Tag Archives: Stupidity

September 17, 2012 · 0:00

Sins of the Father

My head is exploding and there is no visible evidence. Nope. Not a bit of gray matter on the walls. Shouldn’t there be serious cleanup involved here?

What could cause this explosion? This combustion? This sharing of gray matter with my surroundings?

You might think that it is this video of Mitt Romney insulting about half of the country (47 bloomin’ percent!), by saying that

they are “dependent” upon the government — it doesn’t matter that they have been paying into Social Security and Medicare for DECADES!
they are essentially lazy folks, unwilling to work for a living, and
if you’re not wealthy, well, who the hell cares about you ’cause you’re not gonna vote for Mitt anyway.

Well, certainly Mitt Romney doesn’t care about them.

Now normally, this video would get me pretty damn riled up.

But, of course, there’s more. Yes, it gets better.

You know how Mitt is always preaching about how he made it on his own? How he and Ann struggled, eating tuna and pasta. I wrote about it a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, it is so very difficult to just live off the interest and dividends from your stock portfolio, Mitt.

But did you know about George Romney? Mitt’s Daddy? The guy who gave Mitt and Ann the stock that eased Mitt and Ann’s struggle? He wasn’t always the successful businessman he became later. He wasn’t born the CEO of American Motors. Nope. He wasn’t always rich and well connected. Really! Who would have thunk it!

Still, George Romney was by all accounts 10,000 times the man his son is. He was an important member of the Moderate/Liberal Republicans that made up that impressive generation of politicians.

And do you want to know a secret? One that you won’t hear Mitt talkin’ about?

George Romney was on Welfare!

Yup! It’s true. When he was young he was a refugee from Mexico (where he was born and automatically became an American Citizen because his parents were American Citizens — but I digress.) And when he was a child, a refugee who fled back to the U.S. with his family, well, the United States Government helped him survive.

Here’s a clip of his wife saying what a good governor her husband George would be. And you know what? She was right by all accounts. He was a good man, a good governor, and would likely have made a good president.

One of the reasons he was such a good governor is that he had compassion all people. For the poor and downtrodden. Why? Well, partly because he was once poor. George Romney was once on welfare. And he understood that being poor doesn’t mean that you are lazy. That being poor doesn’t mean that you want a hand OUT but might just need a hand UP. And that’s what George Romney got from the United States Government.

So some questions for U.S. voters:

Do you really want to elect a man President of the United States who courts the elite by denigrating the rest of us?

Do you really want to elect a man President of the United States who pretends his father’s past didn’t happen?

Do you really want to elect a man President of the United States who would have let his own father fail?

Do you think these folks whom Mitt Romney has just identified and insulted will continue to cling to their guns and their religion?

Do you really want to elect such an asshole President of the United States?

I can hear you shouting “NO!” from here.

* * *

Many thanks to my friend Lisa of Big Sheep Blog for telling me about this video. I was actually working …

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Filed under Campaigning, Elections, Family, History, Humor, Hypocrisy, Law, Politics, Stupidity

Tagged as Assholes, Crap, Crazy people, GOP, Humor, Politics, Stupidity, Washington

September 16, 2012 · 0:00

Something to Brag About?

If you’re sick, do you try to choose the smartest doctor or the dumbest?

When you want an accountant, do you want to feel confidence in the ability of that man/woman to add, subtract, multiply and divide? Use excel formulas?

When you need legal assistance, do you want a wise man/woman or a dope?

These are not trick questions.

I’ve always asked myself similar questions about the people who want to run my country. I want the smartest people in office, from Town Selectman to President. Naturally, that means I’m a Democrat.

But you know, I always sort of figured that Republicans at least thought (mistakenly) that theirs were the smart candidates.

Ummm, not so much. At least, not according to one of the GOP’s shining stars, Rick Santorum. You know, Rick “Don’t Google Me” Santorum, the former Senator from Pennsylvania (who lost by 18 percent!) who was also a former GOP candidate for President just this year.

Listen up to Ricky speaking just the other day to the Values Voter Summit here in DC:

We will never have the media on our side, ever, in this country. We will never have the elite, smart people on our side.

Well, Duh!!!!! You got that right, Ricky. But is it something to be proud of?

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Filed under Campaigning, Criminal Activity, Elections, History, Humor, Hypocrisy, Law, Politics, Stupidity

Tagged as Elections Matter, GOP, Humor, Politics, Stupidity

September 11, 2012 · 0:00

The View

Today at lunch, I am sitting in my office having my salad, looking out the window and reading the newspaper. It is September 11, 2012. Eleven years after.

My office overlooks the Capitol, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. The Washington Monument. The Pentagon.

From here, I can just barely see the flag that was unfurled this morning on the side of the Pentagon that was struck that morning. Another Tuesday. Another beautiful, blue sky day. Folks who still work in my office were here that day, I was not. Of course they still remember. (We all do.) They heard and felt the impact; nobody saw it hit, as everybody except me keeps their blinds down because the office gets the hot morning sun.

I have long felt that George W. Bush let us down. That the attack shouldn’t have happened. That it should have been foiled.

Remember this?:

On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal.

Might they have prevented the attack? We will never know.

Well, in today’s NY Times, there is more evidence that the Bush Administration had more than the one presidential daily brief. There were numerous reports, meetings and presidential daily briefings: ON May 1, on June 22, on June 29, on July 9, on July 24. These are the ones the reporter, Kurt Eichenwald, saw excerpts from.

But, and there’s always a but, isn’t there.

But some in the administration considered the warning to be just bluster. An intelligence official and a member of the Bush administration both told me in interviews that the neoconservative leaders who had recently assumed power at the Pentagon were warning the White House that the C.I.A. had been fooled; according to this theory, Bin Laden was merely pretending to be planning an attack to distract the administration from Saddam Hussein, whom the neoconservatives saw as a greater threat. Intelligence officials, these sources said, protested that the idea of Bin Laden, an Islamic fundamentalist, conspiring with Mr. Hussein, an Iraqi secularist, was ridiculous, but the neoconservatives’ suspicions were nevertheless carrying the day. [Emphasis is mine.]

The link to the full article is here.

These neocons who got everything so disastrously wrong are the same folks that are working with Romney/Ryan on Foreign Policy. This time they want us to go after Iran and Syria.

Elections matter.

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Filed under Campaigning, Criminal Activity, Elections, History, Hypocrisy, Law, Politics, Stupidity, Voting

Tagged as Assholes, Crap, Crazy people, GOP, Neocons, Stupidity, Washington

September 9, 2012 · 0:00

First Amendment Rights

Adlai Stevenson is one of my heroes. I’m sure you remember him (well, probably if you are an American). He was the Democratic nominee for president in 1952 and 1956 and ran against Ike. Now, that was a tall order — running against the guy who led the Allied Troops in World War II. So really, Adlai was a bit of a sacrificial lamb.

But he had a heart and a spirit and he didn’t take bull from anyone. And he repelled bull with finesse.

Stevenson was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis and famously asked the Soviet Ambassador to explain why missiles were being put into Cuba. When the Soviet Ambassador, Valerian Zorin, didn’t respond, Stevenson famously responded:

“I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over.”

Stevenson was the sort of man who made up the Pre-Reagan government, actually. The Best. The Brightest. The Most Articulate. Smart folks who made the government work. Who made our government the envy of the world.

Now, I’m not in Adlai’s class. Nope, I’m not even close. But as a concerned citizen, I feel compelled to watch what is happening and call out injustice when I see it. I call a lie, “a lie.” And shout to the rooftops when I see the bullshit that passes for public discourse coming from the GOP and its evil twin, the Tea Party.

You see, I really love my country. I am a liberal Democrat and proud to be one. And you know what? I am angry. And vocal. I also take full advantage of my First Amendment right to Free Speech. Now remember, I live near Washington, DC. And I pay attention. That’s important.

I see a lot of folks in and around government who believe it is their duty to make sure that President Obama fails.

Now think about that. There truly are powerful people in the GOP who believe that the GOP is more important than the country. That what they believe is more important than what the voters (YOU AND ME!) chose. That the country can go to hell as long as the result is that they will get more power. More money. More, well who cares what else they’re looking for.

Yes, it’s true. On January 20, 2009, the night Barack Obama was inaugurated, a group of Republicans meet and decided that, rather than giving the new president their backing to help the country, that — nope. They weren’t going to go along with the mandate of the people of the United States. Nope. They would impede Obama in every way they could. Invalidate him. That way the GOP would retake the House of Representatives in 2010 (they did) and maybe the Senate too in 2012. Paul Ryan was there at that dinner. Yup. A fine group of patriotic Americans.

Now think about that.

They didn’t give Obama a chance to succeed or to heal the country. More importantly, though, they didn’t give the American people a chance. Because by electing Obama, people chose his ideas, his plans, his hopes. The People rejected those of the GOP.

Nevertheless, the power brokers of the GOP banded together to stamp their feet and say: “I don’t care if the American People decided that your way is what we should try. WE SAY NO.”

And you know what? They’re doing it again! Yup it’s true.

Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has already stated publicly that even if Obama wins a second term, the GOP will not cooperate with him.

Can you say “gridlock”? Sure, I knew you could.

So, when things like this happen, well, I get mad. I get angry. And I make my feelings known. I have a platform. I have a soap box. I have a blog. And while I will try to write about politics with humor, sometimes, dammit, it will be in anger. Like tonight.

Because there is a hell of a lot to be angry about.

Take for example the latest example.

Saturday in Virginia, Myth Romney implied that President Obama, should he be re-elected, was planning to take the word “God” off our currency. Off our money.

Huh?

Romney made it up. Completely out of that whole cloth his underwear is made of.

Yes, this is the same guy who chose Paul “Sure, Vouchers for Senior Citizens is the best idea since sliced bread” Ryan as his running mate.

The same Myth Romney who went Birther on us all a week or so ago when he commented that he was in Michigan and nobody was asking for his birth certificate. Ho ho ho, Mitt. Good try at a joke. Try another next year. Maybe that joke will work. Maybe that joke will be funny.

[Now I’m going to digress here a bit. Because the whole Birther issue just makes me want to scream. It points out the complete and total ignorance of those who insist that Obama was born in Kenya and that his Hawaiian birth certificate is a hoax.

Do these folks even realize that in order to be an American Citizen by birth and therefore qualify to be president, you have to be born to an American Citizen. Yup. It’s true. The fact that Barack Hussein Obama’s mother was an American entitles him automatically to American Citizenship. And she could have given birth on the moon; her son, Barack Obama would still be an American Citizen. By birth. The same as John McCain, who was born in Panama. The same as George Romney, Mitt’s Dad, who was born in Mexico and who also ran for President.]

There has been much ballyhoo on the nets, in the press, on the TV about folks wanting us all to play nice and just get along.

No. Sorry. I am not going to play nice with the folks I think have damaged my country. I would not play nice with folks who tried/succeeded in burning down my house; who killed a friend or family member. So I am not going to play nice and polite with folks who have destroyed our economy, undermined our willingness to work together to solve problems, and the pride that made the American Dream a reality.

Nope. Not gonna do it.

The folks who ask for that often tend to be folks who don’t want their opinions questioned or challenged, or folks who don’t want to pay enough attention.

I have a voice. I have a First Amendment Right to voice it. And I plan to us it.

So, as my hero Adlai Stevenson would have said:

If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.

* * *

Other wonderful quotes from Adlai:

Freedom rings where opinions clash.
A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.
A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular.
A hungry man is not a free man.
I don’t want to send them to jail. I want to send them to school.
Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than the freedom to stagnate.
We have confused the free with the free and easy.
I believe that if we really want human brotherhood to spread and increase until it makes life safe and sane, we must also be certain that there is no one true faith or path by which it may spread.
Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse.
Saskatchewan is much like Texas- except it’s more friendly to the United States.
As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers and the ruled, the law-givers and the law-abiding, the beginning and the end.

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Filed under Campaigning, Criminal Activity, Elections, Global Warming, Gun control, Health and Medicine, History, Humor, Hypocrisy, Politics, Stupidity

Tagged as Crap, Crazy people, GOP, Politics, Pushing Buttons, Stupidity, Tea Party, Washington

August 31, 2012 · 0:00

The Sequel

I’ve told you before: I know these folks. I grew up where the book was written and the movies filmed. So I know all about these gals.

They don’t look or act any different in person than on TV. They are molded this way from a special polymer. From the earliest vestiges of childhood, they know their part. They walk a little differently than you and me, they talk a little differently. They stand a little differently. The nose is up, the eyes are either scornful when looking at you and me, or doe-eyed, when looking at Daddy or Hubby or money or jewels.

Yes, here they are: