Pat Robertson's network launches crazed attack on Halloween

Damn.

I thought I was gonna make it to November without a War on Halloween story. But I guess I spoke too soon!

I know Pat Robertson's CBN usually never fails to entertain. So I shoulda known to look there. Turns out a CBN guest writer called Kimberly Daniels has produced one of the most frenzied diatribes against Halloween I've seen since - well, probably last year.

CBN was starting to get bad press from Daniels's rant, so they tried flushing it down the memory hole. But it remains in Google's cache:

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:tpp4ipDgs2IJ:www.cbn.com/spirituallife/onlinediscipleship/halloween/halloween_danger_daniels.aspx+pat+robertson+candy&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

This tirade urges folks to shun Halloween. Central to the article's theme seems to be the notion that demons secretly infiltrated bags of Halloween candy on store shelves.

Among the "dangers of Halloween" cited in the piece? "Orgies between animals and humans."

This entry might be of more urgent interest, except that any public school bureaucrat who follows Pat Robertson has probably already done everything they could to deprive their community's schools of Halloween celebrations.

Still no War on Halloween stories?

This is hope and change, isn't it?

By October 30, I've usually found at least a handful of news items about the right-wing War on Halloween. This war usually takes the form of dominionists getting Halloween celebrations banished from a public school or forcing a city to cancel trick-or-treating if it falls on a Sunday. Or it involves the "zero tolerance" Nazis who run our schools banning pirate costumes that feature a fake sword.

This year, I haven't found any new stories like this. The War on Halloween seems to be stalled at the level it was at a year ago. This is probably the longest we've waited for new War on Halloween items since my youth when I donned a disguise each Halloween and went door to door for stale Zagnut bars and morsels of Super Bubble that probably came from a Cocoa Puffs box.

Still, we need to reverse the War on Halloween.

A stake needs to be driven through the heart of this war so it never comes back to haunt us and our children.

In the meantime, I bet I know what the recent Tea Party participants' favorite Halloween costume is. Probably a ghost - because they already have the white sheets!

Bloomberg outlaws bake sales

You can't blame "the liberals" for this, conservos. (Try as though they have.)

Republican New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg - in his "rule by decree" fashion - has now banned bake sales in the city's schools.

This at a time when the schools are more cash-strapped than ever.

You're a clod, Loomy.

Then again, New York City schools would hardly qualify as public if either Bloomberg or his leading electoral opponent get their way - because they have both expressed support for mandatory school uniforms. Uniforms are something public schools just aren't supposed to do. But I think Loomy has his opponents beaten in the category of who can be the biggest overall Allowed Cloud.

(Source: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/6DFF6232A373F14E86257645000B5943?OpenDocument)

Nursing homes caught poisoning patients

Nursing home abuse is one of the fastest growing crimes in America - and one of the vilest.

A Chicago Tribune investigation has unearthed thousands of cases across Illinois of nursing home patients being bombarded with psychotropic drugs for no medically defensible reason. Many of these forced druggings have resulted in death.

A 74-year-old man suffered a fatal head injury when he fell after staffers held him down and shot him up with antipsychotics. An 87-year-old man was drugged without his consent because he was "easily annoyed." A woman with Alzheimer's disease and a urinary tract infection was drugged because she complained about not being allowed to use the bathroom.

Unwarranted diagnoses of mental illnesses were added to patients' records to provide an excuse to drug them. In other words, staffers lied about the patients having mental illnesses - just so they could give them psychiatric drugs.

If you have loved ones in a nursing home anywhere in America or elsewhere, keep a sharp eye on them. Make sure you can visit them periodically, and keep an eye out for anything strange.

Don't let Grandma become a statistic.

(Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-nursing-home1-psychotropics-oct27,0,4539632.story)

Right-wing congresscritters try revoking Obama's Nobel

Gee, isn't it nice to know the Republicans are on top of the issues that really, really matter?

Three Republican members of Congress are upset that President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize instead of them. The Republicans think they deserve the prize, because we all know how peace-loving they are.

So now they absurdly claim Obama is not allowed to accept this prize.

A letter from Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Florida), Cliff Stearns (R-Florida again!), and Ron Paul (R-Texas) says the President is required to obtain congressional approval before accepting the Nobel. They cite the Constitution's clause that says public officials may not accept a "present, emolument, office or title" issued by a "king, prince or foreign state" without congressional approval.

The Nobel, however, is not a state-sponsored prize. It's awarded by a committee authorized by a foreign parliament - but that doesn't necessarily mean the prize itself is state-sponsored. This debate though is moot, because Congress passed a law decades ago authorizing Presidents to receive awards like the Nobel.

Why didn't anyone raise a stink when Reagan received a title of nobility from the British monarchy? Nobody saw the irony of a U.S. President accepting a British title of nobility? I thought America was founded upon breaking away from Britain's ruling elite. Rappin' Ronnie had a hell of a way to unwin the Revolutionary War, huh?

The health care system is broken, our schools have become glorified prisons, and we're arguing about this???

Right-wing Ohio politician indicted

Let's play another exciting game of "guess the party affiliation."

Michael A. Fox is a former Ohio state representative and Butler County commish. Fox is the namesake of a highway north of Cincinnati.

Now Fox and a friend of his named Robert Schuler (not to be confused with the televangelist of a similar name) have been indicted by a federal grand jury. Fox is accused of illegally accepting almost $500,000 in connection with a fiber optics contract and other money from county contractors.

Fox is charged with 4 counts of mail fraud, a count of conspiracy to commit mail or wire fraud, and a count of filing a false income tax return. Schuler was indicted for mail fraud, filing a false tax return, and perjury.

What party is Michael A. Fox? Well, the Cincinnati Enquirer's account of the indictment doesn't say. So he must be a Green.

Just kidding! Why, he's a Republican. Of course. Fox was a leader of right-wing causes when he served in the near-hopeless Ohio legislature.

The fiber optics scandal has already resulted in the conviction of former Butler County Auditor Kay Rogers - also a Republican.

McCain joins shitfit against 'Net neutrality

John McCain. A man who could've been so much more.

But nope. He chooses instead to be the unbending partisan he claimed he'd never be. Paying heed to the GOP hacks who surround him will do that, I guess.

Now McCain wants to block the FCC's 'Net neutrality regulations. The senator has a new bill that would rob the FCC of the power to enact such rules.

McCain's bill would be of questionable constitutionality and would certainly upset the very heart of separation of powers. You'd think it wouldn't pass in a Democratic Congress - but then again, this is the same Congress where more Democrats support the Patriot Act than health care reform or the Employee Free Choice Act.

And that's pretty sad.

As another writer pointed out, for McCain's bill to bar the FCC from overseeing telcom policy would be like a bill to bar the Treasury from minting money.

I also agree with this writer that part of McCain's sudden interest in Internet-related legislation is that he wants to see his name in the paper again.

Why else would such a self-described "maverick" produce such partisan hackery as this bill? This bill would hurt consumers but would carry big Internet providers' pee water.

(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed7/idUS238174038020091023)

Doctor turns away sick baby over money

It's hard to say exactly which categories this story falls under on the key for this blog, but it may take the putrid core of America's broken health care system to entirely new levels.

In Staten Island, a violently ill 10-month-old baby was turned away by a doctor's office because her mom didn't have enough money to pay upfront before the child was treated. This after the doctor had already told her on the phone to bring the child in. The doctor later admitted turning her away.

A small number of far-right ideologues are quick to defend the pediatrician. They've even attacked the infant's mother for grabbing the child's medical records and walking out - using the bogus argument that the records belong to the doctor. (The records actually belong to the patient - or in the case of a minor, the patient's parents.) But none of this would even be an issue if America had universal health care like all other industrialized countries.

The Hippocratic Oath says doctors shall do no harm. Physicians swear to this oath. To reject a patient for not paying upfront raises serious questions as to whether the Hippocratic Oath is being followed.

If a doctor is off-duty and happens to see somebody in a public place in need of immediate medical attention, the doctor jumps right into action - without asking to be paid first. Why should an emergency be treated any differently at the doctor's office? Physicians usually bill patients after the visit - not before.

(Source: http://www.silive.com/eastshore/index.ssf/2009/10/sick_baby_is_turned_away_by_do.html)

What does Grover do when he's alone? ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

What does lovable, furry Grover do when he's alone?

Ponder, ponder.

Because numerous 'Sesame Street' sketches show ol' Groves failing at every occupation he takes, I'm sure he doesn't have much of a social life, so he probably does lots of things alone.

In his free time, Grover probably dons an old-fashioned police hat, ties himself to a chair with rope, pretends it's Mr. Snuffleupagus's trunk, and starts goin' to town.

He probably logs on to Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt fetish sites, downloads all the images, and charges them to the credit card he stole from Bert. Then he fantasizes about working at a Hard Rock Cafe instead of the restaurant where he is usually seen, and selling a shirt to the blue Anything Muppet who complains about everything.

Whatever floats your boat, Grovie.

Grover's never going to admit any of this, of course. Like in this 1971 clip, he sings a song in which he never faces up to his interests:



Although the clip is from 1971, somebody added '80s MTV-style tags at the beginning and end.

Grover, you are a hero to us all.

Washington Times writer misleads

Because this is a day ending in 'y', it's time for another story about the misleading propaganda spread by the nation's most right-wing major (?) newspaper.

Donald Lambro is the chief political correspondent at the Washington Times. Last year, I exposed him for spreading the bogus meme that tax cuts for the working class were welfare.

Today, Lambro has a new piece that spreads blatant misinformation in plain sight and actually expects nobody to notice. If it's not an outright lie, it's certainly misleading.

The gist of Lambro's rant is that health care reform is unconstitutional because it is. To back up this stance, Lambro laments the prospect of people being required to buy medical insurance. Lambro says, "Congress has never before required citizens to purchase any good or service, but that is what both House and Senate health bills would mandate."

What about auto insurance, Donald? Car insurance is probably mandatory in all 50 states now. Granted, it's the states (not Congress) that require it, but Lambro's point is deliberately misleading.

What about taxes? Congress charges us taxes to pay for things like bailouts for big banks. How is that not requiring citizens to purchase goods and services for banks?

Don't get me wrong: Being required to buy health insurance isn't a good thing. But if you object to it, support single payer. Under single payer (which the Washington Times thought cops militantly oppose), this wouldn't be a worry.

The bigger question is: is it unconstitutional to require people to buy health insurance? If it is, that means it's also unconstitutional to force us to buy car insurance. You can't have it both ways.

So there. Nyeh.

If there is any serious effort to challenge the constitutionality of health care reform on these grounds, then I have a right to expect mandatory car insurance (which keeps the working class down) to be challenged as well.

Bandit answers questions on forgeries

Bandit's in effect, folks, so put on your listening faces...

Every so often, I have to answer these same questions I shouldn't even have to field. Namely, how do I account for certain idiotic statements I allegedly made online years ago?

Well, for those just getting acclimated to the politics of the Internets (sic), let me introduce you to something called a forgery.

Until fairly recently, the 'Net used to be kind of a wide-open frontier. Think the Hubba Bubba ads with the Gum Fighter. There's no law and order except when the ol' Fighter blows that bubble and everyone stands around to see if it bursts and covers his face in sticky, pink goo. Well, the Internet was like that.

Not only was it possible for someone to forge your name and e-mail address on an Internet message. It was widespread. In fact, it's still possible.

I admit to using the name of an imaginary person once, but this was just to force a foe to do a little more legwork in tracking me down. Besides, this wasn't an attempt to impersonate a real person.

However, there were countless posts in which someone forged my name or e-mail address in an effort to impersonate me. Some of them appear to be Last Word posts. Several people have pointed out that the archive that Google inherited allowed people to send requests to modify posts after they appeared. I know for a fact this happened with some of my posts.

I don't know the exact history of each post, but some evidence suggests the forgers got an account on my ISP just so some of these forgeries would trace to my ISP. I firmly believe they would have spent the money on an account. In fact, it may have been someone in my area who already had an account there. Remember, this wasn't long after I ran for student government at NKU, so it's not as if I was unknown locally. Plus, I had been harassed and beaten continuously by violent bullies in middle and high school (the topic of my book 'The Fight That Never Ends').

If there was any person of my generation in my county who would have been the target of a vendetta at the time the forged posts appeared, it would be me. I'm not being paranoid. That's just the way it is.

So, to answer your questions: I did not post some of what appears under my name or address. In some cases, I can prove it. In others, it would be my word against my foes'.

I'm going to have to keep answering these questions until Google makes it easier for folks to delete fraudulent posts that others posted under their name. And I don't think Google's going to do this until there's a law protecting our right to delete these forgeries.

The forged posts are open-and-shut cases of fraud. It flourished because authorities made no effort to find out who was behind it. Regardless, there ought to be a law to allow us to delete these forgeries on sight.

Wingnuts throw fit over 'Net neutrality

Let's get this straight: 'Net neutrality is already the law - as it should be.

The FCC is clarifying its neutrality policies - but the fact is, 'Net neutrality is already required under FCC rules.

So the wingnutosphere isn't just being petty and ridiculous when it criticizes the FCC's latest actions. The wingnuts are also out of step with what the issues are.

They complain that the FCC's 'Net neutrality policy - which says ISP's may not restrict residential customers' communication streams - is excessive regulation. But they were all in favor of the Communications Decency Act, which was designed to unconstitutionally muzzle what people could say online.

If the CDA hadn't been ruled unconstitutional, this blog and The Last Word would have been banned. Indeed, some Last Word articles that were once legal are now banned - because of other legislation the wingnuts supported.

Right-wingers also supported the scuzzo federal law that's now in force that requires libraries to block certain websites even for adults. If anyone is guilty of excessive regulation, it's them.

Private school teacher loses license after improper messages

The career of a 6th grade teacher at a Catholic school near Cincinnati appears to be over - and deservedly so.

The state of Ohio has revoked the 42-year-old instructor's teaching license after finding that she engaged in a "deceitful and inappropriate relationship" with a female student.

This relationship involved the teacher impersonating a boy and sending text messages full of sexual innuendo to the girl.

What a weirdo teacher.

College student faces 15 years in prison for alleged Wal-Mart line-jumping

America's so-called "justice" system is so determined to keep the public saddled by the prison-industrial complex that minor incidents are treated as serious crimes.

Almost 3 years ago, an African-American college honors student in Kennett, Missouri, joined a checkout line at Wal-Mart where her cousin was buying goods. The store accused her of line-jumping and called the police.

Even if she had cut ahead in the line, this act was at worst a breach of store protocol - not a crime. And it's certainly not a crime that warrants 15 years in prison.

But 15 years is what prosecutors are seeking.

For what?????

Furthermore, when the young woman's family organized a protest against the trumped-up charges, the Ku Klux Klan issued threats against them.

Meanwhile, real criminals roam free - to make room in prison for people accused of line-jumping at Wal-Mart.

(Source: http://newsreleasenow.blogspot.com/2009/10/black-woman-faces-15-years-in-prison.html;
http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news/local/100109_Kennett_MO_Woman_Faces_Prison_for_Cutting_Line)

Ohio bill would deregulate phone service (sigh)

Yes, I know. The header for this entry - "Ohio bill would deregulate phone service" - is just restating an existing condition. It's a bit like if the header said, "Farts to become smelly."

That's because Ohio's so-called regulators are already astonishingly generous to phone and utility companies. It seems that whenever a phone company wants a rate increase, it's rubber-stamped.

In Ohio - as in some other states - there's almost no regulation at all of phone and utilities.

Now right-wing state lawmakers want to deregulate the phone industry even further. A new bill in Ohio would allow phone companies to increase the deposit charged on customers and raise monthly rates by $1.25 each year without even proving that competition exists. It also lets phone companies wait 3 days to repair out-of-service lines, instead of one day. (Phone companies routinely ignore the one-day rule anyway.) And it would reduce eligibility for assistance for low-income households.

Whose idiotic idea was this?

Ohio wants to deregulate phone service even after lawmakers rejected a bill to clamp down on employer discrimination. They think phone companies and other big businesses have a "right" to gouge consumers and fire employees for no reason, but that nobody has a right to be protected from them.

The essence of the modern GOP, folks.

GOP caught committing mail fraud

Several years ago, Elizabeth Dole mailed out a Republican fundraising plea disguised as an urgent government letter. This letter literally threatened people into donating to the GOP (although it was mailed to folks who had no connection with the Republicans).

But since nobody prosecuted Dole for the mail fraud she committed, the national Republican Party knows it can do the same thing again.

Recently, countless people across America reported receiving what appeared to be an official letter from the U.S. Census Bureau. It's even labeled as an "official document" and includes a "census tracking code." But the letter was actually a GOP fundraising scam that made people believe they were required to fill it out.

Some folks weren't fooled. So they filled out the form with a bunch of joke answers and shoved a bunch of carpet fuzzes and other waste in the postage paid envelope to be mailed back.

If you receive this letter, it's mail fraud, and it's a crime. Report it immediately by visiting this website:

https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/forms/MailFraudComplaint.aspx

(Source: http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=136679&catid=40)

GOP congressman wants to abolish Medicare

Now there's a way for the Republicans to win over America's hearts and minds! (Just joking!)

After right-wing Rep. Paul Broun Jr. (R-Georgia) introduced a bill that would privatize Medicare, more details about Broun's disdain for Medicare have emerged. (This after privatizing other government services had proven to be a failure.)

Indeed, Broun's bill would replace Medicare benefits with private insurance vouchers. He expects people to buy private insurance even despite the countless stories of insurers refusing to cover medically necessary treatment.

Broun's view for years has been that Medicare, Social Security, and other personal benefit programs are unconstitutional. He never says why. He thinks what he thinks because he thinks it. He needn't argue.

Has Broun ever read the Constitution? The Constitution authorizes programs like Medicare by giving Congress the power to provide for them. It doesn't prohibit these programs in any way.

Broun's view is part of the funhouse mirror distortion of the Constitution that the extreme right has developed in recent years. They claim something is unconstitutional but never provide proof - in the hopes people will believe them. They expect the public's understanding of the Constitution to be molded to fit their agenda.

(Source: http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/102409/new_508293130.shtml)

Media ignores health care rally

I didn't know about this rally until after the fact - because I have yet to see a single mention of it in the pop-up media.

Back on October 18, there was a rally on Fountain Square in Cincinnati supporting health care reform featuring a strong public option.

This contrasts with the recent Tea Party kook-a-thons, which the media has covered every minute of.

Ironically, the only place I've read about the health care rally was on the Tea Party blog - which opposed it! It's pretty sad when the Nastea crowd is doing a better job of covering events than the major media.

Pro-bullying lawmaker appointed judge

In the civilized world, the act of serial harassment in schools is taboo.

But in BushWorld, supporting school harassment is a stepping stone to any government or corporate position you want.

Meet Dan Kelly. Until recently, Kelly was the Republican floor leader in the Kentucky Senate. He was perhaps best known for his opposition to a bill that directed schools to enact policies against student harassment.

That's the type of bill you'd think nobody would oppose. But Kelly offered several excuses. Central to his repertoire of arguments was that the bill would saddle serial harassers with a "label" that would follow them around for years.

Well, yes. Why shouldn't it? It should follow them around for life. Harassers label their victims for life, so why not?

Hypocritically, Kelly refused to support legislation that would allow folks to remove material posted on the Internet by people impersonating them. As a result, this material remains online forever - even after the victims are dead and buried.

Dan Kelly also reportedly complained that the bill to combat school harassment violated the Mormon church's laws. Even if the bill did violate a church's laws, it's still not a reason to oppose the bill. All this proves is that Kelly doesn't believe in separation of church and state, and that he thinks he should be allowed to impose his religion on the state's citizenry.

Because of Kelly's support for school harassment, he should have been expelled from the Kentucky Senate on the spot. But by that time, the rule that governed Kentucky was that his support of bullies led him to be considered a demigod rather than a pariah.

Now this child-hater has been appointed to a circuit court judgeship in central Kentucky. This follows a recommendation by a nominating committee.

Some have speculated that appointing Kelly as a judge is a ploy by the Democratic governor to free up a senate seat for the Democrats to possibly win. If that's the goal, this is a miserable way to accomplish it.

Dan Kelly is an absolute nut.

(Source: http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2009/10/26/kelly-appointed-to-judgeship)

Court says water a drug

Three things are certain in life: death, taxes, and the expansion of the disastrous War on Drugs.

And if there's a way for authorities to "get" someone, they'll use it.

Now the Minnesota Supreme Court has (in another mind-numbing display of matchbook law) ruled that bong water is an illegal drug - not just paraphernalia. This heightens the threat of longer jail sentences for bong water.

The primary problem with this ruling? That's not what the law says. The law does not classify water as a drug (even if it was used in a drug pipe).

But the real effect of this ruling is that it expands a drug war that has long been known to be a failure.

Right-wing judicial activism has been the rule among the Minnesota Supreme Court in recent years. This is the same court that gutted the state child abuse statute. Like much of the federal judiciary, they have made themselves a legislature in black robes.

(Source: http://www.wcpo.com/content/news/saywhat/story/Bong-Water-Counts-As-Illegal-Drug/Gr4Rfq8HbUSeuGMlE_sSRA.cspx)

Tea Parties dying

In keeping with my plans, I monitored the Tea Party farce in downtown Cincinnati on Saturday. This was by far the smallest downtown Tea Party I've seen yet.

Hardly anything of interest occurred. Some nobody gave a speech on Fountain Square in which he mumbled some complaint about "redistribution", and folks occasionally heckled the meager crowd from 5th Street.

In brief, this was barely even an event - which is especially amusing after they ducked out of at least one of the I-275 protests on Thursday.

In the meantime, I'm happy to say this blog can now afford to resume its previous quota of 3½ posts per day, while the LOSEianne crew is left in the dust.

2009: the year of the fake Democrat

Stories like this make me ask if there's any difference whatsoever betwixt the Republicans and the Democrats.

Some of the most important elections in America this year don't even have a real Democrat running - not like the Republican is any better. They have a candidate who claims the Democratic label, but would not be recognizably Democratic by the standards we have a right to expect.

Voters in Virginia appear to have only 2 choices in the election for governor: Republican Bob McDonnell and so-called Democrat Creigh Deeds. McDonnell is an extremist nut, a Pat Robertson follower who supports outlawing birth control even for married couples. Despite McDonnell's lunacy, Deeds isn't much better: He supports gluttonous work-for-less laws and pulling Virginia out of national health care reform.

Democrats in New York City lack a bona fide mayoral candidate in this 9-person contest. Instead they have Bill Thompson - who as head of the city's school system advocated the right-wing policy of making school uniforms mandatory.

Based on these stances, Creigh Deeds and Bill Thompson are both so far to the right of not just the Democratic mainstream but also of voters' mainstream that there's no way I could endorse either one. True to form, Thompson and Deeds are also among the few Democrats in major elections this year who appear likely to lose - which underscores why the party should run real candidates.

If the Democrats refuse to field competitive candidates in 2 of the most important elections in the land, it proves they didn't learn shit from the electoral debacles of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Because they won't learn, we have to muster our energy behind an alternative such as the Greens.

We have to demand that the media give as much time to progressive populist alternatives as they do to the Republican and Democratic parties that are fused at the trough.

Considering the Republicans' continuing downfall, I'd love to see what the results in Virginia and New York City would be if the Democrats actually had a candidate.

Week 11 of POOP

Looks like this feature is going to last at least a few more weeks - because it appears as if Google has once again lapsed into one of their weeks-long beauty naps in which they don't read their help forums.

My experience has been that, when Google actually reads their help forums, it gets results. Usually, however, they never read them.

So now I'm holding vigil for them to delete my copyrighted posts that reappeared after I successfully had them removed months ago. This after they finally removed the ones I recently asked them to delete.

The next order of business will be for Google to delete forged posts.

And their search feature? Still broken.

Even talking condoms bubble (Bubble Gum Weekend)

Condoms share many characteristics with bubble gum.

They're both inflatable. They both include rubber as an ingredient.

And - according to what appears to be a brand new commercial out of the Netherlands - they both bubble.

At least I think that's what happens in this ad. The commersh appears to depict a cartoon of a talking pink condom blowing a bubble with bubble gum. Then again, it's hard to tell, because of the language barrier:



Twice during the ad, an amusing honking sound is heard - which seems to be greater than the number of supportive car horn honks the Tea Parties lately get.

Bubble gum. The universal language.

Fine mess you've gotten us into, New Economy

I'm violating my one-post-a-day mantra to offer this comment about what even the Associated Press calls the "'new normal' of higher joblessness and lower standards of living for many Americans."

The pop-up media - especially the AP - has long lived in denial of America's economic woes. In almost every year in recent memory, things get ever worse - but to hear the media tell it, you'd think Americans were swimming in dough. Until now.

Now - even with the current economic recovery - the AP reports that unemployment and poverty are the "new normal", thanks to the ravages of the New Economy. The jobs that have been killed in recent years don't seem to be coming back - because nobody tries to bring them back.

The problem has been expanding for over 20 years, but what used to seem like a fluke now appears permanent.

This story puts the kibosh on the mean-spirited canard that says those who can't get ahead have something wrong with them. If people with a college education can't even find a job, that's a problem with the system, not with the workforce.

If the government would halt companies from shipping jobs overseas, we'd have more jobs for Americans. In the meantime, we might as well make the best of a bad situation. I know firsthand about subpar wages and the lack of employment opportunities. So I've reached the point where I realize this country is mine and yours, and sometimes you have to grab what rightfully belongs to you - just to survive. To hell with the corporatists who scream that you didn't earn it. Trust me, you've earned it.

In the New Economy, it's about survival.

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5grRQ6dLLl9di4HgR4iI_gOesmUkwD9BEAN383)

One entry per day

I do not work for free.

Accordingly - effective immediately - this blog will feature no more than one entry per day until I can afford to resume my previous schedule.

TV personality Soupy Sales dies

I'm saddened to report yet another celebrity death.

TV and radio personality Soupy Sales died last night at the age of 83. Sales was known for getting many pies in the face, and for telling young viewers of his show to empty their mothers' purses and mail him the green pieces of paper with pictures of Presidents on them.

Soupy Sales reached his peak of popularity in the '50s and '60s but had major radio and TV appearances for decades afterward.

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gJ-8A5RJvk5EwfcUEinx0CoOGM9gD9BGIE8O0)

BTPers duck and run; cloud of sawdust appears

You thought it was a slow news day, but I was out looking for the BTPers. The LOSEianne crowd. The Tea Party comedians.

After they sent out press releases talking about how they'd be peopling the exit ramps off I-275 today, I decided to take a look, after attending the 8th Street Viaduct reopening. I figured the exit most easily accessible to me would be the one to the AA Highway.

Well, the BTPers apparently thought so too. Because they didn't even bother to show up at that exit.

They're just like Kids Helping Kids: They duck out when they know they're going to be confronted.

I arrived at the exit at precisely 4 PM (when the rally was supposed to start). When I noticed they were nowhere in sight, I got dinner, and then I went back that way around 4:30. Still no sign of 'em.

Maybe they were just very late. But since the Republicans were the ones who supported extending Daylight Wasting Time in a region where it's useless, you'd think they wouldn't be late.

Nah. They wussed out. They knew I'd probably be there to challenge them, and they couldn't handle it.

Frankly, it's no skin off my nose, because it gave me a chance to go Roads Scholaring. But it just goes to show that they can't tolerate someone calling them out on their right-wing baloney.

I know they wimped out, because when I got home, I discovered that one of the Cincinnati leaders of their movement had left a lengthy comment on this blog trying to negotiate with me.

In other words, I won. I have more strength in one finger than they have in their entire movement.

See what happens when you stand up to bullies instead of ignoring them?

I've seen the BTPers' name-calling and invective firsthand. I've heard about the way they treat reporters who were covering their rallies. And frankly, I'm not going to negotiate with them. All year long, they've proven themselves to be irrational and just plain nasty.

It's an extension of what we saw at the height of the Iraq War, during the Contract With America, and in the '88 election. They have a history of this. They took it down to a personal level with me years ago, and I don't make deals with movements that have chosen to make things personal.

They know the ideology of this blog is diametrically opposed to theirs, so why would they even try to deal with me unless it's so they can come out ahead?

The Tea Party movement is ridiculous. It is one of the most ridiculous developments in modern American history. Let there be no doubt about this whatsoever.

GOP blocks unemployment extension

The nastiness-industrial complex that is the modern Republican Party is on display again.

Democrats in Congress wanted to extend unemployment benefits by 20 weeks. But Republicans have stalled this measure by trotting out tired platitudes.

One of their big gripes is that it would lead to a budget deficit.

I'm all for staying within a budget. You and I do it weekly. Each month, you fill 5 envelopes with cash and walk on eggshells to make sure you don't spend money you don't have. A broken vehicle can mean missed meals.

But the GOP has created the lion's share of the national debt. They've given tax breaks to millionaires, doled out free money to banks, and started costly wars. I'm not being partisan. That's simply the truth. So why are they so worried about the deficit now?

And I want to know why the Democrats are saying the Republicans won't "let" them extend unemployment benefits. The Democrats have a majority in the Senate now. They should act like it - especially coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. If you think the country doesn't need unemployment benefits extended, just try applying for even a menial job these days. Try it. See what happens.

Any senator who is holding up the unemployment extension needs to be recalled from office. Not just voted out in the next election. Recalled!

(Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=abdI0IokR6FE)

Iraq War vet kicked off bus over service dog

It's illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act for public transit systems to remove a passenger because they use a service dog. Service dogs for the disabled must be allowed even where dogs are otherwise prohibited.

But transit officials in Miami apparently think laws are just "damn pieces of paper" (as Bush might say). Accordingly, they kicked an Iraq War vet off the bus system because he uses a service dog.

The transit system's excuse was that the man does not have a "visible" disability.

Seriously? Transit officials actually think the ADA makes such a distinction between "visible" and "invisible" conditions in regards to service dogs?

Ignorance in high places bodes ill for any society.

(Source: http://www.wtkr.com/news/military/wtkr-iraq-vet-kicked-off-bus,0,6434445.story)