America's First White President With Dark Skin

What’s up with President Barry? 

Washington, DC

April 27, 2013

Barack Obama, America’s first white president who is also black, is doing some interesting things these days. He's done some great things, mostly small or medium sized. His Republican't-heavy health care reform, which he proudly calls Obamacare, isn't one of them. I've cut this guy quite a bit of slack because I was so happy he wasn't George W. Bush, but now I'm starting to get a bad taste in my mouth.

Obama seems to be happily continuing and even expanding George W. Bush's drone program - one that is creating instant enemies throughout the Arab world and causing even Tea addled, quasi-libertarian nutbags like Rand Paul to sound like some kind of civil liberties guru. Obama didn't even send anyone to the Senate hearings last week. For someone who promised transparency this guy is becoming more opaque by the minute.

Obama signed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which effectively legalizes indefinite detention of US citizens.  Not what one would hope to see from a Constitutional scholar. Not to mention Obama’s war on whistleblowers featuring the prosecution of more whistleblowers than any previous president. Huh? Like any other white presidents he seems content with maintaining the excessive power for the executive branch championed by Dick Cheney. After the shameful behavior and resignation of Dick Nixon there was a successful movement to rein in the executive branch, which Cheney always resented. Once he became president Bush he wasted no time re-inflating presidential power. Then he invaded Iraq and gave us the PATRIOT Act. Now the white man in black's clothing is happy to follow in the footsteps of Cheney/Bush.

Barry is also carrying out a drone strike on Social Security. He continues his farce of compromise with the Republican'ts, who don't even like their own ideas once Obama agrees with them. So why does he keep putting Social Security on the chopping block? Is it because Barry and his associates in Washington, DC don’t care that much about Social Security since those in high levels of government rarely end up needing the pittance that is our social safety net and so few of them have the guts to fight for the 99%? Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), one of the most progressive members of the Senate says, “It’s clear there’s too much Wall Street in this administration.” Not what one would hope to see from a community organizer.

Yet Obama continues to flog the Republican't-backed austerity myth despite the clear evidence that it is not working anywhere in the world. The only beneficiaries of austerity are those at the top. It's all the rage across Europe as country after country sees austerity measures crush them. We recently learned that the “research” underlying the entire austerity concept - done by two prominent Harvard economists - has been completely debunked. The single non-peer-reviewed study that began with a rookie error (we will assume) in the Excel spread sheet and ended with the exposure of horribly skewed data has been exposed. It was a joke to begin with and now it’s an unmitigated laughing stock. We’ll see how quickly Obama and the Republican'ts abandon the crumbled infrastructure of the crappy austerity doctrine that history shows and everyone knows will never do what its proponents claim. Not what one would hope to see from a guy that grew up with little like us regular folks.

Barry's most recent endeavor was to allow Congress to sidestep part of the Sequester that inconvenienced them. They simply could not abide waiting for planes to take off, the latest delays being tied to the moronic Sequester Congress created. Just as Obama bailed out the banks, but not the homeowners the banks defrauded, he let Congress have their way without making them give up something for us regular folks like money for cancer treatment, Headstart and aid to Hurricane Sandy victims to name but a few. Not what one would hope to see. Period.

And what will Barry do about the Keystone XL Poopline? Will he continue to protect the fossil fuel industry, who already has enough money to last forever, or will he protect the planet for his daughters and the next seven generations?

I. Mangrey reporting.

Thanks for listening. Less white presidents welcome.

Republican'ts: Equal Opportunity Insulters

Is That A Dark Horse 2016 Republican't Presidential Ticket I Smell?

The Land Previously Occupied By Absolutely No White People

April 21, 2013

Not that it's anything new, unless you're Rand Paul, who recently made a splash trying to educate a room full of black college students about the history of black people in America, but Republican'ts just can't seem to hide their true nature when their mouths are open. For his part, Paul tried to ignore Republican'ts' rich history of racial prejudice towards blacks by insisting that the Republican'ts were still the party of Lincoln and emancipation, and always have been. Paul apparently missed several decades that began with the Sixties and blamed the Democrats for all the racial problems this country has had, though his audience seemed less than impressed with Paul's, shall we say, creative rendition of American history. To be fair, Rand Paul probably doesn't believe that Native Americans or dinosaurs ever existed, and probably thinks the Second Amendment protects guns from people.

What Would You Expect From The Party That Hates The Earth

The Republican'ts are desperately trying to run from their anti-minority position, which with any luck, will relegate them to perpetual also-rans as America becomes less white and less intolerant. It's not that they realize they have to like or even accept non-white Americans, it's that they recognize they only need to con just a small percentage of them into voting Republican't in order to stand a chance of ever getting back into the White House. Let's see how that's going so far.

Rand Paul's pathetic attempt to con his black audience into going Republican't came little over a week after Rep. Don Young (R-AR) said, “My father had a ranch; we used to hire fifty to sixty wetbacks to pick tomatoes.” That apparently was the just the opening salvo in what is likely to be a donnybrook of the latest chapter of Stupid Things White Republican'ts Say.

This Just In From Klansas

Recently, Saline County, Kansas county commissioner, Jim Gile argued that his county should hire an architect to design repairs to local bridges instead of "nigger-rigging it." His first attempt to repair his own infrastructure was to change the offending phrase to "Afro-Americanized." Another white colleague of Gile's insisted "there is not a racist bone in his body." The tongue of course is not a bone. Gile said, "I had it (jury-rigged) on my brain and this came out. It was a bad choice of words. I'm sorry." Gile later added, "I am not a prejudiced person. I have built Habitat homes for colored people." Apparently Gile, who will likely get a slot at the 2016 Republican national convention, is indeed a good person, so we'll have to cut him some black slack.

At Least He Didn't Mention The Horns

Oklahoma State Rep. Dennis Johnson (R), co-majority leader of the state House of Representatives and a small business owner, was arguing in favor of legislation to repeal Oklahoma's 70-year-old law prohibiting retailers from selling goods for less than 6 percent above cost. Johnson favored the repeal because some customers "might try to Jew me down on a price." Johnson quickly realized his mistake once he was signaled by someone off camera that what he said was offensive. He recovered with great speed and aplomb saying, "I apologize to the Jews. They're good small businessmen as well." There are no Jewish members of the Oklahoma legislature…what a surprise.

I'm sure things will even out now that Republican'ts can go back to slamming Mormons again.

I. Mangrey reporting.

Thanks for listening. Responsible epithets invited.

So Much Stupid, So Little Time

A Stupid Trifecta

Here, there and everywhere, USA

April 13, 2013 

What Type Of Assault Weapon Would Jesus Use?

One good thing about the current debate on gun regulation, it’s nice to see all the crazed Second fund-Amendment-alists frantically scurrying around in a desperate attempt to protect their precious, fabled gun rights. They just can’t let go of their insane fetish with and interpretation of the second half of the Second Amendment, above which, for them there is no other. Let ‘em eat lead I say. It's interesting because my interpretation of the "right of the people to keep and bear arms" simply means that the government shall not, without proper cause, remove the upper limbs of its people. As you can see, I too can happily ignore all that militia nonsense that starts off the Second Amendment. And I assure you I know exactly what was in the minds of our Founding Fathers…even if they didn't.

The problem is the Second fund-Amendment-alists are a very dangerous bunch to go up against because so many of them are unhinged and all of them are armed, many of them – to the teeth. And behind those teeth are some very unstable reptilian brains. The Second fund-Amendment-alists are just beside themselves with angst over imminent changes to some gun laws. These self-imagined uber-patriots are a lot less likely to exercise their Second Amendment rights to protect the First Amendment than they are to suppress those who use the First Amendment to disagree with them. Take heart though, before long these knuckle-draggers will be stocking up on the drones Obama is helping to proliferate here and abroad. You're worried about North Korea taking out a major U.S. city? Maybe you should focus on South Carolina.

Meanwhile Congress is bending over barely to determine just exactly what is the least they can do to decrease the number of gun massacres in America. We're supposed to be very excited over the Grand Background Check Bargain they're using to misdirect our attention away from the fact that they won't even talk about banning assault weapons or military-sized magazines. Remember, the Congress is essentially a Halfway House of Representatives for ex-lobyists or soon-to-be lobbyists, so they must be very wary not to antagonize their previous employers, whom they are in Congress to service, or their near-future employers for whom they are finding ways to be of value when they leave "public service" for loftier paychecks.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does 

While we're on the subject, the man whose face is in the dictionary next to the word stupid – George W. Bush – is having his “presidential” "library" open its doors to the public on the ten-year anniversary of Bush’s MORON MISSION ACCOMPLISHED declaration – approximately ten years before his illegal, miserably wrong, staggeringly failed, stupid war in Iraq finally ground to its excruciating halt. I'm sure each and every annual visitor to this "lie-brary" will be simply enthralled by the collection of coloring books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and reams of massively redacted official documents filling the House That Bush Built. And of course you will be able to see every copy ever printed of his recent autobiography, "Delusion Decision Points."

George W. Bush greeting a roomful of blind well-wishers 

Exxon Is As Exxon Does; There's No "U" In Exxon

Finally, the stupidest of all...the Fourth (and most powerful) Branch of Government, The Oil Industry. There were 364 oil pipeline spills in 2012. Exxon, the perpetrator of the latest oil debacle in Mayflower, Arkansas, was seen (despite their best efforts to keep the public from knowing by banning the reporters, photographers and curious citizens and acquiring a no-fly zone over the disaster area courtesy of their Halfway House of Representatives) sopping up the toxic sludge with paper towels. Paper towels. Because the most profitable company on the face of the Earth can easily afford to take all necessary precautions and be ready to respond to any problem at a moment’s notice. After all it’s just common courtesy. Did I mention that in 2013, with a horrendous track record of discharging gobs of oil all over the planet for decades, Exxon is using paper towels to sop up the most toxic, dangerous form of petroleum we have ever seen? Paper towels.

Actual photo of Exxon's super high-tech clean-up in Arkansas 

In fact, Exxon, which pays almost zero taxes while getting over ten billion dollars in tax subsidies and pulling in record profits, is claiming that this isn't an oil spill. Thanks to the Halfway House of Representatives they can call it a Bitumen event since tar sands oil is so different from all the other kinds of petroleum substances. Tar sands oil is so cool because unlike other petroleum substances it doesn't float on water…it sinks. Isn't that special. Coming soon to a neighborhood near you, since the rotting, ancient pipelines that carry this crap are just about everywhere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FkoIS41v30

I. Mangrey reporting.

Thanks for listening. Responsible tax subsidies (for me) invited.