Tag Archives: Politics

Yoo-Hoo that Yoo Didn’t Get His Way

Posted on by LtL

Can you believe that this guy is teaching law?

In perhaps the most surprising assertion, the Oct. 23, 2001, memo suggested the president could even suspend press freedoms if he concluded it was necessary to wage the war on terror. “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully,” Yoo wrote in the memo entitled “Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activity Within the United States.” (Link)

I guess Yoo thinks that swearing an oath to uphold the Constitution doesn’t mean anything. When we take apart the Constitution in an effort to protect America, we’ve already lost.

The Republican Party Hates America

Posted on by LtL

I’m serious, they must hate America because they are trying to do everything in their power to destroy America’s economy, Constitution, rule of law, and infrastructure in order to further their own political agenda. I am not talking about the ordinary Americans who vote Republican or who support conservative ideology, I’m talking about the Republican Party’s leadership and the Republican politicians.1

To that point, there’s no debating the Republican record on the economy. Their allegiance to Reaganomics and free market deregulation have led us to the brink of, well, dogs and cats living together and mass hysteria.

Nevertheless, there they are on cable news and the Sunday shows acting as if they know something. At the same time, they’ve proved themselves to be dishonest, bad-fath actors in this thing. They’ve spread lies about fake CBO reports, while also ignoring an actual CBO report on the Senate bill indicating that it would, in fact, succeed in stimulating economic growth. They’ve spread lies about nonexistent ACORN line items in the bill — line items that only exist inside of Michelle Malkin’s twisted dome. I mean, they met with Joe the Plumber on the Hill this week to discuss the economy. Joe the Plumber. About the economy. Because they’re very serious people who ought to be taken very seriously.

[From Bob Cesca: Operation Zero Cred]

So join with me in support of Bob Cesca’s Operation Zero Cred and go read his entire article and suggestions.

Joe the freakin’ Plumber discussing the economy. I mean, get real people, this is a party that is morally, ethically, intellectually, and economically bankrupt. Ok, actually most of the leaders of the party aren’t economically bankrupt, they are actually quite well of, they are just happy to make the rest of us bankrupt because they don’t give a tinker’s damn about the the working or middle class as long as we continue to buy stuff and max out credit cards and sink further in debt since they happen to profit off of that debt.

Name me one, just one example of the Republican party putting country first in any way other than empty rhetoric. And by “country first” I don’t mean the wealthiest 1%, or the Defense contractors, or fucking CEO’s begging for Federal money in one breath and then mewling and whining about “socialism” with the next.

Next time an asshole complains about “liberals” interfering and being all socialist, direct them to this here interesting tid-bit about history:

On August 15, 1971, Richard Nixon announced a freeze on all wages and prices in the United States. That’s all wages, not just wages of those who made a deal to take government money, or government employees, or government contractors. Everybody. About the only serious protest of Nixon’s controls came from union workers who felt that the freeze only cemented an already unfair gap between the wages of labor and management — a gap about 50 times smaller than it is today. [From Devilstower: The President and Private Pay]

Of course, history means facts and facts have no place in today’s Republican party. Witness former Bush’s former Chief of Staff bleating about dress codes in the Oval Office and then go to Huffington Post’s slideshow of former presidents—including the holiest of holies Ronald Reagan—working in the Oval Office without their suit jackets on and omg the world didn’t fucking end!!!!!!

Go ahead, give me evidence that the Republican Party leadership and their various mouthpieces care about the well-being of Americans more than they care about accruing political power. Any evidence.

I didn’t think so.

I am so with John Cole on this:

I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, you can probably figure out how bipartisanship is going to work the next few years. [John Cole: You'll Never Get This 21 Minutes Of Your Life Back]

Zero Cred, folks. On science, education, the economy, history, complex thought, the nation’s security, the Constitution, truth . . . pretty much the Republican Party has zero credibility on anything except lying, breaking the law, wallowing in racism, and destroying America through greed and short-sightedness and the unquenchable thirst for power.

Hey GOP, if you truly were half as patriotic as you pretend to be, you’d stop all this bullshit and get to work restoring the rule of law and sensible government oversight and work on helping the poor, working, and middle class live better lives, and divert some of the money you want for your defense contracts and wealthy friends to helping out a failing infrastructure and crippled education system.

Oops, I mistook you for sane and rational human beings for a moment. Sorry, it won’t happen again.

Go ahead, prove me wrong.

  1. I’m ignoring, for a moment, the hate-spewing, lying sons-of-bitches like Rush and O’Reilly and Malkin and Beck and Hannity. [↩]

Palin the Red

Posted on by LtL

Ha ha!

For her part, Sarah Palin, who has lately taken to calling Obama “Barack the Wealth Spreader,” seems to be something of a suspect character herself. She is, at the very least, a fellow-traveller of what might be called socialism with an Alaskan face. The state that she governs has no income or sales tax. Instead, it imposes huge levies on the oil companies that lease its oil fields. The proceeds finance the government’s activities and enable it to issue a four-figure annual check to every man, woman, and child in the state. One of the reasons Palin has been a popular governor is that she added an extra twelve hundred dollars to this year’s check, bringing the per-person total to $3,269. A few weeks before she was nominated for Vice-President, she told a visiting journalist—Philip Gourevitch, of this magazine—that “we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.” Perhaps there is some meaningful distinction between spreading the wealth and sharing it (“collectively,” no less), but finding it would require the analytic skills of Karl the Marxist. ?

[From Like, Socialism: Comment: The New Yorker]

One Depressing Link and Three Good Videos

Posted on by LtL

First up, the depressing news that America, land of the free and home of the brave, ranks 36th among nations for the freedom of the press:

The United States is ranked 36th in the world in terms of press freedom, up from 48th last year, according to a report released Wednesday by Reporters Sans Frontieres. The US is tied with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, South Africa, Spain, and Taiwan in the 36th spot. Iceland, Luxembourg, and Norway are tied for first. Iran, China, Vietnam, Cuba, and North Korea are all featured among the ten lowest-ranked countries. [From United States Ranked 36th In The World For Press Freedom]

Now, the good news is that we have moved up in our ranking from 48 last year. Still, the fact that we aren’t even in the top ten is disconcerting.

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On an entirely different note, check out this Tuvan Throat Singing Hip-Hop song video from Ralph Leighton. If you like, check out the Boing Boing post

[From Tuvan Throat-Singing Rap by Ondar, with the voice of Richard Feynman]

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As much as I love Batman way more than I like Superman, and as much as I enjoyed The Dark Night, this is very funny:

And finally, some sense in a sometimes non-sensical world: Have a good weekend.

For your viewing pleasure

Posted on by LtL

The Bourne Political Analysis

So he’s only an actor, but he makes some damn good points.

David Tennant Watch Out

This is one reason I love Doctor Who: it’s the kind of show that inspires and makes people want to be a hero. Sure, I can quibble with some of the episodes and the writing and feel like stories or characters are off-track or too thinly written, but in the end, Doctor Who continues to offer stories of adventure and heroism that make kids do things like this:

Science is Pretty Damn Amazing

You may have heard something about the Large Hadron Collider, but here’s some info on what it actually is and how scientist plan to use it.

McCain Hates Poor People

Posted on by LtL

I wonder why McCain hates poor people so much? Probably because he spent five years as a POW.

Obama and McCain Tax Proposals
According to a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain are both proposing tax plans that would result in cuts for most American families. Obama’s plan gives the biggest cuts to those who make the least, while McCain would give the largest cuts to the very wealthy. For the approximately 147,000 families that make up the top 0.1 percent of the income scale, the difference between the two plans is stark. While McCain offers a $269,364 tax cut, Obama would raise their taxes, on average, by $701,885 – a difference of nearly $1 million.


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[From Obama and McCain Tax Proposals - washingtonpost.com]

Seriously though, I think that one of the most impressive aspects of these numbers is the fact that Obama’s plan demonstrates a commitment to the poor and working-class of this country. That he has the courage to say, flat out to the wealthiest and most powerful people in this country that he is planning on raising their taxes tells me that he has a lot more invested in doing what is right rather than what is politically expedient.

Today, John McCain’s website talks of serving a cause greater than yourself. Yet, when faced with the largest national debt in history, a war that costs millions of dollars a day, a fragile and crumbling economy, McCain doesn’t seem interested in asking the wealthiest people in the country to serve any cause other than themselves.

I don’t know what you call that, but I call it hypocrisy.

Oh, and I don’t know what you call going around the country telling people that Obama would raise taxes for most Americans, but I call it lying.

(via Joya)