Kentucky meth labs reach record high

It's another record!


No, I don't mean the Scott Brown kind of record.

Kentucky is now reporting yet another record-breaking year for meth labs. In October alone, Kentucky cops found 111 labs - breaking the monthly record. This brings this year's total to 919, which already shatters the yearly record of 741 that was set last year.

This happened because of newer state and federal restrictions that punish law-abiding citizens who do something as simple as buy Sudafed. It didn't happen in spite of these restrictions. It happened because of them.

I knew this would happen when the restrictions were enacted. Nobody in power listened - because they just didn't care. Laws like this keep the drug warriors in business. In fact, drug agents are making meth themselves. If they got out of the illicit drug biz, America wouldn't have a major drug problem. Period.

Now that we know restrictions against the law-abiding don't work, the drug warriors want - you guessed it! - more restrictions. They've prefiled a bill in the Kentucky legislature that would make Sudafed a prescription drug - thus illegally overriding a federal law that makes it over-the-counter.

After WikiLeaks burst the dam of government cover-ups, I have absolutely zero faith in the Democrats, and I have even less in the Republicans. They'll spend an entire legislative session on shit like their Sudafed bill, but they won't lift a finger to help anybody. Health care reform? Minimum wage increase? Education reform? Civil liberties protections? With the current crop of criminals in our legislature, forget about it.

If the drug warriors want a war so badly, it's time we bring it home to our public squares. They started it, and it's going to be finished.

(Source: http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/Kentucky_meth_labs_hit_all_time_high_110522249.html)

Fox runs made-up War on Christmas story

While WikiLeaks is reinventing journalism for the better, it still has to vie for influence against the dinosaur media's yellow journalism.

'Fox & Friends' has reported that a public school in central Florida has banned red and green from classroom decorations because they happen to be Christmas colors. Big problem with this story? It's a lie. It turns out that the story was made up out of whole cloth by right-wing agitators, and Fox News chose to run with it - knowing it was false.

Faux News did almost the exact same thing in 2005 when Bill O'Reilly falsely claimed that a Texas school had banned red and green. This has become pretty much a boilerplate story in the pop-up media.

The FCC used to take it very seriously when stations intentionally distorted the news. Read about the WLBT case sometime. (It was one of the first things we learned about when I took broadcasting in college.) I'd think that Fox lying about the news outright would certainly fall under the category of distortion.

Fox runs phony stories about schools banning decorations with Christmas colors, but it ignores real stories about public schools establishing unconstitutional uniform policies that punish kids for wearing almost any color.

The right-wing media is engaging in a War on the Holidays. To these malcontents, the season is about bringing horror to all.

(Source: http://mediamatters.org/research/201011290017?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+mediamatters/latest+%28Media+Matters+-+Latest+Items%29)

Don't laugh at this Jester

I've been saying for weeks that everything is going to crash down for the Republicans, and now it is, thanks to the WikiLeaks story. As an added bonus, the Republicans are taking the DLC down with them.

But while WikiLeaks is exposing damning government documents, some individuals just can't handle it. Like the Jester, for instance. That's the self-awarded nickname of an anonymous hacker who has claimed responsibility for knocking WikiLeaks offline yesterday in retaliation for WikiLeaks lifting the curtain on the culture of corruption.

The Jester's reasoning for his own criminal behavior is that he claims WikiLeaks was "attempting to endanger the lives of our troops, 'other assets' & foreign relations." This excuse is just that: an excuse. And a flimsy, dishonest one. Lying about something like this is a perfect illustration of the Jester's authoritarian personality. This is exactly how Bush cultists talked during the last decade.

The Jester's totalitarianism can be more clearly defined when you contrast it against how more reasoned souls behave. When our side loses an election, we rally to rebuild our power. But when the Jester or other right-wingers lose - or even when they don't - they trash websites and throw fits.

While the WikiLeaks documents show that the government has been spying on important diplomats, how much surveillance do you think this Jester idiot has undergone?

We'll see how far the WikiLeaks story takes us over the next few weeks, and we'll decide whether we need to spend the time and resources to take up the slack to bring the other side to its knees. Either way, this isn't going to end well for the Evil Empire. If we can take down Pathway Family Center and 2 school administrators, and scare the Tea Party movement out of the county, think what we can do to an already discredited political party.

Then we'll see who has the last laugh.

(Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/11/29/wikileaks.hacker)

Poll investigated for being too accurate

Sometimes, you can't write stupider fiction than the facts, folks.

In Minnesota's recent election for governor, polls reached a consensus that Democrat Mark Dayton was leading his nearest rival, right-wing Republican Tom Emmer, by 5 to 15 percentage points. But in the "official" results (which used to be called an election), Dayton won by less than 0.5%.

A Democrat winning at all made the media red with rage. Why, according to them, the Republicans are ENTITLED to win, dammit! They're Republicans, so it's their birthright, don't ya know.

In addition to suing to overturn the results, they're also demanding an investigation into pollsters.

It'd seem to me like when almost all the pollsters show somebody winning by 5 to 15%, but the election has him winning by only 0.5%, it's not the pollsters who are wrong. It's especially true in this case because Minnesota Republicans have a history of corrupt political bosses who rig elections, and because the pollsters were known to actually have a bias in favor of Republicans. Much of this is the cell phone effect: They underpolled households that have only a cell phone. (Cell phones used to be the province of the privileged, but now many poor households have ditched their landlines.) Plus, the polls are weighted to reflect past elections that the Republicans rigged. Furthermore, pollsters were hired by the media to build a narrative favoring the GOP.

That's 3 strikes right there that show the polls have a Republican tilt. You know Dayton actually would have won by a lot more than 5 to 15%, except the election was rigged.

In almost every other country, when something like this happens, the polls are used to show whether the election is honest. But in the upside-down world of modern American fascism, a rigged election is being used to show whether the pollsters were honest.

Now, right-wing Hitlers have demanded that Minnesota Public Radio and the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute investigate their own poll that showed Dayton leading by 12%. Naturally, MPR and the university are complying with these shrill demands without a fight.

They've announced an "independent" review of their poll by Gallup's Frank Newport. The once-respected Gallup may now be the most inaccurate poll of all, and Gallup may have been the only major pollster to show the Republicans doing significantly better in this cycle than they actually did.

They call that an "independent" audit?

Let's look at how silly this is: A pollster that's relatively accurate gets attacked by a losing party. So this pollster hires another pollster - which is laughably inaccurate - to review its numbers.

Calling this an "independent" review is like how they said Ken Starr was an "independent" prosecutor even though he had worked for Republican administrations.

It's actually yellow journalism, a manufactured story pumped up by right-wing extremists. And MPR and the University of Minnesota fell for it hook, line, and stinker. There's only one word for that, folks: stupid.

It gets sillier. Now the wingnutosphere is claiming that cell-only homes were underpolled in an effort to favor the Democrats - even though it's been proven that the cell phone effect actually makes polls appear more Republican.

Pollsters should be investigated - not for favoring Democrats but for favoring Republicans. Media outlets should be investigated for hiring them to produce these results. (Citizens United has enabled corporations to pay off the media for coverage favoring the GOP.)

And - just as urgently - elections should be investigated.

It's about to crash down regardless, and the sooner we get the ball rolling, the easier this will be.

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Casserole"

Casserole is a colossal culinary mystery.

It always seems like casserole consists of ingredients that are great on their own - but nobody likes them when they're together and prepared in casserole form.

In other words, what's the point of casserole?

It's like how those old books that taught foreign languages translated sentences like, "Beer is good to drink. Coffee is good to drink. Beer mixed with coffee is not good to drink." Many of you adore both beer and coffee, but do you really want them mixed together?

I don't get you, casserole.

To celebrate Thanksgiving weekend, our latest 'Lawn Chair Quarterback' episode explores this phenomenon:

DeLay convicted of money laundering and conspiracy

Remember Tom DeLay?

DeLay is a fascist who was a leader in congressional Republicans' still-ongoing culture of corruption - before he was forced out of office in disgrace.

After DeLay was prosecuted for his corruption, Republicans moaned that it was all a political witch hunt. But today, DeLay was finally found guilty of money laundering and conspiracy for illegally funneling $190,000 in corporate campaign donations to GOP candidates for the Texas legislature.

In addition to fines, DeLay faces 5 to 99 years for the money laundering conviction and 2 to 20 years for conspiracy. He better serve at least some time. Prison isn't supposed to be just for the little people, you know.

Tom DeLay is a piece of shit who personifies political arrogance and abuse of power. He considers himself a messenger of God whose duty is to make life a hell on earth for anybody who crosses him.

I sincerely hope prison is a hell on earth for him. If he gets his ass kicked every single day that he's behind bars, he will have deserved every bit of it.

I hate you, Tom DeLay. Go pour milk on your ulcer.

Big Bird goes Roads Scholaring ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

In case you're still not looking fiveward to stuffing, basting, and tasting that juicy bird tomorrow, we're going to get you in the mood by featuring a 'Sesame Street' segment that includes everybody's favorite flightless avian: Sharron Angle! Just joking!

Actually, this skit features your ol' pal Big Bird explaining the diff betwixt sidewalks and streets. The Birdmeister raves almost drunkenly about this important distinction:



I remember seeing that sketch sometime around 1978. It was cool. That's because Big Bird is cool. And funny.

Local Tea Party founder loses election

It took a couple weeks to count all the votes, but now it's final: In suburban Cincinnati, a Republican candidate for Ohio House who was the founder of the Cincinnati area Tea Party lost to a Democrat. (The GOP candidate is the same guy who falsely accused me of deleting his comments here.)

If the Tea Parties are that toxic in the Cincinnati suburbs, they couldn't have possibly helped Republicans elsewhere - despite what it seems. (Also, a heavily hyped Tea Party referendum lost handily in Campbell County.) Clearly, the Tea Party label hurt when voters actually identified a candidate as a teabagger.

Of course, during the vote count in that Ohio House election, the Republicans tried to throw out votes from the district's few predominantly African-American precincts.

Meanwhile, central cities defy the Republicans' Citizens United-fueled gains elsewhere. The cities are certainly more self-sufficient than the outer suburbs, for it's the suburbs where more folks feel like they need to be told how to vote by the Tea Parties, talk radio, and conservative websites like Facebook.

These days, America's pioneers are in the cities!

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Happy World Toilet Day!"

Today isn't just a city holiday.

It isn't just a township holiday.

It isn't just a county holiday.

It isn't just a state holiday.

It isn't just a national holiday.

Why, it's a world holiday! It's...WORLD TOILET DAY! November 19 of each year has been established as World Toilet Day. Coincidentally, this follows Plop Day, which had already been established as November 18.

And 'Lawn Chair Quarterback' is in a toilety mood as it should be! In our latest 'LCQ' episode, we celebrate this important feast, explain its true meaning, and fill the world with toilety cheer:

Irony of the decade: Mad Dog Bush gets Presidential Medal of Freedom

No, I'm not making this up.

The elder Bush will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom - America's highest civilian honor - at a ceremony early next year.

What?

The Bush regime locked me up without a trial for 4 months when I was 17 because of my political views, and he gets a freedom medal?

I guess expecting not to be imprisoned without due process isn't "freedomy freedom." In Mad Dog's world, "freedom" meant allowing workers to be underpaid, and supporting foreign dictatorships.

Hey, if America is going to normalize fascism, why not go all out? Why doesn't Congress just repaint the Liberty Bell to look like that teacup that's on all the local Tea Party signs? (I'm talking about the signs displayed by all 3 Tea Party followers in Cincinnati.)

I take it very seriously when people who violated my rights are given awards for freedom. We're supposed to be at war against the extreme right - not encouraging them.

Prosecutor refuses to go after abusive principal

I think it's time to resort to Second Amendment remedies when we see stories like this.

In Shelby County, Indiana, an elementary school principal was caught on video brutalizing an 8-year-old student. She grabbed the boy by his shirt, violently shook him, pushed him into a school bus seat, and slapped him across the leg.

Then - get this - a local prosecutor refused to pursue charges against the principal. The bullshit excuse was that it's apparently legal for schools to batter kids in Indiana.

This story is so outrageous that it pretty much stands on its own outrage and doesn't need much additional commentary.

(Source: http://www.whas11.com/news/local/Indiana-principal-cleared-of-abuse-accusations-because-state-allows-corporal-punishment-in-school-108816549.html)

I solved the deficit!

Well, folks, it just took me only 5 minutes to do what no Republican administration has done in decades.

The New York Times has a fun little puzzle on its website that lets you balance the federal budget! And I finished this puzz within minutes:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?hp

Using that puzzle, I quickly solved America's budget deficit. In fact, I raised over 80% more money than is needed to erase the deficit by 2015. And a majority of it wasn't even from tax increases! And most of the tax increases I did support were on corporations, not people.

In eliminating the deficit, I proposed NO national sales tax and NO increase in the Social Security age or Medicare age.

If fiscal conservatives are about having the government live within its means, I'd be the most conservative blogger around, judging by this puzzle. It's sort of like how conservatives claim to be for less government, yet they support expanding the War on Drugs, while I support ending this failed endeavor.

Kermit invents voting machine ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

I've profiled this segment before, but I think it might be necessary after every election.

In a 'Sesame Street' sketch from 1969, Kermit the Frog showed off his "what happens next" machine. It's a device on which every single thing goes wrong.

It seems to work about as well as voting machines these days do:



What happens next? How about repealing Citizens United?

Arizona lawmakers' death panels

Death panels? Republican legislators in Arizona have now created just that.

The GOP-led Arizona legislature has just decreed that almost 100 low-income patients who need organ transplants just to live (and who had already been approved for the transplants) now won't be getting them. Lawmakers slashed the money for these procedures from the state budget.

Clearly, legislators don't know what necessary means. These transplants were necessary. Without them, the patients die.

Arizona has money for bailouts of rich private schools, so I'm sure it can come up with money for organ transplants for the working poor. For lawmakers to say they couldn't come up with the money for the transplants is a filthy lie. A filthy lie from filthy legislators.

What about the rich who need transplants? They can already pay for theirs. The poor cannot. Arizona is deciding who lives just because of their economic class.

Arizona lawmakers need to be put on trial for crimes against humanity.

(Source: http://www.npr.org/2010/11/11/131215308/arizona-budget-cuts-put-organ-transplants-at-risk)

Public school expels lesbians

Oh, the stupid. It burns.

After this story, I don't care to hear another peep from right-wing commenters accusing me of bigotry after I call them out for their own bullshit prejudices. But this story is about not only bigotry but also cheap elitism.

At Del City High School - a public school in Del City, Oklahoma - a student was expelled because she is a lesbian.

No, I'm not making this up.

Her girlfriend had previously quit school but had tried to return. However, the school wouldn't allow her to come back, because of her sexual orientation. It turns out that the school also tried pressuring an earlier student into dropping out for the same reason.

The school district's defense? The school system issued a statement saying, "It is the policy of the Mid-Del Public School District not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age in its programs, services, and activities." They're using their antidiscrimination policy to defend discrimination? Seriously???

I heard a rumor about 15 years ago that a public school in my area expelled students if they got pregnant. If this was true, then I'm almost SURE it was the only public school in America with such a policy in my lifetime. Del City's expulsion of lesbians is sort of like that, and it's just as illegal.

The school's philosophy is that it thinks its own views should take priority over everybody else's - just because the school is so big and powerful and all. That's elitism.

(Source: http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=13489390)

Teabagger cops fired over infractions

Never hire Tea Party cultists for any occupation. (If you read this blog, you're probably not in charge of hiring and firing, but the point stands.) This story proves teabaggers can't even do their jobs right. They're worse than Grover of 'Sesame Street' at his waiter job.

Be content to just let teabaggers keep their jobs of being professional operatives who travel around the country to participate in stupid right-wing rallies.

In West Tawakoni, Texas, a police chief and sergeant who happen to be Tea Party activists are being fired because of a series of major infractions. The chief allegedly misused city vehicles, screamed at another city employee in front of other people, lied to federal agents during an investigation, and drove drunk. The sergeant was fired for - among other things - allegedly performing sloppy police work such as not properly keeping evidence.

Of course, local teabaggers are saying the cops were fired because of their Tea Party involvement. But that's a lie. Still, they've contacted every media outlet in their Rolodex, and the media has been happy to soothe their delusions. Now they're trying to have the mayor fired because he fired the chief and sergeant. I guess the Lipton Losers have never heard of elections.

The teagaggers have a revisionist narrative. They deliberately set themselves up for trouble so the media has a story to tell that makes them look like victims. It's a form of yellow journalism.

I for one am sick of sorryasses like these being in power, abusing the power they have, and crying about what "victims" they are when they get caught. They're like the bully in school who tattles when somebody fights back.

The irony here is that the Tea Party liars falsely claim the cops were fired because of their Tea Party involvement - even though people all over the country have been promoted precisely because of involvement in Tea Parties or other right-wing causes. America has a spoils system that rewards right-wing politics and blacklists dissidents from employment.

So shut your damn mouths, teagaggers.

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Let's Moon Mitch McConnell!"

Mitch McConnell. A weird one indeed.

How did Kentucky manage to elect this right-wing clod to the Senate - for 5 terms, no less?

I'll never forget the time McConnell sent me a letter purportedly replying to one I sent him about John Ashcroft's nomination. Problem with this was that I had never sent McConnell a letter, because I knew he doesn't give a shit. What do you think McConnell is? A senator?

This proves McConnell or some other Senate big shot was keeping a list of dissidents' addresses and mailed me by mistake. This wasn't much of a surprise to me, because I already knew what the Republican police state was all about, thanks to the teen confinement struggle and the bogus "trespassing" arrest. They're thugs through and through.

I know you've always wanted to moon ol' Mitch the Glitch. One hundred percent of people who have ever lived have had this lifelong aspiration.

Now 'Lawn Chair Quarterback' finally gives you this once-in-a-lifetime chance!



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

So drop your drawers and moon Mitch! Not Mitch Miller, not Mitch Malloy, but Mitch McConnell!

Corruptus in extremis

I've noticed something funny about American politics lately. Not ha-ha funny but weird funny.

The American public seems to have a much, much higher tolerance for corruption among public officials than they used to.

Seriously, the stuff politicians - particularly Republicans - get away with now would have done them in at the polls 25 years ago. Granted, the public has a lot less tolerance for Eliot Spitzer-style scandals - if the offender is not a Republican. But they have a lot more tolerance for actual political corruption and major lawbreaking.

Yes, the media has made corruption "cool."

There's general agreement that Bush was by far the most corrupt administration in American history. But where's the indictments? Even some of Reagan's officials had the boom lowered on them. But anybody connected with the Bush regime seems off-limits to prosecutors.

How is it that a war criminal who was forced out of the Army just got "elected" to Congress, and Congress actually seats him? How is it that a corporate crook just got "elected" governor of one of America's biggest states?

Serious lawbreaking by politicians is outrageous regardless of the offender's party. The Republicans are by far the worst offenders though, and are above media scrutiny. I think this weak coverage actually teaches voters to believe the culture of corruption isn't as bad as it really is.

Pelosi blasts Cat Food Commission

The Cat Food Commission has just come out with its long-feared recommendations. The basic thrust of these recommendations is this: The committee urges lawmakers to slash Social Security and completely defund public broadcasting in order to give big corporations a massive tax cut. I call it the "killing Big Bird for bailouts" plan.

But Nancy Pelosi has finally opted to grow a backbone.

A statement from Pelosi declares in part, "This proposal is simply unacceptable."

Finally! If Pelosi had showed this sort of uncompromising attitude back in 2007 - which is what the Democrats have a voter mandate to do - we'd all be in much better shape now. Maybe she's finally figuring out that you can't compromise with crazy.

A little too late, I know. But if the Democrats had this much gumption when dealing with Citizens United, Pelosi would still be Speaker for the next 2 years.

According to rumor, Congress was supposed to adopt the Cat Food Commission's recommendations regardless of what they are. Funny, I can't find the law that says this. Hopefully, the Democrats will stand firm by not adopting them.

Because if they do adopt them, the party might as well just go out of business.

GOP tries cutting nonexistent jobs program

The Republicans are so blinded by their own meanness and bad intentions that they don't even know which government programs still exist and which ones don't.

They attack welfare recipients for not finding jobs, but now they want to abolish a program that provided jobs for people on welfare. Problem is, this program doesn't exist anymore.

The Republican Study Committee - led by fascist Rep. Tom Price (R-Georgia) - is recommending abolishing a fund created by the 2009 stimulus package that financed hundreds of thousands jobs for welfare recipients. These jobs were immediately filled because America's poor were so desperate to fill them.

But this was only a temporary program. It has already expired, and so have the jobs it created.

In other words, the Republicans are fighting a program that doesn't even exist! GOP leaders are that delusional that they see programs that aren't really there.

What's next? Are they going to abolish AFDC again?

What's sad is that the Republicans are actually going to use cutting a nonexistent program as "proof" of their fiscal restraint.

(Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/09/republican-study-committe_n_781122.html)

When celebrities endorse child abuse

Where's the radio blacklist over this?

We all remember when the Dixie Chicks were blackballed by the scuzzy radio industry because they disagreed with Bush. But now Pink has endorsed child abuse, and I don't know of a single station that has dropped her because of it.

Pink recently declared in an interview, "I think parents need to beat the crap out of their kids."

Pink's words, not mine.

So child abuse is "cool" now according to the media?

Imagine if you can the media outcry that would have resulted if Pink had said, "I think kids who are harassed at school need to beat the crap out of the kids who harass them." That would likely be the end of her career. You'd see Jack Thompson (the disbarred Florida lawyer) picketing every station that dared to keep playing her.

I am absolutely astounded that Pink's endorsement of child abuse has buzzed under the radar with no criticism. But why should I be surprised? Child abuse has been normalized by the media and self-righteous right-wing activists. "Values voters" (the teabaggers of the 2000s) was often simply shorthand for beating kids. That movement gave cover to celebrities and anybody else to make outrageous proclamations like that of Pink and not be called out on it.

Instead of receiving the criticism she deserves, Pink instead joins Metallica on the list of recording artists who receive more positive media exposure following their idiotic statements or actions. In Metallica's case, however, it was because the band tried having the original version of Napster shut down.

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)