Posts Tagged ‘Politics’
Jackasses Upset About Obama Fathers Day Message
It seems that some jackasses were upset by President Obama’s Father’s Day message. What did The President say?
From the Seattle Times:
“Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a stepfather, a grandfather, or caring guardian.”
So that’s what he said. Not a big deal, right?
Oh. But it is a big deal. Like most of the things that President Obama says, this is just another step towards the dismantling of everything that makes our Great Nation great!
The outcry from two – TWO! – jackasses was enough to warrant news coverage.
The more well-known jackass to comment was American Family Association president Tim Wildmon, who, because he has no sense of humor, did not that say President Obama’s statement was wild, man. (Get it? Thank you, I’ll be here all week.) Wildmon told the AP: “This is the first time in our nation’s history that a president has used Father’s Day as an excuse to promote the radical homosexual agenda and completely redefine the word ‘family.’”
Because that’s what happened. Jackass.
The other jackass that offered trenchant commentary on this issue was Jenny Tyree, who is less well-known, at least to me.
Tyree is described as “a marriage analyst for CitizenLink, an affiliate of Focus on the Family”. CitizenLink is a web site or something. Tyree found the President’s mention of the concept of “‘two fathers’ in the proclamation” to be “very troubling”, calling it a “decision to promote a ‘motherless family.’”
Again — because that’s what he was doing. Jackass number two.
If you, like me, have no idea who Jenny Tyree is, she apparently is someone who has devoted her existence to railing against same-sex marriage. As she herself puts it:
My job is to defend one-man, one-woman marriage as God’s created intent and design for humans who are called to bear His image as male and female, and to advance marriage policies in the public arena that build on the wealth of research confirming that children, women and men thrive in stable marriages.
That sounds like a cool job! Beats working for The Post Office, know what I mean?
Nation & World | Active Father’s Day for Obama, critics | Seattle Times Newspaper
Adam and Steve DVD image via Amazon
Bob Etheridge Was Setup And Is A Schmuck [Politics]
The Bob Etheridge video was a setup. He’s still a schmuck.
As Mayor Quimby once said, it can be two things.
In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, here is a reasonably good account of the story at Huffington Post.
And here are the two videos.
Now:
The reality is that the Etheridge video was clearly a setup. This is the GOP Conservative Hive Mind version of TMZ. They create a situation and hope that someone (usually a member of the Democratic party, whom the GOP Conservative Hive Mind believes is the greatest threat to life as they know it) falls for it.
Etheridge fell for it big time. That makes him a schmuck. He might even have anger management issues. Hell, he might even be a violent maniac. But that doesn’t change the fact that this was clearly an ambush.
Gotcha journalism, if you will.
If it’s not a setup, why does the YouTube account hosting the videos have only two clips, both of the Etheridge incident? Why is it so well edited? Why was there someone else present with a high quality camera ready to document the whole thing? And if it wasn’t a setup, what was it? A “school project”? Give me a break. We’re stupid, but we’re not THAT stupid.
This doesn’t let Etheridge off the hook. He acted like a schmuck. But the situation was fabricated.
Also interesting is that this tactic is what Andrew Breitbart, the neocon nitwit who promoted the Etheridge video, accused the black senators of doing when they walked by Tea Party protesters. He said that by walking by them, they were attempting to provoke a response. Or as he put it on Twitter, which is where everyone knows the most trenchant political debate occurs: “Dem strategy: Coordinated bloc walks in front of ‘tea partiers’ hoping to get youtube provocation to turn tables“. (The implication that a black person walking by a Tea Party protest is something that is likely to provoke a negative response is a curious side note to Breitbart’s reasoning.)
Breitbart, of course, says that was wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. So what about the Etheridge video? Which is more likely – that a Senator would be going to work and happen to walk by protesters? Or that two kids in suits with cameras happened to be waiting for a Senator?
They’re all assholes. Pick the asshole you agree with the most and vote that way, I suppose. But don’t buy into the notion that this is real. Because in all likelihood, it isn’t.
Why a Gall Bladder is Like an Abortion [hcr]
Abortion took center stage in last night’s House vote on the Health Care Reform bill. Jeanne Sager points out why a gall bladder is like an abortion. As someone who has never had an abortion (duh) but has had his gall bladder removed, I liked her reasoning.
Over at CafeMom, Jeanne points out that “perhaps the biggest concession Obama made was agreeing to new laws that would legally protect hospitals, doctors and other health care providers from prosecution if they are to object to providing abortions as a matter of conscience. In other words — while a hospital can’t traditionally turn you away because of lack of finances, they can turn you away if you lack finances and want an abortion. Even though you ostensibly have as much of a right to choose an abortion as you do to choose to have your gallbladder out. At least according to Roe v. Wade.” (Emphasis added.)
I hadn’t realized that this particular wrinkle had occurred (more proof that very few people, supporters of the bill and detractors, really know what goes on in our government, which isn’t a new thing, but that’s another story). It’s frustrating to read that hospitals will now be able to turn women away who want to have an abortion with no fear of legal action. (Although if you believe the members of the GOP Conservative Hive Mind, none of this matters because the Executive Order can always be overturned by another Executive Order, and besides, the bill doesn’t protect the lives of the unborn anyway. Except that nuns are cool with it. Although… ah, forget it. That way lies madness.)
The idea of abortion as a legal medical procedure is something that pro-choice advocates should have adopted years ago. What’s to stop a group from declaring their opposition to gall bladder surgery? Christian Scientists believe that God will provide, and Scientologists are against the field of psychiatry. Should their beliefs be incorporated into a health care bill as well? Of course not. That’s not how we make decisions in this country.
As long as abortion is legal, having one should be considered legally no different than having your gall bladder removed. LEGALLY no different. Not emotionally, not religiously. Legally. If we look at it that way, things become much more clear.
Except when something like this happens. Then it becomes more complicated.
(Image via Archive.org, from a video of an Anti-Abortion Protest.)
Health Care Bill: What It Means for Women – In The News on The Stir by CafeMom.
12 Year Old Commenting On Obama
From YouTube:
I believe that children are our future… Sing it with me now.
Top 10 Earth Stories of the Decade Oddly Political
Caring about the environment is something that I always thought of as apolitical. I was raised to believe in recycling, saving trees and whales, and that being Earth-friendly was a good thing. I think my kids are learning the same values in school that I did.
Of course, I was raised in a less partisan era. When I was a kid, there were folks who thought that Greenpeace was just a bunch of filthy hippies who should be ignored or even thrown in jail. Today, however, there are politicians and conservative commentators that spend an incredible amount of time saying that global warming is nothing but a hoax perpetuated by evil people like Al Gore.
Discovery.com has a list of the Top 10 Earth Stories of the Decade, and (spoiler alert!) number one is Glaciers Melt Down.
When the 21st century began, scientists studying Earth’s climate thought the gigantic ice caps on Greenland and Antarctica would melt slowly around the edges and lag behind the overall global warming of climate.
But this past decade, the warmest on record, proved the climate modelers wrong.
Glaciers have been melting much faster than ever expected and researchers have been playing a hard game of catch up trying to understand why.
Try reading that without thinking of the partisan debate currently raging over the environment.
Here’s my prediction — the children of commie pinko lefties will grow up wanting us to do something to save the planet from becoming uninhabitable, while the children of fascist right-wingers will grow up saying that it’s all a pack of lies. Somewhere in the middle will be… I don’t know if there will be a middle ground, actually.
This is assuming that the Earth isn’t a wasteland by the time those children are old enough to have a say in what we do or don’t do about global warming. Hopefully there will be enough of a middle position to keep things from falling apart for at least a few hundred more years.
Top 10 Earth Stories of the Decade : Discovery News.
Doug Manchester’s Wife Has Expenses
Permit me to enter Borscht Belt Comic mode for a moment:
You think your wife spends money? Listen to this. Elizabeth Manchester, the wife of “Papa” Doug Manchester, is getting a divorce. Papa Doug donated $125,000 to help pass Prop 8 in California. The bill that says gay people can’t get married. Cuz he believes in the sanctity of marriage! Right? So ok, they’re getting a divorce. Elizabeth says that she needs $131,625 a month. A MONTH! SO. What’s she spending it on? “$20,000 on clothing and jewelry, $7,000 in electric bills, $1,700 in groceries, $4,901 in household supplies, tuition at three private schools for some of the couple’s 10 grand children, $7,500 in salary for the full-time groundskeeper and housekeeper, $1,200 in membership dues for the La Jolla Country Club and money toward the hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses the couple was accustomed to spending.” Hoo boy!
Thank you. Try the veal.
For what it’s worth, I hope Elizabeth takes him for all he’s worth. But it’s not up to me.
Source: LipstickAlley
Health Care Reform, Blue Dogs, and Paul Krugman
It doesn’t look like the House will vote on a health-care bill before their “recess” on Friday. For some reason I think “recess” is an appropriate term for such a childish group of individuals.
Oh no he didn’t! He did not just call members of our government childish!
Ah, but I did. Why? Because one of the main stumbling blocks appears to be the self-described “Blue Dog Democrats.” I fully respect the idea that people will disagree with the President’s plans, even if they are members of the same party. But why do they have to give themselves a name? Do they wear special jackets? Perhaps with little blue doggie patches on them? Anyway, Paul Krugman says that the Blue Dogs “aren’t making any sense” because they want to keep the costs of the proposed health care plan down, but at the same time don’t want to force small business owners to contribute to it. (I’m simplifying a lot. Sorry. I don’t have a NOBEL PRIZE.) Personally, I think Krugman is an extremely bright guy but is wrong about this particular point. It is possible to think one thing that appears to be in opposition to something else. It happens all the time. To me, the real problem is watching potentially life changing legislation get hung up by a bunch of guys who feel the need to call themselves something as stupid as the Blue Dogs.
Is the President’s plan perfect? I have no idea, but I doubt it. Will the Obama Presidency collapse if health care reform isn’t passed by Friday, as Krugman suggests? Nah. In fact, the President himself said “by the end of the year” in his press conference last week. Nobody seemed to notice. So this “before you get to go to recess” deadline is mostly designed to give the House and Senate a kick in the ass.
And you know what? It worked. Republicans are talking seriously about health-care reform. You know the last time that happened? Nixon. (Again, I may be wrong about that. But I don’t think I am.) Not that I want to let anyone off the hook, but you know something? That’s a victory for President Obama. A very real one. Can you tell me the last time we saw a debate about the issue at hand — health care — getting more attention than the politics surrounding the issue? Obviously politics are still very much a part of the storyline. But John McCain just helped the President kill off a plan to build more F-22 fighter planes. John McFuckingCain! The guy who ran against Obama for President! How is that not seen as a major political victory?
I hope they pass a health care plan. I really do. And I hope it’s not done to meet an artificial deadline. But I don’t think it is. If the House leaves without a vote, they’re the ones who will look like they haven’t done their jobs. The President is doing his. It’s time somebody started to notice.
The Grim Reaper Health Plan
The comments on Yahoo! Buzz articles are often insane. This one, however, was fairly amusing.
Kind of like the GOP plan. Except without the tax cuts.
(From Obama defends August deadline for health care bill, AP via Yahoo! Buzz)
Joe Biden Looked So Young
Remember when Joe Biden was just an angry young man of the Senate?
Well, he was angry. Peeved, anyway.
The pic is lil’ Joey during the Clarence Thomas hearings.
Here’s the video. Remember “high tech lynching“? Good times, good times.
Ah me. They grow up so fast, don’t they?
Governor Mark Sanford And His Magic Pants
I'm so sorry... that I got caught... I mean, that I had an affair...
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has admitted that he wasn’t hiking the Appalachian Trail, like his staff told the press. He was in Argentina banging a woman. While his wife and 4 kids were home.
See, Sanford did something wrong. And while he admitted it, that’s not really good enough.
Look at this picture. He looks like a lovesick schoolboy. It’s so insulting to any man who has ever resisted temptation. And temptation is out there for everyone.
Affairs don’t just “happen.” You don’t wake up and find your penis inside a woman other than your wife. Ooops! Sorry honey! It has a mind of its own.
Asshole.
So how did the Governor and his mistress meet? According to this site (which is called Spreadit.org, so it may not be 100% accurate – the link is work-safe though), “Mark Sanford met Maria back in 2001 in New York and the two developed a friendship after she asked the politician some advice on saving her marriage.” I can imagine the conversation now… “Well, the best way to save your marriage, dear, is to spice up the bedroom! I can help you with that…”
Politically, it’s always amusing when this happens, because the GOP Conservative Hive Mind only assaults Democrats who stray. Check out this gallery of “Cheating Politicans” from the ultra-conservative New York Post. It’s largely Democrats, despite the fact that there have been loads of Republicans as well. There are a couple on there, but the focus is on the Dems. There will be some finger-wagging and tounge-clucking, but nothing like Clinton or John Edwards. Oh, and this from March of 2009. “Small-government conservatives have found their champion.” The problem there is that many conservative leaders add morality to the list of issues they support. Sanford himself invoked God and Christianity yesterday. It’s insanely hypocritical, and insulting. I’m not very religious but if I were, I would find the invokation of God in the face of an extra-marital affair nothing more than a slap in the face. Who the hell do you think you are, Sanford? I’ll tell you. You’re a guy who wanted to dip his wick into another woman. Here’s a quote from his press conference: “I was struggling with regard to where my heart was.” What are you, a character in a John Hughes movie? No. You know why? Because John Hughes wouldn’t write a line as shitty as that one. The only struggle you had was with your dick. Admit it.
Personally, I don’t think the fact that he cheated on his wife makes him a bad Governor, at least not necessarily. But it certainly makes him a bad guy. And from what I’ve seen, he’s not all that sorry. Mostly he’s sorry he got caught.
LINKS:
If you’re interested, here’s more about this moron.
Mark Sanford Mistress Apartment Photo
Mark Sanford and his puppy dog eyes – don’t you just want to give him a hug? And by “hug” I mean “kick in the nuts”.
Mark Sanford Mistress Name Revealed – Maria Belen Shapur – he was helping her with her marriage. By having sex with her. Hey, you’ve got to try, right?
Mark Sanford Emails to Mistress Maria Belen Shapur – WOW. Check this out:
“You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night’s light – but hey, that would be going into sexual details…”
What a fucking idiot.
Image: BumpShack (which could be where Sanford and his ladyfriend got it on. Thank you! I’ll be here all week!)
