A new wrinkle in the Debt-Ceiling game of chicken?

Watching Keith Olbermann last night on Current TV (man I just love being able to type that) he brought up an interesting point about the whole republican "if we don't get what we want we'll let the country default" argument. Seeing as how the rethuglican party is merely the political wing of Major Corporations and Wall Street, wouldn't a default actually hurt their owners MORE than the average Joe?

Think about it, for the poor and over-burdened middle class in the US, the inability of the US Govt to pay on it's obligations is no different than what they have been facing themselves for years now. Let's face it any upheaval on Wall Street is unlikely to immediately impact them because not too many folks making minimum wage really give a flying fuck about the direction of the Dow Jones or the S&P 500. However, if the US defaults on its obligations, the Banks, and Wall Street, will be well and truly fucked. Therefore, doesn't that mean that this whole stance from the Tan-man is nothing more than bullshit and bluster? Afterall, he must know that they can't allow the country to default, no matter how loudly the tea-nuts screech, as this would displease his owners mightily.

I know I'm talking in broad strokes here, but shouldn't that be the single biggest argument for the Obama administration to rather than negotiate away more chunks of the social safety net, just simply sit back, fold their arms and like a parent dealing with an obdurate teenager, tell the republicans 'go ahead, let it default, see what happens'..and then see just how quickly the rethuglicans scramble to try and save face with their masters...?

Hell, I'd pay to see that.

'You know you are in trouble when...' or, why if you are under 55 years old, you are about to get royally screwed...

Apparently I am not the only one that has had some concerns with President Obama's negotiating skills.

Having pissed away the greatest opportunity in a generation to completely overhaul the health care system in the US, and once and for all crush the stranglehold of Big Pharma and Big Insurance companies, coupled with his abject failure to step boldly forward on civil rights and civil liberties issues, or mandate sweeping environmental changes from coast-to-coast, even 'regular Dems' are starting to get more than a little worried about what is in store for us when it gets to crunch time on the debt-ceiling debate.

Whilst 'Big-O' does his bi-partisan two-step, party-trick thang, a number of his congressional Democratic counterparts are deeply worried that he's going to give away the farm. Again. In a meeting described as 'tense' Henry Waxman, as dependable a liberal Democrat as you can find, asked the President point-blank, 'are you going to cave again, because if you are we need to know'. The response was "I am President of the United States, and my words have weight". That is almost as obtuse and petulant a response as G.W. Bush's "I'm the decider" line. The very fact that a Senior Dem had to ask his own President if he is going to fold like a cheap deck-chair is depressing enough, the fact that the reply was a total non-answer and smacked more of prideful boasting rather than an affirmation or denial, leads me to believe that the real answer is actually 'yes'.

I simply don't understand why a President that still has decent popularity numbers continues to insist on trying to reason with people that are anything but reasonable themselves. He must be in some sort of bubble in the White House, because if he were outside looking in, instead of the other way around, he would realise in an instant that he has been getting his ass kicked for two years now. He would also realize that to the rest of us 'bi-partisanship' is simply Obama-Speak for 'Give the republicans what they want, when they want it, and sod the people that actually put him there'.

As it stands right now, the republicans are currently threatening to hold their breath until the President caves and makes cuts in Medicare and Medicaid before they'll sign off on increasing the debt-ceiling. Now would be the perfect time for him to grab them by the scruff of their necks, put them on a stage somewhere, shine a great big spotlight on them and from the bully-pulpit state very clearly (and very slowly for the folks in the South) that these are the people that want to screw the American people out of healthcare in their twilight years but at the same time want to keep giving billions of dollars in subsidies to Big Oil. THAT would be something to behold. A President that finally stood up to the schoolyard bullies and kicked them squarely in the nads on national telly. It would be a magical and inspirational moment. We would be able to say that we were alive when a Democratic President grew a spine right in front of our eyes, and not only told the republicans to go to hell, but offered to give them directions as well.

Back here in reality I understand that ain't likely to happen, in fact what is more likely to occur is that in order to get the republicans to do what they have done automatically in the past without so much as batting an eyelid, Obama will give away yet another part of the social safety net so carefully built over the last 60 years by his Democratic predecessors.

I hope I am wrong. I would be thrilled to be dead wrong on this one, but I have to tell you I am not encouraged looking at the recent track-record.

Monday Morning Mutterings: My letter to the Prez

Bearing in mind that this is the week that the Big 'O' is going to have a sit-down with the republicans and try and knock some sense into their heads about raising the debt ceiling without fucking over every single poor person in the country first, I wrote him a letter:

"Dear Mr. President,

As we get closer and closer to the edge of the "Debt Ceiling Precipice", I hear the pundits in the media talking about negotiations for MORE cuts that the republican leadership in the House want you to agree to before they will do what they have had no problem doing 11 times in the last ten years. Mr. President this is sheer madness. The party that created this mess in the first place is now threatening the entire US economy unless more of their disastrous policies are put in place? The working poor and the middle class have had to bear the brunt of the reapportioning of wealth that ocurred under your predecessor, and that is partly why the economy is so sluggish. How can we buy what you make if we can barely put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads? The gop is proposing even MORE cuts to those that have been cut too much already. Mr. President, enough is enough. You once said in a speech that if we needed you to do the tough things we needed to MAKE you do them, well sir, we NEED you to stand up for the people that voted you into the White House, and if you give in to the republicans again, the toughest part of 2012 won't be figuring out how to reach independent voters, it will be spent trying to figure out how to get Democrats to vote for you again.

I do have the solution to the economic/budgetary problem for you though, and it's three very simple words. TAX. THE. RICH.
Sure they'll get mad and the pundits won't say nice things about you, but what the heck, they weren't going to vote for you anyway.

Mr. President, this is YOUR time to stand up for the working poor and the middle class and we need you on our side now, more than ever.

I wish you and your family nothing but the best."

About as useful as yelling at the incoming tide I know, but I feel marginally better....

Have a great week y'all!

Friday Follies: Meh Edition

Sorry gang, I'm just not feeling it today. I know it's friday and all that, but this week has felt like a full-on assault on fairplay and reason. The SCrOTUS has made sure that Corporate America knows they are loved with a very friendly hand-job for Wal-Mart whilst simultaneously fucking over one and a half million women that had sued them for discrimination whilst working there. The Governors of Wisconsin and Florida continue with their scorched-earth policy towards the blue-collar workers, the poor and the down-trodden by taking away their benefits and their right to organize to have them given back. A homeless man was so ill that he "robbed" a bank of $1 so that he would get sent to jail and finally get health care. Georgia passed an anti-immigration bill so repulsive migrant workers are boycotting the state meaning that the farmers ever-ripening crops are not getting picked and could wind up costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

Actually that last one makes me smile a little bit...

Think about it, if all those migrants were taking jobs a way from Americans, why are there any vacancies at all? I mean, according to the racist fucks that use immigrants and migrant workers as their political whipping boys, those jobs should be filled by happy, smiling, white Americans, no? Apparently, not so much. Maybe now those backward-ass, toothless cousin-fuckers in the Georgia Legislature will finally figure out that the reason the immigrants were doing those back-breaking jobs for 10 hours a day for minimum wages and no health benefits, wasn't because they wanted to, but because their pasty-faced, stars-n-bars flag-waving constituents are too goddamned lazy, or too goddamned fat to get off their couches and go do it themselves...

Karma can be such a bitch...

Have a great weekend you all!!

You just can't make this shit up...FL Gov urges fans to write letters to various newspapers, then writes the letter for them...

Florida Teabag Governor Rick Scott has been having a really tough go of it since sliming his way into office. His approval ratings are almost in the teens and continue to circle the bowl as he pushes forward with his radical right-wing agenda, and the residents of the Sunshine State have rapidly become aware of what a nasty piece of work they put in office. Therefore the Governor has decided he must do something about it.

Scott's solution to this situation is to ask his supporters (all 140 of them) to write letters to the editors of various state newspapers touting his achievements and his experience. In most normal cases that's fair enough, nothing wrong with asking your base to get the word out, however in his own unique style, Gov Scott has provided his followers with a pre-written letter that they can copy and paste. That's right, he wrote the letters for them, so that all they have to do is pass them along. I'm not sure whether he did this because he was worried that no-one would be able to come up with enough positive things to say about him to fill up more than one sentence, or if he thinks his supporters are so stupid that they'd get confused with tough things like sentence structure, or how to spell the word 'Governor'. Either way, this has to be one of the whackiest things I have ever seen. No word yet on whether any of these letters have actually been published yet, but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.

Like I said, you just can't make this shit up...

The Governor of Wisconsin hates poor sick people...

After stripping public workers of their rights to organize, and having his right-wing goons on the Wis Supreme Court back him up, the religiously insane Gov of Cheesehead-land has now set his beady eyes on slashing care for the poor in his state. As part of the budget recently sledgehammered through the legislature, his administration can now not only bypass legislative oversight for any changes he wants to make, but he won't even have to have public hearings about them either. This means that any decision to cut benefits and services that would have previously required public hearings, can now simply be agreed upon and implemented with absolutely no input from the public. You know, the people that actually rely on those benefits and services on a daily basis. So much for open and transparent government.

Of course the $466 million he wants to cut out of the budget for BadgerCare can't be generated elsewhere by say, raising taxes on the wealthy, or, heaven-forbid, making corporations actually pay their tax bills, hell no, especially when you consider his Koch-sponsored campaign logo was "Wisconsin, Open For Business (does not apply to workers)".

The fact that this boss-eyed little git claims to be a 'Christian' is merely the icing on the cake of hypocrisy currently being served to the citizens of Wisconsin. One has to wonder at exactly what point will the gibbering idiots that voted for this right-wing corporate lackey finally wake up and join the efforts to throw his ass out? For the folks that live there, especially the ones that aren't independently wealthy, I hope that is sooner, rather than later.

Monday Morning Mutterings: Heeeeeee's baaaack!!!

I haven't been this excited about a teevee show since I don't know when...and it's a little concerning to me that it's not even an entertainment show, per se, but a news broadcast...You see, tonight is the night that Keith Olbermann makes his Current TV debut, and a temporarily silenced liberal voice will emerge from the wilderness to roar once again into the teeth of the gale and take up arms to fight injustice, hypocrisy and stupid people once more!!!

*ahem*

Sorry....got a bit carried away there....Any-hoo....On what would otherwise be a dull and dreary Monday morning (wherein I once again lament the fact that I was born handsome and well-hung and not staggeringly stay-at-home-rich instead), there is this tiny rainbow of happiness looming at the end of the day as a reward for making it through another soul-destroying day at the cube-farm; Countdown with Keith Olbermann is back!!

He has been missed by those that value truth in their reporting rather than well-spun talking points, and will be a welcome counter-point to the screeching sycophantic madness that is the M$M news coverage.

Welcome back Keith. We've missed you!

Friday Follies: TGIF? How about WGAF* instead?

Nothing really funny about any of these I suppose but here goes: Anthony Weiner, the Democratic Representative who didn't pay for sex with women who made him wear diapers, resigned yesterday. David Vitter the republican Senator who did, didn't.

Mitt Romney, the walking-talking mormon Ronald Reagan look-alike doll currently on his "No really, I'm a man of the people - by the way could you please pass the Grey Poupon" tour, said that he understood what it was like to be unemployed as he doesn't currently have a job either. Mitt Romney has a personal net worth in excess of $250 million. Mittens, I hate to break it to you, but you have precisely ZERO idea what being unemployed is like.

I saw something this morning on my way into work that made my head spin, a Toyota Prius with a McCain/Palin bumpersticker on it. Either someone was taking the piss or they were very, very confused.

But the single most worrying thing that happened this week was the talking point that emerged from the republican "debate" on Monday evening. ('Debate' is a rather charitable description of this gathering of religiously-insane, raving lunatics and right-wing carnival barkers, but it's the word everyone else is using so I will too...) Anyway, as I was saying, the scariest part was that the M$M decreed that Michelle Bachmann was the 'winner' of the evening. If we truly live in a world where that barking-mad, christo-fascist, looney-tunes is the "winner" of anything other than the "Zealot of the Year" award, I want to re-locate.

Immediately.

Have a great weekend you all!

*WGAF = Who Gives A Fuck

Global Climate Change is a myth right?

Watch this and THEN tell me it isn't real...

I'm not stupid enough to think that many people actually read this blog, and that this rant has just about the same effect as yelling at the storm, but if you do read this, and after seeing this you STILL think Al Gore and the Environmentalists are full of shit, do me a favour and go fuck yourself. It is passed time to figure out if it exists, it is now time to prepare for what we have to do to survive afterwards...Sure it'll be fun to piss on the graves of the dead politicians and corporate executives that destroyed this planet for their own greed, but I want today's children, and their children, and their children's children to have a planet that will be able to support them as they try and heal the wounds of the selfish bastards that took it to the brink....

Peace.

Nobel Peace Prize winner's war count is now up to five...Yemen is the newest addition..

..at some point he actually has to END a war (or two) right? Otherwise that prize makes as much sense as fucking for virginity...

Oh, and Fukushima Daiichi continues to spew out lethal radioactivity unabated (in fact things are much worse than originally stated - big surprise I know), but let's keep our focus on the texted pictures of a NY congressman's dick instead, yes?

You know, the really important shit...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s War On Craft Beer

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s War On Craft Beer

From the link above, "Tucked into Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) much-discussed budget was a little-noticed provision to overhaul the state’s regulation of the beer industry. In a state long associated with beer, the provision will make it much more difficult for the Wisconsin’s burgeoning craft breweries to operate and expand their business by barring them from selling directly."

Hmm, and there was me thinking that this little boss-eyed fucker's election slogan was "Wisconsin: Open For Business"...I guess that only applies if you donated to his campaign...

Of circular firing squads...Weiner-gate Day 69

Over the weekend, the Democrats managed to take the lead from the republicans in the "Rank Hypocrisy" ratings as both the former leader of the House Dems, Nancy Pelosi, and Democratic National Committee Chair, Debbie Wasserman-Shulz, added their voices to the chorus of baying hounds demanding that Anthony Weiner (D-Moron) resign from Congress.

According to these esteemed ladies he has "a problem" and he is "causing a distraction".

Really? Seems to me that the only "problem" is that some Democrats are having trouble distinguishing between criminal and non-criminal activity. If you have committed a crime, typically speaking you shouldn't be in Congress (although you'd be hard-pressed to convince me they aren't all a bunch of criminals), but if all you are guilty of is trying to get into someone's knickers that aren't your wife's, then typically that just makes you a perfect example of a U.S. Congressman.

As for the topic "causing a distraction" neither lady saw the irony that they had to both go on national media outlets to share their outrage.

To top things off, all three of the major network brekkie shows this morning had lengthy segments dealing with Weiner-gate. All of them had deeply earnest presenters along with serious-looking political commentators, frowning and scowling and pontificating about how disagreeable the whole situation was, and how the sooner he resigned the better off we'd all be, without actually saying why he should step down.

I am in no way defending what he did, I think it was spectacularly arrogant, and breath-takingly stupid, but if one elected official who used the services of prostitutes (Senator David Vitter, R- Diaper Sex) gets to keep his job, but another one that simply tweeted a picture of his dick doesn't get to keep his, something is seriously wrong with the way things get done in Washington D.C.

Once again the Democrats managed to demonstrate their favourite party-trick, the circular firing squad. Look, I expect the mediawhores to demand Democratic blood for every perceived infraction, after all that's what they are paid for, what I don't expect is for fellow Democrats to be the loudest voices in the Choir of Outrage....

Monday Morning Mutterings: Teh Stupid exists on both sides of the pond..

The head of the UK Government review has said that climate change should be removed from the British school curriculum. Of course it should, why would we need to educate the very people that will be most affected by it over the next 50 years how we destroyed their atmosphere, poisoned their water, and laid the soil to waste...

But sure, let's start teaching Algebra earlier....

THIS is why politicians shouldn't be allowed anywhere near schools...

Have a good week y'all!!

Friday Follies: Yet more proof that republicans are screaming hypocrites...

Yes, I know that saying that is like saying water is wet, or that bovine droppings are olfactorily offensive, but whilst the corporate media continues to fellate itself over the Weiner scandal, not one of those incurious presstitutes has thought to deal with the staggering double standard on display, especially when considering the case of Senator David Vitter (R-Weirdo). Here's a guy that admitted to using the services of prostitutes (clearly illegal) and used to like wearing diapers (clearly bizarre) whilst doing whatever it was they were (illegally) doing to each other. Amazingly though, none of the hierarchy in the RNC called for him to resign, none of his fellow Senators or Congressmen called for him to resign, and no-one suggested that they launch an ethics investigation into the matter, it simply faded into history after one very brief and extremely uncomfortable press conference. That isn't the case with Congressman Weiner though. Nope. He's a Democrat, therefore he has to be publicly flogged, and then hung, drawn and quartered for his icky, yet totally legal, behaviour.

So, to sum up, admit to weird fetish sex with a known prostitute = "okay" if you have an (R) behind your name, but tweet a picture of your meat and two veg to some chicks = "you must resign you filthy fucking pervert" if you have a (D) behind your name.

Yeah, anyone besides me see a problem with that?

Oh, and what damage did the hooker/diaper/prostitute scandal do to Senator Vitter's political career?  Absolutely none, he was comfortably re-elected in 2010.

So much for republican 'family values'...

FCC finally makes it official - Fairness Doctrine is killed

In a move that struck no-one as either surprising or very shocking the chairman of the FCC officially announced the death of the Fairness Doctrine this week. For those of you that are too young (or foreign) to know what that is (and why would you, I mean how the fuck would that hate-filled nest of right-wing propagandist vipers known as Fox News exist in a world that required fairness as a reality, rather than part of a bullshit slogan?), it was a Federal regulation that required broadcasters to present opposing views of controversial issues.

You know, exactly the way Fox News doesn't.

The rule came into existence in 1949 but the FCC ceased enforcing it in 1987 under Ronnie Raygun (big fucking surprise there, I know) and this week's action (at the request of yes, you guessed it, the republicans) merely made official what has been long known by all and sundry, namely that the right-wing is scared shitless of opposing views to their radical agenda being broadcast over the airwaves.

Personally I feel rather ho-hum about this. Not because I don't care that it moves us ever-closer to the totalitarian abyss that is Total Message Control by the Corporate Media Machine, but more because it hasn't been enforced in an age and it was therefore essentially dead anyway. But what I do find discouraging, and really quite disheartening, is the Orwell-speak used by the FCC chairman in his justification for stabbing Fairness in the heart. In the letter he wrote back to his repulican masters confirming his fulfillment of their wishes, he said that the rule "holds the potential to chill free speech and the free flow of ideas, and accordingly, was properly abandoned". Excuse me? On what fucking planet does the requirement to show opposing views of an issue either "chill free speech" or restrict the "free flow of ideas"? Look buddy, no-one tried to stop you as you did the dastardly deed, but was it really necessary for you to tea-bag it afterwards as well?

All I can say is thank (god/allah/buddha/flying-spaghetti-monster - delete as appropriate) that the FCC doesn't regulate the internet...otherwise we would ALL be well and truly fucked..

Dear Congressman Weiner, people in glass houses should not take pictures of their junk and then tweet them...

As the lapdogs in the corporate media drool all over themselves in their prurient and salacious 24/7, wall-to-wall (perhaps 'ball-to-ball' would be more accurate) coverage of a NY congressman's staggeringly poor method of trying to pick up a bit of fluff on the side (by sending them twitter pics of his John Thomas), I just sit here and shake my head in weary disbelief.

I mean, don't these idiots ever learn? Has everyone forgotten the names 'Bill Clinton' and 'Monica Lewinsky'?

Look, Anthony Weiner is (was) one of the 'good guys'. Apart from his knee-jerk defense of Israel and it's anti-arab policies, there were very few things I disagreed with him on. He didn't take any of the right-wing shit that was thrown his way, he wouldn't tolerate the hypocrisy of the rethuglican noise machine, and he was one of the few Democratic members of Congress that would actually go onto the floor of the House and call out the bought-and-paid-for corporate prostitutes that are the modern republican party. His take-no-prisoners attitude pissed off alot of republicans. That made him a target. And he knew it. Did it stop him from acting like a randy teenager? Hell no.

Elliot Spitzer was another Democratic pitbull. When he was New York's Attorney General he want after corporations and banks that got too big for their britches. That made him a target. And he knew it. Did it stop him from acting like a randy teenager? Hell no. After he was elected Governor of the State of New York it came to light that he liked to bang a very expensive (and admittedly highly tasty) escort on the side. In this case "escort" meant high-priced prozzie, i.e. she has all of her own teeth, an expansive collection of expensive lingerie, and has had the word 'no' surgically eliminated from her lexicon. End result? Spitzer resigned in disgrace and she did a spread in a skin-mag, which meant that just for once she took her clothes off and he got fucked..

Anyway, those are just two of the most recent high-profile Dems that have been hoisted on their own petard. Yes, there are a shitload more that are republicans, John Ensign of Nevada and David Vitter of Louisiana come to mind as two of the most recent misogynistic "family values" politicians caught with their members in someone other than their spouses, but then again I always expect a republican to lie. The fact that these two particular republicans were caught bumping uglies with members of the opposite sex rather than yet another 'closeted gay republican scandal' came as great relief to the religious right who sponsor their party, but I digress.

Here's the bottom line, I don't care if you cheat on your wife or partner, that's between you and them, but do me a fucking favour, if you are in the public sector, and you want to represent me, for fuck's sake keep it in your pants, yes? I mean really, what are you, an Inbetweener? Oh, and if you absolutely must screw around with someone other than your betrothed, you might want to consider doing the decent thing like serial-adulterer Newt Gingrich did, at least he wound up marrying the women he was cheating with...

Both of them...

Monday Morning Mutterings: When the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour..

Remember that famous toga scene in the classic comedy 'Animal House' when John Belushi's character attempts to give an inspirational speech but gets his historical references all wrong? It appears that Sarah Palin also learned her history at Faber College. Caribou Barbie said that Paul Revere's famous midnight run warning the Yanks about the advance of the Brits, was actually all about the 2nd amendment. The fact that the second amendment didn't exist at the time doesn't seem to faze Snowzilla, who has also forgotten the old adage that when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you should do is stop digging. She has now doubled down and said that not only was she right, but everyone else is wrong. Even when presented with the facts.

That kind of wilful ignorance makes my head hurt. To call her an idiot, as an insult to idiots everywhere....

Have a great week y'all!