Filed under: Comedy, History, Odd, Politics | Tags: Dick Cheney, GOP, History, Photo, Republican
Filed under: Comedy, Film, Food & Drink, Internet, Odd, Philosophy, Politics, Random Thoughts | Tags: Avatar, Cultural Imperialism, Economic Imperialism, Film, Imperialism, James Cameron, McDonalds, Special Effects
It appears, even the Avatar’s were not able to fend off Cultural and Economic Imperialism on their home planet:
I have no desire to see this tragic film now.
Filed under: Comedy, Internet, Odd, Politics | Tags: Board Game, Satire, Terrorism, War on Terror
Filed under: History, Politics | Tags: Democrats, FDR, Fireside Chat, Franklin Roosevelt, New Deal, Progress
Filed under: Comedy, Politics, Video | Tags: GOP, idiocy, Politics, Republicans, Sarah Palin
Filed under: Politics | Tags: George W. Bush, GOP, Politics, Republicans, Small Government
In the ultimate irony this week, former President George W. Bush warned of the dangers Big Government. That’s sort of like the CEO of the largest Tuna company warning about the dangers of over-fishing. His main point seems to be that the Federal Government shouldn’t be meddling in the affairs of the “free market” and it shouldn’t be creating opportunities for the creation of wealth. This is pretty incredible considering that Bush himself expanded the role of government by more than any previous President in the past 30 years. Not to mention the billions in wealth Bush generated for independent contractors by using the government to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. This of course, is ignoring that the government has been arguably regulating the economy since the 1780s. We have never had a “free” market. The Corporatism that has enveloped this country since the Eisenhower Administration and exacerbated under Reagan, Clinton, and W. himself is arguably why we are living the worst economic period since the Great Depression.
I don’t know what is sadder, the fact that he doesn’t get these ironies and is able to spout this off with a straight face, or that he has supporters that still believe this mantra. Not to mention a whole party: GOP.
Filed under: History, Politics, Video | Tags: Freedom, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Maine, ME, World War 2, WW2
Testimony given for and against Maine’s marriage equality bill on April 22, 2009. Nearly 4,000 people attended the hearing, with marriage equality supporters out-numbering the opposition 4 to 1. This man is an 82 year old veteran of World War 2.
Filed under: Crime, Politics | Tags: Big Business, Disgrace, GOP, Halliburton, Rape, Republicans, Senator Franken
Please visit the new site: Republicans for Rape
This site calls out these disgraceful Republican Senators that sided with Dick Cheney’s Halliburton and voted against Senator Franken’s Anti-Rape amendment. The amendment stems from a case that took place in 2005. An employee of Halliburton in Iraq was gang raped by her coworkers and locked in a container when she tried to report the crime. When she finally got back to the US, Halliburton claimed it was in her contract that she couldn’t press charges and had to deal with the matter through arbitration.
Filed under: Politics, Religion, World News | Tags: Holocaust, Iran, Israel, Jewish, Politics, President Ahmadinejad, Religion
President Ahmadinejad of Iran, a man who vehemently denies the holocaust and is anti-Israel, has been revealed to have a Jewish past. The implications are endless. Regardless, I have nothing but contempt for the man. If there is one event in human history one could never deny, it is the Holocaust (there is more credible evidence to deny the Moon Landing). It might be the most documented event in human history; the Nazis were meticulous in their record keeping. While I admit that denying the holocaust is simply an attempt to be provocative, he couldn’t pick a worse method.
Filed under: Internet, Politics, Video | Tags: Alan Grayson, Apology, Democrat, GOP, Healthcare, Politics, Public Option, Republican, Washington DC
This week, pretty much all hope of a Public Option in the United States was destroyed by all of the Republican Senators and 5 Democratic Senators in the pockets of insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. Shortly afterward, Rep. Alan Grayson (D), when asked what the GOP’s alternative was, declared that the GOP’s health care plan was to “not get sick, or if you do, die quickly”.
The GOP was pretty angry by this comment and demanded an apology. Here is that apology:
Filed under: Comedy, Philosophy, Politics, Random Thoughts | Tags: Government, Health Care, Health Care Reform, idiocy, Obama, Politics, Public Option, Public Transportation, Tea Baggers, Tyranny, Wall Street Journal, Washington DC
Even the Wall Street Journal couldn’t help pointing out the irony of this situation. The “Tea Baggers” who are protesting a Public Option in Health Care not only took government transportation to their rally in Washington DC last week, they complained about the service.
On the surface, this could almost support their argument that Big Government is not efficient; therefore, we should not allow it into the one section of our society still left untouched: Health Care. This sophist claim shatters with just slight analysis. Even though they claim 2 million people came, in reality, the 70,000 of them simply overran the system that was caught off guard by the surge. The Metro was running efficiently and does so every day.
But there is another reality here to the general idea of public health care and public transportation. The Tea Baggers are acting as if they will be forced to drop their insurance and have a tyrannical government administer (or not, as they fear) their health care. Nothing could be further from the truth. If it was, I would join them down in the streets (I currently have one of the best health care plans in the US). The public option, as I have stated on this blog, is precisely that: an Option. It is designed for those that cannot get health insurance, cannot afford health insurance, or are in between health insurance.
With this in mind, let’s return to public transportation for a second. The Metro that the Tea Baggers decided to utilize, and then complain about, is a government Option. The Tea Baggers, at any time, had a right to utilize other private options in our capitalist society. There were plenty of cabs above ground that would have been willing to take anyone anywhere in the city for a price. There are rental car agencies across the country that would have happily rented a car to anyone willing to pay. There are even car dealerships that would even be willing to sell a car, truck, or SUV to any perspective buyer. The Metro in Washington DC is an Option for those who cannot, or are not willing to, execute the private options I listed above. It runs efficiently at a low cost and provides an option for those that do not have a vehicle, cannot afford a vehicle, or are between vehicles.
The day the US government bans the selling of vehicles, outlaws rental facilities, and ends all livery services in this country will be the day I join these people in the street and gladly wear the badge of “Tea Bagger”. As far as I can tell, our freedom in this country is perfectly secure.
Filed under: History, Internet, Politics | Tags: Education, George Washington, Oklahoma, stupidity
A new survey has shown that 75% of Oklahoma High School students cannot name the first President. This is troubling considering that Oklahoma is one of the most religious states and most conservative. Another aspect this exposes is that Oklahoma also has one of the lowest levels of teacher salaries in the country. Got to keep those taxes down though, right?
Filed under: Internet, Philosophy, Politics, Religion | Tags: Bible, Christianity, Civil Rights, Deuteronomy, Gay Rights, Homosexual Rights, Homosexuality, Protest, Religion, Scripture
Filed under: Internet, Odd, Politics, Video | Tags: Health Care, Obama, Public Option, Washington DC
This gentleman walked bravely through the crowd carrying a pro-health care sign. I say bravely since people are starting to come to protests armed.
The real disconcerting part of this whole video occurs at the 3:30 mark. A woman shouts from the crowd, “You can have it, but don’t force me to take it.” While I have maintained for months now that these people have no idea what they are actually protesting, this confirms that at least many at these protests really don’t. Do these people know what ‘option‘ means? This isn’t Soviet Russia; this isn’t even various countries in western Europe. No one has ever talked about setting up a government monopoly on health care (read: fascism). It is a Public Option for those that can’t get health care, are in between health care, or are denied health care. No one will be forced to take the public option. It is a safety barrier. We don’t even have to get into the idea that by anchoring the prices with a public option, it will help keep costs down for all of us.
Here is more craziness:
Filed under: History, Politics, Random Thoughts, World News | Tags: Africa, Al-Qaeda, Obama, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, Somalia, US Armed Forces
It is being reported that senior Al-Qaeda leader, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, was killed this week by secret American special forces. He was personally responsible for the bombing of an Israeli hotel in Kenya in 2002 and possibly the bombings of American embassies in 1998. It represents a new strategy of the nascent Obama Administration in conducting a war against clandestine militant cells around the world and ensuring American security.
I applaud President Obama with this new approach. I have always maintained that the attacks on New York and Washington DC on 9/11 were crimes; not acts of war. Despite the terrible destruction and the carnage, it is hard for me to accept the manufactured definition of war by the Bush Administration to justify their strategy of invasion. The merits of invading Afghanistan don’t need to be discussed here in relation to the result; moreover, neither do the fraudulent reasons behind the Iraq invasion. To put it simply, both have been a disaster, costing extreme amounts of life and money with each conflict lasting longer than World War 1 and 2. If Bush could have gone after these few hundred/thousand men, bent on destroying the fabric of American society, with the covert tactics displayed this week, how different would 2009 be?
I think supposition is appropriate in this matter. 4,000 American service-people would be alive, as would 100,000 middle eastern civilians; $2,000,000,000 dumped into the desert would have been saved; we would maintain or financial position in the world; we would be able to fund any social program here at home, and best of all, we could have kept the Reagan/Bush tax cuts without bankrupting the nation over the past 8 years (throwing that bone to the GOP); our brutal actions would not have been used to justify another generation of terrorism; our security would be even more secure as a result. Additionally, by declaring war against a few hundred or thousand rouge extremists around the world not bound by any political government, one is giving far too much credibility to their actions on the world stage. Was American credibility and its standing in the world worth going after a few rouge men not connected formally with any government? The answer was and is no.
These horrible people were not worth the attention of the world. Only the attention of a few special forces and CIA agents who could have sought them out in caves and alleys as the world went on. Their names never entering the history books. It is a shame that it took 9/11 to wake the world up to the true danger of extremism because now, no country would dare cite international law to save these militants as they would have against the Clinton Administration or the pre-9/11 Bush Administration. Obama is taking the sensible approach and I laud him for it. You can be tough on extremism and intelligent about it as well.
