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Please Stop Wiping Your Ass With My Flag

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I am FED UP with the asshats among us using the American flag to spit on other people’s faces. This is an epidemic, and it needs to stop.

I can’t believe I’m writing about these idiots, but they perfectly exemplify a trend that pisses me off to no end.

I couldn’t avoid the story of five boys in a California high school being sent home from school for wearing American flag gear. Here’s the synopsis:

Five high school boys decided that it would be cute if they all went to school wearing American flag laden clothes to school on cinco de mayo. Their principal responded to this by completely ignoring the freedom of speech that we enjoy in this country, and sending them home when the boys refused to take off the “offending” flag apparel. This stupid response by the principal turned this into a national news story.

Let me be clear here, the principal was a jackass for sending them home, or even making an issue out of their clothes. He succeeded in turning five little shitbags into “national heroes”.And he succeeded in eviscerating freedom of speech.

These kids aren’t heroes. They’re shitbags. They thought they were being cute, by sending an “anti” message, draped in the American flag. There’s a Facebook page supporting these little assholes now, and they’re receiving undeserved praise in the national coverage they’re getting. They weren’t sending a pro-America message here. They used the American flag to spit in someone’s face which to me, is as anti-American as you can be.  And their parents, who called in the media are proof that the ass didn’t fall far from the cheek. Righteous indignation over a situation where your kid was an asshole is not good parenting.

Using the American flag to denigrate immigrants fundamentally ignores the rich history of immigration in this country. We’re a country that has, since its inception fought for equality and acceptance for everyone that lives here. In the grand scheme of civilizations, we have raced through issues like slavery, racial equality, gender equality, and now, gay rights. In 245 short years, we’ve leveled the playing field in ways that no other country has ever managed to do. Sure, there’s always opposition to equality, but that opposition consistently loses in America because we’re better than the least among us. Less than 80 years ago, the “loathsome” immigrants du jour were the Irish. Today, it’s Mexicans. The rhetoric is exactly the same then as it is now. We moved on then, and we will move on from this because we’re America. We don’t tolerate this crap against any group for very long.

I am so sick of people wrapping their intolerance up in the American flag. This practice is everywhere; the tea party, far right wing websites, militia websites, anti-gay sites, anti-Muslim sites, anti immigrant sites. You name the “anti”, and I will show you their propaganda wrapped in an American flag.

I’m so OVER people using my flag to be against something.

Why don’t you try being FOR something for a change? Patriots are PRO American. Using our flag as a weapon does NOT make you a patriot, and you should not be shielded from being labeled the asshole that you are, just because you decided to use it.

I understand that you’re so full of shit, that it’s pouring out of you uncontrollably. Can’t you find something to wipe all of that shit off with, other than my flag?

We need to take back our flag. We need to use it for good. I’m ashamed of the way it’s being used now.

And by the way, the situation in California is now spiraling out of control. Apparently, 85 Hispanic kids have staged a walk-out in response to what happened. Great, we’re going to have a race riot over one idiot principal and five jackass students.

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Little Help, Republicans?

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So everyone knows about Faisal Shahzad by now. He made a lame attempt to detonate a bomb in Times Square last Saturday night. He parked an SUV which contained a bomb that didn’t really have a snow ball’s chance in hell of detonating properly, right in the heart of Times Square.

As an aside, he parked that SUV exactly one block away from where I was hanging out two nights earlier. As a New Yorker, these attempts are personal.

Back to Shahzad. Once he was arrested, fifty three hours after he attempted to detonate the bomb, a couple of troubling and confusing narratives emerged.

The first wave of reporting on this story after his arrest came with questions about how he was able to get on the plane. The criticism over this continues as I write this. I cannot be more perplexed by this attitude. Color me stupid, but I see fifty three hours between attempting to set off a bomb, to being hauled off in handcuffs as a giant victory. I take great comfort in how this was handled and I slept like a baby last night, with the knowledge that NYPD, the FBI, and Homeland Security moved on this so quickly and effectively. And I must say that this is a refreshing since I’m used to the perpetrator of an attack on my city never being put into handcuffs.

I know, I know, there’s one big difference between the Shahzad situation and the Bin Laden circumstances in that, Shahzad was in the US. Okay, I’m willing to make a concession for that. But who sent the anthrax? How long did it take to catch that guy? And where were the people that are unhappy now, over the fact that Shahzad got on the plane back then? I don’t recall hearing much criticism from them, over the fact that the anthrax sender was never apprehended. And where were they when we lost Bin Laden on Tora Bora, because we only had him surrounded on three sides? Where was the outrage then? Good lord, a fucking sheep herder could have pointed out the flaw in that genius plan! Where were all of those crack journalists then?

The other confusing issue that I’ve been hearing is a debate over whether Shahzad should have been read his Miranda rights. This made me wonder which part of US citizen was confusing to these people. Are we seriously debating over whether a US citizen should have access to our justice system? What I found more confusing is that the crowd that is advocating for denying due process are republicans. I’m not sure that they understand their own rhetoric.

Do they distrust the government, or are they so certain the government got the right guy, that they don’t feel due process is necessary? Which is it? Do you irrationally hate government, or do you have unquestioning faith in it?

Is there a republican out there that can help me out?

My confusion leaves me with the impression that you don’t believe anything that you say because what you believe in seems to change, based on who you’re saying it about.

Here’s the problem with this tactic; When you’re willing to contradict yourself to the point of embarrassment, you end up with a very tiny crowd of people that are willing to keep listening. In going after Obama like rabid dogs, you’ve completely eviscerated any credibility you may once have had.

I’m talking to you, John McCain. In ten short years you went from a rational republican that occasionally voted his conscience, to a crazy old man that may well lose a primary to a politician that we already know is corrupt. Peter King and Joe Lieberman, you both get a pass for your hypocrisy because you’ve both always been self serving fools. Embarrassing yourselves is a natural state of being for you. Senators Cornyn and Kyl, you are an embarrassment to your party. Marco Rubio has added his name to the list of republicans that hate the American justice system.

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m not shy about spanking Obama when he deserves to be spanked. But what’s going here isn’t rational because it has very little to do with Obama. When you criticize how this whole thing went down, you’re denigrating New York and I won’t have it. To quote Jon Stewart, “Go fuck yourselves”.

This was a victory for America. It was a victory in that, the community sprung into action minutes after that SUV was parked. It was a victory in that, the police immediately realized that they were facing a serious situation and acted accordingly. It was a victory in that, the suspect was apprehended two short days after his attempt.

I’m sorry for everyone that can’t celebrate America’s victories, because they’re so embroiled in their petty bullshit, that they are incapable of taking pride in their country anymore.


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Immigration Fun Facts

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I hate to hammer away at Arizona, but I’ve been hearing many Arizonans defend this new immigration law for the past week. Most of the comments are along the lines of, “If you had to deal with the huge immigration problem we’re dealing with, you’d agree with this law”.

No I wouldn’t. And let me share some facts with you, for why I wouldn’t.

Let’s start with the fact that Arizona has the 6th largest illegal immigrant population in the country. California has seven times the number of illegal immigrants that Arizona has, putting it on top of the list. Texas comes in next with three times Arizona’s illegal immigrant population. New York is next with double Arizona’s number. Illinois has 30% more illegal immigrants than Arizona. And just above Arizona is Florida, with roughly 25% more illegal immigrants than Arizona.

Four out of the five states that have more immigrants than Arizona are donor states meaning that, they get less money back from the federal government than they pay in. CA and NY get back 79 cents for every dollar they pay in federal taxes. IL gets back 73 cents for every dollar it pays. TX gets back 94 cents for every dollar it pays in federal taxes.

Arizona is a recipient state. It gets $1.30 for every dollar it pays in federal taxes.

Illegal immigrants are not destroying your economy. If they were, California would be fucked. The fact of the matter is, that California has the 8th largest economy in the world. Not in the country, but in the world.

In fact if you look at GDP by state, you’ll notice that the states that top the list are familiar. The top five (in order) are CA, NY, TX, FL, and IL.

I want to be very clear in what I’m saying here. I am not suggesting that the high number of illegal immigrants is the reason why the top producing states are on top. There are obviously a number of factors involved, not the least of which is resources.

But I am saying that illegal immigrants definitely are not destroying your economy. There is absolutely no empirical evidence to suggest otherwise.

All of that crap that you hear about what illegal immigrants are costing each state are completely unsubstantiated. There’s no way to look at the data that I just gave you, while still holding onto that myth. Again, California would be fucked if that were the case. If those assertions were even remotely true, then the illegal immigrant population would be draining the states with the top GDP in the country. They’re not.

As an aside, Arizona’s illegal immigration population has dropped by 7% in the past two years. Why? It’s the economy, stupid! When the economy tanked, jobs dried up for everyone. When the jobs went away, so did the illegal immigrants.

This supports my earlier post about how to deal with illegal immigration if you’re really serious about ending it. If we didn’t have eager employers, we wouldn’t have hungry illegals.

So please Arizonans, don’t hate the playa, hate the game.

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Ideological Handcuffs

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I’m depressed.

As you guys know, I’m a news junkie. I listen to right wing news, liberal news, conservative talk, liberal talk, you name it, I engage in it. My news addiction had become the bane of my existence.

I’m not depressed because of a giant oil spill in the Gulf Of Mexico. I’m not depressed because a lunatic tried to detonate a bomb in Times Square. I’m not even depressed because our financial system is hanging by a thread. I’m depressed because all of that media that I diligently take in every day is either batshit crazy, or utterly uninformative.

Let’s start with the BP oil disaster. The right wing media has been cooking up a conspiracy theory that the whole situation wasn’t an accident, but that it was sabotage. I’m not going to go into details about the conspiracy theories, because that would be a giant waste of my time and yours. But Media Matters has compiled a good synopsis. The crux of it is basically that the white house orchestrated the spill so that President Obama could renege on his offshore drilling plans.

Really? He created a monumental oil spill that will potentially fuck up three states so that he doesn’t have to risk expanding offshore drilling, which he’s opposed to, because it could fuck up nearby states? Has anybody ever heard anything more stupid? We just lived through eight years of George W Bush, and this is still the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard!

I’m not depressed because the right wing is crazy and stupid. Sadly, I’ve come to expect that they will be. I’m depressed because there is a legitimate criticism of Obama that we’ll never hear. Obama never should have consented to expand offshore drilling. We have mountains of evidence to show that it can’t be done with 100% certainty that something won’t go wrong. I’m not opposed to it because it sounds bad. I’m opposed to it because logic and reasoning tell me that when you’re drilling under 16,000 pounds of pressure per square inch, a lot of shit can go wrong. And with that kind of pressure, the tiniest thing that goes wrong, rips the whole pipeline open. The legitimate attack on Obama is that his administration didn’t do enough to impose stronger safety regulations on the oil industry and that, like Bush before him, he let the oil industry largely police themselves. But we’ll never hear that from the opposition because they are wearing ideological handcuffs. They want offshore drilling, regardless of the very real and now, demonstrable downside. This is an ideology that isn’t based in facts therefore, it is an an ideology that is impervious to cogent debate. The right wing, who hated Ted Kennedy never went after him for blocking the building of wind farms in his backyard. THERE was a legitimate criticism of someone they loathed, and yet they never raised it because they don’t want to get off our oil dependency. Ideological handcuffs are preventing them from taking legitimate shots at the opposition.

Let’s move onto the failed attempt to bomb Times Square on Saturday. As usual, the right wing was a bottomless pit of useless, uninformative, and crazy. FOX spent its time trying to prop up the Bush administration by falsely claiming that there were no successful attacks on US soil after 9/11. Brian Kilmeade had his panties in a bunch over the reports that the suspect was (OMG) white! Let me digress for a moment to say to Mr. Kilmeade, “Hey ASSHOLE, I don’t care what color this psychopath is. I just want him caught, and so should you!”. I have to admit that my initial reaction to this stupidity was to hope that the suspect was not only white, but was married to Brian Kilmeade’s cousin. But then I realized that my reaction would make me as guilty and stupid as FOX. I don’t have a racial dog in this race and neither should anyone else. I’m a New Yorker. The only thing I want is to catch this shitbag.

Based on the information that we had at the time, shouldn’t the conversation have been about the rise of domestic terrorism? Or maybe, we could have had a discussion about how people become radicalized. But no, we can’t have that from the right because implying that crazy doesn’t have a minimum melanin requirement would contradict their narrative that brown people are to be feared. It’s not terrorism if the terrorist isn’t Muslim. Guess what? Crazy doesn’t have a color. It’s not born, it’s created. We need to talk about how it’s created and why it’s created.

Now onto financial reform. I’ve realized that the worst sources for any sort of information on economic matters are CNBC, FOX Business, Bloomberg, or any other business channel. None of them will report what actually caused the collapse, or what needs to be done to ensure that it will never be done again. They can’t. Watch the commercials that air on these networks, and you’ll see why they can’t. When a company is spending $50M a month on advertising on your network, are you really free to report them in a negative light? Have you ever wondered why you see commercials on TV for products you can’t buy? Why would Dow Chemical, Lockheed Martin, or Boeing spend money on prime time ad buys when you can’t buy their products? Because they’re buying insurance. The networks they advertise with would never risk losing that giant pile of ad dollars, just to keep you informed.If you’re watching news or commentary on television, you need to pay more attention to the advertisers than you do to the content.

Here’s a great clip of audio from a comedian named Jimmy Dore, talking about NBC’s reporting on the financial reform bill. It’s thirteen minutes long, but well worth the listen:

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I’m depressed because a freaking comedian is more informative than any of the news outlets that are available to me. He makes an excellent point about how network news is completely devoid of anything resembling investigative journalism anymore. They have become stenographers, relaying information from both sides, making sure that they create a false equivalency in the process.

Our media is handcuffed by financial interests.

Ironically, the best source of legitimate criticism for the Obama administration on television comes from Jon Stewart. Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann come in second and third to the comedian.

My favorite source for intelligent, unbiased analysis is The Young Turks. Give them a listen. You can get the first hour of their podcast for free through iTunes. I didn’t love them when I first started listening two years ago, but they’re the first thing I listen to every day now. They aren’t handcuffed in the same way that everyone else out there is.

I’m depressed that comedians are doing a better job of informing Americans than traditional media is. These ideological and financial handcuffs that plague our media is the reason why most Americans have no idea what’s what anymore.

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Small Government, My Ass!

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I’m sure everyone is familiar with the new Arizona immigration law by now. You know, the law that requires roughly three million US citizens of Hispanic decent living in Arizona to keep their proof of residency or citizenship with them at all times. I’m sure that everyone is aware that this law was passed by republicans in the Arizona legislature and signed into law by the republican Governor of Arizona.

What you may not know, is that ten other states with republican legislatures are considering passing very similar “show your papers” laws.

Republican legislatures in Oklahoma just passed a charming abortion law. It’s charming in that, a doctor can no longer be held liable for NOT telling a pregnant woman that her fetus has debilitating birth defects. You read that correctly, a doctor in Oklahoma is not required to tell an expectant woman that her fetus will be born with a condition that ensures that the child will never live a life without constant care. So when a doctor tells a woman that everything is perfect with her pregnancy, she really has no reason NOT to spend the next 8 months wondering if her baby is going to be healthy. But don’t worry, there’s no reason to believe that stress is detrimental to a pregnant woman or her fetus.

I haven’t gotten to the disgusting part of this new law yet so brace yourselves. A woman that wants to get an abortion in Oklahoma is now required to have a vaginal ultrasound, during which the doctor is required to describe the heart, limbs, and organs of the fetus to the woman. And if you’re wondering NO, there are no provisions to exempt victims of rape or incest from this requirement. As Randi Rhodes put it, why stop there? Why not require that giant balloons that read “it’s a boy!” be in the room? Why not have the baby shower during the procedure? The nurse can read from a book of baby names, it will be fabulous!

I guess that the reasoning here is that if a woman wants an abortion, it’s obvious that she hasn’t thought it through. A vaginal ultrasound wherein the doctor describes the fetus to the pregnant woman will help her to make a sound, intellectual decision, based on what would be in the best interest of her and the child.

I have to wonder what’s next? Will we restrict freedom of religion? You can choose to be Jewish or Muslim, but only after having spent a year at a Catholic seminary.

All of this is brought to you by the party of small government. Why do we still buy into this charade that republicans stand for small government? The party that brought us warrantless wiretapping and electronic surveillance on anyone they choose, stands for small government?

Let me ask you a question. Which of these scenarios feels like big government to you;

Government regulators preventing big banks from trading derivatives with money they don’t have

OR

A camera forced into your vagina?

How about having to produce a birth certificate to a police officer while going to get money out of an ATM? Does that feel like big government?

The paradox that keeps being thrown at us about what our political parties are must stop! It’s complete bullshit, and we need to stop letting people get away with it.

Republicans aren’t against big government in any way that serves the American people well.

I don’t know what the fuck democrats are for anymore, but I do know that they have never advocated for shoving a camera in my vagina, while creating a scene that should be in a Freddy Kreuger movie. And they’ve never insisted that I produce my passport, just because an illegal immigrant is working for pennies in order to increase the profits of their contributors.

When you join a party that habitually takes rights away from its citizens based on their morality, it won’t be long before they come for you.

Marco Rubio is starting to figure this out. He recently came out (meekly, but still) against the Arizona immigration bill. Why? Because his parents are Cuban immigrants. In Rubio’s defense, he did the right thing on this issue. He could have gone the Michelle Malkin route. Little background on Michelle – her name isn’t Michelle. It’s nee Maglalang. She was born as what she would affectionately refer to, as an anchor baby. Her parents came her on work training Visas while her mother was pregnant. So while she is a natural born citizen, her parents were not. This means that Duncan Hunter would have her deported if he had his way. She has spent her entire career railing against immigrants. She obviously hates herself, and her parents for doing what they had to do to give her a better life. I suppose we should take comfort in knowing that Marco Rubio could be much more loathsome than he is. He does manage to do the right thing when it hits close enough to home. Now he’s being attacked by some, for not being hateful and ignorant enough.

I refuse to ever let anyone tell me that republicans are the party of small government again. We need to stop letting them frame themselves this way.

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Unacceptable!

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I’m referring to the merry band of miscreants that we have to choose from this November. I don’t know about where you guys live (I’d love to hear your stories), but here in New York, we’re forced to vote for another crappy senator. It doesn’t matter who we vote for, they’re all crap.

Kirsten Gillibrand is very likely going to win the senate seat she currently holds because republicans have nothing, other than a former Chief economist for Bear Stearns. Yay for us! In one of the most liberal states in America, we get to pick between two conservative corporatists. Gillibrand has spent the past year trying to “left it up” in order to secure any votes in Manhattan, but she recently showed her hand by doing her part in eviscerating the financial reform bill. She’s getting a TON of money from Wall Street to fund her campaign, which means she takes marching orders from Lloyd Blankfein. She hasn’t even been elected to that seat yet, and she’s already made it clear that her interests trump those of New Yorkers and Americans at large. What is she going to turn into after she’s obtained six more years of job security?

The sad thing is that my situation in New York isn’t even the the worst of options that Americans must make. Poor Nevada has to choose between the very the ineffective pussy that is Harry Reid and the crazy chicken lady! Arizona gets to choose between the filthy, corrupt JD Hayworth and crazy, bitter John McCain. And let’s not forget California, another liberal bastion of America. You’ve got Meg Whitman, who somehow finds time to run a campaign between board meetings at Goldman Sachs and Carly Fiorina, who was paid $45M just to get the fuck out of Hewlett Packard.

Why is this happening to America? These are not candidates that anyone can get behind, regardless of party affiliation and political ideology. No true conservative can possibly find JD Hayworth palatable if they’re being honest with themselves. And Kirsten Gillibrand, the corporatist Annie Oakley should make any self respecting democrat wretch. If we voted our conscience and our real ideology, rather than being herded by our political affiliations, we would all see that none of these people are acceptable. None of them give a fuck about protecting our interests.

Both parties have completely gone to shit, and it’s not going to stop unless we stop it. Every time we vote for one of these assholes, we’re ensuring that the next wave of candidates that our party puts in front of us is going to be worse than the last.

I have found another Senatorial candidate to support here in New York. He doesn’t have a snowballs chance of getting the word out in the face of the big money that Gillibrand is getting from Wall Street, but I’m campaigning for him. If Jonathan Tasini can siphon off 10% (I know, that’s a lot) of the votes in the democratic primary, we can send a message to the DNC.

Sadly, I feel lucky to even have another option since that’s not the case in a lot of races across the country. My plan was to just go in and undervote, meaning that I will vote on everything else, while leaving my senatorial choice blank. Trust me, undervotes do not go unnoticed. Not voting at all is completely ineffective because it appears as if we just don’t give a damn.

I fundamentally believe that the only way to change the sad state of political affairs that we find ourselves in, it for us all to work for change within our own party. I don’t believe that democrats can fix the republican party or vice versa. But if democrats send a clear message to the DNC, they’ll listen. This will never be accomplished by holding you nose and voting for the piece of shit candidate that the party has put in front of you. It certainly won’t be achieved by drinking the party kool aid and convincing yourself that piece of shit isn’t a piece of shit, simply because they’re representing your party.

It’s our responsibility to find better candidates and to support them with our votes, our time, and our money. And if you can’t find another option, maybe you should run! I’m not kidding. But barring those two scenarios, I believe that an epidemic of undervoting would send a message to our parties. We have to stop tolerating the unacceptable.

I am never going to leave the voting booth with that feeling of needing to boil my body just to clean off the stink of what I was just forced to vote for again. Are you?

Please, feel free to share your crappy candidates! It’s hard for me to stay on top of local races across the country, but I an curious!

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Contempt

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That’s what republican legislatures have for America. No, I’m not being hyperbolic.

For two election cycles now, the American people have overwhelmingly voted democrats to represent them. All across the country, Americans have voted for democratic congressmen and democratic senators. We all collectively, by a large majority, voted for a democratic president. The will of the people has been abundantly clear here. And yet, we have republican legislatures filibustering EVERY major piece of legislation since President Obama was sworn in. We voted for a platform but republicans are more interested in their own agenda than they are with the will of the people. They’re blocking financial reform as I type this, despite the fact that 65% of Americans are in favor of it.

They don’t give a shit what democrats OR republicans want. This should be a major concern for all Americans, regardless of your party affiliation. And republicans that support these tactics are (I’m being kind here) ASSHATS! I understand the urge to support any efforts to block something that you don’t support, I really do. But condoning and supporting these tactics shows a lack of big picture thinking. You should care more about your country than you do your party. These tactics literally discount the will of the people and threaten to destroy the system of governance that the founders created. Anybody that supports this clearly hasn’t considered the fact that these tactics will eventually be used to eviscerate a platform that you voted for.

But the contempt that I refer to isn’t just about preserving power for republicans. They have actual contempt for Americans.

Last week, South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer said that unemployment is caused by “flat out lazy” American workers. FYI – South Carolina has a 12% unemployment rate. This wasn’t the first time he made this sort of comment. Back in January he said this;

My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that.”

Charming, right? Before you chalk that up to one stray asshole, let me continue.

Back in March, the other douchebag senator from Arizona, Jon Kyl made this statement;

“Unemployment insurance doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work, because people are being paid even though they’re not working.”

As a quick aside, I want to let Arizona know about a law that you may or may not know about. This is an old Arizona state law that has been on the books for a very long time. If you live in Arizona, you’re only allowed to own two dildos. I’m not kidding! So here’s a thought; you may not want to squander your allotment on your two senators!

Need more? Check out Tom DeLay in an interview with Candy Crowly last month:

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I can give you several more examples of these opinions from republicans, but you get the point. These aren’t isolated opinions, they’re an example of the ideology that republicans have about Americans.

They have contempt for you if you have the temerity to be unemployed because the ponzi schemes that their biggest contributors in the financial were running collapsed, therefore robbing you of your job. That’s right, to republicans, you’re the asshole here. And as long as you’re getting a few hundred dollars a week in unemployment benefits from the federal government, you won’t be seeking the six figure job that you just lost because you’re fundamentally lazy.

Trust me when I tell you that I would find this unacceptable if it came from democrats. This is not a partisan thing for me, and it shouldn’t be for you. This should be about preserving a system that made America great. Allowing a party that was elected into a minority position by the American people to hijack the system isn’t going to turn out well for democrats or republicans. Allowing the Bush administration to wiretap phone calls and monitor all electronic communication in America completely unchecked, didn’t turn out well for us since we have no evidence that the Obama administration has shut that program down. Why would a party willingly give up power that another party obtained? I don’t trust Obama with my privacy any more than I trusted Bush. And I don’t trust democrats not to use these tactics when they’re the minority.

This is unacceptable and republicans and democrats have to come together to let our representatives know that we won’t stand for this.

How can this possibly be something that we don’t all agree on?

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Let’s Abandon Financial Reform

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I mean it. Screw trying to reform the system. This is the conclusion I’ve come to after a rigorous review of our current economic system.

Sure, our economic stability went to shit when we started peeling back regulations on banks and investment banks back in the 80s. Regulations that by the way, kept us virtually bust free for forty years. And yes, continued deregulation through the 90s and 00s did make for a more volatile and precarious financial system, resulting in shorter boom and bust cycles. But I still say fuck it. We shouldn’t bother to regulate.

I know I sound nutty again, but there’s a method to my madness.

I really believe that our chances of getting the kind of regulation that we had in the 40s in place is pretty damned close to impossible. The financial industry has way too much money invested in our politicians. Our congressmen, senators, and president aren’t about to bite the hand that feeds them. We’re not going to get any kind of reform that will prevent banks from doing precisely what they did to tank the economy in 2008. We’re sure as hell not going to get any regulation that will stop investment banks from creating new “financial products” that could potentially be even more devastating than the financial products that just screwed us. So let’s not even bother. Who needs another long, drawn out battle like the one we just had on health reform, that will leave us almost as screwed as we would be if we did nothing?

I say we leave the banks alone. Let them do what they want to do, completely unmolested by government oversight.

What we should do instead, is start national banks to compete with the private banking system. I’m not talking about taking over the banks. I’m talking about creating new banks.

Right now, Bank Of America, CitiBank, WaMu, Chase, and all of the other banks that are “too big to fail” are borrowing 100% interest free money from the federal government. Money that we had hoped they would use to lend to small businesses so that we could jump start the economy. But they’re not actually lending that interest free money the way that we wanted them to. They’ve calculated that they can make much bigger short term profits if they take that interest free money and gamble it on derivatives. What they’re not gambling on derivatives, they’re lending to you in the form of credit card debt. And they’re charging you an exorbitant interest rate to borrow money that they’re getting for free.

So why not cut them out? Let’s get rid of the middle man and create national banks. We just did this with student loans. We used to let banks be the middle man in the student loan system. It was a great deal for them. They loaned out the money which they got from the federal government and charged interest for it, but were completely insured by the federal government if you defaulted on paying the loan. They got all of the reward with absolutely no risk. So we finally decided to cut them out of the equation. Student loans are now going to come directly from the federal government. The interest that you pay on those loans will now be paid directly to the federal government to keep the system going. Makes sense, right? So why can’t we do that for small business loans, mortgages, and personal loans? Why are we letting private banks interject themselves between us and the federal government who supplies the money anyway?

This would solve every single problem that we face today. We wouldn’t have to worry about the banks being too big to fail because we would have a solid banking system in place. So if you fail, fuck you. We’ll be just fine. A national bank would give consumers more options. We could decide for ourselves if we trust the private system over the government bank. We wouldn’t have to worry about small businesses being left out in the cold by banks that don’t want to lend to them. We certainly won’t be paying 30% interest on credit cards since national banks wouldn’t have derivatives trading to finance. We wouldn’t have to worry about ever bailing out another undeserving bank executive again. And since banks are so averse to government interference, we could stop the FDIC insurance system that we currently provide them. And we can charge the private banks interest on the money that they’re getting for free now.

This is the perfect solution to every single problem that we face. And the banks would get what they want; free reign.

I honestly don’t know why we’re not having a serious conversation about starting national banks. Unless I’m missing something, it seems like the solution to all of our national problems. And it creates more competition. Who can argue with that?


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Time For The Tea Party To Put Up Or Shut Up

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Most of you have heard about the immigration that was passed in Arizona yesterday. This is a vile, hateful bill that promotes discrimination, and does absolutely nothing to reduce illegal immigration. It requires that police officers in Arizona seek proof of immigration status from anyone that they suspect might be here illegally. It forces everyone in the state of Arizona to have their birth certificate, social security card, or passport with them at all times. Do you routinely carry these documents with you? This law is reminiscent of another time, in another country, when SS officers could demand to see anyone’s "papers" for no reason whatsoever. Arizona is recreating Nazi Germany, except that instead of looking for Jews, blacks, and gays, they’re targeting Hispanics. Yes, this might be the first time since WWII ended, that Nazi Germany has been invoked without hyperbole. I can’t think of a bigger government intrusion over the past several decades than this law. Why don’t we just streamline this whole system by requiring that everyone in Arizona pin their birth certificates to their chests at all times? This will save the officers a lot of time that will otherwise be wasted in harassing US citizens of Hispanic origin. Plus it will minimize the torrent of law suits that will lead to inevitable ownership of the state of Arizona, by those US citizens of Hispanic origin that will be falsely imprisoned and unconstitutionally harassed. We don’t have an immigration "problem" in America. We have an immigration solution. Illegal immigrants are the solution for corporations that want to get around those pesky labor laws that we have in America. Illegal immigrants make it possible for Purdue to sell you chicken for $1.99 per pound. If they had to pay a living wage and cover benefit costs for their employees the way federal labor laws mandate, you would be paying $6.99 per pound for that same chicken. If you want to eliminate the flood of immigrants into this country, the most effective way to do that is to have mandatory jail time for anyone that employs illegal immigrants. If the CEO of Purdue does twenty years in prison for hiring thousands of illegal immigrants, I can assure you that the CEO of WalMart would make a strong effort to make sure that he doesn’t suffer the same fate. If there were no jobs here for illegal immigrants, they would stop coming. It’s really that simple. The fact that we don’t go after the employers is evidence that our government doesn’t want to stop the "problem". It’s a system that’s working very well for everybody. Corporations get to maximize their profits by exploiting second class non-citizens, consumers get cheap goods, and the government doesn’t have to worry about millions of people claiming their social security benefits after a lifetime of service to this country. And as an added bonus, low income Americans get to hate a class that they deem to be beneath them. They don’t have to be the bottom of the American food chain the way they would be if the eyelegals weren’t here. But I digress. My point in this post speaks to the tea party movement, a noble group of Americans that has picked up the fight against a tyrannical government takeover of our country. I expect that they’re going to be out en masse to protest this most intrusive of big government laws. GO GET EM, tea party! You must be seething with anger over what Arizona has done here. Time to protect America from the Arizonan SS officers and restore our freedom. As an added bonus, you get to dispel all of the baseless allegations of racism that have been hurled at you by the liberal media. I understand that you’ve gotten a bad rap because of a handful of extremists that seem to have a knack for being in front of every camera that has ever been present at any tea party you’ve ever held. But guess what? You have an opportunity to prove the lame stream media wrong, and shut them down once and for all. You get to wage a just war and restore your good name. What’s not to love about that? So you go get em, tea party! Show the world that you won’t put up with big government, while showing them that you’re tea partiers, rather than the teabaggers they’ve made you out to be.

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Turning The Tables

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I’m an idiot. But in my defense, most people that want comprehensive health reform are idiots so I’m not alone. While watching some footage of interviews with teabaggers, something occurred to me that should have occurred to me months ago. Something so obvious, that I’m an idiot for not having seen it before now.

The biggest complaint that the teabaggers have with the reform bill that passed last month, is that it infringes on their liberty by forcing them to buy health insurance. We (health reform advocates) have been combating this assertion with reason and logic, pointing out that costs are out of control and that there are entirely too many uninsured people that need to be covered. We’ve been doing this all wrong. We need to speak to them in terms they can understand. So, my faithful readers, I have come up with the debate winning talking point on health reform.

Are you ready? This is so freaking simple, you’re going to kick yourself for not having parroted it for months.

We need to let the “liberty lovers” know that yes, they should be forced to buy insurance because we’re tired of supporting their deadbeat asses. They shouldn’t have the option of not having insurance because every time they go to the emergency room, they’re bleeding the rest of us dry. They shouldn’t be allowed to be reckless because doing so foists their bill on us, thereby infringing on our freedom. We work hard to pay our taxes so we shouldn’t be forced to pay extra because they’re too lazy to work hard enough to pay their own way. And while you’re at it, let them know that you wish that the bill provided for throwing the deadbeats in jail for not buying insurance. The threat of prison might stop them from mooching off the rest of us.

Let them know that we’re tired of their self entitled socialist ways! They need to step up and deal with their own shit, because we’re not going to carry them anymore! They need to pick themselves up with their own bootstraps, or else we’re going to beat them with ours.

See? It’s short, simple, and fact-free which means they’ll understand it.

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