Hey, Boo

Nothing like watching Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird to stoke the fires in your better self....

There's lazy journalism, and then there's Nolan Finley. This piece encapsulates in a microcosm why I will never be a conservidiot. The terminology is straight out of right-wingnutoville of...well, the fifties, the sixties--Christ, for those old enough to recall, it could have been Archie Bunker on All in the Family (only that was supposed to be satire). The politics is inane (yeah, right, captialism is going to save us, all evidence to the contrary), the comparisons dim-witted and trite (one more idiot calls Obama a socialist and I'm going to puke), and the scare-mongering pathetic (hippies, peaceniks, and tree huggers...oh my!). All of this over the Social Justice Forum, which from what I've read, probably share a lot more in common with the majority of Americans than does Nolan Finley (to quote Elvis, "What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?"). Finley closes with this gem: "If we don't come to our senses in November, this is what the whole country will look like soon." If it means more power to the people, Nolan, we can only hope you're right. Looks a damn lot better to me than what we have now.

Lazy journalism, part two: Brian Dickerson, trying to ensure that the pundits at the Free Press are just as inept as those at the Detroit News, tries to turn an Obama victory (he handled the Gen. McChrystal situation about as well as could be done) into a defeat, claiming the General was deliberately careless with his words because McChrystal thinks Afghanistan is a loser and doesn't want it hanging around his neck, thus leaving the mess for Obama. Nice try, but the plain truth of the matter is McChrystal was careless with his words because he's used to an American media that is more interested in preserving the status quo than speaking truth to power. Unforunately for the General, Mr. Hastings was not your usual lazy icon of American journalism and the cat was out of the bag.

Apparently, there was a group session to discuss the U. S. debt, which all Americans were invited to. Unfortunately, unlike Pete Peterson and his minions, I have to work for a living and wasn't able to attend. My two cents: get out of Iraq and Afghanistan yesterday, create jobs with government spending on infrastructure, cut defense spending in half, raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and enact National Health Insurance. I'd also like Salma Hayek to greet me at the door tomorrow when I get home from work wearing a skimpy negligee--just kidding, Beautiful Girl! (Note: Wonk's piece cited above once again noted each of us owes $43,000 for the national debt--I will not rest until this bullshit ceases. It's just a scare tactic, and means about as much as telling me I'm responsible for x amount of stars in the night sky. Want to reduce the debt? Shut the fuck up and spend government money on infrastructure jobs--more taxes collected, national debt goes down. It's as simple as that.)

Nice piece on the only Democrat running for governor in Michigan--we're going to lose anyway, so why not accentuate the differences, and when whatever dipshit Republican wins we have something to run on in 2014. Virg Bernero might be a little rough around the edges, but he's a far sight better than Republican-lite Andy Dillon. Which slogan is better: A) We're going to work for the working people of Michigan, or B) We're going to fuck over the working people of Michigan slightly less than the Republican candidate? Quod erat dictum.

Good to see our teachers rallying in the capitol--the last thing we need is to solve Michigan's (or the nation's for that matter) budget problems on the backs of working people. The problem isn't the teachers--it's the wealthy and corporate welfare.

Is it just me (perhaps it was Obama's election) or does it seem more and more as if the big difference between Democrats and Republicans is that we actually want to solve problems and they just want to whine about why everything can't be like the good old days? Word to the (not so) wise: the good old days weren't so good, and they're long fucking gone.

Peace,
emaycee