Category Archives: Comments and Observations

In what other profession… – Topeka K-12

So, this teacher is in Kansas and is front and center in the war on education and basic logic. His complaint -and it is valid – is that he faces all kinds of hatred and opposition from those who feel that being an expert in his field actually makes him unable to access how his job should be. And he makes some good analogies.

That said, he forgets one thing. Four years ago, the same people damning him – literally – for having an opinion on how he should be evaluated made a hero out of “Joe the Plumber”.

“Joe” was actually named Samuel. Samuel had no plumber’s license, had a history of domestic disturbance, and began the long line of Republicans disrespecting Barack Obama to his face, namely because the color of said face made it seemingly okay to be rude to.

Samuel the unlicensed plumber was making about $40k a year. His complaint was that if he started his own business Obama’s proposed tax rates would bankrupt his small business. His small fictional business.

The higher taxes would kick in at either $200,000 or $250,000 a year. Even with a shitty accountant, Samuel would have had to make at least $400,000 before his tax rate would fall into that range. Most small businesses, particularly new ones, would have a lot of write-offs, like, say, salaries.

So, the unlicensed plumber would have to a) have a business that made 10 times more than he currently was, b) gain clients even though he didn’t have a license, and b) would have to be completely inept at tax accounting.

But people accepted this concept as reality. They made a hero out of an uncertified wife beater.

THAT is the kind of person who does not trust a licensed, trained educator. That is the kind of person whose opinion really shouldn’t matter, but strangely does all the time.

What biology teaches about the GOP predicament | Jay Bookman

While this article argues the the GOP is a textbook case of adapt or die, it may be missing the point.

Gingrich may be challenging a few of the economic fundamentals or the GOP, but he embraces and exemplifies the hypocrisy, bigotry, and faux patriotism the party has come to be known by many Americans.

Sure, he – for the moment – sees unbridled capitalism as a threat to democracy. Then again, I knew that pretty much by my 12th birthday with no coaching or degrees required. So, really, how smart is he to have just had that occur to him?

No, this is a party increasingly made up of and working for those who have wealth or think if they pray hard enough, they’ll earn it. Or at least be able to keep a better standard of living than the mud people taking over “their” country. Newt is just a splinter off of the twisted branch they are cultivating.

The Public Respects Civility, But Rewards Rudeness : NPR

More on Jan Brewja and her rudeness.

In short, conservatives these days are defined by people wrapping themselves in the flag, calling themselves patriots, who then do everything they can to destroy rights, oppress people, disrespect anyone who does not look like them and then call those acts “compassionate” or “American”.

They are neither.

Conservative opinion makers these days write books with Old Glory taking up the cover with titles and subject matter about how America is finished, done, ruined.

Hmm. In my lifetime it has been a mostly Republican administration at the helm (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush the Elder and Lesser come to mind). Congress is full of GOP “leaders” like Gingrich and Agent Orange. The Supreme Court has been a conservative stronghold, giving elections to people without a worry about those pesky voters and letting corporations have a pulse and a blank check to take over the country.

Drunk with power, lacking respect or shame, these folks apparently *want* America to lose. Hell, they spent time cheering us lot getting an Olympic games. Who does that? And for why? How the hell is that patriotic?

But it is never their fault when bad things happen to our nation.

Bill Maher put it best the other night:

“And this is what I want to say to them, is like stuff like this strikes me, like saying that you’re threatened, Newt Gingrich calling Obama the ‘food stamp President’ because he took office in a recession when people were needing more food stamps. It’s like calling George Bush the ‘planes crashing into buildings President.'”

Jan Brewer vs. Obama: Can you respect the presidency but insult the president? – CSMonitor.com

Conservatives always go on and on about how they are the patriots. They are “compassionate” and “Christian” and defenders of freedom and liberty. They “support the troops”, implying of course that YOU do not. They have been “taxed enough already”.

In this political season, we have seen these put as a lie. Mitt Romney pays less in taxes than even a tight slot machine gives in payouts. Angry conservative debate crowds have yelled for people without medical insurance to die, have heckled gay soldiers, cheered on Newt Gingrich as he calls minorities lazy welfare cheats, and so on.

This past week, Jan “Bruja” Brewer, governor of Aryzona, decided to push this a little further, wagging her finger in the President’s face like he is a schoolchild in need of a lecture.

Here’s how it actually looks:

Folks still say this isn’t about race. They are either deeply deluded or just moronic.

This is not about policy disagreements, this is disrepect. From Joe Wilson a couple years ago to this (already established) racist governor, this is about the president being black. We’ve had parties since right after the dawn of this nation and barring slave owning senators beating other lawmakers, we normally don’t get this level of hatred and outright uncivil behavior.

This isn’t a drunk guy in a bar pissed off. We’re talking governors, and senators and representatives in the national government. Arguably among the top 600 or so folks in our nation, behaving like angry Klucker mob members.

It needs to stop. There is NO hope for any of that mob to ever earn my vote again, but for the good of the nation – and for their own good as the face of this nation changes – it needs to stop.

Gerald Goddamned Ford by Paul Constant – Seattle News – The Stranger, Seattle’s Only Newspaper

Just ran into this critique/obituary of the Ford presidency today.

Cannot say I have much I can say wrong about it. If Nixon went to prison, the man who followed him – and his cronies – would have been pariahs in the GOP. Plus, any president who overstepped his authority would have seen he could do time for it.

Hell, probably any Nixon appointees would have been sullied whether they deserved it or not.

Let me take the article a step further. Reinquist probably never becomes Chief Justice. Reagan would NEVER have deigned to try the Iran-Contra disaster. No Cheney, no Rumsfeld.

Bush the Lesser couldn’t have been president as Bush v. Gore would never have made it to the Supreme Court. Even so, even he wasn’t dumb enough to invade Iraq with the specter of prison for lying to the nation. Plus, his cast of puppet masters, from Cheney on down, would be off shooting their friends in the face on a ranch as they’d have been cast out of government.

Sheesh.

Yeah, thanks for nothing Jerry.

Pol’s cat killed; “Liberal” scrawled on body – CBS News

Why do conservatives hate animals so much?

Or, maybe they just like to kill things that can’t fight back.

Who knows? Either way, how you treat animals tells me a lot about how you treat those you don’t agree with. Side with the animal killers and you increasingly have very little solid ground to make a reasoned argument on.

Time to speak up again this kind of thing.

What if ‘Citizens United’ Actually United the Citizens? | The Nation

Unfortunately, probably just wishful thinking that people power will overturn corporate money and influence any time soon.

Conservatives will soon listen to their corporate masters and ignore that individual freedoms are being bought and sold by their party’s agenda. Progressive voices, including my Senator Al Franken, will worry more about Hollywood’s bleating about being ripped off (at $8.50 a movie ticket I would argue it goes both ways, pals) than about freedom of expression and freedom from censorship.

Face it folks, the internet was created with “evil” government money, propagated by “socialist” high education systems, and is now being co-opted as yet another way to make a buck.

Shameful.

Heritage Foundation comes out against SOPA | Marketplace from American Public Media

We Americans may not agree on what we will use our freedom for, but even the bigots at the Heritage Foundation are against SOPA.

Of course, they likely see it as a pro-Hollywood gimme and I just see it as propping up a dead and dying industry, like tax breaks for oil companies.

Either way, thanks for picking freedom of expression for once. Can I interest you in supporting marriage equality?