Listen up ...

Russell Simmons, for whom I have the greatest respect as a businessman and community activist, and have been a fan of since Def Comedy Jam, writes a letter to his friend, President Obama:

...

The rich are already at the table, as are the Democrats, the Republicans, the Tea Party and the unions, the business interests and the moneyed interests. The poor can’t afford for you to forget about them, and you cannot afford it either. Of all Americans, the poor are not just the real victims of this recession; they are the victims of a thirty year campaign of smear and neglect, to strengthen the rich on the backs of the rest of America in the dim and ultimately futile fantasy that the rich getting richer will somehow "trickle down."

Well, it hasn’t trickled down. While middle class wages have declined in the face of unparalleled wealth and technology creation since the 1980′s, the poverty rate in our country is the highest it has been in 51 years. That takes us to the early 1960′s. Shame on all of us who otherwise take pride in the achievements of this rich and powerful nation.

If you don’t put the poor at the heart of your policies for the next two years, with the interests aligned in favor of the rich, too many of the middle class will join them in their suffering. That is the "trickle up" of poverty that has impoverished nations with unfair concentrations of wealth at the top. That is what destroys great nations.

...

Damn straight.

Thanks to Susie for the link.

"I want to buy a house ...

From Barack Obama".

Our President is getting quite a rep ... as a patsy.

Hey, pal ...

This is New York City. Parking's at a premium so quit hoggin' the spot.



Usually this happens on the street outside the airport, shortly followed by "City Tow, what's yer problem?" Heh ...

150 Years Later, Tea Partiers Still Aren’t Over The Civil War

Every time I go back to Think Progress, there's something new. A diligent bunch! Links at site.

Today is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s beginning, when secessionists fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. According to a new poll from CNN, the Civil War’s legacy remains unresolved. The poll finds that Republicans and Tea Party supporters are more likely to support the Confederacy and confederate leaders than Democrats or Independents.

According to the poll, nearly one in four Americans sympathize with the Confederacy more than with the Union. That number grows to nearly four-in-ten among white Southerners. Among Tea Party members, 26 percent sympathize with the Confederacy more than the Union, and that number grows to 28 percent among Republicans.

There's that Dead End Quarter again.

Meanwhile, while respondents overall viewed slavery as the main reason for the war by a 54-42 margin, Tea Partiers and Republicans held different views. Fifty-two percent of Republicans believed slavery was not the main reason, and that number rose to 54 percent among Tea Partiers.

Yeah, it wasn't over slavery, it was over the "states' rights" that permitted slavery. Yeesh.

Even though these battles are radical and out of the mainstream, it isn’t that shocking that these Republicans are attempting to refight them. According to these poll numbers, that’s exactly what large segments of their base want them to do.

Fine. The sane people kicked their ass once and apparently they've recovered enough that they need it kicked again.

Note to Confederacysymps: Just secede already. The United States will pay a high price in the loss of a lot of fine people but I can accept it if it makes you STFU. Maybe a sound wall around you would work. A thick one.

Why doesn't this surprise me?

Think Progress

Michele Bachmann Calls For Stripping Judges’ Power To Enforce Parts Of The Constitution She Doesn’t Like

Well of course she does. Tell the Founding Fathers where they fucked up, Michele. They couldn't possibly have foreseen that one quarter of the populace was gonna go batcrap crazy, but I'm sure they would have allowed for that had they known. Or maybe they did.

Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System

Chris Hedges

A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind. It prizes test scores above critical thinking and literacy. It celebrates rote vocational training and the singular, amoral skill of making money. It churns out stunted human products, lacking the capacity and vocabulary to challenge the assumptions and structures of the corporate state. It funnels them into a caste system of drones and systems managers. It transforms a democratic state into a feudal system of corporate masters and serfs.

Well under way according to plan, thank you. And your point is...?

Why the Right-Wing Bullies Will Hold The Nation Hostage Again and Again

Robert Reich discovered long ago a truism that President Obama needs to figure out right quick. If he's capable of it.

When I was a small boy I was bullied more than most, mainly because I was a foot shorter than than everyone else. They demanded the cupcake my mother had packed in my lunchbox, or, they said, they’d beat me up. After a close call in the boy’s room, I paid up. Weeks later, they demanded half my sandwich as well. I gave in to that one, too. But I could see what was coming next. They’d demand everything else. Somewhere along the line I decided I’d have a take a stand. The fight wasn’t pleasant. But the bullies stopped their bullying.

I hope the President decides he has to take a stand, and the sooner the better. Last December he caved in to Republican demands that the Bush tax cut be extended to wealthier Americans for two more years, at a cost of more than $60 billion. That was only the beginning — the equivalent of my cupcake.

It is impossible to fight bullies merely by saying they’re going too far.

You have to turn them black and blue and red and make them afraid to fuck with you. Simple. If you don't, the bullying will never stop.

Too Much Information Headline of the Day

Iceland's penis museum finally gets human specimen

Boy, there's a dream vacation...

Criminal Probe Heading Scott Walker’s Way

Ya put a shiny nickel where he'll see it and when he bends over...ya probe him!

PoliticusUSA

This morning, a criminal complaint filed in circuit court alleges that William Gardner, the president and CEO of Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Co., skirted campaign donation laws by soliciting employees to give to Scott Walker’s campaign and then reimbursing them, in what amounts to two felony counts. It has also come out that Walker’s campaign then reimbursed Gardner and seven additional railroad employees to the tune of $43,800, which indicates a criminal probe is imminent of Walker’s campaign.

The state might be trying to get William Gardner to testify against Walker with the two felony counts. If this is legitimate, the people of Wisconsin have more than enough reason to oust Walker. If it’s unclear how serious this is, think Tom DeLay (my em).

A pattern of systemic corruption within the Wisconsin Republican Party is being established by recent events. What we have here is a pattern of reckless disregard for the law, which I deeply suspect will eventually rear its head in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race as well, though we don’t know exactly how yet. But the Walker administration and the Republicans in the state Senate and House have established a pattern of violating the law, now topped off by allegations against a donor of violations of campaign laws.

Systemic corruption? Repugs? Yep, from coast to coast. If they didn't break laws wholesale they'd never get elected. Finances, vote tampering, lying, cheating, the works.

But it's OK. God told them to, and besides, it's the American way. Yeesh.

Let's hope this pans out.

Easy targets ...

Stewart and Bonds. Our friend Comrade Misfit makes a good observation:

... the Barry Bonds case and the multi-years' long efforts of the Federal prosecutors to put Bonds away for being an arrogant dickhead.

... The Feds also went after Martha Stewart for some of the same reasons, both the legal reasons and the unofficial ones.

...

But I can't help think this: The Feds have, to all appearances, not put forth any effort to go after any of the banksters, other than the schmucks who were running obvious pyramid schemes. There has not been, as far as I know, any sustained series of perp-walks for the banksters who violated their fiduciary duties to their clients.

...

High profile names the feds can point to in order to show the public they're "doing their jobs". For whatever reason (the bankers have Obama's balls in a vise or we just don't want to take on tough jobs anymore - except when it comes to killing "Little Brown Bastids"), America has become the "Land of the Mediocre".

"Investing in the Future"

They bandy that phrase around a lot nowadays. Thing is, all we're doing is investing in the past. Via C&L, compare the subsidies we give Big Oil next to what we give to the solar industry (you know, the future) and wonder in which direction the country's headed. If there was ever a time for leadership, it is now. Sadly, all we have are pretenders.

The Rumsfeltagon Papers

TPM just got a load of documentation from DOD under a FOIA request. Amazing to see what a sociopathic scumbag Rumsfeld is.

...

But he's also kept hundred of documents secret, and we used the FOIA to find them--we got everything that the Pentagon handed over to Rumsfeld, so we know what what he got and can see what he declined to publish. We received a few hundred pages in February, and just got another 1,300 pages, including memos urging President Bush to start toppling regimes in the Middle East just days after 9/11, suggesting that he thought Gen. Tommy Franks was lying to him, and chastising his generals for being too concerned about civilian casualties.

...

After reading this, it's obvious (as if Iraq and Afghanistan aren't proof enough) the man was inept and incompetent as a leader of men (and women) at war. He and his suck-buddy Wolfowitz should both have been up against the wall (or twisting at the end of a rope) by now.

Relating ...

A toon at Susie's.

The Conservative M-O ...

If they can't kill it outright, they'll defund it until it withers and dies:

As Leona Helmsley so sweetly put it, when speaking of the wealthy,"We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes..." And thanks to the efforts of the Republican/Teabaggers in their budget negotiations, many more wealthy people will be able to say that.

...

They're coming for the tax collectors now.

Why?

Digby wonders why we don't seem to care about what's going on in Japan anymore:

...

It's hard for me to believe that the whole world isn't riveted on this story --- and maybe everyone but Americans are. This ongoing epic disaster is unfolding right before our eyes and yet we look away. Is it too much for us? Or are we just so self-absorbed that unless it affects us personally we lose interest?

...

Two reasons, my dear Digby.

1) Americans, collectively, have the attention span of a gnat. If shit ain't on fire, blowing up, or have military weaponry being brandished about, we lose interest quickly. A radiation disaster doesn't lend itself to the cable news cycle.

B) The Japanese are "Little Yellow Bastids". Of course Americans do nuclear better; we're Americans and that could never happen here.

These two statements also explain why we can turn our backs on places like Africa and why we intervene in places like Libya and Iraq. Ain't nobody here cares about any "Little ________* Bastids" unless they got something we need.

*Insert color of your choice.

Garden update ...

By 1130 yesterday, I was ready to jump on the train to the city and beat the shit out of the lyin' weatherman but the sun finally did come out and it turned into a beautiful afternoon. Me and the girls were out as soon as I saw the first break in the clouds (seems all my neighbors had the same idea because no sooner did we get outside than every other dog in the neighborhood went out too; the Canine Chorus was in full voice yesterday afternoon).



I got the perimeter beds cultivated and added about 800lbs of topsoil (organic stuff I get from a local Long Island company for $1.35/50lb bag) to the compost (I got my own that my mom started when I was a baby and we perpetuate; good soil) I put down last week.



I also added 4 more of the Sweet Flag grass next to the steps coming up from the house (pay no attention to the delinquents in the background; heh ...).

Click pics to 'fertilize'.

Glad I got the time (and the girls got the time) outside yesterday as we're having thunderstorms and rain until tomorrow night. They'll be stir crazy by Thursday (when the weatherman says the sun will come out again) but at least they're tired* today.

I still have to find flagstones for the walk but that'll have to wait until we get back from Europe. I'll be around the house today, playing Chinese Laundry making sure everything we plan to take with us is clean (you know, being aboard a British-flagged ship - Queen Elizabeth - during the Royal Wedding, there'll be some sort of gala the Mrs. - and my buddy Terry's Mrs. - will make us go to**). Hopefully, the Mrs. will be home from Jersey early enough to play crash test dummy occupy the Dingo Sisters so I can watch the Chelsea v. Manchester United match this afternoon in peace. Heh ...

*A tired Cattle Dog is a good Cattle Dog.
**Me and Terry would much rather sit in the bar, watch football, and swap war stories.

Sesquicentennial

Today is the 150th anniversary of the day the Confederacy started the Civil War by attacking the 84 personnel at Fort Sumter. Southerners call it "The War Of Northern Aggression" because The United States hit back.

The peasants will pay in Idahole

Raw Story

Idaho Republicans ‘run amok’, sue taxpayers for $100K

According to Spokane, Washington's Spokesman-Review, Republicans in the Idaho state legislature rushed a bill through in the final days of the legislative session to pay the Idaho Republican Party $100,000 in attorney's fees and legal costs for a primary election lawsuit that it brought against the state and won.

Though it’s not uncommon for prevailing parties to get their legal fees paid in a federal civil rights case, what’s unusual is how the Idaho GOP set up its fee arrangement with its attorney – a rare “contingent fee” deal in which only the taxpayers would have to pay, not the party, regardless of the outcome.

Democratic lawmakers were agog at the Republican Party's conduct. Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise said, “I have to point out, we’re paying $100,000 for the Republican Party to sue the Republican Legislature, defended by the Republican secretary of state, in order to close primaries in Idaho – I just think this is so bad it’s comical."

Comical indeed! Works out to a little less than 7¢ per Idahoan, which is still too much. Not only are the goddam Repugs rich, they're cheap. Anything to avoid opening their own creaky purse, eh?

Yes, always better to put it off onto reg'lar folks. Musta took a page from Lyin' Ryan.

Freudian Psychotic Right-Wing. So what's new?

I won't link to Newsmax, but you can go look for this at BuzzFlash.

Freudian Slip From Psychotic Right-Wing NewsMax:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is vowing to Newsmax readers that organized labor will not steal back the dramatic come-from-behind victory of Supreme Court Justice David Prosser even if unions end up paying for a recount.

Come-from-behind attempted election theft is more like it. Steal back is the operative Freudo-slip. Heh.

Headline of the Day

How the GOP came to view the poor as parasites—and the rich as our rightful rulers.

The rich gave them lots of money and told them so?