Bill-O the Clown is calling to execute the guys who leaked the recent diplomatic cables as ‘traitors.’ How about a fair balance, Bill-O? We’ll execute the cable leakers provided we also execute all the guys who were behind the exposure of Valerie Plame (and thereby exposing all her undercover contacts and other agents)? Yep, I’ll looking at you Dick Cheney!
I’ve been reading all the various news posts about the ‘revelations’ found in the recent information on Wiki leaks. Like China growing distant from North Korea, or that Qaddafi is a nutjob, or that the U.S. was trying to find countries to take Gitmo detainees. Anybody else experiencing a “No Duh” moment?
In related news, I am starting to miss the days when the Reactionaries attack folks for questioning a sitting President ‘during wartime’ – I guess Caribou Barbie didn’t get the memo.
None of this for you, Wisconsin!
I’m sure you all heard about Russ Feingold being evicted from his U.S. Senate seat by Wisconsin voters last week. What you may not know is that Wisconsin elected a Republican governor as well, and he’s accepted his victory with all the grace divisive partisan bluster we’ve learned to expect from the GOP:
Gov.-elect Scott Walker is determined to bring major changes to Madison — seemingly even before he takes office next year.
Walker, a Republican, has asked Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration to immediately stop some of its key policy initiatives . . .
In a letter sent Wednesday to Department of Administration Secretary Daniel Schooff, Walker urged the current administration to freeze implementation of the federal health care law — an issue Doyle is especially passionate about — and suspend contract negotiations with state employees . . .
That the health-care law hasn’t even begun to be implemented yet (since it doesn’t go into effect for two more years) doesn’t matter to Walker — this is all about showboating and posturing. Which is the only thing that matters to Republican politicians, aside from rewarding campaign contributors:
Scott Walker wants Wisconsinites to believe that Wisconsin can take federal money that was allocated for construction of a national high-speed rail network and use it to build roads. . . .
Not according to Congressman Tom Petri, a Fond du Lac Republican who is a veteran member of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. While Petri was a Walker backer in the recent election and says he sympathizes with Walker’s plan, he says he can see little hope that Walker’s scheme will get any traction.
Despite what the governor-elect is claiming, his fellow Republican Petri says the money already has been set aside specifically for building up America’s rail infrasructure. If Wisconsin does not want the money, there are other states that want to spend the $810 million to create jobs and position themselves to compete in the 21st century.
Walker is rejecting the money unless he can spend it on his pet projects — or, to be more specific, on the pet projects of his campaign donors in the road-building industry.
Again, Walker certainly couldn’t care less about the fine points of legislative requirements — you can bet that he’ll bluster vaguely about “red tape” and sinister liberal forces that prevent him from steering the federal money to his benefactors. If the Spanish railcar maker that was going to build a plant in Wisconsin follows the money instead and takes its jobs to Illinois, it’s of no consequence to the new GOP governor; he’s not there to serve the average citizen.
Which is why Republicans are so fiercely disciplined when it comes to messaging. They have to be in order to cover up their policy agenda.
(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)
Although our people and elected leaders seem increasingly unclear on the concept of the separation of church and state, Shrubya wasn’t able to fully compromise the system (beyond SCOTUS anyway) with Baylor University graduates. I suspect the courts will make short work of Oklahoma’s crazy Muslim-baiting ballot measure.
11/3/10 – Let’s re-establish the Share Our Wealth Society as a counter to the Tea Bag Chumps and their wealthy backers. Who’s with me?
The original key planks weren’t bad, some have been achieved, some just need to be readjusted:
The key planks of the Share Our Wealth platform included:
* No person would be allowed to accumulate a personal net worth of more than 300 times the average family fortune, which would limit personal assets to between $5 million and $8 million. A graduated capital levy tax would be assessed on all persons with a net worth exceeding $1 million. – {Hell yeah!}
* Annual incomes would be limited to $1 million and inheritances would be capped at $5 million. – {Need to bring back the inheritance tax, but the cap is attractive. Capping impractical but we can restore some levels of the older progressive tax rates for high incomes}
* Every family was to be furnished with a homestead allowance of not less than one-third the average family wealth of the country. Every family was to be guaranteed an annual family income of at least $2,000 to $2,500, or not less than one-third of the average annual family income in the United States. Yearly income, however, cannot exceed more than 300 times the size of the average family income. – {Minimum achieved, sort of, via minimum wage. except for the income caps}
* An old-age pension would be made available for all persons over 60. – {Achieved, but needs some tweaks}
* To balance agricultural production, the government would preserve/store surplus goods, abolishing the practice of destroying surplus food and other necessities due to lack of purchasing power. {Let’s go back to the old system, agricultural supports, not subsidies!}
* Veterans would be paid what they were owed (a pension and healthcare benefits) – {Achieved, sort of}
* Free education and training for all students to have equal opportunities in all schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions for training in the professions and vocations of life. – {Hell yeah!}
* The raising of revenue and taxes for the support of this program was to come from the reduction of swollen fortunes from the top, as well as for the support of public works to give employment whenever there may be any slackening necessary in private enterprise.
“Hotjobs has nothing. You see anything on Monster?”
“Nope. Bill, has CareerBuilder got anything?
“Unh-uh.”
(Photo via the White House.)
The election of Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Robert Hurt, Rob Portman, Jim DeMint, Richard Shelby, Tom Coburn, Richard Burr, John Thune, Johnny Isakson, Mike Crapo, John McCain, Jerry Moran, John Hoeven, Chuck Grassley, Dan Coates, John Boozman, David Vitter and Mike Lee can only mean one thing:
Stupid is as stupid does! And we sure does stupid!
Early returns indicate the South is embracing all the idiots this election, from Ayn Rand Paul in Kentucky to Marco Rubio in Florida. Like Tugg Speedman from Tropic Thunder, they’ll soon learn to regret not having the sage advice of Kirk Lazarus to guide their voting:
You went full retard, man. Never go full retard.
Did you know that the words “race car” spelled backwards still spell “race car”?
And “eat” is the only word that, if you take the 1st letter and move it to the last, spells its past tense — ate.
And if you rearrange the letters in “Tea Party Republicans” and add just a few more letters, it spells: “Shut up, you free-loading, progress-blocking, benefit-grabbing, homophobic, resource-sucking, racist, hypocritical jerks, and face the fact that you nearly capsized the country under Bush.”
How weird is that?
