This bodes ill...

Raw Story

Missing WI Dem: Republicans may strip union rights without us

But one of the missing Democrats, Sen. Jon Erpenbach, told The Associated Press on Monday he's worried that Republicans may attach the provision curtailing unions' bargaining rights to an unrelated, non-budgetary bill on Tuesday.

If they can, they will. Down with citizens' rights by hook or by crook.

Rumor has it, and I know because I'm starting it, that Muammar Gaddafi may be on his way to Wisconsin to join the pro-Walker anti-freedom forces, using an airline ticket purchased by the Koch Bros.

Limerick Ode To John “So Be It” Boehner

By Madeleine Begun Kane

Boehner’s known for his grief-stricken sobs,
For emoting through loose tear duct knobs.
Yet his eyes remain dry,
He refuses to cry
For Americans losing their jobs.

I could kiss that woman! If it weren't for this restraining order...

Headline of the Day

Epic Tea Party FAIL: Anti-union "protesters" out-numbered 35-to-1 in Madison!

Crux-of-the-biscuit quotes:

The so-called pro-Walker contingent was brought there by Koch brothers-funded astroturf project.

I think it is worth pointing out here that this wasn't astroturfed by just ONE conservative group but, rather, THREE.
...

So three different far right groups got in on the act and they still got pwned! And that, as they say, is a Good Thing.

Yes it is, but it's just one ongoing firefight in a long war.

Across the US, GOP Lawmakers Build States of Denial

Good read by Michael Winship at Truthout. Some quotes from Ann Richards and Molly Ivins as well.

As noted by Tim Storey, senior fellow of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), since the midterm elections, "There are now more Republican state legislators (3,941) than at any point since they held 4,001 seats after the 1928 election.... Twenty-two state legislative chambers changed majority control in the 2010 election cycle - all in the direction of the GOP." Many of the newly elected members were endorsed by Tea Party organizations or have rushed to embrace the Tea Party's inchoate, right-wing agenda as a means to safeguard re-election.

According to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), legislators in at least 11 states, including Minnesota, Ohio, New Hampshire and Missouri, are proposing antiunion laws that would cut pay and lower standards of living for workers. The labor organization claims, "Instead of creating jobs and solving the problems of middle-class working families, some state politicians are ... saying 'Thank you' to the corporate CEOs who financed their 2010 election victories by pushing legislation to cut good jobs, lower wages, threaten job safety and weaken unions." (Full disclosure: I am the president of a union affiliated with the AFL-CIO, albeit a small one that neither endorses candidates nor has a political action committee.)

This push has come to a head most dramatically in Wisconsin, where, in the name of austerity, newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker is attempting to stamp out public workers' collective bargaining rights. His attack on the unions - including a threat to call out the National Guard - has been met by outrage and a mass exodus of Democratic legislators out of the state, thus denying Republicans a quorum at the Wisconsin Senate in Madison. (You may recall that Democrats in Texas pulled a similar ploy in 1979 and 2003 by hiding or going on the lam to nearby states, including Oklahoma and New Mexico. This prompted New Mexico's then-attorney general Patricia Madrid, a Democrat, to announce: "I have put out an all-points bulletin for law enforcement to be on the lookout for politicians in favor of health care for the needy and against tax cuts for the wealthy.")

All these Repug state legislatures have slammed any progress made over the last 100 years into reverse and are now backing at high speed against the flow of traffic by looking in the rear view mirror. There's no 'if' that there will be a crash.

The Money Party on the Road to Ruin

The Agonist. Charts, graphs, links, and a movie trailer.

The Money Party is destroying the United States. For ten years, there have been no new jobs with flat income. Unemployment and poverty are making a big comeback. The party consists of those who own and control concentrations of great wealth and the select few who serve them (their Mandarins). Based on the efficiency of the demolition job, you have to wonder, is this is by design? If greed, ignorance, and paranoia constitute a plan, then they are master planners. (Image)

Look at the glaring problems below. Then ask yourself, has there been one single program implemented to address any of these problems, just one? Our elected representatives enable the relentless process of driving down the United States. They bicker and fume at the edge of issues. However, when it comes to neglecting the real needs of citizens and the country, they are as one. All rewards and resources flow to their patrons and owners, the made men and women of The Money Party. We are nothing to them.

One would think they would want higher taxes on all of us (not them of course) so there'd be more government money (aka 'easy pickins') for the MIC.

Wisconsin Power Play

Paul Krugman tamps this deal into a nice neat brick:

Last week, in the face of protest demonstrations against Wisconsin’s new union-busting governor, Scott Walker — demonstrations that continued through the weekend, with huge crowds on Saturday — Representative Paul Ryan made an unintentionally apt comparison: “It’s like Cairo has moved to Madison.”

It wasn’t the smartest thing for Mr. Ryan to say, since he probably didn’t mean to compare Mr. Walker, a fellow Republican, to Hosni Mubarak. Or maybe he did — after all, quite a few prominent conservatives, including Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Rick Santorum, denounced the uprising in Egypt and insist that President Obama should have helped the Mubarak regime suppress it.

In any case, however, Mr. Ryan was more right than he knew. For what’s happening in Wisconsin isn’t about the state budget, despite Mr. Walker’s pretense that he’s just trying to be fiscally responsible. It is, instead, about power. What Mr. Walker and his backers are trying to do is to make Wisconsin — and eventually, America — less of a functioning democracy and more of a third-world-style oligarchy. And that’s why anyone who believes that we need some counterweight to the political power of big money should be on the demonstrators’ side.

There’s a bitter irony here. The fiscal crisis in Wisconsin, as in other states, was largely caused by the increasing power of America’s oligarchy. After all, it was superwealthy players, not the general public, who pushed for financial deregulation and thereby set the stage for the economic crisis of 2008-9, a crisis whose aftermath is the main reason for the current budget crunch. And now the political right is trying to exploit that very crisis, using it to remove one of the few remaining checks on oligarchic influence.

So will the attack on unions succeed? I don’t know. But anyone who cares about retaining government of the people by the people should hope that it doesn’t.

In between those quotes is a lot. Go.

It dawned on me that Mr. Krugman must have a little trouble walking - he can't have more than a 20-inch inseam due to the extra material he needs in the crotch.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Missouri GOP Introduces Bill to Repeal Child Labor Laws
Claims they're job killers.

Obama Meets With Mark Zuckerberg
Asks him to stop removing key military allies from power.

Speaking Two Languages Delays Onset of Alzheimer’s
Utbay ouryay econdsay anguagelay oesntday ountcay.

Someone needs to point out the 'irony' to me in this next one. Seems like straight news reporting to me:

Majority of GOP Primary Voters Are Birthers
Merely whacko right wing nut jobs lose control of party to batshit insane right wing nut jobs.

Ladies and gents ...

Union teachers are a good thing.

Quote of the Day

Robert Reich:

...

If the earnings of those thirteen [top earning] hedge-fund managers were taxed as ordinary income, the revenues generated would pay the salaries and benefits of 300,000 teachers. Who is more valuable to our society – thirteen hedge-fund managers or 300,000 teachers? Let’s make the question even simpler. Who is more valuable: One hedge fund manager or one teacher?

...

Thanks to Texas Betsy for the link.

The real cost ...

Of what America has become. The Land of No Hope:

...

I have no family, I have no friends. For the past two years, I've had nobody to talk with as people who knew me react to the "unemployed" label as if it were leprosy and contagious. I am not a bad person, in fact people really like me. But everyone seems to be on a tight budget these days and living in incredible fear. It is hopeless since we all are hearing more and more that we unemployed are to blame for unemployment, that we are just lazy, that we are no good, that we are sinners, that we are druggies, yet we are the victims who suffer and are punished while the robber baron banksters and tycoons become senators, congress, presidents and petty kings. So the only option left for me is merciful self euthanasia.

It is with a heavy heart that I have set my death in motion, but what I am facing is not living. So off I go, I have made peace with God and placed my burden on Jesus and He forgives me. This nation has become evil to the core, with cold-hearted politicians and tycoons squeezing what little Main Street Americans have left. It is not the America into which I was born -- the land of the free and the home of the brave with kind folks who help neighbors -- it is now land of the Tycoon-haves and the rest of us have-nots who march into hopelessness and despair.

...

Link via Cookie Jill.

The plot thickens ...

Better than a novel:

According to Anonymous, Westboro Baptist Church was behind the Open Letter allegedly from Anonymous, and then added fuel to the flames with WBC's "Bring it" reply. Anonymous warns don't DDoS, it's a trap to collect IPs for suing.

...

Free speech arguments abound in the Anon community and rightly so. I have yet to determine if the original document is a plant (by Westboro) or a fuck-up (an Anon sent it on his/her own) but an ample percentage seem to feel that attacking Westboro plays right into Phelps' hands. That, and Anon are defenders of free speech and the hypocrisy of using denial of service attacks to muzzle Westboro's right of free speech is morally wrong. We'll see how it plays out.

...

Before I could break out the popcorn and settle in to watch the fight, Anonymous News Network posted on Facebook, "V: I was just gonna ignore this for a good long while because it was a stupid call, but looks like Westboro Baptist Church (of "GodHatesFags.com" fame) wants to pick a fight with Anonymous. They're attention-whoring idiots. Meanwhile, on the IRC, a channel #OpWestboro has been started to discuss what to do. It's come down to either overwhelming force or ignoring them entirely: no middle ground."

...

There is another release from Anon telling members to ignore the original ("It's a trap!" or "The writer is a stupid Anon who got a little gung-ho.") but something about it doesn't sit right with me either. More when I can figure out what's really happening. That said, Anon will continue its ops overseas, namely targeting Middle East dictators who try to deny the internet to their people.

Holy Shit, Cinderella!

Trevor Bayne, who turned 20 yesterday, just won the Daytona 500 in his first ever, I say again first ever, Cup race! Amazing. Not that he won it, just that there was a Ford fast enough...

Correction:

According to my resident NASCAR expert (Mrs. G), young Master Bayne competed in a Cup race in November in Texas and finished 17th.

Details, details...

The shortest live blogging ...

Of the Daytona 500 you'll ever see.

For me, not thee ...

Fascist scumbag in Wisconsin:

Scott Walker, the Governor of Wisconsin who is spearheading the GOP effort to crush collective bargaining, lavished relatively large salary increases on his staff when he was chief executive of the Milwaukee County Board. Walker surreptitiously did this in 2008 - without the approval of the county board itself and at a time that the county was facing a fiscal deficit, and Walker was about to lay off a large number of union workers. In addition, 700 county positions had already been left vacant due to budgetary pressures.

According to a 2008 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (MJS) article,which exposed Walker's illicit personal staff raises, one aide was to achieve a 26% increase - solely initiated and approved by Walker - even though the staffer, Tom Nardelli, was to receive tax-payer funded pensions that would exceed $35,700 a year. A member of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors called Nardelli's salary increase "obscene," according the MJS. [my em]

...

Yeah, sucking up taxpayer dollars to pay off his friends and then demonizing the working man. Loser.

Sunshine and Shit's Creek

Yesterday was bright and beautiful, the first such day since Tuesday. We needed - I mean desperately needed - to get outta the house and into the sunshine. The only time we've been out in days was late Friday afternoon when we fought our way through bumper-to-bumper ski weekend traffic in a 2"-per-hour snowstorm to do errands. That was more an exercise in sitting on pins and needles than it was enjoyable, so it didn't really qualify as "going out".

Mrs. G came up with a plan - "Let's go take pictures!" so, after a relatively minor hour or so of clearing the previous night's spit 'n sputter of 6 inches of snow, we did. She took the photo below. Scene is looking eastward from just west of our airport. On the left is Martis Peak (8714'), in the Carson Range spur of the Sierra Nevada. In the center is the Truckee-Tahoe Airport, known to locals as Cocaine International for its main incoming cargo. This is a big resort/party area. See its runway cam. The green building in the lower left is a beer distributor's warehouse, some kinda American goat piss.

Click photos to embiggen

Part of the joy was getting away from the madding crowd, so we drove out to shit's creek to do all this, which luckily for us is right in town, at the end the tourists don't go to. Think I'm kidding? This is a mile from our house:



Getting to where that sign is was more exciting than you might imagine. We came to the intersection of the side road it's on and Mrs. G gleefully announced, "Let's go down that way! Hang a left!". Now, there was some dry pavement about but we weren't on it, and I was smokin' along waaaay too fast, maybe 20 MPH. In retrospect, where a lot of common sense resides, I shoulda slowed to a stop, backed up, and made the turn. But noooooo...

I hit the brakes and turned left. The truck skidded on the snow, followed by a lotta sawing-at-the-wheel and crossing-of-the-wrists that woulda made a dirt track racer proud, a short corrective 4-wheel-drive power slide (front wheels pull, rear wheels slide, different than a 2WD rear wheel power slide, which woulda put me in the ditch) and I was pointed where we wanted to go just like I had planned it. Whole deal took about two seconds. I didn't do it on purpose, just had a brain fart, but truthfully, shit like that is fun. There wasn't any danger at all, no cars within a half mile, nothing to hit.

Just as an aside, front-wheel-drive cars work pretty good in the snow, but a skid in one of those is the weirdest feeling in the world. The front wheels try to pull in the direction you have them pointed, but there's no control of the rear end at all. It goes where it wants to and sometimes the front end is pulling and the rear end is free-pivoting even faster and they pass each other up. Studded snow tires are a big help on those.

The dogs liked the ride too. Tami looks very princess-like, as usual. Maggie ducked when she saw my camera. She either doesn't like papparazzi or, more likely, she's got a warrant out on her somewhere. Maybe she was just bobbing for a used kleenex. Heh.

Then again, maybe they were thinking, "He left the keys! Please, O Merciful Dog in heaven, opposable thumbs! NOW!".



I made an executive decision on the way home and decided we should get a take-out pizza and Mrs. G, who has a drinking problem in that she only gets a cocktail about every two weeks, could have her Cactus Smoothie, rocks (the only way this joint makes 'em), no salt, while we waited. I mention the Young Gentlemen's Drinking & Fighting Establishment known as the Blue Coyote a lot in the Brain, so I thought I'd give you a glimpse of it via my new pocket camera. The screen is very small and I have a little trouble seeing what's on it so I just pointed it at a light source and fired. I have no idea who that lady is, but she and her companion were diggin' inta some good-lookin' plates of food. Lady, if ya see this, please come sign a release.



There's a Blue Coyote in Squaw (Olympic) Valley too, but that's a more genteel and upscale place and the joint's kinda uppity. Carpets. Ours is a 'bar & grill', theirs is a 'sports grill'. Maybe it's just that they don't haveta hose it out every morning like they do ours. Just kidding, they appeal to a young crowd on weekend nights and I'm sure they have their moments, but they're nice places. The last joint that was in ours had its own Sheriff's Deputy outside on weekend nights. They would rotate in and out as 'passengers' needed transport.

We had a very pleasant afternoon and we needed one. Mission accomplished.

The upshot of the week:

The pups and I spent the week outside. We all plumb wore one another out. This is me'n Tami watching Press The Meat in the guest bedroom (I can smoke there and Mrs. G is watching wrestling the Daytona 500 in the living room. Don't worry, F-Man, there'll be no 'surprises' from the doggies when you get here. Heh.) a little while ago. Maggie was here a few seconds earlier but she skedaddled when the camera came out. I don't know what's up with that girl.



I think I've hit on the plan of the day.

I hope y'all didn't mind this slice of the lighter side of our life. The best side.

Honest, I'll just do it 'til I need glasses update:



I decided the the only snow relocation I had to do today was cut access to that trash can so Mrs. G doesn't have to put the 'gift bags' from walking the pups in it via the 'Magic Johnson method' any more. Done. Took two minutes. She's pretty proud o' them three-pointers though...

Why is the garage door propped open? It's hard to open when it's all they way down. I'll get around to fixing it any day now for about 25 years.

Headlines of the Day

FLASHBACK: Abraham Lincoln Wrote Playbook For Wisconsin Dems Who Fled State

Local Business Community May Be Starting To Turn Against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker

Notable quote:

“Thank you Scott Walker! If we were given a million dollars, there is no way we could have taught so many kids about solidarity, labor organizing, and the power of the people when they unite”.

Heh. Ass, meet backfire.

The G.O.P.’s Post-Tucson Traumatic Stress Disorder

Gee, maybe they'll meet an actual Veteran when they share a short dog with one under a bridge. One can only hope.

Daddy Frank with an uplifting message! Cool 'toon, links. You will like this one!

[...] Even more unexpectedly, Murdoch’s flagship newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, ran an op-ed essay last week by the reliably conservative Michael Medved trashing over-the-top Obama critiques from Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Dinesh D’Souza as “paranoid” and “destructive to the conservative cause” — the cause defined as winning national elections.

If the next step in this declension is less face time for Palin on Fox News, then we’ll have proof that pigs can fly. But a larger question remains. If the right puts its rabid Obama hatred on the down-low, what will — or can — conservatism stand for instead? [...]

Heh. Nothing good. I hope it takes their massively funded hate think tanks months to figure that out.

THE G.O.P. has already reached its praying-for-a-miracle phase — hoping some neo-Reagan will emerge to usurp the tired field. Trump! Thune! T-Paw! Christie! Jeb Bush! Soon it’ll be time for another Fred Thompson or Rudy groundswell. [...]

Lemme 'splain about miracles and the con job part of Christianity: Miracles yesterday, miracles tomorrow, sorry, no miracles today. 'Karma' is probably closer to the truth. If their miracle comes up with another Thompson or Julieannie as their savior, they get what they deserve.

Pops sticks a needle in the balloon a little at this point, but I'm not going to. Go.

Dear Egypt,

Just so you know:

...

This pisses me off all the more because — after seeing Yves Smith rave about it for weeks — I’ve been reading Nicholas Shaxson’s Treasure Islands (I’m hoping we’ll be able to arrange a book salon when the book comes out in the U.S. in April). Normally, discussions of developing nation elites looting their countries focus on the corruption of the countries themselves. But Shaxson shows how the ability to loot a country like Mubarak has depends on a whole network of secrecy jurisdictions, of which Switzerland is now just the stodgiest. Indeed, Shaxon shows that the UK and U.S. have competed since World War II to set up the most extensive secrecy jurisdictions to ensure the looted funds from the rest of the world end up driving our financialized economies.

Mubarak’s looted billions — indeed, his ability to loot billions as representatives of our government scoff at activists who call such looting illegal — plays a fundamental role in our house of cards economy. And, given that we reward obedient client dictators with permission to loot their country, it plays a fundamental role in American hegemony in this world.

...

You'd better get your tourist industry going again because you ain't getting shit from Hose Me Hosni Mubarak. The United States will see to that.

Regards,

Fixer

You don't ...

Piss into the wind. Westboro Baptist Church's response to Anonymous:

Westboro Baptist Church
(WBC Chronicles -- Since 1955)
3701 S.W. 12th St. Topeka, Ks. 66604 785-273-0325 www.GodHatesFags.com
Religious Opinion & Bible Commentary on Current Events
Saturday, February 19, 2011 NEWS RELEASE
(Background, photos, sermons, parodies & video – available free at www.GodHatesTheMedia.com, www.JewsKilledJesus.com, www.SignMovies.com, www.GodHatestheWorld.com, www.PriestsRapeBoys.com, www.BeastObama.com & Blogs.SpareNot.com)

Open Letter from Westboro Baptist Servants of God to Anonymous Coward Crybaby “Hackers”

BRING IT!

God opens the doors of utterance & no man can shut them (Col. 4:3; Rev. 3:7). His Word will run & have free course (2 Th. 3:1). Translated: The only reason the Internet exists is for Westboro Baptist Church to tell this nation & this world that your destruction draws nigh. You all will shut your mouth, confess He is God, mourn for your sins, repent, & obey -- or you have no hope! No weapon formed against us will prosper (Isa. 54:17).

Nothing will shut up these words – ever.

A puddle of pimple-faced nerds organized under the cowardly banner of “Anonymous” claim they plan to hack Westboro’s Websites, including www.GodHatesFags.com & www.GodHatesTheMedia.com, because they hate Westboro’s Bible preachments. They mistakenly suppose because of pseudo-success with ruined-and-doomed-USA’s government or financial Websites that they can take on the servants of the Living God.

Bad miscalculation, girls!

Let us tell you how this will go: rebels will build a full head of steam based on false hope; the media will predictably do much breathless anticipating while giving another tsunami of coverage to Westboro’s message; God will defeat your council; your efforts will fail.

Anonymous is warring with God; very stupid for little boys claiming to be so smart.

All your draconian blather changes nothing. God will use you for His praise, & the rest of your wrath He will restrain (Ps. 76:10). Foppish “hackers” – like all humans – must obey God. Obey or perish.

GOD HATES FAGS & LOUSY “HACKERS!”

Jiffy Pop or Orville Redenbacher's?

How we got here ...

If you wonder how we got to the point we are now, where corporations make government policy and suborn our elected officials, a primer:

...

The consequences of this should be obvious. When bribery is legal and profitable it will be frequently utilized. The wealthy will have the potential to use it, and the poor will not. So, legalized bribery of public officials translates into a government that represents the interests of the wealthy over everyone else.

These consequences have multiplied in the United States over the past three decades, mainly for two reasons: Wealth and income inequality have steadily expanded to record proportions; and the idea of trickle down economics has gained just enough respectability to prevent a massive outcry against it. Trickle down economics is the ridiculous idea that society’s interests are best served by tending to the interests of the wealthy, on the rationalization that when the wealthy become wealthier their wealth will trickle down to everyone else, or simply that the wealthy deserve the special attention of government.

...

The average person means nothing in the face of the corporatist state the US has become. Of, by, and for the corporations.