And we already have a winner...

...for the worst Mother of the year.

I don't often write about things outside of politics, but every so often something comes along that is so outside the pale....

So I was driving to work on Sunday...and on my usual route I hit a stretch of two lane roads for about four to five miles where it's virtually impossible to pass (even on a Sunday morning) and, as events had it, I got stuck behind a white sedan that obviously felt the speed limit was for Indy car drivers only.  I mean we're talking sloooooooooowwwwww.  I figured it's Sunday morning, probably some old-timer on the way to church.  The last half mile or so before I could mercifully get past the car, I noticed that the driving got a little wobbly, too--not like a drunk driver, but a little too far to the left in the lane, a little too far to the right.  When I finally got the chance to pass, I glanced over--just in case I ever ran into the driver face to face and it turned out that utter incompetence behind the wheel of a car was contagious--and saw a boy of six or seven on the driver side in the backseat, a girl of perhaps three or four on the passenger side in the backseat, and their (presumably) mother driving the car with neither hand on the steering wheel because she was too busy pushing the keys on the keypad of her phone.

Believe it or not, the first thought I had was...it's really sad that there's not a republican in America that doesn't believe an idiot who has no concern whatsoever for the safety of her children should be given unlimited access to a gun and as much ammunition as she desires with absolutely no questions asked.

Seriously.

Peace,
emaycee

What's love got to do with it?

Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League and asshole extraordinaire, went on TV last week and explained that marriage is not about love or happiness, but is solely about creating a family.

It's been a number of years, but my first marriage occurred when I was still a Catholic, as was my first bride, and for the life of me I could have sworn the word love was mentioned a time or two in the ceremony.  So I  googled the rite of marriage in a Catholic ceremony, and lo and behold, the word "love" is mentioned eight times in the ritual, and creating children is mentioned once (and the children clause is optional for the priest to include in the ceremony).

If the Catholic Church continues to let people go on national TV and tell people that their relationships really aren't so different from those of horses on a stud farm, they're going to need a miracle on par with Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead to resurrect their fortunes here in America.

Peace,
emaycee

So's your old man

In its never ending quest to see how many American parishioners it can turn away, the Catholic Church, through the archbishop of Detroit, announced recently that Catholics who support gay marriage should no longer receive communion.

Which calls to mind the kid, who when he saw he wasn't going to win the game, took his ball and went home. 

When all was said and done, the kid lost a lot of friends, and one supposes, eventually the Church is going to lose a lot of American Catholics, too.

Because being on the wrong side of history is a lot more important to the Church than saving souls.

Peace,
emaycee

We're all alone

As of last month, we have 11.7 million unemployed Americans (of which 4.6 million, or nearly 40% are long-term--unemployed for longer than six months), 7.6 million Americans are working part-time hours and need full-time hours, and 2.3 million Americans were marginally attached, i.e., they wanted work and had looked in the past twelve months but either became discouraged or were unable to take a job because of family obligations.  By my calculations, that's better than 20 million Americans, and the numbers don't even include those who have completely lost hope of finding employment.

So yesterday, when Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar scheduled a Congressional hearing on long-term unemployment, you'd expect most Committee members to show up to see what they could do to help alleviate this problem for average Americans, also known as their constituents (because, get real, corporations flat just don't give a fuck about us).

You'd be wrong--Sen. Klobuchar was joined by four, count 'em four, of the Committee's twenty members, all Democrats (Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, and Reps. John Delaney and Elijah Cummings of Maryland).  Granted, republicans had 100% no-shows, but a sixty percent no-show rate for the Democrats isn't exactly a number to be proud of.

All of which begs the question...if our hard work that earns an opulent lifestyle for our corporate superiors isn't enough, and our taxpayer dollars supporting their families isn't enough, exactly what does it take for our "leaders" to actually give a fuck whether we live or die?

Peace,
emaycee

Union proud

So the Westboro Baptist Church, a religious hate group, decided that they were going to picket the funeral of Boston Marathon bombing victim Krystle Campbell screaming their bigotry until...the Teamsters, that proud truckers' Union, decided they were going to form a human wall around her funeral to protect her family in their time of grief, and the bigoted folks from the Westboro Baptist Church tucked tail and proved a no show.

Remind me again why Unions are so bad for America?

Peace,
emaycee

We're #34!

Thank God for Romania.

Recent rankings from Unicef put the United States 34th out of 35 developed nations for relative childhood poverty rates.  With over 20 million of our children living below the poverty line (and considerably farther below the poverty line than those children in the other 33 nations), my question would be:  where's the fucking outrage?

I know those numbers are a good day at the office for republicans, who figure it's the kids faults for not being born to parents who were trust fund babies.  But what about Democrats?  Where's the Democratic politician, who, like FDR and the New Deal, LBJ and the Great Society, says these numbers are an embarrassment and are antithetical to everything this nation stands for?  Who says we can do much better than that and actually make it a priority?

Where?

Peace,
emaycee

With a fountain pen

"Yes, as through this world I've wandered,
I've seen lots of funny men.
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen."

Woody Guthrie, "Pretty Boy Floyd"

It'd been years since I heard this song, but when I heard it today (Bob Dylan on the Folkways:  A Vision Shared tribute) for some odd reason this factoid from Think Progess that I'd read a short while ago popped into my head--since 2008, coroporate profits have risen 20% faster than workers' incomes.

I've heard tell there was a time when average workers shared in the prosperity of their companies, but those days disappeared after the Reagan Devolution.  Record corporate profits don't happen without dedicated workers, and you have to wonder how long that dedication will last without some financial reciprocity.

It only takes the removal of one card for the house of cards to come tumbling down.

Peace,
emaycee

Compare and contrast

After the bombing in Boston which resulted in three deaths and countless injuries...

...on the one hand, we have a group of people we'll politely describe as conservatives coming out with conspiracy theories, questioning the hearts of all Muslims based on, at the time, speculation, the blaming of our immigration policies for the actions of a few, and the usual call for guns, guns, and more guns (because what would have made the situation so much better would be for a bunch of numbnuts to be shooting at anything that goes bump in the night).  Nothing but lunacy, divisiveness, and hatred.

On the other hand...we have the Boston police, the FBI, the ATF, first responders and all the other government workers who were involved, you know the ones conservatives whine about as being overpaid with their tax dollars, and it took them, working as a team, a whole four days to find and kill/capture the suspects.  Man, that Obama is so incompetent.

And what about those mangy Taxachussetts Liberals?  Imagine them staying in their homes all day without whining (or shooting law enforcement because it's all just a plot to get their guns!) so law enforcement could do their jobs, for their own safety, and so the desired end result, the suspects capture, could happen.  And then imagine the gall of those people, after law enforcement had successfully stopped the suspects, coming out of their homes and standing in the streets to cheer and thank those overpaid with our tax dollars law enforcement officials.  And screaming "U.S.A." while waving the American flag.  Man, those Liberals really do hate America.

Which group makes you prouder to be an American?

Peace,
emaycee

The worst among us

Twenty children--children, for God's sake--were shot to death, and this is the gutless reaction of Mitch McConnell to none of the proposed gun control legislation passing:

Any nation--any nation--that allows a cowardly and inhumane politician to gloat in the faces of the families of twenty dead children, and doesn't run his ass right on out of this country forever, deserves no blessings from God, and, in fact, deserves whatever hell She rains upon it.

Pro-life, indeed.

Peace,
emaycee

Not feelin' it

Pardon me, but I'm having a real hard time feeling President Obama's indignation today over the Senate's failure to pass any gun control legislation.  Perhaps if the President had fought just a little harder to get the equally feckless Harry Reid to move filibuster reform.  Perhaps if the President--even after four years of their obstructionism, for God's sake--had ever stood up to the republicans.  Perhaps if President Obama had actually, just once, got out there and fought for ordinary Americans.

Instead, he held onto some Pollyanna dream that he could get republicans to cooperate with him in some kind of bipartisan bullshit, and we're all worse off for his inability to grasp reality.

Today wasn't a failure of Washington--it was a failure of the President.  Too little courage, no fight, and another epic fail for Barack Obama.

Call my Congressman?  You have to be kidding, Mr. President.  He's just the same as you, satisifed with the status quo.

But look at the bright side--three more years and you can make countless millions giving speeches and selling your memoirs.

Peace,
emaycee

Doing the right thing

This past Friday--on, ahem, the anniversary of the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt--Democrats in the Michigan state legislature introduced legislation to raise our state minimum wage to $10 an hour.  With Governor Gutless, Rick Snyder, in the executive mansion, and a solid republican majority in both houses, its chances of passage are probably not very good.

With seventy percent of Michiganders in favor of increasing the minimum wage, Michigan Democrats have wisely realized that not only is raising the minimum wage good policy, it's good politics as well.  If nothing else, at least they are trying to make economic life for Michigan's citizens a bit better.

Would that we could say the same for our feckless President, who, like Ronald Reagan and ketchup as a vegetable, has decided that catfood is extremely nutritious for our senior citizens, and as his budget gets ever more scrutinized, has decided that keeping wealthy defense contractors happy and richer is a lot more important than properly funding discretionary spending, you know, little things like the NIH, CDC, and a host of other programs that give a hand up to ordinary Americans.

Peace,
emaycee

The test of our progress

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have too much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."--Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Had I not worked this past Monday, I would not have known that today is the sixth-eighth anniversary of the death of the greatest American President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  I work in a thrift store, and each day we get (much appreciated) donations to keep us in product to sell to customers to help us provide for the needy. On Monday I happened to go through a box of donated goods that contained a series of articles from the issue of Life magazine that was released the week after his death.  Considering the articles were from 1945, they were in surprisngly good condition, and yesterday I had the chance to read through them.  While the articles themselves contained nothing extraordinary, they did paint a picture of a man who was beloved by American because he loved Americans.  Franklin Roosevelt put human dignity, moral conviction, and human compassion at the forefront of his agenda.

It is sad that two days before the anniversary of President Roosevelt's death, the American people were betrayed by our current President, in a wisdom that is evident to no one, when he decided to embrace cuts known as Chained CPI to President Roosevelt's signature economic accomplishment, Social Security.   Social Security is the most successful government program in history, and has kept millions of Americans out of poverty.

In the midst of the Great Depression, with millions of Americans in need, Franklin Delano Roosevelt showed courage and worked to provide enough for those who have too little.  In the midst of the Great Recession, with millions of Americans in need, Barack Obama decided to stroke his own ego in search of a Grand Bargain.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt touched greatness because he cared about the American people, and didn't give a damn about his legacy.  Too bad for the well-being of ordinary Americans that we will never say the same of Barack Obama.

Peace,
emaycee

Ta-ta, Iron (hearted) lady

Seems there's supposed to be some sort of etiquette rule about not speaking ill of the dead.

Fuck that.

Margaret Thatcher died today, and the world immediately became a better place.  Had she never been born, many, many people would have had much better and longer lives..  Along with Ronald Reagan, Thatcher's policies did more to cause more economic pain to those who could least afford it, and  helped those who least needed it, than few leaders in the history of the world.  Thanks to Thatcher and Reagan, human misery and suffering increased exponentially.

Unfortunately, I will spend the next few days trying not to puke as ignorant pundit after ignorant pundit lionizes Ms. Thatcher.  I will, however, rejoice in the fact that she is now rotting in hell right beside her idiot friend, Ronald Reagan.

Cheerio!

Peace,
emaycee

Dixie dust

You know...there's something mighty fucked up about the South:

• Seems it's Confederate Heritage Month...because enslaving human beings, trying to break up the United States of America, and more American deaths than any other military conflict in our history because of some lunatic notions about states' rights superseding basic human dignity are so, so much to be proud of.
• Texas, South Carolina, and Tennessee have decided that they're not interested in free Medicaid and don't care if more of their people die because of a lack of healthcare.  How letting people die gibes with their "pro-life" views will take a more batshit insane mind than mine to explain.
• North Carolina doesn't think the Constitutional protection of freedom from religion applies to their state, and eleven state representatives have sponsored a resolution saying they can sponsor their very own state religion.  Here's guessing it won't be Wicca. (Note: this resolution has since been withdrawn.)
• In perhaps the creme de la creme of Southern (not) hospitality, Tennesse has passed a bill in both houses that ties a family's welfare assistance to the performance of their kids grades (substandard grades can lead to a 30% reduction in benefits).  Hey kid, I know you're only seven, but get a C on this test and your baby sister's going hungry next week! 

What kind of fucking animals are these people? 

The South is a pimple on the ass of the United States of America.

Peace,
emaycee

What more in the name of love

There's a part of me that's a little bothered by the fact that forty-five years after Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot to death in Memphis while there to support striking sanitation workers, that we still have so many people fighting for a decent living wage (sad fact:  7 of the 10 most common jobs in America pay less than $30,000 a year).

But a bigger part of me is quite proud of the fact that we Liberals continue to fight for it despite the odds, and support groups like the fast food workers in New York City who staged a walkout today in their fight for a decent living wage, on the anniversary of King's assassination.  And bemoans the weakened state of unions in America, and the lack of public recognition for all the good they have done for working Americans.

I defy anyone to name anything that the modern incarnation of the republican party has ever done to make life better for average working class Americans.

And by the way, delusions of paranoia don't count.

Peace,
emaycee

The Grand Delusion

I'd give you a link for President Obama and his designs for a Grand Bargain on Social Security and/or Medicare, but you can just type in "Grand Bargain" on any search engine and about a thousand posts by pissed off Liberals (and rightfully so) will magically appear.

I have a hunch that President Obama views the Grand Bargain as being akin to Bill Clinton's efforts on welfare reform.  It will be a signature issue in his legacy, one that the misinformed traditional media can point to again and again as showing his leadership and ability to compromise for the good of the country.

Unfortunately, welfare reform has been a colossal failure, with one in six Americans (and over 20% of our children) living below the federal poverty level.  Granted, the Great Recession has probably made those numbers worse, but there is no evidence that Clinton's welfare reform has lowered poverty levels.  The only thing it has done is make America a more cold-hearted and desolate place--which seems to be how republicans envision America at its finest.

One supposes that, being chosen as one of the original twelve apostles, Judas Iscariot must have had some redeeming qualities.  But he is remembered solely as the man who betrayed Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver.

President Obama might accomplish much in his eight years, but if his Grand Bargain designs result in more seniors in poverty and/or bankrupted by medical care, it's not hard to imagine his legacy being akin to that of the aforementioned Mr. Iscariot.

Peace,
emaycee

Looney, looney, looney

Sometimes in my mostly mundane daily travels, I come across the damndest things.

As I was parking my car at work the other day, I parked next to a car with a bumper sticker that said "Hey Obama!  Redistribute this!"  Funny thing was, it wasn't on a Mercedes or a BMW, but some fucking hooptie that had long seen better days--it looked like a Dodge Dart that would have needed a tanker truck full of Rustoleum to look even presentable.

I'm guessing he hasn't received his redistribution check, yet.  I know I haven't received mine.

For some odd reason, though, the bumper sticker reminded me of the character Teddy Duchamp in the movie Stand by Me.  For those not familiar, Duchamp has a father who isn't mentally stable (he burned the boy's ear on the family stove), but when a junkyard owner calls his father a "looney" Duchamp explodes at the insult. 

You can kind of understand Duchamp's loyalty--it's his father, and the father was a war hero.  But how do you explain the poor defending the wealthy?  What, he's planning on winning the lotto?  Thinking some wealthy guy's going to see the bumper sticker on his car and offer him a cush job?  Maybe his second car is a Porsche?

It's not redistribution we seek (Obama couldn't care less--he had his chance to help the poor and the middle class and he passed on it, preferring to be seen as some sort of conciliator one supposes).  It's good wages for a job well done. 

And those are mighty, mighty hard for most of us to come by these days.

Peace,
emaycee