And I'll remind you mindless Tea Bagger/Small Government simpletons out there, these cats are the very definition of a 'government employee'...
As are fire fighters, police officers, teachers, park rangers, food safety inspectors, life guards....librarians, etc.
In other words, the very fabric of American society. When you go after them and cut their salary and benefits, you go after us all.
In fact, you weaken your country.
So the next time you are tempted to parrot Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck--they are after all selling the most simple, easiest to digest and shit out mantra, and whine about the 'Evils of Big Government'....maybe pause for a second and think about whose credibility you are about to impugn....
This tea bagging douche bag just happens to be the recently elected governor of the third most populous state in America--Florida.
The plurality of the pathetic 30% or something of Floridians who were interested enough to actually vote in November 2008 for this asshole did so, presumably, in main part because of his easy, for the peanut brained 'Small Government!' tea bag ethos....
Talk about the most intrusive, personal, creepy government imaginable. Big brother, study the makeup of my piss. Welcome into my body. Here, here's a clump of shit for you to examine too...
Hey Florida voter: take some sniffing salts, wake up, and actually bother to vote for your next governor.
Otherwise you might wake up in bed with Rick Scott.
It refers to the scores of small time low lifes who go from drugstore to drugstore buying Sudafed--the primary ingredient of methamphetamine, in small enough amounts to not be detected by law enforcement...
For those readers unfamiliar with Meth, here's a description from the same article:
Methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant, produces an initial rush when smoked or injected and generally makes users hyper-energetic. Chronic abuse can lead to aggression, delusions, rotten teeth and brain damage.
This morning, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace questioned likely presidential candidate Newt Gingrich — who has placed social issues at the forefront of his emerging campaign — about his personal infidelities and multiple marriages. Gingrichhas admitted to having an affair with a Congressional aide (his present wife Callista) while leading the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton and so Wallace asked the former Speaker of the House if he thought his actions were hypocritical. Gingrich said they weren’t, going so far as to suggest that his past divorce and experience with giving depositions helped him understand why Clinton should have been impeached:
WALLACE: There is something else that bothers people. You were leading the charge to push Bill Clinton from office for lying about an affair and yes, he lied in a court proceeding, in a deposition, where he was sworn to tell the truth, whole truth, nothing but the truth. At the same time, you were leading that charge, you were having an affair. Isn’t that hypocrisy?
GINGRICH: No. Look, obviously it’s complex and obviously I wasn’t doing things to be proud of. On the other hand, what I said clearly — and I knew this in part going through a divorce. I had been in depositions. I had been in situations where you had to swear to tell the truth. I understood that in a federal court, in a case in front of a federal judge, to commit a felony, which is what he did, perjury was a felony. The question I raised was simple: should a president of the united states be above the law? [...]
WALLACE: I’ll ask you man-to-man. did you think to yourself I’m living in a really glass house? Maybe I shouldn’t be throwing stones?
GINGRICH: No. I thought to myself if I cannot do what I have to do as a public leader, I would have resigned.
Watch it:
Earlier this month, Gingrich tried to justify his divorces by telling the Christian Broadcasting Network that he engaged in his affairs because he was overworked and overcome with patriotism for America. “There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate,” he said. “And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn’t trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them.”
“Criticizing Fox News has nothing to do with criticizing the press,” its memo says. “Fox News is not a news organization. It is the de facto leader of the GOP, and it is long past time that it is treated as such by the media, elected officials and the public.”
You see in the loopy home schooling, bible-thumping areas of the nomination path--rural Iowa and South Carolina, Mitt Romney really doesn't have a chance in hell of winning. Mainly because he's a Morman.
But in the more mainstream, rich areas--places where Republicans tend to worry about the size and model of Mercedes S Class they are driving more than memorizing Old Testament bible passages...Places like California, New York, and New Jersey....Romney should do just fine.
And his tremendous cash advantage should carry his wounded carcass over the finish line....
I can understand disagreeing with our president...but this is fucking absurd--and dozens of national Republicans are doing it...Newt Gingrich. What an asshole....
Exercise a no-fly zone this evening. … We don’t need to have the United Nations. All we have to say is that we think that slaughtering your own citizens is unacceptable and that we’re intervening.
During appearances that same day, Gingrich also said that he would provide help to the Libyan rebels on top of the no-fly zone: “This is a moment to get rid of him. Do it. Get it over with.” He later mocked Obama for filling out an NCAA bracket while France took the lead on intervention.
Now that Obama has initiated a no-fly zone over Libya, Gingrich has completely reversed his position with no apparent explanation. He told Politico over the weekend — less than 24 hours after Obama took action — that “it is impossible to make sense of the standard for intervention in Libya except opportunism and news media publicity.” This morning on the Today Show, he said plainly, “I would not have intervened”:
GINGRICH: The standard [Obama] has fallen back to of humanitarian intervention could apply to Sudan, to North Korea, to Zimbabwe, to Syria this week, to Yemen, to Bahrian… The Arab League wanted us to do something. The minute we did something, the Arab League began criticizing us doing it. I think that two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is a lot. I think that the problems we have in Pakistan, Egypt — go around the region. We could get engaged by this standard in all sorts of places. I would not have intervened. I think there were a lot of other ways to affect Qaddafi. I think there are a lot of other allies in the region we could have worked with. I would not have used American and European forces.
Watch it:
Speaking of “opportunism and news media publicity,” there is no other reasonable explanation for Gingrich’s complete flip-flop, which went unchallenged by Today Show host Matt Lauer.
In an additional dose of hypocrisy, Gingrich said of the Libyan intervention: “This is about as badly run as any foreign operation we’ve seen in our lifetime.” This shows once again that Iraq War hawks like Gingrich have very short memories.
I mean, let's be real here: the guy just will never be able to win with these groups--which to me means he's doing a pretty good job...
If you remember, the hard right loved George W. up until the bitter end--after it was abundantly clear his ship was sunk for good...
With Obama, the fringe left peeled off pretty quickly. And the fringe right, well they think he's an Islamic Muslim who was born in Kenya. Those people can't deal with a black dude being their boss and there's nothing he could ever do to have them like him anyway....
"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike." -Adolf Hitler, 1933
Most rational, cogent...sensible American citizens really like and even treasure National Public Radio.
On any road trip where you spend hours in a car, it's comforting and nice to be able to turn the dial to the end of the radio and find a local NPR station.
The reporting is good and interesting, the journalism fantastic, and the thing just works. It's great. A fantastic use of taxpayer money.
The other spectrum of radio listening, of course, is dominated by hateful, fire breathing shit for brains like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity who get their 'corporate' funding by boondoggle advertisers who rip off the public by shilling everything from snake oil to gold investment scams.
Which, of course, is great for the country because it's all pure capitalism!!
Mind you NPR gets a mere sliver of federal funding every year, probably the amount it costs for the Pentagon to buy a dozen hammers or something....Republicans are still hell bent on killing it.
Put simply, the results from my clearly unscientific poll above--which has been on this website for a few months....
Would give most professional Republican political operatives a serious case of heartburn.
Because you see a full 7 out of the 9 candidates, or 66% of the votes cast--in other words everyone except Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty--have approximately a 0.0% chance of being elected the next president of the United States of America.
Many, like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, carry enough baggage with them to put Samsonite out of business permanently.
Others, like the runaway hit niche candidate from the 2008 cycle, Libertarian Ron Paul--are just too weird for a plurality of hundreds of millions of American voters to support in a general presidential election.
And Michelle Bachmann?? You're kidding, right???
Alas, this poll must be periodically updated as candidates come and go. It's an 'alive' poll, if you will....
So John Thune who decided to run, will be removed, and Buddy Roemer (uh, who??) the former governor of Louisiana, and The Donald himself Donald Trump will both be added.
Rush Limbaugh laughed about Japanese refugees recycling after the earthquake that struck the country on his Tuesday show.
A caller asked Limbaugh, "If these are the people that invented the Prius, have mastered public transportation, recycling, why did Mother Earth, Gaia if you will, hit them with this disaster?"
Limbaugh called this an "interesting question," and played a clip of ABC's Diane Sawyer reporting from a shelter in Japan. In the clip, Sawyer is surprised that the refugees in the shelter have maintained a recycling program. Limbaugh first mocked Sawyer, doing an impression of her and saying that "she sounds like she saw her husband for the first time in six months." He then turned to his caller's question.
"He's right," Limbaugh said. "They've given us the Prius. Even now, refugees are recycling their garbage." Here, he began to laugh, continuing, "and yet, Gaia levels them! Just wipes them out!"
This angle has been something of a theme for Limbaugh; last week, he wondered if environmentalists would "cheer" the quake.
If they got out there and saw how the rest of the world lives, they might be less interested in voting solely based on gays, guns and abortion. They also might realize that in many areas, including health care, we're hardly "number one."
Let me put this gently: If you watch or listen to Glenn Beck and take him even remotely seriously....you are a total fucking moron.
March 14, 2011 10:25 am ET by Ben Dimiero
Note: This has been updated from its original version to include more from Beck's rant.
Following a lengthy discussion involving the Japanese earthquake, bond markets, unrest in Libya, and a man who was killed trying to photograph the tsunami in California, Glenn Beck lamented that we "can't see the connections here."
Beck said that he's "not saying God is, you know, causing earthquakes," then clarified that he is "not not saying that, either," then added: "Whether you call it Gaia, or whether you call it Jesus, there's a message being sent and that is, 'hey, you know that stuff we're doing? Not really working out real well.' Maybe we should stop doing some of it."
Earlier in the discussion, Beck said, "I'm not saying that Jesus is coming, I'm just saying things are changing. The world, I mean literally, the world is moving under your feet. I mean, could there be a bigger sign than -- oh, by the way, I mean, in casual conversation somebody said, 'did you hear the earth moved off its axis?' No."
His co-host added, "Japan moving eight feet is astounding."
[Starts at ~12:32]
BECK: We can't see the connections here. Now look, I'm not saying God is, you know, causing earthquakes. Well -- I'm not saying that he -- I'm not not saying that either.
God -- what God does is God's business, I have no idea. But I'll tell you this: whether you call it Gaia or whether you call it Jesus -- there's a message being sent. And that is, 'Hey, you know that stuff we're doing? Not really working out real well. Maybe we should stop doing some of it.' I'm just sayin'. And -- yesterday I got home and I was thinking about all the messages that I could bring in, all the things that I could tell ya, and oh I've got stuff on Hezbollah. Oh, I have stuff on radical Islam in America that'll make your eyes fall out. Or I could just tell you the answer, and the answer is: Buckle up. Buckle up, 'cause it's going to be a bumpy ride.
Make sure you keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times. Because, things are gonna get bumpy and, just a few reminders there at the beginning as this rollercoaster takes off, always a good safety tip: Keep your arms and legs in. Don't do anything stupid, what do you say we follow the big top ten. You can call them Moses' ten commandments, or ten rules of thumb. What do you say we start doing those things? Because the things we are doing really suck and they're not getting better.
Beck's comment is the latest in a long line of religious zealots pointing to various natural disasters as evidence of God's displeasure with humanity.
His comments put him in the same league with people like Pat Robertson, who claimed in the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti last year that Haiti "swore a pact to the devil" and has "been cursed" ever since.
In 2005, Robertson and other religious conservatives claimed Katrina was God's punishment for America's alleged sins.
In comments on Robertson's show in 2001, Rev. Jerry Falwell suggested that gays, lesbians, feminists, and others bore responsibility for the 9-11 terrorist attacks (he later apologized):
FALWELL: I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen
It's not clear which "stuff" Beck is referring to that "we" are doing that is supposedly making "God" upset -- nor is it clear why Beck thinks God (or "Jesus" or "Gaia") chose to devastate Japan as a result of this.
Though he denies that he thinks the Biblical Apocalypse is imminent, Beck has regularly featured and promoted guests who focus on end times eschatology. Last month he hosted author Joel Richardson, a self-proclaimed prophet who thinks Islam will be the "primary vehicle" "used by Satan to fulfill the prophecies of the Bible." For his part, in a column at WorldNetDaily, Richardson has pointed to recent earthquake activity as "pointing to the soon coming of the return of Jesus."
"What the world is watching right now is whether Tepco's Fukushima nuclear power plant is going to turn into Chernobyl," said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, referring to the world's worst nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 in present-day Ukraine.
The latest hysterical charge from the oppressed far right is about a former NPR exec (though it's not clear he really was) who they tricked into expressing his political beliefs on camera. The right is claiming his comments about the Tea Party, and America at large, are so bad that NPR should be defunded. Really? What exactly is there to disagree with in these comments?
The two actors clearly goad Schiller into making observations, most of which are made after Schiller explicitly takes off his "NPR hat" to give his personal opinion. For example, Schiller says there aren't enough "educated, so-called elite" Americans, adding that public opinion is driven by "this very large uneducated part of the population."
Of tea partyers, he adds: "I mean, basically they ... believe in sort of white, middle-America, gun-toting. I mean, it's scary. They're seriously racist, racist people."
He's right on both counts. Just look at the polls of how many FOX News viewers believe we found WMD in Iraq. I'd call that large and uneducated.
And Google "tea party" and "racism" - then sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and do a lot of reading from a lot of mainstream news outfits about the Tea Party's racism problem.
As for this coming at a bad time for NPR, news flash folks. The GOP is going to call you Socialist and try to defund you regardless of what you do. And if they don't have a seriously redacted video to try to frame you, they'll just make something up. Democrats, and NPR, need to realize that regardless of what they do, the Republicans will attack. It's time to fight back.
PS How much you want to be the unedited video exonerates the NPR guy?
This morning on ABC’s This Week, host Christiane Amanpour devoted a portion of her show to discussing the declining trend of manufacturing in America, showcasing the problem by emptying a house of all the goods that were not made in America. “In 1960, foreign goods made up just 8 percent of Americans’ purchases. Today, nearly 60 percent of everything we buy is made overseas.”
Amanpour invited Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to discuss the topic, who exhibited his own faulty understanding of the problem:
McCAIN: I would also point out that if you’d emptied that house there, if you’d left a computer there or an iPad or an iPhone, those are built in the United States of America.
Later in the show, Leo Gerard, the president of the United Steelworkers Union, corrected McCain. “The reality is that when you talk about the high-end stuff — the iPad and the iPhone are made in China, they’re not made in America,” he noted. Watch it:
In fact, the Taiwanese-based electronic manufacturing company Foxconn makes the iPad and the iPhone. Foxconn gained notoriety last year when its overworked employees began committing a rash of suicides. Many other Taiwanese companies also benefit from the Apple supply chain.
McCain is hardly the expert that political shows should turn to when discussing technology. As former FCC chairman Reed Hundt told Amanda Terkel in 2008, “Basically, John is a technological troglodyte and proud of it.” McCain said during the campaign that he “never felt the particular need to e-mail.” McCain has admitted to being a computer “illiterate that has to rely on my wife for all the assistance I can get.”
Sure, it will get all the left wingers and right wing Tea Baggers all up in arms...but both Jeb and Barack know very well that presidential elections are won in the middle.
Watch and learn.
BTW: Jeb Bush is odd's on favorite to be America's president in the year 2016...
Rumsfeld's memoir has come in for plenty of criticism, but Woodward, a writer and Beltway player known for deference to the powerful, eviscerates it. He calls "Known and Unknown" "one big clean-up job, a brazen effort to shift blame to others -- including President Bush -- distort history, ignore the record or simply avoid discussing matters that cannot be airbrushed away. It is a travesty, and I think the rewrite job won't wash."
By mid-afternoon, Rumsfeld had replied: Not in an Op-Ed, or a statement to reporters -- but on his own Facebook page, Ã la Sarah Palin.
Mr. Woodward has demonstrated a regrettable tendency to put his storyline ahead of the facts….Woodward has been repeatedly accused of "tilting the facts," "misleading remarks," "disingenuous statements," and placing "book sales above journalism."
The well known story about Bob Woodward is that he practices what is derided as "access journalism," whereby he favors those who provide him with information and gossip and leak against their colleagues. Those who refuse to play along, such as Donald Rumsfeld, then pay the price.
Obviously under the radar screen and not very reported on--they are spies after all, the success or failure of these brave patriots will go a long way in determining whether or not the West succeeds in this current Libya conflict...
Earlier this month, former Speaker of the House and current 
