On Political Anger

In looking back at the disgusting NY State Senate vote killing marriage equality, I've noticed my anger was directed more at the Democrats who voted against it than the Republicans. Maybe it's because I've written off all Republicans from ever doing the right thing, and so why bother with anger at this point. Maybe I'm angry because we lost even with a Democratic majority, and at the fact that 8 Democratic traitors voted to ruin gay marriage for the foreseeable future. 8 out of 32. A full quarter of the Democratic caucus in what should be a progressive state! A troubling number, to be positive, but still a small minority.

My anger at Republicans has transformed into a numb resignation. They are totally incapable of coming up with viable solutions to almost every major problem. Dude -- they vote as a fucking bloc! My violent frustration is with the handful of Democrats -- those members of the only opposition party there is to the madness of Republicanism -- who would vote in such an abhorrent way. We kept assuring ourselves of a blissful future if only Democrats could re-take the majority in Congress in 2006. Well, we got what we wished for, only to be let down time and time again with vote after vote keeping the war in Iraq going indefinitely, enabling Bush to spy on Americans and basically kowtowing to every Republican filibuster threat. Clearly we didn't get a progressive majority by any stretch of the imagination.

Who or what are we angry at? Are we more upset at the 8 Democrats in the NY Senate that voted to continue 2nd-class status of gays, or at the 30 Republicans who we just KNOW won't give a shit about us gays? And why? Or are we upset that this even has to be an issue -- that in 5 other states (NH is set to be legal in January) gays can marry legally but in the state that has been the home and birthplace of much progressive change it still can't happen? "Those 8 traitor Democrats!" we scream. And what about the 30 Republicans, none of whom have been called out on their bigotry? Where is their day of reckoning?

I think maybe my anger is more and more becoming directed at the fact that the Republican party is being allowed to survive and especially be perceived as credible opposition. This anger is likely motivated by the fear that today's Republicans could ever be in the majority again and be able to wreak utter destruction the likes of which we have not seen.

8 NY Democrats Who Should Be Thrown To The Wolves

From a NY Times editorial today:

"Also succumbing to what Senator Thomas Duane, a Democrat of Manhattan, called “contagious lack of backbone” were eight Democrats: Joseph Addabbo Jr., Darrel Aubertine, Rubén Díaz Sr., Shirley Huntley, Carl Kruger, Hiram Monserrate, George Onorato and William Stachowski."

Let's list these names again:

Joseph Addabbo Jr.
Darrel Aubertine
Rubén Díaz Sr.
Shirley Huntley
Carl Kruger
Hiram Monserrate
George Onorato
William Stachowski

Shame on all of these fucking bigoted cowards.

Of Bigots and Liars

What is it about a rainy day in December? Nothing can seem to go right. Today the NY State Senate voted down Marriage Equality with a vote of 24-38. Thirty-eight bigots, liars and cowards. Every single Republican (fascist) voted against, even after some had signaled they would vote for. What a surprise. No, it's the eight Democrats that should be given special mention here, for it is they that need to be fed to the wolves next year. Hopefully, it happens in the primaries, but failing that I see no reason to ever lift a fingerto help them get re-elected. Fuck them. What good is our 1-seat majority if we get this shit?

Ruben Diaz -- he, of some sorry-ass section of the Bronx -- is the prime target as far as I'm concerned. This bigot actually has the gall to deny he is a bigot, and then by arguing so forcefully against giving married gay people the hundreds of rights and financial incentives straight couples get, actually ends up defining what a bigot is.

This is why I hate religion.

Codified Petulance (a.k.a. The US Senate)

The 60-vote requirement for a cloture vote and the filibuster allowance, as we know them both today, have made the Senate into anything BUT the "greatest deliberative body in the world." Rather, these two devices have been used by right-wing politicians like a petulant child's temper tamtrum to stop legislation they personally don't like, the rest of the country be damned. There are 39 Republican senators -- scum -- supporting a filibuster on health care reform, NOT for more debate on it but to kill it. They only need two more ghoulish senators to agree with them and effectively kill tens of thousands of sick people who need medical help but can't afford it. These senators deserve a special place in hell. They are evil cowards who don't even have the guts to publicly register their No vote on actual legislation, and don't have the intellectual courage to back up any of their bullshit arguments against health care reform with actual facts. They have no grounds. They have no right.

Options, Options Everywhere!

What with the public option now going forth, and the option for states to 'opt out,' methinks there are just too many damn options. Health care is no option, it's a fuckin' right!
 
Hope you know what you're doing, Barry.

Caste Makes Waste

Nice going, CA Supreme Court. In what goddamn universe does denying the right to marry to a specific group of people not constitute a revision to your constitution's equal protection clause? This is a fail beyond fucking belief. Yes, it IS a revision, you morons! So now we have a sort of caste system in California: those straights with all the rights, those 18K+ married gays who get to still be married, and those in the LGBT community who are denied a basic civil right.

This flies in the face of everything that is rational and just.

Hey Catholic Church - go FUCK yourselves!
Hey Church of "Latter-Day Saints"- go FUCK YOURselves!

Bigoted freaks.

Conscience Protections And Religion

I've always had the belief that religious institutions have it as their "right" whether to gay marry or not to gay marry. The issue at stake here is the conference by the state (in this case, the States of the United States) of hundreds of rights on those individuals who are classified as "married."

But an interesting thing is happening here, or is about to happen in these states where gay-marry clouds and storms are gathering, and eventually across these "united" States. The Civil Rights Act of 1965 may just have to be revisited, for it bars ANY and ALL institutions, public and private (yeah, that means you, churches, synagogues and mosques), from discrimination based on race. Now that sexual orientation has been included in civil rights issues (for the most part, unless you're one of those tea-bagging types), this poses a problem for those photographers, caterers and wedding advisers (bitch, please!) whose consciences and religious convictions (bitch, please!) prevent them from helping out in the gay-marrying of others. Well, I suppose if you're Catholic this means you can refuse services to divorcees, no? Only that isn't happening. My thinking is evolving on this issue by the minute.

New Hampshirites, I suppose, will figure all this gay-marriage business out; they are, by and large, decent and compassionate people. I suppose also the idea of conscience protections is a distinctly American one, as the Washington Post suggests. I'm just not sure we should be going down this path, though. There is the public realm, there is the private realm, there is the "religious" realm. Yeah, religionists, you can have your segregation on Sunday mornings. Just don't impose your personal prejudices on the rest of us in the everyday dealings of commerce.

This is all going to be very messy and wind up in federal courts. The issue is clear to me, though. Florists cannot deny their business to gay-marriage ceremonies, period. That is rank discrimination, personal religious convictions be damned. The dime-store argument will be, and this I think is key: "Have you, Mr. Catholic Florist, ever given your services to a divorced person? ...No? But how do you know? ...You don't know? Well, then, wouldn't the fact that Ms. Malone is a divorcee bother you? I mean, you ARE a Catholic, and Catholics do object to divorce, no? This wouldn't bother you? Then on what grounds, Mr. Catholic Florist, would you refuse your services to Mr. and Mr. Jones?"

Open and shut, when you think about it.

Swine Blues

silver

and blue and blue and denim

and silver and red and silver and red

and blue and yellow and white and blue

and blue and red and grey and red and

green and blue and yellow and black and

black and red and green and white and blue

(and blue)

and grey and blue and white and yellow and black

and white and blue

(and blue)

and red and white and red and grey

and grey and red and red

and yellow and green

and grey and blue and blue

and grey and yellow

(and white)

and silver and black and green and red

(and white)

and black and silver and white and grey and blue

(and blue)

and grey and silver and white and white and red

and curry and green and grey

(and brown)

and white and green and red and red and green

and white and black and silver and silver and green

and grey and black and black and red and white

and grey

and red

and blue

(and blue)

and blue

and blue

-from Juanita/Kiteless/To Dream of Love

by Underworld

Bullies

While I would not recommend anyone sit through all 6 minutes and 17 seconds of this drivel, I must say that watching the whole thing it reminded me of who and what bullies really are.

You see the same personality and psychological traits among those like Glenn Beck (and, while we're at it, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Samuel Werzelbacher, Michael Savage and, yes, Michelles Malkin and Bachmann and Ann Coulter--the list is terribly long but they are almost always white men...). It's the bully at work.

There are many things bullies may grow up to be, but I find two that are particularly notable. There's the oft-imagined path of big fat loser with six kids and a wife in a trailer park. And then there's the one traveled by the monster you see above. This is the path of the disgruntled yet opportunistic sourpuss who comes into some money through media savvy and then gets an outlet from which they can spew forth whatever imagined threats have come or are yet to come their way. Such imagined threats conveniently mask their own shortcomings. Perhaps they abuse their wives and/or kids. Perhaps they seek quick discreet gay sex in public parks (then maybe go on a gay-bashing spree). Many are racists. Many are misogynists. Almost all are homophobic. All are cruel and hateful--personality disorders in suits.

I knew boys like Glenn Beck in grade school, high school and college. The pasty-faced, ruddy-cheeked, round- and blue-eyed (yes, many are beady-eyed as well), big-framed types that walk with a swagger. The charm they learn is used to bludgeon, not persuade. (Perhaps in a sense Barack Obama is the anti-bully.) They are bombastic, rude and petty, yet they reveal, sometimes quite plainly, their insecurities and flaws in their abusive behavior. Take, for instance, the spelling and grammar errors in many right-wing responses in blogs, or in the right-wing blogs themselves. The writing in ALL CAPS. "Democrat" Party. (It's DemocratIC, you morons!) If you wanted to hide your illiteracy writing in a blog is not the way to do it.

There's no novelty in Fox News any more. We know they're lying. We know they propagandize. They're not coming up with anything new. It's the same old group-think'ed, paranoid talking points force-fed to an ever shrinking pool of teabag-obsessed know-nothing white people.

Ultimately the fate of a bully is that of a bore: they are just plain ignored.

Wars Are Stupid

War on communism
War on sex
War on hippies
War on poverty
War on drugs
War on illiteracy
War on terror
War on evil
War on irony
War on wind
War on weather
War on bugs
War on gypsies
War on fat
War on carbs
War on wrinkles
War on germs
War on dirt
War on Charles Nelson Reilly
War on liberalism
War on atheism
War on Christmas
War on Easter
War on Hanukkah
War on Islam
War on women
War on disestablishmentarianism
War on antidisestablishmentarianism
War on Santa
War on teeth
War on vice
War on messy things
War on crooked things
War on this
War on that
War on the word “this”
War on the word “that”
War on solipsism
War on autism
War on butts
War on paste
War on elitism
War on pee
War on pancreases
War on fallopian tubes
War on penises
War on vaginae
War on miasma
War on ennui
War on orgasms
War on magazines
War on tassels
War on breasts
War on nipples
War on feet
War on utensils
War on chopsticks
War on ring tones
War on vibrators
War on sleeplessness
War on melanin
War on mold
War on sweat
War on fingernails
War on beige
War on ball bearings
War on hillbillies
War on precociousness
War on porn
War on poop

Deep Thought

I like teabags.

Evil Is

Evil is a your coworker asking if you've gotten fat

Evil is the mind-numbing stupidity of that "question"

Evil is the ignorance that such remarks are and always will be hurtful

Evil is telling crowds of tens of thousands you're political opponent "pals around [sic, and, really, sick] with terrorists"

Evil is letting your running mate be the monster that is Sarah Palin

Evil is a man who doesn't know but refuses to know, and, hence, knows

Evil is a pre-emptive war

Evil is any and all wars

Evil is a surname called Bush

Evil is an SUV speeding down a cross street

Evil is a voice on the radio telling you about "treason" and "letting off steam"

Evil is

Evil is not not

I hate stupid people. I really, really hate them.

Deep Thought

I really hate Larry Summers.

A Word on the Strip-Search Article

I'm still reeling from that Times article. My first take on it is that this scares me. The persons calmly defending the school's actions toward this poor girl are disgusting scraps of human filth. No, they are not human. I can't stress how much this freaks me out. What if my neice went through this same ordeal? If I ever found out such a thing happened I would personally drive to her school, find the parties involved physically hurt them.

I find the tone of this article much much too calm. How can anything like this happen here? What if the Supreme Court finds for the defendants? What more harm will this fucking destructive culture do in its unquenching thirst for control -- of our bodies, our landbases, our minds, our souls? How do we stop this?

How do we want to live?

Sick

Two things that pop out at me reading this, and that serve to remind us of how far our culture his slipped into madness: strip-search and zero-tolerance.

Is this how we want to live?

The school district, the principal, Kerry Wilson, the dissenting judge in the 9th Circuit, Michael Daly Hawkins, have no shame in their contempt for humanity, especially that of this girl, who was 13 at the time of the strip-search. They need to be publicly shamed and thrown feces on. She was only god-damned thirteen fucking years old, you monsters! Strip-searched on the mere presumption she was carrying prescription painkillers? Prescription painkillers, for Christ's sake! Oh, I really don't even have to mention that she had no prior record of "drug use." That is to say that those in authority never caught her using her freedom to use her body as she wishes, which is what a sane culture would value.

This makes me angry, so very angry. The fact that there would be ANY strip-search policy and the fact that we have such draconian and oppressive drug laws to begin with are nauseating in the least.

Deep Thought

A quinquamilli-millillion (that's pronounced kwin-kwah-mill-ee-mill-ill-yun) = 10 ^ 3,000,015.

Larry Summers Has Got To Go

Talk about a fuckstorm of the obvious. This guy was a disaster from the start. So AIG has to give out the bonuses because of some idiotic contracts? Were the UAW workers able to keep their salaries from being cut because of these things called "contracts"? You're god-damned right they weren't.

As for Geithner, he should go next if he doesn't clean up his act soon and get with the no-bonuses-for-thieves program. Jesus Christ this stinks.

As for political fall-out, the only threat to Obama's presidency should be from the left. To see this fake anger coming from corporatists like Richard Shelby is a total ruse. The "GOP" puke party is about as useful an opposition to this bailout mess as an arsonist is to help put out the fire he started. No, we don't live in that sane country that used to exist circa 1933. This two-party system is a sham and a failure; it has become too dangerous a thing to continue. If the Obama Fail = Republican Electoral Success meme is allowed to maintain monopoly status, well then, say good-bye to all of this "democracy" stuff and say hello to outright plutocracy. Yet that is where we live -- a place NOT where (sanely) opposition comes from the left in the form of, say, pusing for temporary nationalization of failed banks and other businesses -- but a place where the opposition fakes populist outrage and then when installed in power totally guts any and all regulation, taxation and fairness for those who need it most. Yes, that would be what we insanely and wrongly call the "Republican" party.

Topic: Republicans neither want a republic nor "can" do anything helpful. Discuss!

Memo To MSM: Stop Lying To Us

I hear that right-wing propagandists FOX News and some at MSNBC are pimping out a survey by the WSJ of "economists" who overwhelmingly disappove of Obama's job performance. It turns out these "economists" are all conservatives. Really?

Here's my message to the MSM: go fuck yourselves. After 9/11 George W. Bush sat on his ass and told us all to go shop, then put out fake terror alerts to scare the shit out of us. And all you could do, all you ever did for four fucking years, was cheer him on, and anyone who crticized him was deemed a traitor. And now that we have a president who's trying to tackle the biggest finacial crisis in 100 years all you can do is attack him? Who the fuck ARE you people? Get the fuck off my TV screen.

Jon Stewart, You Are a God

Sometimes I'm not sure Jon Stewart knows just how fucking important he is. So please, let this continue:

Part 1

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Intro - Brawl Street: Get Ready to Buy Low! And Sell Die

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Part 2

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 2

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Part 3

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 3

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Madoff As Metaphor

I don't think anyone realizes the true meaning of the Madoff scam.

Well, of course, this is what "conservative" rule has wrought, as author Frank Thomas would most likely agree. What would one expect from Bush's SEC? Actual regulation?

We had better realize, and fast, that Republicans specifically and conservatism in general--as we know it in the USA--are the equivalent of wrecking balls quickly turning our Enduring American Experiment into one giant Plutocratic Ponzi scheme. Bush was just the starting point of the destruction.

End the Republican Party, end the idea of "conservatism" as a legitimate governing philosophy, and do it fast.

Our Poisoned Politics

I don't know now if even Obama is capable of bringing in "a new kind of politics," as was his refrain of the campaign. The Republican Party, through their leadership and other key figures, have made it impossible to have any sort of serious debate on the issues of the day. RNC chairman Michael Steele now calls the stimulus package the "Generational Theft Act" and has publicly threatened to cut off funding the Senate campaigns of Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Arlen Specter, the three Republicans (out of 220 in Congress, making them the new 1% Moderate Republican wing) who voted for the stimulus. Alan Keyes, Obama's once Republican rival for the US Senate in Illinois, has called the president an "abomination" and a "radical communist" and questioned his qualifications to even be President and refuses to call him as such. Rush Limbaugh commands the apologies of actual members of Congress for even considering working with Democrats. And who would be the hopefuls for 2012? None other than Sarah Palin -- no introductions needed there -- and Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana governor who is now leaning on denying the people of his state much needed stimulus money, a good portion of which is slated for unemployment benefits. These people have no problem ballooning the deficit when it comes to an illegitimate war and tax cuts for the rich. But helping Americans in need in a depression? Ha! It's "generational theft," they say. There are no words for this kind of chutzpah.

Our two-party system, to put it mildly, sucks. So long as "bipartisanship" is something to be valued, and which translates to powerful Democrats capitulating to a cabal of radical right-wing ideologues whose policies have long-ago been discredited, it is shit. Because of this capitulation to these economic royalist terrorists, 40% of the stimulus is tax cuts, many for the already well-off and most of which will not get spent on "stimulating the economy." Because of this capitulation we have $700 billion bailouts for banks that think nothing of running off with the money while not lending a penny to people in need but purchasing million-dollar office makeovers, lobbying the government for more goodies and giving out billions in bonuses to worthless CEO scum. Fincancial frauds Rick Santelli the and Jim Cramer get to be on CNBC and rant like some bizarro "populist" madmen. Another notable fraud, "Sir" Stanford, by the way, was also feted on same network just a short time ago. And while we're talking about frauds, Sam "Joe" Not-Plumber Wurzelbacher gets to be on T.V. and is considered a legitimate voice on a major [propaganda outlet] network. Now he's considering running for Congress. I wonder which party he'll join for that enterprise.

We now have exactly ONE major political party that is serious about fixing the nation's ills, and exactly ONE other major political party that wants to shit on the entire country. And yet the Cokie Robertses and David Broders of the world, the "people who matter," want us all to hold hands and work out our problems in a "bipartisan" fashion. And that, according to them, is what we want. Well, it's not what we want. We want an economy that provides good-paying jobs and decent health care and a decent environment. That means investing in infrastructure with things like high-speed rail, light rail, more train lines and more trains, and more buses that go to more places. And it means making greener cars and trains and buses. And it means building greener homes. And it means universal heath care that is affordable and functioning. Democrats campaign on delivering these things. Republicans want none of them. Bipartisan this, Cokie.

The problem with the Just Barely Sane Three -- that would be Collins, Specter and Snowe, -- is that not one of them will stand up to the bullies of their party and say "enough." What people don't really understand yet is that the Republican Party is run by a bunch of punks and bullies and know-nothings whose members see no harm keeping it this way.

I'm not sure this type of politics is sustainable for very long. More political parties with a seat at the table coupled with a full-scale repudiation of Republican ideas would be a start. Traps are meant to be dug out of.

The Confounding Mr. Brooks

It's so rare these days to find an actual conservative and one that actually makes some sense. How often does one read the prase "epistomological modesty" by the likes of anyone calling himself conservative in the era of the anti-intellectual right?

Credit to David Brooks for possibly putting the small-case c back in conservative. Now if he could just do the same for liberal.

GOP = Getting Our Pie

What gigantic wankers the would-be fascists in our midst turn out to be. Politicians calling themselves "GOP" this and such are now toting the magic benefits of Obama's ARRA in their districts, acting like they were for it all along.

Ghouls. Worse than useless.

The Entitled Gilded Class

So the final stimulus package coming out of the "Democratic" Congress axes all restrictions on bunuses and compensation to CEOs of companies receiving government money. I suppose we just have to rely on the generosity and patriotism of these captains of industry to do the right thing and refuse any and all bonuses when their useless asses are getting bailed out by us peon taxpayers.

What excuse for a congressperson would allow this to fly, and more importantly whose constituency is calling for such stupid policy?

Keep this shit up and there won't be any economy to save.

Reduced Expectations

Oh, the irony. Even before Obama signs the stimulus bill into law, newspapers litter their pages with articles like this. Why is it that I don't seem to recall ever reading such headlines when undemocratically installed junta leader Demon Monkey ruled the White House? No, of course he always got what he wanted, Democrats be damned.

Fuck this shit.

all the single ladies,

all the single ladies,
all the single ladies,
all the single ladies,
all the single ladies,
all the single ladies,
all the single ladies.

ifyoulikeditthenyoushouldaputaringonit

ifyoulikeditthenyoushouldaputaringonit. ifyoulikeditthenyoushouldaputaringonit. ifyoulikeditthenyoushouldaputaringonit.

National Public Newspaper

Okay, let me say firstly this post was initiated mainly as an excuse for me to not have to look at the "Palin = The New KKK" post on my iGoogle home page, since it'll get bumped down out of sight. Hooray! Palin is indeed history.

That said, I find the idea of endowing financially troubled newspapers a really good solution to the potential loss of a lot of good information. The thought of a world with no New York Times is abhorrent to me.

Eight Is More Than Enough

It is absolutely fucking obscene.

Stop having so many babies, people.

Camelot 2.0