Purity Bear (NO RELATION to Pedobear!) sez:
“Having one partner is the God-approved way to enjoy sex.”
A sudden appearance by a blue-nosed Christian furry at the stirring of a boner would be a bit off-putting, wouldn’t it?
Via Right Wing Watch
It’s ON! A million signatures! Fancy that!
Scott Walker, thy name is fucked. You’re going to go down in history, just not the way you thought you would, pal! People of Wisconsin, you have made all of us proud!
Via Politico:
The Wisconsin Democratic Party was quick to dub the recall effort — which also targeted Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and a handful of Republican state legislators — the “biggest” in American history, and boasted that organizers had gathered a whopping 460,000 extra signatures for the recall of Walker, who infuriated many in his state last year by pushing through a law that ended most collective bargaining rights for many public workers.
Meagan Mahaffey, executive director of United Wisconsin – the group behind the recall efforts – told POLITICO that Tuesday’s results sent a “crystal clear message to Scott Walker that voters are done with his extreme policies and his destruction that he’s doing to our state.”
Unions were poised to emerge as some of the biggest winners from Tuesday’s news, but Mahaffey insisted that the movement did not simply represent a battle between Walker and organized labor.“This is a message to people of all backgrounds and all different types of peope that have worked so hard on this recall. The best outcome for all of us is the same: Recall Scott Walker,” she said.
As the months-long recall campaign had neared its end, State Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate had predicted Tuesday’s outcome earlier this week, telling POLITICO he was confident that the final tally would “hit or exceed” their goal of 720,000 signatures and saying the message he hoped would resonate with Wisconsin voters was that “help is on the way.”
“An incredible number of Wisconsinites have stood up to be counted and say, ‘We can’t wait for the next election. We absolutely must get Scott Walker out of office right now,’” said Tate.
Walker himself signaled that he expected his opponents would be able to achieve their goal.
Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, the embattled governor predicted that a recall election will indeed occur sometime in June.
But Walker stood by his controversial reforms, maintaining that they were all made “for the right reasons.”
“You either get elected to be somebody great or do something great, and I always tell kids to do the latter,” he said.
What are you going to tell your kids now, shithead?
A speaker at the first—and hopefully last—South Carolina Tea Party Coalition Convention told an audience mostly comprised of complete idiots that the U.S. could save $260 billion building the border fence by forcing illegal aliens to work as slave labor instead of hiring union workers. Colin Heaton discussed his understanding that it would cost $400 billion to build a border fence using labor unions, but reckons his plan would cost just $140 billion.
Via Raw Story:
“I proposed a two dual-fence system, multi-tiered wall with a no man’s land — I put a minefield in there, but they said no — intrusion detection systems like we use in detecting tunnels with nitrous and oxygen emission control emitters to detect carbon dioxide upon exhalation of someone digging a tunnel,” he explained. “Then you pump gas in there, — tear gas, nothing lethal. Just make it come out the other side.”
“But what you do, you take all these incarcerated illegal aliens — even give some of the guys who are U.S. citizens in the U.S. prison system, who make about 27 cents a day doing ridiculous work — kick out the union labor charging $28 an hour, force these Mexicans and these other people to make $5 a day, making more money than they made in Mexico anyway,” Heaton continued. “Put them to work building a security fence under military and local-state law enforcement administration. … Projected budget: $140 billion, which will pay for itself in four years once you get them the hell out of here.”Heaton went on to propose a large, single federal detention system to incarcerate undocumented immigrants, “sort of like a KOA Campground with walls.”
The tea party speaker also drew a comparison between Adolph Hitler and President Barack Obama, but admitted that the current White House resident would not have caused the Holocaust.
“The only difference between Adolph Hitler and Barack Obama is that Barack Obama not overtly ethnically challenged with regards to various groups and religious paradigms,” he said. “But socialism is alive and well in Washington.”
So says a fucking asshole moments after suggesting that the United States of America open forced-labor camps on the Mexican border!!!
On Martin Luther King Day, yet!!!
How the fuck would rounding up Mexican illegals and sticking them in labor camps be all that different from what the Germans did to the Jews? And somehow Colin Heaton got the idea that Obama is just like Hitler, huh? Stunning, isn’t it???
This guy is the best Teabagger ever!
After making these remarks, Colin Heaton was politely applauded by a bunch of ignorant old coots who did not realize that advocating something like this would mean that they were in support of illegal aliens being forced by the US government to take away American jobs!
(To Mr. Heaton, if you’re reading this, did I mischaracterize your thoughts here or not? If so, please explain how I got it wrong in the comments).
What makes this episode even more unfortunate is that several of South Carolina’s elected Republican officials were in attendance at the Tea party convention. In addition to Governor Nikki Haley, other speakers at the Tea party convention include Sen. Jim DeMint, U.S. Reps. Jeff Duncan, Mick Mulvaney and Tim Scott, state Treasurer Curtis Loftis and Attorney General Alan Wilson. Presidential candidates Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul were also scheduled to speak to the group.
Logic and intelligent people stuff never was of much use to these Tea baggers to begin with, but as the movement’s wave recedes, leaving only trash on the beach like these poor fools in Myrtle Beach, does the Republican party really wonder why Hispanic voters want nothing to do with them?
From CNN, January 16, 2012:
January 17th will be a most fateful day in the career of embattled Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. Tomorrow is the day that labor unions and the state’s Democrats will drop off several hundred thousand signatures to WI election authorities to trigger a statewide recall election. It is widely assumed that the number of Wisconsinites who signed the recall petitions will be well in excess of the 540,208 verified signatures required. Hopefully this will represent a large enough buffer so that Republican efforts to challenge individual signatures would have little or no practical effect.
Wisconsin Public Radio commissioned a recent poll that found a very serious threat indeed to Walker’s administration: if Democrats can manage to trigger the recall vote, 58% of respondents said they’d vote to recall Scott Walker, a jump of 11% since the last poll was taken in April, 2011. Hardly a trend in Walker’s favor. After the Occupy Wall Street movement’s message became part of the national conversation last Fall, it seemed pretty obvious to everyone—including Walker, if his comically hangdog facial expressions are any indication—that Walker’s goose was about to cooked.
Although I fully expect that the recall election will be “on” and that Walker will be ousted (and humiliated, like he so justly deserves), if the man actually cared one whit for the state he governs, or possessed any level of self-awareness, which Walker almost pathologically seems to lack, why doesn’t he just resign? It’s not overstating or simplifying the situation in the least to say that Walker himself IS the problem. With 58% of the state supporting his recall, why doesn’t this creep just accept his fate and fuck the fuck off?
In the event that Walker did survive a recall election, still nothing will get done in the state for the rest of his term. If the governor was truly a civic-minded man, he’d resign—tomorrow, when the signatures get delivered—for the good of this fellow citizens. There seems no possibility whatsoever for vindication in Walker’s case, so why not call it a day, if for no other reason, to save himself the humiliation of what will inevitably follow?
His motivation for wanting more of this seems very odd to me. It’s not mentally healthy, is it? There must something wrong with him.
At this point, Wisconsin needs to move forward. Like with every state, there are crucial issues that need to be resolved. Walker cannot be a part of the solution anymore, he’s simply too divisive of a figure. Whether required amount of signatures have been collected or not, Walker should still go, for the good of the people of Wisconsin. No matter what happens tomorrow, Walker still can’t govern effectively. This is a fact, Jack. The guy has got to go.
It’s his own damned fault, he’s a fuck-up of epic proportions. Just look at that stupid face!
Make us proud tomorrow, Wisconsin. Scratch that, make us even prouder! Make Scott Walker go down in history!
Below, a reminder of when Scott Walker fell for a prank phone caller, Buffalo Beast editor Ian Murphy, pretending to be billionaire David Koch. What a snake, but what an idiotic snake! In retrospect, this entire clip is worth watching on several levels, not the least being to see how much the conversation has changed since last year. Remarkable.
Political junkies alert: If you haven’t seen Newt Gingrich’s epic 27-minute-long violent disembowelment of Mitt Romney, When Mitt Romney Came to Town, holy shit will it will take your breath away!
I mean… WOW. I can only imagine the look on Romney’s face when he saw this puppy. He probably broke down and cried! This shit is hardcore. Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment has been repealed.
Rating the political damage this film does to Romney on a scale of one to ten with one being merely annoying and ten being castrated and then having your balls shoved down your throat for the whole world to see? When Mitt Romney Came to Town is probably an eleven or twelve. Think I’m exaggerating? See for yourself!
This has to be the single meanest, most vicious political hit piece ever made. It’s a cold, cruel masterpiece of character assassination.
It makes the worst things Lee Atwater did in his career look warm and cuddly in comparison. “Willie Horton”? That’s amateur hour compared to When Mitt Romney Came to Town.
I suppose it’s a bit disingenuous to call it “Newt’s” film because he was just the highest bidder. The film was also offered to the other campaigns—they all had their chances—but it was Gingrich, or rather the “Winning Our Future” Super PAC supporting him, that allowed Gingrich to be the one to get all Ed Gein on Romney’s ass and deliver the axe to his head.
When Mitt Romney Came to Town was directed by Jason Killian Meath, an associate of Romney’s during the 2008 Republican primary who made ads that year that were pro-Mittens. He must have seen something in Romney that he didn’t like, or maybe not. Maybe When Mitt Romney Came to Town was simply a way for Meath to cynically sell his services to the highest bidder and enrich himself personally at Romney’s expense. Loyalties can be very flexible in Washington. The film looks like it cost no more than $50k to make, but surely Jason Killian Meath was well-compensated for this expert hit. The film’s all-out annihilation of its target positions Meath nicely as the “Scaramanga” of political operatives. In the future pols from both parties will be clamoring for his services. Why hire anyone but the very best? No one else comes even close to this guy’s mad satanic skillz! He’ll burn your opponent to the fucking ground.
Truly I don’t see how Romney will be able to counter this. It’s like the box that rips your face off in Hellraiser.
The thing is, When Mitt Romney Came to Town inadvertently goes to great lengths to expose the moral and intellectual bankruptcy at the heart of today’s Tea party-led GOP: Free market Capitalism, seen in the human form of Mitt Romney and the rest of his mega-rich cronies at Bain Capital, are such hideous and loathsome creatures that the unavoidable “takeaway”—even for conservative viewers, I should point out—is that Capitalism is an evil system rigged to benefit the people at the top of the food chain and fuck over anyone who gets in their way.
The rest of us are just their food. When Mitt Romney Came to Town makes that very, very clear… even for the most dumbshit Republicans. Freedom? You think you’re free? You’re free to lose your house, health insurance and starve is what you’re free to do, according to the message of this film. It’s called “creative destruction” and Mitt Romney will tell you all about it. It’s how he made his vast fortune: from the misery of hardworking Americans. The next time you hear some asshole going on about impersonal market forces and all that blather, show them When Mitt Romney Came to Town—this is an impersonal market force that has a first name, a last name, a social security number and a street address, albeit one that’s probably behind a big gate with security guards.
But it’s not just Mitt Romney’s mouth that this film pisses in. When Mitt Romney Came to Town dramatically and clearly indicts the entire way BUSINESS is done in America. The film is of a set with anything that Michael Moore has ever done and seems far more in tune with the Occupy Wall Street movement than anything we’d normally associate with Republicans. Who wrote the voice over script, Trotsky? Yes, I mean to tell you that When Mitt Romney Came to Town is that much of a wildcard to throw into the GOP primary. Even Ron Paul might have his doubts about the free market after viewing this one.
Ultimately, though, I don’t think this film benefits Newt Gingrich in any way. It utterly destroys Mitt Romney, true, it absolutely skullfucks him and leaves him bleeding from his anus and shivering on the ground in a fetal position, but you’d have to be an absolute idiot if the only question you had when When Mitt Romney Came to Town is over was which one of the other Republicans you were going to vote for!
A 14-year-old California Girl Scout named Taylor is attempting to start a nationwide boycott of Girl Scout Cookies due to a 7-year-old transgender child being allowed to join the Girl Scouts in Colorado.
I watched this video posted at Joe.My.God this morning and my expression turned into the same one I always sport when I listen to a close-minded bigot speaking, but this seemed even worse because it was coming from a child…
From what I can make of her argument, young Taylor here seems to think that high school age boys are suddenly going to want to wear drag and join the Girl Scouts so they can rape her or something?
Taylor, there are far, far easier ways for teenage boys to get laid!
No surprise, the loopy contingent at WingNutDaily is all for it:
After controversy arose over the potential admission of Colorado 7-year-old Bobby Montoya last month, The Girl Scouts of Colorado released a statement explaining, “We accept all girls in kindergarten through 12th grade as members. If a child identifies as a girl and the child’s family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout.”
Rachelle Trujillo, vice president for communications of the Colorado Girl Scouts, added, “If a child is living as a girl, that’s good enough for us. We don’t require any proof of gender.”
According to a report in the Baptist Press, Trujillo also affirmed transgendered children are currently serving in Girl Scout troops across the U.S., though she declined to give details.
Taylor, however, cites in the video GSUSA materials that outline the importance of the Scouts’ all-girl format and expresses concern about 12th-grade boys passing themselves off as girls.
“The real question is, why is GSUSA willing to break their own safety rules and go against its own research institute findings to accommodate transgender boys?” Taylor asks. “Unfortunately, I think it is because GSUSA cares more about promoting the desires of a small handful of people than it does for my safety and the safety of my friends and sister Girl Scouts, and they are doing it with money we earned for them from Girl Scout cookies.”
No Taylor, the real question is “What do YOU personally hope to gain from this?” That’s the question I think all intolerant people should ask themselves before the go on record with their tiny thoughts on YouTube. Taylor, did you really think this through? Do you really want to be the Rebecca Black of intolerance? For the rest of your life?
Pretty soon, Taylor’s last name is going to come out. It seems inevitable that she’s going to face an Internet backlash for this obnoxious video. The Internet has a rather long and unforgiving memory. It’s going to come up every time some one will do a Google search for her. To all future employers, college admission officers, potential boyfriends, she’s going to be this girl. No matter what her thoughts on this matter might evolve into when she’s an adult (not that I have especially high hopes that Taylor is ever going to be a tolerant or open-minded person, but who knows?) is she prepared for her new life with an Encyclopedia Dramatica entry?
And then there is the matter of how she replied to someone a few minutes ago on YouTube. It’s not her chastity that she’s worried about, is it, despite what she says in the video?
@AgentHaun Now, who’s the “hater?” I have to say, I approved this comment to reveal what the Gay-Lesbian-Transgender-Intersex-Questioning activism is full of. Intolerance for religion, intolerance for straight people, intolerance for Truth, especially when the facts are presented before them. I have deleted so many of these types of comments, but the Truth is, you all cannot disprove the facts in this video, which makes you angry and hurtful. I’ll just keep deleting.
HonestGirlScouts 4 minutes ago
“Intolerance for religion, intolerance for straight people, intolerance for Truth…” that gets to the heart of why this is so annoying: Christians who think THEY are somehow the victims of the LGBT community.
Taylor’s an idiot, but she’s also just a stupid kid. Her parents are the ones at fault here for raising such a petty, close-minded child.
“Jesus loves the little children, ALL the children of the world” or doesn’t he?
I’m directing that question to you, Taylor’s parents.
They taught her this way of looking at the world and gave her their approval and full support when she decided she was going to go ahead and do this. I blame them. They are the ones who should have told her—even if they agreed—that this was a bad idea and will have unforeseen consequences for her in future.
Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. I’m still making that face as I type this.
If you want to show your support for the Girl Scouts of America for being an open-minded organization, why not buy extra cookies this year just to spite the haters!
“Do you like mustard?”
Well, well, well… look who is starting to totally lose his shit under fire.
Watching this brief clip of Mitt Romney’s obnoxious encounter with an uninsured woman at a town hall in Bedford, NH last night, I wanted to puke… all over Mitt Romney.
Via Crooks and Liars:
The uninsured voter, a woman who seemed desperate for some words of hope regarding her lack of healthcare insurance. Instead of any hint of compassion - or even an actual response to her need for healthcare - Romney brushed the woman off with a grin and what seemed to be a jab at Obamacare before he cast his gaze elsewhere.
“When you signed into law Romneycare, I was excited,” the woman said. “You seemed proud to do that. And then when the country copied you, it just seemed like there was hope for people like me.”
“How have you done since then?” Romney asked flippantly, talking over her.
“I don’t have health care, sir, and I’m scared,” she said.
“That tells you something doesn’t it?” Romney said. “Tells you something.”
Really? Like what, you fucking idiot?
I’m pretty dense, you need to spell it out for me better…
And what was Romney trying to prove by so rudely talking over this woman? What did this gain for his campaign (besides blog posts like this one)? I don’t think he’ll get her vote and chances are he lost many more as a result of this exchange being captured on video.
Why doesn’t Romney just give up all pretense of empathy with common Americans and start wearing ascots and silk smoking jackets to campaign in? Let America see the real Mitt Romney, lighting his Cuban cigars with $20 bills?
It’s hilarious to watch this toff implode like this, isn’t it? It’s like he’s coming apart at the seams in full view of the media as his opponents relentlessly bash him. So great to see.
There’s nothing quite like Republican schadenfreude. It’s a gift. Savor it.
Tee-hee! Although he’ll claim otherwise, it seems clear that the threat of a Reddit campaign targeting him has spooked Rep. Paul Ryan, causing him to unequivocally denounce SOPA in a released statement:
Congressman Paul Ryan Voices Concerns with H.R. 3261
January 9, 2012
WASHINGTON - Wisconsin’s First District Congressman Paul Ryan released the following statement regarding H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act:
“The internet is one of the most magnificent expressions of freedom and free enterprise in history. It should stay that way. While H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act, attempts to address a legitimate problem, I believe it creates the precedent and possibility for undue regulation, censorship and legal abuse. I do not support H.R. 3261 in its current form and will oppose the legislation should it come before the full House.”
But now the question is: Will the House Budget committee chairman return the $288,600 the Center for Responsive Politics says he accepted from the various special interest groups supporting SOPA?
If you paid nearly $300 grand to buy a politician’s vote, how would you feel? I’d be pissed off!
I enjoy seeing Paul Ryan squirming. He’s caught between Reddit and a hard place. I’ll bet he’s having some very uncomfortable phone conversations today, don’t you?
There’s a fascinating essay at Naked Capitalism (great blog) that I highly recommend reading in full about the “problems” that Ron Paul’s candidacy poses for liberals, which is to say how the quixotic Texas Congressman exposes how the addiction to the perpetual war machine and “American empire”—very much at the core of the Democratic Party’s worldview—is COMPLETELY AT ODDS with progressive politics and aims.
What does the Democratic Party really offer progressives? It’s a question that needs to be addressed more often.
The piece was written by Matt Stoller, Alan Grayson’s former Senior Policy Advisor and a fellow at the progressive Roosevelt Institute, who begins by calling Paul, “the most perplexing character in Congress, ideologically speaking.” While working with Grayson, Zoller often interfaced with Paul’s office in a bipartisan spirit and what he has to say is worth pondering.
Ron Paul is a bit too much of a Libertarian ideologue for my tastes (“Libertarian” has always been a synonym for “asshole” in my book), but I can understand why and how his anti-militarist, anti-Federal Reserve and mostly “hands off” social policies and ideas have gathered a such a passionate following—even if Paul’s supporters are only too willing to completely disregard how “eccentric” the guy obviously is (I’m trying to be kind here, Paulbots, I really am!).
The matter of why they are so readily willing to give him a pass on the rest of the package, is a mystery to me… but that’s not the issue here, it’s Congressman Paul’s strengths. Not matter what you think of him, the man IS an improbably credible—if somewhat Chauncey Gardiner-esque—threat to the establishment, even if most of the punditry wrote him off long before the first vote has even been cast. Voters may feel differently. It’s been argued that there are as many disaffected Democrats as Republicans who are Ron Paul supporters and although I’ve seen no polling that would confirm that, it seems entirely plausible.
But before I block-quote from Zoller’s essay, I wanted to preface that with a chunk of what Robert Scheer—a classic American liberal, even if he (often) dissents from the party line—had to say about Ron Paul in a recent TruthDig column:
It is official now. The Ron Paul campaign, despite surging in the Iowa polls, is not worthy of serious consideration, according to a New York Times editorial; “Ron Paul long ago disqualified himself for the presidency by peddling claptrap proposals like abolishing the Federal Reserve, returning to the gold standard, cutting a third of the federal budget and all foreign aid and opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
That last item, along with the decade-old racist comments in the newsletters Paul published, is certainly worthy of criticism. But not as an alternative to seriously engaging the substance of Paul’s current campaign—his devastating critique of crony capitalism and his equally trenchant challenge to imperial wars and the assault on our civil liberties that they engender.
Paul is being denigrated as a presidential contender even though on the vital issues of the economy, war and peace, and civil liberties, he has made the most sense of the Republican candidates. And by what standard of logic is it “claptrap” for Paul to attempt to hold the Fed accountable for its destructive policies? That’s the giveaway reference to the raw nerve that his favorable prospects in the Iowa caucuses have exposed. Too much anti–Wall Street populism in the heartland can be a truly scary thing to the intellectual parasites residing in the belly of the beast that controls American capitalism.
And now over to Matt Zoller at Naked Capitalism, excerpting from “Why Ron Paul Challenges Liberals”:
Modern liberalism is a mixture of two elements. One is a support of Federal power – what came out of the late 1930s, World War II, and the civil rights era where a social safety net and warfare were financed by Wall Street, the Federal Reserve and the RFC, and human rights were enforced by a Federal government, unions, and a cadre of corporate, journalistic and technocratic experts (and cheap oil made the whole system run.) America mobilized militarily for national priorities, be they war-like or social in nature. And two, it originates from the anti-war sentiment of the Vietnam era, with its distrust of centralized authority mobilizing national resources for what were perceived to be immoral priorities. When you throw in the recent financial crisis, the corruption of big finance, the increasing militarization of society, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the collapse of the moral authority of the technocrats, you have a big problem. Liberalism doesn’t really exist much within the Democratic Party so much anymore, but it also has a profound challenge insofar as the rudiments of liberalism going back to the 1930s don’t work.
This is why Ron Paul can critique the Federal Reserve and American empire, and why liberals have essentially no answer to his ideas, arguing instead over Paul having character defects. Ron Paul’s stance should be seen as a challenge to better create a coherent structural critique of the American political order. It’s quite obvious that there isn’t one coming from the left, otherwise the figure challenging the war on drugs and American empire wouldn’t be in the Republican primary as the libertarian candidate. To get there, liberals must grapple with big finance and war, two topics that are difficult to handle in any but a glib manner that separates us from our actual traditional and problematic affinity for both. War financing has a specific tradition in American culture, but there is no guarantee war financing must continue the way it has. And there’s no reason to assume that centralized power will act in a more just manner these days, that we will see continuity with the historical experience of the New Deal and Civil Rights Era. The liberal alliance with the mechanics of mass mobilizing warfare, which should be pretty obvious when seen in this light, is deep-rooted.
What we’re seeing on the left is this conflict played out, whether it is big slow centralized unions supporting problematic policies, protest movements that cannot be institutionalized in any useful structure, or a completely hollow liberal intellectual apparatus arguing for increasing the power of corporations through the Federal government to enact their agenda. Now of course, Ron Paul pandered to racists, and there is no doubt that this is a legitimate political issue in the Presidential race. But the intellectual challenge that Ron Paul presents ultimately has nothing to do with him, and everything to do with contradictions within modern liberalism.
Nicely put.
A friend of mine, playing devil’s advocate, suggested that if Ron Paul somehow—against the odds—beat Obama and won the Presidency, it would be like throwing a hand grenade into Washington, DC. To the anarchist in me, this DOES seem like, an attractive idea, I admit, but it could sow, uh, “creative chaos” leading to outcomes both much, much better, and far, far worse.
I could never—and will never—cast a vote for someone who admires Ayn Rand or thinks that unfettered free-market capitalism is anything other that a fucking terrible idea, but an immediate end to the drug war, disemboweling the war machine and the Federal Reserve?
Bring it on.
How many candidates on the GOP side are asking the question out loud: “Why are we still protecting Germany from Russia with our tax dollars?”
That’s not a trick question. On the left, only Alan Grayson and Dennis Kucinich have voiced it.
Here’s the quandary for American Liberals: Do you really, honestly believe Obama is going to address ANY of these issues in the next four years?
It’s preposterous to even fantasize about it, isn’t it? You could safely wager your left hand on it NOT HAPPENING on his watch! We’ve already had plenty of time to observe Obama in action. There is nothing—not a goddamn thing—in his record that indicates he’s seriously ready to address—or even really tinker—in these areas.
Ron Paul’s ideas make both the Right and the Left uncomfortable for different reasons, but mainly because he’s the ONLY candidate running on IDEAS and PRINCIPLES in the race. Whether you agree with these things or not, you can DEBATE them and discuss them rationally.
If the Republicans nominate Mitt Romney, it’s a redux of Bob Dole, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, John McCain, John Kerry etc, and every other past sacrificial DOA presidential nominee who was simply the best candidate that they could come up with. Against Obama, Romney’s got “loser” stamped squarely on his forehead. The rest of the GOP field is equally, if not considerably more, difficult to take seriously. Ron Paul, for all of his faults, is the only true wild card in the pack. His candidacy could still catch fire in some unexpected way, something I do not think can be said for the rest of them. In the admittedly somewhat unlikely event that this did occur and Paul has more delegates than Mittens come convention time, the GOP establishment would have no recourse other than rally behind him.
Four more years of Obama is hardly something I can feel positive about. Although I like him and think he’s an extremely intelligent man, he’s basically Bush-lite. Four more years of his half-measure, center-right policies and the shit like NDAA, I could very easily live without.
I might not want to see Ron Paul as President, and as I said above, I would not personally vote for him, no, BUT if he did manage to become the President—I think ALL bets are off for 2012, I really do, expect the unexpected is my motto for this year—I don’t think it’s the worst thing that could happen.
It would at least be interesting to see his ideas—good and bad—debated for as long as possible during this primary season.
And Ron Paul debating Obama? Well, that would be the best television of the year, wouldn’t it?
Image via jimspolitico
I would be remiss if I didn’t start the year properly, by offering my personal and heartfelt thanks to the fine, morally upstanding people of the great state of Wisconsin. You—and the brave state legislators who got the ball rolling, let’s not forget them—make me proud to be American and one of your fellow citizens. Wisconsin is the birthplace of the American Labor movement and the home of its rebirth in 2011.
The fight against loathsome Republican Governor Scott Walker has inspired and re-invigorated working people across the country—in Ohio, in Michigan, in Zuccotti Park and other OWS sites and events around the country—but it is in Wisconsin where they’re demonstrating to the rest of us how a revolution is won, or can be won, in an appropriately American fashion, at the ballot box.
And the other side just has guys like this mouth-breathing, psychotic reichwing fruitcake—and ridiculous crybaby—Carl Sosnoski, apparently the owner of an Oshkosh sports bar called “Players” and a heating and cooling contractor (Google Players + Oshkosh, if you’d like to order some pizza or… whatever). Little clown-boy Carl got a little bit too close to Robert Bergman—nicknamed “Fighting Bob”—who was exercising his First Amendment rights by soliciting signatures for the Walker Recall effort and this is what happened:
On Tuesday afternoon (12/27/11) I set up to collect signatures in a middle school parking lot. There was no school in session, and it is a public school. I put out my signs, and pretty immediately a signer pulled in. I went to collect his signature. Another truck pulled in behind him. I headed over to it, and asked, “Would you like to sign the petition to recall Scott Walker?” I always ask this, as I don’t want to assume anything. Right away this man asked me why I wanted to recall Walker. For me this is a red flag. Walker supporters want to waste your time. They think you come from out of state, and think you haven’t a clue as to the damage Walker is doing to the state. And they act like you owe them an explanation. At that point I said, “Just one minute - I’ll get back to you,” so that I could finish up with the first guy.
Knowing the man in the truck was there to harass me, I went to my truck and got my video camera. I went to the first signer, and got the clipboard and put it away, so that it couldn’t be destroyed. I started going the long way around his truck because I have learned not to walk in front of vehicles because people will try to run you over. I got half way around when I heard him say, “What are you doing?”
Here’s a transcript of part of their exchange. The last part you just have to WATCH.
Carl: What are you doing?
Bob: I’m video taping you, sir.
Carl: You’re really kind of a jerk, aren’t you? Aren’t you?
Bob: Okay, if you’ve got questions, the reason I’m doing this? (referring to Mr. Sosnoski’s earlier question about his motivation to recall Walker).
Carl: Yeah, I do.
Bob: Okay, the reason I’m doing this is because I don’t believe in Scott Walker.
Carl: What! That’s not a reason! What’s your reason?
Bob: I don’t owe you any explanations, sir.
Carl: Well, then, you can’t use this tape for anything, you know that.
Bob: I can too, sir. I feel like I’m being harassed.
Carl: You are being harassed. And pretty soon, you’re going to be killed! Okay?
Want to see an ugly little Republican man completely losing his shit in a very comical way? Watch the video that many people who know Carl—his wife, family, friends, relatives, and FORMER CUSTOMERS—have also probably watched in the past few days…
Even more outrageous is how the cop—a Walker supporter—handled the matter. The thing is, how “pro-Walker” would this police officer be if the Walker administration tried to fuck over the firefighters and police unions the way he fucked over the school teachers and other state employees? What’s in it for HIM to “support” Scott Walker? What an idiot he is, too. Why would any member of any union support Scott Walker?
You can read the rest of the story at Daily Kos. The Northwestern.com website, a Gannett operation, reports that:
Sosnoski said he has contacted a lawyer and intends to fight the citation and possibly explore further action against Bergman.
Good luck with that, you stupid son-of-a-bitch. HE’S GOT YOU ON VIDEOTAPE MAKING WHAT AMOUNTS TO A PRETTY DIRECT DEATH THREAT, YOU FUCKING FOOL!
Why not call more attention to yourself, Republican loser? Carl must be even dumber than he looks! I have to wonder if when he called the police, he said anything even remotely like the rather obvious truth: “Um, yeah, I just made a, um, like, um, sort of, um, death threat to this guy who had the audacity to videotape me doing it. He’s locked himself in his truck, can you come over here to protect me from him?”
Conservatives are always ready to cry “foul” when their First Amendment Rights get stepped on, but when they’re the ones doing the goose-stepping on other people’s rights, hey, that’s a-okay!
BTW, as reported on Daily Kos, “Fighting Bob” Bergman, who worked a double shift last night as non-union machine operator, has personally collected 1411 signatures to recall Scott Walker, and 1403 signatures to recall Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch. So far!
“Fighting Bob” was never political in his life until last spring. Interesting to contrast what Walker inspires in his opponents vs. what he inspires in his own brain-dead supporters like this shithead, Carl here, and the creeps who pulled this stunt. I can’t imagine that Walker’s case benefits much with undecided voters from such self-defeating activities like these on the part of his supporters!
“Fighting Bob” and the people of Wisconsin, I salute you and think you’re all heroes. Thank you, very, very much for the important work you are doing, for ALL AMERICANS (including Fox News viewers too stupid to understand how what you are doing benefits them, I thank you on their behalf, too).
A vastly better world is possible!. Help consign Scott Walker’s administration to the dustbin of history by donating to United Wisconsin.