White House: West Wing Week.
Thom: The Good, The Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.
Young Turks: Steve Jobs ripped FAUX News a new one.
Susie’s presidential cat bowl.
Greenman: Climate denial crock of the week.
Pap: G.O.P. continues its Class Genocide.
Jon on the Koch brother’s accidental science.
America Occupied by Americans:
- Alyona and Anna: Has OWS reached a turning point?
- Olbermann: Sgt. Shamar Thomas calls on veterans to support OWS.
- Meet the 0.01%: The war profiteers.
- Sam Seder: Marine veteran Scott Olsen seriously injured in Occupy Oakland
- Thom: Injured vet Scott Olson’s roommate speaks out.
- The shooting of Scott Olsen (via Slog):
- Thom: Witness to night of terror in Oakland.
- Jon on Occupy Oakland (via Gawasylker).
- Thom: Is the Tea Party joining OWS?
- Olbermann and Sam Seder: “ACORN is coming, ACORN is coming”.
- Maddow: I’M BEING ARRESTED! There’s An App For That!
- Stephen on the Occupy Wall Street fad.
- Jimmy Fallon And Brian Williams make Occupy Wall Street sexy video:
- Alyona: Occupy the news room.
Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.
Ann Telnaes: Mitch McConnell on state bailouts.
ONN week in review.
Bill-O the Clown retakes the crown as Worst Person in the World.
Young Turks: Global warming confirmed by Koch-funded scientist.
Comedian Orlando Jones jokes his way to Worst Person in the World.
Thom: The Patriot Act at 10 years.
Mark Fiore: Tough enough.
The G.O.P. Primary Asylum:
- Ann Telnaes: Anothr frightening presidential prospect.
- Stephen does Jon Huntsman (via Political Wire).
- Pat Robertson: Republican candidates are too extreme(!!!!!) (via Political Wire).
- Aloyna’s Tool Time: Rock Perry regrets debating.
- Cenk: Rick Perry’s “new” plan.
- Ann Telnaes: Rick Perry—lousy shot.
- Sam Seder: This song will certainly get Herman elected.
- Young Turks: Herman Cain’s campaign disaster.
- Alyona’s Tool Time: Herman Cain now foreign policy ‘expert’
- The weird Cain smoking ad (via Political Wire).
- Stephen on Cain’s smoking ad (via TalkingPointsMemo):
- Herman Cain is running for president of crazy campaign ads
- Ed and Pap: The GOP Crazy Train derails.
- Sam Seder: Herman Cain’s yellow campaign ad: “So bad it’s good?” Or worse.
- Huntsman’s parody (featuring his daughters) (via Daily Beast).
- Bad Lip Reading Herman Cain:
- Rock Cookie Bottom: Everybody hates Mitt Romney:
Sen. Maria Cantwell: Preserving workers’ rights.
Young Turks: No handguns for Obama voters….
Alyona’s Tool Time: Gov. Walker supports guns, not cameras.
Thom: Have Dems not learned their lesson yet?
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee: 2 Legit 2 Quit (via Political Wire).
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
Hey, the WH in response to a petition asking why not “Legalize and Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol”.. has now, through Gil Kerlikowske, claimed “marijuana use is associated with addiction, respiratory disease, and cognitive impairment.”
Addiction..really? I could get that reefer madness crap out of a Republican administration..
You know, perhaps this blog, instead of going after Repubs all the time, ought to alter it’s focus some and spend a little time acknowledging we have a lying DINO in the WH, who has done virtually nothing to fulfill his campaign promise of “hope and change”..
Is this an independent liberal blog, or just another outlet for DNC, or should I say DLC, talking points?
@1 You don’t read much, do you? Obama gets bashed here almost as much as the Repubs do.
@ 1
This is a liberally oriented Blog. It is also almost entirely concentrated on local and State issues. This blog was created as a response to the outright lies being done by Kemper Freeman, Mike Dunmire and Tim Eyman being constantly and faithfully revomited by the local press without question.
This blog is less concerned with national issues than local ones, because Timmy “two times” Eyman is a man concerned with Seattle political issues, who does not even live in the same fucking County as the City. He’s a liar, a cheat, and an old school flim flam man exploiting politics to make himself quite wealthy.
That answer your question, Teabagger?
I’m tired of trolls who ignore facts that are plain as daylight. We need better trolls.
Why Do Republicans Hate Americans?
“Obama said Saturday … he would pay for his jobs plan with an added tax on people who make at least $1 million a year. But Senate Republicans blocked action on the bill ….
“Obama is now trying to get Congress to pass the individual components of the bill. But Senate Republicans also blocked action on the first of those measures, $35 billion to help local governments keep teachers on the job and pay the salaries of police officers, firefighters and other emergency services workers.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45.....ite_house/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: It’s sad that Repugs are such complete assholes but maybe there’s a silver lining. Many of us got tired of tweedle-dee, tweedle-dum politics and now we have a clear choice of ideologies and policies. GOPers want to feather the nests of one-percenters even more and they’re against anything that helps the 99%. 2012 is shaping up as a referendum on the Party of No. The last polling data I saw reported in the media, from 12 congressional districts won by Tea Party candidates in 2010, shows all 12 incumbents losing. It’s obvious the solution is not to negotiate with Republicans, but for voters to simply sweep them aside, so the responsible people in this country can get something done.
@3
I’m not a teabagger. I’ve never voted Republican in my life.
I’m a disappointed and disillusioned Obama supporter, who actually believed him when he promised he wouldn’t be having the DOJ raiding MM dispensaries, or that he wouldn’t attack foreign countries without authorization from Congress, or that he wouldn’t extend the Bush tax cuts, would close Gitmo, wouldn’t put SS and Medicare on the table for cuts, etc..the list of broken promises just goes on and on and all affect us locally..
Republican lite Obama has dissed his base..and the only defense you have for his lies is to insult those that call him out for it….very telling.
@ 6
In other words, in spite of never having a Congress that would help him make his policies work and institute them into law, you choose to believe and go along with the ardent racist and corporatist bullshit thats been spoon-fed to the national propaganda dissemination system that used to be relevant as a source of information?
I’m not happy with the man either, but considering the alternatives, he’s a damn sight better than snowbilly Barbie and her little drunkie junkie stumblebum partner that Obama ran against.
@1
Guess good old Gil never figured out that Alcohol is associated with addiction, cognitive impairment, and a good dozen or so diseases.
We go after the Obama folks when we think they need going after.
In other news: Save me! My house has been over run by 11 year olds. One of my nieces and a bunch of her friends decided to come over to my house for breakfast. So much for a having a quiet morning!
1 – We’re all disappointed in Obama (horribly so when you enumerate the failings) but how have his Supreme Court appointments been going?
Could have been better but no Scalitos or Thomases I can see..
That’s why you have to vote for Obama.
Took a gander over at (un)SP.. It’s nothing but over the top psycho hatred towards the occupiers by the regulars..
Yep the OWS’ers are doing something right..
I know more than a few people addicted to weed. they smoke every day, and cant do without it.
perhaps its all in their head? lol
go ahead and legalize it…it will thin out the herd of people qualified to do high paying work.
we will have a new generation of stoner ditch diggers and dish washers to boss around…Im all for it.
@12
That’s sort of the point. Making weed illegal hasn’t stopped a single person from smoking it. As a matter of fact, its probably increased the numbers of people using it as its illegality makes it an attractive counter cultural thing.
DWL Is A Serious Crime In Alabama!
Driving with a license is a felony in Alabama — if you’re a non-citizen. Under Alabama’s wacky GOP-written hate-on-immigrants law, illegals are ineligible for drivers’ licenses in that state and having one can bring prison time.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45.....news-life/
But if you drive without a license in Alabama the worst you can get is a $150 fine.
http://www.legislature.state.a.....2-6-18.htm
So, if you’re an illegal, what will you do? Get a license and risk going to prison, or drive without one and risk a $10 fine plus $50 court costs?
I bet they have a lot of unlicensed drivers in Alabama now.
This pair were illegals. They got executed for driving without a license in Alabama. Well, sort of.
http://www.clarkprosecutor.org.....ock775.htm
http://www.clarkprosecutor.org.....ley977.htm
Even though George Sibley and Linda Block were white, they weren’t citizens — according to them. Sibley and Block were self-proclaimed “sovereign citizens,” which is like being your own country, in theory.
They weren’t exactly executed for driving without a license. They were executed for shooting a cop who pulled them over for driving without a license. I think even many wackos would admit that’s taking wackiness too far.
There’s just something about Alabama that makes people weird. In the old days they had guys like George Wallace and Bull Connor there. Today they have haunted cemeteries there.
http://www.realhaunts.com/haun.....s/alabama/
http://www.hauntedamericatours.....emeteries/
What they don’t have in Alabama is farmworkers. Because the GOP hate-on-immigrants law ran them all off and citizens don’t want those back-breaking, low-paying jobs. (Why would they? Why would anyone?) So Alabama’s ag industry is going down the toilet.
http://globalcomment.com/2011/.....shortages/
Waytago, GOP stupes!!!
The Private Sector Always Does It Better Dep’t
Qantas, the Australian airline, retaliated today against strking union workers by locking out non-union workers who reported for work and grounding all of its flights without advance notice to its customers, stranding over 13,000 passengers — including the country’s prime minister. The airline’s CEO blamed the action on unions’ “impossible claims.”
“The move came a day after shareholders backed hefty pay rises to senior Qantas executives,” MSNBC reports.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45....._business/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Hey, the Aussies already have a Labour government, so just nationalize the fucker. That’ll show ’em who’s boss!
And that’s apparently what the airline management wants: “It (the grounding) is … designed to get the government involved,” Australian aviation analyst Tom Ballantyne said on ABC Television.”
This thing has to be nipped in the bud. If it gets out of hand, before you know it, Rupert Murdoch will be demanding that Australia nationalize its newspapers.
Officer Friendly Dep’t
“A Miami police officer is accused of driving 120 mph on a turnpike because he was late for his off-duty job working security at a school. The … officer … was arrested … after leading police on a … high-speed chase.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45.....eird_news/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Next time Oakland’s cops shoot a demonstrator in the head with a tear gas canister (which has the same effect as braining someone with a brick), just tell yourself that cops are always right and protesters are nothing but dirty fucking hippies.
Mitt Romney probably is a decent guy and undoubtedly is intelligent, but running for president as a Republican paints anyone into an impossible corner. On the one hand, you have to look mature and well-grounded enough to be president; on the other hand, you have to pander to the batshit-crazy GOP base. Nobody, not even God, is smart enough to pull it off.
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com.....litics-mix
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Republican voters hate blacks, Latinos, immigrants, unions, workers, single moms, the unemployed, wages above $2.00 an hour, anyone making less than $1 million a year, health care, birth control, planet earth, and science. That doesn’t leave a whole lot to run on. In fact, they’re not FOR anything. So, to become the GOP nominee, you have to be against everything. That can’t be comfortable for Romney. But he’s giving it the ol’ college try!
“It was a rough week for both Mitt Romney and Rick Perry …. In Ohio, Romney tried not to take a hard position on … on Ohio’s law curbing collective bargaining rights … after … being criticized, Romney finally told reporters he was 110% in favor of the law. What got exposed: the suspicion that he doesn’t have a core set of beliefs and will say and do anything to win office.
“Perry, meanwhile, had a double whammy this week: 1) his flirtation with birtherism and 2) his campaign’s announcement that it would limit participation at future debates. What got exposed: the fear that Perry will say and do things … too extreme for the independent voter, [and] real doubts that he has the debating skills to compete with President Obama.
“Of course, it’s just one week, but it was a tough one for the two men …. Both candidates have a narrative problem, and the one that makes the most progress in fixing that problem will be the nominee.”
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com.....-and-perry
And will lose. The GOP field reminds you of a mud-wrestling match between midgets. It’s so diminutive they’re going to prove that a president president over perpetual 9% unemployment can get re-elected.
Brilliant! That’s our trolls more or less..
They carry on so viciously because the stakes are so low.
Snohomish County Exec Race A Clear Choice
Snohomish County has a very good county executive. The Republican running against him is, to put it politely, off the wall.
Mike Hope, 36, a first-term GOP legislator, is trying to blame the bad economy and high unemployment on incumbent Aaron Reardon.
Hope also accused Reardon of “corruption” because he fired a department head who got drunk and exposed himself to a lobbyist, and also sacked the county’s EEO chief for failing to investigate complaints.
Hope, a Seattle cop, was suspended for trying “to persuade a Mill Creek police officer not to arrest his date fo drunken driving.”
Why do Republicans have such trashy candidates? Is this the best they can do?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ec29m.html
I’m not sure what this means, but …
“Michael D. Higgins, a veteran left-wing politician, poet and human rights activist, was declared the winner Saturday of Ireland’s presidential election with nearly 57 percent of votes, and pledged to lift the spirits of a struggling nation.
“Higgins said he wanted to help revive the public’s faith in politicians at a time when Ireland faces record debts, a property market collapse, 15 percent unemployment and a fourth straight year of severe spending cuts. …
“Diarmaid Ferriter, professor of modern history at University College Dublin, said it was striking that Ireland had elected a politician who for decades had been ‘a thorn in the side of the establishment’ …. He said Higgins’ triumph reflected voter anger at right-wing politicians who had brought Ireland to the brink of bankruptcy.
“‘The idea that the Irish have elected a poet with a social conscience, with a track record in human rights, that’s a very positive development,’ Ferriter said.”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ction.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: The Irish presidency is largely ceremonial, but even so, this doesn’t look like a ringing endorsement of conservative ideology.
typo @21 – “It’s so diminutive they’re going to prove that a president president over perpetual 9% unemployment can get re-elected.”
should read
“It’s so diminutive they’re going to prove that a president presiding over perpetual 9% unemployment can get re-elected.”
Stumbled across a good primer on levy equalization, which is something that might be on the chopping block in the near future.
Thanks Darryl! You collected some excellent clips this week that I seriously enjoyed.
@ 24.
Waving Hi to Roger Rabbit.
I don’t post much these days, but still enjoy your postings.
BTW, remember my niece with the ‘identity theft’ issues a few years back? She’s almost finished (this month) paying back the banks on those 3 cards she took out in her Mom’s name. So she’s not going to jail. Whew, only 30+ yrs old, the kid is finally growing up.
@28 “the kid is finally growing up”
Better a little slow than never.
Perry Plunges In Iowa Poll
“The latest results from the highly respected and much anticipated Des Moines Register Iowa Poll are in, and they show the duo of Herman Cain and Mitt Romney leading the field of Republican candidates.
“Cain receives 23 percent of the vote to 22 percent for Romney. Ron Paul runs third, with 12 percent. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who had shared the lead with Romney in the previous Des Moines Register poll in June, now receives just 8 percent of the vote. Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich each receive 7 percent, followed by Rick Santorum at 5 percent.
“The results of the Register poll are generally consistent with four other surveys of Iowa voters conducted in October, all of which showed Cain and Romney leading the pack. Two surveys conducted … by CNN/Time and NBC News/Marist show Romney slightly ahead of Cain. Two … surveys conducted by Rasmussen Reports and the Democratic-affiliated firm Public Policy Polling show Cain slightly ahead of Romney.”
http://tinyurl.com/44zccyc
Perry is waaaaay behind in New Hampshire.
http://tinyurl.com/44rkrje
And South Carolina.
http://tinyurl.com/3nq42jz
Perry isn’t doing so hot in Florida, either.
http://tinyurl.com/3c9w3oc
and
http://tinyurl.com/3pp94q3
Roger Rabbit Commentary: It’s hard to see how any of this translates into a Perry nomination. Perry is now tied with Gingrich in Iowa. From the day Perry jumped in I’ve been saying he won’t be the nominee. I can’t imagine the GOP actually nominating Herman Cain, but it would be fun if they did! Two black guys facing off for the White House! But if not Cain, who? I’ve said all along, and I’ll say it again, GOPers will swallow hard and nominate Romney. In a field of midgets, he’s the only one they’ve got who has even a remote chance of beating Obama.
Anyone who destroyed jobs and ran companies into the ground like he did is just a scumbag.
Bain Capital was all about making Mitt and his buddies rich SOBs.
Why I’m Not Jumping Into Stocks
When a respected financial publication like Barron’s publishes stuff like this, it’s hard to feel unbridled optimism about the future trajectory of the stock market:
“If you want comfort, buy gold bars and coins, a 12-gauge pump shotgun, and slightly out-of-the-money puts on the iShares Russell 2000 Index that expire in February or April.”
http://online.barrons.com/arti.....BOL_hpp_dc
Roger Rabbit Comment;ary: And yeah, I’ve heard that some Wall Street banksters are buying guns.
@32 I meant in his personal life, as in, he stopped beating his wife some time ago.
Sleaze Journalism Dep’t
An editorial writer for the New York Post, a Murdoch-owned tabloid, personally attacked a 38-year-old chef for cooking meals for Occupy protesters:
“Not everyone sees the volunteer chefs’ work as part of a good cause. Recently the New York Post ran an article about chef Eric Smith, 38, who formerly worked at the Sheraton in midtown Manhattan. ‘Last night, for example, while your family of four may have been forced to resort to Hamburger Helper, thanks to Smith’s culinary magic, hordes of Occupy Wall Street protesters instead feasted on organic chicken, spaghetti Bolognese, roasted beet and sheep’s milk-cheese salad and wild heirloom potatoes,’ Post writer Rebecca Rosenberg assessed. While Smith disagreed with the criticism, it hasn’t stopped him from continuing to whip up nutritious, hot meals. ‘We are here to feed the people,” said O’Donnell, who mentioned that regardless of whether people are there to protest, if they are hungry, they should eat. ‘This is an example of how it should be — people shouldn’t be hungry.'”
http://bites.today.msnbc.msn.c.....are-eating
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Rosenberg must be angling for a promotion, and that’s how media whores get promoted in today’s rightwing-biased media: By bashing anyone who gives aid and comfort to anyone who protests our system of fascist capitalism.
Lawsuits R Us Dep’t
Elsewhere, cops are aiding and abetting the corporate fascists by blasting protesters with pepper spray and rubber bullets — and, to make life more uncomfortable for them, are confiscating blankets and food from protesters in an apparent effort to starve and freeze them out of public squares.
Lawyers have noticed.
“The arrests appeared to be a violation of First Amendment rights in the U.S. Constitution that allow for people to peacefully assemble, said attorney David Raybin, a former prosecutor. He and others said … the arrests … could become ammunition for lawsuits. ‘The government is exposing itself to serious liability here by doing this,’ Raybin said. … ‘You can’t pass a curfew mid-protest because you disagree with this group of protesters,’ said criminal defense attorney Patrick Frogge, who is representing some of those arrested.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45.....news-life/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Given these difficult times and tight budgets, they should take the money to pay the legal judgments out of the police budget.
Republican Math
“Republican Rep. Doc Hastings … told the deficit panel it could ‘create tens of thousands of jobs and generate hundreds of billions in new government revenue’ by developing oil and natural-gas supplies in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ee30m.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: USGS estimates ANWR holds about 7.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil, although it says these estimates are highly uncertain. But let’s say that figure is correct. At current domestic oil prices of about $85/bbl, to generate “hundreds of billions in new government revenue,” the government would have to confiscate every cent that oil companies receive for every barrel of oil they pull out of ANWR. It appears Hastings’ claims of future government revenue are too high by a factor of at least 10X.
It’s amazing to me how freaked out our trolls and the conservatives are about a diverse crowd of Americans simply asking the question “Is This Fair?” in a way that cannot be easily dismissed.
Let ‘Em Eat Snow
Herman Cain, the Koch-embedded candidate, said yesterday the federal government should be cut 20% across the board, but he wouldn’t fire any federal employees. He’d simply give ’em a choice between taking early retirement or a transfer to “an empty building in Nome, Alaska.” Where, presumably, he’d pay them to do nothing.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com.....paign-load
Roger Rabbit Commentary: This idea is brought to you by the guy who, last week, wanted to build an electric fence to kill Mexicans. Oh, but hey, that was just a joke! Like Coulter’s idea of rounding up liberals, sending them to “concentration camps,” and “executing” them! This is probably a joke, too. Don’t wingnuts really crack you up?
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR …
Cain’s Smoking Ad
“Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain said Sunday that an Internet ad featuring his campaign manager smoking conveyed a message about letting ‘people be people’ and was not intended to suggest that smoking is cool. …
“‘I’m not a smoker. But I don’t have a problem if that’s his choice,’ Cain said on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.’ ‘So let Herman be Herman. Let Mark be Mark. Let people be people. This wasn’t intended to send any subliminal signal whatsoever,’ the candidate said. ‘Mark Block smokes. That’s all that ad says,’ Cain said. ‘We weren’t trying to say it’s cool to smoke. … But what I respect about Mark as a smoker … he never smokes around me or smokes around anyone else. He goes outside.'”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....oking.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: So that’s his platform? If you smoke, you’re supposed to go outside? Um, isn’t that the law in most places? Really, is this a campaign ad for a guy who’s running for president, or a public service announcement? I think a lot of folks are still trying to figure out this bizarre ad. Personally, I think it means Cain is a bizarre candidate, even for a GOP presidential campaign (which you expect to be somewhat strange).
@36
Totally.
Alaska has considerable reserves of natural gas but unfortunately little in the way of economic means of bringing that gas to market.
In the meantime it’s apparently cheaper to commit an environmental atrocity by fracking shale gas in the lower 48.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....your-enemy
CNN just had a piece on immigration debate. They questioned using foreign worker to drive down wages. The Indian born guy kept talking over the guy advocating for America workers.
@41. Let’s just change the tax code so that the CEOs pay 90% of what they make after they reach 30x of what the lowest workers of their company make, that would include temps and part time workers and foreign workers. You want pay $8 an hour? then we tax you 90% on everything over 450K. I think that’s fair for the Koch brother.
41 – A pretty good essay.. One more nugget:
Concentrating wealth into fewer and fewer hands just doesn’t work. Never has, never will..
Eventually the flow of wealth upwards slows to a trickle and you get what you got in the Middle Ages – feudalism. The vast majority of people scrambling for crumbs and those at the top living it up – completely detached from reality..
Today of course to keep the whole ugly thing going for any length of time you need something of a technocratic elite along with the military and police state.
43 – More or less what was done in the 50’s and the 60’s..
If conservatives believe that lowering taxes on big corporations and the rich will help everyone, why wait for a lower tax rate? They should start mailing checks to them right away.
@42
The News Hour on Public Tee-Vee had a bit the other night about how durable goods, like refrigerators, are now better made and more efficient thanks to NAFTA. What crap.
@43
Works for me. Your first 20K or so should be free and clear once you hit the top 10% of income earners everything above that 10% mark gets taxed at 90%.
One-Percenter Wannabes
There are crooks in every walk of life, and cops and soldiers are no exception. Last week, we read about a NYPD gun-running ring. Today there’s this:
“A Marine in Iraq sent home $43,000 in stolen cash by hiding it in a footlocker among American flags. A soldier shipped thousands more concealed in a toy stuffed animal. An embassy employee tricked the State Department into wiring $240,000 into his foreign bank account.
“As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, the number of people indicted and convicted by the U.S. for bribery, theft and other reconstruction-related crimes in both countries is rapidly rising ….
“In the past 13 months U.S. investigators in Iraq secured the indictments of 22 people … [s]everal hundred more suspects are under scrutiny … suspects facing prosecution lead investigators to other suspects … crimes uncovered by U.S. investigators in the two war zones include bribery, kickbacks and theft ….
“The independent Commission on Wartime Contracting estimated in August that at least $31 billion has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, adding that the total could be as high as $60 billion. It studied not just reconstruction spending, but $206 billion for the logistical support of coalition forces and the performance of security functions.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45.....nd_courts/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: It’s not just banksters and Bernie Madoffs who steal billions. Under the Bush administration, corruption was rampant, and you never saw anyone get caught. At least under Obama they’re being prosecuted. Under Republicans, it was free money for the taking and people took it. Why would anyone want to put Republicans back in charge?
@50 That reminds me of an experience I had with my fridge. When it was 3 years old, it stopped working, and a repairman came out and charged me $275 to install a little 2-buck plastic part. The fridge is designed, of course, so the homeowner can’t just walk into an appliance store and buy the part for $1.99 and replace it himself. And you know what the repairman told me? He said they all go out after 3 years, just like clockwork, and the next time it happens (when the fridge is 6 years old) I should get rid of the fridge and buy a new one. None of them, he said, are designed or made to last longer than 5 or 6 years.
Some years ago, I bought an upright carpet shampooer for $299. The whole thing was made of plastic, and little plastic parts on it began breaking immediately. Even though this carpet machine received very light duty (non-commercial home use only), within a year I was using duct tape and superglue (literally) to hold it together. At the ripe old age of two years it didn’t vacuum up the water anymore, and at age three the handle snapped off. This machine was junk from the get-go. They all are, unless you want to spend a couple of grand for a commercial-grade carpet cleaner. My solution was to rip out the carpets so I won’t need a carpet cleaner anymore.
Corporate America wants us to work for $9 an hour, and pay them $300 for cheaply made plastic products that break the first time you use them, so they can fly around in private jets and live in 100-room mansions. It isn’t surprising that people are demonstrating in the streets. What’s surprising is that cops are the only ones rioting.
Well let’s see what’s going on in the talking-heads TV shows today.
Herman Cain is defending his smoking ad and Rick Perry is defending his exploding-deficit tax cut for billionaires.
Not too auspicious for the pubbies.
“Cain said the video was meant ‘to be informative … we didn’t know whether it was going to be funny to some people or whether they were going to ignore it or whatever the case may be.'”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45.....sion_2012/
Roger Rabbit: I can visualize how this might go:
CAIN: I was just kidding!
PUTIN: You were? We’ve already launched.
“Perry … defended his voluntary flat-tax proposal and the notion that it could bring in trillions of dollars less in revenue than the current tax code. ‘There’s nothing wrong with lower revenue,’ he said. ‘I don’t want more revenue in Washington, D.C.’s hands.'”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45.....sion_2012/
Roger Rabbit: If you like deficits, you’ll love bankruptcy!
I suppose next Perry will tell us government should be “run like a business.” Trouble is, businesses try to maximize revenue, not shrink it. How many CEOs get hired by telling corporate boards, “There’s nothing wrong with lower revenue; I don’t want more revenue?”
Republican Creep #11-0023849166-01
Oh my, Herman Cain is an alleged sexual harasser!
“During Herman Cain’s tenure as the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, at least two female employees complained to colleagues and senior association officials about inappropriate behavior by Cain, … multiple sources confirm to POLITICO.
“The women … signed agreements … that gave them financial payouts to leave the association. The agreements also included language that bars the women from talking about their departures.
“Cain’s campaign labeled the Politico report as ‘dredging up thinly sourced allegations’ …. Spokesman J.D. Gordon … called in for an interview with Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera on Sunday night. The veteran host pushed Cain’s spokesman on the charges, urging him ‘to say something publicly right now.’
“‘These two sources aren’t even named in the piece and it was from a third party,’ Gordon replied.
“‘Are you denying it ever happened, J.D. Gordon?’ Geraldo asked.
“‘What I’m saying is that these are thin allegations, that this is non-sourced,’ Gordon answered. “And so right now, we’re just trying to put this into perspective for you — that this is not even a sourced allegation.'”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....d=webmail1
Roger Rabbit Commentary: That doesn’t sound like a denial to me. It sounds like someone saying, “Depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.”
Now we know what’s gonna dominate this week’s political news.
Once it becomes clear that the big guys are corrupt and making billions by milking the system, all without any adverse consequences and with the apparant approval of the government, sooner or later the little guy thinks it’s okay to get into the act. Why shouldn’t he get rich like everyone else? Why should he settle for his minimum wage job, or soldier’s pay, etc.? Isn’t this how the rich got rich in the first place?
So they try their hand at a little corruption.
The problem is, as much as the system will turn a blind eye to curruption by the big guys, who are protected by layers of corporate entities, lobbyists, bought-and-paid-for politicians, etc., it will also try to squash the petty corruption by the little guys. It’s their ball court, and they don’t want anybody else getting in on the act. In their mind, all that money belongs to them – it’s our job to give it to them.
No WONDER the puddypussy loves the herman so much!
Like his true hero Clarence Thomas, the herman:
1)…gropes women and makes suggestive remarks using his position of power to intimidate.
2)…gets illegal corporate campaign contributions and covers them up.
3)…plays it all as “You wouldn’t treat a white candidate that way”. (something the President didn’t do as a candidate…and does not do as President.)
Yep…two peas in a pod…well three, really.