Well…it has been a heartening week if you believe that the right of the people to vote should not be able to be abridged by the lunatics on the right who believe that taking away basic rights is a justified tactic to steal elections. In three cases this week, the courts, both state and federal, have invalidated laws put in place by the repubs requiring that some sort of ID is necessary for people to vote; invariably affecting the poor and minorities and suppressing the vote that normally goes to the dems. In Texas, the repubs there cited the “rampant” voter fraud as the justification for disenfranchising over 600,000 poor people who don’t have the required ID’s, but, this “rampant” fraud was actually 50 cases over the span of 10 years…yep, 5 cases a year shows that this was a blatant attempt to fix the elections for the repubs but the court saw through this nonsense and stopped it….the same for a law in Virgina whose purpose was to do the same thing…keep the poor from voting by instituting what was, in effect, a poll tax, by charging these poor folks 22 bucks for these id’s…something that was outlawed with the end of the Jim Crow era…but these guys just can’t give up trying to discriminate and fix elections since it is becoming more evident all the time that it will be the only way they can win. In Wisconsin, the repubs tried to do the same thing with another of these laws that was written by ALEC…the Koch brothers legislative arm who have been writing legislation for the repubs that will further their radical, right-wing agenda and that the lazy repubs can pass to mollify their base. I’m just glad that the checks and balances that are built into our system worked this time….but, remember, this is more of the illegal nonsense you will see if these thugs get returned to office or if you vote for the repub in the presidential election…geez….
Category Archives: Politics
Republicans “war” on the TelePrompter….
Well….just a short one to take on the latest, ongoing ridiculousness that is the repub party these days….this one has come to a head with ole Rick Santorum saying yesterday that the use of teleprompters by any candidate should be illegal….nevermind that in the same breath he attacks government interference, and that ole Newt has challenged Obama to three hour debates where no teleprompters would be allowed….Ignoring the fact that teleprompters have never been used in any debate….but the real nugget here is the fact that the repubs think that having the ability to memorize is the same thing as intelligence, and the fact that the dems have complex, nuanced, ideas that they want to get right is now a bad thing? I guess it would be easy to not need a teleprompter if your most complex ideas are “drill baby drill, or bomb, bomb Iran”….geez….
Here’s one last thought on gas prices….since the repubs are the largest beneficiaries of the oil companies campaign donations and they would benefit mightily by the repubs taking the presidency….wouldn’t you do everything in your power, if you were an oil company, to make sure prices continue to rise…like shut down two oil refineries this year along with restricting oil production? They’ve tried this nonsense before…and they will try it again…
Either you are for capitalism or not…
This is a placeholder of the idea that the repubs can’t have it both ways…you can’t tout capitalism on one hand and then want the president to intervene in the economy to bring down gas prices….
Okay..it’s really early in the morning but I feel obligated to finish this one since placeholders guilt me pretty well…first…we have the repubs actually making the case in the press and on fox news that the president can intervene to lower oil and gas prices…the clips on Keith’s show last night from 2008 were just hilarious where we had the usual suspects at fox falling all over themselves protecting ole GW from gas prices that were higher than they are now….going on and on how the market will correct the prices and that the president couldn’t and shouldn’t intervene….then the cut comes to all of the repub candidates repudiating the free market by saying they would all promote more drilling, etc. etc…..to bring prices down…and that the president now has the magical powers to lower prices…..let’s get few things straight first….the oil companies are wallowing in profits with things just the way they are….why would they drill more, even in the leases that are open and they hold, that are not being used if to do so would increase supply and lower prices? How would approving the Keystone pipeline lower prices when all of it’s output would be sold into the world market? How would approving more refinery construction lower prices of gas when two of them have been closed in the past year by the oil companies to “support prices”? Short of nationalizing the oil companies holdings here in the US, there is just not much that any sitting president can do on oil or gas prices in the increasingly globalized market….any repub that says anything different is either ignorant or a liar…you choose which…geez…
Organized labor wakes up…
Well…I was really surprised and interested reading the latest developments in the war on labor being perpetrated by the repubs here in Michigan…and while I do applaud Gov. Snyder’s telegraphing to his repub cohorts that he doesn’t want a right to work law to get to his desk…I have no faith that he will veto the bill if it does get there…in fact, he was asked if he would and he ignored the question. So, when I heard that there is a coalition of labor organizations that is putting together a petition drive to change the state constitution ensuring that no party can take the rights of labor away, I was heartened somewhat but saddened as well that we that oppose restriction of the rights of you and me to bargain with our employers had to resort to the nuclear option. One of the things that I find troubling with this entire issue is the fact that the repubs are leading a race to the bottom for workers that will only benefit the rich…if wages drop in right to work states, where does the profit go that used to go to middle class wages? Straight to the top 1% in the form of bonuses that will further decrease purchasing power that used to drive the economy…this increased concentration is what has caused this recovery to be so weak since middle class wages and consumption are more than 70% of economic activity. I ask the same question of the rich that I always ask in this situation: “how much is enough?”…geez…
Making the connection…
Well…just read an interesting article in the Guardian UK about the right’s fascination with Ayn Rand and her work “Atlas Shrugged” and it hit me that this fascination is one of the causes of the of the concerted attacks on women that we have seen over the past few months. In that putrid piece of trash (I really hate to call any work by any writer trash, since I understand that writing is hard work) the put upon millionaires and billionaires revolt against “government regulation” and the takers in society that are everyone but them…but what struck me the most are the scenes of rape in the book where the woman being raped comes to understand and like the attack since it is done by one of the rich and powerful that “deserve” to do whatever they want since they are rich and powerful. This nonsense is the root of the contempt that the right feels for everyone that is not them; who is not rich and connected, who must have something wrong with them because they aren’t. Never mind that most of those in the repub race for president either were born wealthy or fed at the public trough through lobbying to become wealthy; the fantasy in their heads is that they “earned” what they have….delusions that grow stronger with every passing day…geez….
Should comment about Limbaugh…
Well…with all of the uproar over the troglodyte comments that ole Rush made over the past couple of days, I thought I should comment on the nonsense but why? There is nothing that can be said for something so evil…it has been the way he has made his millions for the past 20 years so how can anyone be surprised? What really troubles me is the fact that he has millions of listeners (most of them repubs) that think exactly the same way…I wonder what they were taught in the churches that they were brought up in? But, this is normal repub behavior and again, we shouldn’t be surprised….saddened, but not surprised. geez…
Let’s kill the Keystone XL nonsense…
Well…in the past couple of weeks, the repubs have latched onto gas prices as being one of the weapons that they are going to use to try to defeat Obama in November and get the Keystone XL pipeline approved. One of the lies they are telling is that the pipeline will have the effect of lowering prices to consumers across the US when they know it’s not true…even the pipeline company has said in sworn testimony that Keystone will not have any effect on gas prices and may even raise them in the midwest since it will allow them to move the glut of oil from Oklahoma to refineries in Texas for export. The noted oil economist, Philip K. Verleger had this to say in today’s Washington Post:
“Overall, the pipeline will have no impact on prices consumers pay. None. The reason is that the products produced from the crude will be sold into the world market — exported — if prices fall below world levels,” he said in an email. “This means that consumers outside the Midwest will get no benefit from the line while consumers in the upper Midwest may pay more.”
This isn’t even the worst of it…in testimony to Congress for approval of the pipeline, Trans-Canada (the company that wants to build the pipeline) admitted that it will use the pipeline to manipulate prices; just giving the oil companies one more tool in their bag to keep prices artificially high and steal more from you and I. So, whenever you hear the repubs lying about the pipeline and it’s effects, just remember who owns a large piece of the republican party, and who will benefit from its building……geez….
How can ole Nolan be wrong all of the time?
Well…i was wondering why I was feeling so clean lately with not reading the newspapers in the morning and then I bought the Detroit news this morning and found out why…that rag is just a print version of Fox News and it’s commentators are just as biased and idiotic as those that pollute the airwaves. Case in point, in this mornings News, ole Nolan Finley goes off on Obama (as always) with today’s talking point that Obama is the most liberal president in generations and is allying with radical environmentalists to make sure the price of gas exceeds $5 per gallon to further his left wing, socialist ideals and is just as far to the left as the repub party has driven to the right. But the thing that ole Nolan is ignoring or just plain lying about are the analysis that have just come out that say that the Democratic party as a whole has moved to the center over the past generation; and is far to the right from where they were only 10 years ago. It is the repubs that have moved so far to the right that it just looks like the dems have moved left….look at the what the repub party has championed in the past….the EPA was formed under a repub president…the clean water act was signed by a repub president…and the individual mandate for health insurance was proposed as a counter to Clinton’s health care overhaul in the early 90′s. So, tell me Nolan, which party has moved? It sure isn’t the dems…it’s your party of the rich and connected…
There is one last thing that I wanted to say here about the passing of Andrew Breitbart…the right wing commentator who died yesterday at 43….while I vehemently disagreed with almost everything that he said, it is still tragic for any young father to leave behind a wife and children to the sorrow that his death brings…
Should comment a little on Michigan…
Well…with the passing of the repub primary yesterday, I thought I should comment a little on the event since I live here…first thing I want to say is “what were they thinking?” when both of the candidates bashed the auto bailouts and unions as they crossed the state…are they trying to lose the general election? One of the things that I think the repubs have lost sight of is the fact that the people in Michigan (even republicans) liked the auto bailouts and the hundreds of thousands of jobs they saved and the repubs slide to the right to unbridled and unregulated capitalism is not going to play well in the general…and ole Rick’s anti womens rights screeds and his lying attack on Obama for being a “snob” backfired to ensure his loss. Now, he is trying to soften his stand as the pope in chief and moralizer but, while it may work with the tiny sliver of the repub party that votes in the primary, it has caused the repub establishment to basically write off Michigan for the general election since even Romney has been dragged so far to the right that he won’t be able to repair the damage if he wins the nomination. But, let’s not cheer too much right now…as much as I love to see these idiots pummel each other, I never underestimate the ignorance of the electorate as evidenced by all of the lower middle class folks voting against their own economic self interest in the last election and putting the repubs in charge of the House…where did that get you? Where are the jobs plans and the plans to get the income of the workers growing again? Nowhere, since the repubs in control always revert back to the culture war when they are in power since they don’t even believe that there is anything that can or should be done by government to help the economy grow…geez…
Okay, here’s more nonsense from ole Rick…
Well…just wanted to weigh in one more time on the “snob” comment that ole Rick has been using to appeal to the repub primary voters where he lied about what President Obama said about everyone going to college:
“And so tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma. And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country — and this country needs and values the talents of every American.”
That last statement was from Obama…here’s one from ole Rick in 2009:
“There’s technical schools. There’s additional training, vocational training. There’s skills and apprenticeships. There’s all sorts of things that people can do to upgrade their skills, to be very productive and great workers here in America who provide for their families and build their community.”
So…the two of them are saying exactly the same thing here…and not once did Obama say that ‘everyone should go to college” as ole Rick has repeatedly stated on the campaign trail….so we have our most religious candidate breaking another commandment…make you wonder if his purported faith is just another in the lies he will tell to be elected…geez…
Oh, I do have to attribute where the quotes came from…a great article from the Washington Post from this morning…