Friday, January 29, 2010

FIXIN' THE DEFICIT....

Today's Cartoon

....and we can do it with some serious cuts.

Maybe we should start with cutting the massive amounts spent on defense every fucking year.

Forty percent of the annual budget goes to defense. That's way more than any other country spends, percentage wise. But I guess if we did that we wouldn't be able to be the militaristic imperialists that we've grown to be so goddamn fucking good at. And that's all thanks to those fuckin' warmongering fascist neo-con rethuglican chickenhawk cock-suckin' bastards.

Motherfuckin' pieces of shit!


Cartoon stolen from Center for American Progress.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

AVATAR.......

The Mrs and I went and saw "AVATAR " yesterday afternoon, in 3D. All I can say is....WOW! Great visuals! Fantastic flick. The story line was excellent. This has to be James Cameron's best yet, beats "Titanic" hands down. "AVATAR" is well worth all the hype it has received.

I know everyone has heard all the negative crap that has been said about it by the right-wing ass-hats about how this was supposed to be anti-American and anti-military, and from the Holier than Thou Poop through his talking heads at the Vatican about how this was really about the religion of nature.

What I think it was is a social/ecological/economic/political statement by Mr. Cameron that stepped on a few toes and bruised a few egos.

It definitely makes a statement alright!

It's a statement against mega-corporations that want to control everything. It's a statement against groups like Blackwater, KRB, and Haliburton. It's a statement against the corporate rape of the ecological system, and the destruction of our natural resources. And it makes a big statement about governments who think they can get away with ignoring other races, peoples and their cultures by sending their military in to force change.

So yeah, I guess it was a statement about how the government and commanders of the military of the United States treat and mistreat other countries...especially those in the third world.

Make no mistake, I do not fault those in uniform who are doing the job they are ordered to do. I have total respect for our service personnel. It's the Generals and the chickenhawks I take issue with.

Anyway....if you get the chance to see "AVATAR" in 3D, go see it.

Friday, January 22, 2010

THE EXPENSE OF WAR......

....while needs at home go unmet.

From The Hill....

CBO: Troop surge in Afghanistan to cost $36 billion over the next three years

By Roxana Tiron - 01/22/10 07:41 PM ET
The Congressional Budget Office on Friday estimated that President Barack Obama’s plan to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan likely will cost about $36 billion between 2010 and 2013.

CBO estimated the costs of increasing the number of troops in and around Afghanistan from about 70,000 at the end of fiscal year 2009 to about 100,000 by July 2010, averaging 85,000 personnel for fiscal year 2010, according to CBO director Douglas Elemendorf.

“The estimate assumes that the number of troops would begin to decline in August 2011 and that the additional personnel would be fully withdrawn by January 2012,” Elmendorf wrote in a letter to House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.) and the committee’s top Republican, Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.).

The Pentagon is also expected to soon request an additional $33 billion on top of the $130 billion in war funds Congress already approved for fiscal 2010.



I hate to admit this....but Ryan is my Representative. I know he's gonna jump at the chance to spend more on defense, 'cause it's fer fightin' them terrists. And we all know fightin' them terrists is more important than making sure every man, woman and child can get affordable health care.

More fuckin' bullshit from the war machine!

DUH.....

.....and they can't quite figure out why the fuck they suck.

From Slate.....

Thursday, January 21, 2010

LEGISLATING FROM THE BENCH

I'm sure everyone has heard about this.....

From MSNBC....

Supreme Court rolls back campaign cash limits

Obama slams 'green light to a new stampede of special interest money'

WASHINGTON - In a landmark ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down laws that banned corporations from using their own money to support or oppose candidates for public office.

By 5-4 vote, the court overturned federal laws, in effect for decades, that prevented corporations from using their profits to buy political campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.

It leaves in place a ban prohibiting corporations and unions from directly contributing funds to candidates for any use.


The five conservative members of the high court were the ones who made this happen.

Conservatives....the ones who say that the liberals legislate from the bench.

Well if this ain't legislating, I don't know what is. Those five corporate owned conservatards just threw all of under the corporate America bus.

If Congress doesn't act quickly to reign this in we will have seen the last of true democracy in these United States.

Folks, we are fucked. We are soooo fucked!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

TEXAS SKOOLZ.....

.....a great place to git yer kidz some learneding....

HT to Slate


....and don't forget, people rode dinosaurs.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

BACK TO THE DARK AGES

"We have become a nation of fools being ruled by idiots controlled by corporate jackasses." GE 01/02/10

The rich get richer, and the poor keep getting poorer. The religious elite, and corporate America, have a stranglehold on our country and it's elected officials. Everything now is designed to enrich the wealthy and step on the throats of the working poor, and by working poor I mean the 80% of us who don't have any of the wealth.

I found this article in TPJmagazine. The original date it was printed was December 27, 2009. This shows how we are on the path to a return to the Dark Ages and if we don't do something soon, that's just where we will be.

Here's part of the article, the rest can be found here....

THE REINCARNATION OF THE DARK AGES

None Dare Call It RELIGIOUS FEUDALISM

By Loren Adams, 27 December 2009

The king taxed the peasants to poverty while the royals were exempt from paying any. Reason? Unjust tax codes were a design of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. That was the “targeted tax-cut” which invariably became law. “He who hath the gold maketh the rules.”

The Dark Ages was the birthplace of “Trickle-Down Economics.” The caste system was embraced, the church was simply a ruling arm of the monarch, and slavery was legitimatized by the religious righteous.

Republicans constantly decry labor’s “class warfare,” but this is the real war being waged across America. The cultural war is basically a derivative of class warfare – where the ruling class has employed white evangelicals to do their bidding: divide and conquer.

During the Dark Ages, wealth was exclusively inherited, not earned. The legal system was purchased like a commodity resulting in juryless trials, military tribunals, pronouncements by a king acknowledged as sovereign and commissioned by God to rule as if the voice of Providence Himself, executive orders usurping representation, taxation without representation, etc. Anyone disputing the monarch’s sovereignty was designated a traitor and summarily executed, tortured or banished to dungeon. These were the markings of the Dark Ages. Are they not similar to contemporary Republicanism so glaringly demonstrated during the Bush years?

America’s founders rejected the monarchial system where its legitimacy hinged on approval by the religious supremes. The “separation of church and state” concept of the new republic was established for that reason. Now we are sliding back into the realm where the head of state rides to power on a religious beast, where any successful candidate must be approved by the predominant religious system to win. Even our beloved Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign felt he must do pilgrimage to Saddleback Church and later pay homage to Pastor Rick Warren at Inaugural.

The Dark Ages were not only dark from plagues, they were darkened from ignorance, superstition and greed. The religious right denied the world was round; anyone disputing this “God-derived” doctrine was executed or imprisoned. Science was equated with Satanism. Thus, discovery, invention, innovation, and commercialism could not flourish, and the West plunged into poverty. Does America not see the similarity? A religious system that wages war on science, denies climate change, rejects evolution, and edits Texas texts for school children to include praise for Limbaugh, Beck and Palin is a system geared toward destroying not only scientific and environmental thought, but the foundation of economy.

The religious system was USED to gain power for monarchs similar to the way current political operatives USE the religious to further their own aims. In the Middle Ages, the doctrine of the “divine right of kings” precluded civil liberties; the king/queen equaled “divinity.” Potentates (royals) were considered surrogates of God. Power was passed down from father to son — Dynasties divinely ordained by entitlement. So, when we hear of world leaders or presidents bequeathed the title “Man of God,” watch out. It may not be long before civil liberties and human rights become casualties in the name of national unity and security — and with popular support — the masses duped by superstition. Remember the Bush theocratic dynasty.

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Consider this ominous fact: The average American’s income has remained flat since 1977 — 33 years ago, while the income of the richest 1% has more than tripled — 228% (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities). CEOs (corporate executive officers) incomes rose 400% in the 1990s to $10.6 million annual income per capita, while take-home pay for the average American, the 80%, rose zero percent.

Real life experience bears it out. Most Americans don’t enjoy the purchasing power they once did when a one-income family could raise children, purchase a home, car and college education for their kids. Now both parents work (if lucky enough to have a job) and still can’t keep up, resulting in less quality education, poor family relations, rising crime, and an eroding moral foundation.

Some in this country never learn from history. The greedy are blinded to the fact that refusing to care for others less fortunate ultimately leads to their own demise. The underlying truth may be that these tightfisted characters are not so much concerned about accumulating wealth as widening the gap. Yes, they delight in seeing the difference. Class consciousness means more to them than money in the bank. Thus, the motive defines the power struggle.

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The political will of the radical right is more stubborn than ever. Not only do they want to defeat Health-Care Reform, they want to rid the country of any safety-net, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and any other “socialist” program. It’s all “socialism” or “communism” to them. . . “un-American.”

They hide their greed behind such noble causes as “individualism,” “patriotism,” “character & family values” and “national security,” but all the while their ultimate aim is the same. Proudly they wave the flag and claim to be the lead standard bearers for patriotism; all the while we recall they’re missing in action when it really counts; wealthy family ties shield them from risk. Only the rich initiate wars, mostly the poor fight them. The double standard of justice comes from obscene wealth. Principles can be compromised at a price. And so can religion, their primary weapon of choice.

In similar manner, they buy off religious organizations and congressmen, hire the best lobbyists, and manipulate enough voters through the religious system to change laws for their benefit. Their aim? To further concentrate the wealth and leave the rest of the country destitute if need be. Their “compassionate conservatism” is hypocrisy cloaked in a sound-bite.

In future years it will be written that the real enemy of our times was not communism or socialism (as many Tea-Baggers scream), but rather the re-emergence of a form of feudalism in alliance with theocracy or what The Family (“C-Street”) calls “Dominionism.” The Handmaid’s Tale was not too far off.

In place of mote-defended castles surrounded by thatched-roof shanties will be “gated communities” [sporting high-tech surveillance to keep the homeless and servant-class out] surrounded by metal trailer shanties housing 21st Century serfs. Recall “Hoovervilles”? The new shanty-towns should be aptly named “Bushvilles.” We’ve come a long way in 1,200 years or so.


There is a video from Thom Hartmann that runs just over 11 min.

Go read the rest and watch the video.

IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME.......

......since I've been here to post anything.

Hi folks! Yes, I'm still alive. I just needed a break from the blogging for a while.
Sorry I didn't announce that I was going on hiatus, and I apologize to those who's emails I did not respond to. I humbly ask your forgiveness.

I will be posting again. It may not be as often, or as much, as I did in the past....but I will be posting.

I hope all my friends are still out there. I look forward to hearing from all of you again.

Grandpa Eddie