GOP operative sentenced for throwing ballots in lagoon

I guess The Media is right when it insists the Republicans don't rig elections. Except of course when they do.

In last November's elections, a poll worker in San Francisco was caught illegally carrying away ballots, voter lists, and memory cards from the polling place. About 75 ballots were then found in a lagoon.

Turned out the guy was a big Republican. (Shocker!)

Now he's been sentenced to a year in jail and 3 years of probation. However, he was given credit for time served, so he was released from jail the same day he got the sentence. Why he was released, I'll never know, considering it hasn't even been a year since the ballots were stolen and stowed in the lagoon.

With the light sentence he got, something tells me the Republicans are going to be encouraged to keep at it.

(Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/24/BAPM1KRJS6.DTL)

Wal-Mart makes up its own laws

A hallmark of fascism is that it melds government with Big Business. And a Wal-Mart in Cleveland, Tennessee, fits the bill snugly.

According to a letter to a Chattanooga newspaper, the Cleveland Wal-Mart won't sell over-the-counter sinus medicine unless the person who needs it is there at the store. In other words, they won't sell it to the parents of sick kids. Wal-Mart's excuse is that it's the law.

No it is not the law. Tennessee law says no such thing (despite Republican efforts to change it). Wal-Mart is carrying out its own self-serving War on Drugs that's as much of a failure as the government's drug war is. What's particularly aggravating is that Wal-Mart's policy encourages people to spread viruses at the store instead of having somebody else pick up their medicine for them. I wonder if this is a deliberate plot to actually sell more medicine.

There's few things worse than a major corporation (especially one with Wal-Mart's record) anointing itself as the arbiter of what's allowed and what isn't. A big corporation is as big as any country but can't be voted out of office.

(Source: http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_207942.asp)

GOP candidate steals refrigerator

Here's more of the newses that the Cincinnati Enquirer seems to loses...

Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer - now the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor - seems to have a strange fixation on refrigerators. Farmer used a state-issued credit card - which takes money from a state account (i.e., the taxpayers) - to buy 2 refrigerators. He improperly used one of the refrigerators for his own house. (He finally removed it from his home during a messy divorce battle with his wife.) He somehow lost the other refrigerator. A spokesman for Kentucky's Department of Agriculture said of the second fridge, "I haven't found it yet."

So - at minimum - Farmer stole a refrigerator using taxpayer funds. When a public official uses a taxpayer account to buy items for personal use, I call it stealing. I have a serious problem when public servants pilfer from the taxpayers in such a manner.

And what about the second fridge, which he lost? When I buy something the size of a refrigerator, it's mighty hard to simply lose it. The refrigerator didn't just grow legs and walk away - though I wouldn't blame it if it did, because being around Republicans grows tiresome.

The disappearance of this refrigerator remains a mystery. But the bigger mystery is why the Republicans still have any support at all.

(Source: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20110826/NEWS01/308260097/Richie-Farmer-kept-state-purchased-refrigerator-home-office-spokesman-says)

Checkbook clergy's day is past

There's a study that just came out showing that working-class Americans have been abandoning religious services at a much faster rate than the financial elite.

There's been some speculation about why, but my theory is this: All too often, people get nothing but total bullshit when they go to church.

I hate to say it, but it's absolutely true. Granted, not every house of worship dishes out vile nonsense to beleaguered congregants, but there's quite a few that do. There's a lot of checkbook clergy out there who preach the divine right of kings each week and tell folks they're going to hell if they don't accept their lot and don't vote Republican. So how do you expect people to react?

Personally, I've noticed that the more a person brags of their own piety, the more likely they are to bash the poor and working class. Sad but true.

Why should we or anybody else who isn't rich be subjected to this each week? Nobody wants to be told from the pulpit - or by fellow congregants - that there's something wrong with them because they don't have money. But that's what's being preached by some of today's clergy. Worse, these checkbook clergy feel entitled to have their views shape public policy.

I for one am in no mood to hear about how I supposedly caused my own misfortunes - at church or anywhere else. If I want to hear it, all I need to do is listen to AM radio.

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Repressed Antifreeze Syndrome"

No decade had as many scary TV commercials as the 1970s!

That's what made the '70s so cool. I was brung up in the '70s, and getting to enjoy so many frightening ads on TV is part of what made me the man I am today. These days, we're raising a generation of wusses by not exposing them to spooky ads.

It's no wonder kids these days don't fight back against school uniforms. The Media has them trained to be obedient little wimps. Ads today try selling people stuff instead of scaring them.

Our latest 'LCQ' talks about all those scary '70s commershes - building up to what may have been the most terrifying of all...

Post office closures target poor areas

Surprise, surprise!

The wave of post office closures lately is neither necessary nor evenly distributed. I just found an insightful article on Daily Kos laying forth how it really works:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/25/1010538/-Theft-in-Progress:-Your-Post-Office!?via=spotlight

This confirms what I've said all along: Post offices are closing not because of necessity but because of right-wing mismanagement. The Postal Service would be able to afford to provide the same level of service as 30 years ago if it didn't give a discount to junk mail. Furthermore, it also confirms my suspicion that post office closures were deliberately targeted at the poorest communities.

And what about the mysterious disappearance of public mailboxes? You know, the blue ones. Many Americans (including me) no longer have home pick-up of mail, so the public boxes are sorely needed. By eliminating boxes and home pick-up, the Postal Service is committing an open-and-shut violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Right now, I have to travel literally across town just to send a letter - now that the closest boxes have vanished.

The Daily Kos entry says it best: "The Postal Service needs to quit picking on powerless small towns and inner city neighborhoods while subsidizing mass mailers with overly discounted rates." I've said it for years.

Romney whimpers and cries

Republican presidential also-ran Mitt Romney is a big baby. This story proves he's as much of a man of the people as your average Tea Party cultist is.

Romney - who owns 3 homes - is now complaining that his $12,000,000 beachfront mansion in California "is inadequate." So he's having it bulldozed and replaced with one 4 times the size.

Poor thing.

I'd love to see what the reaction would be if Mitt Romney visited downtown Newport, Kentucky, with a bullhorn and declared the size of his living quarters to be "inadequate." How much sympathy do you think he'd get?

I'm completely dumbfounded by Obama not absolutely cleaning Romney's clock in the polls.

(Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/52436703-68/romney-campaign-official-inadequate.html.csp)

Congress wants to spend billions to kick people off disability

The spirit of Hitler comes to life in Congress, as they step up their war against the disabled - including veterans.

The congressional thought police keeps gabbing about how they don't have the money to fund Social Security - but now all of a sudden they can come up with the dough to kick people off.

Congressional number crunchers estimate that Social Security's disability trust fund - which finances SSI and SSDI - will go broke around 2017. This wouldn't have happened if the Bush regime hadn't looted it to pay for the illegal Iraq War - but nobody's paying attention to that part of the story. In response to this warning, Republicans in Congress now want $4,000,000,000 for a program to kick people off disability. This expense was authorized by the Tea Party-backed debt ceiling law.

Now you know what became of the brats you remember from school who slapped special ed kids around. They're in Congress now. It's obvious this isn't about cutting the budget, because it'll cost more than it'll save. It's about sheer, unchecked nastiness.

They need to expand disability payments, not slash them. If Congress has $4,000,000,000 just sitting around, why not? Fact is, it's already virtually impossible to qualify for SSI or SSDI - because a right-wing Congress already tightened eligibility requirements in the mid-'90s.

This issue wouldn't be as urgent if the right to a job was respected. Some disability recipients would be able to find gainful employment if their field of work still existed in the American economy - instead of being eliminated by market-driven greed. America's economic gatekeepers have long been full of excuses, key among them being that some fields of work aren't supportable by the market economy. I don't give a damn what the market economy supports. For society to be truly free, all fields must be supported.

When the workforce's right to a job is not respected, Republicans have no right complaining if folks end up collecting disability or even welfare. Not every person with PTSD is able to work in an enclosed, poorly ventilated space 9 hours a day. If you're not familiar with this condition, all you need to do is visit a search engine to learn that such a job can be life-threatening to PTSD victims.

Congressional Republicans and the Tea Parties don't understand work because they've never had to do any work like we have.

Did you think I was just joking when I said the Tea Party's debt ceiling bill would result in Social Security being cut off? That entry isn't so funny now, is it?

Be prepared.

(Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/nation/social-security-disability-on-verge-of-insolvency-1769240.html)

City may give corporations the "right" to vote

Well, folks, the unthinkable is finally about to happen.

The city of Aurora, Colorado, is courting a new hotel complex to be built by Gaylord Entertainment. And - in addition to giving Gaylord a $300,000,000 taxpayer-funded bailout - the city also plans to give the company the "right" to vote.

No, I'm not making this up. A city plans to allow a corporation to vote.

Wow. Just wow.

At least the Libertarian Party of Colorado criticized this proposal as "fascism." The Libertarians haven't sunk to the Republicans' depths quite yet.

Voting "rights" for corporations. That's where we're at now. In fact, corporations are being given more rights than people to vote. For instance, the Republican candidate for Kentucky Secretary of State is busy filing complaints against officials who allow the homeless to vote. And look at all these new voter ID laws. Obviously, those aren't being applied to corporations, because what corporation carries an ID?

Do people realize yet what a bunch of fucking nutcases are behind this? What? They do?

(Source: http://movetoamend.org/node/3172)

Snack Break

+ Just saw this headline on the local paper's website: "Ohio jobless rate rises, Ky.'s falls." Gee, I wonder why one state is recovering from the recession, while a neighboring state remains in the economic cellar? Ponder, ponder. But don't worry: Give The Media a few more weeks, and they'll spin Ohio's failure to recover as the "Ohio Miracle."

+ Have you heard Rick Perry is now the Republican frontrunner?

+ Hard to believe Arizona passed a law in 2009 that disobeys Roe v. Wade, but it did. Now Planned Parenthood has been forced to end services at several locations because of this legislation. If the Tea Parties are for smaller government, why aren't they protesting this law?

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Records Are Cool"

Do you miss that rich, warm sound of vinyl? I do!

When you listen to a record, you're hearing the real deal. Major music releases in my day were meant to be heard on records - not CD's. CD's are mere granules of data that were taken apart and put back together again for the finished product.

Sure, CD's have some advantages, but I'm a record guy. It annoys me when people say a singer or band has put out a new CD. They should call it an album, not a CD. This was particularly irritating when DJ's did this in the days when everybody still buyed records. Now, I used to listen to Shadoe Stevens faithfully, but I cringed when I heard him doing that.

Newer music though was produced for CD's. Certainly, I don't expect to buy vinyl for newer releases. Sort of like how I don't expect the Republicans these days to field decent candidates.

Our latest 'LCQ' deals with the phenomenon of the gramophone record...

DLCer propaganda called out

Republican, Democrat, Green, Libertarian, or Communist, this blog will call you out if you're caught blatantly lying. In fact, we're softer on Republicans, because nobody gives a shit what they think anyway.

Subordinates of the Democratic Leadership Council - the Tea Party wing of the Democratic Party - are fair game to be called out. That includes Rick Davis, Democratic nominee for mayor of Evansville, Indiana. Davis, the current Vanderburgh County Treasurer, said he wants to make over-the-counter allergy drugs available by prescription only. He says a similar right-wing law in Oregon has reduced meth labs by 95%.

That's not true. I suspect he knows this.

In fact, meth-related deaths in Oregon increased 22% after the law was passed. That is a fact.

Even if that wasn't the case, all the law does is punish honest people. If the drug warriors are too incompetent to reduce the scourge of meth in our communities without punishing the innocent by making them wait days and spend tens of extra dollars for treatment, that's tough. In a free society, we do not put innocent lives at risk just because the government has become too fucking stupid to solve a problem that was virtually nonexistent 20 years ago.

Rick Davis and the rest of the DLC need to just admit they're really Republicans. Quit playing games and get it over with. I for one would not vote for Davis any more than I would have voted for California's Janice Hahn following her school uniform endorsement.

And the Democratic Party needs to grow a spine and establish a stiff litmus test: If you support right-wing extremist ideas like Davis and Hahn do, you can't run as a Democrat. Simple as that. Unfortunately, the lie about tougher laws against Sudafed reducing meth labs has become a pervasive propaganda item among the DLC as well as the Republicans. And that's exactly what it is: propaganda.

Are we going to have to literally fight a war for civil liberties?

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "The Tim Tent"

It's new! It's blue! But it ain't bubble gum!

It's a spanking-new camping tent! I buyed this tent in case of further economic collapse, which is likely to result in homelessness and other hardship. I'm gonna take this tent on a little camping trip so I can practice for it.

Our latest 'LCQ' gabs about my new tent. It also attempts to solve the mystery of who shit in the tent that I had as a child...

Romney: "Corporations are people, my friend"

"Corporations are people, my friend."

I didn't say that. Mitt Romney did. That's a verbatim quote. And he was being serious.

Mitt Romney said corporations are people. Let that sink in for a moment so you can get over the shock of anybody saying something so positively idiotic.

This all went down at a campaign stop at the Iowa State Fair today. When an audience member declared that taxes should be raised on corporations, an arrogant, smirking Romney replied, "Corporations are people, my friend."

When challenged on this, he said, "Of course they are." Then the audience just EXPLODED in laughter!

Corporations don't create jobs. Customers do. That's because customers are sort of peopleish, ya know.

But Mitt Romney says, "Corporations are people." He really said that. "Corporations are people." That's Romney's America.

Taliban Dan distributes enemies list to media

Fascist Rep. Taliban Dan Webster (R-Florida) is now involved in state-sponsored intimidation of private individuals.

He's created a "citizen watch list" that he's distributed to other members of Congress and The Media. The folks profiled in Taliban Dan's scurrilous document had all spoken out against him at town hall meetings.

This enemies list was distributed to people who attended a town hall held by right-wing Rep. Tim Griffin (R-Arkansas). Griffin staffers called it "homework" - apparently for Griffin's followers to hunt down the people listed. Taliban Dan's enemies list also instructs The Media to interrogate the listed individuals about all their activities short of how many times they pee and poop each day.

That Taliban Dan trusts The Media with this packet is also ironclad proof that The Media has been in collusion with right-wingers. Oops.

(Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dawn-teo/watch-list-of-citizen-act_b_923476.html)

Judge gets 28 years for accepting bribes from teen lockup

Remember when 2 judges in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, took kickbacks from an abusive privately owned juvenile detention facility? They accepted millions of dollars in bribes to send children there. At least one of the young people sent there was beaten by other detainees.

Knowing what I knew about abusive teen confinement facilities owning judges, I wasn't in the least bit surprised by the scandal. The guards at places like this like to boast about how many judges the places own.

Now one of the judges in this scandal, Mark Ciavarella Jr., has been sentenced to 28 years in the federal hoosegow for racketeering for accepting these payoffs. If he serves his whole sentence, he won't be free until he's 89. He deserves every bit of the punishment he's getting.

Ciavarella's victims who were in the courtroom during the sentencing cheered when the sentence was handed down. Like a true sociopath, Ciavarella continues to deny responsibility for his actions.

The other judge in this scandal, Michael Conahan, still awaits his own sentencing.

(Source: http://www.salon.com/wires/us/2011/08/11/D9P1U9KO0_us_courthouse_kickbacks)

Book burner David Rivera

Here's another little Hitler who needs to be expelled from Congress.

Rep. David Rivera (R-Florida) - who once ran a mail truck off the road because it contained an opponent's campaign flyers (which detailed domestic violence allegations against Rivera) - wants the government to shut down a concert solely because it features a Cuban musician.

Rivera has teamed up with a small group of right-wing Cuban emigres in asking Miami-Dade County to cancel a concert by Cuban singer Pablo Milanes.

This censorship attempt echoes a similar effort in 1999 by right-wing Miami area officials to cancel a concert by the Cuban band Los Van Van. When the show went on as planned, right-wing thugs threw batteries and bags of shit at concertgoers. This despite the fact that Los Van Van's lyrics had no political content whatsoever.

I'm all for cities, counties, and states having selective purchasing policies regarding what products governments can buy. But these policies are never supposed to be used to censor art just because the artist happens to be from a targeted country.

It gets sillier. Back in 2000, Miami-Dade County tried to shut down a festival because it featured a movie by Cuban filmmakers. They tried canceling it even though the film was critical of Castro's government. That same year, county officials refused to allow the Latin Grammy Awards to be held there, because they were afraid Cuban musicians would perform. They also nixed the 2007 Pan American Games for fear it would include Cuban sportspeople.

Miami area efforts to stifle art are perhaps the most virulent campaign of government censorship to be practiced in America in recent years. David Rivera has become the personification of this campaign. Like so many other members of Congress, he cares not one iota about the Constitution or free speech. Rivera is downright hostile to it.

(Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/09/2351889/us-rep-rivera-exile-groups-protest.html)

Waukesha County at it again

Hey, did you hear? Waukesha County, Wisconsin, has crooked "elections"! Betcha didn't know that!

There was a series of recall elections for the Wisconsin Senate yesterday. It didn't take very long before I knew exactly what was going to happen, especially after the Wisconsin Supreme Court "election" when Waukesha County - with Kan't Kount Kathy at the helm - sat on votes until the last minute. Last night, when I saw that the Republicans were within one seat of losing the Senate, and that Waukesha County still had almost all its precincts still to report, the rest of the story pretty much wrote itself.

The point here isn't that the Republicans lost 2 seats yesterday despite Waukesha County's fraud. Fact is, the GOP sore losers wouldn't still have so many if they hadn't rigged elections before. On the other hand, the Republicans wouldn't have lost 2 seats yesterday if it wasn't for the ongoing rallies in Madison. What does this prove? It shows the Madison protests need to be expanded. They work. Slowly but surely, they do. The protests shouldn't stop at least until the Republicans lose the state legislature. The Madison rallies have accomplished more than any recent election.

What's improved since the bad old days of 10 or 20 years ago, before the media gatekeepers were challenged by the new generation of political websites and Internet forums? Nowadays, everybody knows the Republicans are committing fraud. The gatekeepers can't monopolize the flow of information like they used to, so the facts come out right quick. As a result, at least 2 Democratic officials in Wisconsin have already accused Waukesha County of vote tampering, and an investigation has reportedly begun. (In Kentucky though, the Democrats would just kiss up to the Republicans if a fraud like this happened.)

This is how deficits happen

If we want to help eliminate the federal budget deficit and make a liberal down payment against the national debt, we can start by ending the failed War on Drugs - which has made criminals of even the most sober Americans and has propped up violent drug gangs.

And it's cost the taxpayers dearly. The wasteful practices of the town of Eaton, Ohio, could be a microcosm for what goes on nationally.

Recently, Eaton police spent taxpayer dough producing and posting wanted posters at pharmacies of people who allegedly purchased too much allergy drugs. Keep in mind that there wasn't even a limit on how much you could buy until the drug lord Bush and his minions in various state legislatures passed laws on this. (In 2006, the Bush regime also required Alka-Seltzer Cold to remove pseudoephedrine - in the name of fighting drugs. Many consumers report that this has made the product ineffective.) The police department has also vowed to post these wanted posters on its website and Facebook page.

Since laws went into effect limiting how much allergy medicine you could buy, meth labs have increased exponentially. Gee, never saw that coming!

In short, no real laws were broken by the people on the posters, but the city is spending resources going after them. I've seen no evidence that any of these alleged scofflaws have any connection with meth.

Methamphetamine is deadly business. Nobody wants a single molecule of this stupid poison polluting their community. Nobody, that is, except the drug warriors. Clearly, they like forcing us to be around the stuff, since they keep backing laws that only intensify this scourge.

All this from "small government" conservatives.

If the Super Congress that was formed to cut the deficit wants to be taken seriously, it should defund the failed drug war. The War on Drugs ranks right up there in wastefulness with the Bush border fence and the ongoing abuses by the Department of Homeland Security.

(Source: http://www.registerherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=129742)

Cult leader gets life in prison

Well, it looks like this guy's finally off the game board.

Fifty-five-year-old Warren Jeffs - leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamist cult that broke away from mainstream Mormonism - was sentenced to life in prison today for sexually assaulting 2 underage followers who he took as brides. One of the victims was only 12.

Jeffs is the eighth man from this cult to be convicted since their Texas compound was raided. But I'd thought Jeffs was off the hook once the Utah Supreme Court overturned his conviction for being an accessory to rape. Leave it to the right-wing government of Utah to support a sex offender.

But now Warren Jeffs is finally going to the clink for good.

Yet another Snack Break

+ Here's a story that proves the states can set ownership caps for radio and TV stations. The state of New York has just joined Florida and New Jersey in criminalizing pirate radio broadcasts. (Unlike the prison states of New Jersey and Florida, a first-time offense is only a misdemeanor in New York.) If a state can outlaw pirate stations, it damn well can reinstate ownership caps for big corporations that own licensed stations. End of story.

+ Here we go again! Now Republicans in Congress are talking about a government shutdown for the end of September. Their reasoning? They said it's part of their jobs plan. No, I'm not making this up. Hope you're not planning any trips in October to the national parks that your tax dollars pay for!

+ Education Secretary Arne Duncan is widely considered one of President Obama's most questionable appointees, but this time he's doing something right. Duncan is waiving proficiency requirements in Bush's disastrous No Child Left Behind law - unfunded mandates that were designed as an excuse to shut down schools. Duncan is doing this because Congress has been derelict at reforming the law. The New York Times reports that Duncan's act "could inflame relations with Republicans in the House who want to reduce, not expand, the federal footprint in education." Um, if the GOP wanted to reduce it, why did they support No Child Left?

Bad news about the 2012 election

I know you're unspooling on the floor in uncontrollable laughter at the field of possible Republican presidential nominees. They are a funny bunch, aren't they? And part of me says Obama has little if anything to fear from these right-wing clowns.

But here's a warning just to make sure you keep an eye on whoever becomes the GOP standard-bearer.

Nothing says loser like George W. Bush. Look where it got him.

That observation got your ears to perk up, didn't it?

Another Snack Break

+ If you haven't already, it's time to shed the notion that Mitt Romney is some sort of moderating influence in the GOP. The Boston Globe reports that Romney plans to speak in New Hampshire in favor of authoritarian, job-killing "right-to-work" laws. But I guess that's to be expected from a guy who made his living shipping jobs to China. Not a good man.

+ Here's another story that highlights that America truly is better off now than in 2008: The Labor Department said today that employers added 117,000 jobs last month - an unexpectedly bright report. Romney's not President, you see.

+ The FAA was shut down a couple weeks ago because of a Republican tantrum. The GOP got mad when Democrats refused to support a right-wing measure that would have made union representation elections operate under undemocratic guidelines. Because of the Republicans' politically retaliatory shutdown, the FAA also could not collect taxes on airline tickets - depriving the government of $200,000,000 that could have been used to put towards the debt crisis. This was also a backdoor bailout for airlines, because airlines charged the tax and simply pocketed it. But now, the teagaggers have been outmaneuvered: President Obama has just signed a bill to put the FAA back to work.

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "YouTube's Official Language"

On YouTube, like, nobody knows how to speak English? They speak Valspeak? And, like, they attack everybody else for not knowing English? Have you ever noticed that.

Seriously, it seems that most folks on YouTube who purport to have been born and raised in the U.S. and A. are not fluent in the English language. Rather, they speak Valspeak. Meanwhile, they assail everybody else's English skills. They complain about immigrants not learning English - and they lambaste Americans too. All the while, they have yet to prove that they even know English themselves!

Our latest 'LCQ' explores this hypocrisy...

Right-wing Oregon politician convicted of tax evasion

You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why: Another giant of right-wing politics is going to The Big J! Oregon's Bill Sizemore - a onetime Republican gubernatorial candidate known for his authoritarian anti-worker activism and goofy referendums - is going to jail for 30 days for 3 counts of income tax evasion.

Bye, tax cheat.

Snack Break

We're gonna use this feature as a fast and furious rundown of assorted items of interest. So hang on to your hats, cuz they're gonna go plumb quick...

+ Not every Democrat is a Tea Party follower - just the ones who approved the debt ceiling bill. Even in rural Kentucky, condemnation of the Tea Parties has been swift. The head of the Grant County Democrats likened the teagaggers to "terrorist suicide bombers." Well, that's true. Now that we know the Grant County Democrats may still have a glimmer of gumption, maybe it's time they retire their state representative.

+ If you want a job, go to Detroit! Construction jobs in the Detroit metropolitan area have just attained an 11-year high - even while the rest of Michigan has begun slumping. Translation: The recession is over just as long as you're in a town with leaders who aren't on the extreme right.

+ In New Jersey, a Democratic county politician was forced to resign for doing pretty much the same thing Anthony Weiner did. The explicit photos were posted on the Internet by some Republican loudmouth who helped set up the pol. But the Democrat in this story was already separated from his wife (unlike Weiner), so why does anybody even give a shit?

More later...

Grandma's looking for a nice park bench

What a disgrace.

The debt ceiling bill just passed Congress, and it gives the Tea Parties every last thing they wanted.

Every. Last. Fucking. Thing.

What's worse is that the Tea Parties didn't even have to fight for it. Everything they asked for was added without hesitation. "Hey, we want this." "Well, then you got it."

And that's despite the fact that Republicans only control the House. As you know, Democrats control the Senate and the presidency. Democrats have the mandate from voters. So what did they do with it? Squander it. The Democrats have teabaggers too.

There's lots of backslapping going on in uptown Teabaggia right now. This is an unprecedented victory for the extreme right. And they didn't even need an election for it, considering the Republicans only have the House. In the course of mere days, they've likely achieved what's been one of their Holy Grails for years: abolishing Social Security.

This bill establishes an unconstitutional Super Congress (no, I'm not making this up) to slash any program it chooses. The Constitution doesn't allow a Super Congress, because its framers expected regular Congress to be smart enough to do its job right. But this Super Congress will be appointed by Congress and will not be subject to a vote of the people.

Social Security and all related programs are probably done for. Gone. History. That includes disability insurance as well as benefits for seniors. You paid for it, and now it's gone. I truly believe Super Congress will cut it all off. For one thing, they'll be appointed by Congress (who secretly wants this), and for another thing, nobody can vote them out if they do cut it off.

So I do believe this theft will occur. Prepare for it. This isn't hyperbole either, because who ever expected other extremist ideas like the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to come about?

This despite the fact that Social Security doesn't even add to the national debt! It's paid for from a separate fund. That shouldn't matter anyway, because it's been cut twice in the past 2 years when Congress withheld the cost-of-living increase. Every time Congress needs to cut the budget, Social Security is always one of the first targets.

But just think, with the latest bill, you don't even have the Republicans entirely to blame! Every damn thing the Tea Parties asked for (without exception), the Democrats gave them.

So - unless you actually enjoy them cutting off important programs like Social Security - what are YOU gonna do about it?????

Huh??????????

Your idea may be to wait until a glass-encased copy of this teabagger debt ceiling bill is placed on display in Cincinnati so Tim Brown can protest it. But no. We cannot do that. Time is up. Sitting on our hands until this happens is not good enough.

The teagaggers are out of control, and we have to act. You don't even want to know what I'd like to do right now. But I'll temper it by instead endorsing rioting in the streets. It works in every other country, so what are you waiting for? (Yeah, I know: Let someone else go first, right?)

Right-wing group caught illegally mailing phony ballots

More indictments are needed, I guess.

Americans for Prosperity - a right-wing group bankrolled by the Koch brothers - is now mailing phony absentee ballots to Democratic voters in Wisconsin. The ballots tell voters to return them by August 11 - even though the recall elections in question are on August 9. And they're not even real ballots anyway, so they wouldn't count.

Instead of wasting time on a debt ceiling bill that pleases only the Tea Parties, maybe the government needs to conduct a surprise raid on Americans for Preposterity (sic).

(Source: http://www.politico.com/blogs/davidcatanese/0811/AFP_Wisconsin_ballots_have_late_return_date.html)