14:54:00.006-04:00

"Outsourced", a proud look from a corporate perspective on how funny it is for all our jobs to be moved overseas. A regular riot of sad jokes, underpaid slave labor, clueless ugly Americans and a big reminder of how broken our economic system really is.

WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? Are the Corporate Elite that out of touch with reality? Who would watch this? Maybe rich people who made a shitload of money by outsourcing their manufacturing and customer service jobs overseas. This is a travesty and will fail miserably IMHO.

Fox News - Public Enemy - Terrorist Cabal

2010-08-22T15:26:00.003-04:00

Fox News and Hate Media continue to be the biggest threat to our Democracy in modern times.

From Raw Story

"Fox News co-owner funded ‘Ground Zero mosque’ imam: report"

"The second largest shareholder in News Corp. -- the parent company of Fox News -- has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to causes linked to the imam planning to build a Muslim community center and mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan, says a report from Yahoo!News.

According to the report from Yahoo!'s John Cook, Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who owns seven percent of News Corp., "has directly funded [Imam Feisal Abdul] Rauf's projects to the tune of more than $300,000."

Cook reports that Prince Al-Waleed's personal charity, the Kingdom Foundation, donated $305,000 to Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, a project sponsored by two of Rauf's initiatives, the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative, which is building the Manhattan mosque."

More here

Okay friends - here is a little ammunition. Spread it amongst the brainwashed masses and see if we can de-program a few Americans.

We can only do it together, one at a time.

I'm Back and I'm Pissed - Robert Gibbs, Asshole

2010-08-12T17:30:00.011-04:00

Does this guy....

....remind you of this guy?

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Oh, and GOD, you can kiss my ass.

Cancer Takes Another Life

2010-08-08T14:16:00.006-04:00

Of the Mother of my teenage children before her time.

Karen's "dance" (as she called it) with cancer is over as of 7 AM this morning. She is in a good place and died peacefully surrounded by family and friends. Carl said she smiled just as she passed. Thanks to all of you for your love and support.

Hug your spouse, friend, kids, parents now, because they could be taken faster than you know.

Goodbye, Hon - I love you.

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Update: Her Obit, very well done.

Example: Differences Between Republicans and Democrats

2010-07-30T11:18:00.004-04:00

Don't give me that same old bullshit about how all politicians are the same.

Here's Anthony Weiner from NY throwing some well deserved heat, 96 MPH fastballs high and inside, to some deserving Republicans who were hiding behind "procedure" to keep from passing a bill to help 9/11 workers and their families. We need more of this please.

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UPDATE: Round II Here: Peter King And Anthony Weiner Shout Their Way Through A Fox News Interview (VIDEO)

More Evidence That the Corporate Media Has Way Too Much Influence in This Country

2010-07-22T10:09:00.009-04:00

Why Does Fox News Have More Power Than Any Progressive in the Country?

by Cenk Uygur, Host of The Young Turks

Excerpt:

...Van Jones, ACORN, Dawn Johnsen, Shirley Sherrod. First sign of trouble, throw someone overboard. When they fired Van Jones, I said they were only encouraging Fox. But that wasn't some genius prediction; it was only the most obvious thing in the world. Do you think the bully won't take your lunch money tomorrow if you give it to him today?

Since this seems so obvious, why can't the supposedly brilliant guys in the Obama administration figure it out? Why can't they see it's such a bad idea to keep giving in to Fox and bowing their heads? It's so bad now, they're bragging about their efficiency in genuflecting. Jim Messina, Deputy Chief of Staff, congratulated everyone the day after Sherrod was fired about the speed and agility with which they serviced Fox News. So, what's the strategy behind what appears to be pathetic cowardice to the rest of us? Read the rest here

Let's Talk About Voter Suppression - Hey Megyn, Ever Heard of 'Voter Caging'?

2010-07-21T18:17:00.008-04:00

Thanks to Tim for this post idea - makes the New Black Panthers look like rank amateurs.

Nearly 600,000 Subject to Possible Caging in Ohio

Friday 05 September 2008
by: David Rosenfeld Miller-McCune Via TruthDig

Excerpt: How many voter-registration mass mailers are "returned to sender" in the run-up to Election Day may determine how many Ohio residents are eligible to vote.

Ohio election officials are sending out a mass mailer stamped "do not forward" to all registered voters today (Sept. 5) with an absentee ballot application and other important notices for Nov. 4.

What's important here is not so much what's going out as what's being returned to sender.
Unbeknownst to the would-be recipients, the same mailer - just 60 days before the election - has the potential to determine their eligibility to vote, challenged not by election officials but by partisan opposition.

A similar mailer in March netted nondeliverable mail from almost 600,000 registered voters in just five Ohio counties who could now have their ballots thrown out for voting under the wrong address.

The National Voter Registration Act prohibits any state from purging names from the voting rolls within 90 days of an election.

The law doesn't, however, preclude mass partisan challenges on or shortly before Election Day - known as voter caging - based on the same returned envelopes from state-sponsored mailers like the ones in Ohio and others going out across the country.

In 2004, the year the national election hinged on results from Ohio, the Ohio Republican Party challenged 35,000 voters based on returned mail from the GOP's own friendly reminder notices. From 2004 to 2006, Republicans challenged 77,000 voters this way nationwide. A consent decree issued in 1982 and amended in 1987 enjoins the GOP from instituting "ballot security programs" that focus on minority voters.

No evidence so far suggests Republicans - for whom vote caging is essentially a GOP sport - have mounted a caging campaign this year. Yet, in July, Franklin County Election Director and County GOP Chairman Doug Preisse told reporters he didn't rule out challenges before November, particularly because of increased home foreclosures, which would make failures to change address on voter registration records more common.

A challenged voter will likely cast a provisional ballot, which often requires voters to return to election divisions to prove their identity and address. Nearly a third of all 1.6 million provisional ballots cast in 2004 were thrown out.

Read the rest here

Fox News - Still the Enemy of Democracy

2010-07-20T11:12:00.007-04:00

After a recent "incident" with an old classmate who loves to post "Impeach Obama" and other really over-the-line anti-Obama cartoons on Facebook - I decided to speak up.

Always a risk on the homongenous societal "look at my grandkids" version of the Facebook friends of an old fart like me tend to post - neutral and unassuming. But, my old classmate trends to the Beckian radicalism and even gets luke-warm support from time to time but never a challenge.

I was reamed with every winger epithet and derisive term Limbaugh knows along with "I want to put Muslims at Ground Zero" and just a littany of projection worthy of Michelle Malkin on a bad day. The terms were right off the front page of the Fox News playbook - get loud, intimidate and facts don't matter.

Well - here is a little reminder of why facts don't matter to Fox News or the people who follow them. From a February, 2003 court ruling:

Appellate Court Rules Media Can Legally Lie. By Mike Gaddy.

Published Feb. 28, 2003

On February 14, a Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization. The court reversed the $425,000 jury verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. The ruling basically declares it is technically not against any law, rule, or regulation to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television broadcast. On August 18, 2000, a six-person jury was unanimous in its conclusion that Akre was indeed fired for threatening to report the station's pressure to broadcast what jurors decided was "a false, distorted, or slanted" story about the widespread use of growth hormone in dairy cows. The court did not dispute the heart of Akre's claim, that Fox pressured her to broadcast a false story to protect the broadcaster from having to defend the truth in court, as well as suffer the ire of irate advertisers. Fox argued from the first, and failed on three separate occasions, in front of three different judges, to have the case tossed out on the grounds there is no hard, fast, and written rule against deliberate distortion of the news. The attorneys for Fox, owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, argued the First Amendment gives broadcasters the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on the public airwaves. In its six-page written decision, the Court of Appeals held that the Federal Communications Commission position against news distortion is only a "policy," not a promulgated law, rule, or regulation. Fox aired a report after the ruling saying it was "totally vindicated" by the verdict.

FACT - friends don't let friends watch Fox News.

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Update: More from my projecting friend: "Ha, Ha I always knew you'd end up sucking a dick. It say's your single on your profile. Because the law hasn't passed?? Fuck'n loser, haven't changed. Remember suck don't blow LOOOOOOOL !! "

He seemed to have left out the liberal gay epithet in the last rant so he tried to squeeze it in here. Unfortunatley, I don't have a gay bone in my body. Why is it that 'baggers think all libs are gay?