tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66299425021243967092024-02-21T00:43:16.779-06:00Blue Monkeha little blue dot in a sea of redUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-86306810834389444732014-12-14T02:14:00.002-06:002014-12-14T02:14:34.523-06:00Ted Rall is right.Please. Please read <a href="http://rall.com/2014/12/13/syndicated-column-people-who-think-torture-is-ok-need-to-die-and-go-away" target="_blank">this piece</a> by Ted Rall. I've been gobsmacked for over a decade at the torture apologists. This isn't who we're supposed to be as Americans. Mr. Rall has written with an eloquence that my brain can't muster on this subject.<div>
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From Rall.com, stolen in it's entirety. This is brilliant and brutal and all of the things that swirl in my brain that I can't even come close to expressing in my own words.</div>
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<a href="http://rall.com/2014/12/13/syndicated-column-people-who-think-torture-is-ok-need-to-die-and-go-away" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">People Who Think Torture is Okay Need to Die and Go Away</span></a></h2>
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I am tolerant.</div>
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I have Republican friends.</div>
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When racists speak in my presence, I don’t smash them in the jaw. I try to change their minds.</div>
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Many of my close friends and relatives believe in God, which is wrong and therefore stupid, yet I don’t consider <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">them </em>stupid — just mistaken. America, I believe, must create and maintain the space where a multitude of points of view can thrive.</div>
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But there are limits. Not every opinion should be tolerated.</div>
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If you think torture is OK — under any circumstance, for any reason — you are dangerous.</div>
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Pro-torture? You should not be tolerated.</div>
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If you believe that “they” had torture coming because “they” attacked “us” on 9/11, or because “they” chop off “our” heads, you are psychotic and sociopathic and should not be free to walk the streets, much less sit on juries or vote or drive a car or hold a job that a perfectly sane unemployed person needs.</div>
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If you diminish the exquisite horror of torture — if you think sleep deprivation and blasting loud music into victims’ ears and solitary confinement and stress positions and mock executions and beatings are not “really” torture — I want you locked up, the key thrown away, never to be heard from again. You are not fit to be near children or animals.</div>
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If you saw the <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/remember-abu-ghraib-torture-pictures-there-are-more-obama-doesnt-want-you-see-279254" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Abu Ghraib torture photos</a> and then voted for George W. Bush in 2004 anyway, you are Charles Manson crazy and there is no place in society, in America, on this planet, where you ought to be allowed.</div>
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If you’re a politician, a reporter or a pundit, and you’ve ever said anything in favor of torture, you should be fired and never heard from in public again.</div>
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I did not feel this way before the Senate Intelligence Committee released its <a href="http://rt.com/usa/213603-torture-panel-shocking-findings/" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">report on torture</a>under the Bush Administration.</div>
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Over the last week, however, I have read thousands of pro-torture, right-wing loons post their monstrous ravings on Internet content boards. I have watched a parade of torture advocates go on television to defend CIA torturers, some with <a href="http://time.com/3630436/torture-report-john-brennan-cia/" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">impressive-sounding titles</a>, all treated respectfully by so-called journalists. I have seen Dick Cheney, Grand Inquisitor of the War Against Muslims, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/fox-news-catches-dick-cheney-dissembling-about-torture/383690/" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">lie through his crooked teeth while scoffing at the most basic values of Western civ</a>.</div>
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Now, already, I am watching torture fade from the headlines.</div>
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We have been too tolerant.</div>
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Anti-torture Americans — which is to say, sane, normal people — have been wayyyyyyy too polite over the past 12 years. We ought to have been rude. We should have shouted down the torturers and their supporters and apologists, ridiculed them, locked them away, fired them from their jobs, taken away their kids.</div>
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We debated torture; we didn’t reject it. Now torture is normalized — and so is the stupid meanness that goes with it.</div>
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A senior Supreme Court Justice not only <a href="http://time.com/3632108/torture-report-antonin-scalia/" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">thinks torture is OK</a>, but gives credit to the<a href="http://www.progressive.org/mag_mccoy1006" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">thoroughly debunked</a> “ticking time bomb” scenario.</div>
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In the mainstream media, the debate is not over whether torture is immoral or illegal, but whether it is effective.</div>
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We tolerate scum like ex-CIA director Michael Hayden, who justifies so-called “rectal feeding” — grinding a prisoner’s food into mush and shoving it up his ass — with rhetoric that is not only vile on its face, but insults our intelligence to the point that he ought to be banned from public life: “It’s a medical procedure is what it is,” Hayden <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/10/torture-report-response_n_6305314.html" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">told</a> CNN. “I have learned that in some instances, one way that you can get nourishment into a person is through this procedure as opposed to intravenous feeding, which of course involves needles and a whole bunch of other dangerous things.”</div>
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Hayden is a liar. Victims of “rectal feeding” had not refused to eat normally.</div>
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Torture memo author John Yoo <a href="http://time.com/3626957/yoo-senate-torture-report-feinstein/" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">called</a> them “aggressive interrogation methods that did not cause any long-term or permanent injury.”</div>
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Isn’t <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/09/the-most-gruesome-moments-in-the-cia-torture-report.html" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">death</a> permanent?</div>
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John Yoo ought to be in prison. Instead, he draws a six-figure salary <a href="http://www.dailycal.org/2013/04/21/the-hypocrisy-of-berkeley-professor-john-yoo/" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">teaching law (!) at UC Berkeley</a>.</div>
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<a href="http://nypost.com/2014/12/12/truly-thinking-about-torture/" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jonah Goldberg is trying to pass himself</a> off as a “reasonable conservative” by arguing for ambiguity: “One of the great problems with the word ‘torture’ is that it tolerates no ambiguity. It is a taboo word, like racism or incest. Once you call something torture, the conversation is supposed to end.”</div>
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Enough!</div>
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In the West, civilized countries banned torture in the 18<span style="border: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> century. In 1798, for example, Napoleon <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=sRPiAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=%22It+has+always+been+recognized+that+this+method+of+interrogation,+by+putting+men+to+the+torture%22&source=bl&ots=nwRr4izntp&sig=CRxUMk9ufDZWbTXXIGzl7IxlHIs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=om-MVP_cDI2wsASO8IDgBA&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22It%20has%20always%20been%20recognized%20that%20this%20method%20of%20interrogation%2C%20by%20putting%20men%20to%20the%20torture%22&f=false" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">wrote</a> that the “barbarous custom of whipping men suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognized that this method of interrogation, by putting men to the torture, is useless. The wretches say whatever comes into their heads and whatever they think one wants to believe.”</div>
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“Before the 9/11 attacks, torture was almost always depicted in television and movies as something that bad guys did. That’s not true anymore. The Bush administration may be over, but Bush-era terrorist torture and assassination policies are growing more popular,” Amy Zegart <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/09/25/torture-creep/" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">wrote</a> in a 2012 <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Foreign Policy</em> piece titled “Torture Creep.”</div>
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You need only look at the trend line to see how Americans are becoming increasingly morally depraved: At the height of the war on terror in 2004, when Bush was reelected despite everything, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/bowmanmarsico/2014/12/11/american-public-opinion-on-torture/" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">32% of Americans said torture was never justifiable</a>. By 2011, two years after Obama claimed to have banned torture, only 24% said the same thing.</div>
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Here’s some American exceptionalism for you: <a href="http://www.globescan.com/news_archives/bbctorture06/" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">59% of people in other countries have zero tolerance for torture</a>. Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes, says: “The dominant view around the world is that terrorism does not warrant bending the rules against torture.”</div>
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This is not a discussion Americans should have any more.</div>
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(Ted Rall, syndicated writer and cartoonist, is the author of the new critically-acclaimed book “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/After-Kill-Welcome-Honored-Guests/dp/0809023407" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">After We Kill You, We Will Welcome You Back As Honored Guests: Unembedded in Afghanistan</a>.” <a href="http://www.beaconreader.com/ted-rall" style="border: 0px; color: #9f9f9f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Subscribe</a> to Ted Rall at Beacon.)</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">COPYRIGHT 2014 TED RALL, DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM</strong></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-38811529953673092972014-12-14T01:47:00.001-06:002014-12-14T01:47:06.521-06:00I'm back. Dammit.I just returned from the company Christmas party. Not a holiday party. A Christmas party. Because I work for a Christian company. The owners are lovely people, rife with sincere beliefs and the evangelical/fundamental flavor of religion. It's their money and they can celebrate how they want to celebrate. If Paris was worth a mass for Henry IV, steak dinner, entertainment and gifts are worth an amen for this heathen. I do admire that they try to bring Christian principles into all facets of their lives. In many ways they do strive to be good. They just espouse so many ideas that I cannot abide. It would be fine if these ideas would only apply to them. I don't have a problem with them voicing these ideas. However, these ideas have found their way into the political discourse of this country and are swung like a cudgel by the powerful to harm a great many of my fellow 'Murkuns. White, heterosexual, Christian, property-owning males would hold dominion over all of us unworthy lesser persons if the things they believe hold sway.<div>
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I refuse to remove the Obama '08 magnet from the back of my car. It's a nice reminder to everyone I work with that there is a dirty, librul, muslin, socialist, fascist, communist among them.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-26480493437881511762012-01-12T20:30:00.000-06:002012-01-12T20:31:34.923-06:00corrupt s.o.b. retires to k-street money pile<blockquote>
<a href="http://wonkette.com/tag/pt-dumb-rightwing-crooked-assholes/">DUMB RIGHTWING CROOKED ASSHOLES</a>
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<a href="http://wonkette.com/460187/jerkoff-to-retire-from-congress" target="_blank">Jerkoff To Retire From Congress</a></h2>
by <a class="url fn" href="http://wonkette.com/author/klayne/">Ken Layne</a> 3:59 pm January 12, 2012
<a href="http://wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/jerry-lewis-asshole.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Fuck you." class="left" src="http://wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/jerry-lewis-asshole.jpg" title="Fuck you." width="175" /></a><a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45729.html"></a></blockquote>
<a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45729.html">Indefensible</a> <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1995-06-04/news/mn-9525_1_jerry-lewis/2">lifelong asshole</a> Jerry Lewis, Republican <a href="http://biggovernment.com/tfitton/2010/11/16/top-ten-most-corrupt-rep-jerry-lewis-not-fit-for-appropriations-chair/">crook</a> from California’s “Inland Empire,” will finally retire from the House because his district is no longer a <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/three-california-republicans-announce-retirement-from-congress-in-one-week/">geometric abomination</a>
carved out by his GOP cronies. Lewis, a hateful clown in a white fright
wig, has spent his career being a complete asshole while lavishing pork
projects on his district as long as they were named for “Representative
Jerry Lewis.”<br />
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A Democrat will easily win the new district, the lines of which were
drawn up by a committee of voters, so they reflect the actual population
in the region (heavily Latino) of poor and working-class Californians.
Jerry Lewis will spend the last years of his miserable life greasing
palms on Capitol Hill for some lobbying firm or another. He sucks. [<a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2012/01/jerry-lewis-congress-retire-california.html">LA Times</a>/<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/12/jerry-lewis-retiring-california-congressman_n_1202344.html">Huffington Post</a>]
</blockquote>
When both Rolling Stone AND Andrew Breitbart claim you're the most corrupt congress critter ever, you know you've taken the grand champion prize.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-36508186430185833872012-01-12T19:55:00.000-06:002012-01-12T19:55:07.433-06:00the old gray lady has alzheimers<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.theawl.com/slug/journalismism" title="Journalismism">Journalismism</a>
<br />
<h2>
<a href="http://www.theawl.com/2012/01/times-poll-should-or-should-we-not-print-lies" title="'Times' Poll: Should or Should We Not Print Lies?">'Times' Poll: Should or Should We Not Print Lies?</a></h2>
By <a href="http://www.theawl.com/user/2/choire" title="Choire Sicha">Choire Sicha</a> <a class="time" href="http://www.theawl.com/2012/01/times-poll-should-or-should-we-not-print-lies">| January 12, 2012</a>
<br />
<br />
Everyone is pretty aghast and/or in stitches over <a href="http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/should-the-times-be-a-truth-vigilante/?pagewanted=all">today's weird and kinda embarrassing escapade</a> by the <i>New York Times</i> public editor, Arthur Brisbane: "I’m looking for reader input on whether and when <em>New York Times</em> news reporters should challenge 'facts' that are asserted by newsmakers they write about." Not just when; <i>whether</i>! A list of people currently making fun of this runs from editors of city papers to <i>New Yorker</i> correspondents to totally random unemployed people to... well, the <i>Times</i> staffers are all sitting on their hands right now. GOSH, HOW THAT MUST BURN.<br />
<br />
How does this argument even go, anyway? PRO: Sure! Let the record
reflect whatever people say, that way we have a record of it. CON: No,
definitely not! The newspaper should report all lies unchallenged!<br />
<br />
(Also, oh yes, let's have readers—aka BLOG COMMENTERS—provide the
"input" on these issues. Er, no offense, some of my best friends are
blog commenters.) Anyway, haven't seen Twitter make so much fun of one
person since, hmm... a SuperBowl half-time show, or maybe that time that
ESPN became the LeBron network? Hey, only <i>18 months</i> till Arthur Brisbane's term is up.
</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-49093506185297778342012-01-11T21:14:00.004-06:002012-01-11T21:15:45.403-06:00lolling around<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-64363522076328397732012-01-11T19:35:00.000-06:002012-01-11T21:17:15.386-06:00gop rep proposes treason - film at 11<div style="text-align: center;">
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<br />
I really enjoy Bob Cesca. He has a way of distilling the absurd down into bite-sized bits.<br />
<blockquote>
<h2 class="entry-title">
<a href="http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/01/a-word-from-the-crazy-caucus.html" rel="bookmark" title="Permalink to A Word from the Crazy Caucus">A Word from the Crazy Caucus</a></h2>
<div class="entry-meta">
<span class="meta-prep meta-prep-author">Posted on</span> <a href="http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/01/a-word-from-the-crazy-caucus.html" rel="bookmark"><span class="entry-date">01/11/2012</span></a> at <a href="http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/01/a-word-from-the-crazy-caucus.html" rel="bookmark"><span class="entry-date">11:30 am</span></a> <span class="meta-sep">by</span> <span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/author/bob-cesca" title="View all posts by Bob Cesca">Bob Cesca</a></span></div>
<div class="entry-meta">
</div>
<div class="entry-content">
A member of Congress recommended a <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2012_01/tuesdays_minireport_35034674.php">military insurrection</a>.<br />
<blockquote>
Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), who doesn’t make much of an effort to hide his extremism, argued on a right-wing radio show this week U.S. military leaders should consider ignoring the orders of their commander-in-chief. He wasn’t kidding.</blockquote>
Say it with me now — if Allen West was a Democrat and the president was a Republican, Allen West would have to go on a nationwide apology tour after Congress passed a resolution scolding him.</div>
</blockquote>
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Remember when you couldn't even question why we were in a war of choice with a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks? I do. Funny how that all gets flipped on its pointed little head now.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-67723384856559967102012-01-11T19:10:00.002-06:002012-01-11T19:10:58.684-06:00sad<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_kQqI1bzO_h08R7EeKy5-NQQ-4YgDDCBDC8OQW02ViRBlg95N3tn3wzlk6eVSFZDearRWkFkSto4Iv8ELqqVFObjYDqdqubpdbHGJOJwr0qwbsHZIUIBxo53oItJywGjMnGDKG0VkBQ2/s1600/99-percent-chemo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_kQqI1bzO_h08R7EeKy5-NQQ-4YgDDCBDC8OQW02ViRBlg95N3tn3wzlk6eVSFZDearRWkFkSto4Iv8ELqqVFObjYDqdqubpdbHGJOJwr0qwbsHZIUIBxo53oItJywGjMnGDKG0VkBQ2/s320/99-percent-chemo.jpg" width="219" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-33169415056106305712012-01-11T18:55:00.001-06:002012-01-11T18:55:53.975-06:00another example of a little thing called mittzpah!All I can say is that the frikkin "liberal" media better start doing their damn jobs. If they let the lies of Mittens go unchallenged they all ought to be fired.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<h2 class="entry-title">
<a href="http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/01/mitt-romney-is-a-lying-liar-3.html" rel="bookmark" title="Permalink to Mitt Romney is a Lying Liar">Mitt Romney is a Lying Liar</a></h2>
<div class="entry-meta">
<span class="meta-prep meta-prep-author">Posted on</span> <a href="http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/01/mitt-romney-is-a-lying-liar-3.html" rel="bookmark"><span class="entry-date">01/11/2012</span></a> at <a href="http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/01/mitt-romney-is-a-lying-liar-3.html" rel="bookmark"><span class="entry-date">2:30 pm</span></a> <span class="meta-sep">by</span> <span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/author/jm-ashby" title="View all posts by JM Ashby">JM Ashby</a></span></div>
<div class="entry-meta">
</div>
<div class="entry-content">
Mitt Romney, who may be under the mistaken belief that his New Hampshire victory means people actually like him, appeared on CBS’s “This Morning” today and unleashed <a href="http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/romney-obama-laid-people-off-at-gm-110448.html">a series of lies</a> that most Republicans haven’t even gone near. Romney’s past suggests he should stay clear of it too.<br />
<blockquote>
Mitt Romney, under attack by his opponents over his record of layoffs and restructuring at Bain Capital, said Wednesday that President Barack Obama was also forced to lay off people in the auto industry.<br />
<br />
<strong>“In the general election, I’ll be pointing out that the president took the reins of General Motors and Chrysler, closed factories, closed dealerships, laid off thousands and thousands of workers. He did it to try to save the business,”</strong> Romney said on CBS’s “This Morning.”<br />
<br />
“We also had the occasion to do things that are tough to try to save a business,” Romney said. “We started a number of businesses, invested in many others and, overall, created tens of thousands of jobs.”</blockquote>
If Romney’s strategy for confronting accusations that he fired people for profit at Bain Capital is to say “yeah, well, the president fired people too!” he’s not going to get very far with that. Because that’s not just a lie. It’s completely absurd.<br />
<br />
<strong>Many employees did lose their jobs and many dealerships were forced to close when the auto industry was bailed out, however it was General Motors and Chrysler who decided which ones, not the president or his administration. Furthermore, many of those who were laid off were hired back after the dust settled, and if the Obama Administration had done nothing, the entire American auto industry could have imploded.</strong><br />
<br />
Another reason this is a losing argument for Mitt Romney is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html">this</a>. Let Detroit Go Bankrupt!<br />
<br />
Blaming President Obama for firing people at General Motors was not the only whopper blurted out by Mitt Romney during this segment of CBS’s “This Morning.” There was also this gem of dishonesty.<br />
<blockquote>
“We started a number of businesses, invested in many others and, overall, created tens of thousands of jobs.”</blockquote>
He created tens of thousands jobs? What happen to the claim that he created 100,000 jobs?<br />
<br />
Oh. <em><a href="http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/01/romney-lying-about-the-jobs-he-created.html">This</a></em> is what happened. It was shredded.</div>
</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-57717332354475060032012-01-11T18:45:00.001-06:002012-01-11T18:46:01.101-06:00quid pro quo, clarice<h2>
<a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/revolving-door-from-top-futures-regulator-to-top-futures-lobbyist-20120111" target="_blank">Revolving Door: From Top Futures Regulator to Top Futures Lobbyist</a></h2>
<blockquote>
Among people who follow these markets for a living, the Lukken hire had an
embarrassingly over-the-top quality, like a CEO who goes the
appearances-be-damned route and puts his 23 year-old secretary/mistress on the
board of directors.<br />
<br />
Mike Masters is head of the Masters
Capital Management hedge fund and also chairman of <a href="http://www.bettermarkets.com/">Better Markets</a>, a new non-profit
advocacy group that promotes the public interest in the labyrinthine vagaries of
the financial markets, and especially the commodities markets. He describes the
hiring of Lukken as an extreme example of revolving-door politics.
<br />
<br />
“It’s not the revolving door. It’s the express elevator,”
he says.</blockquote>
Taibbi is spot-on as always in pointing out the flaws in the system.<br />
<br />
There is no way our government regulators will ever function as they are supposed to as long as their main goal is to angle for a cushy private sector job as a reward. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-8722271336579809912012-01-11T18:18:00.000-06:002012-01-11T18:18:00.636-06:00good news<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" id="twttrHubFrame" name="twttrHubFrame" scrolling="no" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/hub.1324331373.html" style="height: 10px; position: absolute; top: -9999em; width: 10px;" tabindex="0"></iframe><a href="http://www.truth-out.org/bill-moyers/1326216330" target="_blank">Bill Moyers: Back With a New Series</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The lack of civility and common sense that has paralyzed our democracy, the vast economic and social inequality that sends both left and right raging into the streets, the corrosive influence of money in politics - we're in a tailspin with little hope for a course correction from our elected leadership or corporate-dominated media. The need for voices of reason, simple and eloquent, has rarely been stronger.<br />
</blockquote>
The return of Moyers is welcome news. So much cacophny rattling around the tee vee and interwebs...wisdom and reason are seriously needed.<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-25814060158501499202012-01-09T20:39:00.002-06:002012-01-09T21:09:33.302-06:00the nightly lol lounge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Philosoraptor says...</div>
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Lenin Cat says...</div>
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Business Cat says...</div>
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Donald Trump Cat says...</div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-47717241518728526952012-01-09T19:49:00.001-06:002012-01-09T19:58:59.484-06:00John Steinbeck On Socialism In AmericaA classic Steinbeck quote on socialism in America:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrteiYRyyopXD_zTnEk8qCI1xitTH0vdYxOHIQjtvAB8cTbrolH-8ese_HHiABrcDXxsB_JGCElgloAJ2ZNT1K575d1D4pjevLT70xMtBo4r-vW6sEzwz1spluqM8ugLDZCjpPot9wEOsS/s1600/steinbeck-socialism-in-america.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrteiYRyyopXD_zTnEk8qCI1xitTH0vdYxOHIQjtvAB8cTbrolH-8ese_HHiABrcDXxsB_JGCElgloAJ2ZNT1K575d1D4pjevLT70xMtBo4r-vW6sEzwz1spluqM8ugLDZCjpPot9wEOsS/s200/steinbeck-socialism-in-america.jpg" width="156" /></a></div>
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor
see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily
embarrassed millionaires.”<br />
<br />
Stolen from <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/5nR6sp/www.prosebeforehos.com/political-ironing/01/05/john-steinbeck-on-socialism-in-america/" target="_blank">Political Ironing</a> on <a href="http://www.prosebeforehos.com/" target="_blank">Prose Before Hos</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-40067383384028062162012-01-09T18:23:00.005-06:002012-01-09T18:34:12.960-06:00edumacation featuring the 3 Ks?Our daily dose of the derp from the good people at <a href="http://wonkette.com/" target="_blank">Wonkette</a>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><a href="http://wonkette.com/tag/pt-department-of-wtf/">DEPARTMENT OF WTF</a><br />
<h2><a href="http://wonkette.com/459937/georgia-school-brings-slavery-slave-beatings-into-math-questions" target="_blank">Georgia School Brings Slavery, Slave Beatings Into Math Questions</a></h2>by <a class="url fn" href="http://wonkette.com/author/lcolville/">Liz Colville</a> 5:00 pm January 9, 2012<br />
<br />
Georgia’s Gwinnett County School District is coming under fire after parents came across math homework featuring some really atrocious questions involving slavery. Two questions in particular — one involving the number of oranges picked by slaves and another about the number of times Frederick Douglass might have been beaten in a week — were apparently aimed at teaching third graders about multiplication. Nine teachers at Beaver Ridge Elementary School insist they were <a href="http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2012/01/09/georgia-school-math-assignment-references-slavery-beatings/">“attempting to do a cross-curricular activity</a> with a book the children had read about abolitionist Frederick Douglass in their social studies class.” Um, which book? These teachers might be decent at math, but they are terrible at social studies. <br />
<br />
The offending questions read as follows:<br />
<blockquote>Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?</blockquote><blockquote>If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?</blockquote>No words. A school district spokesperson, Sloan Roach, has responded by saying, “We’ve been working with human resources to determine what staff development is needed for the teachers and what actions may be warranted.”<br />
<br />
“Staff development.” How about SCHOOL, Billy Madison style. <a href="http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2012/01/09/georgia-school-math-assignment-references-slavery-beatings/">[CBS News]</a></blockquote>Oh jesus christ on a cracker, these fucking people.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-23089434005278592212012-01-09T14:59:00.001-06:002012-01-09T20:25:56.260-06:00truthiness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0i1XDLAzFCUwyZRxL3zwh_r0sev4SLhI3x5MDPYjn7_pCxqMqEZ99cNcIh0rcXQl7_HZx_xgLkVz4ZWfuLUltOXcipoj-vdIT-VkRSm9JSoaz_-OrEk0CUkooJB4L_0_7rG8Bti0IajXD/s1600/political-pictures-barack-obama-stephen-colbert-colbertisms.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0i1XDLAzFCUwyZRxL3zwh_r0sev4SLhI3x5MDPYjn7_pCxqMqEZ99cNcIh0rcXQl7_HZx_xgLkVz4ZWfuLUltOXcipoj-vdIT-VkRSm9JSoaz_-OrEk0CUkooJB4L_0_7rG8Bti0IajXD/s320/political-pictures-barack-obama-stephen-colbert-colbertisms.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-63266011088009579592012-01-09T14:51:00.000-06:002012-01-09T20:28:07.310-06:00wise old ladies are wise<h2>
<a href="http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/three-wise-men-with-extra-cheese-please/" rel="bookmark">Three Wise Men With Extra Cheese Please</a></h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
So that leaves us with Romney, Paul and Santorum. Three wise men who couldn’t find a star on a moonless night much less a family of three in a manger. And even if they could, Romney wouldn’t be able to decide on which star to follow; Paul would want to argue about the price of gold, frankincense and myrrh; and Santorum would be too busy molesting the cattle lowing in the stable. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Folks, let’s get serious. Since 2008 we’ve reduced our wars by 50%, avoided another Great Depression, advanced women’s rights in the workplace, ended Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and passed a law intended to provide healthcare for the sick and the poor. Not bad for a Muslim born in Kenya. Republicans not wanting to re-elect Obama isn’t exactly newsworthy. They like war and they hate gays, women and those damn government-cheese-sucking poor people. But wanting to put Rick Santorum in the White House? He thinks <i>birth control</i> should be outlawed. Without birth control you’re going to have more government-cheese-sucking poor people. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This is how the Republican Party recovers from nominating Sarah Palin as VP? Honey, that man-on-dog just don’t hunt. If this pack is truly the best your party has to offer, maybe you should consider a new party – one where they don’t serve tea. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Forget 2012 and nominate a serious candidate in 2016. I mean it. Really.</blockquote>
If you haven't read <a href="http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Margaret and Helen</a>, you need to start. Now.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-37059940295982463722012-01-09T14:30:00.000-06:002012-01-09T14:30:57.255-06:00money makes the world go around<a href="http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2012/01/hey-media-its-not-about-romney-its.html" target="_blank">Hey, Media: It's Not About Romney; It's About Money:</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">...the reason that Mitt Romney is winning is because there is no one who can touch him on money. Whether it's campaign contributions or PACs, this nomination process was over before it began because the very, very rich Romney is Wall Street's pick. This is not news. But with the rise of Super PACs in the wake of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Citizens United</span> decision and the no-ceiling spending they can engage in under the guise of "free speech" (remember: if money equals speech, then some people have more speech than others, no?), we've moved into a new realm of crazy. That's news. Big-time fucking news. But it's pathetic when Stephen Colbert is one of the only media figures making the <a href="http://electionlawblog.org/?p=25160">effort</a> to expose how corrupting Super PACs are.</blockquote>Mr. Rude Pundit is correct.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-1373885302425202092012-01-09T14:13:00.000-06:002012-01-09T14:13:35.069-06:00yet another cautionary tale<a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/credit-card-firms-they-dont-just-steal-from-cardholders-20120109" target="_blank">Credit Card Firms: They Don't Just Steal From Cardholders</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">... we can't live with big firms simply taking money out of bank accounts for no reason, and daring people to sue to get the money back. That's theft by bureaucratic force, not mere greed.</blockquote>Where is the GOP outrage? A small business owner is being repressed! Oh, wait - that's right. In the GOP lexicon, <i>small business owner = hedge fund millionaire</i> and repression can only be the result of gubmint regulations, not due to widespread corporate malfeasance.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-60297501590956873062012-01-09T14:00:00.000-06:002012-01-09T14:00:53.721-06:00in which i give props to guy that usually pisses me off<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/09/1053026/-Rep-Paul-Ryan-announces-opposition%C2%A0toSOPA?via=blog_1" target="_blank">Rep. Paul Ryan announces opposition to SOPA</a><br />
<br />
Good for him.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-20187248216323622732012-01-09T13:11:00.000-06:002012-01-09T13:18:10.714-06:00in which i feel sorry for the residents of wichita, ks (after calling their state stupid)<blockquote class="tr_bq"><h2 class="entry-title"><a href="http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/01/rat-bastards-2.html" rel="bookmark" title="Permalink to Rat Bastards">Rat Bastards</a></h2><div class="entry-meta"><span class="meta-prep meta-prep-author">Posted on</span> <a href="http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/01/rat-bastards-2.html" rel="bookmark"><span class="entry-date">01/07/2012</span></a> at <a href="http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/01/rat-bastards-2.html" rel="bookmark"><span class="entry-date">3:00 pm</span></a> <span class="meta-sep">by</span> <span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/author/jm-ashby" title="View all posts by JM Ashby">JM Ashby</a></span><br />
<br />
The citizens of Wichita, Kansas are about to learn what it feels like to be <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/06/399138/hit-and-run-boeing-35-billion/">trickled down on.</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote>This week, defense and aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing announced that it will be closing the Boeing Defense, Space & Security facility in Wichita by the end of 2013, which “means the loss of 2,100 well-paying jobs at its Kansas facility, which was once considered the centerpiece of Wichita’s claim as the air capital of the world.” Boeing will instead be performing the operations that were scheduled for Wichita in San Antonio and Oklahoma City.<br />
<br />
Boeing’s decision — which it <b>blames on possible defense cuts that may take place in the future</b> — is devastating to Wichita community, which <b>also includes more than four hundred Boeing suppliers.</b> [...]<br />
<br />
The announcement is particularly shocking given the fact that Boeing had repeatedly promised to keep jobs in Kansas and add many more if it were able to land a $35 billion contract for an aerial tanker. Kansas lawmakers went to bat for the company in early 2011, with Sen. Pat Roberts (R) even calling on “everybody who’s out there tweeting, chirping and Facebooking” to push for the Air Force to grant the tanker contract to Boeing rather than European rival EADS. </blockquote><br />
I’m sure everyone recalls the shitstorm that was the fuel tanker contract which saw Republicans losing their minds and whispering impeachment over the Pentagon offering the contract to a European company rather than to Boeing.<br />
<br />
Ultimately, Boeing <i>did</i> land the $35 billion dollar fuel tanker contract, and the state of Kansas offered them millions of dollars in tax breaks to keep them in the state where Boeing promised to remain if awarded the contract.<br />
<br />
Despite recieving both the $35 billion contract and the tax incentives, Boeing is closing its Wichita plant because of <i>“possible defense cuts that may take place in the future.”</i> <br />
Possibly. Maybe. <i>Who knows?</i><br />
<br />
I’m sure the 2,100 local employees and over 400 local suppliers and their employees would like a better explanation than that.<br />
<br />
It’s true that there will be considerable defense cuts over the next decade, however Boeing is not a company that is hurting financially or anywhere even close to it. According to <a href="http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/earnings/earnings.asp?ticker=BA:US">Bloomberg,</a> Boeing saw roughly $68.6 billion in revenue in 2011 and is projected to see $78.7 billion in revenue in 2012. Boeing is also among the 30 corporations that <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/264481/20111209/30-major-u-s-corporations-paid-lobby.htm">paid no federal taxes</a> between 2008 and 2010.<br />
</div></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-76885208036440458412012-01-09T12:44:00.001-06:002012-01-09T18:16:13.191-06:00deep-seated fear and loathing no longer so deep-seated<blockquote class="tr_bq"><h2><a href="http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/mike-o-neal-racist-republicans-6635184">This Is a Lot Worse Than YoMama 'Jokes'</a></h2><div class="main_excerpt"><div class="blog_entry_meta"><div class="entry_time">By <a href="http://www.esquire.com/archives/blogs/politics/by_author/68/15;1">Charles P. Pierce</a> at 12:00AM</div><div class="entry_time"> </div></div><div class="blog_entry"><b>And, suddenly,</b> the dogwhistles have <a href="http://blogs.e-rockford.com/applesauce/2012/01/07/gop-speaker-of-kansas-house-prays-for-obamas-death-calls-first-lady-mrs-yomama/" target="_blank">turned into air-raid sirens</a>.<br />
<br />
I think, maybe, it's time for the nation to rise up and point out to the Republican party that, root and branch, it is a racist embarrassment to democracy and a blight on this nation that all the world can see. Whether it's N. Leroy Gingrich's chirping about how all the black people are on food stamps, or Rick Santorum's talking about the mysterious Blah People, or this clown whom the other clowns in the Kansas House elected to lead them, there is a steady, noxious river of bile flowing through the entire Republican party, and through the conservative "movement" that empowers it. It should marginalize the party to whatever back lot of hell it is in which a crosseyed James Earl Ray attempts to shoot an apple off the head of Byron De La Beckwith for all eternity.<br />
<br />
No, I don't accept your apology, you ignorant old fart. No, Rick, I don't believe for a moment you meant to say something else and it came out "Blah people," you Bible-banging coward. Nobody's talking in code any more. It's right out front there, for all the world to see. How dare these people? How dare their evil souls?</div></div></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-23930615854814702322012-01-09T12:38:00.000-06:002012-01-09T12:40:12.704-06:00this is what's wrong with kansas<a href="http://blogs.e-rockford.com/applesauce/2012/01/09/gop-speaker-of-kansas-house-prays-for-obamas-death-calls-first-lady-mrs-yomama/" target="_blank">GOP speaker of Kansas House prays for Obama’s death, calls First Lady “Mrs. YoMama”</a><br />
<br />
This. GAH.<br />
<br />
This is just one more in a continuing long list of examples of why my kids will not be attending university in Kansas.<br />
<br />
Nebraska Motto: At least we're not Kansas!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-12180490467380543502012-01-09T11:25:00.000-06:002012-01-09T11:25:55.548-06:00in which i give props to king derp<blockquote class="tr_bq">“Now I have no doubt that Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips — whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out because his company Bain Capital with all the jobs that they killed, I’m sure he was worried that he’d run out of pink slips,” Perry told the crowd at Mama Penn’s restaurant.<br />
~ <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/perry-lambasts-romney-for-handing-out-pink-slips/" target="_blank">Rick Perry</a>! </blockquote>Huzzah!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-73483409532548655452012-01-09T10:47:00.000-06:002012-01-09T10:47:41.260-06:00Greedy One Percent~ <a href="http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=6135" target="_blank">The Top 5 Tax Myths Of The GOP Spin Machine</a><br />
<br />
Do clicky over to the post. It's got a handy-dandy fun chart for each myth.<br />
<br />
And here are the myths - full explanations and supporting evidence courtesy of <a href="http://www.ctj.org/index.php" target="_blank">Citizens for Tax Justice</a>:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2011/12/the_top_five_tax_myths_to_watc.php" target="_blank">The Top Five Tax Myths to Watch Out for this Election Season</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>1) Myth: 47 Percent of Americans Do Not Pay Taxes</i><br />
Fact: All Americans Pay Taxes<br />
<br />
<i>2) Myth: The American People and Corporations Pay High Taxes</i> <br />
Fact: The US Has the Third Lowest Taxes of Any Developed Country in the World<br />
<br />
3) <i>Myth: Cutting Taxes Creates Jobs and Raises Revenue</i><br />
Fact: Tax Cuts Reduce Revenue And Are Not Associated with Economic Growth<br />
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4) <i>Myth: The US tax system is very progressive because wealthy individuals already pay a disproportionate amount of taxes.</i><br />
Fact: At a Time of Growing Income Inequality, the US Tax System is Basically Flat.<br />
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<i>5) Myth : The “Fair Tax” or a flat tax would be more “fair”</i><br />
Fact: The “Fair Tax” or a Flat Tax Would Make Our Tax System Even More Regressive</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-84911436995653480862012-01-09T10:21:00.000-06:002012-01-09T10:21:36.129-06:00kindergarten-libertarianism<blockquote class="tr_bq">An absence of government regulation, for most people, just means domination by unconstrained private actors. <br />
~ <a href="http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2012/01/freedom-is-feudalism" target="_blank">Scott Lemieux</a> - <a href="http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/" target="_blank">Lawyers, Gun$ and Money</a></blockquote><br />
So many politicians are in love with the idea of their simple ancestors and their great American reinvention. Their immigrant ancestors spoke English the minute they hit the shores (bullshit!). Their immigrant ancestors immediately started to assimilate into being the 1950's definition of a good American (bullshit!). Their immigrant ancestors came from deplorable European conditions and enjoyed the true and total personal freedoms that American had to offer (bullshit!).<br />
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<a href="http://crooksandliars.com/rick-perlstein/santorum-freedom-slavery" target="_blank">Santorum's 'Freedom' is Pretty Much Slavery</a><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">"He left to the coal fields of Southern Pennsylvania. He worked in the mine at a company town, got paid with coupons, he used to call them." </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"> Let us dwell on that. Grandpa Santorum lived in a company town where he was paid in "scrip" in lieu of cash. That means what his grandson calls "freedom" was, well and truly, something more like slavery.</blockquote><a href="http://crooksandliars.com/blog/25834" target="_blank">Perlstein</a> does one helluva job of dissecting this conserva-libertarian hogwash about "freedom" and what it really means.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6629942502124396709.post-7157261283796695092012-01-09T09:34:00.000-06:002012-01-09T09:34:49.928-06:00You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.~ Inigo Montoya, "The Princess Bride"<br />
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One of the things that perturbs me on a regular basis is when a word is used by someone, usually in a quasi-authoritative manner, and it's obvious that they don't know fuck all what it really means.<br />
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Say, for example, the word "factoid" - it actually means something that isn't really true, but is presented as such. Then so many talking bobble heads and others on the tee vee started using it interchangeably with "fact" and then threw the actual word they wanted completely out the window.<br />
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And so it scorches the cockles of my black, little heart when I see yet another misuse of a word. But it is not a surprising thing coming from one of the GOP "presidential" field.<br />
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<a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/08/ron-paul-entitlements-are-not-rights/" target="_blank">Ron Paul: ‘Entitlements are not rights’</a><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul claimed on Sunday that Americans don’t have a right to entitlements like Social Security and Medicare. </blockquote>Seriously. This guy is presidential material. Of course he is! He's brilliant compared to the other dim/sparking bulbs he's competing against. The article then points out: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/entitlement">definition of entitlement</a> is “a right to benefits specified especially by law or contract.”</blockquote> These things make my brain cry.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0