NEON GODS

Why Romney won't be our next President

Look no further than the debacle last week of Mitt speaking to a small crowd in the cavernous Ford Stadium tat seat 65,000 people.  The news pictures of 1,200 people sitting at one end of the football field with 65,000 empty seats clearly visible was devastating, and was used by his detractors to imply that Romney is failing to generate any excitement among Republican voters.  A Daily Kos post showed a picture of empty Ford Stadium versus a picture of a large stadium in Denver almost completely filled to hear Barack Obama speak in 2008, along with some mocking Twitters.

But that's not really fair.  Here are the facts:

The Detroit Economic Club arranged the event and sold tickets for it ($45 for members; $75 for non-members), and when two indoor venues sold out quickly, club officials moved the speech to Ford Field.

So a crowd of 1,200 club members who paid to hear Romney speak was actually a pretty good turnout. So why do I think this event shows why Romney can't win the Presidency?  Because, 1) to win you need a staff that is smart enough to know that a crowd of 1,200 people in a huge stadium is going to look tiny and news pictures will give the impression that the event was a bust (that was my first reaction to the pictures).  Romney's staff should have rejected the venue, but didn't. That picture will be used against him again and again in the future.  2) Romney's speech.

“You know, the trees are the right height,” he said. “The streets are just right. I like the fact that most of the cars I see are Detroit-made automobiles. I drive a Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck. Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs, actually.” 

[Ann Romney drives a Cadillac SRX - two actually.  They are designed in Detroit but made in Mexico]

The trees are the right height, the streets are just right?  Romney has said a lot of stupid stuff that has gotten him in a lot of trouble ("I don't worry about poor people"), but his speeches are also full of weird stuff like this.  It makes people stop and scratch their heads in confusion.  People don't want their Presidents to say weird stuff.

Besides an inept staff and saying stupid things that make people groan and weird stuff that no one understands, Mitt is also - a poor debater, - he will take any stance he feels he has to to get the votes, and - he has no rapport with white blue-collar voters so important to the Republican Party.  No, Mitt will not be our next President (unless the SuperPACS can buy the office).

Update: As if to reinforce what I wrote above, here's Maureen Dowd's column today in the NYTimes:

[The GOP's] jitters increased exponentially as they watched Mitt belly-flop in his hometown on Friday, giving a dreadful rehash of his economic ideas in a virtually empty Ford Field in Detroit, babbling again about the “right height” of Michigan trees and blurting out that Ann “drives a couple of Cadillacs.”

--Trakker

Santorum: colleges are indoctrination mills. How freaking embarrassing!

Oh Flying Pink Unicorns, I just saw this.  Rick Santorum doesn't want kids to get a college education.

On the president's efforts to boost college attendance, Santorum said, "I understand why Barack Obama wants to send every kid to college, because of their indoctrination mills, absolutely ... The indoctrination that is going on at the university level is a harm to our country."

He claimed that "62 percent of kids who go into college with a faith commitment leave without it," but declined to cite a source for the figure. And he floated the idea of requiring universities that receive public funds have "intellectual diversity" on campus.

Intellectual diversity on campus?  What does that mean?  I strongly suspect that it means as President he would work to get a bill passed that would require colleges to teach the right-wing "made-up stuff" alongside scientific and historical facts.

I don't know where Santorum got the '62% of the religious kids lose their faith in college' poll but it seems any rational human being would understand that colleges aren't "indoctrination mills," they educate kids, and education and facts are like Krytonite to myths and lies which the fundamentalist religions are based on. Of COURSE a lot of fundamentalist-indoctrinated kids will become less religious by the time they graduate.

But isn't that what we want in America, an educated populace who are able to evaluate ideas and think for themselves instead of being told what to think by some crazy preacher or some celibate bishop?

Education, the Kryptonite to Made-Up Stuff.

--Trakker

 

A new 'Morning in America?' The old one turned out to be 'Twilight in America'

I'm still not pleased with the job President Obama has done.  He is still too timid on important issues, and can only be described as an early 1990s Republican (without the Southern strategy of course).  But the polls show he's beginning to pull away from all four Republican candidates in national polls and in many critical state polls, and I'm pretty sure he will continue to increase his lead because the people are beginning to recoil in horror at what the Republicans are trying to do, women especially!

My daughter is a teacher and Girl Scout leader.  She's busy all the time and doesn't have much leisure time but she has become outraged at the right's war on the Girl Scouts and women's health issues.  In her latest post she linked to this article on a blog that recounts the experience of one woman whose daughter would have died if the Rick Santorums of this world had their way.  What's even more striking is that all of her Facebook friend are leaving angry comments too.  Typical is one friend who commented, "I am sharing [this article]. Women's healthcare is being assaulted by one party. Period."  These are people who just a month ago spent most of their time discussing their spring garden plans, cats, or kids.  The Susan G. Komen flap started it off, but the new Virginia law requiring some who want abortions to have a probe stuck up their vagina really struck a chord.

Another issue that is getting some attention is guns.  People are fed up with the ever-present gun violence, cops and kids getting killed and the murder-suicides where women and children are shot by irate, depressed fathers/lovers who then turn their gun on themselves.

I think the right has blown past the line of common sense and is quickly alienating a lot of voters who used to vote for them most of the time.  I also feel a new confidence in the Democrats.  The tide is turning on gay marriage as more and more people come to the conclusion that even if homosexuality makes them very uncomfortable, it's only fair to let people who love each other marry.  And they see which party has been leading the fight to secure those rights and which party is still demonizing gays.

I think Obama's bailout of the auto industry and how well it has turned out (GM has reclaimed the mantle of #1 auto manufacturer in the world) has also impressed people.

I'm getting more optimistic by the day that we will see the Democrats in Congress and in the states growing more assertive and getting more support.

--Trakker

Still waiting for that NYTimes gig...

Like you I get lots of spam.  Most are obviously spam, but every once in awhile one looks almost legitimate.  And sometimes legitimate emails look like spam.  A few weeks ago I got a suspicious email from a magazine reporter saying he had read one of my blog posts and asked if I would agree to an interview with him. Yeah, Right! Do I look like a fool?

But my ego got the best of me and I replied.

It was legitimate.  He was a reporter for a online religious magazine and he wanted my opinion on a fundamentalist Baptist preacher who was questioning the existence of hell.  I had written a post about the preacher about a year ago.  As it turns out I declined to be interviewed because I didn't feel qualified to discuss something I knew little about. In the end we agreed to let him include a paragraph in an email I had sent him as part of our discussion.

The reporter, Raymond Billy, notified me yesterday that his article had been posted and sent me a link. I just find it ironic that I'm quoted in a magazine about religion. What I really want is for the NYTimes to drop Ross Douthat and give the slot to me.

Still waiting...

--Trakker

This is going to be an interesting year (for Democrats)

Yesterday I had to drive to our cabin in West Virginia where I'll be the rest of the week.  It's a four hour drive and the weather was perfect.  I had a chance to examine why I'm not getting anything done around the house these days, and I suddenly realized that lately the political and economic news has been almost addictive.

The auto industry.  When GM and Chrysler faced crushing deficits our financial system was reeling and could not lend them the money they needed to survive. 

The Republicans screamed, "Let the companies fail!  That's how markets are supposed to work."  The Obama administration, however, realized that if GM and Chrysler failed, hundreds of other companies that supported the auto indutry would fail, and we would have an economic meltdown, so the administration bit the bullet, ignored the Republican's anger and scorn, convinced Congress to lend GM and Chrysler the money they needed to survive, and now the American auto industry has come roaring back. 

This highlights the major difference between Democrats and Republicans.  Democrats make policy based on what is best for the country and Republicans base their policy decisions on what hurts the Democrats the most.  Letting GM nd Chrysler fail would have insured the economy would crash insuring that Obama the Democrats would have been toast in 2012.

The Republican primaries.  WOW!

We saw Tea Party leader Michelle Bachmann flame out in spectacular fashion almost immediately.  I didn't expect that.  Since then we've seen some truly pathetic human beings briefly climb into the lead, (Trump, Cain, and Gingrich), we saw another Republican star flame out in even more spectacular fashion (Rick Perry - really, Texas, this is the guy you keep electing governor?!), and now we're down to three hugely flawed candidates who have little chance of ever becoming President (let's face it).

What makes the Republican primary so satisfying is that the candidates have been falling all over themselves pandering to the party's base which are among the most radical, regressive people in this country.  If they could they would turn America into a Christian theocracy, destroy the safety nets for the poor, cut the federal workforce in half, end public education, and make Israel the 51st state.  Who knows what they would do for an encore?

So why am I so happy?  Because the radical right has pushed the pendulum so far to the right that the American people are finally coming to realize that the Republican party wants to actually destroy the America we know, and take it back at least a half century, and those who are paying attention are aghast.  If it weren't for the huge SuperPACS who will support the Republicans no matter who the sorry candidate is, I would predict that Obama will win big in November, probably take the House back, and maybe even keep the Senate in Democratic hands.  I think the pendulum is going to swing to the left in Obama's 2nd term (it can't go any further to the right).

Which brings me to poor Greece.  From my admittedly imperfect knowledge of the situation, if any European country deserves to be miserable, it is Greece.  They cooked the books and lied about their debt situation for years.  They also had a culture of evading taxes (not unheard of some countries but the Greeks took it to whole new level). 

So Greece was a rogue and its irresponsibility could end up sinking the Euro, and causing damage to economies all over the world.  Now the rest of Europe is demanding that the people of Greece suffer greatly for it. 

But I want to know how Greece got away with this irresponsibility for so long?  Surely the European Central Bank and those investors who accepted Greece's economic figures should have been savvy enough to spot the huge flaws in those figures.  These people are experts at sniffing out lies, and protecting their client's interests.  I also think that severe austerity is not the answer.  How can people and businesses pay taxes (revenue which is badly needed) if they have no jobs, no money?   When people lose everything, they have nothing more to lose. That is tinder for violence and even revolution.  The whole European economic crisis will be an interesting story for months to come. 

My sympathies lie with the Greek people who are really suffering. If you want to revive Greece's economy pump money into it, get people back to work, make the country attractive to tourism, and then make sure the people and businesses pay their taxes.

--Trakker

What does it say about Christians if a 16 year old, fighting for her rights, needs police protection from them?

Back in 1963, when non-Christians were more timid, a large prayer banner was hung in a Cranston West High School hallway.  The prayer began, "Our Heavenly Father, ..." so there was no doubt this was a Christian prayer.  In 2010, an atheist student there, Jessica Ahlquist, saw the banner and, as an atheist, was shocked that her school would promote a Christian prayer.  Surely not all students were Christians.

Most Christians probably don't understand how atheists feel when we see our government take a religious stand.  We are not offended by churches or crosses on necklaces, and stuff like that.  We do get annoyed at the many bumper stickers on cars and people wishing us Merry Christmas, but we know it's not personal.  But when our own government pushes Christianity we see red.  Government is not supposed to takes sides and it is the only protection we have against the tyranny of the majority.

So Jessica complained.  She filed suit.  She won, and that's when the fireworks began.  The judge ordered the school to remove the prayer banner and some of the good Christian people of Cranston went ballistic. 

According to The Examiner,

The prayer banner episode brought out the worst in many residents of Cranston. In what some found to be an open display of religious bigotry, Rhode Island State Representative Peter Palumbo referred to teen atheist Jessica Ahlquist as “an evil little thing." In addition to calling Ahlquist an “evil little thing,” Palumbo also made the claim that “she (Ahlquist) is being coerced by evil people;” the implication being that atheists and other secular Americans are “evil.”

 

Indeed, the hostility and threats directed towards Ahlquist were so intense that at times the 16 year old high school student required a police escort. In addition, four different florists in the Cranston area refused to deliver flowers to Jessica. At least one florist claimed to be frightened of the potential backlash from angry Christians who did not want young Jessica to receive any flowers.

You've got to wonder just how filled with Christian love the people of Cranston are if a 16 year old student, fighting for her constitutional right, needs police protection in their city.

A few days ago the public school district committee voted not to appeal the court decision.  Presumably the banner will be removed and the issue will be laid to rest.

--Trakker

My conscience must be respected also

Lately we've been hearing a lot of whining by the Catholic bishops about how they are being forced to go against their conscience and provide the employees of their non-religious ventures certain health benefits that they don't agree with.  They are throwing a major hissy fit about this even though Obama agreed to modify the requirement so the the Catholic church wouldn't have to pay a penny to provide the coverage.

Listening to this one would think Catholics were the only people in America with a conscience.  Well, I do too and my conscience is pissed that I, as an atheist, must use currency minted at my expense, and is the only cash legal tender in the U.S., that says quite clearly "In God We Trust."  No, I don't trust in God, in fact I'm certain the God referred to on our currency does not even exist.  So I demand that the U.S. Treasury mint special God-free currency for atheists, and not only that, I demand that all cash given to atheists for any reason be the special God-free currency.

--Trakker

Sometimes we need a break from politics, Eh?

On the left I have a list of blogs and websites I enjoy visiting.  One of them is "Walks in South Miami."  It is a collection of photographs by veteran photographer, A.H. Wessel, an old friend who sparked a love of photography that I've never outgrown.  He recently notified me that he has added new photos to his website and I wanted to pass that on.

What is remarkable about these photos is that they are all taken in one neighborhood.  There is no need to travel far to find great subjects.  If you study his collection you will notice that he looks for shadows, patterns, reflections, and textures, very often the things we see every day without recognizing it's beauty.  While most of us only see the big picture, A.H. concentrates on the little picture, the details, and sees what most of us miss.  In my opinion, anyone who aspires to become a real photographer should study and try to emulate Wessel's work.

--Trakker

Santorum: Demagogue

Demagogue

1. a person, especially an orator or political leader, who gains power and popularity by arousing the emotions, passions, and prejudices of the people.

Charles Pierce has a great post about Rick Santorum.  Read it, and then follow his link to Santorum's speech in Boise, Idaho.  The speech is an hour long, but if you were ever curious about what a demagogue sounds like, this is a good start. 

Demagogues should always be labelled as such and shunned.  Demagogues are bad for society because they rely on lies and half-truths to incite people's anger.  A good example would be someone saying, "Welfare recipients are too lazy to get a job and they have found they can live quite well on the money you, the good, honest, hard-working, tax paying American are forced to give them by the Democrats in government so they will keep voting for the Democrats."  Sound familiar?

Actually, demagoguery defines the radical right, led by Rush and Fox News.  The radical right has no ideas beyond "cut taxes," and "demolish the government."  They exist purely on demagoguery.

Pierce shared a piece of Santorum's speech in Boise that is classic radical rightwing demagoguery:

"They don't believe you can make these decisions because if you were allowed to make these decisions you would obviously jump off a cliff. Don't you see how they see you? How they look down their noses at average Americans? These elite snobs!" [emphasis added]

Yes, rational, thinking, aware people do look down on the people who suck this stuff up, not because they live in Idaho or they believe in God, it's because how can you have respect for people who are so shallow and insecure that they fall for Santorum's naked appeal to their prejudices and insecurities.  [I suspect they also fall for those TV ads that sell cheap health insurance and cheap life insurance (no physical necessary!) and reverse mortgages.]

Charley does a good job rebutting some of what Santorum said right off the top of his head.  It isn't hard, I as doing the same as I watched Santorum's speech.

-Trakker

Mitt Romney wants seniors on Social Security tested for drugs!

OMG! Sounds like if Mitt Romney is elected President he will push to have everyone who gets government benefits, which would include Social Security and Medicare benefits from the government, tested for drugs.  Presumably anyone who tests positive will be fined or maybe even thrown out of the program.

Here's the quote from Mitt himself:

Georgia’s controversial plan to mandate drug testing for all welfare recipients and other beneficiaries of government assistance got a big endorsement on Friday from Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney.

On a local NBC affiliate in Georgia, Romney said that he supported the measure:

Jeff Hullinger: [Lawmakers] have bantered about the proposition that welfare recipients should be drug tested. How do you feel about that?

Mitt Romney: Well my own view is, it’s a great idea. People who are receiving welfare benefits, government benefits, we should make sure they’re not using those benefits to pay for drugs. I think it’s an excellent idea. [emphasis added]

Mitt might try to argue that he was only referring to those on welfare, but I'm going all Fox News on this.  If a Democrat had made the same statement, Fox News would spend the next week screaming on the air that 'Obama wants to test seniors on Social Security for drugs and throw them out of the program if they test positive'.  That's how Fox News keeps their viewers outraged and hating the black Kenyan who stole their country's Presidency.  That's how Republicans win elections.

--Trakker

The Radical Right is full of racists. Admit it.

If you are a lefty and have followed politics closely it will come as no surprise that the radical right contains a strong strain of racism and bigotry.  We've all seen some of the sick emails sent by right wing politicians to other radical rightwingers, the comments posted at WaPost and other news outlets before they get pulled, etc.

But when confronted, the radical right always angrily denies any racism at all in their ranks.  Either they are ignorant or they are lying.  Recently a right wing blog, Little Green Footballs, did us all a favor and documented just how vile the radical haters on the right have become.

Fox News posted the tragic news about Whitney Houston's death on their news website.  Soon the comments from their readers began piling up and they were so vile and offensive that Fox had to close the comments section and flush all the comments.  Why?  Here's a sample of what Little Green Footballs captured [note the tricks the commenters use to avoid the naughty word filters]:

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A tragedy is when someones passes away from a terminal disease or something else that no one saw coming.Whitney is just an inferior lo w life ni gg er that needed to go,no tragedy,no loss.

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Any death is a tragedy you heartless bástard.

[…]

not nignogs their death is a plus 

[note - Nignogs is Fox commenters' euphemism for nigger]

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SHe couldn’t even sell issues of “the national enquirer” anymore. Everyone was tired of the TNB. Niqqer flaps her lips and screeches, niqqer becomes rich. Niqqer ends up nearly broke after spending all of her money. Niqqer in constant fights and drug binges. Niqqer ODs when she learns she’s nearly broke and she is so wasted physically she can’t make another album. Niqqer hit the end of the road, niqqer thinking and niqqer behavior led her to where she had nothing. She couldn’t face life without the “bling bling”, she knew she would never have any more “kaching kaching”

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I am now patiently waiting for the grand messiah Obama to have a blk fundraiser in honor of Whitley with Kevin Costner as guest of honor with all the Hollywood elites invited along with Alan Colmes, Al Sharpton, Jeremia Wright, Charles Rangel, etc. with a menu featuring blk eyed peas, grits, Imported Kobe steak, Dom Perignon, sweet potato pie and a mus lll im scarf as a momento of this great occasion.

Of course the door prize will be an all expense paid trip to Kenya to visit the Obama tribe and birthplace of his ancestors while the American people still look for this imposter’s birth certificate in Hawaii !!!

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This is typical of the blk gene pool; it happens all the time. They cannot handle fame and fortune whether it’s derived from music, acting, sports or just plain entertainment. Too much fame and too much money at one time will ki ll ll you.

How many blk people have died from drugs including alcohol that have been in the sports and the entertainment industry or screwed up their married lives like Tiger Woods or worse, OJ Simpson !!!

This is the same disease that got Obama voted into the White House.

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i don’t even consider them to be included in the human race let alone on a pedistal. the people that do are a bunch of loosers.

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Story goes Obama sh0ved to much cr@ck up the wh0res @zz when he was going to sniiff it…

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Obvious the use of to much hair strengthener did her in.That s__t will peel paint!

[…]

unfortunately like most nignog crack hoes she was able to apply her trade on “da streets”

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Another nignog off the public social rolls

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BIack females are the fattest segment of the population. BIack males are the most murderousss segment of the population. Africans have the lowest IQ of all people.

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Like most of her species, she suffered from chronic stupidity.

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tough break niqqer.

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oh niqqa please,nigga please.

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one of the only b l a c k chics i would have ever banged…..once you go c r ack er…..you dont do cr a c k

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Woo Hoo One less obama voter

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Whitney who?!? some /\/iggress music artist that had a couple of hits in the early 90’s. She’s since been forgotten and now she’s dead.. Who cares..

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Africans love their drugs.

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Jungle Buggie ??

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This is a good lesson for all of you God loving Christian girls out there, stay away from “Jungle Love.”

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One less bIack crack addict in the world today. Not such a big loss.

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We Whiteys dont care about some monkey crackhead, change the headline!

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How funny would it be if they fuckedup the tombstone.

WHITEY HOUSTON

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Who cares? Black_trash gone is enough.

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She is just like any other gh e tto queen.I hope the rest of these worthless piles in the inner cities follow her act .

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What a waste of a good slit.

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HER REAL NAME SHOULD BE KUNTA KINTI OR MOGUBA MAGABA, WHY AFRO-AMERICANS ARE USING ENGLISH NAMES AND LAST NAMES?….SHAME ON THEM!!

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You know what you call Whitney Houston in a bathtub? A dead n i g g a h

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Another buckwheat supporter bites the dust, oh well.

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hatesandniqqers 3 hours ago

phuk you w hore,,,,,,,,,

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Buckwheat is ne gro trash!

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Bammy should not have given her crack from his personal stash!

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B l a c k s have little to brag about about so they strut and crow about anything. The politically correct whites whine and cringe and try to be b l a c k themselves and identify with their “brothers”. Great singer but as stupid as her pal, the malignancy in the white house

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she still be voting for the head niggg this nov

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To bad it wasnt the monkey in the White House

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There were over 5,000 comments left before Fox flushed them, many in this vein.  This must happen at Fox all the time - this surely can't be the first time these racist shits have showed up and used vile terms and posted their hatred for blacks.  So other than flushing the comments, what has Fox done to fight the racism that is so evident in these comments?  Nothing as far as I can tell.  They could highlight the comments and tell their readers that they, and the rest of America, will not tolerate this, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Anyway, for you mouth-breathing radical righties who insist they have NEVER heard or read a racist statement from people on the right: HERE IT IS.  And for all you shitheads who insist racism doesn't exist in America anymore so we should just shut down all those affirmative action programs designed to help African Americans overcome the effect of racism: Just STFU!

--Trakker

"We don't want your stinking government help. (But we need it.)"

Ki Gulbranson is famous today.  He probably wishes he wasn't.  He probably wishes he'd kept his mouth shut, but instead he told a NYTimes reporter that "too many Americans lean on taxpayers rather than living within their means." He said he supports politicians who promise to cut government spending.  He also said that he makes about $39,000 a year "and wants you to know that he does not need any help from the federal government." 

He also supports Tea Party candidates.  So this Gulbranson is one of those rugged individuals who wouldn't take a dime from the damn government even if they tried to force him to, right?   Weeeeeell... not exactly.  He actually accepts Earned Income Credit payouts from the government and has signed up three of his kids to get free breakfast and lunches at school.  Also, Medicare has paid for his mother to have two hip replacements!

This is all part of an in-depth NYTimes article that is worth reading.  It makes Ki Gulbranson look like a hypocrite, but really, he's just a hard-working American who doesn't make enough to support his family without some government help.  I doubt he realized just how much government help he gets until the Times reporter started asking embarrassing questions.

The bottom line is this, the average American worker has seen his and her inflation adjusted income decline for more than three decades, and they need help.  Most of them who rail against government giving so much of their tax dollars to so many people believe THEY have earned the help they get from the government because they are hardworking, responsible, white Americans, but they consider any money that goes to black and brown folks to be excessive because it is assumed they are lazy wastrels who live large on working American's taxes.

The graphs in the article are startling and in my opinion require further explanation because I suspect they include payments to disabled service members, and given that we've been fighting two deadly wars for a decade that should not come as a surprise.

So, what do we do about this?  If we refuse to make the very wealthy pay more in taxes the only alternative is to raise the rest of our taxes and/or further cut the safety net, which will destroy our poor and our middle class.

--Trakker

The Catholic Church - pompous bullies who forget we are a SECULAR nation.

Our old friend Charles Pierce is pissed at the Catholics again - AND now he's even disgusted at the nitwits on the left who have been suckered into believing this is an issue of "religious liberty."  It ain't.  Take it away, Charley:

You may notice here that there is no "compromise" being offered. Emboldened by enablers, the bishops have expanded their demands for exemptions from simply Catholic institutions to every business in America. There's a reason for this and it all comes back to the Clan Of The Red Beanie again. They've been sitting back on their ermined duffs, believing that they were done so very wrong in the investigation of their crimes, and nursing the mother of all grudges, for over a decade. Now they've decided to strike back for the power they've lost. (That horrible Egan gossoon let the cat out of the bag yesterday.) Women's health is the issue they've chosen, because, in their little unindicted world, women don't count, and never have. Any Catholic pundit — yeah, that's you, E.J. Dionne, and you, Mark Shields [...and you, Chris Matthews!] — who carries water for this corrupt cabal

There were a couple of ways all of this could have been avoided. One, as Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out last night, would have been through a single-payer health-care system. The other would have been to toss a whole lot of bishops in jail for conspiracy to obstruct justice, enough of them so their power to influence the secular law was destroyed forever. They needed to be humbled, unmercifully, until the hubris was wrung out of every damn one of them. Now, a woman working a low-income service industry job under the supervision of a Catholic boss will have her access to essential health-care truncated by a discredited encyclical to which no Catholic has paid any heed since the administration of Lyndon Johnson. These bastards needed to be broken, publicly, and into a thousand pieces that were scattered to the winds. Instead, they are "voices of conscience" again. It is to weep.

Yes, this whole radical religious-right war on women has really triggered my growing animosity toward the Catholic Church.  I agree with Charles, "These bastards need to be broken, publicly..." and loudly ridiculed by the sane, rational, and outraged citizens who have been the intended victims of the church's perfidy.  It boggles my mind that after the way they have treated children in their care for the last century at least, anyone gives them any credence!

--Trakker

WOW!

Way to go Giants!

I've never seen a team turn their season around as abruptly as the Giants did this year.  What a great game!

(I just want to remind everyone the Washington Redskins beat the Giants twice this year.  Guess what team I follow?)

--Trakker

 

Best. Primary. Ever!

If you despise Newt Gingrich like I do, you should be thoroughly enjoying this primary season.  Newt has always expected that someday he would be President.  That's because he believes that with his huge brain, his gift for big ideas, and his ability to see the future clearly as no other politician can, he has always been destined for that office. 

Sadly for him, the small minded rubes that inhabit America were incapable of seeing past his human frailties, like being unfaithful to his wives, breaking ethics rules, lying, pandering, hypocrisy, etc. 

But suddenly in 2012, the Republican party found themselves in the embarrassing position of fielding a bunch of clowns running frantically hard to earn the right to beat the most hated man in Republicanstan, Barack H. Obama, and become President of the United States of America, Inc.! 

Suddenly Newt saw his opportunity.  Newt knew he was superior to these clowns, and as clown after clown fell off the stage, Newt found himself standing at the top of the heap when he won South Carolina!  He knew that with his intellect he was now unstoppable.  The nomination he had wanted so badly all his life was about to be his!!  At 68 he had almost given up ever getting the job he knew he richly deserved, and suddenly the Presidency was within his grasp!

Hahahahahaha!  As we all know, Newt has been trounced ever since South Carolina.  He doesn't have a prayer of winning the nomination and everyone but Newt knows that.  He has been captured by the hope-monkey and he can't let go.  He won't give up and never will until they finally have to kick him off the stage when he shows up for the first Romney-Obama Presidential debate.  They will have to use a stun gun to subdue him, then wrap him in restraints before a national audience, while Callista beats on the poor Secret Service men as they wrestle him onto the dolly and trundle him away.

This Republican primary has not only made Obama's chances stronger in November, it has damaged a lot of once promanent Republican politicians.  Palin is no longer a leader in the party because she wouldn't even run.  Bachmann, who was once a major force in the Tea Party, has been badly damaged and might not even win her seat, Santorum will never be heard from again, Perry not only embarrassed himself, Texas feels he embarrassed the too, Cain has been exposed as a womanizer and a liar, Newt's many warts and flaws have been exposed once again, Ron Paul's racist past has been laid bare, and Mitt Romney's wealth and extremely low tax rate has been used to show how the Republicans have coddled the very wealthy, and it could easily cost him (and the Republican party) the election.  Wow!

--Trakker

Nancy Brinker is a liar and everyone knows it.

Plucked from Susan G. Komen, Founder and CEO, Nancy G. Brinker's statement today:

We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.

Bullshit!  Of course they were made for political reasons, and everyone knows it.  In fact Komen's response to the rage over dumping Planned Parenthood has been one of the most obvious pack of lies I've ever seen.

Komen's founder/CEO, Nancy Brinker, has always been close to the Republican party and the Bush II administration.  I suspect Komen has been under increasing pressure over the years from the anti-abortion radicals on the right to dump Planned Parenthood and Komen finally decided PP had been sufficiently weakened and cowed by Congress that they could now safely dump them and few would notice or complain.  Bad on Them!  The response has been stunning and Komen's reputation has taken a huge hit.  The strength of the response has shocked everyone. 

I think there are two things going on here.  1. Planned Parenthood has been around for a long time and has helped a lot of women when they were young and poor or when they were struggling students.  Many of these women are now successful and are angry to see Komen, another group they think highly of, drop them for obvious political reasons, and 2. we are shocked when a large disease prevention and research group succumbs to political pressure.  Most of us believe politics should never influence important health goals like preventing and curing cancer.  If Komen lets the conservatives bully them on this issue, what next, refusing grant money to groups that work with Latinos, some of them here illegally?  Or maybe refusing grants to certain universities thought to be too liberal?

This decision by Komen and the backlash will end up in textbooks as an example of bad judgement.  I believe it also shows that the right's hubris and bullying might have reached a breaking point.  Women may be feeling they've been pushed too far. 

--Trakker

Yeah, that was not a good idea!

Dana Milbank captures the awesome lack of intellect of the Republicans elected in 2010.  These are the people that the Tea Party wants to elect more of, because they are so much smarter and more awesome than that pretend smarty-pants elected President in 2008.

House freshmen have been on the job for almost exactly a year, and until now they’ve done little more than talk about cutting the national debt.

But on Wednesday morning, eight lawmakers finally decided to take action. They scheduled a “major announcement,” invited the media and declared that they had a plan to reduce the deficit by — are you sitting down? — $1.5 million.

That's Million, with an M.

The eight lawmakers announced that they were returning unused portions of their office budgets in the hope that the money could help pay down the debt. And they were feeling mighty pleased with themselves.

“Now, I can hear the pundits saying, ‘Oh, these freshmen — they’re just grandstanding,’ ” said Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.). Now, why might a pundit say that? Well, maybe because Duncan delivered these words while posing before TV cameras and holding an 11-by-17 mock-up of a check with “taxpayer protection” written in the memo field. Upon completion of the grandstanding, they marched into the Capitol to deliver their “checks” to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

The reason we are making fun of these people is because they don't realize that they are making fools of themselves before the press and even many average Americans.  For one thing, $1.5 million when the deficit is being measured in billions and trillions makes them look like rubes.  And for another thing,

...returning office money at the end of the year is a routine event on Capitol Hill. As Politico’s Scott Wong noted this week, virtually every senator does it. Many House members do, too — without holding a news conference.

If anything, the exercise showed that thrift among the freshmen lawmakers is relatively rare. Landry said that he and the others invited any lawmaker who had saved office money last year to join them at the event — but the turnout was less than 10 percent of the freshman Republican class.

So all they did was emphasise the fact that more than 90% of the new Republicans elected in 2010 who demanded that government tighten their belts, didn't do the same with their budget.  Hmmm.

Milbank ends with this,

But the low dollar value didn’t detract at all from the lawmakers’ overpowering sense of self-righteousness. As skeptical questions came in from the congressional reporters, Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) became defensive. “People like yourselves question the motives of people who are trying to cut down the debt,” he complained.

No, but they do question the motives of people who, a year after arriving in Washington with plans to change it forever, march around the Capitol grounds with phony checks.

 This isn't to poke fun at the fact that these eight Congressmen saved the government some money.  Good for them, really.  It's about proportion, thinking little accomplishments warrant great attention and praise.  Many others do what they did every year without fanfare.  And more to the point, saving money from a Congressman's budget is a lot less painful than trimming billions from programs that feed the poor or help kids pay for college, which is what Republicans are demanding.

--Trakker

The radical right's war on women

Meghan Casserly at Forbes.com writes,

Last night’s announcement that brand name breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure would put an end to its long time partnership with women’s health resource Planned Parenthood nearly broke the Internet. Twitter faltered—then erupted in vitriol against the purveyors of pink.

Rep. Jackie Speier (she of the most amazing pro-choice speech ever delivered on the House floor) said it clearly: “Komen’s decision hurts women — it puts politics before women’s health. @komenforthecure should be ashamed.”

Beloved writer Judy Blume tweeted: “Susan Komen would not give in to bullying or fear. Too bad the organization bearing her name did.”

Why did they do it?  Probably because of Komen's new Senior Vice President for Public Policy,  Karen Handel, who is described as strongly "pro-life."  Here is a snipit from her campaign blog back when she was running for governor of Georgia:

"I will be a pro-life governor who will work tirelessly to promote a culture of life in Georgia…. I believe that each and every unborn child has inherent dignity, that every abortion is a tragedy, and that government has a role, along with the faith community, in encouraging women to choose life in even the most difficult of circumstances…. since I am pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood.

Bullshit! Abortion is just a small part of what Planned Parenthood does and these pro-lifers know it.  Anyone who is truly pro-life and concerned with breast cancer would continue funding Planned Parenthood, but we know that politics is much more important to the right than protecting women from death.

So avoid the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation and all those products that support the foundation with pink ribbons and their product wrapped in pink printing.  Give to directly to Planned Parenthood instead.  I just did.

--Trakker

Newt: he demonized the Democrats and is now going to destroy the Republicans. Thanks, Dude!

Remember the memo Newt Gingrich sent to all Republicans in Congress nearly 20 years ago, "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control."? 

Apply these to the opponent, their record, proposals and their party.

decay... failure (fail)... collapse(ing)... deeper... crisis... urgent(cy)... destructive... destroy... sick... pathetic... lie... liberal... they/them... unionized bureaucracy... "compassion" is not enough... betray... consequences... limit(s)... shallow... traitors... sensationalists...

endanger... coercion... hypocrisy... radical... threaten... devour... waste... corruption... incompetent... permissive attitudes... destructive... impose... self-serving... greed... ideological... insecure... anti-(issue): flag, family, child, jobs... pessimistic... excuses... intolerant...

stagnation... welfare... corrupt... selfish... insensitive... status quo... mandate(s)... taxes... spend(ing)... shame... disgrace... punish (poor...)... bizarre... cynicism... cheat... steal... abuse of power... machine... bosses... obsolete... criminal rights... red tape... patronage

He didn't tell his fellow Republicans to use these terms in the rare case that they actually described their Democratic opponent.  No, every Democrat was to be demonized with these terms, and they were.

From that day on Republicans have been using these vile, inflammatory terms to describe Democrats and it has obviously worked because today most radicals on the right believe Democrats are not fellow Americans who love our country, but some evil demented enemy determined to end our American way of life.

In that way, Newt Gingrich is responsible for splitting our country into 'Real Americans' and 'America's enemies.'

So, it is only just that Newt Gingrich is now intent on doing the same to the Republican party!  Newt is now turning his vile, hate-spewing mouth against the party's establishment!  He doesn't have a chance in hell of beating Mitt and his billionaire supporters, but - By God! - Newt is going to turn the radical haters against them! 

This scorched earth policy is going to do some real damage to the party - to the cheers of the rest of the country that is sick to our stomachs of the whiny, America-hating, selfish dolts on the right.  If we play our cards right, Newt will do some serious, permanent damage to the GOP by summer.  That it is coming at the hands of Newt almost makes one believe there is a just goddess somewhere (Isis?) who finally reached her gag limit and is about to smash the right once and for all.

--Trakker

Newt comes home to roost. Republicans freak out!

Oy!  What Charles Pierce wrote about Newt! Pure poetry on a sword:

Newt Gingrich should stay in the race, doing exactly what he's doing, for as long as he wants to do it. If he wants to show up in Tampa come August to hurl invective at the walls of the convention center, he should do precisely that. And I am not saying this entirely because I know such a development will be wonderful theater and will drive Willard Romney batty. I am saying it because, for over 20 years, I have watched the Republican party embrace Gingrichism. I have watched it profit politically for having done so. I have watched it become coarser, more ignorant, and more vicious perhaps than any national political party has been since the days when actual fistfights broke out around the hard-cider barrel in the town square. I have watched it adopt retrograde policies that have damaged the country. All of these are products of the politics created and practiced by Newt Gingrich. If we are now at the gotterdammerung of that age, then, goddammmit, let Newt Gingrich be its agent. It's only just.

--Trakker