Category Archives: Bad news

“Let’s party like it’s 1399!”

Frothy Mix Santorum wants to become president and outlaw all non-procreational sex.

“The state has a right to do that [rescind access to contraception], I have never questioned that the state has a right to do that. It is not a constitutional right, the state has the right to pass whatever statutes they have…”

President Frothy would allow no access to contraception at all. No condoms, pills, diaphragms, caps, foams, jellies, IUDs, Plan Bs, and certainly no abortions.

No way for women to prevent paying the price of pregnancy for the “sin” of sex. (Someone call H. L. Mencken.)

No help for mothers whose health or lives are threatened by unwanted pregnancies.

No sex at all unless procreation is a potential outcome.

No freedom of choice for heterosexual expression at all. (And no homosexuality at all, per Frothy’s perorations. He is so far back in the closet he can’t even see the damned door.)

In other words, the uterus would be owned by the state.

Anyone care to guess how much of Frothy Mix’s campaign chest comes from Catholic sources?

Stupid poll of the week

Fox News (Latin America) was working on a media campaign for an upcoming National Geographic specials. Part of that campaign was an online poll.

Wanna guess what the question was?

Who Do You Think Is Responsible For The Death of Christ?

A. Pontius Pilate
B. Jewish People
C. High Priests

For an organization so concerned with “the war on Christmas” and other non-existent “persecutions” of Christians, Fox News’ airheaded choice of questions, and the semi-sincere “apology”, this has a particularly pernicious ring to it.

As an interesting historical side note: anyone ever heard of the Gospel of Judas?

The reproduction blues; or, Who let the schizos out of the asylum?

Part One:

On Thursday, December 22 (events timed to coincide with the holidays are often missed by the media), Looney Tunes Paul signed the Personhood USA Pledge.

For those of you unfamiliar with the PUP, one of its clauses states

“…every human being at every stage of development must be recognized as a person possessing the right to life in federal and state laws without exception and without compromise”

This pledge would convert fertile American women into walking incubators for the state. Neither rape nor incest, nor imminent threat of the mother’s health (or her possible death) would be considered sufficient reasons to abort a fetus, if this sentiment is codified. And rest assured the Koch brothers’ meat puppets on the Supreme Court would dance right along with this waltz.

Part Two:

Good Hair Perry recently viewed The Gift of Life, produced by Citizens United, and declared afterward that he had changed his mind and that even rape and incest are not valid reasons for abortion. See the video.

Perry has also signed the Personhood USA Pledge, along with Looney Tunes, Crazy Eyes, Newton, and Frothy Mix.

Do these (reportedly intelligent) people really think that pandering to the murderous anti-abortion waterheads in America will gain them the White House? And if they’re naive enough to think no one notices, do you really want those people running the United States?

It’s called “traitor”, no matter the language

Vidkun Quisling was a Norwegian politician who staged a coup d’etatin 1940 and overthrew the government of Norway during Nazi Germany’s invasion of the country. He was made head of the resultant puppet government and ruled until the end of World War II. (He was found guilty of high treason and executed by firing squad in 1945.)

The term quisling has come to mean a person who betrays his or her own country.

There are groups of American neo-conservatives that claim to represent gay voters and their interests. Recently, two such groups have commented upon Newton Gingrich’s comment that gay voters would be better off voting for President Obama and not for him:

GOProud: The liberal press is at it again, attempting to mischaracterize the words of a Republican Presidential candidate. Speaker Gingrich said absolutely nothing wrong in his exchange with the gay Iowa voter. Speaker Gingrich handled himself with class and dignity in this discussion with the gay voter and the press reports that have reported otherwise have done a real disservice to the truth.

Log Cabin Republicans: In this political climate, the door is wide open for a strong Republican candidate to win the support of conservatives, independents and disillusioned Democrats – and there are those who are working hard to paint any and all Republicans as bigoted in a fear-mongering effort to shore up the president’s base. That is unfair and highly unfortunate for our community. (emphasis mine)

I’m not sure how members of groups that claim to represent gay voters can so neglect the basics of marriage equality — a civil right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment — and the health benefits and legal rights that married people enjoy, and do it all with a straight face. I’m also surprised that Newton Gingrich would so blithely toss away a possible vote.

GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans remind me of Quisling trying to convince the Norwegian people that everything is okay the way it is.

Plus les choses changent, plus elles restent les mêmes.

During the war of words between the Franklin Roosevelt administration and newspaper publisher William Randolph Herst, there was a particularly telling exchange. From the Roosevelt camp:

“The American people will not permit their attention to be diverted from real issues to fake issues which no patriotic, honorable, decent citizen would purposefully inject into American affairs.”

Herst’s response, in a signed newspaper editorial:

“Let me say that I have not stated at any time whether the President willingly or unwillingly received the support of the Karl Marx Socialists, the Frankfurter radicals, communists and anarchists, the Tugwell bolsheviks, and the Richberg revolutionists which constitute the bulk of his following…I have simply said and shown that he does receive the support of these enemies of the American system of government, and that he has done his best to deserve the support of all such disturbing and destructive elements.”

Fast-forward 75 years. From David Frum’s recent article in New York Magazine:

“Some liberals suspect that the conservative changes of mind since 2008 are opportunistic and cynical. It’s true that cynicism is never entirely absent from politics: I won’t soon forget the lupine smile that played about the lips of the leader of one prominent conservative institution as he told me, ‘Our donors truly think the apocalypse has arrived.’ Yet conscious cynicism is much rarer than you might suppose. Few of us have the self-knowledge and emotional discipline to say one thing while meaning another. If we say something often enough, we come to believe it. We don’t usually delude others until after we have first deluded ourselves. Some of the smartest and most sophisticated people I know—canny investors, erudite authors—sincerely and passionately believe that President Barack Obama has gone far beyond conventional American liberalism and is willfully and relentlessly driving the United States down the road to socialism.” (emphasis mine)

Frum’s article is the most concise, hit-the-nail-on-the-head article about conservatism I’ve read in a long time. Do yourself a favor and read it.

Perhaps there are sane conservatives out there.

Gingrich — joker of many trades, master of none

Awhile back, we talked about the proposed tax plans of the Republican presidential candidates.

At the time we were missing Gingrich’s ravings on the matter. However, the wait was worth it. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center crunched his numbers, and delivered a bit of transparency and grim humor in one stroke:

Please note the theme prevalent here and in most of the Republicans’ plans. A small increase or decrease (a very small example of the latter in this example), but a huge tax cut for the rich.

Do these idiots really think they can sneak this past the public? If so, they’re not bright enough to pound sand, much less hold the highest office in the U.S.

(And if anyone thinks that Gingrich signing that silly-damn anti-gay hate pledge that “guarantees marital fidelity” will prevent him from gingriching again, I’ve got some swamp land in Jersey that I’ll sell to you cheap.)

“Sure, youse can vote here, soons ya show me tree forms of picher ID, a picher of ya muddah, and ya can prove youse Amurcan.”

A number of states (almost all Republican-controlled) are invoking new voter ID laws that make it more difficult for certain groups to vote. (Wisconsin and the shennanigans of its esteemed governor is a notorious example.)

Which groups, I hear you ask?

What do these groups have in common? They’re all strongly Democratic in their voting records.

This is not a coincidence.

You want to see some *real* traitors to our country?

Remember that rant of mine from the other day, the one with the Benjamin Franklin quote for a title? The post about America’s legislators firmly locking away the right of habeas corpus from the American people?

Well, yesterday the Senate had the chance to give back at least some of that right to its constituents. Colorado Senator Mark Udall introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (SB 1867) that would have withdrawn the proposed legal right of our military to indefinitely detain American citizens while on American soil.

In other words, Guantanamo Bay in your town.

The amendment to kill this abhorrent proposal, Amendment 1107, was defeated 38-60 (two senators absent). Here’s the breakdown:

The nays have cast their votes to help bring an end to freedom in our country. They have made the decision to allow military personnel to break into your home, arrest you, and detain you without right of counsel or redress, without even the decency of letting loved ones know your fate. Indefinitely. We have taken another step toward the creation of gulags in our country.

Joe Stalin and Maximilien Robespierre are grinning up from whatever Hell in which they reside.

When you go to the polls next November, remember this list of “nays”. In particular, remember those names with an asterisk, since those senators are up for reelection next year.

Do you really want to give these traitors even more opportunity to make a police state out of America?

Really?

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Click to enbiggen

Anyone remember habeas corpus? You remember habeas corpus — it was the right of the accused to petition before legal authority for justice. Habeas corpus prevented law enforcement groups from indefinitely locking people up without charge or trial, and not letting detainees see a judge or an attorney.

President Shrub threw habeas corpus out the window along with the mindless stampede to pass the Patriot Act. President Obama extended its supposedly temporary suspension in 2009.

And now the Senate wants to crap on the rights of U.S. citizens again, this time by suspending the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA). The PCA prevents use of the military to enforce local laws within the U.S., unless it is by explicit order of Congress. Shrub tried to do an end-run around PCA in 2006, but the attempt was repealed in 2008.

The U.S. Senate is now considering S.B. 1867:

“A provision of S. 1867, or the National Defense Authorization Act bill, written by Senators John McCain and Carl Levin, declares American soil a battlefield and allows the President and all future Chief Executives to order the military to arrest and detain American citizens, innocent or not, without charge or trial. In other words, if this bill passes and the President signs it, OWS protesters or any American could end up arrested and indefinitely locked up by the military without the guaranteed right to due process or a speedy trial.” (emphasis mine)

Read that phrase over again, slowly, and think about its implications. It is nothing but an excuse to give Congress and the executive branch the right to throw “people of legal interest” into jail indefinitely, just like they do at Guantanamo Bay, without counsel or a trial. What a convenient way to get rid of the Occupy “problem”.

This is not why three of my children joined the armed services.

Call your Senator and your Representative, and tell them that maintaining our remaining freedoms is the worth of their jobs as legislators.

So you really don’t believe the media is manipulating you?

Time Magazine’s cover for the U.S. market for 5 December 2011:

Time Magazine’s cover for the rest of the world for 5 December 2011:

Now, is anxiety really that big a news item that it takes the cover away from the latest Arab Spring happenings in Syria and Yemen? Is anxiety big enough a showstopper as to bump news about the EU financial meltdown? the Occupy movement in the U.S.? the interminable idiocy of the Republican presidential candidate pool? the changes in climate and rainfall that are causing food prices to spiral upward?

Are the American people shallow enough that they’re rather see “features” rather than news that is knocking on the door, and knocking loudly?

Or is the media that manipulative that they fear giving Americans notions for change?

(Thanks to Leslie for the tip.)

How far to Kent State, indeed.

With all the humorous Photoshopped images of UC Davis police officer John Pike floating about, here’s an image that should pull us back to reality:

When do we, the 99%, finally put an end to this fascism? Do we just meet peacefully and ask nicely? Do we take matters into our own hands by voting the bastards out of office and positions of power? Or do we take more direct measures?

When there are four more murdered students lying in the sun?

(Thanks to Mr. Oliphant for this necessarily grim reminder.)

Do you *need* another reason not to vote for Herman Cain?

UPDATE: Looks like the site I quoted below has nothing to do with Herman Cain. It is a troll page. (And a convincing one, too, I might add). My apologies.

~~~

My, my. This is from the Herman Cain PAC site, and isn’t it grown-up and mature?

So now that the name-calling has started, what do we say?

The same writer, “MP”, has written other pieces for Herman Cain’s PAC site with headlines like, “Gloria Allred has to tell fat bimbo Sharon Bialek to stop giggling at the press conference“.

“Fair??? You want ***fair***??”

In the last year, 30 U.S. corporations made a total of $160 billion in profits.

Wanna guess how much tax they paid to the federal government? Go ahead — guess.

20111103-080921.jpg

That’s right. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Not one thin dime.

Blame the corporations, sure, but you also need to blame Congress for letting the situation get to this point. Write your Congresscritters and let them know what you think about corporate freeloaders who want to in turn influence our government.

Remember George Carlin’s words about religion:

“You know what they ought to do with churches? Tax them! If holy people are so concerned with politics, government and public policy, let them pay the price of admission like everyone else. The Catholic Church alone could wipe out the national debt if all you did was tax their real estate.”

The same should apply to corporations, only more so.