Posts filed under ‘They Think We’re Idiots/We ARE Idiots’
Rick Berman, Millionaire Lobbyist, Gives We the People The Finger
Rick Berman gives us all a big freakin’ finger:
Big-time lobbyist Rick Berman creates nonprofit front groups to push corporate interests. Now he’s in an anti-union ad pretending to be an auto mechanic.
(Via.)
This is how brazen the corporatocracy is getting. They’re buying elections and they don’t care if we know it because we can’t do anything about it. They have the money and we don’t. Period. We’re on the outside looking in. Welcome to Campaign 2012!
(With special thanks to the activist Republican judges on the Supreme Court who brought us Citizens United.)
Dumbed Down America
Here are the Time magazine covers for next week’s issue:
Embarrassing for those of us who live in the U.S., imho.
View larger here.
GE Lies — Super Bowl Ad Claims They’re “Revitalizing Manufacturing”
GE lied big time in an ad it ran tonight during the Super Bowl – on NBC, which is owned by GE — and gosh golly, NBC, an alleged “news” organization, let it go without noting the inaccuracies:
You gotta love the “liberal media.”
About the U.N. Establishing a Global World Order
There are people out there who think programs that encourage bicycling are being orchestrated by the United Nations
Photo: Wikipedia
in an alleged secret long-term plan to establish a one-world government.
Pretty funny when we see that while citizens in Syria are being massacred by the hundreds by their own government, sadly, the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council can’t agree on what to do about it.
A U.N. Security Council effort to end the violence in Syria ended in acrimony and a veto by Russia and China on Saturday, hours after the Syrian military attacked the ravaged city of Homs in what opposition leaders described as the bloodiest government assault in the nearly 11-month-old uprising.
[...]
The Security Council voted, 13-2, in favor of a resolution backing an Arab League peace plan for Syria, which calls for Assad to cede power to his vice president and a unity government to lead Syria to democratic elections. But passage was blocked by Russia and China, which opposed what they saw as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.
Mitt Romney Campaigns For His Millionaire Donors
Who is Willard Mitt Romney campaigning for? You? Me? No. He’s campaigning for the folks who give to his SuperPAC, Restore Our Future, Inc.
Restore Our Future Inc.? A more appropriate name would be, Restore Rich People’s Future Inc.
Details here
Michael Steele Lies: Florida’s Primary is a “Grass Roots” Effort
Figures made available to The Associated Press showed Romney was spending $2.8 million to air television commercials in the final week of the Florida campaign. In addition, a group supporting him, Restore Our Future, was spending $4 million more, for a combined total of $6.8 million.
By contrast, Gingrich was spending about $700,000, and Winning Our Future, a group backing him, an additional $1.5 million. That was about one-third the amount for the pro-Romney tandem.
Only nine more months to go!
* It isn’t like me to refer to the former head of the Grand Old Party (i.e., the GOP) as the “former Republican party leader.” But given that 50% of Republicans have no idea who the GOP is, I’m thinking it’s a good idea to refer to Republicans not as the GOP, but as Republicans. I mean, if I have to hold their little hands so they’ll know what their party’s up to, I’ll do it.
Global Warming — The Video
No wonder Republicans want to do away with government. It produces hippie, socialist videos like this that rely on hocus pocus, commonly referred to by pot smoking liberal tree huggers as “science:”
The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880.The finding sustains a trend that has seen the 21st century experience nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record. NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York released an analysis of how temperatures around the globe in 2011 compared to the average global temperature from the mid-20th century. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience higher temperatures than several decades ago. The average temperature around the globe in 2011 was 0.92 degrees F (0.51 C) higher than the mid-20th century baseline.
Colorado News Channel: Sonogram Shows Baby Tebowing
Say it ain’t so already:
You expect to find out if you’re having a boy or a girl, but you might not expect what one local family saw in their sonogram this week. It showed their baby boy “Tebowing” in the womb.
“I think it really hit us kind of when we came home and looked at it because we had just got this on Tuesday; and the weekend before we were all ‘Tebowing,’” Elizabeth Vigil said. She added that the baby is already a part of her Broncos family.
“You’re born into the Broncos when you’re born into my family, pretty cool,” her husband, David Vigil, said.
(Via.)
What with so many things happening in the world that the corporate media would rather not touch, I guess you’ve got to fill the time any way you can.
Limbaugh Will Defend a Republican on Things He’d Massacre a Democrat For
Imagine for a second if President Obama’s or another prominent Democrat’s ex-wife came out and said the reason they divorced was because he wanted to have an “open marriage” and she couldn’t agree to that. Imagine the reaction from the right, especially ol’ Rush Limbaugh (who’s on his fourth marriage). They would chew on it in unison for months.
Now take a look at what Limbaugh said about Newt today:
I got a great note from a friend of mine. “So Newt wanted an open marriage. BFD. At least he asked his wife for permission instead of cheating on her. That’s a mark of character, in my book. Newt’s a victim. We all are. Ours is the horniest generation.” [...] That’s from a good friend of mine, “Newt’s slogan ought to, ‘Hell, yes, I wanted it.’” (laughing) I’m sharing with you how some people are reacting to this.
Amazing. And it’s astonishing his listeners don’t seem to notice his blatant hypocrisy and double standards. Lemmings.
NY Times “Public Editor” Wonders If the Times Should be a “Truth Vigilante”
In the world of American “journalism,” circa 2012, where “fair and balanced” is all that matters and reporting say, spin from a Democrat and spin from a Republican on the same topic means “journalists” have done their job, we’re down to this, from the New York Times‘ “Public Editor:”
Should The Times Be a Truth Vigilante?
I’m looking for reader input on whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge “facts” that are asserted by newsmakers they write about.
Should reporters challenge “facts?” Ah, YEAH! And when should they do it? Every. Single. Time!
This is like asking a veterinarian if he or she should diagnose illnesses in animals instead of just petting them.
Smog in China Is So Bad, Highways Are Closing
I just got these two tweets from China:
And then I did the Google:
Smog, commonly referred to as “fog” by the propagandistic Chinese government, is reeking havoc in China:
(December 7, 2011) Whether it’s fog or smog, thousands of people have been delayed during the last few days by the almost-opaque air around Beijing Capital International Airport.
The delays since Sunday evening at one of the busiest, most modern airports in the world raise questions about whether air pollution in China has gotten bad enough to derail the country’s economic growth. Nearly 1,000 flights have been canceled and 10 highways in northern China had to be closed due to lack of visibility.
Wow!
Chinese authorities say the murk is fog, purely a weather phenomenon, acknowledging only that there was “light pollution.” The U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which has its own air monitor on the roof, however, reported Sunday night that the index of fine particulate matter had soared to 522 micrograms per cubic meter, which is off the charts. (A reading between 300 and 500 is considered “hazardous.”)
Beijingers bought more than 20,000 face masks on Taobao, a shopping site; and people took to the Internet to mock their government’s reporting of air quality.
“They are treating citizens as idiots,” complained a young man on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblog. A middle-aged man wrote sarcastically, “The city looks like a fairyland but thanks to the government, it is only ‘slight pollution.’”
The poor air quality Tuesday resulted in the cancellation of more than 370 flights. The U.S. Embassy monitor reported the particulate matter as “very unhealthy.”
The life the Chinese are living is brought to you by a government that is bent on development and growth, sans regulation. This is what the Republicans want to bring to the US of A. I.e., give corporations free rein to do whatever they want because that CREATE JOBS. Yeah, so we have (low paying) jobs but then what? We’re can’t take our kids outside, walk the dog or grow veggies in the garden, and we die of emphysema or heart failure on our day off.
Oh, and again, ain’t it great that our “liberal media” seems to have gone into 27/7 campaign coverage mode (due to last until November) so we conveniently don’t hear about things like this? And, as usual, any “news” that occurs outside the literal borders of the United States isn’t covered. What a disastrous combo.
“Journalism” USA, Circa 2012
Somebody actually got paid to write this?
As Romney Jabs at Obama, Rivals Swing at Him
Ah, yeah. I mean, tell us something we don’t know.
Romney’s Tax Returns — Why Would He Want to Release Them?
It’s a no brainer as to why Mitt Romney hasn’t released his tax returns. HE’S A MILLIONAIRE WHO PAYS ALMOST NO TAXES and he doesn’t want us to know that.
Duh.
MSNBC’s #Fail re Iowa’s “Polls Closing”
Two hours ago MSNBC displayed a countdown clock under this headine: “Iowa Polls Closing [at]…” Iowa polls closing? Polls aren’t open in Iowa. Iowa isn’t polling today. Iowa has a caucus system. What the hell was MSNBC thinking? [That we're really, really dumb.]
Now (@7:22 p.m. ET) they’re running a chyron that reads: “Doors Now Open At Caucus Sites in Iowa’s 99 Counties.” Ah yeah, that’s more like it. But again, what was with the polls closing thing?
#WhatHappensWhenYouHireTeenagersToDeliverTheNews
Think Twice Before You Click on the Huffington Post
AOL and Huffington Post CEO, Timothy M. Armstrong is a Romney supporter currently at the maximum allowed contribution of $2,500 for the current cycle.
Newt Gingrich is Such a Kidder
Geezus, talk about pandering:
Last night during a tele-town hall hosted by Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition, a caller asked Newt Gingrich if he would consider choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate if he wins the Republican nomination:
Gingrich: She is certainly one of the people you would look at. I am a great admirer of hers and she was a remarkable reform governor of Alaska, she’s somebody who I think brings a great deal to the possibility of helping in government and that would be one of the possibilities. There are also some very important Cabinet positions that she could fill very, very well. I can’t imagine anybody who would do a better job of driving us to an energy solution than Gov. Palin, for example. Tell her that she would certainly be on the list of one of the people we would consider.
Listen to the audio here.
Yeah, rrright. Newt, you expect us to believe this?
The SEC and Citigroup F**k a US District Court Judge and He’s Pissed
I’m making dinner (macaroni and cheeeeeeese!) so this is a quickie:
SEC Chided Again by Judge in Citigroup Fraud Case
(Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission got a fresh dressing-down from the judge who rejected its $285 million settlement with Citigroup Inc, as he said the regulator kept him out of the loop on its efforts to salvage the case.
In his latest sharply-worded order, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff chastised the SEC for not telling him it had filed an emergency request with an appeals court to put the case on hold, after making the same request to him.
So when Rakoff on Tuesday issued a ruling opposing any delay in the case, he was beaten to the punch; 78 seconds earlier, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had granted the SEC the temporary halt it sought.
He also accused the SEC and Citigroup of potentially “misleading” the court, saying they called him around 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT) on Tuesday to discuss the case, without mentioning the filing with the 2nd Circuit.
Less than an hour later, the 2nd Circuit ruled, and so did Rakoff. That 2nd Circuit order negated the work Rakoff said he had done over the weekend to get a ruling to the SEC as quickly as he could.
Rakoff wrote that he “spent the intervening Christmas holiday considering the parties’ positions and drafting an opinion, so that (the court) could file it on December 27, i.e. the first business day after the Christmas holiday.”
To prevent a recurrence, Rakoff ordered the SEC and Citigroup to “promptly notify” him of any filings they make in the appeals court.
Regarding the text in bold, as a former paralegal, I can tell you that’s just dirty, low ball stuff on the SEC’s part. It’s also known as judge shopping.
And since when does a judge have to issue an order that parties to a case have to “promptly notify” him that they’ve filed a new case? That’s route and expected. No wonder he’s furious.
The arrogance of the SEC and Citigroup is indicative of a climate wherein the rich and powerful don’t think they have to follow the rules.
As for the rest of us? How about 12 years in prison for selling a $31 bag of pot.
Another “Mega” Shopping Day
It looks like the media has coined yet another term for the days on which the corporatocracy wants us citizens consumers to concentrate on buying stuff: “Mega-Monday.”
It’s “Mega-Monday,” and retailers expect the day after Christmas to be one of busiest shopping days of the year.
[...]
“The day after christmas is now considered to be up there with ‘Black Friday’ as one of the hugest shopping days of the year,” Yarrow points out. “Gift cards really fuel a lot of the day-after-Christmas shopping. It used to be, primarily, returns.”
Ah yes. “Black Friday,” “Cyber-Monday” and now “Mega-Monday” (next year it’ll be “Mega-Tuesday”). They have us right where they want us.
Rick Santorum: “I Have No Problem With Income Inequality”
This would be Rick Santorum (R) yesterday in Pella, Iowa:
“The reason you see some sympathy among the American public for them is the grave concern — and it’s a legitimate one — that blue-collar workers, lower-income workers, are having a harder and harder time rising,” the former Pennsylvania senator said at a presidential campaign stop. “They talk about income inequality. I’m for income inequality. I think some people should make more than other people, because some people work harder and have better ideas and take more risk, and they should be rewarded for it. I have no problem with income inequality.
“President Obama is for income equality. That’s socialism. It’s worse yet, it’s Marxism,” Santorum said. “I’m not for income equality. I’m not for equality of result — I’m for equality of opportunity.”
Yo, Ricky: Nobody is saying that everyone should have the exact same income and you know it. People are pissed that there is such a humongus difference in the amount people do make, and you know that too. It’s charts like this that burn people up:
(Via.)
John Boehner (R-OH) Cuts Mic on House Floor While Democrat is Speaking
Wow. Talk about stifling freedom of speech, on the hallowed floor of the United States House of Representatives no less, check out what happened there this morning:
During a quick pro-forma session of the House this morning, Republicans rebuffed a Democratic attempt to force an up-or-down vote on the Senate-passed payroll tax holiday extension.
Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA), who was serving as the speaker pro-temp, ignored shouts of “Mr. Speaker!” from Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD).
Moments later, the mic appeared to cut out. A few seconds after that, the video feed switched away from the House floor to a still image of the Capitol Dome. It appears someone in House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) office cut the feed, as C-SPAN tweeted afterwards: “C-SPAN has no control over the U.S. House TV cameras – the Speaker of the House does.”
Watch it:
(Via.)
Boehner is afraid of the American people knowing what he and his cronies have done. They want us to be ignorant so we’ll continue to vote for them. It’s called censorship.
“Objective” NBC Reporter Arrested After Kissing Up to Jerry Sandusky’s Lawyer
Here’s the back story:
NBC News reporter Jay Gray was arrested last weekend for DUI after a party at the home of Joe Amandola, Jerry Sandusky‘s lawyer, according to TMZ.
Gray is a national reporter for NBC who appears frequently on its affiliated stations. He was one of a group of reporters invited to Amandola’s home for the December 11 Giants-Cowboys matchup, reportedly because the attorney is shopping a Sandusky interview around to the major networks.
Gray has been in State College since November 5 covering the Sandusky story. According to police records obtained by TMZ, Gray was arrested at 1:45 a.m. on December 12 by a Pennsylvania State Police officer.
This isn’t a story about a guy getting arrested for DUI. It’s a story about a “news” reporter, a supposed journalist, kissing up to get a scoop.
Here’s the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. The number one rule is: “Seek Truth and Report It.”
Beyond that, “news” reporters who pass themselves off as “journalists” are supposed to be neutral and objective. They shouldn’t have a personal relationship with anyone they cover (they should disclose it if they do) because that might taint or influence what they report. They should “avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information.” They should “always question sources’ motives,” and they should “distinguish between advocacy and news reporting.”
So the crux of this story is what was an NBC “news” reporter doing hanging out with Joe Amandola, essentially kissing up to him so he might be the one Amandola “shops” a Sandusky interview to?
Gee. If Gray had in fact been the one to get that interview, do you think it would have been a fair and objective one? I don’t because Gary would undoubtedly have hoped for another (and another and another) interview and he wouldn’t have wanted to piss Amandola or Sandusky off because, after all, it’s all about him generating ratings for his network.
Ah yes. “New$” circa 2011 in the United States of America.
House Republicans: It’s all About Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!
Remember how all we heard from Republicans prior to the 2010 elections was: We need jobs. Jobs. Jobs!
Well, they’ve controlled the House for 349 days and they haven’t created a single job. Instead, they’re dicking around with s**t like this, which was on the agenda last night:
While House Republicans couldn’t get their act together to approve an extension of the payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits last night, they were able to do something far more frivolousness — commission a bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to be placed in the Capitol. The House “adjourned moments after” passing the bill.
So, hey, we got us a new statue Then again, in all fairness (wink, wink), maybe they did create or sustain a few jobs: The guy who makes the statue, the guy who drives it to the Capitol and the guy who sets it on the shelf.
Grover Norquist (R) Hopes to Crush the Renewable Energy Movement
Here’s a heads up regarding Grover Norquist’s new project. (Was I asleep when he was elected president of everything?)
Rethink Renewable Energy Mandates
Sorry for the lack of a snipet. I’ve had it up to here with dictators today.
Read his craziness at the link above. He thinks building wind turbines and installing solar energy panels on homes across the country will kill jobs.
Ugh. There are no words…
Neti Pots Kill People: That Per “Officials” in Charge of Water in Louisiana
“Officials” responsible for tap water in Louisiana blame deaths from contaminated water there on a ceramic pot. No, I’m not kidding:
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has issued a warning about improper Neti pot use, which has been linked to two deadly infections.
A 51-year-old woman from DeSoto Parish and a 20-year-old man from St. Bernard Parish, a suburb of New Orleans, died after using Neti pots containing tap water to flush their sinuses. Both became infected with Naegleria fowleri, a parasite known as the brain-eating amoeba.
“If you are irrigating, flushing or rinsing your sinuses, for example, by using a Neti pot, use distilled, sterile or previously boiled water to make up the irrigation solution,” Louisiana State epidemiologist Dr. Raoult Ratard said in a statement. “Tap water is safe for drinking but not for irrigating your nose.”
Tap water is safe for drinking but not for irrigating one’s nose? A ceramic pot is the lynch pin in all this?
That makes no sense.
Verizon: This is What Happens When You Hire Undereducated Kids at the Minimum Wage
You get what you pay for:
Not quite the “War Of The Worlds” broadcast of a Martian invasion in New Jersey, a Verizon “emergency” alert Monday that the company texted to its wireless customers still jangled some nerves and triggered hundreds of calls from concerned residents to local and state offices.
The company sent the alert to customers in Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties, warning of a “civil emergency” and telling people to “take shelter now.” Trouble was, the message was meant to be a test but it wasn’t labeled as such, Verizon later admitted.
Geezus. How hard is it to begin a text message with: THIS IS A TEST?
We’re Gonna Get Ourselves a Prison
Take a look at this video from the 1980′s.
Flora, Illinois was competing with at least 33 other communities to become the site of a new prison. Unemployment was high. In a bid to promote the town as a prison site, Flora’s former police chief recorded a song titled “All We Want’s A Prison,” but the town failed to win its bid.
So sad.
Corporations set the stage such that we beg them to come to our towns. They demand tax breaks and subsidies and this and that, all in the name of jobs, jobs, jobs. We give them those things, nixing parks and schools and roads, etc., and when they’re done sucking the life out of us, poof, they’re gone.
Bottom line is we make fools of ourselves while we in essence set ourselves up to let them make fools of us.
Mike Bloomberg Brags About Having His Own “Army”
Wow, this is a revealing statement by 1%-er Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York:
“I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom’s annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have,” Mayor Bloomberg said.
The moto of the New York Police Department, as inscribed on the side of NYPD police cars,
Photo: Robert Caplin for The New York Times
is: Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect. It, like all other police departments around the country, was established to protect and serve the people. The department is funded by tax dollars paid by the people of the city of New York.
Mike, you work for and are paid by the people of the city of New York too. The NYPD is not your personal army. You should disabuse yourself of that notion inmediatamente.
Ed Schultz Says “Krystal Ball” is a “Democratic Strategist”
When I worked on Outfoxed and at the Newshounds for lo those five years, I watched Fox “News” claim that every Tom, Dick, Harry and Jane it slapped up on the screen was a “strategist.”
You wouldn’t believe how pitiful the credentials of some of those “strategists” were. I.e., they had no business whatsoever being sold to We the People as experts.
So when I happened upon The Ed Show tonight on MSNBC and I saw Ed talking to a woman named Krystal Ball — who he billed as a “Democratic strategist” — I had to know more.
Krystal Ball? Seriously? Didn’t that name alone make Ed’s bookers just a teeny weeny bit suspicious?
Guess not.
This is from KrystalBall‘s website:
About Krystal
Krystal Marie Ball is a 29-year-old former Congressional candidate and current Democratic Strategist; in addition to being a Certified Public Accountant, software engineer, small business owner and mother. Krystal was recently named by Forbes Magazine as number 21 on the magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in the Mid Term Elections” list.
So, Krystal Ball has been a lot of things in her 29 years and one of her proudest accomplishments is ingratiating herself into the 1% club with bazillionaire Steve Forbes (a 1%-er extraordinaire).
Hum.
Ed Schultz claims to be a man of the people but he touts a “Democratic strategist” with a dubious background who’s on Steve Forbes’ — Steve Forbes’! — favorites list?
Hey Ed: Read this to learn more about your gal pal Krystal.
Gov. Sam Brownback Backs Down Over Attempt to Suppress Free Speech
You probably heard about the Kansas high school student, Emma Sullivan, who sent a tweet Governor Sam Brownback didn’t like and the ensuing effort to get her to apologize. Well, she refused to apologize (YOU GO GIRL!) and now Brownback is walking the incident back:
“My staff over-reacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize. Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms. I enjoyed speaking to the more than 100 students who participated in the Youth in Government Program at the Kansas Capitol. They are our future. I also want to thank the thousands of Kansas educators who remind us daily of our liberties, as well as the values of civility and decorum. Again, I apologize for our over-reaction.”
So ironic that this happened during a “Youth in Government Program.” Those kids got a lesson in government all right. The Joe McCarthy form of government.
As an aside, I just spent a good five minutes looking around at FoxNews.com and I can’t find one single article about this incident. They don’t want their audience to know how unAmerican Republicans can be.
