ALEC demands workplace drug testing

ALEC sure went to the wrong town for its convention, didn't they?

All because they happened to choose the one major city I could get to within a reasonable timeframe, I've been encouraged to familiarize myself with what ALEC does. And now the genie's out of the bottle, and it ain't going back in. ALEC coming to Cincinnati may very well be the undoing of the entire right-wing legislative agenda - because I don't let up.

Rotten luck for them, huh?

I happen to notice that one of the "model bills" on ALEC's agenda is what it calls its Workplace Drug Testing Act. ALEC's website doesn't provide the text of its bills to anybody except members - but I knew a bill with a name like that couldn't possibly be good if it comes from ALEC.

I was right. A different right-wing website has the bill's text:

http://www.heartland.org/custom/semod_policybot/pdf/6336.pdf

ALEC's "model legislation" would allow employers to drug-test any worker any time they want. It doesn't matter what the worker's job is, or how safety-sensitive their position is. Any employees could be tested - whether they're fast food cashiers, top executives, or anybody else.

Perhaps even worse, this bill would shield employers from litigation arising from drug testing policies. It even protects them from being sued for defamation if they blab the results of a worker's drug test everywhere.

Um. Why is ALEC claiming to be for smaller government if it backs bills like this? Simple. It's another example of right-wingers' ongoing habit of calling things the exact opposite of what they really are. ALEC is a shadow legislature for not just big government but GIGANTIC government.

I'd be willing to bet that ALEC is also behind the recent flurry of bills to require a drug test to get government aid. Supporters of these bills keep arguing that because people who have jobs get tested, why shouldn't those who are out of a job? (Never mind that it's already been ruled unconstitutional.) Well, whose fault is it that people get tested at work? It's ALEC's fault, judging by their workplace drug testing bill.

If only ALEC would support bills to weaken intrusive workplace drug testing instead of expanding it, the unemployed wouldn't be tested less than those with jobs. In other words, ALEC's allies are complaining about a matter that ALEC helped cause.

I'm sure you can fill an entire book with examples of ALEC's penchant for social and economic engineering. This entry is just a start.

Details of ALEC's embarrassment

Yesterday, as you know, the book-burners from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) came to Cincinnati for one of their secret gatherings. This prompted a protest against ALEC on Fountain Square - right across the corner from the swanky hotel where ALEC was being housed.

As ALEC hashed out authoritarian right-wing "model legislation" that is sure to be introduced in a statehouse near you, I participated in the rally against ALEC that drew roughly 300 people. I was amazed at the turnout we got, considering our event received almost no prior mention by The Media (even though The Media covers every detail of the Tea Parties).

We attracted precisely one - count 'em, one - counterprotester. A hapless oaf wrote right-wing slogans on cooler lids, mostly supporting Ohio's union-busting S.B. 5. He spent the next half-hour skipping rope with a stupid smirk on his face. People mostly just ignored his idiotic display, and he left early.

Also, an operative wearing an ALEC lanyard and a suit and tie bipped along and started arguing with an anti-ALEC protester.

The best part of our demonstration though was when we marched around the block where ALEC's hotel was. We made about 4 or 5 marches around this block, loudly chanting and beating a drum throughout. Unlike the Tea Parties, however, we obeyed pedestrian crosswalk signals and didn't block traffic.

As we held our march, the guy who argued with us on Fountain Square was now standing at the hotel entrance with other ALEC peeps. I had a sign that said "GO HOME, ALEC" - but if you looked very closely, the "ALEC" portion said "tALECban." I waved the sign at the ALEC operatives each time I passed them. They were close enough to read it in full too.

This sign highlighted some important points. Firstly, ALEC had the nerve to come to Cincinnati where their brand of politics is no longer welcome. (They think it's still 1990.) Secondly, ALEC is truly representative of the American Taliban, as they support gobs of social engineering bills that clutter America's statehouses.

Does ALEC get the message yet that the public doesn't want their stupid ideas? Granted, we don't know exactly what their "model bills" say, because they're so secretive that the text of these bills is available only to members. But I can tell what some of these bills are just by the names. I've become well-versed in the misleading names right-wingers give to their ideas, so ALEC would have to work mighty hard to fool me. (If I had to guess, I would say their so-called Methamphetamine Reduction Act is the bill that would require a prescription to buy cold medicine.)

Now that ALEC has become familiar to me, I'm going to be keeping a lynx-like eye on what it does, and I will welcome attempts locally to fight these legislative terrorists.

So get ready, folks.

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "The Humiliation Of ALEC"

The protest against the ALEC fascists took place today in Cincinnati, and I was there to enjoy it all! I'm talking about the American Legislative Exchange Clowncil - a secret society of far-right operatives that crafts right-wing legislation. Suffice it to say, ALEC walked right into this one, and now ALEC is probably regretting even showing their stupid faces.

I'll have more about it here later, but our latest 'LCQ' focuses on some of today's anti-ALEC doings:



I didn't do an 'LCQ' last week because I was in Georgia. That would have been the same day Fred Phelps's right-wing cult threatened to protest against a military funeral in my area (in my hometown, no less) - but I wasn't home to keep an eye on them. But the Westboro crew was too chickenshit to even show up.

Kentucky right-winger bolts GOP

Kentucky Democrats are cheering this story, but - as a registered Green - all this does for me is drive home the belief that the Democrats have become nearly a facsimile of the GOP.

Right-wing State Rep. Wade Hurt has announced that he's switching his affiliation from the Republicans to the Democrats. This grants the Democrats a 59 to 41 edge in the Kentucky House.

I guess Hurt - a longtime Louisville GOP activist - saw the writing on the wall, because Republicans aren't exactly becoming a popular cause in Kentucky. On the other hand, Hurt is so right-wing that why would the Democrats even want him? He's even listed among the cosponsors of the failed bill that would have required drug tests for not only welfare but also Social Security and veterans' benefits. I guess the Democrats allow stances like this because they're just as wussified as I suspected. The fact that the media calls Hurt a "moderate" proves that the press is teetering on the brink of exiting the fact-based world - and it again moves the center of debate rightward.

What's particularly outrageous is that Hurt won his seat when a judge barred the Democrats or any other party besides the Republicans from fielding a candidate. As in the Soviet Union, voters were told who to vote for, as Hurt was the only candidate. Now that he's switched parties, this makes it much harder for a progressive Democrat to win the primary and get elected to this seat. (Hurt's district is so heavily Democratic that the Democrats are almost sure to win when the GOP machine doesn't ban them from running a candidate.)

(Source: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20110422/NEWS0101/304220085/Jefferson-County-GOP-House-member-switching-Democrats)

Message for the Westboro cult

Stay the hell out of Highland Heights, will ya?

I knew my hometown would have to deal with Fred Phelps's cult sooner or later just like every other American city, and the Phelpsies are just damn lucky they're doing it at a time when I can't keep an eye on them.

NKU allows these losers on campus, but they pulled out all the stops to keep me away? I know America is supposed to have broad protections for free speech, but if the Topeka Taliban gets to enjoy these protections, why doesn't anybody else?

Obama fights adviser ban

For 15 years, the Democrats' modus operandi has been to cave to Republicans at a daily clip - when the Democrats aren't stinking up the joint on their own by being too right-wing. But in recent days, President Obama seems to have found an issue where he wants to be a winner.

Last Friday, Obama quite rightly announced he's going to ignore parts of the new spending package that would ban certain presidential advisory posts - advisers that the pop-up media so ignorantly refers to as "czars." Good for him. (Does the media even know what a czar was?)

Congressional Republicans had added language to the bill that would abolish advisers for health care, climate change, urban affairs, and manufacturing. But Obama stood up and said he's not complying with the ban. So tough toilets, Congress.

The 3 branches of government are supposed to be coequal. The legislative branch does not get to run roughshod over the White House's power to enforce the law - especially when legislators bargain in bad faith. Separation of powers means what it says.

Given the Constitution's framers' wariness about demagoguery, do you really think they'd give the legislative branch more power than any other branch? In aggregate, the legislative branch has seen more corruption since 1995 than each of the other 2 branches - and that's even with 8 years of Bush (perhaps the king of corruption) in the executive branch. Congress has one duty that's just as important as lawmaking: It has the duty to hold its tongue - and let the rest of our representatives do their jobs.

Congress has no business calling itself the sole arbiter of what's in the public interest.

(Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53342.html)

Census marketing fail

Despite deliberate undercounts of Democratic areas in the censuses of 1990 and 2000, Republicans of course cried that they were the real victims. According to them, they always are, no matter how much evidence to the contrary there is.

Even though right-wing manipulation of the census ran rampant in the last 2 censuses, operatives at the Census Bureau in 2010 were all ears for bogus right-wing complaints that the census undercounted Republican areas. So the Census Bureau launched a marketing campaign for conservatives only.

After a marketing survey showed that NASCAR's fan base was much more conservative than the general public, the 2010 census became a primary sponsor at several NASCAR races. Officials even had the census logo painted on a NASCAR car.

This also highlights a paradox that seems to define NASCAR. If NASCAR is as working-class as everybody thinks, why is it so right-wing? Among folks I know, the working class is the most vocally opposed to the Republicans' rule. (Hardly surprising, considering the GOP's ongoing war on workers.)

How effective was the Census Bureau's right-wing outreach? Not very, considering that Republican areas (with some exceptions) seem to be bleeding population now that the census results are being released. One wonders if the apportionment would be even less favorable to the GOP if the Census Bureau had put forth as much effort marketing the census to Democratic areas as it did to Republican areas.

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/28/AR2010022803364.html)

Benton Harbor occupation not new

In one of the most notorious attacks against democracy in America of late, right-wing Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan has appointed a "financial manager" to take over the operations of the city of Benton Harbor. This unelected manager promptly stripped Benton Harbor's elected city commission of its powers. Starting tomorrow, the only powers that the city's elected leaders will have will be to begin and adjourn meetings and approve the meeting's minutes. They will not be permitted to hold votes on anything.

This is nothing short of a coup d'etat, and Benton Harbor's citizenry and elected officials need to defy it.

Much of this coup was motivated by Republicans' desire to take Benton Harbor's beach and build an exclusive, private golf course on it - even though state statute and common law say beaches are public property.

But is this brand of martial law completely new in modern America? Perhaps you don't recall Bush's doctrine of "preemption" that imposed his will on states and cities. Is there much difference between what's going on now in Benton Harbor and what went on all over the country under Bush?

If more states had complied with Bush's Real ID, that wouldn't be any less martial law than the rogue occupation of Benton Harbor is.

(Source: http://www.wsjm.com/Benton-Harbor-EFM-Suspends-Voting-Powers-Of-City-C/9633751)

Not-so-smart ALEC

Looks like we've got another protest coming up!

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a secret society of right-wing lawmakers and other cretins. They coordinate fascist legislation in statehouses from coast to coast. I'll bet you anything they were behind the welfare drug testing and pseudoephedrine bills. In fact, they were behind Arizona's racist S.B. 1070. ALEC is like a shadow legislature that allows only right-wingers to serve.

The tax-exempt ALEC - which is backed by corporate giants - has also tried to repeal consumer protection and anti-pollution laws. In short, ALEC writes much of America's legislation these days - and they do it at secret gatherings.

ALEC-allied thugs have also tried to intimidate critics. When one historian investigated ALEC on his blog, the Wisconsin Republican Party tried harassing him with bogus FOIA requests.

Next week, ALEC is conducting what it calls its Spring Task Force Summit. Guess what city it's going to be held in? Why, they're coming to the city that now seems to be America's convention leader: Cincinnati, of course.

Welp, they really stepped in it, didn't they?

According to ALEC's stupid website, their summit is going to be on April 28-29 (Thursday and Friday) at Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza. It's going to include lawmakers from all over the country - traveling at taxpayer expense. And folks are already planning a protest against the little dictators who comprise ALEC:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/07/964328/-Slave-LaborALECJoin-us-in-Cincy-April-28-30th-for-a-protest-and-Workshops

More info:

http://seeyouincincinnati.com/

The protest against ALEC is scheduled for noon on April 29 (Friday) on Fountain Square - rain, snow, or shine! Health permitting, I hope to be there!

Budget deal restores private school bailout

Private school vouchers have long been championed by the extreme right, because (like the welfare drug testing bills) they embody the worst of social and economic engineering. But whenever vouchers are the subject of a referendum in any state or city, they're always soundly rejected by voters.

The public doesn't like this program, OK? Understand? This program drains money from public schools, and it attempts to build a rightist nation on the backs of disadvantaged children.

In fact, it's a taxpayer-funded bailout of private schools that quite frankly aren't hurting for money. Hate to sound brash, because I'm such a nice and swell guy - but the truth has to be told.

About a decade ago, a right-wing Congress imposed a voucher program on the District of Columbia. This program was unpopular among D.C. residents, it helped ruin the city's public schools, and it failed to improve students' academic performance. The Obama administration and city officials later ended this boondoggle.

But the new budget "compromise" restores D.C. vouchers. Congressional Republicans DEMANDED vouchers' restoration - and Obama complied, because that's what Democrats these days do. They comply with every GOP order no matter how outrageous or irrational.

For the budget deal to cut spending is one thing. Lots of folks are already angry about what was cut. But restoring vouchers only spends more money. It doesn't cut the budget at all.

How can you have a deal to cut the budget, when it actually increases spending on a failed, unpopular program? That's not what I call thrift. In short, the Republicans held the entire country hostage just so they could reinstate vouchers.

Nobody is angrier about this than D.C. residents. It's not just that their public schools are being ignored, but also that they had no voice in the decision. Republicans in Congress are imposing a social and economic agenda on the city - while the city is the only place in America except outlying territories that is denied a voting member in Congress. Taxation without representation? Nobody knows more about that than the District's citizenry.

The GOP has turned the city and its children into a laboratory for social experimentation. I live in an inner city, so I find it to be condescending and an attack on me as well as on D.C. Our children were not put on this planet to be pawns of political extremists.

D.C. statehood. An idea whose time has come.

(Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53322.html)

A nice man gave me free firewood

Yesterday - as I was keeping an eye on the Tea Party losers - I damn near choked on some big league right-wing chew!

I'd just arrived across the street from the teagaggers when I was confronted by one of the rally's 20 or so useless participants. Turned out he was Bill Johnson, a Republican candidate for Kentucky Secretary of State (an office that recently flipped from Republican to Democratic by will of the people).

And he must be the most ridiculous politician in the world. He actually asked for my vote - when everybody ought to know by now there's not a chance in hell I'll vote for him.

If Johnson had stayed around me any longer than 30 seconds or so, he would have had heard quite an earful. I was about ready to tell him that his whole party stinks.

Meanwhile, he gave me one of his slick campaign pamphlets, which does nothing but underscore his extremism. As Johnson brags in his campaign literature about being a "Reagan Republican", he also touts his support for requiring voters to display a photo ID when they vote. This makes Johnson look like a fool on several fronts. For starts, I've been voting for 20 years, and I've been carded every time, so it's not like he's advocating anything new. For another, he's fighting a fabricated crisis just to win votes.

It's a dog whistle to energize the fascist base. In the past few years, the media has generated much noise about alleged voter fraud that they claim hurts the Republicans - while real election fraud that benefits the GOP is ignored. Anybody who believes this appeal is an idiot, a meth-head, and a racist. It's kind of like when the elder Bush attacked Michael Dukakis for his ACLU support. That attack appealed to people who didn't even have the capacity to vote responsibly.

Long story short: Bill Johnson is a demagogue who lacks ideas.

His campaign pamphlet will make a nice addition to my firewood stash, compost heap, or toilet paper stockpile.

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Death By A Thousand Yawns"

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to spend the next 10 minutes of your life boring you to tears.

I actually expected the fascist Tea Party today to be a pretty big event. Not huge by any means. But I expected it to be about on par with the one a year ago (when they got heckled during their march around the IRS building).

If I knew the turnout would be just 20 whiners in Colonial-era hats instead of the usual 50, I would have stayed home and worked. I like work, and I'm a busy guy. But keeping an eye on morons like those who make up the Tea Party movement is really part of my job, so I'm not crying (unlike the teabaggers who cry because they have to pay taxes like everybody else).

A boring, lifeless Tea Party produces a drought of material for our latest 'LCQ'. I expected to have loads of material by the end of the event, but instead I had to puff out this episode a bit. In this installment, I'm bicycling home from the Tea Party and talking about what little there was to talk about:

Fascists & fascists & fascists & less fascists

Today was the huge, colossal, gigantic Tea Party rally in Covington, Kentucky.

Yes, the one that drew all of about 20 people.

Seriously. This Tea Party was so wimpy that the entire thing fit under one picnic shelter. Some of our protests against Pathway Family Center drew at least as many people, if not more - despite not being publicized beforehand. But I was standing across the street (along with several counterprotesters) to keep an eye on the Tea Party crybabies, and I saw it all!

Oh, and the title of this entry? It's from that makeshift grave marker the Tea Partiers set up that said "TAXES & TAXES & TAXES & MORE TAXES." Yes, the one that fell over soon after the rally began. I don't know if they set it back up, because this event was so pathetic that I just went home halfway through it.

Long story short: You could hardly hear a word the speakers at this event said. I guess their sound system didn't need to be that loud to reach 20 people. One of few things they said that I could actually hear was when they said we supported gun control. That's a lie. We don't support it.

I also caught bits and pieces of the later harangue in which a speaker tried to claim (falsely) that the Constitution was based on conservative Christianity.

In other words, the usual lies meet a shrinking audience.

Soap operas replaced with nonsense

I'm not a big soap opera fan, but come on!

If a network is going to cancel 2 long-running and highly rated daytime dramas, they should at least replace them with something else that might be at least watchable. But in today's climate of corporate media, that's too much to ask, I guess.

I was shocked today to discover that ABC is canceling 'All My Children' and 'One Life To Live'. The cancellation of the former is particularly shocking, for I'm actually somewhat familiar with 'All My Children' because my mom has watched it regularly for 40 years.

The real outrage is what ABC is replacing these 2 soaps with. One of ABC's 2 new shows is about "health and lifestyle transformations", and each week will deal with one woman's 5-month weight loss regimen.

Really??? Like there aren't enough shows like that already???

Is ABC just completely out of its fucking mind? (Yes.)

One thing is for absolute certain: The new shows aren't going to get the ratings 'All My Children' has. That's an outright guarantee. You can't replace the entertainment of a long-running soap with a facsimile of the zillion weight-loss shows that already fill the airwaves.

I bet ABC gets gobs of hate mail about this! Viewers have already announced their intent to boycott ABC entirely. One apologist for ABC said the only people who are upset are middle-aged women. But I'm a man, and I think ABC's decision is plumb stupid.

It never ceases to amaze me how people in charge of TV and radio outlets make such idiotic decisions yet keep their jobs. It's like having Waiter Grover in charge. Meanwhile, nobody else has been able to find a damn job for 10 years.

(Source: http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/14/all-my-children-one-life-to-live-canceled)

Have no fear, ish #461 is here!

"An ish. An ish. An ish, an ish, an ish, an ish, an ish..." (To the tune of the 'Pink Panther' theme.)

Issue #461 of The Last Word is out, and - like most other editions - it's just the Bee Gees' knees!

Our latest installment includes these insightful articles:

• A summary of recent right-wing defeats in the Kentucky legislature.

• A satirical account of clogging Rand Paul's toilet.

• What "school choice" really ought to mean.

• The rise and fall of MTV - and busybodies' attempts to censor it.

• The amazing TV set that broke after only a year.

• The man who reads while driving.

So peep, weep, and oggle-beep:

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw110413

War on workers continues in Wisconsin

The spirit of Hitler continues to loom large among Wisconsin lawmakers.

Now legislators have passed a right-wing bill that would override sensible local ordinances that require employers to provide family and medical leave. Gov. Scott Walker - scumbag that he is - intends to sign the bill.

This bill threatens to nullify laws like Milwaukee's family leave ordinance that was approved in a referendum by 69% of voters.

If I was Milwaukee, I'd tell Scott Walker to go eat a dick. I'd enforce the family leave ordinance regardless of what fascist state laws say, and if Walker wants to start a civil war over it, let him.

Why do you hate working people, Scott?

(Source: http://wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=233117)

Shutdown averted? Don't be fooled

With the government shutdown staved off, all is well in America from tonight until the end of time, right?

Think again.

This deal only delays the possibility of a shutdown for another week. Once again, the Democrats brang a Nerf gun to the cannon fight the Republicans started. They compromised when they shouldn't have. Any time you compromise with a party that acts in bad faith, you lose. Period. I know from experience.

And while you lose, the other side walks away laughing to themselves.

Here's what I think happened: I believe the Republicans are going to delay the shutdown until they can make sure it overlaps over the beginning of a month. If you've been reading this blog, I don't even need to tell you why: It's so people who get Social Security, disability insurance, or public assistance don't get their check.

The GOP really is mean enough to do something like that. The Republicans are the folks who bullied you in school when you were growing up.

And they get away with it, because people don't fight back - except in Madison, Wisconsin, and on the pages of this blog. If I was a Democratic leader in Congress, I would have had the other side caked in humiliation within a month after this session started.

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Kentucky Chainsaw Massacre"

People making noise with power tools and pile drivers 24/7 is good because it is.

A chicken crowing once a day is bad because it is.

That's the Bizarro World we've been subjected to.

In my neighborhood, we've been forced to tolerate noise pollution from out-of-town construction firms for years. But one local suburb throws a fit because a resident raises chickens.

Folks have been raising chickens in Fort Thomas since before it even became residential. If you don't want to hear chickens, don't move there. Stop complaining. We get woken up by power tools at 5 AM, so don't gripe about a chicken.

Our latest 'LCQ' deals with this hypocrisy...

The city that crushed corporate personhood

In a voter referendum on Tuesday, one city became the first in America to endorse amending the U.S. Constitution to abolish the fascist idea of corporate personhood.

Can you guess what city?

I am course speaking of (drum roll, please) Madison, Wisconsin - America's looming progressive giant. This referendum was approved by a smashing 84% of voters.

A similar countywide referendum in Madison's Dane County was approved by 78%.

In approving these measures, Madison and Dane County join Vermont, where the legislature has already approved such an amendment.

Waukesha County caught committing election fraud

Don't expect the media to be on this one - regardless of how blatant it is.

Waukesha County may have single-handedly reversed the results of Tuesday's Wisconsin Supreme Court election between right-wing incumbent David Prosser Jr. and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg.

Let's get this straight: Kloppenburg won. That's clear. But will it stick? Welp, corrupt Waukesha County - the state's right-wing giant - has just "found" thousands of votes for Prosser, enough to tip the election. These votes just magically appeared out of nowhere! Amazing!

This confirms what many folks were saying all of Tuesday night: Watch for Waukesha County to "find" a bunch of Prosser votes at the last minute. Seems like every state has one county that pulls crap like this in every election - always to the GOP's advantage.

Even more fishy is the fact that the county refused to explain the sudden change.

I'm going to say it clearly: This is election fraud. The county was caught almost red-handed, and every observer outside of the right-wing fringe knows it, and they said it even before I did.

It still might not be enough to make a difference in the end though, because of high absentee turnout in Madison. But that shouldn't matter in the investigation phase. Officials in Waukesha County who perpetrated the obvious fraud need to be hauled in to face some very tough questions. If the President needs to send in the Army to enforce the law, then that's what he needs to do.

With the quality of Wisconsin media and government of late, I don't expect that to happen. Do you?

If the protests in Madison are still going on, they need to continue them at least until Prosser is officially ousted. And if it's necessary, I'll go there to participate in the protests myself.

One final note: The county clerk in Waukesha County who "found" the votes was once caught doing the exact same thing in a previous election. Oops.

(Source: http://elections.wispolitics.com/2011/04/waukesha-county-canvass-nets-prosser.html)

New Mexico bans paddling in schools

After a hard freeze of 30 years of right-wing policy initiatives, here's a sign of a turning tide.

A new state has finally joined the 30 or so that have outlawed beating kids in public schools. Precious little progress has been made on this front since the '80s, but today, New Mexico finally broke the logjam by putting away the paddle.

Pay attention, Kentucky!

Pay attention, Indiana!

Pay attention, Congress!

What's really surprising is that in New Mexico it's actually a Republican governor who signed the paddling ban into law (even though most Republicans in the legislature oppose the ban). This is about as unexpected as when Kentucky rejected the pseudoephedrine bill.

I guess now even some Republicans realize they can't win by supporting hitting schoolchildren.

Hopefully the next step will be a federal ban on paddling in schools.

(Source: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Martinez-signs-corporal-punishment-ban-in-schools-1325293.php)

Right-wing Wisconsin Justice loses reelection

We've got a major upset in Wisconsin to talk about, peeps.

The votes for yesterday's election for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice are finally in, and now challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg has been declared the winner against ill-tempered right-wing incumbent David Prosser Jr.

Right-wingers gained a majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court several years ago in a controversial election flooded by out-of-state corporate dough. Now - assuming Kloppenburg lives up to voters' expectations - they've lost their majority.

By some measures, the extreme right just lost an election they never should have lost. The media and corporate donors were full throttle for Prosser, and when the campaign began, nobody expected him to suffer such an embarrassing beatdown.

Next step needs to be for Wisconsin - and the other states - to crack down on corporate control of elections.

Death by a thousand laughs

They're baaack!

It's been a year since the last Tea Party rally in the immediate area. But I knew these dumb losers would be back to bore us again - even after the industrial-strength humiliation that was visited upon them last time. They're incapable of shutting up for very long.

Their next fascist rally within easy access of here will be on Friday, April 15, from 3 to 6 PM at Goebel Park in Covington, Kentucky. I know this because the Cincinnati Enquirer is hyping it as usual.

And this event has a title that typifies their penchant for drama. "Death By A Thousand Taxes", they're calling it. Because it's on tax day, you see.

Aw, the poor babies have to pay taxes like everybody else. It's ironic though that they'd complain about taxes, because a speaker at one of their Cincinnati rallies in 2009 advocated a 23% national sales tax. So they're not just drama monarchs, but also liars when they claim to be for lower taxes.

The upcoming event will feature at least 2 Kenton County elected officials. Nice to know they're out attending political rallies on county time.

I'd like to be able to keep an eye on this rally like I have for the teabaggers' other local whine-a-thons, but I don't know if they're even still worth the trouble. Their last one consisted of maybe 50 people hauled in from out of town (I even saw their tour bus) marching around the IRS building, blocking 4th Street, and getting heckled. (That was the same event where they handed out flyers that said "Sterilize Welfare Mothers.") On the other hand, the teagaggers need to learn they're not welcome around here, and maybe it'll start sinking in if I heckle them again. Even on the Enquirer's website, the comment section has become rife with readers laughing at these morons.

So, in summary, I haven't finalized my plans for the upcoming performance by that comedy troupe known as the Tea Party movement. I may ignore them, or I may challenge them. Last year, one of the speakers threatened arrest for anybody who protested against them, but this threat seemed to be empty. One thing is for sure: If I'm arrested, a lawsuit will result. The teabaggers have been warned.

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Tim Goes Conservative?"

Sometimes, ya gotta have courage to turn your life around!

Courageous? That's me!

What's this about? Our latest 'LCQ' explains: