So, global warming a new phenomenon?

Of course not; it's been creeping on us and Gaia since the dawn of Industrialization. Sadly, it's not that we just learned about this in the 1980s either, or for the Gen Y'ers, with Al Gore's An Inconvenient truth.

No, rather, we've known about the effects of man-made emissions on our atmosphere and ecosphere since...hmmm....about 1958.


Check out this video from Raw

Any questions?

-d.s.

Ready for an infuriating story?

After a 3000 mile chase, Chief Joseph is ready for anything...

Say hello to Bryan Fischer, Communications and Policy wonk at The American Family Association, a paleolithic Right-wing organization so hard-bit by the crazy, so fundamentally rotten with fascistic Christian racism that it, quite frankly, defies description.

How crazy? How racist? How Christo-fascistic?  Let his own words, at the AFA Blog, do the talking

The Amorites, or Canaanite peoples, practiced one moral abomination after another, whether it was incest, adultery, sexual immorality, homosexuality, bestiality or child sacrifice, and God finally said “Enough!”

By the time he brought the nascent nation of Israel to the borders of the land flowing with milk and honey, he had already been patient with the native tribes for 400 years, waiting for them to come to the place of repentance for their socially and spiritually degrading practices.

Hmmm...Sounds good. Please go on, Mr. Fischer.

Okay, Fischer, we get it. You don't like Jews and clearly believe that everything got prior to the theft of Palestine foundation of Israel was on their own heads. But, what the fuck does that have to do with us?

The native American tribes at the time of the European settlement and founding of the United States were, virtually without exception, steeped in the basest forms of superstition, had been guilty of savagery in warfare for hundreds of years, and practiced the most debased forms of sexuality.

Huh?

Many of the tribal reservations today remain mired in poverty and alcoholism because many native Americans continue to cling to the darkness of indigenous superstition instead of coming into the light of Christianity and assimilating into Christian culture.

What?

Sadly, this column will likely generate a firestorm of nuclear proportions among wingers on the left rather than the thoughtful reflection the thesis deserves.

Holy. Shit.

So, now we have clearly deranged, mentally unstable, militant Dominionist, Nazi-clones telling us to give their vile screed "thoughtful reflection". Okay, Fischer, here's the thoughtful reflection you deserve, also from an alleged man of God, Fr. Bartolome De Las Casas, who traveled with the Spanish progenitors of the genocide inflicted on MesoAmerican Indians. 

These are the actions of the "enlightening" Christians that Fischer would have us emulate.

• And never have the Indians in all the Indies committed any act against the Spanish Christians, until those Christians have first and many times committed countless cruel aggressions against them or against neighboring nations.

• We can estimate very surely and truthfully that in the forty years that have passed, with the infernal actions of the Christians, there have been unjustly slain more than twelve million men, women, and children. In truth, I believe without trying to deceive myself that the number of the slain is more like fifteen million.

• After the wars and the killings had ended, when usually there survived only some boys, some women, and children, these survivors were distributed among the Christians to be slaves.

• These people are the most devoid of rancors, hatreds, or desire for vengeance of any people in the world.

• Their reason for killing and destroying such an infinite number of souls is that the Christians have an ultimate aim, which is to acquire gold, and to swell themselves with riches in a very brief time and thus rise to a high estate disproportionate to their merits.

• They attacked the towns and spared neither the children nor the aged nor pregnant women nor women in childbed, not only stabbing them and dismembering them but cutting them to pieces as if dealing with sheep in the slaughter house.

• They made some low wide gallows on which the hanged victim's feet almost touched the ground, stringing up their victims in lots of thirteen, in memory of Our Redeemer and His twelve Apostles, then set burning wood at their feet and thus burned them alive.

• They made a grid of rods which they placed on forked sticks, then lashed the victims to the grid and lighted a smoldering fire underneath, so that little by little, as those captives screamed in despair and torment, their souls would leave them.

So, Mr. Fischer, we've been down this road before. We've seen what happens when we yield to the temptation of "assimiliation" and the cheap murderous, totalitarian thrills of a "Christian Nation".


Please, die horribly, painfully and slowly now.

Perhaps by being given to priests?

-d.s. 

Stop me if you've heard this one before....

Getting tree-gnawing crazier by the day...

Arizona: Come for the stultifying Tea Partiers, stay for the on-going constitutional violations.

Oh boy. Arizona, the land that time forgot and progenitor of some sincerely crazy-ass right wing notions (the Gestapo-esque, 'show me your papers', "immigration" law being only the most recent), has outdone themselves in a big, big way.

Specifically, with a state law it intends to pass which permits the State to ignore or violate Congressional laws. 

Huh?

Haven't we heard this one before? If only I could remember....

Oh yea, that's it...

Specifically, the law does the following/is premised upon the following:

"The committee shall recommend, propose and call for a vote by simple majority to nullify in its entirety a specific federal law or regulation that is outside the scope of the powers delegated by the People to the federal government in the United States Constitution," the bill reads. "The committee shall make its recommendation within thirty days after receiving the federal legislation for consideration and process."

According to the bill, "no authority has ever been given to the legislative branch, the executive branch or the judicial branch of the federal government to preempt state legislation."

I don't even know where to begin with this. Since our nation was proto-founded nearly 400 years ago, we've had this go around several times before. Whether it was Massachussets threatening to leave, or Maryland threatening to secede, or South Carolina actually seceding, or the failed Articles of Confederation, the battle for the hearts and minds of states' rights has been a consistent tension in our Nation.

This whole notion, though, smacks of some shit that eerily led to one War, one Reconstruction, and violent, phasic enforcement of Federal law for the benefit of some state citizens.

Again, we've seen this before. For the uninitiated, that's Alabama Gov. George Wallace with the proverbial "stand in the schoolhouse door". That "door" is really the old Coliseum, where my grad office was housed. I'll show you a pic of me in front of the plaque one day.

Simply put, States have long contended that they have the right to abnegate/ignore Federal legislation that gores one axe or another. Be it over slavery, integration, or now -immigration and Obama's 'socialism'- it all comes back to one very vile fact, that says terrible things about us: At its heart, the states' righters have racist, fevered imaginings of a better Ur; one founded on the "right people".

Fortunately, it's a settled issue. As if the Civil Rights turmoil of the 50s-70s didn't address it, and as though the Civil War didn't settle it, it's always been the case, that States cannot circumvent or cherry-pick laws they do not like or do not wish to enforce.

As for Arizona's contentions that "no authority has ever been given to the legislative branch, the executive branch or the judicial branch of the federal government to preempt state legislation", well, that's just plain fucking silly.

In fact, I think there is a long-standing document that specifically addresses this twat-tarded idea...if only I could remember.

Oh yea...that's it.

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

Read that last clause carefully.

-d.s

"Vampyre," "Satanist", Rebublican...

One of these things is not like the other....

Then again, maybe so.

Just when I have renewed faith in humanity, we get the story of Jonathan Tepes Sharkey "The Impaler". A crytpo-"vampyre" and admitted "Satanist", you gotta' admit, he doubles his selfish douche factor right there. If there were any doubt about emotionally stunted, emotionally 15 year-olds, then "satanists" and people who truly believe that they can partake of the sanguine arts are right up there.

Yep, seems mature to me.

I usually have no problem with people who want to run around and claim they are actually vampires (correct spelling, yo), claiming that they are acolytes of Hecate, She of the Three Ways, and profess their love for the primal selfishness and inner id within (talkin' to you, "satanists"). However, when they interject themselves into our lives and the public sphere, then we've got beef.

Specifically, Mr. Sharky (no, I'm not calling you the 'fucking impaler'...Nicknames have to be earned, not self-selected, twaddle merchant), is running for President of these United States.

Oh, yes, you heard me correct.

As you'd expect from a self-centered, megalomaniac, Mr. Sharkey is, of course, a Republican. However, given his alleged "Satanism", I'd definitely think Libertarian would be right up his alley. What, then, does someone who professes his love of wrasslin', blood-drinking, and impalement base his platform upon?

Well, let's say that he's certainly not soft on crime.

“‘Certain criminals, instead of being put in jail, they should be brutally tortured and impaled,’ said Sharkey. ‘Upon them being found guilty of their crimes I’ll beat them, torture them, dismember them and decapitate them.’

 

Interesting position for a man to take who's been imprisoned, ran out of jurisdictions and the like for statutory sexual relationships that verge on the pedophilic...

Sharkey has drawn jail time, probation, and controversy over the years for his relationships with women—and the legal system of numerous states, as we've recently reported. "Let's just say I prefer to sink my fangs into younger women," he told us. And his recent YouTube proposal has touched a nerve.

Where I come from, Sharkey, pedophiles are the ones who get tortured, castigated and murdered...even in prison. When a rapist or serial murderer considers your ilk beneath contempt, time to re-evaluate.

Suffice it to say, I'm not at all impressed by a dumpy, balding, egomaniacal scumbucket who preys on 16 year old girls, and -in all other respects- shapes his other decisions for shameless self-promotion of deluded schlock and juvenile trash. It takes damn more than self-serving motivation and half-assed literacy to run for anything other than a 5K.

And, the worst part about this is that true practitioners of alternative faiths, and those with a fashionista towards Dark Victorian and Romanti-goths will be ultimately tarnished by this. Hell, even Anton LaVey is rolling over in his grave right now: Anton was banging Jayne Mansfield and this twat is exploiting children? In all respects this a lose-lose proposition.

So, no, Mr. Sharkey, you're unfit for civil society, unfit to lead, and unfit to be trusted beyond the boundaries of your imminent ankle-collar.

Truth is a bitch.

So, ummm, no. Not voting for ya'.

 

Help us, Jesus...

Indeed. Indeed.

Good Grief, who let the fucking Wingnuts into the Capital --well, besides the mouthbreathers just elected to the 112th Congress?

-d.s

My Public Plea for Constitutional Literacy...

Caveat: This may be the most legal-heavy post I've ever done here, but that's only because the stakes are so high. Carry on.

Just because it comes in your size doesn't mean you should wear it.

Case in point (and, ladies, you're welcome).

Stolen Attributed to SodaHead.

That adage isn't just for clothing either...In fact, it is apropos on other occasions, such as reading. Just because you can read a thing, doesn't necessarily mean that you should read a thing (looking at you Robert Jordan!) or that you will understand said reading material (I took graduate classes in the Philosophy of Physics from Oxford professors...trust me on this one).

Bastard. Hardest. Bastard. Class. Ever. Bastard.

 

And, the adage absolutely is salient to an object of veneration, such as the Constitution of the United States, that brilliant flexible document from the Enlightenment. It should be taken with gravity, because it is weighty, it is important (especially Article III, really go read that one), and absolutely should not be read aloud by those who do not understand it, honor it, or care about the provisions it doesn't like (such as the XIVth Amendment) simply to score cheap political points.

But, that would be asking too much, wouldn't it? Per the BBC

Republicans have opened the second day of their rule in the House of Representatives with a full reading of the US Constitution, the first time the entire document has been read aloud in Congress.

The reading was prompted in part by Tea Party activists concerned that the document has been somewhat sidelined.

Representatives from both parties took turns reading different sections.

The fact that democrats went along with this political grandstanding was absolutely nauseating. Simply nauseating.

I am all for reading the Constitution. I think everyone should read it. My daughter read the entire thing, then paraphrased it in her own 9 year old vernacular. As a result, she's a better person, a better student and a better citizen. Everyone should have to do it. As an AP Government student, I didn't. Taking political science classes in college, I didn't. Hell, even in most law schools it's not required to read the entire thing (really, most people never even read the Public Lands clause until it's time to study for the bar).

So, rather than grandstand, I've decided to perform a public service, one that I hope you sincerely will take me up on. 

1. Below is complete version of the Constitution. Every word, every amendment. Please read it.

The Constitution with Annotations	File Size and Format
Preamble	PDF 56K
Article I. Legislative Department (also see Supplements)	PDF 1.1M
Article II. Executive Department (also see Supplements)	PDF 640K
Article III. Judicial Department (also see Supplements)	PDF 836K
Article IV. States' Relations (also see Supplements)	PDF 249K
Article V. Mode of Amendment	PDF 112K
Article VI. Prior Debts, National Supremacy, Oaths of Office	PDF 164K
Article VII. Ratification	PDF 52K
Amendments to the Constitution	File Size and Format
First Through Tenth Amendments: Bill of Rights	PDF 96K
First Amendment--Religion and Expression (also see Supplements)	PDF 819K
Second Amendment--Bearing Arms	PDF 64K
Third Amendment--Quartering Soldiers	PDF 40K
Fourth Amendment--Search and Seizure (also see Supplements)	PDF 293K
Fifth Amendment--Rights of Persons (also see Supplements)	PDF 458K
Sixth Amendment--Rights of Accused in Criminal Prosecutions (also see Supplements)	PDF 220K
Seventh Amendment--Civil Trials	PDF 108K
Eighth Amendment--Further Guarantees in Criminal Cases (also see Supplements)	PDF 184K
Ninth Amendment--Unenumerated Rights	PDF 60K
Tenth Amendment--Reserved Powers	PDF 96K
Eleventh Amendment--Suits Against States (also see Supplements)	PDF 148K
Twelfth Amendment--Election of President	PDF 56K
Thirteenth Amendment--Slavery and Involuntary Servitude	PDF 76K
Fourteenth Amendment--Rights Guaranteed: Privileges and Immunities of Citizenship, Due Process, and Equal Protection (also see Supplements)	PDF 1.1M
Fifteenth Amendment--Rights of Citizens to Vote	PDF 140K
Sixteenth Amendment--Income Tax	PDF 96K
Seventeenth Amendment--Popular Election of Senators	PDF 80K
Eighteenth Amendment--Prohibition of Intoxicating Liquors	PDF 76K
Nineteenth Amendment--Women's Suffrage Rights	PDF 76K
Twentieth Amendment--Terms of President, Vice President, Members of Congress: Presidential Vacancy	PDF 68K
Twenty-First Amendment--Repeal of Eighteenth Amendment	PDF 88K
Twenty-Second Amendment--Presidential Tenure	PDF 56K
Twenty-Third Amendment--Presidential Electors for the District of Columbia	PDF 44K
Twenty-Fourth Amendment--Abolition of the Poll Tax Qualification in Federal Elections	PDF 56K
Twenty-Fifth Amendment--Presidential Vacancy, Disability, and Inability	PDF 56K
Twenty-Sixth Amendment--Reduction of Voting Age Qualification	PDF 40K
Twenty-Seventh Amendment--Congressional Pay Limitation	PDF 56K

Via the U.S. General Portal Access www.gpoaccess.gov.

 2. That can be daunting, and sometimes thing pertaining to individual liberties, powers of the President, Administrative law as a shadow government and Congressional powers are absolutely inscrutable to the non-legal trained (and, even then, to us).  So, if you find yourself befuddled by the language, try these helpful pointers to understanding the Constitution of the United States:

• Read the history of how it was formed. A more fascinating story will never be told. 
• Check out the Amendments which were proposed, but never ratified by the States.
• For those with no legal education, or for those who truly want to understand how things work, and do so in generally laymen's terms, you will absolutely do no better than Prof. Linder's Constitutional Interpretation site at the University of Missouri-KC, School of Law. This should be required reading for every senior in American High Schools and/or Freshmen in College.
• For those with an advanced understanding, such as law students, poly sci folks, lawyers, and regular ole informed, educated citizens with a fascination for such, I highly recommend Jack Balkin's Balkinization blog. While this largely revolves around Executive powers and the interplay between politics and Constitutional law, the discussions are always lively, and more than well-researched.

Seriously. You owe it to yourself, and you owe it to your country.

You also need to find out who this Virginian is, one who bears a University named in his honor in that State, was the 4th President of the U.S., and absolutely dead-on about most things constitutional...since, you know, he wrote the fucking thing.

-d.s.

Thursday: Political Grindcore

Thanks Napalm Death, post-punk grind godfathers on the Noise/Earache label. After the Peel sessions, these guys went to the fucking A-list.

What is their relevance to today? For a post coming a bit later about hypocrisy...until then, enjoy Napalm Death's "Circle of Hypocrisy" from 1990's seminal "Harmony Corruption".

I got a concussion in the 1991 show in Atlanta when Barney kicked me in the head. I had just dropped a hit of four-way; probably not the wisest choice for first-time acid use.

And, no, I don't regret a second of it.

Lyrics go now:

 

Talk of unity - a far cry from the slander and rivalry
Why should we encourage what in fact is a circle of hypocrisy

Impulsive jealosy
Where;s the so-called harmony?
Internally untrusting
Externally inspiring

Assume your place above the rest
The wisest of the less
The knowledge you'll never possess
Compensated for with single-mindedness

Bored with life you turn to test
Battleground for pettiness
Pick at flies to justify
Temper's raised - You wonder why?

Why??

Supposedly Accessible
Come support our scene
Just another target
Harassed to the extreme

Break from Reality...

There's no other way to describe the average Fox "News" viewer's perception of their understanding of the world, versus what they actually know...

 My good friend Chas. D. would suggest that it's not killing nearly enough...

According to the Alternet report

In eight of the nine questions below, Fox News placed first in the percentage of those who were misinformed (they placed second in the question on TARP). That’s a pretty high batting average for journalistic fraud. Here is a list of what Fox News viewers believe that just aint so:

• 91 percent believe the stimulus legislation lost jobs
• 72 percent believe the health reform law will increase the deficit
• 72 percent believe the economy is getting worse
• 60 percent believe climate change is not occurring
• 49 percent believe income taxes have gone up
• 63 percent believe the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts
• 56 percent believe Obama initiated the GM/Chrysler bailout
• 38 percent believe that most Republicans opposed TARP
• 63 percent believe Obama was not born in the U.S. (or that it is unclear)

That is stultifying stupidity. Right up there with the 7 out of 10 Americans that believe they have an actual, corporeal fallen angel; and the 51% who can name all of the Simpsons but not more than three rights embedded within the First Amendment.

Alternet, not generally known for being a bastion of "fair and balanced" themselves, pretty well sums up how so much disinformation is available in the public's noggins.

Fox News is deliberately misinforming its viewers and it is doing so for a reason. Every issue above is one in which the Republican Party had a vested interest. The GOP benefited from the ignorance that Fox News helped to proliferate. The results were apparent in the election last month as voters based their decisions on demonstrably false information fed to them by Fox News.

The Feds are tracking you...in real time.

Without a warrant.

The DOJ, without a warrant or court order, have been utilizing a system known as "hotwatches" to track individuals of interest. The only time, upon administrative approval of this domestic spying, that a court is involved is not to safeguard the privacy interests of American citizens, but to issue a gag order to the Banks and Credit Card issuers for non-disclosure.

Really, I shouldn't be surprised at this point.

 

Check out the DOJ presentation obtained through FOIA requests by privacy advocate Christopher Soghoian


DOJ powerpoint presentation on Hotwatch surveillance orders of credit card transactions    


Lest anyone think the damages wrought by the Bush Administration (and sadly, still continued by the Obama administration) simply don't affect anyone but foreigners and terrorists, let this be a warning to you. Our civil liberties have been eroded so terribly over the past decade, that we may never fully get them back. And, don't count on courts to help you either; the federal courts have turned into one huge rubber-stamp for the creeping surveillance society that is a very real threat to us all. Police state? Not yet. Getting there? Bet your ass, we are.

Remember when the boys in blue were your neighbors and "protected and served", and were not militarized thugs who treated every citizen as a potential enemy.

-d.s.

Things you'll regret later in life...

 Aaarrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhh

Sorry, my head is about to absolutely asplode, so I took a much needed break from reality this weekend with some Netflix movies and a lot of diet root beer (I really should just switch to bourbon). With the move to Hawaii, and coordinating cross-country vacay, trying to study for another bar exam, and so forth, I am about as stressed as I've ever been (divorce excepted).

That whining aside, and my being interminably pissed at the IDF and the Likudniks (at home and abroad), I think we need to reflect on regret. And this, my friends, is what you will regret more than anything on this planet...A Sarah Palin Ass-Tattoo....

 But, don't worry, the Marine who mutilated himself with this monstrosity at least has good political reasons for doing so. According to Mr. Lepping "She's the hottest Cougar in the Republican party".

 On second thought, his reasoning is as shitty as his politics.

Now, I devoutly trust that your head has exploded.

.
 

Killing One Human Being is Killing Humanity as a Whole...

No snark, pithiness, or asshole commentary. Seriously, just an excerpt of the Turkish ambassador's speech to the UN Security Counsel yesterday, in the wake of Israel's murderous piracy in international waters. I am just as sick to my stomach as humanly possibly.

The full speech is available at Ankara's paper of record, The Hurriyet Daily:

Mr. President,
I appear before you today as a result of a very sad and tragic occasion where one state member of this august house has committed a serious crime in total disregard of all the values we have vowed to uphold since the establishment of the United Nations system.

I am distraught by the fact that the Israeli Defense Forces stormed a multinational, civilian endeavor carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza in international waters, 72 nautical miles off the coast to be exact, killing and wounding many civilians. This action was uncalled for. Israeli actions constitute a grave breach of international law.

In simpler terms, this is tantamount to banditry and piracy. It is murder conducted by a state. It has no excuses, no justification whatsoever. A nation state that follows this path has lost its legitimacy as a respectful member of the international community.

The multinational civilian flotilla composed of a few ships and a total of around 600 people from 32 countries, carrying humanitarian aid to impoverished Gaza was unlawfully ambushed early today. The sole aim of this civilian mission was to provide much needed relief to the children of occupied Gaza who have been under illegal and inhumane Israeli blockade for years. The ships were hardly a threat to the State of Israel or any other state for that matter. Humanitarian aid was on its way to children who have been stripped of their opportunities to live as children and enjoy all the basic amenities that your and our children take for granted. These children do not know where their next meal is coming from. They either have no shelter or live in extremely deprived conditions. They receive no education; they have no future where they can contribute to a peaceful and stable Palestine and region.

Mr. President,
The ships carry amenities and facilities such as playgrounds that would remind the children of their childhoods. They carry very basic needs like cancer medication and powder milk to enhance child growth and health in the absence of milk proper. The international community has been a witness to this humanitarian tragedy for years, failing to act. And today this is where we are. Today we have observed through live coverage an act of barbarism where provision of humanitarian aid has been punished through aggression in high seas, 72 miles from international waters. Today many humanitarian aid workers return in bodybags. And Israel has blood on its hands. This is not off the coast of Somalia or in the archipelagos of the Far East where piracy is still a phenomenon. This is the Mediterranean where such acts are not the norm. This is where we need common sense. This is where civilization has emerged and flourished and where the Abrahamic religions took root. These are religions that preach peace and teach us to extend our hands when others are in need.

Fuck Israel, fuck the Likud, fuck the bankrupt and immoral occupancy of the West Bank, fuck the immoral and bankrupt blockade, and fuck Washington for coddling this state sponsor of terror and band of pirating, war criminals. Shame on you all.





.

Hasn't Texas fucked America enough?

Coming to a Texas School District near you....

I don't even know what to make of Texas anymore. It's as though the lessons of Kansas' abortive, god-forsaken, politicized and grossly inaccurate textbooks taught them absolutely nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. We've all read about many of the crass examples of the new, revisionist history being shoved at children, but there is a whoooole cadre of equally silly shit in there too.

Newsweek has a good little article about the 10 silliest changes to the curriculum. If you ever wanted to be depressed, take a read. However, here's a snippet. For instance, American Imperialism is no longer included in the curriculum; instead, children will told it was "American Expansionism". However, when European Nations' expansion is discussed, it's labeled "Imperialism". And, of course, when the discussion of Russia's expansionism crops up, the Texas brain trusts call it "Communist Aggression".

Filthy commie...

Here's a peek, and be sure to read the whole article (here).

4. Currently, Texan students are expected to learn about "the impact of muckrakers and reform leaders" such as Upton Sinclair and W.E.B. DuBois. McLeroy instead wants students to "contrast the tone" of such people "versus the optimism of immigrants including Jean Pierre Godet as told in Thomas Kinkade's The Spirit of America." Kinkade is the schlocky, sentimental painter popular in malls everywhere.

6. Some of the changes aren't political; they're just random. Thanks to a successful lobbying effort by a Republican from suburban Houston, Texas textbooks will now include a reference to 1920s singer and composer Julius Bledsoe. "How could any of us forget his rendition of 'Old Man River' in Showboat?" Cargill said.

 Fuck you, Texas...Right in the ear

.

Monday begins the week with a sing-along...

Too bad the Kermit-clone here is singing about the benefits of 'having your papers'. Good ole Jan Brewer, Gov. of Arizona...welcome to George Wallace-level infamy.

Rightfully so.

.

Congress out of touch? Absolutely.

You mean this isn't Afghanistan?

We all lament how Congress is out of touch with the concerns of regular Americans. It's as if the American people have some ideas what we want, and how to accomplish it, then Congress will do the exact-damned-opposite. And, in the rare cases when they do get off their asses, the sausages they tend to crank out have ridiculously long implementation times, they sunset or terminate, and -usually- only half ass the job.

 Member of Congress listening to his constituents' concerns....

It's one of the many reasons why I've supported a basic Common Sense test for prospective members of congress:

• How much is a gallon of milk
• What is minimum wage
• How much is a gallon of gas
• What's the difference between ground round and ground chuck
• Name two fast food restaurants with a dollar menu
• What is the name of your community public school (magnets not included)
• Is it cheaper to buy a whole chicken or cornish hens
• What's the best commercial barbecue sauce
• If you don't bake, what kind of bread do you use
• How many miles is it to your public library
• Does your neighborhood have a used book store
• What is the internet

The Candidate's inability to answer  of any of these questions automatically disqualifies him/her from representing "the people"...

 Can't we just form a committee to investigate these troubling issues?

However, we didn't know how pitifully, painfully out of touch these knuckleheads were until the Senate began debating a cap on fees for ATM transactions. As anyone in America with a bank account knows, if you go to get cash from another institution's ATM machine you are charged $2-3 bucks for a $.36 transaction...on top of what your own bank charges you. 

Are you sitting down? Please, I hope so, because this is what  United States' Senators had to say about ATMs. Per the Omaha World Herald

Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., who said he has used ATMs five or fewer times in his life, likened the Harkin proposal to government price controls -- and he opposes it. “I just worry about that kind of entry into the private sector,” said Johanns, a member of the Senate Banking Committee.

“I've never used an ATM, so I don't know what the fees are,” Nelson said, adding that he gets his cash from bank tellers, just not automatic ones. “It's true, I don't know how to use one.

“But I could learn how to do it just like I've . . . I swipe to get my own gas, buy groceries. I know about the holograms.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he hadn't thoroughly reviewed the proposal. Asked outside the Senate chamber whether he uses an ATM card, he said, “I've got a credit card, but I don't use it for cash.”

 Pictured: Senator Ben Nelson's version of grocery stores...

So, there you have it. One Senator doesn't know the difference between a fucking credit card and an ATM/debit card; another one (on the Banking Committee no less) has used an ATM card less than five times in his life; and, yet another thinks bar codes are holograms...and, more damning, is going to vote on ATM fees, when he's never used an ATM card, and has no idea what these fees are. 

It's definitely time to wipe the slate clean folks.

.

Spaß mit Hitler

Yea, Hitler parodies have gotten out of hand, but, there are some actually amusing ones out there...if you look hard enough. So, for everyone not in Germany, where even this satire is probably proscribed, enjoy a few chuckles at the expense of dumb Americans and one of the ultimate bad guys in history

Freestylin' on the Munich Mic.

Yes, there are too many; and, yes, Downfall (Der Untergang) actually has more than one scene.

And, by far, the best one...Hitler finds out dumb Americans are calling each other Nazis...

.

Slow. Fucking. Clap.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Conservative Libertarian
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

John Stewart, take your bow...

South Dakota: The land that science forsook

I've dumped on Missouri many, many times as my second-least favorite state in the union. Number 1, is and shall remain, the State of South Dakota. This god-forsaken banana republic is run by a cadre of ill-educated, xenophobic, racist, theocratic boobs.

 

The only good thing to come out of this shithole were the tribes who slaughtered Custer's illegitimate band of terrorists.

This most recent bill, in essence denying climatic change, is but one illustration of the typical South Dakotan mindset:

  WHEREAS, carbon dioxide is not a pollutant but rather a highly beneficial ingredient for all plant life on earth. Many scientists refer to carbon dioxide as "the gas of life"; and... 
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Eighty-fifth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the South Dakota Legislature urges that instruction in the public schools relating to global warming include the following:

            (1)    That global warming is a scientific theory rather than a proven fact;

            (2)    That there are a variety of climatological, meteorological, astrological, thermological, cosmological, and ecological dynamics that can effect world weather phenomena and that the significance and interrelativity of these factors is largely speculative; and

            (3)    That the debate on global warming has subsumed political and philosophical viewpoints which have complicated and prejudiced the scientific investigation of global warming phenomena; and

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Legislature urges that all instruction on the theory of global warming be appropriate to the age and academic development of the student and to the prevailing classroom circumstances.

That's a great piece of writing: Cosmology and Astrology influence climate? This is one of the least intelligent, shoddily written, pieces of shit to come out of a state besotted by Fox News mentality and reasoning. That's a great fucking job there, guys. But, I applaud it, and think it needs to go further. I propose that we start teaching the following as well...

Phrenology

I do believe there is something to this whole "criminals have sloping brows" theory....

Birth Order Theory

 

Those damned middle kids are always so ambitious...

Alchemy

  
 

As a "science" it's definitely been around longer than climatology. Now, where's my phlogiston?

Divination

  

 C'mon, if we're willing to concede that astrological factors are important in climate research, then the Tarot Deck is a valid instrument for those purposes.

Eugenics...\really, what could go wrong?

  Besides that...

I have no idea what the hell is wrong with that state, those people and that entire vacuum of intellect, but -even from Omaha- I think they are way the hell too close to me, and I can't wait to escape all of these imbecilic, shitty, landlocked states and the people that populate them.

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