Taliban Dan was the meanest man I ever knew... ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Congratulations to 'Sesame Street' for its 41st birthday. We can all take comfort in the fact that - unlike in the mid-'90s - there's a Senate to stop the House's upcoming war against public broadcasting.

Back in the mid-'70s, Johnny Cash appeared on the ol' Ses and sang a song that foreshadowed the eventual rise of Taliban Dan Webster:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H75eQX006jA

That song could easily be about Taliban Dan Webster, couldn't it? Taliban Dan is a nasty man, after all. The line about how he'd "try real good to make things go wrong" is particularly fitting.

Oscar the Grouch is quite impressed by ol' Dan though.

Texas lawmakers want to abolish Medicaid

Man, it's a mean world out there in Teabaggia.

The land barons are gonna show us poor people who's boss, and if that means abolishing Medicaid, then by golly, that's what they're gonna do.

Republican legislators in Texas now plan to pull their state out of the popular Medicaid and CHIP. In other words, a state wants to bar its citizenry from benefiting from a federal program.

Sometimes when lawmakers slash spending, they can honestly claim that it was because there was no money in the budget for it. In this case, however, Medicaid and CHIP are being threatened because of sheer meanness - not because abolishing it will save money. In fact, it won't save money - because who gets stuck with the bills when patients who can't pay end up having to go the emergency room because they can't see any other doctor?

Besides, Texas (or any other state) doesn't even have the legal option to pull out of Medicaid or CHIP! These are federal programs, and the American public is legally entitled to their benefits. They paid for it, after all.

I work hard and live on a very low income, and Medicaid recently saved my life. The political barons know Medicaid saves lives - but they don't care. America used to have standards. Until less than 20 years ago, teabagger tirades were largely confined to isolated circles of crybabies who would soothe among themselves their own delusions of privilege. But in recent years, character has become a dirty word.

Denying Medicaid to an entire state (with nothing to replace it) is murder by proxy.

Right-wing lawmakers try to play God, but they are whiners with no ideas or solutions - just arrogant appeals to entitlement. But they don't know just how badly it's about to crash down for them like it did for Pathway Family Center.

And that will be a day full of laughs.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/us/politics/07ttmedicaid.html)

Lipton Lugnuts channel Taliban

After last Tuesday's Tea Party jailbreak, it took less than 24 hours for the movement's leaders to shift from economic engineering to social engineering.

They spent 2 years claiming (falsely) to be for limited government, but Tea Party cofounder Mark Meckler now says not so fast. At a press conference last week, Meckler said Tea Party followers in Congress now "need to lift up conservative culture, family values, and wholesome things by supporting conservative musicians, writers, artists, and producers."

In just a day, the Tea Parties went from attacking government to praising it as an arbiter of political thought by demanding a bailout for right-wing writers and artists.

The Tea Parties are a movement of snobs. Their values don't prevail in the marketplace of ideas, so they have to fleece the taxpayers to prop them up. Similarly, their values don't prevail at the polls anymore unless they get the Citizens United ruling to flood their campaigns with foreign corporate dough.

Call it wingnut welfare, if you will. They claim to be for the "free market", but they demand bailouts like this that would seem to defy market principles.

All this of course is funded by taxation without representation. Impoverished inner cities are paying disproportionately high taxes to fund a movement by rich exurbs - while the cities are badly underrepresented in Congress.

My message for urbanites from Bellevue to Boston is: I live in the city, and you do too. And you have brains. Take back what is rightfully yours. Don't let the teabaggers live off your tax dollars. If you have to stand up for yourself when somebody's giving you a hard time, so be it. America is yours, and don't let the exurban property barons decide what goes on in your town.

Join me in fighting back and in taking back what belongs to the cities.

More careers I'm proud to have ruined

Our successful attempt to close the fascist Pathway Family Center has been the high water mark of our efforts - so far. But it overshadowed another apparent success story that should give the Republicans pause before they raise the price of poker.

It appears - by all available evidence - that I got a local school principal fired not long ago by exposing his abuse. I had attended his school earlier, and he was arrogant, incompetent, dishonest, and controlling. He was positively one of the worst human beings who I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with in person.

Official reports say he merely retired, but I strongly suspect this was a forced retirement. Much of my book 'The Fight That Never Ends' was devoted to his antics, and your career doesn't survive something like that when there's enough people around to corroborate what's in the book.

When this apparent firing occurred, it dawned on me that I may have done the same to another abusive school administrator. I had thought he voluntarily retired, but then I started having my doubts - especially because he wasn't even old enough to retire.

Both of these men will someday die in obscurity - while a record of their abuse lives on.

This proves one thing: When E.F. Bandit talks, people listen. If you're not from this area, you don't know the extent of it. But Pathway Family Center knows, and they're not laughing right now.

The takedown of PFC and these 2 school administrators is a perfect illustration of this maxim that has been attributed to Mohandas Gandhi: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

The right to govern rests only with those who respect constitutional liberties. To deny it is to deny nature.

PFC is R.I.P., but what about the GOP?

Anybody else here remember Pathway Family Center?

PFC was a teen "rehab" cult that I became familiar with in 2007 when I was invited to a roadside protest against its Cincinnati area location. PFC also had 3 other locations - in Indiana and Michigan.

Within about 10 months, we had driven PFC out of Cincinnati. Within another 10 months, we had shut down the rest of its locations too.

A powerful, very wealthy cult that recruited in school districts all over the Midwest and received bailout after bailout from corporations and state and local governments was completely vanquished because a handful of us put pressure on it.

And remember what I did when the Tea Party assholes came to town? I don't mean the Wilder rally a year ago that these spineless cowards ducked out of because I threatened to show up. I'm talking about the Covington event this past April - where I heckled their "silent" march that blocked traffic on 4th Street. (When I heckled them, they started chanting, "Someone said the word." Some "silent" march.) The Tea Parties haven't been back to the immediate area since.

We defeated PFC and scared away the Tea Parties because we are the forces of good, and they are the forces of evil. We have nature and science behind us. That Pathway is gone is nature's way of saying what's intended and what isn't. As a teen confinement center, PFC's demise proves that science intends for our young people to receive loving guidance, not abuse.

Those on the extreme right who fight us are fighting a higher power. We are naturally endowed with the duty to bring sheer horror to those whose goal is to intentionally make things go wrong.

I've learned over the years to be prepared for the worst when dealing with assholes like this. But I never even imagined - not by a longshot - that what happened Tuesday would happen. When Citizens United enabled corporations to buy elections, I didn't know that meant they could pay off election officials too. After my rights were violated in my youth, I take my right to vote and to be represented too seriously to have it stolen.

Tea Party whack-a-doodles nationally think they're smarter than the Pathway fraudsters. They hoisted high the flag of entitlement, and it appeared to pay off for them in the end.

Luckily, I'm better prepared than I thought I was - and this time, they stepped in it. (Incidentally, a Tea Party referendum was rejected by Campbell County voters. Draw any conclusion you want from that.) It's boiling over.

For starts, there's a little thing called Wikipedia. I'm making sure the truth is told there.

Also, I'm prepared to guarantee you that I can make the Green Party the dominant party in an entire Cincinnati neighborhood. Not just a subdivision, but a neighborhood - as defined by the city. In doing so, I can make the other parties small enough to drown in the toilet.

I can probably do that just in the course of this week. The only thing preventing that is that I'm not about to legally change my place of residence.

Last night, it dawned on me that I've got a much easier hand to play than the aforementioned efforts. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but suffice it to say, they've walked right into this one. Still, I'm under no illusions that this will be easy either. But I'm willing to stand up and take the abuse I'm about to take in order to make sure the other side gets what's coming and safeguard my rights in the long run. I'm not stupid, and if I'm careful, I can knock a major cavity that won't soon be forgotten into the careers of some people in very high places. I have a brain, and I'm going to use it.

If anybody wants to physically fight me, they can enjoy a brick hitting them in the head. I am not afraid to die for the cause. If I die, I die a martyr.

PFC may be R.I.P., but if the GOP doesn't join them in the grave, the U.S.A. may be S.O.L., so let's give them a K.O. in the OT.

Election coverage looms

Tonight, this blog might be able to offer some of the most detailed election coverage that it's had in its history. That's assuming I can avoid browser lock this year. I don't expect to see any results until 7 PM though.

The major indicator of what tonight will be like comes from the fact that Democratic areas nationwide have seen unusually high turnout. So if the Republicans retake Congress, somebody (not the Democrats) is going to have a lot of explaining to do. Not like I expect the pop-up media to try to get answers.

I'm warning you in advance that I may have to disable commenting here because of the spam that's likely in store. Some individuals seem to have these 2 bodily functions as their only activities:

1) Whining (when they lose).

2) Gloating (when they win).

Frankly, nobody who reads this blog wants to wallow in a right-wing complain-a-thon when they can get that plenty of other places. This blog is one of my main sources of income, and I can't afford to have people scared away.

I also want to minimize spam from people who think they know everything about politics but don't. I don't care for my blog to be flooded with 70 comments a minute saying obvious things like, "omg lisa murkowski losed tennessee!"

Every time I've had to disable commenting, somebody always later attacks this policy as "communist." Nope, it isn't "communist." It's business. And it's my blog, and if I want it clear of spam and right-wing grumbling, that's my choice.

In any event, I don't expect to have time to do anything tonight except look at election returns. That's part of my job.

So may the worst candidate lose! (Ooh, a curse!)

Important: we're headin' into the homestretch!

As Casey Kasem might say: We're headin' into the homestretch! The election is today, people.

In all honesty, I can't wait for the election to be over, simply because the Republicans have become so over-the-top idiotic that it strains belief that nobody has issued the knockout punch that the GOP so richly deserves. This shit gets old.

There's still a few questions as to exactly how the long-soiled Republican brand will fare today. But based on raw logic instead of polls, the fact that the GOP has so many weird candidates this time should keep the party at bay. I'm skeptical of pollsters' likely voter screens because they're hired by media outlets that have a narrative to tell. The fact that most pollsters won't release any details of what they think a likely voter is tells me a lot - A LOT - about what may go down today, and I don't think it's looking grand for Republicans.

The fact that a Newsweek poll shows Democrats with a 10% lead in House races nationally among folks who've already voted tells me more than I need to know on that front. I truly believe that other pollsters are in cahoots with a media that is purchased and paid for by corporations who (following Citizens United) no longer have to disclose campaign expenditures and are paying the media for positive coverage for Republicans. There's just no other explanation.

Plus, everybody I know - and I mean everybody - says they're voting Democratic. The Republicans haven't gained any new support since the last midterm. So I stand by my prediction: 56-44 and 233-202.

If the GOP wins back Congress, that means the election is rigged. Period. End of story. The Republicans have a history of election fraud.

But if they knew what I know, I don't think they'd want to push their luck this time. If you think I'm bluffing, ask Pathway Family Center what I did to them.

The $64,000,000,000,000 question that I know you've had lately is: What's the future of this blog if the Evil Empire raises the price of poker? Simply put, they don't get to decide what the law here is, and I actually have a very good track record at stating my case. When put up against them, I am the law, as far as I'm concerned.

But in the 17 years since I started The Last Word, I've learned that if I want something done, I have to do it myself. Talk doesn't cut it. You have to take action. I think there's going to be a bit of litigation coming up, depending on what happens today.

Society must be built on the consent of the governed. The right to govern is held only by representatives of the people. This right is naturally ordained. Those who would impose their own doctrinaire funhouse mirror view of the law are fighting nature and fighting the public. It is the duty of all of us to hold the Evil Empire accountable.

Phonegate '10!

In 2002, Republicans in New Hampshire rigged the election by disrupting Democrats' get-out-the-vote efforts by jamming party offices' phone lines with hang-up phone calls.

Now they're doing almost the exact same thing: At 11 Democratic party offices all over New Hampshire, phone service has been mysteriously lost for the past 5 hours.

Didn't the Republicans learn shit from being prosecuted for what they did in 2002? Of course not. After all, I don't think a single one of the Republicans who was convicted for that was punished, because some beezobozz Republican judge threw out their convictions.

(Source: http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20101101-NEWS-101109975)

Election protection!

Here's a website where you can report whatever troubles or anything suspicious you might encounter at the polls:

http://www.866ourvote.org

Or you can call 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Other websites have had county-by-county breakdowns of voter suppression in past years. Unfortunately, the media never followed up on these incidents (surprise, surprise).

Incidentally, the abominable Katie Stine has long had a habit of placing "challengers" in polling places to intimidate voters. If that happens to me, the "challengers" get clocked. End of story.

ABC's new hatchet man caught making bogus recording

Here's another good reason not to trust the media gasbags' narrative about tomorrow's election: ABC has hired discredited right-wing propagandist Andrew Breitbart (who seems to be the personal babysitter of anti-ACORN fraudster James O'Keefe) as its election analyst.

That alone is prima facie evidence that the media is actively trying to build a narrative about the election results. I find it interesting that this narrative gained height right after the Citizens United ruling. (Translation: I think this bias is a payoff.)

Make no mistake: ABC now stands for Andrew Breitbart Channel.

Now Breitbart has released an audio clip that he claims is of reporters at KTVA-TV, the CBS affiliate in Anchorage, Alaska, conspiring to destroy right-wing Senate candidate Joe Miller. But now this clip has been unmasked as bogus.

The audio is of the reporters, but their conversation was edited by Breitbart - after they were secretly recorded by Miller's campaign manager.

In other words, ABC hired an analyst who helps a political campaign with its dirty work by deceptively editing phone conversations.

Well, folks, this is one of the networks that's paying for all these polls - which bear no resemblance to any public sentiment you see in real life. (Honestly, do you actually see any NEW support for Republicans on the ground?)

Breitbart's clip being exposed as deception doesn't deter the Far Rightists. Now they want a criminal investigation of KTVA.

Meanwhile, after bloggers called out ABC for its right-wing bias that was evident when it hired Breitbart, ABC now says Breitbart won't appear on screen. Upon hearing this news, Breitbart has now lashed out at ABC and has tried to make himself out as some great free speech martyr.

(Source: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/10/alaska_station_denies_big_gove.html)

John Roberts may face impeachment

Please! Tell me this isn't a dream!

Rep. Peter DeFazio - an Oregon Democrat who is cruising to reelection - is investigating possible impeachment of Chief Justice John Roberts.

The impetus for this impeachment drive is Roberts's vote on the fascist Citizens United ruling. During his confirmation hearings, Roberts pledged he would not practice judicial activism. He lied. And this perjury is the basis of DeFazio's probe.

In the likely event that the Democrats retain the House, I'd love to see what excuses the DLC will come up with not to impeach Roberts. Will it be the same excuses they used not to impeach Bush, even after the Democrats promised to do so?

Plus, there's a difference between impeachment and removal. The almost certainly insurmountable part of this effort would be getting the Senate to remove Roberts. But that doesn't change the facts of the case: Roberts committed perjury and is violating his oath of office by intentionally legislating from the bench.

It also doesn't change the fact that Roberts was appointed by a rogue regime. Because Bush stole the election twice, Roberts's appointment should be declared null and void.

(Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/22/peter-defazio-impeachment-chief-justice-john-roberts_n_771431.html)

Taliban Dan thug assaults dissenter

In Orlando, Taliban Dan Webster is the Republican challenger against incumbent Democratic congressman Alan Grayson. Grayson is a generally effective lawmaker but is one of the most electorally vulnerable incumbents, because the media hates his guts.

Now Taliban Dan has taken a page from the playbook of Rand "Stompy" Paul.

A man showed up at a Taliban Dan rally displaying a Grayson sign. When Taliban Dan began speaking, Republican big shot Bruce O'Donoghue promptly jumped off the stage and physically attacked Grayson's supporter. O'Donoghue crumpled the Grayson sign and appeared to be trying to take a swing at the man.

Once again, this assault was caught on video (so the teabaggers can't lie about it like they do about everything else):

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/10/31/915352/-FL-08:-Grayson-Supporter-Assaulted-as-Webster-Talks-of-Positive-Campaign

If O'Donoghue assaulted me like that, I would have broken his fucking jaw.

Ironically, Taliban Dan was speaking of how "positive" his campaign is while this altercation was going on.

Why are establishment candidates like Taliban Dan and Ku Klux Rand even serious contenders? That's because this really isn't even an election. It's an auction. The Citizens United ruling dumped gabillions of corporate dollars (much of it from foreign corporations or even dictatorships) into right-wing campaigns.

(Also, does anybody else think Taliban Dan looks sort of like Newt Gingrich?)

Op-ed exposes private school "civility gap"

A brief but interesting opinion piece by Charles Blow of the New York Times was published yesterday:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/opinion/30blow.html

Blow's article discusses the "civility gap" that plagues private schools - which is the same thing I've been trying to tell people about for the past 20 years, but nobody would listen.

Blow says private school students "are literally the chosen ones" and that "this sort of thinking has a way of weaving itself into the fibers of a family and into the thinking of the children." In other words, it's a sense of entitlement and privilege.

I noticed this too back in my day, but everybody had such thick skulls that they wouldn't believe me when I said bullying and classism were worse in private schools. When I was forced to attend a suburban private high school, some of my schoolmates were the offspring of people who pretty much ran the community - and by golly, they were going to make sure I knew who was "better." They were the Tea Party movement before the Tea Party movement was "cool."

Maybe this article will finally bring more daylight to one of the most ignored phenomena in America today: the "civility gap."

Prediction: 56-44 and 233-202

This is the first election cycle in which I have the resources to make an educated prediction of what the partisan breakdown of Congress will be after the election. That Internet is powerful stuff, you understand.

I am predicting - with fairly good accuracy - that the Senate will end up with 56 Democrats (counting 2 independents who caucus with the Democrats) and 44 Republicans. I'm also predicting that the House will end up with 233 Democrats and 202 Republicans. That's give or take a few, of course, but I don't think it's far off at all.

Early voting has been more Democratic than it was in 2006 (the previous midterm), a year that also ended up with the GOP trailing 233 to 202. Checking individual races, I think that's a realistic guess for 2010. This guess may actually be just a tad generous to the Republicans - because EVERY FUCKING PERSON who I meet is voting Democratic. Also, if early voting is any indication, the feared enthusiasm gap is nearly vanquished.

Anybody who hoped the Republicans would suddenly lurch back to life this year after they lost last time and subsequently out-crazied themselves is in for some serious egg on their face. The math just doesn't add up for them retaking Congress. In earlier years, I was sweating bullets at this point, but this time I'm pretty confident. I've checked polls for every district in which polls have been released, and frankly, the GOP is out of luck.

I hate to do it but...

I have no choice but to vote for a Republican (an incumbent, no less) in one race this year. No, seriously.

I am forced to vote Republican for Campbell County Judge-Executive - because the Democrat is endorsed by the Northern Kentucky Tea Party.

That's what the local Democratic Party has come down to - namely, accepting support from a fascist movement like the Tea Parties. This election features a conservative Republican being challenged by a so-called Democrat running even further to the right.

If the Democrat's Tea Party support had been exposed earlier by the media, I would have run as a Green. But the local media doesn't do its job any better than the Campbell County Democratic Party does.

What's astonishing is that anybody in Campbell County would even want a Tea Party endorsement, because the Tea Parties are pretty much considered a joke here. You should see some of the comments people have posted on local news websites about what passes for Campbell County's Tea Party movement.

Unfortunately, however, Campbell County still doesn't have a two-party system, when you've got Democrats trying to out-crazy the Republicans. If you support the Tea Parties, forget my vote. And I guarantee my endorsement carries more weight in Campbell County than the Tea Parties' do, judging by the fact that the Lipton Losers canceled a rally all because I threatened to show up and humiliate them.

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Laughing Gas"

On Tuesday, I had several teeth pulled. To accomplish this, the surgeon's crew provided laughing gas - also known as nitrous oxide.

Laughing gas is called laughing gas because it makes people laugh. But it's not a toy, and you shouldn't be playing around with it. I once read that laughing gas was discovered by accident by some scientist who inhaled it and noticed that he became unusually jolly as a result. He probably started laughing every time somebody mentioned 'Sesame Street', because after all, 'Sesame Street' is funny.

When I was being given the laughing gas, I did indeed start laughing. I began thinking about Republicans losing elections, which made me laugh. So I had those teeth pulled with a smile on my face!

If the GOP does indeed lose this coming Tuesday, I will laugh even more than I did when I got the laughing gas. It couldn't happen to a more deserving party.

In the meantime, our latest 'LCQ' episode talks about laughing gas and its use in dentistry:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RKjpfh1sec

Right-wing school board member wants gays to commit suicide

Some smartass keeps calling me a bigot in the comment section of this blog because I called him out on the fact that he supports politicians who hate gays. It's the right-wingers' latest strategy: Call somebody a bigot because they call out a conservative for their bigotry. (Kind of like when the Tea Party thought police called their critics racist for pointing out the Tea Parties' racism.)

Naturally, he hasn't condemned the moron in this story.

In the Midland school district in Arkansas, right-wing school board member Clint McCance declared on Facebook that gay students should commit suicide. McCance's post reads:

"Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers killed themselves. The only way im wearin it for them is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed thereselves [sic] because of their sin. REALLY PEOPLE."

Later, when somebody challenged McCance's remark, McCance replied:

"No because being a fag doesn't give you the right to ruin the rest of our lives. If you get easily offended by being called a fag then dont tell anyone you are a fag. Keep that shit to yourself. I dont care how people decide to live their lives. They dont bother me if they keep it to thereselves [sic]. It pisses me off though that we make a special purple fag day for them. I like that fags cant procreate. I also enjoy the fact that they often give each other aids and die. If you arent against it, you might as well be for it."

Afterward, McCance said:

"I would disown my kids they were gay. They will not be welcome at my home or in my vicinity. I will absolutely run them off. Of course my kids will know better. My kids will have solid christian beliefs. See it infects everyone."

Right-wing bigots serving on American school boards isn't exactly new. But what's striking lately is that now right-wingers aren't even hiding their fascism. They make comments like this out in the open and expect to be rewarded for it.

It's actually a form of cheap elitism. Clint McCance thinks his views should carry more weight than others' just because he has a powerful position in his town. According to McCance, commoners be damned.

I wonder how long it will be before McCance demands a public apology from his critics. It's a bit like how Rand "Stompy" Paul's goons keep demanding an apology from the woman whose head they repeatedly stomped on. (The way Stompy's thugs act reminds me of all that "outraged by the outrage" business.)

War criminals running for Congress

After the fascist media tried to normalize war crimes by openly promoting Lynndie England's whiny book, it should be little surprise that at least 2 current Republican candidates for Congress are war criminals themselves.

This article provides a glimpse of North Carolina's Ilario Pantano and Florida's Allen West - both of whom are war criminals:

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2010/10/28/nc07-gop-t-candidate-who-shot-two-unarmed-iraqis-60-times-likely-to-be-elected-to-congress-next-week

West pleaded guilty to assaulting a prisoner in Iraq and was forced to retire by the Army. Pantano, a former Marine, murdered 2 Iraqis who he knew were unarmed.

In all honesty, I don't think either Pantano or West will be elected, but that's not the point here. What's amazing is that the Republicans expect us to abide by laws passed by war criminals.

The GOP can go gag on a turd if they think I'm going to obey laws that violent war criminals passed. So don't fuck with me, Rethugs. For the Republicans, this election can end either badly or very badly. If they want to push their luck, that's their problem.

Judge bans air

I know you're a little alarmed by the title of this entry, but seriously, that's about what this story is like.

This week, a federal court ordered the closure of the file-sharing site LimeWire, accusing it of causing folks to engage in copyright infringement. The court acted like LimeWire held a gun to people's heads and made them violate copyrights.

The ruling was made by Judge Kimba Wood, a Reagan appointee who was dropped as Clinton's choice for Attorney General because she hired an undocumented immigrant as a nanny.

In issuing the ruling against LimeWire, Wood whined that record companies "have suffered - and will continue to suffer - irreparable harm from LimeWire's inducement of widespread infringement of their works." Aw, poor babies, those record companies.

The court might as well have just banned computers for "inducing" people to use LimeWire. Or banned air for "inducing" people to not die, which "induces" them to use computers. That's how stupid this case is.

When is Congress going to act against these right-wing activist judges like this?

(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2616212420101026)

Second-best political ad of the season?

Peep this:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/10/28/914548/-New-KY-DEM-Anti-Rand-Paul-Ad:-BRUTAL!

That campaign commersh hits Rand Paul for allowing his thugs to brutalize a MoveOn activist by kicking her to the ground and stomping on her head. I think this may be the second-best ad of the season (the best being Alan Grayson's Taliban Dan ad, despite being widely criticized by the media).

Unfortunately, the Kentucky Democratic Party is such a bunch of wusses that they'll only show the ad after 10 PM because they think it might scare small children.

In the meantime, I think Rand Paul should adopt a new campaign song. Here's a hint: The song was a top 10 hit for the Brothers Johnson some years back.

GOP thuggery story of the day

I guess it's stupid season, because this is getting to be an everyday thing now.

The type of assaults carried out by the campaigns of Rand Paul and Joe Miller have now expanded into Washington state, where the campaign of perennial crybaby Dino Rossi physically attacked a dissenter:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/10/28/914481/-Another-Teabagger-Assaults-Another-Young-Female-Protester

Ironically, the Rossi thug in this story is a failed author who once wrote a book that supposedly teaches people how to "react quickly to a situation."

This assault - like the others - is a sign of electoral desperation. But in Rossi's case, I don't think it matters, because Rossi has less of a chance of winning the election than Miller and Paul do (0%).

Gas-X ad with Hillary Clinton look-alike found

For years, a friend of mine has insisted that there was a Gas-X commersh that featured a woman who looked exactly like Hillary Clinton sitting in a movie theater.

Sounds pretty believable, huh?

So from time to time, I've been on the lookout for this ad on YouTube. And, buy George, I think I've finally found it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOcNbZnh7j0

That commersh reportedly aired throughout 2003. I actually recall seeing it (particularly during court shows), but I never realized until now how much the woman in the middle resembled Hillary Clinton!

A hilarious TV tidbit from America's Lost Decade survives!

No enthusiasm gap on 'Sesame Street'! ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Even the 'Sesame Street' kick-ass crew knows what an important kick-ass patriotic duty voting is.

The ol' Ses takes democratic republicanism seriously. Now, 'Zoom' might be a military dictatorship (because all the kids on the show dress alike), and 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' is obviously a traditional monarchy (with King Friday XIII and all). But on 'Sesame Street', your vote counts!

This segment from the 1983-84 season proves how democracyish the ol' Ses truly is:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRw4iuq498Y

Notice how - unbeknownst to Big Bird - election officials have turned his digs into a polling place, as shown by the sign on his door that prohibits electioneering. Not like people always obey these signs. I've seen right-wing activists campaigning at the polling place here, even though it's illegal.

Vote for 'Sesame Street'. It's too important to stay home.

Man brutalized for disagreeing with Eric Cantor

Embattled right-wing Virginia congressman and all-around troublemaker Eric Cantor tolerates dissent about as well as Bush or Rand Paul or Alaska's Joe Miller do - i.e., not very well. (This is the same Eric Cantor who made up that ridiculous story in which he falsely claimed somebody shot at his office.)

In Louisa, Virginia, a local Democratic activist showed up at what was advertised as a public Cantor event at a coffee shop. (The event was not private, despite media reports.) When he arrived, town police and county sheriff's deputies were promptly called. Although the man did nothing violent or disorderly (and had an invitation to the event), cops violently knocked him to the floor and brutalized him.

The incident was caught on video, so don't lie about it, teagaggers:

http://www.nbc12.com/Global/story.asp?S=13386275

Then the cops arrested the person who recorded the incident, even though he was on a public sidewalk.

Later, the man who was arrested in the coffeehouse observed, "The Louisa County police department was basically used by Eric Cantor's campaign to make a political statement." Well, of course. That's what Republicans do. They abuse public agencies to carry out their agenda. They like to complain that the government's too big - then they get "elected" and prove it by suppressing dissent and imposing their views on the public.

Meanwhile, the Cantor campaign vandalized Democratic opponent Rick Waugh's car with a racist slogan (hence the icon at the top of this entry).

(Source: http://www.nbc12.com/Global/story.asp?S=13386275)

More Rand Paul crybaby thuggery

Rand Paul is a thin-skinned little baby who can't take any criticism at all.

After several people on YouTube posted the video in which Rand Paul's thugs (one of whom turned out to be one of his county coordinators) brutally beat a young woman, the Paul campaign promptly complained to YouTube to get the video pulled. Naturally, YouTube complied - calling the video "violent."

Violent? I think the assault by Rand Paul's brownshirts was violent. The video was only documenting their thuggery. This is as bad as when we had all these Taliban followers trying to censor "violent" video games, when they did nothing to stop real-life violence.

So Rand Paul not only hates the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, but he also hates free speech.

Can't take any criticism, Rand? Tough shit.

Luckily, I'm from Kentucky - so if Rand Paul wins, I get to keep an eye on him and his thugs. Thankfully, he's not in Hawaii or some other state where I'd have no chance of watching him like a hawk. Even more thankfully, the Christine O'Donnell disaster guarantees the GOP won't win back the Senate regardless of Paul's performance.

What I find even more amazing is that when Jack Conway ran an ad criticizing Paul for kidnapping a woman, the media fell over itself to attack Conway just for bringing it up. Reminds me of when some whack-a-doodle senator whined about being "outraged by the outrage" - as if criticizing somebody's scandalous behavior is worse than the scandal itself. How nice of the media to make this decision for us.

I'm watching you, Rand. Win or lose, this is the wrong state for your bullshit. Just ask your Tea Party friends what happened to their rally in Wilder, Rand.

Try me, tough guy.

Rand Paul thuggery

So this is what fascism looks like.

Long story short: A group of Rand Paul followers physically attacked a MoveOn activist outside the debate last night. Among other things, they stomped on her head. This assault was caught on video - so don't deny it, teabaggers:

http://www.fox41.com/Global/story.asp?S=13386076

Win or lose (most likely lose, for them), I'm not going to let these assholes get away with ANYTHING. If I have to personally keep an eye on their district offices, I will. Drives 'em nuts, but I fucking CHALLENGE them to stop me.

Incidentally, I witnessed Bush's Nazis assaulting a woman back in 2000, so this is a pattern for them.

Chamber of Commerce plunks down big bucks for drug war

Every national, state, and local Chamber of Commerce organization constantly jaws about their support of smaller government. But this story lays hulk to this pretense and proves that the Chamber of Commerce is all about "regulation for thee, not for me."

The California Chamber of Commerce has just plopped down a cool $250,000 to run misleading, dishonest ads opposing a sensible referendum that would legalize marijuana.

This from the "small government" Chamber of Commerce? Why does a "small government" group support extending a failed prohibition policy? Not only has the War on Drugs (particularly efforts against marijuana) imprisoned countless Americans, but it's also ruined the careers of quite a few who were targeted for daring to oppose this war.

The Chamber of Commerce is as much about big government and control as anybody is.

Meanwhile, the national Chamber of Commerce accepts money from foreign corporations and even dictatorships to run ads supporting Republican candidates.

David Duke still an idiot

Hey, David Duke, you stupid idiot, the '90s are over. So get rid of that hairstyle.

Seriously, Duke just put out a video praising the Tea Parties in which he looks like Homer Simpson (with an oddly raised area around his mouth) except he has that helmet hairdo that was so popular in the '90s.

Better yet, David Duke should just go away altogether. Nobody cared what he thought 20 years ago - and they care even less now.

Poll shows Democrats with decisive lead

I figured that once we got within 2 weeks of the election, the pollsters would stop playing chicken and catch up to reality. Now they have.

A new Newsweek poll shows the Democrats with a lead in the upcoming House elections. Though the lead is small, it is nonetheless decisive:

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/22/poll-obama-approval-jumps-dems-more-fired-up.html

The Democrats even hold a lead among likely voters using a likely voter model that has already been proven to be too generous to the GOP. Plus, this survey also shows a significant narrowing of the feared enthusiasm gap that has plagued this campaign cycle.

The message from this poll is that the election won't be a Democratic landslide - but the Democrats will come out ahead by a pretty commanding margin.

In all honesty, I knew this would happen, but nobody seemed to buy my prediction. Now these skeptics are the ones with the humble pie caked all over their faces.

If we (the American people) can keep some of the worst Republicans out of the Senate AND keep the GOP from retaking either house of Congress, I can't say the political climate will be any worse than what it was. And it looks we're going to accomplish all of the above. I'm a Green, but I'll take a weak Democratic Party over Republican megalomania any day.

Maybe this is what happens when the Republicans run a bunch of totalitarian lunatics instead of acting like a normal party.

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "My Very First Cell Phone"

For Internet, the Belv was a dialup town until 2007, when it finally became a high-speed town. And now, for phone service, it's finally becoming a cell phone town.

Today, I finally got my very first cell phone! I promised last week I'd get one, because fraudulent phone calls had made the traditional landline useless. And now I've made good on this pledge, because today my very first cell phone arrived.

This week's episode of 'Lawn Chair Quarterback' covers this revolutionary event:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qni_PL9ta2w

I hoped to be able to use a cell phone for the very first time within the 10 minutes allotted for 'LCQ', but the phone was in that miserable plastic packaging that you almost need a buzzsaw to cut through. (I'm talking about the clear, hard plastic that we've all seen as packaging for electronics.) So this turned out to be like the infamous Geraldo Rivera special about Al Capone's secret vault. I'm talking about the show in which the vault couldn't be accessed by the end of the show. Getting to my new phone was kind of like that.

This new phone shall be used sparingly. It costs a quarter a minute, and that'll be a barg, because I don't let my life revolve around talking on the phone all day. We've all met people who seem to have their ear permanently attached to their phone - even in the landline era. But with me, the buck stops here. I economize.

Fair warning: The government comes down harder on fraudulent calls to cell phones than to landlines.