Another black eye for Michigan

Seems earlier this week I was giving thanks for Indiana, a cesspool for the right's idiocy that was the one Rust Belt state that was worse politically than Michigan.

Oops--spoke too soon.

Dave Agema, a Michigan member of the republican national committee, spent a portion of his week writing a hate-filled rant on his Facebook page about what perverts the homosexuals are--the usual republican claptrap about recruiting children and the gays "filthy" lifestyle.  National republicans are calling for his resignation which, unsurprisingly, he is refusing to give.  Remember, this is a leader of the republican party, not just some rank and file republican idiot.

All of which points up why having Governor Gutless, Rick Snyder, in the governor's mansion has proven to be such a fiasco for the state of Michigan.  It's hard to imagine forward thinking businesses (many of whom rightfully offer domestic partner benefits), and forward thinking recent college graduates (80% of whom support marriage equality) wanting either to stay here or to relocate here with the republican party and its hate mongerers in control of the state legislature, and a Governor who claims to not be interested in divisive issues but who has proven to be little more than a cowardly rubber stamp for the republicans' radical agenda.

Sowing hate does not reap good jobs.

Peace,
emaycee

All apologists

I wasn't surprised, when reading this piece by Robert Scheer, that American corporations don't pay their taxes.  Pissed off, yes, but surprised, no.  But what is surprising is the number of apologists for worthless U.S. corporations in the comments section.  But when I thought about it, rank and file republicans are a lot like corporations--corporations want our military to protect them, our public schools to educate their workers, our roads to get their workers to and from work, their products across America...but unlike the rest of us, they think they're entitled to these and shouldn't have to pay for it.  Rank and file republicans want Medicare and to collect Social Security, and they, too, make use of our roads and our military...and they, too, want the rest of us (but heaven forbid themselves) to pay for their public services.

Welfare queens, indeed.

Peace,
emaycee

Where the boys are

Why Indiana, of course.

Having lived there twice, unfortunately, I can attest to the mindset of your typical Hoosier.  It's pretty much like the South--ignorant, uneducated, illogical--without the drawl.  So it in no way surprised me that a group of boys from Indiana with assault rifles would try to intimidate women and children who were having a quiet, peaceful demonstration supporting stronger gun control.  They wouldn't begin to have an argument on the merits--their puny minds might explode if they had to deal with facts and logic--so they carry big guns to make up for their lack of manliness.

Trust me, not even Viagara could help these boys.

On the bright side, there's at least one rust belt state that's even more pathetic than Michigan is these days.

Peace,
emaycee

Assault on intelligence

Seems a couple of the folks at Fox News think the reason we need assault weapons is because the Iranians, the Syrians, and a bevy of Al-Qaeda operatives may just up and decide to invade America

Yesirree, Bub.

Leaving aside the fact the odds of Mexico and Canada giving carte blanche to these American enemies to carry out their raids into our territory is akin to those of winning the Powerball Lottery twice, why on earth would a nation with the greatest trained military in the history of the world want to entrust its security to to a bunch of numbnuts carrying assault rifles whom you wouldn't normally trust to clean up the dog poop on your lawn?

What this country really needs is a War on Stupidity.

Peace,
emaycee

I'm not a fucking idiot...

...but I'd be a lot richer if I was.

Fresh off our victory in eradicating the word "Christmas" in all holiday shopping venues, it seems we Liberals are now setting our sights on, of all things, the Easter Bunny.  Because, you know, we Liberals like nothing better than depriving kids of their Peeps.

Somehow Bill O'Reilly went from our primal need for abortion on demand to our eliminating Peter Rabbit.  And the sad thing is how many people will believe it...without taking two seconds to actually think about it and how stupid it really is.

Because there are no Liberals who color Easter eggs with their kids.  Because there are no Liberals who have their children's pictures taken with the Easter Bunny.  Because there are no Liberals who set up a plate with carrots and a glass of water for the late night arrival of the Magic Rabbit.  Because all Liberal children wake up Easter morning just like any other day, with no Easter baskets, no chocolate rabbits, and no plastic eggs filled with jelly beans.

What it is, plainly and simply, is a simpleton making specious claims to take people's minds off the fact that the republican party hates the poor, the middle class, the LGBT community, and really has no answers for the problems that ail our nation, other than to do nothing and exacerbate all that is wrong with America.

Peace,
emaycee

Steubenville

Admidst all the hubbub about the Steubenville rape trial (and the disgrace that was the national media "coverage" of it) a simple truth was ignored, and I would like to share it with you:

If you are such a fucking loser that you need to get a woman so drunk that she becomes unconscious before you can have sex with her, please discontinue all future sexual advances towards women and stick to masturbation, as you are a complete and total fucking embarrassment to real men the world over, who rely on such things as romance, charm, and flattery (or any combination thereof).

Thank you.

Peace,
emaycee

Two things they weren't discussing at CPAC

Wonder why they didn't have any panel discussions at this year's C-CRAP convention concerning....

The fact that as of right now, if Hillary Clinton decides to run for President in 2016, republicans may not see the White House until 2024, by which time Texas might well be blue, in which case, I may go the rest of my life without seeing a republican in the White House (oh, please make it so, Miss Hillary!).  Kudos, though, to Mitch McConnell, for comparing a Hillary campaign in 2016 to a rerun of The Golden Girls.  Because nothing garners the female vote like making fun of women for being older.  Do you suppose potential staffers for a Hillary Clinton Presidential campaign in 2016 and an Ashley Judd Senate campaign against Dolt McConnell in 2014 were drooling over that comment being on an endless loop during their possible campaigns?  I know I would be.

The second is that each and every month 100,000 seniors (60% of whom vote republican) die, and 67,000 Latinos (70% of whom vote Democratic) turn 18.  Those are some seriously ugly demographics for republicans, and unless they can figure out a way to a) keep people from being born, and b) keep people from dying (and good luck with both of those) there doesn't seem to be a lot of hope for the future of the party.

Needless to say, emaycee won't be throwing any pity parties for republicans anytime soon.

Peace,
emaycee

Poppin' Palin's bubblehead

The republican party has massive problems with women voters, non-white voters, and young voters--all of whom have many issues of importance to them--and at their yearly C-CRAP circle jerk they put Antoinette darling Sarah Palin on stage and she wants to make a big show of...fucking soda pop, specifically, the recent ban in New York City that was overturned by the courts.

In  nation suffering massive unemployment, sequestration cuts that are going to seriously affect the poor and the middle class, a debt crisis, and ever lowered living standards, Sarah Palin shows her irrelevance (and by extension, the republican party's) by discussing an issue that few people outside of the soda industry itself give two shits about.  I'm sure it got quite the cheer from the clueless 30% of Americans who call themselves conservatives (generally the same folks who believe humans and dinosaurs co-existed), but the rest of America had to have been scratching their heads and wondering, "I'm supposed to give a shit Sarah Palin took a sip from a soda cup because...?"

Whatever message Americans might have taken from the yearly conservative gathering (admittedly, not much anyway) will now be pushed back to page two thanks to a piss poor attempt at humor.  All a majority of Americans will remember is Sarah Palin sucking soda through a straw.

Well done, madame.  Bravo!

Peace,
emaycee

The downside of insulting the help

Scott Prouty, the man who caught Mitt Romney's famous 47% speech on video--and put some serious hurt on the Romney campaign--says he was inspired to film Romney because after Prouty, working as a bartender at a fundraiser some time ago, had served Romney a Coke with lemon (Willard's preference), Willard didn't acknowledge Prouty or thank him.

If the rudeness of a privileged asshole is enough to make a man secretly film his actions to show the world what a wealthy prick is really like, anyone want to guess what people will be capable of when they're children are starving?

It will make a video destroying a man's political ambitions look like a day fishin' at the ol' fishin' hole.

Peace,
emaycee

What is it good for? Absolutely nothing

Ten years.  Almost 200,000 people (civilians and soldiers) dead.  $2.2 trillion of American taxpayer money spent. 

These numbers are from Brown University's "Costs of War" project, statistics from our invasion of Iraq.

For the love of God, can someone explain to me what we gained for our human and financial expenditures?  How much suffering could we have eased at home with $2.2 trillion?  How many wives are without husbands?  Husbands without wives? Parents who lost children?  Children who will grow up without one of their parents?  For what? 

I'm sure there are those who can find justifications for the Iraq War, but in the end it was an immense disaster and not worth the blood and money we--and the people of Iraq--paid.

The old Lie, indeed.

Peace,
emaycee

Swiss cheese

I'm not sure if it's gratifying or depressing (or even ironic considering how much money is stashed in Swiss bank accounts) but the good folks of Switzerland up and gave a big fuck you to their corporate leaders and voted for regulations that would allow shareholders to nix executive pay packages, outlaw golden parachutes, and set in place sanctions that could result in prison sentences for corporate executives who refuse to abide by the new laws.

Gratifying because there are people in this world who understand economic justice, that it's immoral for the few to succeed financially so grotesquely while the many fall farther behind while living paycheck to paycheck.

Depressing...because it's hard to imagine enough of our political leaders having the will to do the right thing, and such measures have as much chance of passage in America as I do of being voted the next Pope by the Conclave of Cardinals.

And it's already too late for that.

Peace,
emaycee

The magical mystery illusion

One supposes that any person who decides to run for President must have some talent in the art of suspending reality.  After all, in the 225 years since we first selected a President, only forty-three men have held the office.  Of the more than three hundred million Americans living in the United States in 2012, only Barack Obama (and granted, many Americans are not eligible due to the age requirement) won the Presidency.  A candidate for the U.S. Presidency has a healthy skepticism of the odds.

And then you have one Jeb Bush, who isn't merely suspending reality, but is completely and utterly fucking blind to it.  After the release of his new book and television appearances, it seems the former Governor of Florida is considering a run in 2016--because after the failure of his father (one of only four incumbents to lose in the 20th Century) and the epic failure of his brother (one third of the Worst Presidents of All-Time Trinity, joined with James Buchanan and Herbert Hoover) the American people really want to elect another member of the Bush family.  What's his slogan going to be, "Vote for me, I'm not as incompetent as my Dad!"?  "Vote for me, I'm not as dumb as my brother!"?  I'd think even goofy republicans who never met a candidate that America hated that they couldn't support would have a hell of a time voting another Bush into office.

I know anything can happen in the next four years, but it'd take some seriously strong Kool-Aid for Jeb Bush's ass to ever get a seat in the Oval Office.

Peace,
emaycee

What the fuck, squared exponentially

Dennis Rodman was a fine basketball player.  He was never one of my favorites, but he had a good career, and deserves his Hall of Fame status.  He is also a world class freak--it's not my cup of tea, but if he could make a few bucks by seeing how many metal objects he can ram through the skin on various parts of his face, competing with the Illustrated Man for most tattoos in world history, or wearing a wedding dress and marrying Elvira (or whoever the fuck it was he married), good for him.

Near as I can tell, though, Dennis Rodman does not have any bona fides in foreign relations, didn't major in foreign policy in college, and hasn't written any articles on foreign affairs, ever.  So can someone please explain to me why anyone, most especially The Ed Show and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, waste two seconds of their viewers' time with a piece on his paid promotional trip to North Korea?  I mean for fuck's sake, I don't know much about the particulars of U.S. policy toward North Korea, but I know enough to know that a dildo head like Dennis Rodman knows absolutely nothing and should receive zero attention for his thoughts on the nation and its leader, Kim Jong Un.

It's one thing to point at a guy so hard up for exposure that he'd fellate a donkey on The Tonight Show, and a complete mockery to give air time to an idiot talking about a country that is in a class unto itself for its mistreatment of its people, especially its widespread famine and brutal torturing of thousands of political prisoners.

Peace,
emaycee

And the horse you rode in on

Seems one Stephen Olemacher of the Associated Press has thrown a pity party for America's wealthy with this piece on how much those poor folks have to pay in taxes compared to thirty years ago.  As is often the case with pieces written by folks who work for the Asshat Press, Olemacher fails to provide the contexts of a) the percentage of this country's wealth they own, b) the percentage of their salaries vis-a-vis the rest of us poor bastards, and c) the current percentage of their taxes as compared to the historical mean.

I write this conclusion for posterity only because I'll probably be gone when the economic revolution finally comes to America (and it will come--I work with many staunch republicans, all of whom realize that something's fucked up economically with America and it's only a matter of time before they realize that the problem isn't the government, but corporate America and the wealthy and join the rest of us who already realize that economically, the dice are loaded), but when the revolutions's leaders, tired of watching their children starve, begin executing the rich that they be reminded to execute their enablers, too.

Peace,
emaycee

Bye bye democracy, bye bye happiness

I suppose that we Michiganders should have realized that republicans had no shred of respect for democracy when they put forward a newly worded Emergency Manager Law less than two months after Michigan voters had soundly rejected their first attempt to suppress the will of the people.

Now they once again are going to supplant the will of he the voters by appointing an Emergency Manager to oversee the state's largest city, the city that put America on wheels, Detroit.

For those not familiar, an Emergency Manager is appointed by the governor of our state (in our case that would be Governor Gutless, Rick Snyder, who pees his pants on the command of the republicans in Michigan's state legislature) to cities that are in fianancial distress who has unlimited authority (it is not a stretch to call the Emergency manager a dictator) to tear up contracts, cut services, refuse to make payments, hire city employees at his whim, and neither the people's elected authorities, nor the people themselves, have any say in the matter.  For those of you who live in states run by sane people, this is not an exaggeration.

The city of Detroit will now join Benton Harbor, Pontiac, Ecorse, Hamtramack, and Allen Park as cities that are predominantly African-America and whose citizens' voice in our government has been taken away.  The cities noted also share one other trait:  all of the Emergency Managers appointed to them have been a complete and utter failure at improving these cities finances.

Michigan republicans cheated to gain control of the state legislature, and now they're letting their true colors show by taking away the right to vote of our state's largest city.  It is nothing more than abject racism, and should be a story of national prominence. 

The Great Lakes state once was a fine place to call home, but is no longer.  It has been taken hostage by racists, misogynists, and religious freaks who have no conscience and no love for America or Americans.

Peace,
emaycee

Quick questions

I know it's Fox News, but what on earth possessed them to interview failed republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney (airing this Sunday--I'm on pins and fucking needles) considering he will go down in history as one of the worst Presidential candidates ever, blew an imminently winnable Presidential election, and in doing so, absolutely got his ass handed to him?  I understand John McCain getting his airtime--he's a sitting U.S. Senator.  But Willard?  He doesn't hold any elected office (and never will again), and isn't even one of the party's good old boys.  Do they really think anyone cares what an irrelevant political poser thinks, especially one who was so soundly rejected by American voters?  Are they really that hard up for people who can slam the President?

Inquiring mind wants to know....

Peace,
emaycee

Tarnished forever

In the 1970s, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein worked journalistic magic and exposed the corrupt Nixon administration which eventually (and rightfully) brought his Presidency to an abrupt and fitting end in August of 1974.  Their work justified--not that it was needed--the inclusion of the right to a free press in our Bill of Rights, and may very well be the greatest journalistic episode in the history of America.  It resulted in a book, All the President's Men, which is the book that began my fascination with American politics that lasts to this day.

In fairness, it would be virtually impossible for Woodward and Bernstein to ever top their first big story.  Bernstein may have realized this when he walked away, but Woodward kept pushing forward.  It eventually resulted in his first big failure, Bush at War, which was basically literary fellatio of Bush the Lesser, conerning the wars he presided over in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which are remarkable only for their abject failure (a fact that never seemed to dawn on Woodward).

This week Woodward topped himself, going on Fox News and whining about how he had been "threatened" by Gene Sperling of the Obama administation in an e-mail concerning the current republican created fiscal crisis in Washington.  Woodward proceeded to release a copy of  the e-mail in question to the press, which was a colossal failure on par with Custer thinking he was going to kick the Native Americans' asses all the way back to their tepees.  The e-mail showed nothing even close to being a "threat" and even had conservative publications backing off the Woodward story almost immediately.

Perhaps Woodward realized his days as a journalistic superstar are long gone and wanted to cash in on Fox News, who will pay anyone remotely connected to politics, regardless of their political acumen (see also Karl Rove, Dick Morris, Sarah Palin), as long as they trash President Obama and/or Democrats.  I don't really know what he hoped to accomplish, but what he did was tarnish his reputation beyond repair.

Carl Bernstein may be a rat prick bastard, but at least his journalistic integrity is still intact.

Peace,
emaycee