Author Archives: John Wallenfeldt

Punishing the Unemployed

Paul Krugman points out the sick thought pattern that conservatives consider rational: that the unemployed want to sit at home collecting 60% of their former pay.

Bob Cesca tackles the issue as well, including this quote by Atrios:

Our elites are populated with significant numbers of people who truly believe that the biggest problem this country faces is that poor people have it a bit too good.

It’s all very depressing.

Republicans, until proven otherwise, are vile, evil elitist bastards who care nothing about their fellow Americans in need.

Are Libraries Necessary, or a Waste of Tax Money?

Everything you need to know about the celebration of ignorance that is conservative thought is in this odious commentary.

Sure, Republicans have never seen a war they didn’t like (well, except for any forms of genocide on non-whites) and they love giving $35 billion or so to oil companies, etc. but “wasting money” on libraries? That’s horrible!

For what it’s worth, here’s the rebuttal from the Chicago Public Library Commissioner.

Think Again: Ronald Reagan – By Peter Beinart | Foreign Policy

So Reagan didn’t have the bloodlust conservatives now try to give him. I mean, face it, you’ve got to have stones to bankrupt our nation in a game of “let’s buy the most nukes” with the Soviets.

You’ve apparently also got to be bright enough to not actually use all the bombers and tanks just for the hell of it. Something lost on our last Republican president.

In short, if the article is true, Reagan was less of a mouth breather than I give him credit for, and neocons are full of it. As they usually are.

BP’s Social Media Campaign Going About as Well as Capping That Well

Every time I see a BP ad I have two co-existing thoughts.

1. I wish they’d spend the ad money on paying some shrimper or local fish shack owner their screw up is running out of business.

2. Wouldn’t it be fun to vigorously and repeatedly kick Tony Hayward in the tailbone?

So yeah, BP’s ad campaign is failing in my eyes as well as others.

What *is* vastly entertaining is the parody BP Twitter account BPGlobalPR (check it out here).

More people follow them than the useless and not-quite-authentic-sounding official BP account. They’ve even been asked to declare they are not official.

Which, you know, is pretty sad that an obvious parody account is been taken as real. It says a hell a lot more at the mishandling of the situation AND the message than of the folks poking fun at you.