Category Archives: Makes me want to go out and beat someone with a stick

“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?

Spreading santorum

Bob Vander Plaats and his gang of homophobic dominionists The Family Leader have given Frothy Mix their endorsement for the 2012 Republican nomination for president. I’ve talked about Vander Plaats here and here.

Former senator Richard Santorum responds in his own inimitable way. When asked how he would attempt to get the gay vote, he replied:

“Well, look, I have nothing against gay people. They have rights of every other citizen. But what they did in Iowa and what some are trying to do, not all gays, but some are trying to do is change the laws of this country with respect to what the definition of marriage is….. But if there are differences, I’m certainly going to speak out on those differences when I think it’s in the best interests of our country to have laws that reflect having men and women raise children and form solid marriage bonds.” (emphases mine)

See the video.

So the candidate admits that gays have the “rights of every other citizen”. So do they have the right of due process, Mr. Santorum? Do they have the right to be afforded due process? Do they have they right to be married, just like every other consenting adult in America?

And while we’re on the topic of forming “solid marriage bonds”, can we discuss the 50% divorce rate in America? Do you have plans to make divorce more difficult (or impossible) to attain? And can we discuss the curious fact that since gays gained the right of marriage in Massachusetts, the state has gained the lowest divorce rate in America (1.8% in 2009)?

Shall we talk about all that?

I thought not.

~~~

On a disturbing side note, I discovered something that Google Search has done that I don’t think I like much.

I Googled the word “santorum”. For years, the first entry in Google’s search (the most popularly chosen entry) went to http://www.speadingsantorum.com. This is no longer true; here’s what I saw on IE and Firefox:

What was disturbing was what happened when I went to spreadingsantorum.com, and then went paged back to the Google list:

Note the third line in the second entry. You can now choose to “block all spreadingsantorum.com results”. This does not happen with any of the “official” Rick Santorum sites. I’ve asked Google why that is, but I have yet to receive a response.

~~~

One more thought: get out there and Google “santorum” and click on the spreadingsantorum.com site. 50 or 60 times.

“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?

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.)

Buy nothing tomorrow

Sounds like a winner to me.

Spend this Thanksgiving Friday in the company of loved ones. Take care of some of those jobs on the “honey-do” list for that special someone who made you that sumptuous meal today. Show the big-box pinheads that offering tiny discounts on things you don’t need doesn’t begin to persuade you to buy.

Did anyone notice…

…that the very first thing out of Mitt Romney’s mouth at tonight’s national security debate was a lie?

…that every candidate erroneously put her/his hand over her/his heart during the National Anthem?

…Herman Cain can’t remember what Libya is, but can use Newspeak: “targeted identifcation” instead of “racial profiling”?

…that Michele Bachmann doesn’t respect legal process? She claims that the underwear bomber should not have had his Miranda rights read to him.

…that Mitt Romney didn’t apologize for his latest campaign ad in which he claims a statement from a McCain campaigner was made by Obama?

…the “audience questions” that Blitzer asked for came the likes of Mike Gonzales (the communication director of the Heritage Foundation — one of this debate’s sponsors)? that another “audience question” came from an American Enterprise Institute (the other sponsor) scholar by the name of Danielle Pletka? and another “audience question” was from Paul Wolfowitz? This is nothing but a right-wing handled event, and CNN is playing right along.

…Jon Huntsman‘s warning about “listening to the generals” about Afghanistan that could cause another Vietnam?

~~~

Welcome to another managed Republican debate, deftly attempting to lull the public into complacency. And welcome to CNN, yet another corporate meatpuppet.

Fuck you, CNN. Fuck you very much.

Buy a book, buy a candidate

There’s been a lot of discussion about how little some Republican presidential campaigns resemble true efforts to get elected, and how much they resemble book tours:

With the exception of Santorum’s tome, all of these books were published (and all ghosted with the possible exception of Paul’s book) in 2010 or 2011.

The candidates are shamelessly promoting their books on their campaign. Indeed, Cain will pass on a campaign stop in preference to a book tour signing and sale. One would suspect that David and Charles Koch instructed their political progeny to make bucks (and dodge campaign finance laws) by selling books while selling themselves.

I note with disgust to see that, while the previous edition of Huntsman’s book was forwarded by Larry King, the expanded edition has a scree penned by schlock-meister Glenn Beck. Mr. Huntsman should know better.

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.

“Ya want I should make a list??”

I’m in Las Vegas for a technical conference this week, and the entire affair has started out rather badly.

(If you don’t want to hear me pitch and moan, best not read this entry.)

I know everyone knows how commercial Vegas is. Unless you’ve been here recently, you really don’t. Really. While I stood waiting for my baggage, there was no direction I could turn my head where I couldn’t see at least a half dozen ads or multi-screen videos touting some show or other. It’s depressing as hell, because the entire super-wazoo stupendous spectacle is built upon lies and half-truths.

Since I had no say in the booking of the flight and hotel, I had to take a connecting flight through Denver instead of the non-stop which would have cost $40 more. The airline I flew (Frontier) had TV screens showing ESPN on the back of each seat’s headrest; there was no way to shut them down or hide the screen from view. I got smacked with commercial after how-it-was-made documentary after snippets of commercial television. Thank Joe I couldn’t hear it.

And of course in the process of taking the connecting flights, they lost my checked bag. (I got a call a little while ago. My bag went to Portland where the first-leg plane ended up. It’s supposed to be delivered to the hotel late tonight.)

I was told there was a hotel shuttle from the airport. Wrong.

When I checked into the hotel, I had no reservation. The travel service that organized this donkey derby booked my flight to travel today (as they should have), but they booked my hotel room to check in yesterday. Since I didn’t show, I lost my reservation. Fortunately that didn’t seem to difficult to fix.

I was told to go to the wrong part of the hotel to find my room. There was no 12th floor, so back I go to the front desk. It turns out that they put me in the “West Wing”, which is a remote block of rooms located a 15-minute brisk walk from the front lobby. Once at my room door I discovered that the key didn’t work. Another 15-minute shlep back to the front desk for a new set of keys.

During those three brisk walks, which included walking through the entire hotel casino all three times, I discovered two things:

  • This hotel does not allow fresh air into the building; it completely recycles its air. It’s stuffy and flat and smells vaguely of humanity.
  • Smoking is allowed in the hotel. (I’ve seen several cigarette vendors and loads of ashtrays.)

You can guess what this magic combination has done for my asthma.

An old colleague whom I haven’t seen in ages was at one of the casino bars, so I sit down with him and some old co-workers only to discover that 1) the table of six had three smokers, and 2) my blood sugar  was starting to really bottom out (drinking is a big no-no in that situation), and 3) casino bars are noisy as hell. (Well, I knew #3, but I’ve gotten very intolerant of such in my old age.)

I had to leave after 5 minutes, using the excuse that I had to find something to eat. On the way, I thought I’d go check in at the technical conference desk. Turns out they were in the process of shutting down and packing up for the night as I (finally) got there — this time a 20-minute walk. The good news (yes, there is some good news here) is that they stopped the process long enough for me to get my stuff.

On the way back to the hotel, I had to pick up something to eat. I then get a call from one of my co-workers, who tells me to hustle, because there were a bunch of them in the lobby ready to go eat. So I walk away from the fast food I’d just ordered and paid for and hustled to the lobby. By the time I get there, my blood sugar level is making me a little faint, and the co-workers have already left. I was messaged by them to go out to the taxi stand and ask where they had gone (some place called “Area”).

I’d had enough. I sent a text telling the co-workers I have to eat NOW — I’d catch up with them later.

~~~

The good news? I’m still drawing breath, I didn’t lose my meds or my CPAP machine (I always carry-on that stuff), and I got a room to myself.

But I tell ya — if things don’t get better tomorrow, I’m going home early.

“Don’t you think? Or don’t you?”

The current crop of Republican presidential candidates all seem set to put the screws to the poor and middle class by cutting back on government programs designed to prop up the social safety net when it fails.

The Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) provisions for ensuring health insurance for those who cannot afford it is a prime example of that safety net. You’d think that supporting legislation that guarantees that everyone has access to at least minimal health care would be a good thing.

According to Ron Paul, whose 2008 campaign go-to guy Kent Snyder died just weeks after the end of that campaign, it’s charity to the rescue. Snyder died of complications due to pneumonia, and had no health care due to preexisting health conditions. The ACA would have helped prevent that death. (Paul gave not one dime to the effort to raise money to help Snyder’s mother pay the bills.)

During the CNN-sponsored Tea Party candidate “debate”, Newt Gingrich suggested that the uninsured look to charity for help with medical bills:

Michele Bachmann recently told an Iowa woman essentially the same thing:

With the number of uninsured Americans having risen above 50 million last year, there is no way for charities to raise the money to pay for expensive medical procedures.

You’d think that Republicans would flock to the idea of attracting millions of votes by actively supporting a program that would diretly benefit the uninsured.

You’d think the idea of helping prevent 45,000 needless deaths would be an attractive one.

You’d think.