Show me your papers

You know, there are certain places on this Big Blue Marble that I have no interest in visiting. I hear from friends and neighbors about their hometowns and wonder what those places are like and, for the most part, would love to experience them personally. But some spots just scream out "no fucking way!"

Places like Detroit, or Mozambique, or most of Texas. But I would spend my entire vacation in those spots long before I ever go to Arizona.

Fuck those racist assholes.

My response...

Gogol Bordello - Immigraniada

So Mote It Be,
David A.

What year is it again?

Sometimes you just have to stop and shake your head at the sheer arrogance of the Repugs.

"Miss. county schools ordered to comply
with desegregation order"

This follows their esteemed governor's moronic response to Virginia Gov. McDonell's self-screwed proclamation with his own Confederate History Month Commemoration.
That bitch is about a couple of clowns short of a full circus. To refresh one's memories, he also stood tall as the head of the Republican Party back when Dubya was in full bloom.

And the South will rise again...
...like sewage from a broken septic tank.

These bastards just can't get over losing.

So Mote It Be,
David A.

Now, the real work begins...

The House voted yesterday to finally put a Health Care Reform bill on the President's desk. The bill is landmark legislation, the embodiment of months back room deals, late night speeches, town hall fiascoes and gut wrenching compromises.

What we have left is a bill that addresses some things but falls far short on too many others. The bill is important, not for what is does, but for what it doesn't do.

Progressives have to look at this as a stepping stone, not a finish line. We're not across the river yet. There are too many variables in the bill that leave gaping holes that the insurance companies will get through like flies through an open window. Let me be crystal clear, the insurance companies will not sit idly by and just accept this. Even with the mandate and the lack of regulations, they still want to keep the status quo. This bill isn't perfect but it will cost them some money and that's what they are all about.

I have to view this inadequate legislation as a foundation, something to build upon. Unfortunately, our congresscritters will think their work is done and leave any changes to future generations. To hell with that. Now is the time to get the goods together to add flesh to this skeleton. Some have started already; courageous legislators that know the shortcomings of this bill and have the fixes ready for consideration. Such congressmen as Alan Grayson.

1. Real Regulation of Insurance Companies.
This was one of the most important aspects of the bill and it was one of the first to be removed. Sure, there are some limitations but not nearly enough. Every important restriction was watered down to appease the congressional lapdogs of the insurance industry. What we need is concrete regulation: removal of the anti-trust exemption, oversight of rate increase, elimination of ALL pre-condition restrictions and beefed-up enforcement of this law. Send industry executives to jail if they balk on these rules. Remove all loopholes that allow insurance companies to get around tax laws and SEC regulations so that they are required to play by the rules, not find ways around them.

2. A real Public Option!
Rep. Alan Grayson has legislation that will allow every legal resident of the United States to 'buy into' Medicare. His bill is only four pages long but it lays it out plainly. If you want to get health care but don't want to dive into the swamp that is the health insurance pool, then you have the option to have a portion of your pay sent to the government so that you can participate in the Medicare program. Could it be any simpler? No hassles with insurance pools, insurance companies that defraud their customers or spending hours arguing for the smallest payments. Give us the option to tell the for-profit insurance companies to go to hell once and for all.

3. Remove and Rescind the Hyde Amendment.
What the hell is this garbage? I can go to the doctor and get a prescription for Cialis, Viagra, or any other of the popular weiner drugs, see a physician to have my boys disconnected from my penis or seek out any of a dozen services for men all covered by insurance. But how about the ladies? What can they do? Sit down, shut up and pop out those puppies as many as you can 'cause Jesus tells you to. Bullshit! I have no business telling a woman how to deal with reproductive services and neither does our government. If a woman has a need for LEGAL abortion services then that's between her and her doctor and should be covered like any other ailment. There is no debate here. Abortions are legal in this country and as long as that remains true then they must be covered by any and ALL insurance. If Catholics don't like it then don't get an abortion.
As far as I can tell, Catholic bishops and priests protect the unborn because that ensures a steady crop of little boys for playtime. To hell with the Catholic Church.

There are a lot of other problems with this bill and we'll deal with them as they crop up. Our job is to keep our congresscritters' feet to the fire with patching these holes.

Side Note:
What the Fuck is this...

Kudos to Rep. Tim Ryan for putting this out on the floor of the House.
Teabaggers are the most disgusting, anti-American assholes that occupy our space.

Words can't express how vile and reprehensible this is. The Republican Party is the party of Greed, Racism, and Hate. That's not just a rabid Liberal spouting off on his blog but a verifiable and proven description of their core values. These cretins disgust me and all good Americans. A pox on all their houses for this garbage. Racism is a poison in this country, a vile disease that runs rampant in every corner. The GOP fans these flames of bigotry by inciting fear and hatred of the first African-American president at every tea party event they speak at. This is the modern GOP. Greedy fucking racists, the lot of 'em.

Update:
Seems my craptacular state attorney general, Rob McKenna has filed suit to challenge the HCR bill. McKenna is a corporate whore. He only gets concerned for the state constitution when his Chamber of Commerce buddies get their panties in a bunch. He doesn't stand up for the little guy in WA, he stands ON them. Freakin' bastard. Our gov Chris Gregoire supports the bill but Snidley McKenna will have no part of that.

Jesus Christ on a Taco, it's bad enough that I'm represented in Congress by a know-nothing idiot who pretends he worth a damn. Now, I have to bear the shame of a soulless corporate weasel like McKenna making a mark for his GOP cred.

Could go on and on but have to head out to the coal mine to toil for my corporate masters.

So Mote It Be,
David A.

Birther Bull

OK, I'll step into this cowpie.

The reason... my congresscritter (Deputy Dave Reichert WA-8) came on the You Tube and made an ass of himself. Then the congresscritter from my parents district ( Cathy McMorris-Rodgers WA-5) made a bolt up the steps of Congress to get away from Mike Stark, who was trying to get her comment.

This way to the Pasture!

Let's go all in... Full shoe here.

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, HI on Aug. 4th, 1961. This event was recorded and documented like all live births at the time and in that state. There was no international conspiracy to alter the birth records of a mixed race baby boy in pre-civil rights Hawaii. But that's not what this post is about. The records are real and verified. No controversy, no mystery, just normal birth records not unlike those of any other person born in the US.

The real reason this is out there was shown plain as day on Rachel Maddow's show on Monday. She called it for what it is - a racist attack.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

These cretins cannot fathom that the President of the United States is a black man. It drives them nuts. For decades, the right wing has kept the fires of racism stoked high and hot to keep African Americans from achieving their full potential. They're absolutely terrified to their toenails that black people will emerge from repression to take their place in society. They fear that by allowing minority citizens (IE: real people) to reach their dreams; America will see these racist bastards for the ignorant shallow mouth breathers they are and send them packing to the fringes of society where they belong.

I have no love for racists. Their opinions show a lack of intelligence and compassion. They prove that humanity has a long way to go to achieve any worthwhile improvement in our social evolution. As long as a single racist exists, humanity will always occupy the lowest rung on the ladder of civilization. Intelligent, learned scholars are always trying to construct the perfect society, the Utopian life that will transcend all of our basest needs. Thomas More, Aldous Huxley and William Morris all wrote of Utopian societies where everyone lived in peace and tranquility, no worries or war. Such places are the stuff of dreams and will never be realized as long as racism exists.

And as long as the Republican Party keeps fools like Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck around as their leadership, there will always be a crowded pasture to walk through.

Update: I forgot to include this in the original post. The House voted unanimously to recognize the 50th anniversary of Hawaii's statehood. In the proclamation, sponsor Rep. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii included acknowledgment of the birth of native son, Pres. Barack Obama.

Hee Hee! GOP pwned again!

So Mote It Be,
David A.

For what it's worth

America was teabagged yesterday. And not in a good way. We were lulled into a false sense of complacency and the nutbags on the Right slipped their jewels down our throat.

What is with people? My neighbors and coworkers are railing against taxes that went down this year. They complain about the loss of jobs when stimulus money is starting to flow into the economy to boost employment. The fat cats on Wall Street are starting to feel the heat from the scrutiny of regulators for the first time in a decade. The economy sucks big time and they bitch and moan about the only means we have left to breathe life into it. They rant and rave on cue about phantom threats and shadowy government skullduggery that exist only in the raving minds of screechers like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

I watched with amazement hundreds if not thousands of my fellow Americans screaming about tearing this country apart. There was no love for America in those crowds. They expressed only love for their own greed self interests. There was no community, no neighbor helping neighbor, only me-me-me. The whole affair, the whole concept was nothing more than a Fox News-coordinated circle jerk of selfishness, greed and scapegoating. I'm sure that while these teabaggers were out at the village square protesting in the rain, the IQ's of their neighborhoods must have went up dramatically.

We are in a economic cesspool and we let it happen. The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves. The wizards of Wall Street found a pot of gold in the way we managed our financial system. Years after Roosevelt put the clamps on creative banking and other financial shenanigans; these Manhattan mountebanks found allies in the halls of power who could crack the lid on that Pandora' Box. Phil Gramm, Jim Leach, and the entire lobbying cabal crafted legislation that took America's pocketbook apart for no other reason than to make certain people, certain connected people, very very very rich.

This wasn't done to help this country. These new laws that opened up the financial world to speculators and diversifiers wasn't conceived to help Mom and Pop America. Gramm himself said as much recently when he called the American people a 'bunch of whiners.' He's an asshole. A greedy, anti-American, self-serving, take-it-all, Republican asshole. And he's not alone.

This whole teabagging farce is ludicrous from the start. These people, clueless to what the fuck they're railing about, are just following the rants and tantrums of a few Republican blowhards. They are lemmings rushing to the sea as their leaders stand aside screaming "There's you salvation! It's out there just beyond the horizon. The Liberals want you to stop, they don't want you to get rich. Keep going! Don't Stop! The Golden Goose is just a bit further."

I watched them protest taxes when their taxes are going down. I watched them protest Obama because he wants to take away their freedoms when they sat idly by as George Bush and Dick Cheney trashed the Constitution. They call me a fascist when they haven't a clue what it means. They compare our duly elected president to the most heinous monster that ever lived. They question his birth for no other reason than the color of his skin. This isn't America. This isn't the country I served when I donned the uniform of the US Navy. These people are selfish, greedy assholes that have no business waving the American flag.

America is better than that. Better than the Glenn Becks, the Michelle Malkins, and the Rush Limbaughs. The America I know comes to the call when shit happens. They watch out for their neighbors and keep an eye on their leaders. They raise their voices when injustice occurs or when Washington starts to go a bit deaf. They know what's up by paying attention to the world around them and speaking out when it starts to wobble. They roll up their sleeves when the tide rushes in and their communities need help. This is the America I grew up in. Are those people dead? Have they left the building with Elvis?

The people I saw on the TV Box protesting yesterday weren't speaking in a single voice like the protests I've been a part of. There was no central theme or single purpose. Each of them were crying out their own disappointment, their own bitch about how this government is keeping them down. Taxes, guns, anger at the prospect of a 'n*****' in the White House, those were the themes I witnessed yesterday.

They rail against taxes but scream bloody fucking murder if there's a pothole in front of their house or the police took too long to come when they called to complain about their liberal neighbor's dog crapping on their lawn. They expect the fire department or the ambulance to come when called, the schools to be open and the water to always come out of the faucet but they don't want to pay for any of it.

They cry and snivel about their right to bear arms when all they want to do is stockpile deadly weapons because they are so afraid and so chickenshit that they jump at every Mexican, are terrified of every Liberal, stone cold petrified that some shadowy imaginary government entity is going to show up at their door, knock it down and take all their toys away. The only purpose these firearms serve, besides a substitute for Viagra, is so they can blow off their own toe or give their kids an opportunity to put a hole in their best friend's head.

They scream and stomp in measured words and gestures about how they want the President to release his birth certificate because they can't allow themselves to believe that America voted for a black man. I use the n-word (censured) because that's the word they dance around in public but have no problem saying within their circle of racist idiots.

• No one wants to take away their guns if they are legally able to own them. Assault weapons were illegal for years before Bush and should be made illegal again without taking away those already legally purchased.
  
• Taxes are uncomfortable but necessary. I am proud to pay my share of the tax burden and think that as an American, each of us should feel the same. I get bent out of shape when I hear about some mega-corporation who, by opening a post office box in the Bahamas, can skirt paying their fair share of taxes. These loopholes should be closed and right fucking now. The protesters say no. They want corporations to have these tax breaks. This alone shows us how clueless these blockheads are.
  
• As for the racism I saw yesterday, it was disgusting. The ones who were open about it weren't the most heinous, it was the folks who danced and shuffled around the fact that they were damned angry that their reasonable friends and neighbors put a black man in charge. Not only that, what is really cramping their gut is the glaring and inescapable fact that he is damned good at the job and is far and away the most qualified person to bring about the salvation of this country. And there's more...the cherry on top of their dismay is the simple fact that most of America knows it and isn't afraid to say so. President Obama is doing a fantastic job and 68% of Americans expect him to pull us out of this mess.
  

This kind of right wing bullshit is the anchor that will keep us from getting to the end of this economic shitstorm. We have the tools to put our economic house in order but the agents of stagnation left over from the Bush Administration won't have it. In order for America to get free of this bullshit, we are going to have to rein in the greedy bastards that scuttled us in the first place. They spent the last 20 years sucking their wealth off our teat and won't give it up without a fight. Even now, there's reaction to just the hint of re-regulation in the markets. Some of the morons in the streets yesterday were holding signs that called for the government to back off the big money greedy bastards that crapped on us in the first place. My God, do these people even read their own protest signs? What part of a reasonable person would want to keep these greedy fuckwads pissing in our well? I guess I answered that already.

They had their time in the spotlight. Fux News creamed all over themselves promoting it and inflating their numbers, like we didn't see that coming. Hopefully, we can let this foolishness fade into the black hole of history and we can get back to work shoveling out the stables. But Fux News won't let it rest. They're going to keep harping and screeching and bloviating until they cause another nutbag to pop a gasket and shoot up a school or workplace.

It's going to happen and keep happening until Mom and Pop America realize that they need to change the channel and watch reruns of Gilligan's Island rather than Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly. They need to go out to the garden and get the seeds in the ground and stop listening to that walking pusbag Rush Limbaugh. We have better things to do, more important activities to get busy with. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us that the government can't get done by itself. We are the government too. If we are to climb our asses out of this hole, we have to stop shoveling and start going up. If the Republicans refuse to cooperate, fuck 'em. Kick 'em in the nuts, jump on their backs and climb out of the goddamn hole! Let them fail. That seems to be the only thing they're really good at.

So Mote It Be,
David A.

The Mythology of the GOP

For decades, the popular view of the Republican Party has been the 'Daddy Party', the party of responsibility, frugality, and measured, conservative advance. For decades, the popular view of UFO's has been little green men from some distant world bent on the destruction of our world.

I put more credence in the little green men.

There is no 'Daddy Party' unless you count a bunch of immature children playing dress-up. Take any Republican aside and look very close at their pet issues and beliefs and you will find a hodge-podge of contradictions based on fear and greed. The average Republican is terrified that he will not get all he wants especially if it belongs to someone else. It's the anger of the selfish spoiled child who wants it now! Add to that the distinctive stench of racism in the form of entitlements and giveaways. Our Republican friends firmly believe in equality of the races but only in measured amounts. They consider all minorities equal, just not equal to them. When society tries to right the great wrongs of the past, they get all bent out of shape because lifting minorities up would lower them.

Liberals and progressives have always looked to the other side with a fair bit of exasperation. We can't seem to gather our troops together as they do, have lots of problems keeping on message like them and constantly have to rein in outliers who stray too far from the flock. For all our supposed scholarship and intelligence, we still find ourselves trapped by the ignorance and abject stupidity of the GOP. We look to the GOP lemmings as they run off the cliff and say "Gee, I wish I could rally the troops like that!"

Our diversity is our strength. That's the reason it gives us so much grief. Nothing of value will ever come easy. If it does, we usually find out the true value later and at much cost.

Republicans know this, they have to. It's foolish to believe that all Republicans are clueless idiots like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. They have to realize that the things that matter most to Liberals and progressives are based on reality, facts that can be verified. They have to know these things because they go to such lengths to rebut them; to scatter ridiculous claims and fabricate tragic scenarios should our policies come to pass. They use fear mongering as chaff around the Media to obscure their real purposes.

What used to be relegated to tin-hat conspiracy theorists is slowly gaining attention in the progressive blogosphere. It begs to be published, to be spoken about outside the shadows and back rooms; even to mention it in popular circles of scholarship is taking a bold step.

The Republican Party wants America to fail.

Oh, they want to keep the name and all the old stuff in the museums, like the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Jeffersonian Bible, etc. The Republican Party wants to gut the American system of government. They want to bring us back to the old ways of feudal Europe with all the modern toys and goodies.

The Modern Republican Party wants to increase the chasm that exists between those who have lots and those who have little. Those who have none are expendable.

A 21st century feudal society would have most Americans working long hours for just enough pay to subsist. The elite would be separate from the unwashed hoard by economics and politics. Two societies would exist; one of privilege, one of work. The worker class would be divided among the industries that need them the most. Corporate icons would control the lives of its workers much the same as it cares for the machinery it operates. The workers class would have few rights and privileges save for a few earned as incentives. Children would only be allowed if a person showed the necessary homage to the Party, including its principal of "do onto others before they do onto you." Citizens who displayed cruelty and inhumanity would be allowed to advance, move up the ladder of success. Those who displayed humanity and kindness would languish in abject poverty and toil for showing weakness.

Sound outlandish? Like a bad science fiction movie? The reality is right in front of us. We see the building blocks of this scenario falling into place as we speak. A couple of years ago, I would have been called a nutcase for suggesting this.

Am I still crazy?

Consider the current talk coming from the Right. The leaders of the Republican Party want to return to the ways of the Bush Administration. They know that this will lead us further into debt, cause the economy to sink deeper into depression. Only from the ashes of the American way of life can they rebuild their Corporatist dream. People like Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove know that the only way to get people to support them again is to scare the living shit out of them. The current economic downturn has the potential to be that object of fear. It's a 'godsend' to them. (to corrupt a saying) By scaring people into electing their chosen toadies and supporting draconian measures to 'protect the American way of life'; they hope to put the final nails in Free Democratic America's coffin.

What they didn't count on was the appeal of Barack Obama. The election of 2008 was a disaster for them from the start. They couldn't get their candidates to stay on message and keep from self-immolating themselves. They had hoped for another Democratic candidate, like Hillary Clinton. I'm sure, at first, they thought 'Gee, let them select the black guy. America will never elect a n......!' To which, I'm forever proud to say, America said "Fuck you and your racist bullshit!"

Now, they are on red alert. Events haven't been that kind to their plans. Most of them are in desperation mode, eating their own and looking out for 'No. 1!' (In their case, it should be 'No. 2') But be put on notice that we aren't out of the woods yet. Lots of things can happen at a moment's notice which could put the GOP on the fast track once again. Vigilance is the key. Keeping our troops rallied together wouldn't hurt either. (not so subtle dig at the Blue Dogs)

We have to be very careful not to overreach. We can't afford to get over-confident nor too conservative. We have to listen to our best and brightest but give the ordinary a platform too. We are only as good as the least among us.

So Mote It Be,
David A.

An Infection Breeds in America

(this was previously posted as a diary on the Daily Kos)

In the past three weeks, we’ve been hammered by pundits and prophets, denizens of marbled hallways and plush leather chairs. We’ve seen both courage and cowardice by those we’ve sent to represent us in the halls of power. At any other time, the partisan games of one-upmanship would be tolerable but there comes a time when such games are more of a hindrance than help

We, the people, ask little of our leaders. We expect them to conform to certain standards and ethics but give them lots of deference. We can tolerate a lot, overlook many transgressions and foibles but we always expect the power to come on when we want it, the potholes to be fixed eventually, and the pizza to be delivered on time.

Those expectations are gone. This economic situation is dire, perhaps worse than any we have known. We speak of the Great Depression, but it is nearly a century distant. But that was then, this is now. America was very different then than it is today. America has a problem. It is infected.

Today, we have the advantage of internet technology to flash news instantaneously from Congress to Wall Street to the kitchen. But that only delivers the news; in many cases this technology set the stage for bigger schemes, more ingenious larceny, or massive global obfuscation. Like before, abject greed and corporate irresponsibility has the lion’s share of blame for this recession. And within our halls of power, there is an ally to those moneyed interests. The Republican Party, the supposed party of Lincoln, is closely tied to the same corporate mountebanks that brought this country so close to the edge of the precipice. To say they are allied is to underestimate their relationship for it is more akin to a marriage than a business arrangement.

The modern Republican Party cannot see past its corporate masters. They don’t see the people of Main Street, the folks who try to work every day to just get by. Those normal people are invisible to the GOP. The powerbrokers at the GOP can only see those who can give a financial boost to the Party, the lowest rung on the ladder of success in their view are the business owners, not the workers.

To be sure, the modern Republican Party has nothing but distain and hatred for all things labor. They despise any rule or legislation that favors the working person. In their world, we would all be working for the bare minimum at the maximum number of hours including our children and our elderly. This dream of theirs harkens back to a time long ago when 16-hour shifts at 2 dollars a day were considered good wages.

This is not bipartisanship. This is setting the foundations for a coup d'état. The GOP is so angry at the outcome of the November elections that they will sacrifice the American economy to occupy the halls of power once again. They were able to bamboozle the voters in 2000 and 2004. They got an imbecile elected president and took control of both the Senate and the House. But they couldn’t hold on to that power. The most significant reason that cut them loose from the dock and sent them adrift was their unabashed greed. Their greed cost Tom Delay his seat in the House. Their greed sent Duke Cunningham and Jeff Skilling to jail. Their greed folded the economy like a bad suit. Their greed sent Barack Obama to the White House.

America is better than greed. We’ve conquered fear and hatred many times throughout our history. We’ve been down this road before and have to get back on track if we wish to see sunlight at the end of this dark tunnel. To do this we have to remove the cause of our blight. Like a gangrenous limb, we have to remove it to save the whole. The GOP is gangrenous. They no longer serve any useful purpose; in fact, they are infecting the body American by their presence. We, as a people, have to make a stark and unpleasant choice: to allow the Republicans to remain and suffer the pain and anguish of an economic death or remove the offending organ and save the country for our descendants?

The choice is obvious, but the remedy is not. President Obama’s words of bipartisanship only serve to delay the inevitable. There is no rehabilitation of the GOP. A once proud Party is now a mere shell of itself, beholden to the corporate icons and moneyed interests that loom large over this economic collapse. The Republicans are not unlike the Gollum of Tolkien’s tale, so obsessed with the One Ring that it lost all humanity with nothing left but anger and deceit.

President Obama must take the case to the American people. He should hold up the GOP to the scorn of those who have been harmed the most by this recession. Those who are working to reverse this downturn should give this bad economy a face, a Republican face. Make those responsible for this disaster wear the Scarlet Letter. Frame the discussion, take to the airwaves and publications with the message of hope for the recovery and blame for the greed and avarice of the last eight years.

Make them pay for what they did to this country. Perhaps from the bones of a shamed and desolate GOP, there will come a more responsible and truly conservative party. To paraphrase an old saying: to save the party, we must destroy it.

So Mote It Be,
David A.

From the Brambles Cometh Sanity

Happy New Year!

Now that the calender has been satisfied, we can get back to reality. Put away the funny hats and party whistles, throw away the empty wine bottles and take an Advil or two - it's time to get busy.

Lots of things to go over but that'll wait for a clearer mind and a day of reflection. Suffice it to say that today I'll be throwing a few links out for you to peruse. We will start with a good one.

Rarely do we hear sanity from the chattering class. This link's author isn't really a chatterer, he's got more respect in his back pocket than Brooks, Broder, Sullivan and the cast of McLaughlin's Zoo will ever achieve.

I'm, of course, referring to Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman. His most recent column in the New York Times should be the first read piece for any liberal activist this year. Have a cuppa joe, a cheese danish, and log on...

Prof. Krugman so eloquently states...

The fault, however, lies not in Republicans’ stars but in themselves. Forty years ago the G.O.P. decided, in effect, to make itself the party of racial backlash. And everything that has happened in recent years, from the choice of Mr. Bush as the party’s champion, to the Bush administration’s pervasive incompetence, to the party’s shrinking base, is a consequence of that decision.

The entire column is full of tasty bits of reality. Go there and sup grandly.