Month: August 2010

Republicans promise to end ‘government’ if elected to run government

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The GOP Recipe for Success | Crooks and Liars

http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/gop-recipe-success

And then, there’s news that top-tier GOP candidates have adopted the Paul Ryan plan to bankrupt the country and reward the rich. If you aren’t familiar with Mr. Ryan’s plan, the CBPP has done an analysis on what it would do: Give the wealthy the largest tax cuts in history, raise middle class taxes, end Medicare, privatize Social Security, and repeal the majority of the Affordable Care Act provisions.

UPDATE:  I just want to ask people who want to repeal the recently passed HCR why it is, exactly, they want to give insurance companies the right to cancel policies on people who are diagnosed with cancer.  They lost that right, and now “the right” wants to restore it in their anti-gubmint agenda.

UPDATE: I would also like to point out how this is pretty much the same promise made by the R’s every cycle.  The only part they ever get around to, however, is the cutting taxes part (and rewarding their benefactors).  I’ll give this to them though, they certainly govern as if government was inherently evil.  It’s funny how often one’s assumptions define one’s behaviour.

Beck and Palin rally old white people against demagogues like Beck and Palin

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Glenn Beck rally: A warning to Obama and Democrats? – CSMonitor.com

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0829/Glenn-Beck-rally-A-warning-to-Obama-and-Democrats

The irony regarding Beck – a brilliant communicator whose talents earned him $32 million last year – is that much of what he told the crowd flies in the face of what he espouses in his Fox News broadcasts.

“We must get the poison of hatred out of us,” he told the crowd. “We must look to God and look to love. We must defend those we disagree with.”

This from a man who has called Obama “a racist” and likened Al Gore’s campaign against global climate change to “what Hitler did” in having scientists use eugenics to justify the Holocaust.

UPDATE:  Here’s a nice comment that encapsulates the dementia exhibited on the national mall quite succintly.

Prospero424 Quote 2010-08-29 09:44:54 PM

I’ve said it a thousand times and I’ll say it probably a thousand more: these people don’t care about truth or facts. Reality is irrelevant. If they cared about what was actually going on rather than what they want to believe is going on, they wouldn’t be watching Glenn Beck or Fox News in the first place.

Truth is a distraction. Reality is an affront. Objectivity is a nefarious conspiracy. Honesty leads to suspicion.

Anything that intrudes upon their pre-defined narrative of “white Christian conservatives = victims and heroes, everyone else (except sometimes Israel) = villains and dupes” is considered hostile.

It makes the term “Orwellian” seem quaint by comparison.

Probably the biggest disconnect in this crowd has to do with taxes, war, and debt.  Very recently the United States ran two major wars *while cutting taxes*.   It was the first time in our history to do so.  Usually we pay for wars with taxes.  This last time we tried to pay for the war by *cutting* taxes.  In the minds of most of these people, that’s how you do it.   These folks think we are “taxed enough already” when taxes are the lowest they’ve ever been in their lifetimes, and the debt has never been bigger (thanks to the wars, and Bush’s other unfunded mandate that directly benefits this crowd (Medicare Part D).

So we get an economic collapse after doing something braindead and unprecedented, then this group springs up (funded by the tax-cuts given to billionaires) and blames it all on the black guy.

The whole MLK tie-in they are going for here is even more absurd.   How many of these folks marched with Dr. King?  How many watched the Civil Rights movement at home on TV while their parents complained about people “forgetting their place”?    A simple poll should suffice.  When the leader of this movement, Beck, goes on and on about the evils of “social justice” WHICH IS THE CAUSE MLK CHAMPIONED, and then claims to have taken that mantle upon himself, well, quite frankly, rational heads asplode.  It is only with deeply committed doublethink (or early stage Alzheimers) that one can accept such ridiculousness at face value.

Such is the core of the Tea Party.

The Real World Montgomery Burns (and his brother)

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Here’s a telling paragraph.

In 1958, Fred Koch became one of the original members of the John Birch Society, the arch-conservative group known, in part, for a highly skeptical view of governance and for spreading fears of a Communist takeover. Members considered President Dwight D. Eisenhower to be a Communist agent. In a self-published broadside, Koch claimed that “the Communists have infiltrated both the Democrat and Republican Parties.” He wrote admiringly of Benito Mussolini’s suppression of Communists in Italy, and disparagingly of the American civil-rights movement. “The colored man looms large in the Communist plan to take over America,” he warned. Welfare was a secret plot to attract rural blacks to cities, where they would foment “a vicious race war.” In a 1963 speech that prefigures the Tea Party’s talk of a secret socialist plot, Koch predicted that Communists would “infiltrate the highest offices of government in the U.S. until the President is a Communist, unknown to the rest of us.”

This article is a very telling examination of the two billionaires currently funding the Tea Party (and most of the right-wing libertarian think thanks).  They needed an army of dupes to turn their paranoid fantasies into political realities, and the Tea Party is working just dandy for that purpose.  The excerpt above is about their father, who no doubt, they now see as prescient.
This model (a couple of people providing the funding for millions of “activists”) is pretty standard is politics.   Right-wing media has made a field day of George Soros’ activities.  Karl Rove is now doing the same thing with a group of three Dallas oil tycoons.

[UPDATED]Virtually all of the $4.7 million raised by Karl Rove’s new conservative outfit was contributed by just four billionaires, three of whom are based in Dallas, Texas, and two of whom made their fortune in the oil and gas industry.

The IRS filing of American Crossroads, an outside 527 group that was conceived by Rove and ex-RNC chair Ed Gillespie, gives a good taste of who is funding the GOP effort to make big gains in the House and Senate come the fall. The group has already burned through $600,000 on ads attacking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is facing a reelection contest against Republican Sharron Angle (see one of the spots below). Chaired by another ex-RNC chair, Mike Duncan, American Crossroads has pledged to raise $50 million to beat Democrats in the midterms and has been seen by some as a competitor to the Republican National Committee itself.

And despite the group’s description of itself as “grassroots,” Salon’s review of its IRS filings show that four billionaires have contributed 97 percent of the $4.7 million it has raised to date. There are no limits on how much corporations, unions, and individuals can donate to 527 groups. Here’s a guide to American Crossroads’ four donors:

[click here to read about ’em]

I do have to say this is an improvement.  Back in the “good” old days, people would randomly speculate about 4 or 5 guys that secretly controlled the political agenda in our country.  Nowadays, with the decades long push for transparency in funding, the FOIA, and our levely interwebs, we get to know the names of the people doing so (and can tags posts with them), we know their backgrounds and still have the ability to publicly remark on the curious coincidence about how so many of the these billionaires made their billions on extracting and selling carbon-based fuel and every single one of them now funds groups that attack climate science as a myth.

This is the not-so-invisible hand at work, smacking a bitch up.   A bitch, in this case, being climate science, sound environmental policy, and sustainable energy policy…all of which tend to get in the way of that *next* billion Benjamins.

Doesn’t violence done against innocents for political or religious reasons = terrorism?

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N.Y. filmmaker charged with stabbing cab driver for being Muslim – USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-08-25-cabbie-stabbing-muslim_N.htm

FUN FACT! Many of the cabbies in Dallas are also Muslim. However, they “hide” it by being from Ethiopia. Dallas has a relatively large Ethiopian immigrant community. This largely resulted from them having a horrible famine and then looking for the place that had the fattest people (as there is obviously plenty of great food there). Dallas fits the bill, snugly.

I thought it was a fair question.

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Why, Obma? Why?

In a post-economic apocalyptic present, President Obama fights shotgun and chainsaw versus the end results of 30 years of voodoo economics and the walking dead firms it created.

UPDATE:  BTW, the two guys who benefited, arguably, the most personally from Reaganomics (these are the folks everything “trickled down” to) are mentioned once or twice in this article.   If you want to track where the power animating the Zombie army attacking Obama comes from (i.e. the source of the evil in Zombie movies), that article is a good place to start.

This is very important, read closely!

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Paris Hilton awakes to home intruder bearing knives – CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/08/24/paris.hilton.intruder/?hpt=Sbin

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Los Angeles, California (CNN) — A man “holding 2 big knifes” was captured by police after trying to break into Paris Hilton’s Los Angeles, California, home Tuesday morning, Hilton said in a Twitter posting.

Police responded to a 911 call that someone was breaking into Hilton’s Sherman Oaks home at 6:42 a.m., Los Angeles Police spokesman Gregory Beak said.

Hilton was sleeping early Tuesday when a man with two kitchen knives attempted to enter her home, her publicist said.

I love it. An entire article built on statements from a publicist and a tweet. And it’s on CNN’s front page.

“it” (the thing that I love) being 21st Century America.

It’s an ironic love, I’ll give you that.

U.S. Occupation of Iraq More Than Doubles Poverty, Sickness — Leaves Country a Total Disaster

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http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/147928
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According to the U.S. Census of 2000, 80 percent of the 285 million people living in the United States are urban dwellers. Those living in slums are well below 5 percent. If we translate the Iraqi statistic into the U.S. context, 121 million people in the United States would be living in slums.

If the United States had an unemployment rate of 25-50 percent and 121 million people living in slums, riots would ensue, the military would take over, and democracy would evaporate. So why are people in the United States not concerned and saddened by the conditions in Iraq? Because most people in the United States do not know what happened in Iraq and what is happening there now. Our government, including the current administration, looks the other way and perpetuates the myth that life has improved in post-invasion Iraq. Our major news media reinforces this message.

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The end[?] result of the last time we got back at “them” for 9/11.

Congrats, Assholes. You won.

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Read this comment today.   Figured it was pretty honest about the whole thing, and certainly reflects what I would feel.    So congrats, assholes hoping for a generations long war against most of the world, you are one step closer to that goal.

Nudge [TotalFark] Quote 2010-08-23 07:06:58 AM
I’m a Muslim American, and the nationwide attempt to ban mosques in various locations has made me extremely frustrated, angry, and feeling helpless. I’m by and large considered one of the most passive individuals in our local community, ardently arguing against individual Muslim action in foreign-occupied countries against American Soldiers (I believe Islamically, only one state can declare war on another state).

Keep that in mind when I say that, through gentle persuasion of anti-Muslim actions, I find it harder to defend these points and harder to believe them myself. A brother told me recently that, out of defense, every Muslim in this day ought to have a gun in his home. I’ve never, ever wanted to own a gun in my life, let alone condone the usage of one except under extreme circumstance, but his suggestion in today’s conflict made me consider the thought for quite some time.

My hometown has a mosque being protested. I’m friends with a lot of the young men organizing its construction. Today, thousands of Muslims in the area pray out of office buildings and garages, simply wanting a place to worship that looks beautiful and doesn’t remind them of a tool shop. These men have spent the last several years planning this project and have been excited about every step forward. Now, protesters are essentially shutting them out, declaring in no uncertain terms that they must fight for their rights. Some of the happiest people I’ve ever seen have become angry, bitter, and hateful because of this.

I just wanted to congratulate the protesters. You’ve managed to begin the ruination of the one, and only, fully-integrated Muslim society success story in the Western World. You’ve shut down our charities, protested our religious rights, spat and and disrespected our women, and ended belief in the superiority of American tolerance.

Way to go, fuckjobs.

UPDATE: It should be noted that the “win” doesn’t include stopping the mosque, it will most likely go through anyway.  The “win” is for people like Palin, Gingrich and Bin Laden, who want a no-holds-barred war between peoples.   They made progress toward that goal today.

UPDATE2: For a slightly longer version of this (and a lot more specifics), check Frank Rich’s column for today.   Short-term political gain vs. real world progress in that war we started.

UPDATE3: Here’s a longer story about the wider phenomenon I noticed on a simple message board.  These kinds of changing attitudes are happening, today, at a rate of about 1,000 a second, I’d guess.   Thanks all that is good and holy we have a rational President right now, and not one of the bomb throwers with an even bigger bullhorn.

Like most non-Americans, Muslims across the world barely understand the vagaries of U.S. politics, including the wedge issues and posturing that turn midterm elections into mud fights. Commentators from the Middle East to South Asia to Indonesia to Nigeria praised Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for coming to the defense of the community center, even as the president hedged his apparent initial support for the project.

Obama has “placed ethics and principles ahead of politics that not only enhances his credibility to the Muslims only but also his stature as a statesman to the rest of the world,” read an opinion piece in the Daily Star of Bangladesh.

[first link]

Is there anything that would make Islamic terrorists like Osama bin Laden happier than to watch the world’s media broadcast footage of angry American protesters, whipped into a frenzy by Fox, saying hateful things about Muslims? Why are Sarah and Newt doing bin Laden’s work for him? Can’t they show just a little patriotism?

[second link]

Link Dump….

RobotPirateNinja Big Business, bullshit, curious, government, history, middle east, myth, religion, stupid, us Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Working…can’t write…dumping link…

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This is why they should. (I got sick of this nontroversy a couple days ago)

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When Pat Buchanan calls your Nazi analogy over the edge, it is.

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Read the comments to see why I call them nutjobs.  (note the comment and reactions to the comment that explains this away rationally.  Rationality is like the rage virus to these people, turns them crazy).’

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Thanks, Rupert, for making this so obvious.  Fox News is *directly* funding the Republicans now, and not just donating 20 hours a day to free advocacy and attack ads.

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Top 10 Right Wing Conspiracy theories. With the news that 40% of Republicans and 20% of Americans think Obama is a muslim, these fit right in.

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Media companies stealing customer data. More definitive proof of their hypocrisy.

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The Making of a Nontroversy.

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Roger Ebert continues to do good stuff.

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Franklin Graham makes up stuff about the President’s Dad to explain American’s ignorance re: Obama’s religion.   For some reason I think he’s doing it wrong.

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We recently gave Israel $3,000,000,000 to buy $2,7500,000,000 worth of F-35s. This would be more of an actual issue if this story (and those like it) got more play.  That’s how the Military Industrial Complex works, BTW.  We borrow from China to give to Israel to buy from Us.   And a few people make out like bandits selling stuff to kill, well, bandits.  It does keep us at #1, I guess.

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RIAA wants to force electronic manufacturers to include FM radios in all phones, ipods, etc.  Yes, it is that stupid, and yes, they actually are saying this is good for you.  I side with the concept of the free market on this one.

How Crazy Have We Become When…

RobotPirateNinja cool, Elections 2010, government, history, Poli-Fi, terror, us Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

…George W. Bush comes across as a voice of reason (or when viewed through the skewed prism of Election 2010, a terrorist sympathizer).

Thank you all very much for your hospitality. We’ve just had a wide-ranging discussion on the matter at hand. Like the good folks standing with me, the American people were appalled and outraged at last Tuesday’s attacks, and so were Muslims all across the world.

Both Americans, our Muslim friends and citizens, tax-paying citizens, and Muslim in nations were just appalled and could not believe what we saw on our TV screens. These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith, and it’s important for my fellow Americans to understand that.

The English translation is not as eloquent as the original Arabic, but let me quote from the Quran itself: “In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil, for that they rejected the signs of Allah and held them up to ridicule.”

The face of terrorist is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace, they represent evil and war.

When we think of Islam, we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. Billions of people find comfort and solace and peace. And that’s made brothers and sisters out of every race, out of every race.

America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country.

The Muslims are doctors, lawyers, law professors, members of the military, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, moms and dads, and they need to be treated with respect.

In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect. Women who cover their heads in this country must feel comfortable going outside their homes. Moms who wear covering must not be intimidated in America. That’s not the America I know; that’s not the America I value.

I’ve been told that some fear to leave; some don’t want to go shopping for their families; some don’t want to go about their ordinary daily routines because, by wearing cover, they’re afraid they’ll be intimidated. That should not and that will not stand in America.

Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don’t represent the best of America. They represent the worst of humankind. And they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior.

And it’s a great country; it’s a great country because (we) share the same values of respect and dignity and human worth. And it is my honor to be meeting with leaders who feel just the same way I do. They are outraged; they’re sad. They love America just as much as I do.

And I want to thank you all for giving me a chance to come by, and may God bless us all. Thank you.

“The worst of humankind”, indeed.

How quickly so many forget the lessons of 9/11.

UPDATE: Here’s a few of them…

The harsh Republican response to President Barack Obama’s defense of a mosque near ground zero marks a dramatic shift in the party’s posture toward Islam — from a once active courtship of Muslim voters to a very public tolerance after Sept. 11 to an openly aired sense of mistrust.

Republican leaders have largely abandoned former President George W. Bush’s post-Sept. 11 rhetorical embrace of American Muslims and his insistence — always controversial inside the party — that Islam is a religion of peace. This weekend, former Bush aides were among the very few Republicans siding with Obama, as many of the party’s leaders have moved toward more vocal denunciations of Islam’s role in violence abroad and suspicion of its place at home.