Here's a cool little piece that my buddy named Tom found...And yes, I know, Rush doesn't have a beard. So what?
America Seeks Restraining Order Against GOP by Bernard Pliers
America is trying to call it quits with the GOP. She thought there was chemistry when they first met - he had that frat boy swagger and a cocksure attitude. The Democrats had seemed kind of dull, and America was ready for a change.
One of the first things she noticed was that GOP was always getting into fights. He sure hated foreigners, especially the Arabs, even though GOP depended on them for his businesses. And he really hated gays, Mexicans, and liberals.
And then there was the accusations. America realized that GOP was more than a little paranoid. He was always accusing her of being disloyal. Then he started spying on her. She wasn't sure what to make of it, but she kept hearing buzzing and clicking on her phone line.
And GOP was never very good with money. Weren't rich guys supposed to be good with money? But GOP was always broke, and he kept living the good life and sticking America with the bill.
America started finding kinky stuff in GOP's closet. There were some freaky videos of naked Arab guys - it looked like some sort of gay porn version of Oz on HBO. Then there were the stories about GOP having anonymous gay sex in airport bathrooms - but how could he be gay? He hated gays! Besides, he seemed so rugged, and he had a great beard.
They tried a trial separation in 2006, and things never got back on track. GOP started looking desperate and pathetic, and America realized just how freaking needy this guy was. That macho bullshit now looked like the posing of a dime store cowboy, and the classy ease of old money now just looked like a lazy sense of entitlement.
When America caught the GOP trying to clean out her bank account, that was the last straw. Apparently one of his frat brothers had gotten a job at AIG, and he talked GOP into some kind of crazy Ponzi scheme. GOP got threatening, and in 2008, she told him that they were done forever. "Oh you'll be back in 2010!" he yelled as she slammed the door behind him.
Then something happened that America never expected - she met a smart professional Black guy that swept her off her feet. Maybe she was on the rebound, maybe she was tired of GOP's aging frat boy bullshit. And he seemed so calm and reasonable. She was worried what her family would say, but Mom said "He's got my vote!"
But now things are getting weird. GOP has been back, trashing her Facebook page. Her friends tell her that he's been saying things like "If I can't have her, then nobody can have her." He's been talking about her new guy and using ethnic slurs. He always claimed to not be a bigot, but that is just so like him. It scares her. And GOP has some of his asshole frat brothers - Glenn with the crazy eyes, and that Texas jackass has supposedly been talking down about burning down America's house just because she broke up with GOP. She knew GOP could be weird, but she never knew he could get this crazy.
Personally, I find myself a little burnt out on the religion and politics dilemma, but this article was enlightening. Let me remind naysayers that part of any Faith is being open minded.
Yesterday at one of those silly tea-bagging fiestas, someone accidentally handed the mic to a person who made a little too much sense. LOL
The crowd boos at his remarks, completely exposing the fact that no one at these tea parties was actually protesting the economy, or taxes... just the fact that they're bitter because they got their asses kicked on November 4th.
Update: If you haven't laughed enough yet over all this tea party madness, I suggest you cruise on over to the blog of another Lefty's comrade, Ms. Andrea Watts, where the tea baggers are keeping it real. Great stuff.
Last week, one of nine people who must interpret our Constitution admitted his befuddlement at how many rights we have. Clarence 'too many rights' Thomas remarked at a gathering (with children):
“Today there is much focus on our rights,” Justice Thomas said. “Indeed, I think there is a proliferation of rights.”
Good God. Really? As if that wasn't bad enough, apparently while day dreaming during oral arguments Thomas invented a Bill of Obligations and a Bill of Responsibilities:
“I am often surprised by the virtual nobility that seems to be accorded those with grievances,” he said. “Shouldn’t there at least be equal time for our Bill of Obligations and our Bill of Responsibilities?"
So Clarence Thomas thinks that two imaginary documents he invented deserve equal consideration to the Bill of Rights? And as if this wasn't all bad enough, apparently the sixty-year-old Thomas believes that dishwashers are magic!:
“I have to admit,” he said, “that I’m one of those people that still thinks the dishwasher is a miracle. What a device! And I have to admit that because I think that way, I like to load it. I like to look in and see how the dishes were magically cleaned.”
unfuckingbelievable. I propose at future confirmation hearings we inquire into whether the nominee understands the mechanics of hot water.
Though, we can all take solace in knowing that Clarence still hates us and his job - because we elected people who attacked him and he is still pissed two decades later:
“this endeavor,” he called it, “or, for some, an ordeal” — has not gotten easier. “That’s one thing about this job,” he said. “You get a little tired.
“Sometimes, when I get a little down,” Justice Thomas said wearily, he goes online. “I look up wonderful speeches, like speeches by Douglas MacArthur.
Here, Clarence is clearly talking in euphemism. I for one am looking forward to his next 'dear penthouse' letter, which is surly on the way.
"Teabagging" Enters the PG-13 Mainstream American Lexicon on a Wacky Day.
With over 750 teabagging rallies happening today, I couldn't help but wonder how many people realize the original purpose of the Boston Tea Party.
Paul Begala, who calls tax day "Patriots Day" had this to say:
"So why are a bunch of Fox News clowns and right-wing cranks hosting "tea parties" all over the country? The Boston Tea Party, in case the clods at Fox didn't know it, protested "taxation without representation." Note the second word: without. The goofballs tossing tea bags today have representation. They voted in the election; they lost."
In some sense, if Conservatives keep this up, they'll make themselves look so bad that they really won't have representation (outside of the South, of course). The idea of a permanent Democratic majority has been tossed around before (not that I agree completely with the prognosis).
Let's take Richard Burr, Republican Senator from North Carolina, a man with an approval rating in the 30s. This is what he said to his wife:
“On Friday night, I called my wife and I said, ‘Brooke, I am not coming home this weekend. I will call you on Monday. Tonight, I want you to go to the ATM machine, and I want you to draw out everything it will let you take."
Foolish GOP Senator: "Let's have a run on the banks. Last one there is a rotten egg!" see (Great Depression)
Oh, no, but the fun goes on...
Tea-baggers were dispersed and their rally shut down outside the White House because some fool tossed a package over the fence and into the WH lawn. Wow! I wonder if that bonehead move was worth it?
On the response side, WH Press Secretary Robert Gibbs laid the smack down, stating that the Obama Administration passed the biggest tax cut in history.
"You can speak to the organizers on whether they are contrived," said Gibbs. "I think the statistics I read are pretty clear. If you are one of the 95 percent of working families that earn, I think, less than $200,000 a year, you receive a tax cut. That's not contrived. Those are the facts... Maybe [the protesters] fall outside the window of making a quarter of a million dollars a year."
A tax cut. Passed with representation. What more do people want?
HUGE PROBLEM! None of this matters if the US is losing $100 Billion a year from offshore tax loopholes. Check out this table, showing how much your state is getting the shaft because of greedy Cayman Island scams:
If you'd like to learn more about tax loopholes and the general corruption of the system, I highly recommend Perfectly Legal by David Cay Johnston. I read it last summer and it opened my eyes to all kinds of flaws in our tax system. LEFTY'S RECOMMENDATION**
CLOSING REMARKS:
I was thinking about the teabaggers and the headlines they have dominated in today's papers, and it made me think about how lucky we are to be Americans. Halfway around the world, in a country (Afghanistan) that the United States has invaded, women are marching in the streets to protest a controversial law that some say would allow marital rape. They are marching so that their husbands cannot freely teabag them without proper consent.
Where our "goofball" television personalities fuel the fire, encouraging teabagging and what not, let us remember that we are privileged to be here, to have the liberties that others have provided for us, and to live in a society where teabagging means something more than a demeaning chauvanist sex act.
Come on, people. There has to be a better way to express your displeasure with the federal budget. Why did it occur to people that sending anonymous packages filled with a brown powdery substance would be an appropriate form of dissent? What's wrong with just writing an angry letter?
I get it. In Boston, colonists dumped shipments of tea into the Boston Harbor to protest taxes on tea. So now, people are sending bags of tea to members of Congress as a protest against...deficit spending?
I get that it's supposed to be an allusion to the Boston Tea Party, but wouldn't it be more accurate to imitate them and throw boxes of tea into major bodies of water? I don't see what "tea-bagging" your congressmen is supposed to accomplish. If you want to get your point across about your displeasure with Congress's actions you should write a letter, complete with a return address. If you send an anonymous bag of tea to your Representatives, the best case scenario is that some intern is going just throw it in the trash (what a waste of tea!)
As for the worst case scenario, well...
Rep. George Radanovich (R-Mariposa) a supporter of the Tea Party movement probably puts it best
"It is ironic that more taxpayer money is wasted when a tea bag is mistaken for a toxic substance and first responders are called to investigate," Radanovich said in the news release.
"I think a letter or e-mail would be a more effective and efficient way to communicate the message of support for tea parties and encourage that type of communication in the future."
I tried to start this post about six different ways by now... the first 5 included the phrase "fucking crazies" at least a dozen times in the first couple sentences, and I'm really trying to stop swearing so much, so I'll settle for that one usage and see where this goes...
*Takes deep breath* . . . *exhales* ...sonofabitch. Still angry.
If you're wondering why your dear Lefty's contributer is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, well, let's just start with this:
Now, I know what you're thinking. "Oh, Shamrock, it's just Glenn Beck. He's just a huge fucking douchebagjournalist entertainer who gets paid to say silly things. Don't get all worked up."
And you know, most of the time you would be right. But this kind of extremist rhetoric has reached a fever pitch over the last few days. And really... is there anything more literally un-American than calling for secession from the United States of America???
Now, earlier today I simply dismissed this as the "isolated ravings of a lunatic" and went about my day. But Jed Lewison over at Daily Kos had to go ruin my night:
Here's the video that made me stop doing my homework:
Okay, seriously guys... WTF!?! We've got Glenn Beck attempting to justify a state's right to secede from the Union, and the state of Texas "drawing a line in the sand" and asking Texans to chose sides... between what exactly? ...Their state, and their country!?! And really, just what fine legal institution did Mr. Beck earn his J.D. at to help him arrive at such a profound conclusion?
First of all, Texas, if you want to secede, fucking go for it. I triple dog dare you to. Let us evacuate our friends first... and maybe some cute cowgirls... and then I say you can have your state. See how great that works out for you once you rid yourselves of all our evil socialist programs like: social security; medicare; U.S. armed forces; border patrol; transportation funds; postal service; etc.
Does anyone else find it odd that when the G.O.P. narrowly wins an election it means they cry "Mandate!" but when they get their asses handed to them by the American people they cry, "Tyranny! Secede! Rebel!"???
Talk like this coming from people with such giant soap boxes is not funny, and it really shouldn't be given a break for just being "typical right-wing craziness" because frankly, one day, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the Republicans weren't extremists. And since they will most likely win another election in the next decade or two, I would really like to have that party back.
Talk like this has consequences. A couple weeks ago when Glenn Beck was spreading nonsense lies about some imaginary gun ban that President Obama was imposing, some whackjob went out and killed a few cops. A neighbor said that the killer was fearful of President Obama taking his guns. I don't blame Beck directly for this, but maybe I should. Beck knew that what he was saying wasn't true, but he said it anyway. There are plenty of crazy people in the world, and when you spread lies about the government coming to get people's guns, and then promote ideas like seceding from the country, well, what do you think is going to happen? The people who eat that shit up are going to take you seriously, and act on it. Even the Department of Homeland Security is concerned with the current economic and political climate leading to an increase in right-wing extremism and recruitment for radical organizations. Now before any conservatives get all defensive, this report was initiated before President Obama was even nominated, and the government regularly surveys the potential dangers posed by both left-wing and right-wing extremism (You can read the full report below).
In the meantime, I'm going to take a deep breath and try to pretend that people who claim to be serious politicians and have shows on a national news network don't actually talk like this. But alas, tomorrow is the grassroots FOX News sponsored "tax-day tea parties," and I'm sure that we'll be treated to a whole new dose of crazy by tomorrow afternoon.
In case your head was buried in the sand for the last few days, Johnny Depp fans everywhere were treated to quite a show, when international relations combined with an epic Disneyland attraction culminating in the first pirate attack on a U.S. ship in... heck, I don't know... a couple centuries???
Anyhow, long story short: Pirates unsuccessfully attempted to capture a U.S. vessel and instead took the captain hostage resulting in a standoff between a lifeboat of 4 Somali Pirates and the United States Navy.
Pirates vs. U.S. Navy ...who do you think won?
Apparently there were quite a few people who must have looked at the Vegas odds on this one and decided to go for the long shot. I'm sure you can guess who these clowns were without much effort; but here it is anyway:
What's the deal with right-wingers assuming their own country's military couldn't deal with a handful of fisherman moonlighting as pirates? Are they rooting for America to fail? Are they trying to blame America first? You know each of these goobers would be throwing those kind of accusations at any liberal who made such stupid comments while President Bush was in the midst of dealing with a hostage situation.
If you enjoy our blog, and you haven't already done so, I strongly suggest you check out the internet show, The Young Turks, starring Cenk Uygur. You can watch the entire broadcast at their website or if you're in a hurry, definitely check out their highlight clips on their youtube channel. It's a great show, it's smart and irreverently funny. It is a valuable progressive perspective on the news, and the Young Turks are always entertaining, even when they're not talking about politics. Cenk Uygur, the host, has also appeared numerous times on CNN and MSNBC, he writes for the Huffington Post, and he's coming to Notre Dame this weekend (major props to JD, Henry, Spencer)
A Call To Action
Anyway, since Cenk is coming here to Notre Dame, I think it would be nice to show some support. The Young Turks have been aggressively campaigning for MSNBC's 10 PM slot, after Rachel Maddow's show, which is currently held by Olbermann reruns. To show support, TYT have been receiving emails with pictures of people with a simple message of "TYT on MSNBC". For more info, check out their website
So, if you contribute to our blog, if you like to read our blog, or if you just happened across this post, I urge you to check out TYT, and if you like what you see, take a picture like this one, and let them know you support seeing TYT on MSNBC. I'm actually hoping to gather as many of our writers together to make a picture together, though maybe we should wait for Cenk to show up and take the pic with him. This is still in the planning stages so I'm willing to take any suggestions.
Just For Laughs
If you want a good laugh, check out the TYT boycott blog that I found while researching for good pictures to use on this post. This is an example of how not to start a blog: three posts, all in one day, and then, diddly squat. It doesn't help that the mission statement of the blog is to both "boycott TYT" and "dig up dirt" on TYT, by ...watching it and... not really effectively boycotting the show at all.
I received word that I have been chosen to appear on Brian Williams' program in a segment about the Notre Dame Obama commencement controversy. They will be taping it on Wednesday, in front of the Golden Dome. I'll try to find out when it will air in case any of you want to go see it, and we'll try to find it if it ends up online so that we can post it here.
Apparently they liked my viewpoint article about the subject, so they think that I would be a good choice to represent the opinions of the student body. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, I'll post it below.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 2004 statement, "Catholics and Political Life," states that Catholic institutions, like Notre Dame, "should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental and moral principles," and that those who do "should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."
On May 17, I will be honored with a Bachelor's Degree from Notre Dame. In my four years attending this university I have been awarded with over $100,000 in scholarships and financial aid from Notre Dame, and have always been offered a platform to speak my mind, as I would in any credible University. On the day that I graduate, President Obama will be presented with an honorary law degree from Notre Dame and have the privilege to be the Class of 2009's Commencement speaker. Both Barack Obama and I have acted in defiance of the Church's fundamental and moral principles in the past, but no one is protesting me receiving my degree.
The idea that by inviting President Obama to deliver the commencement address, Notre Dame is in any way supporting his position on abortion is ludicrous. In presenting him this honor, Notre Dame is rewarding him for his achievements, just as Notre Dame will be rewarding me for mine. There is no Catholic litmus test to decide whether you are fit for this honor. Notre Dame has a long history of presenting this honor to people who have in opposition to the Catholic Church, from General Sherman in 1865, whose total war strategies in his "March to the Sea" clearly violate the Catholic standards of jus in bello, to President George W. Bush, who as governor of Texas presided over 155 executions. I'm willing to bet that the pro-life activists who are turning this event into a scandal were silent when President George W. Bush delivered the commencement speech eight years ago. Which leads to me to believe that this protest movement has nothing to do with "protecting Notre Dame's Catholic identity" and everything to do with politics.
I have no problem with staging a political protest. It's our right as Americans to do so. What I do have a problem with is hypocrisy. If you disagree with Obama's politics, you have the right to stage a political protest, but don't turn it into something it's not. Don't hide behind the Church unless you plan to protest every speaker we have in the future that does not conform to Catholic principles. You are staging a political protest, nothing more.
America is trying to call it quits with the GOP. She thought there was chemistry when they first met - he had that frat boy swagger and a cocksure attitude. The Democrats had seemed kind of dull, and America was ready for a change.
