Help! Help! I’m being repressed! Come see the violence inherent in the system!
“Serf Pride” – Ed (Gin and Tacos)
This is exactly what right-to-work is: a race to the bottom. It’s transforming American states into third world sweatshops. Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana have become Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines. It’s American companies forcing Arkansas to compete with Mexico for a new factory, and American workers working for the same wages as Mexican workers.
Once upon a time in this country, a man could get a job in a factory and be paid a wage that would allow him to provide for a family without the benefit of a college education. Wouldn’t it be something if we could do that again?
“NASA gets two military spy telescopes for astronomy” – Joel Achenbach (Washington Post)
The National Reconnaissance Office just hands over a pair of untouched Hubble-quality space telescopes to NASA, and NASA doesn’t have the funding to make them mission-ready and send them into space, or a mechanism for getting them there.
I’d like to reiterate that the NRO had these just SITTING AROUND. Here’s how I imagine this conversation going:
*A phone rings at NASA headquarters*
Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator: “Hello, this is Charles Bolden?”
General Bruce Carlson, NRO Director: “Chuckie! How the fuck you doin’!”
CB: “Just fine, General. What can I do for you?”
GBC: “Hey, are you guys still flyin’ those space telescopes?”
CB: “Yes sir, but we’re having some problems getting the new one off the ground. We can’t seem to get Congress to fund it.”
GBC: “Well ain’t that some shit. Look, I’m gonna do you a solid. I’ve got two of those things in a warehouse in upstate New York, and I’m just gonna give ’em to ya.”
CB: “I’m sorry, what?”
GBC: “Fuck yeah, man! We’re about to launch a satellite that can read the text on an iPad from outer-fuckin’-space, and I got these two extras just laying around, so they’re all yours if you want ’em.”
CB: “Well General, that’s a tremendously generous offer. On behalf of NASA, I accept.”
GBC: “Great! I’ll send you all the details and you guys can just pick ’em up whenever.”
CB: “Sounds good. Thank you, General.”
GBC: “No problem! Catch ya later!”
*General Carlson hangs up the phone*
CB: “THAT ROTTEN MOTHERFUCKER. THAT SONOFABITCH. I’M THE HEAD OF THE ONLY SPACE AGENCY ON THE PLANET THAT CAN’T LAUNCH ANYTHING INTO FUCKIN’ SPACE, AND HE’S GOT TWO SPACE TELESCOPES JUST “SITTING AROUND”. GODDAMMIT. I HAVE TO GO TO CONGRESS HAT IN HAND EVERY TIME I WANT TO LAUNCH A GODDAMN WEATHER SATELLITE, BUT HE’S GOT SPARE SPACE TELESCOPES. WE WENT TO THE MOON, MOTHERFUCKERS. THE FUCKING MOON. YOU KNOW WHO DIDN’T GO TO THE MOON? THE ARMY, NAVY, AIR FORCE, OR MARINES. THE NRO, CIA, FBI, NSA; THEY DIDN’T GO TO THE MOON EITHER. NOPE. NASA. NASA WENT TO THE GODDAMN MOON, AND WE’D BE ON FUCKING MARS RIGHT NOW IF WE DIDN’T HAVE OUR BUDGET CUT TO NOTHING EVERY TIME CONGRESS GETS A STIFFY FOR BLOWING UP ANOTHER COUNTRY. GODDAMMIT.”
“Dems push for national debate on whether GOP is sabotaging economy” – Greg Sargent (Washington Post)
I think this is what the Democrats have to do. I think they need to force the GOP to explain what exactly they are in opposition to, and what their alternative plan is to replace it. You’re against Obamacare; okay, what’s your alternative? You’re against the stimulus; okay, what’s your alternative?
I don’t believe the GOP is intentionally sabotaging the economy. I believe that they have an orthodoxy and that deviating from it will get them burned as heretics by their base. I believe that orthodoxy to be fundamentally flawed. But, I don’t believe that the GOP is strategizing new and different ways to sabotage the economy directly; if they were, they could do a much better job. Rather, by opposing Democrats, refusing to compromise, etc., they do it indirectly.
“Beyond the money, the Great Wisconsin Recall election of 2012 has been the fight our Democracy deserves” – Charles P. Pierce (Esquire)
The Wisconsin Recall will demonstrate conclusively how much power money can effectively wield in politics. Scott Walker is overwhelmingly funded by out of state groups; approximately three quarters of his funding are coming from out of state groups, while three quarters of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s funding are coming from in state groups. Walker is outspending Barrett six to one plus. Walker is already doing some world-class ratfucking. So, the question is how many votes can billionaire plutocrats buy indirectly?
“Trump: ‘Birther’ is a derogatory term created by the media” – Evan McMorris-Santoro (TPM)
Has anyone checked to see if that rats nest toupee Trump insists on wearing isn’t covering up a brain slug? The poor thing must be dying of starvation by now.
“CHART: The Gobsmacking Drop in Government Spending under Obama” – Sahil Kapur (TPM)
The gobs, they are smacked.
BUT I THOUGHT OBAMA WAS A BIG-SPENDING BIG-GOVERNMENT LIBERAL? Well, you thought wrong. Stop watching Fox News and go read something that may contain a fact-like substance.
“As ever @blakehoundshell the Message is: Vote Republican, it’s too dangerous to have us in opposition” – David Frum (Twitter)
You know what? I take it back. These fuckers are deliberately trying to sabotage the economy. The American people should rise up and electorally smite these assholes until we hold the words “Republican” or “conservative” in the same contempt we hold “Nazi”, “Communist”, or “Fascist”.
“In Texas, 300,00 eligible voters targeted in purge” – Alex Brown (ThinkProgress)
You know when Texas is suppressing voters, it’s starting to get really bad.
“Heritage Foundation ‘Expert’ cannot cite any examples of actual voter fraud” – Josh Israel (ThinkProgress)
See, the problem here is that when normal people talk about voter fraud, they’re talking talking about people that are ineligible to vote who are completing ballots. This doesn’t happen in enough quantity anywhere to swing any election, including dog catcher. Attempting wide-scale voter fraud would almost immediately be sniffed out, as you would need to coordinate hundreds if not thousands of individuals, and someone would gab.
When Republicans talk about voter fraud, they’re talking about people that don’t vote Republican. Obviously, there are millions of people that don’t vote Republican, so this is a huge problem for them.
“Hitler, Stalin, and Obama? Bishop’s partisan preachment sparks controversy” – Joseph L. Conn (Americans United)
In an April 14 sermon at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria, Jenky said the Catholic Church is under attack by the U.S. government, and he wants to recruit a “fearless army of Catholic men ready to give everything we have for the Lord.”
I’m less concerned with the tax implications of a member of the Catholic clergy commanding his church to vote a certain way; it’s pretty well established that the Catholic Church is a combination of the Gambino crime family and NAMBLA with tax exempt status at this point. I’m more concerned with a member of the Catholic Church exhorting his followers to rise up and form an army, “[giving] everything [they] have for the Lord.”
You see, my people (I’m Jewish) have a really, really big problem with a Catholic priest exhorting his followers to form an army. We remember the last time the Catholic Church decided to raise an army and go to war. And we remember how poorly that went for us, and really the world in general.
Of course, if we’re going to apply the same standard to the Catholic Church that we do to the other religious extremists we’re fighting right now, I would anticipate the deployment of the 82nd Airborne to Vatican City any day now. I would also stay clear of churches, priests, bishops, cardinals, or any other member of church leadership, as they could become targets of drone strikes and being in their presence would make you an enemy combatant.
