Posts filed under ‘They Think We’re Idiots/We ARE Idiots’
“Job Loss Support” From a Credit Card Company? Give Me a Break
Shorter: Let our Discover card nickle and dime you to death while you try to stay afloat during a job loss. We’ll pretend to be your friend but in the end, we’ll own you:
Ugly American: “Jim Bob” Duggar
I’m junking out — looking for flat brainwaves tonight — watching “19 Kids and Counting.”
What a mistake.
The Duggars are touring Japan.
Dad “Jim Bob” (along with his wife and their 19 kids) is trying to find his way to a hotel. He’s having a hard time getting directions and he’s frustrated and irritated that “nobody speaks English.”
(Image via Babble.com)
(Just sayin’: If someone from Japan plopped down in the middle of Little Rock, Arkansas (near where the Duggars live) how many people would speak Japanese?)
He’s trying to be polite. When people don’t know what he’s saying (i.e., they don’t speak English), he thanks them anyway by saying, “Gracias.”
Gracias?
Jim Bob you’re embarrassing. How about taking the time to learn how to say THANK YOU in the native tongue of the country you visit next time around? Is that too much to ask while you complain about nobody knowing English?
Geezus. SMDH.
(For those who don’t get the “Ugly American” reference, here’s more on that.)
Poor Florida Seniors: Get Ready to Die
Apropos of this, there’s this:
(Image via Wikipedia)
Fla. Medicaid Privatization Plans Moving Forward
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Federal health officials said Wednesday they expect to approve Florida’s request to privatize Medicaid statewide as long as the state resolves several outstanding issues, including hiring an independent entity to monitor the process and having a robust plan to measure the quality of patient care in the controversial program.
More…
Rick Scott, Florida’s Tea Party Governor, the guy who’s moving this along should be in prison. If you’ve got time, read this: Rick Scott’s Dirtiest Deeds.
I predict Scott will privatize Medicaid in Florida right into the hands of his hospital chain / insurance company buddies and three, four years from now the “Medicare” system in Florida will be a corrupt mess. And people will have died as a result, including Tea Partiers who voted for this narcissistic monster.
Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, John Bolton, Lindsay Graham and Erick Erickson Praise Obama’s Drone Plan/Kill list
They’re all warmongers so if they love it, I don’t!
(Image via WeAreHere.eu)
This:
GOP and TP on Obama’s Foreign Policy “Successes”
To wild GOP crowd cheers, Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachman vehemently defend Obama’s assassination policy.
And this:
—-
Graham Defends Obama on Drones
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will offer a resolution next week commending President Barack Obama’s use of drones and the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki.
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Skip the Drone Debate, Just Kill the Terrorists Before They Kill Us
We no longer have to transport ourselves to a magical alternate reality to ponder what a love child between Richard Nixon and Dick Cheney would look like. Given a Justice Department memo obtained by NBC News, we can conclude that child would look like none other than President Barack Obama.
“Just kill the terrorists before they kill us.” Land of the free and home of the brave? No. When I saw folks tearing up at the Super Bowl over those words I gagged.
We’re a scared bunch of sheeple. We stood by while almost 60,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam because our leaders told us the commies were coming to get us. Ten years ago yesterday, Colin Powell lied his face off in front of the United Nations Security Council and as a result, we invaded Iraq because they (I’m gagging again) supposedly had WMD and were ready to send a mushroom cloud over the U.S.
None of that was true.
Yet, again, we’re so scared of the lies we’ve told ourselves, all in the name of kill them before they kill us.
Defense spending — our tax dollars! — has doubled since 2001.
Ten years ago there was no such thing as the Department of Homeland Security but now we’re dumping untold billions dollars into that agency because it’s supposedly keeping us “safe.
And now we have drones — millions going to defense contractors for their new toys that we’re paying for — AGAIN, out of our tax dollars that — and President Obama’s kill list predicated on his supposed authority to kill Americans without their Constitutional right to be charged and tried by a jury of their piers.
They tell us these drone strikes are keeping us safe. But they aren’t: “Drone attacks are doing nothing but inciting more hatred” say Pakistani protesters. Google it yourself. There’s a whole bunch of info out there about how drone attacks are actually making us less after
So when will be again become the land of the free and the HOME OF THE BRAVE and when will we stop being scared little people who sacrifice their future for defense contractors and politicians who want to enrich them?
The Corporate Media Kills Gun Control Discussion
The corporatocracy (this time as in the NRA and its buddies, the corporate media) win again:
(Image via Politico.com)
On the day of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., we published a chart showing the Sisyphean nature of the national gun control discussion. In the immediate aftermath of a shooting, such as the one that took place in Aurora, Colo., mentions of the term “gun control” spike in the news media. In a matter of days, that discussion all but disappears.
This time was supposed to be different. “It is hard to believe this will not be a watershed moment when we start to talk about, deal with and even perhaps legislate on guns,” ABC News’s Z. Byron Wolf wrote. He was one among many in the media who believed the momentum for gun control legislation was strong enough to turn the tide on a familiar pattern.
Blame it on the fiscal cliff, blame it on Christmas, blame it on our ability to forget, but the national discussion about gun control has once again ebbed. Mentions of the term “gun control” on television, in newspapers, and in online media are down to pre-Sandy Hook levels, according to the Nexis database.
So, on to the next massacre.
Romney-Leaning Seniors What to Preserve Their Benefits? WTF?
My Tweet of the Day, if not of this election:
Here’s a link to the people-press.org poll cited.
So, Romney-leaning seniors are keen on preserving their benefits but not on cutting the deficit, yet they’re leaning Romney because why exactly? Romney’s VP has risen to the top of the GOP heap on his supposed miracle budget that slashes $700 billion in Medicare benefits in order to cut the deficit.
So, I’m trying to wrap my head around this. Why are Romney-leaning seniors leaning Romney if they want to preserve their benefits? Because all they’re seeing are propagandistic campaign ads (thanks to the Republicans on the Supreme Court and the Citizens United ruling) and the fact that so-called-news organizations don’t do news — as in facts – as inform us — anymore.
Oy, The Second Presidential Debate
Heading into this new week I’m already exhausted because all the attention in the US media is on Wednesday night’s second presidential debate. Nobody knows what will happen of course. It’s all about speculation. Predictions. What ifs. Could be. This or that.
We’re watching talking heads justify their own existence and their own paychecks.
A friend of mine had some simple advice for me last week: Don’t watch any of the debates so you can…sleep.
I’m thinking she’s right.
And another thing: So much is going on in the world but in order to save/make money, the MSM has laid off their foreign correspondents and the campaign is all they’ve got.
So, here we are. The Debates. That’s it.
If only we could train them to to think we care about real news.
Paul Ryan Caught Cheating on His Taxes
(Image via Politico)
What is it with the Romney/Ryan ticket? The murky money of Romney/Ryan is becoming the defining narrative about the Republican ticket.
Paul Ryan and his wife inherited between $1 – 5 million in 2010 and whoopsie daisy, he forgot to disclose it for two years. You’d almost think it was on purpose, well, some people do think that, since Ryan didn’t remember it until he was being vetted by the Romney campaign.
Hey, at least Paul Ryan provided some tax returns when he interviewed for the VP slot. That’s more than some people will do. But it doesn’t look so great that Mr. Ryan forgot to disclose an income producing trust worth between 1 – 5 million dollars.
As he was being vetted, Mr. Ryan pulled a Romney and retroactively amended his disclosures on June 6, 2012 in order to include one of the couple’s largest assets — the $1 – 5 million income producing trust Janna Ryan inherited from her mother.
The omission was classified as an “inadvertent omission.” The average American probably couldn’t justify forgetting about a trust earning, according to USA Today, “between $15,001 and $50,000 in 2010, and between $100,001 and $1 million last year.”
An “inadvertent omission?” Yeah, right. What an insult. Ryan has the same arrogant attitude the Romneys have as he looks down and talks down to We the Little People as if we’re idiots.
Beware of the Word “Reform”
We need to be hyper-aware not to be seduced by the word “reform.” When Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan use it — which I suspect they will, ad nauseam for the next three moths — it means destroy-as-we-know-it.
(Image via FoxNews.com)
“60 Minutes”: Romney, Ryan answer critics of Medicare position
“What Paul Ryan and I have talked about is saving Medicare, is providing people greater choice in Medicare, making sure it’s there for current seniors. No changes, by the way, for current seniors, or those nearing retirement. But looking for young people down the road and saying, “We’re going to give you a bigger choice.” In America, the nature of this country has been giving people more freedom, more choices. That’s how we make Medicare work down the road.”
Ryan added, “My mom is a Medicare senior in Florida. Our point is we need to preserve their benefits, because government made promises to them that they’ve organized their retirements around. In order to make sure we can do that, you must reform it for those of us who are younger. And we think these reforms are good reforms. That have bipartisan origins. They started from the Clinton commission in the late ’90s.”
Instead of doing a he said, she said interview about their “position” on Medicare, wouldn’t it be great if 60 Minutes actually read Ryan’s plan and told us in a factual way what it says? I mean, it’s right there in black and white. Maybe the “critics” are right!
Geezus.
Queen Ann Romney Talks Down to We the Little People
Ann Romney said this this morning in an interview with ABCNews:
Ann Romney stood firmly by her husband’s commitment to release only two years of tax returns in an interview airing Thursday, saying the information already disclosed was plenty of transparency for the presumptive GOP nominee.
“There are so many things that will be open again for more attack, and you just give more material for more attack, and that’s the answer. We’ve given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and about how we live our life,” Mrs. Romney said on ABC.
[...]
“You know, you should really look at where Mitt has led his life, and where he’s been financially,” Mrs. Romney said. “He’s a very generous person. We give 10% of our income to our church every year. Do you think that is the kind of person who is trying to hide things, or do things? No. He is so good about it.”
You people? YOU PEOPLE? They really do look down on us.
Oh, and as for giving 10% of their income to their church — as if they’re giving to charity — I’m pretty sure Mormons are required to give 10%.
Unbelievable.
I Don’t Care!
Shameful how much airtime Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and their daughter Suri are getting:
Ahhhhhh!
Legalize Marijuana for God’s Sake
Thought I’d update ya’ll on the police state going on at the University of Colorado – Boulder today. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? Go here.)
As I said yesterday in the post linked to above, CU police “strongly suggested” I not take my usual morning route through campus on my way to the food bank today. But I left the house and as I approached the campus I could have going one of three ways; my usual way (through the campus), to the west around the campus, or to the east around the campus. I decided to take my usual route and go straight through the campus and well, see what happens.
Turns out nothing happened but it was obvious it was still early. I was on the campus proper for probably four minutes and I traveled approximately half a mile (there are three pedestrian crosswalks along the way and I had to stop at each one). Orange traffic cones lined the entirety of the road, placed roughly every eight feet. A person dressed like this
stood at every driveway and sidewalk leading into the campus to the west. “Campus Closed” signs were visible on folding placards placed in the median.
On my way home I took a different route (my usual route home) which took me along the immediate eastern edge of campus. I saw two electronic road signs along the way, both of them flashing “WARNING TRESPASS PROSECUTED.”
I am so ashamed of the university.
Here are my Tweets of the Day:
And this one which, if true, means CU is spending more to keep the pot smokers away than if it had just let them be. Ridiculous waste of money:
And this would be my photo of the day:
(Photo via Arash Mosaleh of 9News)
Let’s just legalize marijuana already and be done with this charade.
NBC Goes After Green Dollars on Earth Day
It’s so cute, isn’t it, that NBC/MSNBC greens its logo right about now what with Earth Day coming up on Sunday?
Dig a little deeper and the “news” isn’t so green: Climate Coverage Plummets 80% On Broadcast Networks From 2009 To 2011. As a matter of fact, it isn’t green at all:
Nice try NBC/MSNBC. I think I know what kind of green you’re aiming for.
Tell Me Republicans Aren’t Worried About Women Voters
Check out the staging at this event in Wilmington, Delaware yesterday and then tell me Republicans aren’t worried about women voters. And oh yeah, that war on women thing never happened. It was made up by Commie Democrats.
(Photo: Tim Shaffer / Reuters)
(Via.)
Things Not Mentioned in the Constitution
To all of you who oppose the “individual mandate,” here’s my Tweet of the Day:
Karl Rove: Any President Would Have Killed Osama bin Laden
Karl Rove is trying to rewrite history while simultaneously making President Obama look like an empty suit:
As for the killing of Osama bin Laden, Mr. Obama did what virtually any commander in chief would have done in the same situation. Even President Bill Clinton says in the film “that’s the call I would have made.” For this to be portrayed as the epic achievement of the first term tells you how bare the White House cupboards are.
Excuse me. George W. Bush was president for eight years while bin Laden was on the run and he didn’t get him. As a matter of fact, Bush blew a huge chance to do so:
(Via.)
And that’s the one big chance Bush blew to catch or kill bin Laden that we know of. There could have been many others over the course of Bush’s two terms.
So again, for Rove to claim “any president” would have done what Obama did — when his guy had eight years to do so but didn’t — is just typical Rove slime.
Shell to Deploy Three Oil Sniffing Dogs to Protect the Arctic Against Oil Spills
No, that title isn’t from The Onion:
The Guardian / Sintef
When it comes to drilling for oil in the harsh and unpredictable Arctic, Shell has gone to the dogs, it seems. A dachshund and two border collies to be specific.
The dogs’ ability to sniff out oil spills beneath snow and ice has been tested and paid for by Shell – and other oil companies and government research organisations – in preparation for the industry’s entry into the forbidding Arctic terrain. The company hopes to begin drilling for oil off the north-west coast of Alaska in June.
The project, conducted by independent Norwegian researchers Sintef off the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norway in 2009, set out to find a low-tech fix to a nightmare scenario for Arctic drilling: how to clean up a spill in remote waters?
The technology for detecting and tracking spilled oil in the Arctic is still in the early stages. To make clean-up even more challenging, the areas in the Chukchi Sea to be drilled are 1,000 miles from the nearest coastguard base.
[...]
The dogs – border collies Jippi and Blues, and dachshund Tara – were able to pick up the scent of oil up to 5km downwind of a spill, the researchers found.
They held up well to long flights, -40C temperatures, and bumpy snowmobile journeys. They were also able to focus on their mission – and did not go tearing off after polar bear or seals, the study said.
“This gives us future possibilities in using specially trained dogs to search large areas covered with snow and ice to detect possible oil spills,” the study added.
What. A. Farce.
Andrew Breitbart Wouldn’t Have Been a Star Without Dumb People
My last post about Andrew Breitbart is this tweet from the extremely conservative David Frum:
What a legacy.
Georgia Wants We the People to Be Afraid and to Go the Hell Away
Last I knew, We the People own the streets (via the taxes we pay to buy and maintain them) and thus, they are free speech zones:
Some Georgia lawmakers want to make legitimate union picketing and other common protest activities felonies that not only could result in one-year jail terms but up to $10,000 in fines.
The bill, SB 469, would clamp down on free speech and workers’ rights in several ways. First, it would outlaw picketing outside the home of a CEO or other top company officials, such as rallying outside the home of a sweatshop owner.
It also would allow businesses to ask a judge to halt the protests outside of a business. If the judge orders a halt and the picketing continues, the union members or protestors from other groups could each be slapped with a $1,000 fine.
In addition, any union or organization which “continues to sponsor or assist in the prohibited activity” would be subject to $10,000 fine. Businesses which think they suffered damage from the picketing could ask for a cut of that cash.
We’re heading toward a society that looks something like this:
Homeless man gets 15 years for stealing $100.00:
A homeless man robbed a Louisiana bank and took a $100 bill. After feeling remorseful, he surrendered to police the next day. The judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
Doubtful Signs of a Criminal Case Against MF Global
Federal authorities are struggling to find evidence to support a criminal case stemming from the collapse of MF Global, even after a federal grand jury in Chicago has issued subpoenas.
Investigators, unable to find a smoking gun amid thousands of e-mails and documents, increasingly suspect that chaos and poor risk control systems prompted the disappearance of more than $1 billion in customer money, according to several people involved in the case.
(Image via.)
This is Not a Chicken
Wow. I love this graphic responding to the “personhood” amendment Republicans are introducing across the country. You know, the one that would make law the notion that a human being becomes a person the instant a sperm fertilizes an egg.
Bravo!
CNN Touts Tables Not Podiums as New Debate Strategy
Just got a tweet from Sam Feist at CNN touting a “sneak peek at the set for tomorrow’s AZ #CNNDebate. Note table not podiums.”
Tables not podiums? Really?
Who’s the moderator? Will CNN let the candidates lie, or not? That’s what matters.
This is News? Really? REALLY?
If we didn’t click on headlines like this, “news” organizations wouldn’t publish them:
Geezus. Thoughts about the collapse of civilization come to mind.
Men Will Tell Women What to Do Tomorrow on the Sunday Talk Shows
After a week dominated by Republican men talking about eliminating women’s contraceptive rights, we’re headed into a talk “news” Sunday consisting of men — all of the scheduled guests are men — talking about ah, women’s contraceptive rights: Guest Lineups for the Sunday Talk Shows.
CAN YOU HEAR ME (SCREAMING) NOW?
Filed under: The”LiberalMedia?”
News Outlets With Agendas
This is crazy.
Check out this headline at the Daily Mail,
over this picture:
Caters News Agency
An otter looks to the heavens and prays for food?
Forget the headline. Read the article:
‘I took the photos at Whipsnade Zoo, which has this island with a purpose built moat for the otters. I had to hide there for a long time to get the shot.
‘The otter was running around cradling a stone under his arm when he was surprised by another otter jumping out of the water which caused him to jump and throw the stone in the air.
‘When he started trying to grab it I took the snap.’
Gee. Imagine what your memory of this would be if all you read was the headline.
Screaming About Birth Control — A Republican Staple for 60+ Years
Here is a fascinating article detailing the “long history of the war against contraception.” One of the big take-aways is that Republicans have been using contraception as a way to rally their base for more than 60 years.
It’s an indication of how few new ideas they have for what ail us now that they’re dredging up the same ol’ issues in 2012 that they used as far back as the 1960′s.
Too bad we’re so dumbed down that this isn’t common knowledge because it’s really pretty damn insulting.
New Mexico: Corporations Are Not People
I’m about to crawl in bed because I have The Cold That Won’t Quit that everyone seems to have these days, but I want to put this up first:
New Mexico calls on Congress to overturn Citizens United ruling
The New Mexico state legislature has approved a resolution that urges the U.S. Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC.
“This marks a major victory for the constitutional amendment movement to reclaim our democracy,” said John Bonifaz, director of Free Speech for People, a coalition of groups that oppose the controversial ruling.
“The Citizens United ruling presents a direct and serious threat to the integrity of our elections, unleashing a torrent of corporate money into our political process,” he added. “The ruling is also the most extreme extension yet of a corporate rights doctrine which has been eroding our First Amendment and our US Constitution for the past 30 years. As with prior egregious Supreme Court rulings which threatened our democracy, we the people must exercise our power under Article V of the Constitution to enact a constitutional amendment which will preserve the promise of American self-government: of, for, and by the people.”
If my memory serves, I think this is the first time a state legislature has passed a resolution opposing Citizens United. A number of city and county councils have passed amendments and/or resolutions but I think this is first state-wide resolution ever.
Bravo New Mexico.
Let’s keep this ball rollin’ people!
Athens is Burning
People in Greece are reacting to economic cuts along the lines of what Republicans want to do here:
Photo: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s parliament has approved an austerity and debt-relief bill, crucial for the country to avoid bankruptcy and remain in the eurozone.
Lawmakers voted early Monday in favor of the bill that imposes harsh new austerity measures in return for a euro130 billion ($171 billion) new bailout agreement and related deal with private creditors to shave euro100 billion ($132 billion) off the country’s national debt.
The vote occurred after extensive rioting and looting swept through the Greek capital.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Demonstrators set buildings ablaze and fireballs lit up the night sky in Greece’s capital on Sunday amid widespread rioting before a historic parliamentary vote on harsh austerity measures designed to prevent the country from going bankrupt.
The clashes erupted after more than 100,000 protesters marched to the parliament to rally against the drastic cuts, which will ax one in five civil service jobs and slash the minimum wage by more than a fifth.
At least 10 buildings were on fire, including a movie theater, bank and cafeteria, and looters smashed dozens of shops in the worst riot damage in years. Dozens of police officers and at least 37 protesters were injured, and more than 20 suspected rioters were detained.
See more photos here.
