Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

~~~

~~~

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Seamus Heaney, April13, 1939 - August 30, 2013










Digging

BY SEAMUS HEANEY
Between my finger and my thumb   
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

Under my window, a clean rasping sound   
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:   
My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds   
Bends low, comes up twenty years away   
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills   
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft   
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade.   
Just like his old man.

My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it.
 
 
 
(I had the privilege of meeting him years ago in a café in Harvard Square.)
 
 

Friday, August 30, 2013

The GOP's Snubbing of MLK's "I Have A Dream" Speech Commemoration



Snowballs are being tossed around in hell:



O’Reilly said, “Last night during my discussion with James Carville about the Martin Luther King commemoration, I said that there were no Republican speakers invited. Wrong, I was wrong. Some Republicans were asked to speak. They declined, and that was a mistake. They should have spoken. Now, the mistake, entirely on me. I simply assumed that since all the speakers were liberal Democrats, Republicans were excluded. So here’s the tip of the day. Always check out the facts before you make a definitive statement. And when you make a mistake, admit it. By the way, I’m sorry that I made that mistake. It’s very annoying because I know you guys watch The Factor for accuracy.”



O'Reilly's mea culpa is in response to his ham-headed belief that no Republican was invited to speak at the commemoration of the "I Have A Dream" speech.  His assumption was based on many on the right's embrace of victimization, which they eagerly claim whenever someone points to their misrepresentations or their rancid bigotry.

O'Reilly laughingly said "I know you guys watch 'The Factor' for accuracy."

I don't think O'Reilly knows what the word "accuracy" really means.

Here's a list of all the exaggerations, misrepresentations, and damn lies O'Lielly has passed onto his willfully gullible viewers:



Bill O'Reilly's Right-Wing Buffoonery: A Brief Catalog




The absence of GOP representatives was a disgrace to The Reverend Martin Luther King's memory.  

They declined to participate.  

This is the party that has stated again and again that it needs to reach out to minorities.  Yet on the anniversary of a man who has been called "a modern founding father" they were nowhere to be found, and by refusing to honor The Reverend Martin Luther King on this historic commemoration, they seal their fate as the party of _______________ and ______________.  Fill in the blanks, I'm sure whomever reads this will be far more charitable than I.




Something Was Missing From The March On Washington Anniversary


If Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had seen 50 years into the future, he might have been tempted to add "Democrats and Republicans" to the historically antagonistic pairings — "black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics" — who, in his "I Have A Dream" speech, would one day hold hands and sing, "Free at last." 

 The parties have seldom seemed so far apart as they did Wednesday, on the 50th anniversary of King's speech and the March on Washington. Not a single Republican elected official spoke at the "Let Freedom Ring" event at the Lincoln Memorial, site of King's 1963 speech, though some were invited. 

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio attended an earlier march commemoration on Capitol Hill, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia was traveling in Ohio and North Dakota, according to reports explaining why they had declined invitations. 

Former President George W. Bush was invited by event organizers, but declined because of recent heart surgery. 

Whatever the reasons, the absence of any prominent past or present Republican official in a speaking role at the commemoration is unlikely to help the party's outreach to minorities. 

The hulking marble presence of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, didn't really make up for the absence of living, breathing GOP officials.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

GOP VOTER SUPPRESSION, PART II

Light posting because of family member's recent surgery.  

All's well.

But here's a mind-boggling admission by a con regarding the REAL reason for their crusade to suppress the Democratic vote:


Conservatives Are Finally Admitting What Voter Suppression Laws Are All About —By Kevin Drum| Mon Aug. 26, 2013 10:55 AM PDT 163 

North Carolina's new voter ID law is ostensibly designed to reduce voter fraud. That's the official story, anyway. But if that's the case, why did North Carolina also pass a whole bunch of other voting restrictions, including limits on early voting? Phyllis Schlafly, the doyen of right-wing crankery, explains that the reason was simple: "Early voting plays a major role in Obama's ground game....[It] is an essential component of the Democrats' get-out-the-vote campaign." 

Steve Benen comments: Have you ever heard a political figure accidentally read stage direction, unaware that it's not supposed to repeated out loud? 

This is what Schlafly's published column reminds me of. For North Carolina Republicans, the state's new voter-suppression measures are ostensibly legitimate — GOP officials are simply worried about non-existent fraud. 

The response from Democrats and voting-rights advocates is multi-faceted, but emphasizes that some of these measures, including restrictions on early voting, have nothing whatsoever to do with fraud prevention and everything to do with a partisan agenda. 

And then there's Phyllis Schlafly, writing a piece for publication effectively saying Democrats are entirely right — North Carolina had to dramatically cut early voting because it's not good for Republicans. 

 Remember, Schlafly's piece wasn't intended as criticism; this is her defense of voter suppression in North Carolina. Proponents of voting rights are arguing, "This is a blatantly partisan scheme intended to rig elections," to which Schlafly is effectively responding, "I know, isn't it great?"

Hey!  If you can't beat the Democrats at the ballot box, you can always get your conservative state government to pass laws to restrict their voting and CHEAT!

It's a conservative value!

Monday, August 26, 2013

The GOP's Effort to Suppress the Vote




The GOP governors of GOP-controlled states have marched lock-step to the fake problem of voter fraud and have instituted procedures and new legislation that make it more difficult for certain groups to vote.

If states want to require voter IDs, they should make it easy to obtain the IDS and not make getting one a burden on the voting public.  But states like North Carolina haven't stopped at voter IDs, they've cut back on early voting and voter registration drives .  

Why is that?  


How does limiting the number of days for voting and for voter registration discourage fraud?  Of course it doesn't. 


But the reasons states like North Carolina, Virginia, and Texas are limiting voting times and making it more difficult to register are evident, and they are ugly.



How much voter fraud is there?  Almost none.


UFO Sightings Are More Common Than Voter Fraud 

The GOP says election fraud is rampant. A close look at the numbers shows there's no evidence of that.





MYTH OF VOTER FRAUD

It’s important to protect the integrity of our elections. But we must be careful not to undermine free and fair access to the ballot in the name of preventing voter fraud. 
The Brennan Center’s ongoing examination of voter fraud claims reveal that voter fraud is very rare, voter impersonation is nearly non-existent and much of the problems associated with alleged fraud in elections relates to unintentional mistakes by voters or election administrators.  Our report "The Truth About Voter Fraud" reveals most allegations of fraud turn out to be baseless — and that of the few allegations remaining, most reveal election irregularities and other forms of election misconduct.
Voter fraud should not be countenanced in our elections but we must find a balance and not impose solutions that make it harder for  millions of eligible Americans to participate in our democracy.



North Carolina:


"...the North Carolina legislature passed the country’s worst voter suppression law after only three days of debate. Rick Hasen of Election Law Blog called it “the most sweeping anti-voter law in at least decades” The bill mandates strict voter ID to cast a ballot (no student IDs, no public employee IDs, etc.), even though 318,000 registered voters lack the narrow forms of acceptable ID according to the state’s own numbers and there have been no recorded prosecutions of voter impersonation in the past decade. 

The bill cuts the number of early voting days by a week, even though 56 percent of North Carolinians voted early in 2012. The bill eliminates same-day voter registration during the early voting period, even though 96,000 people used it during the general election in 2012 and states that have adopted the convenient reform have the highest voter turnout in the country. African-Americans are 23 percent of registered voters in the state, but made up 28 percent of early voters in 2012, 33 percent of those who used same-day registration and 34 percent of those without state-issued ID."


Harsh Texas Voter ID Law 'Immediately' Takes Effect After Voting Rights Act Ruling



WASHINGTON -- Texas will "immediately" enact a voter ID law that a panel of federal judges ruled last year would impose “strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor," a top state official said Tuesday. The decision to go forward with a measure that those federal judges called “the most stringent in the country"







General Colin Powell:




"The concern I have now is that many states are putting in place procedures and new legislation that in some ways makes it a little harder to vote. You need a photo ID, but you didn’t need a photo ID for decades before so is it really necessary now? They claim that there’s wide spread abuse and voter fraud, but nothing documents, nothing substantiates that. 

There isn’t widespread abuse, and so these kinds of procedures that are being put in place to slow the process down, make it likely that fewer Hispanics and African Americans might vote. I think they’re going to backfire, because these people are going to come out do what they have to do in order to vote and I encourage that."




Colin Powell:  There is no fraud.


"Former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell criticized North Carolina's voter ID law Thursday and claimed voter fraud did not exist in a speech attended by NC Governor Pat McCrory. 


'You can say what you like, but there is no voter fraud,' Powell said, according to the News & Observer. 'How can it be widespread and undetected?' According to the publication, Powell was the keynote speaker at the CEO Forum in Raleigh, North Carolina and made his remarks moments after Gov. Pat McCrory left the stage. 

McCrory was in the audience for a portion of Powell’s speech. 

'It immediately turns off a voting block the Republican Party needs,' Powell said. 'These kinds of actions do not build on the base. It just turns people away.' "

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Sunday Science Post





Neil deGrasse Tyson:  The Most Astounding Fact








Friday, August 23, 2013

They're At It Again

UPDATE BELOW








"We have to stop being the Stupid Party." --Republican Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana


Really?

I wonder when will that happen?



GOP congressman: Impeaching Obama would be a ‘dream come true’



Impeach President Obama and Remove Him from Office




GOP Sen. Coburn: Obama Getting ‘Perilously Close’ To Impeachable Offenses




First, these particular GOPers never say what the impeachable offenses are. (Hint:  there aren't any.)  

Second, do they really believe that the Democrats in the Senate would vote to impeach President Obama?

Third, see the first and second. 

And finally, the Republican led do-nothing House of Representatives has the lowest approval rating in this country's history, imagine where it will be if it brings forward a bill of impeachment based on--what?


The Stupids again are blowing fetid smoke out of their, um, ears.

President Obama was elected TWICE by the American people. 

President Obama has committed no impeachable offenses, except only if the TeaPublicans believe his offense is being President while black.







It is all so very, very "tarsome."

UPDATE:

h/t L.Parsley:


"Two interesting new items from yesterday: 


 (1)The Department of Justice has filed a Grant of Immunity for war crimes against George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Paul Wolfowitz, and Donald Rumsfeld. The filing for the immunity of war crimes was made with the United States District Court, Northern District of California San Francisco Division. 

 (2) Republican members of Congress propose impeachment of President Obama."


Do we need further examples of their perfidy?

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

N.R.A.'s Secret Data Mining






Upset over the government snooping into your emails, cell phone calls and tweets?  Who would blame you.

But the government isn't the only one keeping information on you without your permission:

Surprise!



WASHINGTON — The National Rifle Association has rallied gun owners — and raised tens of millions of dollars — campaigning against the threat of a national database of firearms or their owners.

But in fact, the sort of vast, secret database the NRA often warns of already exists, despite having been assembled largely without the knowledge or consent of gun owners. It is housed in the Virginia offices of the NRA itself. 

The country’s largest privately held database of current, former, and prospective gun owners is one of the powerful lobby’s secret weapons, expanding its influence well beyond its estimated 3 million members and bolstering its political supremacy. 

That database has been built through years of acquiring gun permit registration lists from state and county offices, gathering names of new owners from the thousands of gun safety classes taught by NRA-certified instructors and by buying lists of attendees of gun shows, subscribers to gun magazines, and more, 

BuzzFeed has learned. 

The result: a big data powerhouse that deploys the same high-tech tactics all year round that the vaunted Obama campaign used to win two presidential elections.

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam declined to discuss the group’s name-gathering methods or what it does with its vast pool of data about millions of non-member gun owners. Asked what becomes of the class rosters for safety classes when instructors turn them in, he replied, “That’s not any of your business.”




The NRA Wants to Keep Gun Records Secret From Everyone Except the NRA


"...while the NRA has lately become one of the harshest critics of fourth estate access gun permit data—it has said "personal information regarding [permit] holders serves no public interest and only exposes law-abiding citizens to potential criminal acts" and places them at "risk to criminals who may target their home to steal firearms"—the group holds itself to a very different standard. 

When Tennessee first tried to make gun records private in 2009, the effort died "amid fears that political groups and gun advocates would no longer be able to access addresses of handgun carry permit holders to add to their mailing list soliciting contributions," according to the Associated Press. 

Indeed, in a survey of public records requests filed in 7 of the states that make (or formerly made) gun records public (we're still waiting on answers from 9 more), Gawker found multiple examples of the NRA and other conservative, "pro-gun" partisans seeking the lists for their own political and fundraising gain. 

In 2009, for example, a North Carolina firm called Preferred Communications emailed the Virginia State Police to find out how much it could pay to buy a list of the state's gun permit holders. It was requesting the information on behalf of the NRA."
  








It's not just "Big Brother" watching you.   The N.R.A. knows what you've bought and when you bought it.  And they don't want you to know why they've gathered all this information on you WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION.

Hate the government snooping and taking your personal information without your knowledge?

Do you own guns?

What do you think about this?


Sunday, August 18, 2013

Fishermen's Feast, North End, Boston




Here in Boston's North End, residents and visitors are celebrating the 103rd Fishermen's Feast this weekend. Part Catholic, part pagan, this celebration brings in hundreds of people from all over the area to participate in the street fairs, food, music, and whatever else the feast has to offer.

Two other feasts over the past two weekends (Saint Agrippina and Madonna della Cava) were set in my immediate neighborhood, which, along with the celebration, can pose some inconveniences, but overall, they're a reason for the neighbors to get together and have a good time.  The food is abundant and delicious (it IS held in an Italian-American neighborhood, afterall!) and everyone enjoys the sights, sounds, and smells.




"The Fisherman's Feast is an annual event that began in Boston in 1910 and is based on a tradition that goes back to the 16th century in Sciacca Sicily. The Feast is based on the devotion of the fishermen from Sciacca to the Madonna del Soccorso (Our Lady of Help). When the fishermen immigrated to America in the early 1900's, they brought their traditions with them. Today's Feast is much the same as it was over 100 years ago with lights adorning the street and the smell of sausage in the air. The current Feast is organized by the descendants of those original immigrants and still includes a procession of the Madonna through the streets of the North End."  [from Fishermen's Feast.com]






The 103rd Fisherman’s Feast opened on Thursday night, August 15, 2013 in Boston’s North End on North, Fleet and Lewis Streets. The statue of La Madonna Del Soccorso di Sciacca left her permanent chapel for a solemn procession to Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park for the Annual Blessing of the Fishing Waters. This year’s procession was dedicated to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. Adding to the opening night, the Annual Italian American of the Year Award was presented to Mayor Thomas M. Menino. [from North End Waterfront.com]
















[photos from North End Waterfront.com]

Saturday, August 17, 2013

OH NOES! TEH GAY AGENDA IS SPREADING



And it's coming to your small hometown!



CAUTION TO GAY BASHERS!  REMOVE SHARP OBJECTS FROM IMMEDIATE AREA BEFORE WATCHING THIS:






The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Video Archive

Thursday, August 15, 2013

WARNING: GOP HEAD EXPLOSIONS AHEAD.



CAUTION:  HEAD EXPLOSIONS AHEAD
Guess who's gnawing their knuckles over the Obama vacay?

Give up?

Okay.  I'll tell you.

Ready?

The GOPers!

What?  

You're surprised?

In between wetting their pants over the fact that President Obama won the White House a second time and the fact that Mrs. Obama, known to them as "Mooochie," or some other idiocy their little rodentian minds can think up, the GOOPers spend their very limited intellectual moments bellowing about the OBAMA VACATIONS!  Because only this First Family has ever taken vacations and because they're Kenyan usurpers who shouldn't be spending god-fearing Christian, liberty loving, tax-payers' money on such Marxist frivolities as VACATIONS! and because MOOOOOOOOCHIE! 

Poor demented, Obama-deranged banshees, ululating into the wind about the president and his family taking vacations while the rest of us actually live our lives and, oh, yeah, take our summer vacations with our families.

They're to be pitied more than mocked.  But, y'know, mocking is good too.  And something they so richly deserve.


"Every time President Obama and his family take a vacation, the hypocrites on the right whine and complain about it. They typically gripe about how much it costs taxpayers, or how terrible it looks in light of all the people struggling economically in this country. 

 Here are some of the complaints this time, as President Obama and his family enjoy an 8-day vacation at Martha’s Vinyard. Utah Republican Rep. Chris Stewart: 

'Most of the people in my district could never afford to visit Martha’s Vineyard, and those who could would feel uncomfortable vacationing in a place that has a reputation for being for the elite.' 

Maryland Republican Party chairman Diana Waterman: 

'When there are so many people out there looking for jobs and Americans are struggling to make ends meet, this sends the wrong message to people who are struggling to survive.' 

 Here’s a couple of reality checks for those critics: 

At the same point in his presidency, George W. Bush had taken 399 days of vacation, much of it spent at his Crawford, Texas ranch.  DURING A TIME WHEN AMERICAN MILITARY MEN AND WOMEN WERE DYING IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN!  "Now watch this drive."

Our do-nothing Congress, which has the lowest approval rating of any Congress and is liked less than herpes, is on a FIVE WEEK VACATION.

President Obama, meanwhile, has taken just 87 days of vacation during his presidency."

Here's something the Stupids on the right fail to understand:



Remember how the rightwing blogsphere lit up with red-hot anger over the number of days "Dubya" took while he was president?

No. Neither do I.

But it doesn't matter, because BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA!

And that's the way it is.





Wednesday, August 14, 2013

SICKENING

Some news reports are so jaw-droppingly awful, one has to question their veracity.  I read this the other day and thought it was a hoax.  "No one or no group could be this depraved," I thought.  But after checking several sources, including a blogger who lives in Portland, Oregon, I found the story is true.

Each time I think we, as a culture, have hit a new low in our dealings with our fellow citizens, along comes a story to prove me wrong.  

This is just another depressing piece of evidence to prove me wrong again:










Portland Commission on Disability says fliers posted in neighborhoods are 'hate speech' 

 Portland's Commission on Disability released a statement Friday condemning the fliers that someone spread across Portland this month threatening to name people on disability. It reads: 

"Our Commission is deeply troubled by these fliers, and we find this behavior threatening in both tone and content. The vast majority of people with disabilities who receive disability benefits genuinely need those benefits just to survive. 

We view this act as hate speech against people with disabilities in our community. Given the nature of this message, we are necessarily concerned for the safety of our neighbors with disabilities who are being targeted here. 

We ask that the community help us put an end to this before it escalates further." 

 The flier has been posted in the Irvington, Laurelhurst, Eliot, University Park and Belmont areas. The Laurelhurst flier -- signed by the anonymous "Artemis of the Wild" -- promises to reveal the names of 16 people in the Portland neighborhood who vote and receive disability payments. 

"The names of these people are being posted where they can be seen by taxpayers and the neighborhood can decide who is truly disabled," it reads. 

 Joe VanderVeer, chair of the commission on disability, said anyone who has received or seen this flyer should report it to admin@portlanddisability.com or call 503-823-4432.

h/t Infidel753

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

To All The Know-Nothings On The Right...

UPDATE BELOW



President Obama is well within his Constitutional rights to delay implementation of certain parts of the ACA:




The Affordable Care Act is the law, and Executive Branch has been constitutionally given the power to implement the law. These sorts of delays in implementation are common. Both Democratic and Republican administrations have used them


 The Supreme Court has found that it is constitutional for the Executive Branch to delay the implementation of a law, “As held by former Chief Justice William Rehnquist in a leading case on this subject, Heckler v. Chaney, courts must respect an agency’s presumptively superior grasp of “the many variables involved in the proper ordering of its priorities.” Chief Justice Rehnquist suggested that courts could lose their deference to Executive Branch judgment if an “agency has consciously and expressly adopted a general policy that is so extreme as to amount to an abdication of its statutory responsibilities.” The Obama Administration has not and is not about to abdicate its responsibility to implement the statute on whose success his historical legacy will most centrally depend."

SOURCE

UPDATE:


Meanwhile, as the chattering asses freak out over the latest on Obamacare, here's the real scoop on how the delay and the caps will affect Americans:

THE LATEST RIGHTWING FREAK-OUT OVER OBAMACARE


Monday, August 12, 2013

The GOP's Health Care Vision for the U.S.A. Playing Out in Texas

UPDATE BELOW:




Everything's big in Texas.  Even its horrid statistics concerning its citizens' lack of health care coverage:


Texas ranks 46th in the country for health care. It's in a race to the very bottom, dragging its sick men, women, and children with it.


Six million people or 24 percent of all Texans—and 30 percent of those ages 18 to 64—have no health insurance.  


Twenty-two Texas counties are among the nation's 30 worst for health insurance coverage.

 Gov. Rick (Oops!) Perry has refused the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid, 1.5 million Texans will needlessly remain uninsured after January 1.

Texas will join Arizona, Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wyoming in refusing the guarantee that insurance companies follow the ACA's new regulations:

 Though Texas will join 26 other states in defaulting to a federal marketplace for purchasing health insurance -- a major component of the Affordable Care Act -- it is one of only six that will not enforce new health insurance reforms prescribed by the law.

h/t dailykos



I've noticed how quiet the conservative blogs are on this "following-the-law" issue, while other conservative/libertarian  blogs have been very diligent in pointing out the misfeasance of Pennsylvania's AG for handing out marriage licenses "in direct contravention of the laws of the Commonwealth."

It is curious how indignant these law and order types are about gay marriage license issues (which harm no one), but are silent as corpses on an issue that will harm men, women, and children.

What's playing out in Texas is nothing more than deliberate and vindictive obstruction in order to make some sort of spiteful political point, while Texans go uninsured, which will result in medical and financial disasters. 

This is the GOP's vision for America.  Even when there are programs in place to help Americans through difficult medical issues, this political party would rather have Americans suffer life-altering consequences than implement many parts of the ACA.  The GOP leadership wants the ACA to fail, even if it means ruining American lives. 

Texas' Republican Senator Ted Cruz threatens to shut down the U.S. government unless Congress votes to defund Obamacare.  

That's not a political solution to anything; that's extortion. 

And it's criminal.  



UPDATE:

Whenever I visit a conservative blog, I usually find a typically ignorant comment slamming the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (god save it!*).  And the ignorant continue this stupidity because they haven't the intelligence to find out for themselves the facts, and they don't look for facts because the facts collide with their ignorance, also known as "cognitive dissonance."  But's that's just one of the reasons low-information, low-intelligence folks are attracted to the GOP.

What has this to do with my post on Texas' abominable health care for its citizens?

This:


"Massachusetts also had the lowest percentage of the population without health insurance in 2011, at a mere 4.3% — a whopping 10.8 percentage points below the national rate. 

The high rate of insured residents has much to do with a 2006 law signed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney. 

The law provided near universal health care coverage to all Massachusetts citizens. 

Among cities with populations of 100,000 or more, three Massachusetts cities — Boston, Worcester and Cambridge — had the lowest proportion of residents without health insurance at 5.5% or less, compared to a national rate of more than 15%."


Massachusetts, a very liberal, very small state compared with Texas, does a whoppingly better job than the very conservative large state of Texas. Massachusetts takes care of its citizens; Texas tells them to go to hell and suffer.

BTW, Massachusetts is among this country's 10 richest states, a stat that most conservatives would be proud of. But no conservative I know of will ever admit to how Massachusetts leads all the very red, very conservative southern states in quality of life issues.  

Blinders, you see, keep them blind and happy with their miserable lot under conservative government.

Good luck with that.

*from Charlie Pierce.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Sunday Night Poetry





AFTER, THE GOD


Enter a young girl, neck 
arched against black loam. 

History moves in quick strokes, 
in light-bending pools. 

Deneb in the Cross falls down
upon the beating wings.  Rapid 

breath leaps at animal stroke and shudder.
A village sleeps, only orphan dogs 

hear the scaled note, high then descending.
Tear of  cotton, thin scent of fennel 

in the bruised swale.

                                     --S.K.

The Way They Were (And How They Are Now)






(Click on image to make it larger.)





AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH ABOUT THE CURRENT GOP:











Saturday, August 10, 2013

CONSERVATIVE NINCOMPOOPERY



This is just a small sample of what passes as "political discussion" on conservative blogs:



Radical Redneck August 10, 2013 at 8:24:00 AM EDT 
News Flash! Michelle Obama snubbed from Vanity Fair's best dressed list. Moochie Obama dresses like a pig. She probably has body odor too. I wouldn't let her in my house, so why should Vanity Fair?

 

Reply Anonymous August 10, 2013 at 8:36:00 AM EDT It's not Moochies looks I care about, it's her attitude that turns my stomach. But what did you expect when Omar the tent maker is her designer!



Yeah.  Some tent!  But we know the people who write that trash are disassociated from reality and are too soaked in bigotry to even know they're bigots.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Obama is intelligent and beautiful.  And they're not. 








 

Reply Ron Russell August 10, 2013 at 8:58:00 AM EDT People like Zippy and the Moocher are never happy, no matter how much power, money and celebrity vacations, golf rounds , White House parties...etc they have. They always want more. It's pathetic!


Glenn E. Chatfield said...  August 9, 2013 at 1:37 PM   "What I stated was not 'whining,' rather it was fact. And I posted no link because anyone of average intelligence and who reads or listens to news at least once a month knows what I stated was true. 


 Do I need statistics to say this country is deeper into sexual morality than every before? Same-sex fake marriage is now the top perversion movement. Abortion is rampant, hookups rather than marriage is the norm, pornography is available like no time in history, sex indoctrination is taught in kindergarten - 'just use a condom' -- etc. 

And you need stats to show this?!?!? Violent crime is lower because more people are carrying firearms. DUH. The connection has been proven empirically too often. The deficits are shrinking?!?!? 

What sort of bizarre math comes up with this. No time in history has this country been the trillions of dollars in debt as it is now. Your 'evidence' is nothing but gov't propaganda. How about coming into the real world."








Kid said... TS/WS, That IS fascism 101. using the IRS to negatively impact political opponents is: 1) a million more times serious than the idiotic 'watergate' non-event. 2) just s jump to the right of full blown NAZI storm trooper tactics. But the libtards love it don't they? August 8, 2013 at 7:56 PM


Average American said... "America has forgotten how to fight a damned war! 


All this politically correct bullshit, nation building, rules of engagement, putting in an 'elected government' as soon as possible--all these things are STUPID!! 

The right answer is to go in, KICK ASS, WE run the place until the heathens are really ready to do it themselves, and then WE install their first government. 

When we KNOW that we have the right leaders in place, THEN let them dip their frigging little pinkies in blue ink, NOT UNTIL! And don't be afraid of these third world pukes. Last and MOST important, let the military do what we pay them for. 

Keep the frigging politicians OUT of it! AND KEEP THE NEWS MEDIA W A Y AWAY!!!!!!!"  August 7, 2013 at 9:12 PM


Just Saying It Like It Is.July 23, 2013 at 2:11 PM "The President of the United States is doing more harm than good, I don’t care what that Progressive screw-ball says on her blog.. . 


What bothers me the most is the ignorance of those who follow her like lost sheep in the night not seeing the implications of Obama’s statements. Nobody wants to discuss facts nor reality just false propaganda. 

What these leftist progressive idiots either fail to see or ignore the facts behind Obama's insidious statement, is the fact hath this will being out more and more racial tension and even lead to serious implications 

These scummy Progressives make me sick with their hypocrisy and lies, especially that Progressive, hatful, lying blogging whore Even that douchbag illiterate Rachel Jeantel is not that naive or ignorant! 

First time on your site thanks for your brutal honesty.. Can't understand what those leftie bottom feeders dislike you so much.....LOL..."




Now go wash your eyes with bleach and be thankful you're not one of them.







Friday, August 9, 2013

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Joe Scarborough Calls Out "Stupid" Republicans


UPDATE BELOW

In an angry outburst, former GOP Representative, Joe Scarborough, let loose a barrage of scathing attacks on the stupidity of GOP senators who plan to hold America hostage and shut down the government unless Congress defunds the ACA.

The extremist TeaPublicans planning this sabotage are Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Marco Rubio.  Like petulant little narcissists, they intend to disrupt the entire country if they don't get their way.  Even if their goal is totally unattainable.  And stupid.

Read what Scarborough had to say about these dunderheads:



"Scarborough described right-wing efforts as a 'spectacle' and a 'side show,' saying, 'it is never going to have the desired effect.' 

 Repeating the word 'stupid' multiple times, Scarborough said a threatened shutdown could have disastrous effects for the GOP. "When do you realize that your stupidity is getting in the way of conservatives winning national elections? Do you want to keep losing? You have lost the popular vote five out of six times in presidential races. 

 'Do you really want Hillary Clinton to be the next president for the next eight years? Are you really that stupid? Are you really that dumb? Are you really in that much need of being angry and resentful that you just stop caring about winning elections? 

 'If so, you are not a Republican," Scarborough said. "You are not a conservative. You're a nihilist and you have no place in our party. Take your stupid act somewhere else, because I, for one, am tired of losing and having stupid people like you defining my party.' 

 Calling the Republican infighting 'the best thing that can happen for the Democrats,' Scarborough praised moderate Republicans such as Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn and North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, who are resisting efforts to defund the healthcare-reform law. 

 'This shutdown show budding on the Senate side is causing real problems with the most conservative members of our representatives, who know Harry Reid is not going to let it defund.' "


Didn't Governor Jindal of Louisiana tell the GOP to stop being the Stupid Party?

It appears some members of the GOP are too stupid to see what's in front of their noses.

UPDATE:

More stupidity from GOPers:


"Former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), whom you might remember dropping out of politics in April to go into…a more lucrative, seven figure form of politics with the Heritage Foundation, told Newsmax TV yesterday that the GOP should be willing to destroy America if that is what it takes to get rid of medical care for the American people. 

 Interestingly, DeMint says Obamacare is more damaging to America “than anything I’ve seen pass in my lifetime.” 

 Obamacare apparently being more damaging than a Republican destruction of America itself. 

So what he is saying is that the GOP must be willing to do more damage to America than the most damaging thing they’ve seen so far, in order to stop the second-most damaging thing done to America."