NEON GODS

Some states are subsidizing private school parents under the guise of helping poor kids get a better education

Here's a good example of why I recently subscribed to the NYTimes.  We can't afford to lose investigative reporting like this.

State's phony tax breaks to help poor kids trapped in substandard schools get a better education actually end up subsidizing students already enrolled in private, often religious, schools.  This diverts tax dollars that could have gone to struggling schools.  

--Trakker

Catholic Church - where men wear dresses and funny hats, and women should just STFU.

I don't read Maureen Dowd very often.  Like Richard Cohen of the Washington Post she can make words sing, but often the targets of their ire make me face-palm.

But today Dowd hit a home run today when she excoriated her church.

I ALWAYS liked that the name of my religion was also an adjective meaning all-embracing.

I was a Catholic and I wanted to be catholic, someone engaged in a wide variety of things... So it makes me sad to see the Catholic Church grow so uncatholic, intent on loyalty testing, mind control and heresy hunting. ...

Absolute intolerance is always a sign of uncertainty and panic. Why do you have to hunt down everyone unless you’re weak? The church doesn’t seem to care if its members’ beliefs are based on faith or fear, conviction or coercion. But what is the quality of a belief that exists simply because it’s enforced?

For the life of me I can't understand why any reasonably intelligent human being would remain in the Catholic Church.  Of course they are a great fit for today's Republican party since both want to take America back to the 19th century!

--Trakker

Grow up Republicans. You're embarrassing yourselves!

More and more I'm thinking that Republicans are just adult adolescents who just can't let go of their childhood when it was okay to believe in fairy tales.  Reality obviously scares the dickens out of them.

Barack Obama was born in the state of Hawaii.  Hawaii was a state at the time.  It still is (I'm going slow so Republicans can follow me).  His birth announcement was published in local Honolulu newspapers at the time. Barack Obama has published a certified copy of his birth certificate on the Internet for everyone to see and officials of the state of Hawaii have looked at it and said it is an exact digital copy of his birth certificate.  People who knew the Obamas at the time have said they remember his birth and that the family was in Hawaii at the time of his birth.

And YET.........Republicans refuse to believe it!  My previous post tells of a Republican Congressman who has expressed doubts, Republican Joe Arpaio, Sheriff of his own warped mind claims to have investigated this and found that the birth certificate Obama posted is a FORGERY, and now Arizona's Secretary of State has opened his own investigation because 1,200 of his constituents believe the crazy Sheriff and not Hawaii.  PEOPLE, you are fools and the rest of us are beginning to think maybe Republicans are agents of an alien culture that is trying to destroy our country and our sanity.

Barack Obama, he of the foreign sounding name, brown skin, and all, believed that by 2008 the people of this country were mature and smart enough to look at the person running for office, and not skin color or funny name.  He was right, a majority of Americans broke with tradition and elected him.  But not Republicans.  They can't accept that this brown-skinned man who has an international background can actually be President of their white nation.  They are certain that if they say Obama's middle name enough, if the call him a Kenyan often enough, if they remind us of his race enough, and if they keep yammering about how "no one is really sure Obama is an American" that the rest of us will suddenly become bigots like them.  I guess that's how out of touch they are with the majority of Americans in the 21st century.  They should consider joining the 21st century sometime.

--Trakker

THIS is the best the Republicans can come up with?

Jeesh, this news flash shows a) how desperate Republican politicians have become trying to scare their base into action, and b) what kind of snakes their politicians are.

Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) is apologizing after being caught on tape delivering a birther rant about how President Obama is “not an American.” “I don’t know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. I don’t know that,” Coffman said at a fundraiser last week. “But I do know this, that in his heart, he’s not an American. He’s just not an American,” he said, local NBC affiliate 9NEWS reports.

This is the kind of lies GOP Congressman use to energize their gullible, dimwitted, partisan audiences, but when those remarks get disseminated to a larger, saner audience, the Congressman runs for cover!

But now, Coffman, who has tried to paint himself as a moderate, is backtracking. “I misspoke and I apologize,” he said in a statement. “I have confidence in President Obama’s citizenship and legitimacy as President of the United States. … I don’t believe the president shares my belief in American Exceptionalism,” he explained.

You can't have it both ways asshole!  Do you believe our President is an American or not?  Was he born in the United States or not?  Who did you lie to, your partisan, "We believe everything bad about Obama no mater how stupid" base, or the rest of your constituents?

--Trakker

Nope. No racism here in America. None. And Unicorns are real, too.

A black couple buys a house in Newton County, Georgia, and when they begin working on it to get ready to move in they are confronted by armed neighbors and told to put their hands up and leave the house or they will be shot.  When the couple complains, the cops come, arrest them, and take them to jail!  For working on their own house.

But, no, there is no racism or racial profiling here in America.  Black people just like to whine and play the victim.

Right...

This is what African Americans have to put up with all the time.  Sometimes they end up dead (e.g., Trayvon Martin), sometimes they just end up being humiliated like this couple.  But every African American knows that a significant percentage of white people assume blacks are dishonest, lazy, and violent, and act accordingly.  And as long as this is the case, you better damn well expect their anger to be expressed like it was in the Martin case.  In fat the Martin case shows just how many whites are incapable of feeling any empathy for people of other races.  To them I offer my erect middle finger.

--Trakker

It's your country. You get what you pay for.

The Associated Press has good news and bad news for us.  The good news is that in response to higher gas prices more people are taking mass transit to work and for other trips.  Good.  That's good for the environment.  But wait, America's mass transit systems are crumbling and the added burden of more and more riders could force their collapse.

Driven by high gas prices and an uncertain economy, Americans are turning to trains and buses to get around in greater numbers than ever before. But the aging transit systems they're riding face an $80 billion maintenance backlog that jeopardizes service just when it's most in demand.

...decades of deferred repairs and modernization projects also have many transit agencies scrambling to keep trains and buses in operation. The transit administration estimated in 2010 that it would take $78 billion to get transit systems into shape, and officials say the backlog has grown since then.

In Philadelphia, for example, commuters ride trains over rusty steel bridges, some of them dating back to the 19th century. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority — which operates subway, trolley, bus and commuter rail systems — is responsible for 346 bridges that are on average 80 years old. Officials said they may be forced to slow trains or even stop them from crossing one bridge that's 1,000 feet long and 90 feet above the ground if it deteriorates further, leaving stations on the other side without service.

A key power substation relies on electrical equipment manufactured in 1926. There's no hope for acquiring spare parts, so workers try to open the boxes housing the equipment as infrequently as possible to prevent damage from exposure to the environment.

I recall Washington, DC's Metro subway system when it opened in 1976.  It was a delight to use, the trains and stations were clean and attractive.  Today, 36 years later the cars are worn out, the stations are drab, and the escalators are out of service at least a third of the time.

These systems, like our highways, are largely funded and subsidized by the government, and are falling apart because the right has convinced the people of America that our taxes are too high and that government is bad.  So our transportation infrastructure is falling apart - and the right continues to demand more tax cuts!

America used to have the best, most modern infrastructure in the world.  We used to be proud of our highways, airports, and subway systems and we paid high taxes to keep them that way, but now we're told by the radical right that the government is too big, it's bloated, it's wasteful. Instead we must rely on the private sector to make us great again.

Well, I'm waiting for WalMart to expand and modernize Washington's Metro.  Philadelphia is waiting for AT&T to rehabilitate their rusty, dangerous bridges.  It's going to be a long wait.

This is just more evidence that ever since Reagan, the right has pushed an agenda that will eventually usher America back to the 1870s, and the right won't quit until people starve and the trains stop running.

It's our country, people.  Just remember, you get what you pay for.

--Trakker

America: screw the future, it's more fun to attack strawmen and let big business run the country

Paul Krugman put to words exactly what's been bothering me,

America used to be a country that thought big about the future. Major public projects, from the Erie Canal to the interstate highway system, used to be a well-understood component of our national greatness. Nowadays, however, the only big projects politicians are willing to undertake — with expense no object — seem to be wars. Funny how that works.

As the radical right has taken over this country, it has done all it can to insure that America becomes an 18th century country in a 21st century world.  A nation of high unemployment, low wages, crumbling infrastructure, extremely high college tuition (that only the rich from all over the world can afford), and run by big business for big business, not the people.

The NYTimes, in an article today, reports that a lot of immigrant's kids, especially those from India, China and other countries with booming economies, are leaving the U.S. and returning home because they can see they have no future here.  So true.

--Trakker

 

ALEC is going down

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a right-wing lobbying group funded by a lot of big American corporations.  According to the Washington Post,

ALEC has had a significant impact in statehouses since it was founded in the 1970s by conservative activist Paul Weyrich. ALEC funders include the National Rifle Association, which led the way to passage of the Stand Your Ground law in Florida and other states. ALEC officials have said they were not directly involved in the Florida effort, but their organization’s Web site touts similar ALEC-backed legislation passed in other states.

Because of ALEC's role in Florida's Stand Your Ground law that allows armed cop-wannabees to shoot unarmed innocent but "suspicious" citizens minding their own business, and insist it was in self-defence, civil rights groups, gun control groups and thousands of concerned citizens have been targeting corporations like McDonalds and Wendys, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola and asking them to decide if ALEC is a lobbying group they want to fund (ALEC also writes legislation for states that make it much harder for women to get legal abortions and to humiliate those who do).

Many of these large corporations have now dropped out of ALEC.  I suspect they were only aware of the pro-business laws ALEC has been pushing for them and were appalled when they realized they were funding radical social legislation as well.

Ron Scheberle, executive director of ALEC, is furious that big corporations have dropped his radical group and yesterday issued a press release that includes the following:

ALEC is an organization that supports pro-growth, pro-jobs policies and the vigorous exchange of ideas between the public and private sector to develop state based solutions. Today, we find ourselves the focus of a well-funded, expertly coordinated intimidation campaign. ...

For years, ALEC has partnered with legislators to research and develop better, more effective public policies – legislation that creates a more transparent, accountable government, policies that place a priority on free enterprise and consumer choice, and tax policies that are fair, simple and that spur the kind of competiveness that puts Americans back to work.

Pure bullshit of course. "Policies that place a priority on free enterprise,..." consumer choice and fair tax policies?  Really?  Where do gun laws fit here?  Abortion laws?  Did Trayvon Martin's death promote free enterprise?  Do restrictive abortion laws promote consumer choice?  No, of course not.  This is just a front group that takes corporate money and writes typical pro-business laws and typical Tea Party anti-women, pro-gun crap.

I have seen listings of the extreme right-wing ALEC laws that have been passed nearly verbatim in red state's legislatures.  I think there were 70 such laws identified so far, but there are probably more.  I think this could explode into something big if the protest groups demand that corporations explain why they supported ALEC's anti-women and Stand Your Ground laws around the country.

Trayvon Martin's life was snuffed out because of a culmination of right-wing gun laws and a southern state's apparent unconcern for black victims.  The death of an unarmed teen was shocking enough, but when Americans realized the shooter was almost certainly going to go free, we began looking more closely at how it could happen and finally the spotlight has been aimed at the NRA and ALEC, two radical organizations that put profit before people.

--Trakker

Racism is alive and well in America.

I am still mourning the death of Trayvon Martin.  But I'm mourning my country as well.  Since the election of our first (half) African American President, the racists around the country have become increasingly bold in their expressions of hatred for blacks.  They don't even care if people know they are seething with racial hatred.  Back in February I posted about comments left at the Fox News website in response to Whitney Houston's death.  Whitney Houston! 

Recently I read on Booman Tribune that when Fox News finally decided to cover the Trayvon shooting, some of the comments left at their website were sick (e.g., "The little thug ghetto monkey should have been home doing his homework, not out gang bangin.").  I found it hard to believe, even for Fox, so I went to the Fox News website and sure enough, the sickos were well represented.  Here are some screen captures (click on the image to read the comments):

Two is enough, the rest would just make you sicker.

Fortunately, Charles Pierce got fed up with this shit, too, and went off!  Fortunately he can express himself far better than I.

Well I certainly don't feel calm and measured, and it's not because my kids "could have been Trayvon." No, they could not have. My kids are white. They lived in the suburbs. They could wear their pants anyway they liked...They didn't have to worry about running into some trigger-happy, half-mad wannabe on the way home from the convenience store. And that's what keeps me from being calm and measured.

I am sick to death of people who celebrate "the family" making excuses about why other people's children are expendable. I am sick to death of politicians who are more concerned about protecting zygotes than about the teenagers on whom they seek to balance their budgets and advance their careers...I am sick to death of opportunistic yahoos who can look at this country's unhealthy attachment to firearms and declare that the actions of George Zimmerman, while unfortunate, were pretty much what the Founders had in mind.

What alarms me is not that Zimmerman hasn't yet been arrested, but the awful feeling that the Florida legislature, with the approval of the people of Florida, may have passed a law so idiotic that it prevents local law-enforcement from arresting him at all...And what makes me angry down to my soul is not that my children could have been Trayvon, but that, because of the way we have ordered our politics and our society, only someone like Trayvon could have been Trayvon.

I'm sure I'll be writing more about this, because I'm almost certain Florida will find there's nothing to disprove Zimmerman's insistence that he shot Trayvon in self defense.

--Trakker

The murder of Trayvon Martin, and my response to the NRA and the gun nuts

Back in the good ol' days of America Online and dialup Internet connections I used to argue with gun zealots (aka gun nuts) online.  Two things stood out to me, 1) gun zealots, at least the ones online, were inordinately afraid of black guys, and 2) how much they wished they could use their guns on those black guys when they felt threatened (which was most of the time). 

Obviously, the NRA finally gave them their wish by pushing something called the "Stand Your Ground" law on the states that allow gun owners to use deadly force when they "reasonably" feel that their life is in danger or that they might suffer serious bodily harm. 

If you want to see this law in action, look no further than the murder of Trayvon Martin three weeks ago in Sanford, Florida.  Much has been written already about this murder of an unarmed teenager by an armed police-wannabe, so I won't go into a lot of detail, but the bottom line is that over the years the NRA has successfully made it easier for more and more citizens to carry guns in more and more public places with less and less oversight into who can carry guns in public.  At the same time they have made it easier and easier for people carrying guns in public to kill people who they get to judge as "threatening" and walk free with almost no questions asked.

Granted, the homeowner's association that sponsored the Neighborhood Watch program under which the shooter was operating deserves some of the blame. The Neighborhood Watch program is sponsored by the National Sheriff's Association and they publish a handbook that clearly states, "It should be emphasized to members that they do not possess police powers and they shall not carry weapons..."  The Neighborhood Watch person who shot Trayvon clearly violated that guideline, he was armed with a 9mm handgun which he used to shoot Trayvon.

But the bigger issue here is guns.  The ultimate goal of the NRA appears to be to allow, even encourage, every American to carry a gun in public in all 50 states with no restrictions on who can own guns, who can carry them in public, or where in public they can be carried.  At the same time the NRA wants to make it as easy as possible for gun owners to act as judge, jury, and executioner when they feel threatened, and society must respect their judgement.

What really pisses me off is that gun zealots not only want the right to be judge, jury, and executioner, they want me to recognize them as some kind of exalted protector of society.  I'm supposed to be relived to know they are walking among us, protecting me.  They insist I must acknowledge and be grateful that their presence makes me safer.

BULLSHIT!  To them I say, "I don't know who you are, I don't know what kind of training you've had, I don't know how sane you are, I don't know how you handle fear and anger, and I don't know why you feel the need to carry a gun, so fuck off!   Don't I have the right to live my life and manage my safety without you bringing your gun into it?  People should be allowed to prohibit people from carrying guns into their school, their neighborhood, their towns, their counties, or even their states if they choose.  Your right to own a gun isn't a right to bring it wherever you damn well please. 

Do you think the parents of Trayvon Martin and other parents of black kids feel safer with armed assholes who may also be flaming bigots running around knowing they have the right to blow away people who make them scared?  Should we arm all black teens and tell them they have the right to shoot any white guy who starts following them, challenges them, or makes them scared?  Because that's the next logical step if Trayvon's killer goes free.

--Trakker