I Don’t Get Union Political Strategy

When doing some research for my local race blog, I noticed that the Republican candidate for Congress got a $10K donation from the Bricklayers’ Union, the maximum allowed by law. This contribution happened even though her opponent, Louise Slaughter, has received over $100K this cycle from unions, which shows who most unions think will be on their side.

I think I might understand the local politics of this donation, since the candidate, County Executive Maggie Brooks, is a pretty reliable union supporter, as are many Republican office holders in New York. But, nationally, and in states like Wisconsin where there was at least a peaceful accommodation between Republicans and unions, this isn’t the case. It’s been obvious since the Gingrich days that union bashing is a cornerstone of Republican politics, and that any union supporting a Republican for federal office is slitting its own throat. Yet I still see local unions giving sizable donations to federal candidates.

Is this just a New York thing? I’ve never been a union member, but why in the hell would you want to pay dues to an organization that does something this boneheaded?

Vulgarians at the Cake (Open Thread)

Poor Mrs. Mitt. After 40+ years of back-breaking momming, the woman has earned the right to kick back and take it easy. And she could, too, if it weren’t for her husband’s compulsive need to cross “Be President!” off his bucket list.

So Mrs. Mitt is forced to endure serial humiliations, one of the worst of which must surely be the obligation to interact socially with a vulgar, embarrassing blowhard like Donald Trump. Last night, Mrs. Mitt was obligated to paste on a smile and ride the elevator to the 66th floor of Trump Tower to join Trump, his wife Melanoma and 400 other crass rich people (the only kind willing to share airspace with Trump) to raise $600,000 for the Mitt campaign at a “birthday party” for Mrs. Mitt. (66th floor + $600,000 – $599,994 = 666!)

And, because even though Trump was born rich, he somehow managed to avoid acquiring the good taste and manners that often make our plutocrats seem less overtly monstrous than they actually are, he exposed poor Mrs. Mitt to maximum tackiness, including a sugary image of herself astride a sugary Austrian Warmblood dancing horse, thus inviting unflattering comparisons between Mrs. Mitt and Marie Antoinette.

The Cake Boss dude, who constructed the monstrosity, chose to surround the horse and rider with stumps. Why? A subtle protest of Trump’s desire to clear-cut ancient Scottish trees to build vulgar golf resorts? It’s a mystery. And an open thread.

Late Night Open Thread

Today was just a very good day. Beautiful weather, got my flower boxes up, took an hour long nap, had a good dinner, Penguins won, played some cards with friends, then had a nice online chat with another friend, and now I am going to go to bed with all the windows open and the ceiling fans running with the house the perfect temperature for sleep.

Days like this are just, well, good. It’s good to be alive. On a lot of nights, I go to bed, and think- “I don’t want to deal with tomorrow.” But days like today just make me want to jump into bed, with the cool crisp sheets and pillows, and start all over in 6 hours when a doggie sticks a wet nose in my armpit. Because maybe, if I am lucky, tomorrow will be as good as today.

I Enjoyed That

Not sure if that will impact the series or not, but I enjoyed the hell out of the Pens destroying the Flyers.

Wednesday Night Open Thread: Ever the Victims

Dave Weigel at Slate follows these guys around so we don’t have to:

PRWatch took notes on this week’s Heritage Blogger’s Briefing, a storied weekly tradition that only just partered up with Breitbart.com. Rep. Jeff Landry of Louisiana was the guest, playing the air-punching freshman role that Rep. Joe Walsh and Allen West have demo’d in the past. But the star, as far as the left was concerned, was Caitlyn Korb—holder of a once-boring, now-exciting job of flacking for ALEC…

Korb was up. The left, she said, had “been doing everything in their power to shut us down.” It had made “ridiculous accusations, such as we killed Trayvon Martin.” ALEC’s allies needed to “call out these people that are attacking us.” Starting this week, at some point, a website called IStandWithALEC would go up to collect solidarinosc statements.

She was pushing on an open door. Today, the National Taxpayers Union’s Andrew Moylan published a long piece on the unfairness of ALEC attacks. “Liberal activist groups hate the limited government principles of ALEC and other organizations like it and they are intent on stamping them out of existence,” he said. (Moylan didn’t attend the Briefing himself.) The rally around ALEC has taken longer than the rally around the Kochs—who, remember, were the original targets of anti-ALEC campaigns—but the D.C. conservative culture is generally a little friendlier to ALEC, a little more surprised at the anti- campaign…

Yeah, because the ALEC lobbyists wear nice suits and won’t embarrass their tablemates when it’s time to choose the right $400 bottle of wine. But when the lights come on and the cockroaches scuttle for cover, they won’t be too proud to hide under the Breitbrat appliance. Worth reading the PRWatch link—ALEC Sends Out an SOS to Breitbart Bloggers.

Apart from rightwing serial criminals whining about being “victimised”, what’s on the agenda tonight?

A commodity to be bought and sold, like rock n’ roll

Dick Clark RIP:

Dick Clark, a television host and entrepreneur who sold rock-and-roll to Middle America on the dance show “American Bandstand” and counted down the new year with millions of TV viewers as emcee of an annual celebration in New York’s Times Square, died April 18 at a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., after a heart attack. He was 82.

[...]

Mr. Clark was a millionaire by 30, describing himself as having an interest in 33 businesses, ranging from music publishers to, as the New York Times reported, an operation that made and sold a stuffed kitten for sale on “American Bandstand” called the Platter-Puss.

His other enterprises included the book “Dick Clark’s Easygoing Guide to Good Grooming” (1986) and Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Grill, his dance-show-themed restaurant.

When I watched the “Behind The Music” on Jerry Lee Lewis, I learned that Dick Clark was one of The Killer’s best friends. Not quite as surprising as learning that Wink Martindale was one of Barry White’s closest friends, but close.

I always liked Dick’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve better than the other Rockin’ New Year’s Eves.

I Blame Beauchamp

Alright, wingnuts, closer your eyes, plug your ears, and yell LALALALALA:

The paratroopers had their assignment: Check out reports that Afghan police had recovered the mangled remains of an insurgent suicide bomber. Try to get iris scans and fingerprints for identification.

The 82nd Airborne Division soldiers arrived at the police station in Afghanistan’s Zabol province in February 2010. They inspected the body parts. Then the mission turned macabre: The paratroopers posed for photos next to Afghan police, grinning while some held — and others squatted beside — the corpse’s severed legs.

A few months later, the same platoon was dispatched to investigate the remains of three insurgents who Afghan police said had accidentally blown themselves up. After obtaining a few fingerprints, they posed next to the remains, again grinning and mugging for photographs.

But no one would ever make a joke about a burn victim or play with a piece of skull, right wingnuts?

BTW- if this kind of thing upsets you, there is only one way to stop it. Stop sending human beings into dehumanizing war zones. That’s the only solution to ending this.

Same Thing, Both Sides Do It, GOTCHA LIBTARDS!

So apparently, when Obama was a young boy, someone fed him dog meat in Indonesia.

Which, according to wingnuts, is exactly the same thing as a grown man making the decision to strap his dog to the roof of the car and terrorize it on a cross country trip.

SUCK ON THAT LIBERALS! And of course the WH press corpse is on the job mainstreaming this bullshit.

The Savings Aren’t The Point

This was never about saving money:

Ushered in amid promises that it would save taxpayers money and deter drug users, a Florida law requiring drug tests for people who seek welfare benefits resulted in no direct savings, snared few drug users and had no effect on the number of applications, according to recently released state data.

“Many states are considering following Florida’s example, and the new data from the state shows they shouldn’t,” said Derek Newton, communications director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which sued the state last year to stop the testing and recently obtained the documents. “Not only is it unconstitutional and an invasion of privacy, but it doesn’t save money, as was proposed.”

This week, Georgia instituted a nearly identical law, with supporters saying it would foster greater personal responsibility and save money. As in Florida, the law is expected to draw a legal challenge. The Southern Center for Human Rights, based in Atlanta, said it expected to file a lawsuit once the law takes effect in the next several months. A number of other states are considering similar bills.

The Florida civil liberties group sued the state last year, arguing that the law constituted an “unreasonable search” by the government, a violation of the Fourth Amendment. In issuing a temporary injunction in October, Judge Mary S. Scriven of Federal District Court scolded lawmakers and said the law “appears likely to be deemed a constitutional infringement.”

From July through October in Florida — the four months when testing took place before Judge Scriven’s order — 2.6 percent of the state’s cash assistance applicants failed the drug test, or 108 of 4,086, according to the figures from the state obtained by the group. The most common reason was marijuana use. An additional 40 people canceled the tests without taking them.

Because the Florida law requires that applicants who pass the test be reimbursed for the cost, an average of $30, the cost to the state was $118,140. This is more than would have been paid out in benefits to the people who failed the test, Mr. Newton said.

Just to put this in perspective, only 2.6% of the applicants used drugs, while the DOJ estimates that from 8-10.2 percent of the workforce is on drugs. In other words, far from being lazy shiftless drug addicts, they are, as a whole, cleaner than the general workforce. Which may seem odd to you, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. DRUGS COST MONEY. PEOPLE ON GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE DON’T HAVE… MONEY. This is not rocket surgery.

But none of this really matters, because this wasn’t about saving money, it was about shaming people. It was about continuing to stigmatize those who are down on their luck. It was about perpetuating the belief that our safety net is nothing more than a source of drug money for poor people, so people are less inclined to support these programs. And it was about neanderthal politicians catering to the know-nothings who vote Republican. For the cadre of cranky old white people forwarding chain emails and thinking they are clever saying “YOU HAVE TO ADMIT, IT’S TRUE” or the douchebags you went to High School with 30 years ago who just friended you on Facebook and post nonsense like this:

And when you point out this is all nonsense to those people who push that garbage, they’ll get mad at you and call you shrill or deny the facts and point to some anecdote somewhere about someone on welfare who cheated the system- as if that story overcomes the undeniable data you’ve just presented them. Colbert nailed it- the modern right and their followers don’t care about facts, they care about truthiness. They know what they know, and it comes from the gut.

This was never about money. This was about shaming people, humiliating people, making being poor worse than it already was, and giving the soulless goons like the types I mentioned above an opportunity to feel smug and good about themselves at the expense of others.

So I fully expect that every southern state with a Republican legislature will pass a bill like this in the next year or so.

Manger Danger

Good old lunatic Bill Donohue, always good for a laugh:

This episode of “The Daily Show” was done to protest Fox’s alleged indifference to the “war on women,” and in doing so Stewart not only made a vulgar attack on Christians, he objectified women.

We are asking Stewart to apologize. If he does not, we will mobilize Protestants, Jews, Mormons and Muslims to join us in a boycott of his sponsors. Moreover, we will not stop with a boycott; there are other things that can be done to register our outrage. We are prepared to spend the money it takes to make this a nationwide issue, and we are prepared to stay the course. Tomorrow we will have something definitive to say, one way or the other.

They are going to boycott Jon Stewart because he said “vagina manger.”

Seriously.