Cain-ing

Herman Cain, he of the short-lived Presidential candidacy of 2012 due in large part to multiple sexual harassment allegations, says that he is considering a Presidential run again in 2016.

Based on the offhand chance, one supposes, that over the course of the last four years a majority of Americans have decided that what we really need to turn this country around is a sexual pervert.

Peace,
emaycee

It's the Constitution, not anarchy

In light of the shootings at the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara, Joe the Dumber felt compelled to write an open letter to the parents of the victims in which he proclaimed "...your dead kids don't trump my Constitutional rights."

Leaving aside a) our collective misfortune of having to share a planet with such a colossal asshole, and b) why on earth any publication would feel it necessary to feature the ramblings of an idiot, quite frankly, yes, yes they do.

Amendment First:

Should you carry signs up and down the streets of your town calling for the deaths of children, and people took heed and actually began killing children, you would end up in prison and your right to free speech would come to an end.

Should you start up a newspaper in which you called for the deaths of children, and people read your newspaper and began killing children, you would go to prison and your right to a free press would most emphantically cease.

Should you start a religion that called for the ritual sacrifice of children, and your followers sacrificed children, you would be sent to prison and your right to practice your religion freely would be over.

Should you deign to peacefully assemble and in the process you and your brethren worked yourselves into a frenzy and a riot broke out and children were trampled to death, you would get a lengthy prison sentence and your right to peacefully assemble would be terminated.

So yes, at least in any sane and civilized society (which America is becoming less and less of by the minute) dead children will always trump Constitutional "rights."

Peace,
emaycee

Good times (for CEOs)

A new report shows that last year the median CEO pay in America reached $10.5 million, an 8.8% increase over 2012, and a fifty percent increase over the last four years.

Any worker bees out there who have gotten a fifty percent increase in pay over the last four years from the company you work for?

Anyone?  Anyone?

The report also shows that the ratio of CEO pay to worker pay has now reached 257-1.

All you worker bees out there who think your CEO's efforts are worth 257 times more than your efforts, please raise your hand.

Waiting...

...Um, still waiting...


Peace,
emaycee

A hollow victory

Michigan's legislators passed an increase in Michigan's minimum wage which was signed by Gov. Rick Snyder on Tuesday that will raise our rate from $7.40 to $9.25 an hour over the next four years.  Some are hailing its importance because Michigan is the first state with republican legislators and a republican governor to pass such an increase since President Obama's call for a hike in the minimum wage to $10.10.

My ass.

What it is, once again (see also the Emergency Manager fiasco), is Michigan republicans doing an end around the will of the people.  See, on Wednesday, Progressive organizers are going to deliver 300,000 signatures to put an initiative on this November's  ballot calling for a $10.10 minimum wage (this measure probably kills the initiative, though no one knows for sure).  Since raising the minimum wage is universally popular and this initiative has an excellent chance of passing, what republicans have done is help pad the bottom line for Wal-Mart, Target, McDonald's, Burger King, et al, while costing hundreds of thousands of Michiganders up to $1700 a year (.85 cents per hour times forty hours a week times 52 weeks).

While republicans introduced the bill (extra perk:  it kills minimum wage as an issue for Democrat Mark Schauer in his uphill battle this year against the aforementioned Gov. Snyder), it passed because virtually all Democrats voted for it (about half of republicans voted for the measure).  How long do you suppose it is before republicans start running ads about how Democrats raised the minimum wage to only $9.25 when it could have been $10.10?

All of this intrigue would be entertaining were this a soap opera, but  we are talking about the financial well-being of real people.  Real people who, thanks to craven legislators, are going to get much less than they should have yet again.

Peace,
emaycee

Gotta get down to it

Another day in America, and another mass shooting--last Friday night near the University of Santa Barbara in California and it left seven dead and seven wounded.  As is always the case after such shootings, there has  been much teeth gnashing and numerous calls for sensible gun laws.

And as is always also the case, absolutely nothing will change.  As much as I sympathize (and could not begin to imagine the sorrow of) with angry parents and as much as I agree with lawmakers and gun control advocacy groups calling for tighter gun legislation, the plain truth is that gun manufactuers and ammunition makers don't give a good goddamn what psycho-nut buys their products, or who gets killed with their products,  as long as they can keep as many people in the market to buy their products as is possible.  And they have an absolute stranglehold on our legislators through the NRA.

If we couldn't muster the political will to pass simple background checks after 20 six and seven year old children were shot to death in Newton, Connecticut at Sandy Hook Elementary School, it's kind of hard to imagine a scenario that would lead to any serious changes to our gun laws for the forseeable future.

Peace,
emaycee

A fine whine

Our friends on the right are developing a strong case of the heebie-jeebies when it comes to...guillotines.

Thomas Piketty's runaway bestseller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, with such blood letting suggestions as a wealth tax, appears to be the cause.

Who could have ever guessed that a little old book could inspire such fear?

Lucky for them that we don't have one in six Americans living in poverty, or one in five being food insecure in the past year, or huge cuts to the food stamp program, or a dearth of jobs, all the while corporations are enjoying record profits and income inequality is at a pace not seen since the Great Depression...

Oops--hey, anybody seen the blade sharpener?

Peace,
emaycee

Jesus mocks

Seems you can't click on any internet news service today without being told that Hip-Hop mogul Kanye West has married reality show, um, personality Kim Kardashian.

Want to know one of the few joys of getting older?  Without the slightest bit of self-consciousness that you might sound hopelessly outdated, you can say this about the above reported nuptials:  Ask me if I give a shit.

Peace,
emaycee

Deja vu all over again

Seems the House Democrats are funding a major research program to figure out how to get Democrats to the polls in 2014--and they have discovered that republicans are the party of the rich and don't care about working class families.  And when you run against them on it, Democratic voters turn out.

You know, I've been following politics since 1976 when I was a wee lad of seventeen--and even back then, republicans were the party of the rich.  It's not like the discovery of this research is akin to the discovery of penicillin.

Don't get me wrong--I'm all for Democrats running on income inequality.  But it's news like this that sometimes makes you wonder what the worldview must be like for the powers that be in the Democratic Party, who apparently live on Planet Oblivious.

Peace,
emaycee

Courage personified

Over one hundred McDonald's employees, fighting for a living wage of $15 and the right to unionize, were arrested outside of McDonald's corporate headquarters on Wednesday while protesting.

As you watch the above video, note that when the McDonald's workers are arrested, they are in a sea of police in riot gear.  For fuck's sake, these folks flip burgers and run cash registers for a living--they're hardly the Third Reich.  You'd think, too, that the police would realize that the 1% who demanded their presence to protect their worthless asses are just as hungry to gut police pay and benefits.

McDonald's CEO Don Thompson claimed today that his company pays "fair and competitive wages."  There's nothing "fair" about $7.25 an hour--people with families to support don't risk their jobs when they're getting paid a decent wage.

But they do when they're working their asses off and still living below the poverty level--as a great man once said, when you aint got nothin', you got nothin' to lose.

Peace,
emaycee

With Dems like Stabenow, who needs republicans?

For whatever reason, President Obama decided to make a deal with the devil and/or Georgia's two republican Senators and nominated Michael Boggs for the District Court of Northern Georgia.  Boggs is a ConservaDem who as a legislator in Georgia voted to keep the Confederate flag insignia in Georgia's flag, is anti-abortion, anti-civil rights, and anti-marriage equality.

In other words, he's a Democrat like a bear is a chimpanzee.

Needless to say, his nomination has Liberal groups in an uproar, and one of the many that send me constant e-mails about the issues of our day asked me to send an e-mail to my Senators demanding they oppose Bogg's nomination.  This is the letter I got from Senator Debbie Stabenow:


Dear Mark,

Thank you for contacting me about the nomination of Michael Boggs to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. I understand your concerns.

The Senate is charged by the U.S. Constitution with an "advice and consent" role in the appointment process, which ensures that all nominations made by the President are thoroughly reviewed. I take this Constitutional mandate very seriously, as do my colleagues.

Mr. Boggs's nomination is pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which I am not a member. Should this nomination come before me for a vote, I will keep your views in mind.

Thank you again for contacting me. Please continue to keep me informed about issues of concern to you and your family.

Sincerely,

Sincerely,

Debbie Stabenow
United States Senator 

Stabenow is a Democrat from a Northern state, pro-choice, pro-marriage equality, and relies heavily on African-American and women's votes to keep her job...and when it comes to a nominee who is the antithesis of all of this, she will "...keep [my] views in mind."

What the fuck?  Try, "Should this nominee come before me in a vote, I will not support his nomination."  Doesn't have to be mean, doesn't have to be heavy-handed, but for fuck's sake, Francis, it should be a no brainer, emphatic "NO!"

With Democrats like Senator Wishy-Washy Stabenow, it's getting harder and harder to believe we aren't going to absolutely get our clocks cleaned come November.

Peace,

emaycee

For those of you who think they can't get any stranger...

Seems one Gary Kiehne, running for Congress out of Arizona--and we're talking the U.S. Congress, not the State Legislature--made the claim at a republican debate this past Saturday that 99% of  mass shootings are committed by Democrats.

Because, you know, so many of us a) own guns, and b) are as batshit insane as our political rivals.

I'm not sure which is scarier:  that there are so many republicans that actually believe such a demonstrably false assertion, or that one of the two major political parties in our nation is so bereft of ideas for improving Americans' lives that they have to toss out psycho babble to keep their base engaged.

Peace,
emaycee

Red, red wrath

John Steinbeck's  novel, The Grapes of Wrath,, turned 75 last month.  Arguably the greatest political novel in American history, the book chronicles the Joad family as they are driven out of their Oklahoma home by banks and bad weather in the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression, make their way to California, and suffer much like the poor do in today's America--police brutality, many fighting for a few low-paying jobs, hunger, homelessness, and helplessness in the face of the unchecked power of big business and the wealthy.

The novel also accentuates one of the key differences between The Great Depression and The Great Recession:  Americans' reactions.  Today we have what could be characterized as melancholy resignation; then they had what could be called...fucking anger.  And that wrath led to much good change--unions got stronger which eventually led to better pay and benefits and a robust middle class, Social Security, the Safety Net, and a host of other governmental programs called the New Deal which gave working class America a chance against the behemoths of industry and wealth.

Steinbeck noted when he wrote the novel that "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [The Great Depression]."   One would be hard pressed to find anyone outside of Liberal bloggers trying to do the same for the Great Recession.

One of the key successes of the Tea Party Movement was the way they stoked the rage of the republican base and got them to the polls in their landslide election victories of 2010 (which, unfortunately, has inflicted massive damage on the rest of the country).

It seems to me that the Democratic Party would do well to stoke a little anger right here, right now for the 2014 midterm elections.  Today, countless fast food workers around the globe are striking for $15 an hour ($31,600 a year, full-time, for our math challenged conservative foes) and the right to unionize. There are numerous Americans who are just as angry as these workers, and we need to tap into that and send republicans and their obstructionism and callous disregard for the poor and working class in America on their way out the doors of Congress.  Democrats need to get back to their roots, and fight for the poor and working class like FDR did.

Carpe fucking diem!

Peace,
emaycee

Where did our love go?

A Daytona Beach couple that runs a Christian Ministry which feeds hundreds of hungry people every weekend in a local park has been fined $746 by the city for breaking ordinances which outlaw feeding people in public.

I know I've discussed this before (Columbia, SC and Fort Lauderdale, FL), but what does this say about the soul of our nation when we criminalize being poor and/or helping the poor?

I don't know what leaders who devise such laws are thinking, but it isn't about promoting the general welfare or securing the blessing of liberty.

And it most certainly does not speak to the better angels of our nature.

Peace,
emaycee

Sometimes there just aren't enough rocks

When it comes to utter ineptitude politically, one would be hard pressed to top republicans when it comes to challenging Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Presidential election.  So far, they have Benghazi (no one cares), the Lewinsky scandal (no one cares), and her age (pretty rich for a party that elected the addled Ronald Reagan at the age of 69/first term and 73/second term--which would be Secretary Clinton's ages were she to win in 2016 and 2020).

But in their never ending quest to scale Mount Stupid, they keep trying.  The latest?  Karl Rove is concerned that after Hillary Clinton's fall and concussion in December of 2012 she suffered a traumatic brain injury.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiggggghhhhhttttt.

I've noted it before, but there is absolutely nothing that stirs up the Democratic base like republicans slinging bullshit about the Clintons.  Our base is about as lukewarm as can be when it comes to her candidacy in 2016 (and to Bill as a leader of the Democratic caucus, though he's beloved as a campaigner), but I haven't read a Liberal blog today that hasn't absolutely excoriated Rove for his comments.

So keep on slinging your crap at Hillary, republicans--it smells sort of like...victory.

Peace,
emaycee

To be or not to be

Seems like I've heard that line before....

What exactly should be the Democrats theme in the 2014 midterms?

Eugene Robinson believes the Democrats should accentuate the positive and sail on the Good Ship Lollipop--unemployment is down, the stock market is up, Obamacare is working.  David Atkins says that's a lot of hooey--the jobs created are McJobs, only the wealthy make money in the stock markets, and Obamacare is a long way from what it should be:  single-payer healthcare.  Lynn Start Parramore questions the Democrats commitment to a minimum wage increase, their signature issue for this year's elections, and believes the Democrats are to blame for its failure to garner enough votes to be debated.

While I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Atkins assertion that the more progressive the agenda we lay out for the American people the better we will do electorally, I'm also pretty sure that "We Create Nothing But McJobs!" (not close to true) and "Obamacare Could Be Better!" aren't exactly winning slogans.  Robinson's right--a little positive spin isn't going to hurt (ask the folks who came up with the "Morning in America" spots that helped to propel Reagan to his landslide re-election in 1984).

Parramore's piece is atrocious (she's usually very reliable)--while I would never want to be like republicans in marching lockstep, a Liberal blaming the Democrats for the failure of the minumum wage bill to get to the floor of the Senate based on a lot of he said/she said assertions and a couple of conservadems is...well, very Fox News like.  Frankly, if the U.S. Senate had a shred of sanity left the bill would have passed easily on a majority rule vote. A minimum wage increase and our contrast to republicans on its passage is going to be our strongest issue to attract voters this November, not intra-party paranoia.

Peace,
emaycee

Let's get this party started

In light of Pope Francis' remarks that the Bible (Luke 19:1-10) endorses wealth redistribution, I was just wondering when our friends on the Christian right were going to hop on board and join us in our cause for reducing income inequality in America.

I mean, they sure seem to take everything else in the Bible literally--though I'm not sure most of them could spell hypocrisy let alone acknowledge its existence in their values.

Peace,
emaycee

Not as bad as it seems (pro version)

So now that I've read David Atkins piece on generic polling for this year's midterm elections  and stood in the face of how dire it is...I can let my politically manic personality (Obama has been a major disappointment!/Obama is the most unjustly crucified figure since Jesus Christ!; I'm not voting for the mealy-mouth DINO Hillary Clinton in 2016!/If Hillary runs we have a legitimate chance to take back the House!) look at the bright side:

• The same polling that showed Democrats trailing republicans in an election with generic candidates 47-43, also showed Democrats in Congress with a 32% approval rating and republicans with only a 23% approval rating.  I'd say "What the fuck?', but I used it in the negative post and frankly, the psyche of the average American voter is sometimes beyond words.
• 47%-43%?  Pshaw--them's within the margin of error numbers.
• Six months until November 4th--how many people had President Obama losing six months out in 2012?  A lot can change.
• Thanks to gerrymandering, the odds of the Democrats winning back the House this year were pretty much zero anyway.  Further, there's very little chance republicans are going to win by a sixty seat advantage again (let's hope those aren't famous final words), and their margin of seats is really irrelevant.  They march lockstep and whether they have a 10 seat margin or a 40 seat margin they still aren't enacting any progressive legislation in this millennium.
• The Dems are looking at a 50% chance of holding onto the Senate, and considering how favorable the map was for republicans this year, it's nothing short of a miracle.
• As for the who'd be best for the economy polling...I got nothing.  Hell,the only hope we have is to find our very own Liberal Koch Brothers (oxymoron alert!) who can spend billions on ads showing what pre-bad Christmas dinner induced nightmares Ebeneezer Scrooge assholes republicans are.
• The republicans are running on Benghazi (nobody outside of three old farts in Peoria gives a shit) and how bad Obamacare is (the truth seems to be willing out)

Whether this year's midterms turn out to the best of times or the worse of times, one thing's for sure:  I'm gonna lose a lot of sleep over the next six months worrying about it.

Peace,
emaycee

As bad as it seems (con version)

If you're a hardcore Democrat and have been feeling a bit depressed lately, you might want to lock up the razor blades and sleeping pills before you read this piece by David Atkins on generic polling for this year's midterms.  In a nutshell:

• The numbers are the best for republicans in twenty years.
• They lead in the polling 47-43 (i.e., 47% would vote for a Joe Anyrepublican versus 43% who would vote for John Coolguydemocrat).
• President Obama's approval rating is at 44%, and is considerably less than it was in 2010, and if you'll recall, we got our clocks cleaned in the 2010 midterms.
• By a margin of 43 to 39, Americans think the republicans would be better on the economy than Democrats.

By far and away the most disconcerting numbers above are the ones concerning which party would be best for the economy.  Mr. Atkins presciently notes that Democrats in D.C. have spent the last couple of years working on their republican lite chops and allowing previously unheard of cuts to the budget and all that deficit reduction chatter certainly isn't going to fire up the troops.

What makes it even more problematic for me is that we are only five and a half years away from Bush the Lesser leading the charge on utterly destroying our economy, republicans promised jobs in 2010 and have done nothing to help create any, House republicans won't even so much as allow a vote on an unemployment extension, and Senate republicans just blocked a chance to vote on increasing the minimum wage.

What the fuck?

All in all, it's enough to make me wonder what in the hell I was thinking when I quit smoking three years ago.

Peace,
emaycee

Take a good look in the mirror, republican edition

Since news broke of  Monica Lewinsky's piece this week in Vanity Fair on her affair with Bill Clinton, republicans have been falling all over themselves to try to link the piece to Hillary Clinton, and the idea that she wants to get the scandal out of the way early, before the 2016 Presidential campaign kicks into high gear.

Leaving aside the rather silly notion that somehow Hillary Clinton has the power to make Vanity Fair insert such pieces in their magazine, it seems to me that putting this story out there for the Clintons is akin to, while hammering nails in a board, smashing your thumb on purpose early in the process because you might do so later on.  The Clintons are riding a wave of good polling numbers, they're about to become grandparents, Hillary is the odds on favorite to be the next President of the United States...and they want to have a piece run about the worst period in their lives now?

In all honesty, the minute I heard about the piece the first thing I thought was...it's gotta be the Koch brothers.  Seriously--they have more money than God and He certainly knows what piss poor financial shape the magazine industry is in these days.  Not to mention that the Kochs are about as politically tone deaf as the KKK--it was twenty years ago, for fuck's sake.  Only republicans would still give a shit about it--the rest of us have lives to lead (and did back then, too).  And listen to what she's saying--it sounds exactly like the usual lame republican playbook defending themselves against their war on women.

Frankly, all the republicans postulating on Lewinsky's piece was just a reminder to me of the old adage about a rat smelling it's own hole first....

Peace,
emaycee

Going local

Bad news:  In a move that surprised absolutely no one in the entire United States of America, republicans in the Senate blocked a vote on increasing the minimum wage to the mind-blowing sum of $10.10 an hour ($21,000 a year for a full-time job).

Good news:  The state of Hawaii this week joined Connecticut and Maryland in raising its minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, including both tipped and non-tipped workers.

Bad news:  44% of the jobs created over the past 49 consecutive months of job growth have been in low-wage industries (26% in mid-wage industries and 30% in high-wage).  There are 1.85 million more jobs in low-wage industries since the start of the Great Recession, and 1.9 million less jobs in mid-wage and high-wage industries.

Good news:  The city of Seattle this week announced a proposal to raise the minimum wage for its citizens to  $15 an hour.  Crikey--there'd be no low-wage industries in a major U.S. city.  Folks there could actually have a decent standard of living.

Former Speaker of the House and Liberal champion Tip O'Neill was fond of saying that "all politics is local" and if the above good news/bad news tidbits show anything it's that if we want to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 the best way to do it (short of 60 Democratic U.S. Senators and a Democratic House majority) is state by state, and city by city.  Likewise for a living wage.

At least in many states and cities the general idea of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people stands a chance.

Peace,
emaycee