US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

very TA-like affect, sure, but fun facts

Mike Huckabee's history lesson:

In the teaser, a group of kids take a time travel machine to the recession-troubled 1970s, where they're confronted by a knife-wielding thug wearing a "disco" shirt. They then learn how Ronald Reagan "swiftly changed the course of the nation."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/gypsyfrocksbedlam/alg_knife_weilding_man.jpg

shirt should say DJ KOOL HERC obv

Huck's take on the Civil Rights Movement should be illuminating

http://thumbsforhire.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/dancing-blue-footed-booby.jpg

LOVE THIS DUDE

rong thred lol

Rand Paul quote equating health care with slavery:

Paul railed against the very idea of having a right to health care.

“[(Y)ou have realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses.

“Basically, once you imply a belief in a right to someone’s services — do you have a right to plumbing? Do you have a right to water? Do you have right to food? — you’re basically saying you believe in slavery.

“I’m a physician in your community and you say you have a right to health care. You have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That’s ultimately what the right to free health care would be.”

― curmudgeon, Thursday, May 12, 2011 1:41 PM (2 hours ago)

see i respect this - he's being honest! he truly believes that children whose parents are too poor to afford to put a roof over their heads should be homeless, those who can't afford education should be left illiterate, and those who can't afford medical care should be left to die. instead of poking fun at him (paranoid bullshit aside), which is what i guarantee the blogeratti will be doing, if they pay any attention to this at all, democrats should use this to elucidate their positions - yes, we believe that every person in our society should be entitled to medical care when they are sick; yes, we believe that education is a right, and that a child shouldn't be deprived of education because their parents couldn't afford it; yes, we believe that government is necessary to protect the most vulnerable and unfortunate members of our society.

if we can't win these kinds of battles, it's time to give up

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2011/05/13/alg_reagan_animation.jpg
http://zeroshop.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/lux1.jpg?w=450&h=363

"that's why it's important to learn the history of your country. when the cramps played new hampshire in 1980, it blew my mind"

yes, we believe that education is a right

but see, now you want to enslave teachers. privatize education!

Into the Sewer: the American right wing, 2011

grazie

Talk to any pretty much any state legislator these days and they'll tell you that they're broke because of the economic downturn, and that's why they have to slash billions from education. While it is true that states coast to coast are hurting, and there are plenty of examples of misplaced funding priorities to be found, I haven't heard one as egregious as Texas' plans to slash education budgets and layoff almost 100,000 teachers, all while agreeing to pay $25 million per year through 2022 to Formula One auto racing.

Investors are "building a 3.4-mile (5.5-kilometer) track to bring the event to Austin" and the $25 million government handout from the state will subsidize the costs Formula One will incur. The office of one of the project's main investors, Clear Channel Communications Inc. co-founder B.J. “Red” McCombs, told Bloomberg News that "Formula One race in Austin next year will spur $300 million of spending" and building the "$242 million track, which has begun, is projected to add 1,300 temporary jobs and pump $400 million into the economy."

What's left out of that rosy scenario is that Formula One racing is known as a sport for the uber wealthy—think the Monaco Grand Prix—and attempts to get it going in other American cities, like Indianapolis and Las Vegas, have been complete failures.

German teacher Ewa Siwak, who teaches at Bowie High School in Austin and is being laid off said she has "to wonder why the state of Texas is all over funding for this racetrack and not the school-funding crisis."

Indeed.

Sure, that $25 million a year won't pay the salaries of all the teachers Texas plans to pink slip, but it could "pay more than 500 teachers an average salary of $48,000." It definitely sounds like there are some screwed up priorities if the state is funding a race track backed by wealthy corporations and individuals instead of education.

i am learning to hate GOOD magazine more and more

Is the Hippocratic oath slavery?

Up to and not including the bit where the original version frowns on abortions.

doctores of physick are forbade from the cutting of the stone!

I just kinda like the way this guy hand-waves 'duty' as 'slavery'.

randians think any concept of duty IS slavery, that the only duty you have is a kinda masturbatory self development

every once in a while i remember that rand paul's first name is RAND and i go 'oh right'

it's just short for Randall! Total coincidence!

ayn rand paul bremer

i think the more interesting questions for people like paul would have to do with christian charity. ok, so they don't want to be coerced by the government into helping the poor and suffering. but what kind of twisted pseudo-christian justification do they come up with for contriving to be bothered by the resulting continued poverty, and suffering, of the poor and suffering?

'not to be bothered'

even the "moderates" feel the need to pander to Teabag ignoramuses:

Gov. Christie won't say if he believes in evolution or creationism

i read that as the opposite of pandering tbh

i disagree -- if didn't want to pander, he would've just said that he believed in evolution. statewide, there's no disadvantage ... and plenty of advantage ... to taking that position. (not that we don't have Teabags in NJ, just that pandering to them for a statewide office would be a kiss of death.)

and what if he doesn't believe in evolution but doesn't want to ostracize himself from the voters who believe otherwise

like

oh my god, a politician that shuts the fuck up about things that have nothing to do with his office

fuck chris christie, but, oh my god

i see yr point, and it is a "gotcha" question. and odious though Fat Governor is, i'm quite sure that he does believe in evolution.

anyway, i think his answer was intended for a national audience.

it's just short for Randall! Total coincidence!

And here I thought it was short for krugerrand.

and what if he doesn't believe in evolution but doesn't want to ostracize himself from the voters who believe otherwise

like

oh my god, a politician that shuts the fuck up about things that have nothing to do with his office

But he made the remark in the context of whether schools should be permitted to teach creationism, therefore if his own personal belief isn't relevant to the job, it would at least demonstrate that he has some understanding of the basis on which such a decision should be made. Which, clearly, he does not.

anyway, i think his answer was intended for a national audience.

^ding

ayn rand paul ron paul for fucks sake get some more different names

rand paul george ringo

lollll

As if Boehner's ideas weren't bad enough, now McConnell over in the Senate is joining in. Will the Dems give in to this:

In addition to cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, McConnell called for an agreement to reduce spending at federal agencies over the next two years, a move that would defuse a battle over agency appropriations and lessen the risk of a government shutdown before the 2012 election.

McConnell said he also wants to see limits on spending set for 2014 and beyond, although he acknowledged that caps are often breached and are therefore a less reliable tool for debt reduction.

A major rewrite of the tax code, while popular with both parties, “will not be accomplished” as part of the debt-limit debate, nor will Republicans agree to tax increases of any kind, McConnell said. But he said he would not press Obama to reduce spending on Social Security, a major objective for three GOP senators working to draft a separate debt-reduction deal as part of the Gang of Six.

From the W. Post

mr. filibuster has been so helpful throughout the financial crisis

matt taibbi otm

If the Justice Department fails to give the American people a chance to judge this case — if Goldman skates without so much as a trial — it will confirm once and for all the embarrassing truth: that the law in America is subjective, and crime is defined not by what you did, but by who you are.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511?page=1

I don't know how to break this to Matt Taibbi but that's been confirmed for over a hundred years

once the ways of power are identified we should no longer take note of them because they aren't interesting any more. i think foucault wrote that somewhere

you're misreading the foucault. he actually said that next to sex, the ultimate performance and conservation of power occurs within the taste complex and that whomever can out-cynic the next person is actually king hipster for a day.

i thought that was bourdieu, in 'distinction'

good call. here's ur crown

http://frmarkdwhite.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/crown.jpg

i think it's cute in the best way when matt taibbi's post-HST furious-hate shtick spasms into something corny. also he's been doing a terrific job with this whole thing in general and it was rad to see him latch onto something with real force after wandering around for a while post-yeltsin, snapping at things while his style curdled. the Big Issue's really focused him.

not that it makes any difference

i cannot wait for him to cover the new campaigns

i thought he was reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally boring about the tea party at first but that last thing he wrote about them (the thesis was that they were a legitimate grassroots movement in response to the crisis/bailouts but were purchased and occupied early by the floundering republican party which massaged all the racist/misogynist social complaints and the vague idea of Big Government and gradually turned the tea partiers' faces away from the banks) i thought was really good, especially from a guy who'd started to slide into the pit of just being furious over sarah palin. and again it's doing all this furious research into the financial crisis that's improved him, the same way he was improved by knowing everything about the flamboyantly corrupt criminal/government/media maze of 90s russia.

taibbi is absolutely one of my favorite journalists - perfect blend of smarts and seething hatred for the things he covers. still recommend his latest book, just finished it yesterday

and it's cool cuz i used to say mean things about him of the i-hope-he-doesn't-burst-a-vein-straining-to-be-hunter-s-thompson type, but with this excellent second phase of his career he probably has more excellent phases than hunter s thompson had.

xxp yes

i really liked Griftopia too but i have to say it's super depressing and if you want to function in any healthy way maybe save it for when you don't need to face the world and smile (thanksgiving might be a perfect time if you're gonna be miserable anyway)