The White To Bear Arms

Shoot ‘em If You’ve Got ‘em

Sanford, Florida

July 19, 2013

Something is rotten in the state of Florida. No, I’m not talking about Tea Party Senator Marco Rubio…at least not at this moment, though he definitely doesn’t smell right to me. Unsurprisingly, I’m referring to Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law as it played out in the trial of George Zimmerman. Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law, the first of what is now a thirty-state-wide epidemic, was put on full display recently as would-be-do-gooder and actual murderer, George Zimmerman who was arrested in 2005 and charged with “resisting officer with violence” and “battery of law enforcement officer,” now spends his free time pretending to be a cop. Why is this asshole permitted to carry a gun?

Zimmerman was recorded on a police scanner shortly before fatally shooting an innocent boy, “Those f#@%ing punks always get away with it.” Zimmerman was found not guilty after stalking Trayvon Martin who, fearing for his life, attempted to elude the self-anointed judge, jury and executioner. Martin was ultimately confronted, forced to defend himself – to stand his ground to coin a phrase – and then finally shot through the heart at point blank range by the deranged vigilante. Trayvon Martin was of course unarmed as civilized people in a civilized society are wont to be.

Robert Zimmerman, Jr. said of his newly acquitted brother, "Clearly, he is a free man in the eyes of the court, but he's going to be looking around his shoulder for the rest of his life." In regard to the many Americans who saw things differently he added, "They think justice was not served and they won't respect a verdict no matter how it was reached. They will always present a threat to George and to his family." I’m sure we can all understand poor Mr. Zimmerman’s discomfort with being treated like a criminal for no apparent reason, being profiled by strangers who wish him harm, perhaps even followed on a dark rainy night when all he was doing was walking home with a bag of Skittles and some iced tea. That would just be terrible, especially if he became engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle with this ne’er-do-well and then shot to death. Nobody likes being in that position. I’d hate to think I was being followed by an armed pinhead with a cop complex an itchy trigger finger.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in shitty sunny Florida, Marissa Alexander, a black woman and mother of three, with no criminal record, who fired a warning shot to protect herself from an imminent threat by her abusive husband, is currently serving 20 years after being convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Nobody was hit, injured, or killed during the incident. You wouldn’t be off the mark for thinking Ms. Alexander was simply, uh, wait, it’s on the tip of my finger – oh yeah – standing her ground. She was however doing something that is generally frowned upon in the state of Florida, something that also tarnished Trayvon Martin – she was visibly and unashamedly being black. Mark O'Mara, co-attorney’ for Zimmerman’s defense (not the one who began his opening statement with a disastrous knock-knock joke) told a reporter, "I think that things would have been different if George Zimmerman was black for this reason. He never would have been charged with a crime," he said. Yeah, because it’s just so much easier being black in America…unless you live in George Zimmerman’s neck of the woods. Just ask Marissa Alexander.

I. Mangrey reporting.

Thanks for listening. Stand your ground.

Summer Rerun

Fourth of July, Fifth of Bourbon

Independence Hell, Philadelphia, PA

July 4, 2013

I. Mangrey, great patriot that he is, will be taking this national day of rest as seriously as he takes anything, and abstaining from all manner of workly pursuits. You know...lazy. As managing editor of this blog-like forum I have taken it upon myself to wade through his Archives of Angst to re-present this piece of crap history from yesteryear. So take a moment out of your festivities and wallow in a bit of quagmires past on this the Fourth of July 2013. From the frackers red glare, the bums bruising our air, here's proof through the night that our flag has a prayer.

 

Remember, those who do not learn from history are doomed. Period.

Ed Venture

 

Intransigence Day 

Wipemyasswiththeconstitution, DC

July 4, 2007

Independence Day couldn’t have come at a better time.  Here, in the course of human events, we stand at the dawning of a brand new day.  Finally all Americans can breathe a sigh of relief that we need no longer be associated with the Albatross that has clung to our necks for over two hundred and thirty years.  We are finally rid of the unbearable burden under which we as a nation have labored so consistently, in the blind belief that it was the essence of our great nation, since this horrific deed first saw the light of day.  Yes, Americans – we are all free from the stultifying restrictions and absurd dreams and notions of the dreaded…Declaration of Independence.  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.  Truths?  Self-evident?  Created equal?  Unalienable rights?  Don’t make me laugh. 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”  Were those guys kidding with this crap?  Passé baby.  N’est ce pas? 

What a great day in American History this is.  To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.  First we managed to throw off the shackles of fair elections by embracing the first American President to be appointed by the Supreme Court despite the expressed wishes of the majority of American voters.  Thank goodness for that; elections are soooooo messy.  I heard there were people in Florida pulling chads out of their asses for months after that debacle down there.  Soon we were able to thrust off the brutal hindrance of never starting an unprovoked war – what a bunch of losers we had been until that Shining Path into Iraq opened before us, showing the way to a New World Order.  Shortly after that, we managed to stop pretending that we didn’t approve of torturing people, showing the whole world what we’re really made of while simultaneously unfettering ourselves from those quaint, but so pre-9/11 Geneva Accords.  Then this great appointed, shameless and supremely simian administration finished the job that whore Bill Clinton started by gutting the pathetically antiquated writ of Habeas Corpus like Karl Rove would the last known edible fish in the sea.  Throw in a smattering…oh, who’s kidding who…throw in a massive shitload of illegal domestic wiretapping made almost palatable with constant threats of terror around every corner.  Remove the crushing weight of the outdated, unwieldy, godless drivel that is the Constitution of the United States of America and you’ve got the Democracy that Mussolini always dreamed of – the Final Solution, if you will. 

With the Bushney regime’s latest exhibition of freedom loving, the Commuter in Chief made mincemeat of Scooter Libby’s sentence (after being found guilty, by a jury of his peers, on four of five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators), we can all know that simply being found guilty and losing two appeals, all overseen by Republican appointees, does not mean that the sentence we receive need be served.  I for one have never felt so liberated in all my life, at least not since I was assured by that paragon of virtue, democracy and competence, Donald Rumsfeld, that “free people are free to do bad things.”  I never fully understood how true this was until the great American hero, Scooter, was finally set free after almost coming ever so close to serving one full second of prison time.  Good for Scooter I say.  Hell, it’s not like he shot a man in the face or anything.  L’il Scooter’s been a great American – starting with his great work with the Project For A New American Century; the PNAC was way ahead of the curve by advocating the overthrow of Saddam Hussein back in the Nineties, but Bush 41 wimp extraordinaire wouldn’t go for it.  Scooter emerged from under his rock to become Dick Cheney’s Dick Cheney and did everything his Secret Undisclosed boss asked of him.  Who could possibly quibble with a man like that? 

Some may accuse me of being anti-America.  Go ahead I say, accuse me, indict me, try me, sentence me, laugh at my appeals all the way to the Uber Court.  I know that I shall remain free because my Lord And Master, 20%George is looking out for me.  Though I may wander through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall want for nothing.  Eyes closed, ears plugged, mouth full of amber waves of grain I shall follow aimlessly my Master and Decider, Snorter of Illegal Powders, Flaunter of Undeserved Power, Commuter of Sentences – Ignoramus Maximus.  You may ask, why do I hate my freedoms?  To you I say BRING IT ON.

I. Mangrey reporting

Thanks for listening. Responsible comment invited.

 

The Voting Whites Act

Next Stop, The Fourteenth Amendment

Whitewashington, DC

June 29, 2013

From the same corporate whores justices who brought you Citizens United Gone Wild, we now have the Voting Whites Act. On June 25, 2013 the 1965 Voting Rights Act was lynched by a bunch of white guys in robes. Of course this time the hoods are gone and the robes are black, but make no mistake, it’s still murder in the worst degree. Across America there was profuse sweating, hand-wringing and running to and fro as this momentous decision loomed on the horizon like the tornado over Dorothy’s Kansas. They said it couldn’t be done. They said it wouldn’t be done. They said it shouldn’t be done. Certainly on this last score they were right. On the other two however…no so much. We're not in Kansas anymore; we're not in Oz either - more like South Carolina in The Fifties…or last week.



Five white men (yes, I’m including Anti-affirmative-Action Figure Clarence “Harpo” Thomas) blithely threw aside decades, if not over a century of progress in providing equal rights to all American citizens no matter their religion, color or in recent moments, their sexual orientation. Yes, even if they be Clarence “I-Swear-It’s-Only-A-Very-Deep-Tan” Thomas. Five scared and hateful men...well, four actually - and the swing voter.

Nobody Could Have Anticipated…

A gaggle of southern states immediately, even before Clarence Thomas could ever so delicately pull Antonin Scalia’s zipper back to its fully upright and locked position, broke out the champagne and ready-made voter suppression laws, having waited for this moment with baited hoods and single-digit IQs for as long as anyone cares to remember. Since before their great grandfathers married their sisters - some traditions are hard to let go of.

According to an anonymous source, Scalia was overheard saying, “I think these n&%$$*#s have been unoppressed for long enough. They had their day in the sun. We let them vote and look where that got us. Now there’s one of them in the White House - it’s called the White house for a reason goddammit. My momma didn’t raise no fool. In fact my momma won’t even admit I’m her son…what the hell is that about. The bitch. Anyway I can’t wait to announce this decision. It will finally bring some justice around here. I say if we're going to let those people vote we should only count their vote as 3/5. After all I am an originalist.”

Scalia considers equal voting rights as racial entitlements. Chief Justice John Roberts has been whining about this dangerous assault on racial inequality since his younger days working for Reagan’s justice department. Bless their pointy little heads.

Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina are all set to suppress non-Republican’t voters. These states were more ready than a sprinter in the blocks awaiting the starter’s pistol. At least the Supremes didn’t go after women’s rights this time around, they’re letting states like Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, North Carolina and Ohio destroy that for now. Hurray for states’ rights. Without it we risk liberty and justice for all anywhere within our national borders. I look forward to fighting that fight again.

We Can't Have Liberty And Justice For All…At The Same Time

I guess these Supremacist Court judges decided that it would be a good time to ratchet up the racial oppression again since they were reducing the legal interference to gay marriage. Either that or Kennedy is hiding something…in his closet. Or maybe they thought no one would notice the damage they did if they also did something nice. Actually, four of the same miscreants who voted against continuing to protect the voting rights of minorities also voted against the Defense of Morons Marriage Act (DOMA), with the fifth one - Kennedy - being the “swing vote.”  Hey Clarence, remember when it wasn't okay for a black man to marry a white woman? Or as you refer to them, the good old days.

The Court also shot down California's Prop 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. It seems John Roberts only voted in favor of stopping California’s Prop 8 to impress his gay cousin in California. In actuality they didn't rule on Prop 8, all the Supremacists did was hand it back to the appeals court instead of actually ruling on the case. If only they had been so deferential handling in Bush v. Gore. Scalia called the argument against DOMA “legalistic Argle-Bargle" adding, "We have no power under the Constitution to invalidate this democratically adopted legislation." This from the man who did just that with the heavily bipartisan Voting Rights Act only a day earlier. Scalia and Thomas should have to share a  single vote from now on.

Outside the Court of Last Resort the usual suspects weighed in. Mike Huckabee told America, or at least the five or six that watch his show, that "Jesus wept" over the DOMA decision. Yes the young Jewish man who spent most of his time with twelve other like-minded guys and the occasional hooker wept because gay marriage is legitimate in a country that didn't exist in his lifetime. If anything, they were likely tears of joy. Michelle Bachman let loose with, "Marriage was created by the hand of God. No man, not even a Supreme Court, can undo what a holy God has instituted…What the Court has done will undermine the best interest of children and the best interests of the United States." I assume she wasn’t talking about voting rights. Or her gay husband, not that there's anything wrong with that. Anti-liberty-libertarian and up-and-coming Republican't Bull Goose Loony Rand Paul added his two cents, "I think this is a conundrum…If we have no laws on this, people take it to one extension further. Does it have to be humans?" Now he has no cents left. And yes Senator Paul, it does have to be humans, but in the end that's a matter for you to make peace between you and your Dog. Remember, Leona Helmsley left her entire fortune to her dog, Trouble. What would people have said if she had tried to leave her estate to a same-sex human partner?



These biblical blowhards say it’s against God’s will for people of the same sex to make love with each other. I wonder if God would mind if these people would just go fuck themselves.

I. Mangrey reporting.

Thanks for listening. Responsible voter suppression coming soon to a state near you.

 

 

Bachmann Bows Out, McCain Flexes His Bowels In Syria

Lady And The Grump 

Frostbite Fools, Minnesota

May 31, 2013 

Factually-challenged Tea Party Poster-child Michele “constantly-being-hitting-in-the-back-of-the-head-with-a-baseball-bat-eyes” Bachmannnnn has decided to call it quits after four terms in the House of Representatives. The Mouth from Minnesota, one of the silliest of a staggeringly silly cavalcade of 2012 Republican't presidential hopefuls is currently under psychiatric observation investigation for campaign ethics violations and is facing her stiffest re-election challenge to date. These, according to Bachmann, are not the reasons she has decided not to run for a fifth term.

Michele Bachmann never batted an eye after being whacked in the back of the head…clearly…ever

The Dizzy Duchess of Dumb has apparently concluded that representing an actual district populated by real people just wasn't working for her anymore and instead will use her brain cell to represent the inhabitants of the fantasy world inside her spacious noggin. "I'm getting the feeling my constituents want actual facts and as I've shown very clearly during my eight years in Congress and my God-given run for president, that is just a currency I refuse to deal in. There is a vast and wonderful world inside my head where our Founding Fathers ended slavery in the 1700s*, where the Census Bureau leads to internment camps*, where I can run free at the sight of a reality-based questioner*, where my gay husband is praised - not ridiculed - for running a clinic where sinners can undergo religious conversion therapy to suppress gay urges*, where hurricanes are God's way of telling us we need smaller government*. This is the wonderful world I choose to represent from here on out. I want to be in a place where the president can be impeached for…well you know, just because. And I know many of you will be right there with me."

Bachmann plans to "move in" with fellow political surrealist Sarah Palin who also has a substantial vacancy between her ears, yet continues to emit unintelligible torrents of words for no apparent reason. With any luck the two of them will spend the next year or so creating a Dream-Team ticket for the 2016 Tea Party presidential nomination. I can’t wait to see them battle it out with intellectually challenged up-and-comers like Rand Paul, Paul Ryan and Ted Cruz. Should be a regular Donnybrook of Dumbass. The third rail of these debates will be what many of us know as Reality.

Half Wit - Will Travel

In other fantasy I-lands, the eternally wrong, post-traumatic-stress-disordered egomaniac (emphasis on the maniac) and sore loser John McCain, still pretending he's president, sneaked into Syria to align himself with the rebels - whoever they are - recklessly undermining American foreign policy. While real-life president, Barack Obama attempts to dial back the non-drone-related war machine, taking time to discern whether any side in the Syrian civil war doesn't hate America, Sarah Palin's ex-running mate has gone AWOL under the pretense that he serves any useful purpose whatsoever. McCain insists that we need to be embroiled in another no-win death match in the Middle East as we inch dangerously close to having no wars in progress for the first time since George W. Bush illegally invaded Iraq and turned Afghanistan into a festering quagmire, further inflaming the entire Arab world's hatred of America.

McCain, who praised Muammar Gaddafi in 2009 is off making new friends…mostly he's off

Foreign policy genius McCain, who has been dead wrong nearly 100% of the time over the past dozen or so years, called for the U.S. Congress to expand ties with Muammar Gaddafi's brutal dictatorship in 2009, two years before the U.S. helped back forces determined to and ultimately successful in removing Gaddafi from office, among other things. The secret Muslim super maverick had a face-to-face meeting with Gaddafi, which he detailed on his Twitter page at the time with the following message:

Late evening with Col. Qadhafi at his "ranch" in Libya -- interesting meeting with an interesting man.  

Yes, verrry interesting…but a murderous dictator stupid.

*all of these are real 

I. Mangrey reporting.

Thanks for listening. Michele Bachmann and John McCain's eternal silence invited.

How Quickly They Don't Grow Up

When Paul Ryan Speaks, People (Who Paid Big Bucks To Be There) Listen…At First

May 11, 2013

Nowhere you'd want to be

Conceited and patronizing pseudo-intellectual and miserably failed vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan spoke at conservatism's ivory tower think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute recently.  Ayn Rand's prize puppy dog knows a thing or two about a thing or two, though nobody is quite sure what those things might be. That however never stops this hearty individualist from speaking out and heaping disdain on anywhere between 33% and 47% and 99% of Americans, depending on who he's talking to. These are people he considers moochers and takers for doing exactly as he did by taking advantage of socialist policies like Social Security that help buoy the least among us. Just as his hypocritical sociopathic idol Any Rand did, Ryan availed himself of our national safety net when it suited his purposes, but opposes others having the same "luxury." Sounds, oh I don't know, arrogant? Condescending? Extra-douchey?

Ryan, a pompous little weasel-in-sheep's-clothing and posing as Everyman bleated, “Progressivism is well-intentioned but it is also — in my humble opinion — arrogant and condescending.” Humble opinion? Nice try. Ryan added, “Instead of helping people make their own decisions, it makes those decisions for them. It makes Washington the center of power and politicians the center of attention.” And just what is Paul Ryan? A dock worker, farm hand, librarian, assembly line worker? Um no, he's a member of the House of Representatives. We pay his salary. So he can take swipes at most of us who are neither part of the center of power nor the center of attention.

As he desperately tries to maintain his grip on power Boy Wonder continues to appeal to his radical right wing base. He is perfectly at home with those who haven't evolved past high school, before the typical human brain becomes comfortable with high ideals, nuances philosophy and complex thought. I suppose we can take some comfort in knowing that Ryan now belongs to a club with members like Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin - failed vice presidential candidates who lasted no longer than chalk marks in a rain storm. Let him have his fun. Let him while away his time speaking trash to power. Let him dazzle an ever dwindling horde of misogynistic morons into thinking they still have what America wants. Luckily he and his homies will be relegated to the dustbin of history. But we still have to keep cleaning up after them.

I. Mangrey reporting.

Thanks for listening. Fewer elected officials welcome.

May Day, May Day! Bush's Hall of Shame and Other Delights

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: Ten Years On 

Dallas, TX

May 1, 2013 

Today, on the ten-year anniversary of one of the most dreadful, deceitful and pathetic misdeeds in American presidential history, the George WMD Bush Hall of Lies opens to the general public, general ennui and universal nausea. Apparently 43 unlucky schoolchildren were drafted to be the first visitors, and being such were also the unfortunate recipients of a personal greeting from the ex-Codpiece in Chief. Fortunately the children are too young to realize the dubiousness of their honor.

 

Last week Bush took time away from his new-found infatuation with his bathroom (see below) to attend the dedication of the George W. Bush Library and Museum. Bush is only the thirteenth president to fabricate such a self aggrandizing tribute. I suppose he couldn't resist fabricating one more thing just to rub it in. The twelfth presidential library ever built was in 2007 - in memory, or something, of Richard M. Nixon. At least that dick wasn't around to see it happen.

Only a pesudo-president of George WMD's caliber would think that continuing to tie his legacy to such an blatant example of earth-shattering idiocy was a heck of a job. It is a stunning display of arrogance with which Little George attempts to continue the lie that there was any redeeming value of his illegal and historically deviant invasion, and make-believe declaration of victory in the second month of what would become a ten year disaster. Of course ten years only accounts for our official military entanglement. The scars on the world’s socio-political body will endure much longer while history decides just how great a disaster was the Forty-third presidency of the United States of Whatever.

"History will ultimately judge the decisions that were made for Iraq and I'm just not

going to be around to see the final verdict. In other words, I'll be dead."

George WMD Bush, April 24, 2013 

The Bush apologencia continues to boggle the mind with their claims that President Bobble-head kept us safe from terrorist attack throughout his time in office. Yes, they actually say this. Over and over and over. I guess it’s their sociopathic attempt to do what George WMD called “catapulting the propaganda.” The fact that he wasn't elected in 2000 clearly didn't keep him from taking the office of president beginning in 2001- the same year he diddled while New York burned. I'm still disappointed from seeing him dodge those two shoes at his surprise Iraqi press conference.

"This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog"

Muntadhar al-Zaidi, Iraqui broadcast journalist, December 14, 2008

while hurling a shoe with tremendous accuracy at a surprisingly agile moron

Bush's "library" has an interactive display "Decision Points Theater" where anyone foolish enough to enter the building can access Bush's advisors and then make their own decisions on the critical issues that Bush so royally screwed up. For instance, one might peruse the advice-based-on-lies Bush received after allowing the worst-terrorist-attack-ever-on-home-soil, think about this shoddy advice for even more than the five seconds Bush did, and then decide on a course of action. For example, one might choose an option other than invading an unrelated country without provocation, or maybe decide not to torture prisoners or wiretap American citizens without just cause, or perhaps opt not to bankrupt our national treasury by handing three trillion dollars to the wealthiest one percent of Americans; maybe you wouldn’t remove just about every regulation on corporations, banks and Wall Street setting the stage for the worst recession since the Great Depression. Stuff like that. Apparently though, if you happen to make a decision at odds with "President" George WMD Bush, such as not invading Iraq, you will be treated to the countenance of #43 (as he likes to call himself) explaining you are wrong because, "Saddam posed too big a risk to ignore…the world was made safer by his removal." President Moron recorded special messages still insisting that everything he did was just right just for his little game. Good luck trying to be as resolute in your choices as this idiot was. Though hearing him disagree with you should be a serious boost to your self esteem.

George W. Bush In The Nude News 

In other news of "president" George W. Bush, the two-term-once-elected Clod from Crawford, has put his dubious credentials to use not helping end world hunger, not helping secure loose nookular weapons, not continuing the one positive aspect of his ill-gotten presidency - helping stop the AIDS epidemic, but making paintings of dogs, and of himself. Bush explained, “I paint two or three hours a day. Painting has changed my life in an unbelievably positive way.” Doesn’t that just warm the cockles of your heart? If only he’d been painting instead of clearing brush, gutting FEMA, ignoring Katrina and morally and financially bankrupting our country and stuff.

Ex-"president" Bush paints the only subject of real interest to him

Tune in next time as Incurious George paints himself…into another corner.

Happy International Workers' Day!

I. Mangrey reporting.

Thanks for listening. Responsive reading invited.

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.