My client has no propensity whatsoever for violence.
Attorney Richard Escobar, arguing in court for the defense during a bail hearing.
Actually that statement is demonstrably false. Mr. Escobar's client is one Curtis Reeves. Mr. Reeves is a 71 year old retired Tampa, FL police captain whose service included establishing the department's first SWAT team. In addition he was, for a while, director of security at Tampa's Busch Gardens.
You bet, just another good guy with a gun as the NRA likes to say. Unfortunately for 43 year old Chad Oulson, this good guy with a gun has a really short fuse.
The details are still a bit sketchy, but apparently this is what happened: Reeves and his wife settled into their seats at the Grove 16 theater in Tampa to watch the Mark Wahlberg film, "Lone Survivor." Seated in front of them was Oulson and his wife. Before the actual film started, but while the trailers were running, Oulson was texting on his cell phone which pissed off Reeves. An argument ensued. Reeves left the auditorium for a few minutes. When he returned Oulson was incensed and demanded to know if Reeves had complained about him to the theater's management. Things got heated, both parties rose and began to yell. Someone--it isn't clear who--threw popcorn.
Then, because it is Florida and people in Florida are both nuts and heavily armed, Curtis Reeves pulled out a .380 caliber hand gun and shot Chad Oulson to death. Oulson's wife was wounded in the hand by the single shot. She was either trying to pull her husband out of the line of fire, or restrain him in some way.
An off duty cop detained Reeves afterward and confiscated his weapon. Two nurses who were in the theater tried to administer aid to Oulson, but his wound was too severe. NBC reported he was texting his daughter.
Brother Reeves is, at the moment, sitting in a Tampa jail charged with 2nd degree murder. The judge denied bail, but not before he heard, Mr. Escobar state that his client had, "every right to defend himself."
Where have we heard that excuse before? It looks like the George Zimmerman defense is right around the corner. "That's right ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Curtis Reeves was standing his ground in the face of a deadly assault involving hurled popcorn husks and he simply defended himself in a manner allowed by Florida state law." Why not? We've seen it work before. Of course Oulson wasn't a black teenager wearing a hoodie, but then every white person in America knows race had nothing to do with the death of Trayvon Martin, so it shouldn't matter here either.
Right.
The next step is a pat down search of every movie goer in the nation prior to admission. Indeed, if the NRA is going to fuck us with the second amendment, why can't AMC Theaters screw the fourth in order to keep everyone wanting to see, "American Hustle" safe?
If this wasn't enough, reports out of Roswell, NM today are that a shooter entered Berrendo Middle School this morning and gunned down two kids. A 14 year old boy was flown to a Lubbock, TX hospital in critical condition while a 13 year old girl is in serious condition. There aren't any details at this time about the age, gender, or race of the assailant. Police apparently have him, or her in custody.
It is unclear when we began to believe paranoia, stupidity, and violence equaled safety and freedom. We're certainly at that point though. And, quite honestly, at this 21st century moment it isn't working out real well for us, because, obviously, we're neither safe, or free.
In fact we might want to rethink that whole e pluribus unum thing on our money. Something along the lines of, mors vincit omnia somehow seems more appropriate in this, the golden age of the NRA's reign.
Hey, who says anarchy isn't fun?
1-14-14
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Monday, January 13, 2014
Chris Christie: Steady as He Goes, While the Wolves Gather
NBC News reports that poll numbers for NJ governor, Chris Christie are remaining what they call, "steady." The service says a Pew Research Center poll shows 60% of those asked haven't been influenced one way or another by the George Washington Bridge scandal, which caused the big man to jettison a couple of members of his staff. The poll goes on to say 6% have a more favorable view of him since the story hit the air, while 16% view him less favorably. In addition NBC cites a Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press poll which says Christie's job approval rating in New Jersey remains at a solid 59% while 52% indicate they believe him when he claimed he knew nothing about his staff's involvement in the partial highway shutdown that caused a series of massive traffic jams in Ft. Lee.
The governor might want to enjoy those results while he can. A very large pack of ravenous wolves is starting to close in on the camp fire and they appear to be preparing for a feeding frenzy. Things could get extremely ugly before it is over.
First, democratic NJ Assemblyman, John Wisniewski, who is chairing a committee looking into the whole affair, made an announcement earlier today. Wisniewski contends that back in July of last year, Christie's aides were seeking the endorsement of Jersey City Mayor and democrat Steve Fulop. In fact they felt so sure they'd get it, up to six members of the governor's cabinet and, or appointees were scheduled to meet with him on July 23rd. The discussions were to be about how the state could assist in Jersey City's immediate future. Before the date arrived the Christie staff found out Fulop would not be endorsing their man. On July 18th, within a single hour, four of the meetings were canceled due to, "scheduling conflicts. Mike Baroni, the deputy executive director of the NJ Port Authority who quit in December because of all the nonsense, cancelled his meeting with the mayor on the 19th and the head of Jersey's Economic Development Authority cancelled a little later. No one rescheduled.
Oops. Well, these things happen sometimes. I'm sure it was all just an odd set of coincidences. Or not. A couple of emails released last week showed an electronic exchange between Christie Deputy Chief of Staff, Bridget Kelly and Christie Port Authority appointee, David Wildstein. The messages were sent after Ft. Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich desperately tried to get Baroni on the phone during the traffic crisis
Kelly to Wildstein: Did he (Baroni) call him (Sokolich) back?
Wildstein to Kelly: Radio silence. His name comes up right after Mayor Fulop.
So much for the Rachel Maddow theory that the Ft. Lee mugging had more to do with a couple of Christie's judicial appointments rather than political endorsements. It looks like Steve Fulop and Jersey City, along with Mark Sokolich and Ft. Lee made a hit list Dick Nixon would have been proud of.
So far, no one has linked Christie directly to all the skulduggery. However hearings are going to continue and NJ democrats seem more than ready for some political payback of their own. Wisniewski even threw out the word impeachment when describing his committee's powers, although absolutely no one is ready to--wait for it--cross that bridge now.
Of course the whole Ft Lee/Jersey City ugliness might end up being the least of the governor's problems. Congressman Frank Pallone, D-NJ announced the department of Housing and Urban Development is beginning to audit of a chunk of federal Hurricane Sandy relief funds which the state used to mount a TV tourism campaign rather than, say, rebuild something.
Obviously everyone understands you have to spend money to drag tourists back to the shore, but last year the state had a choice between two separate ad campaigns geared to do just that. One cost $2 million and a second carried a tab of $4.7 million. Guess which one the aforementioned Economic Development Authority, which awarded the contract, went with? You bet--and why, you may ask, did they spend that extra $2 plus million? That is a little fuzzy at the moment. What we do know is the more expensive campaign ended up prominently featuring none other than Chris Christie and his lovely wife, Mary Pat. All of which is okay, except the ads aired in a year during which Christie was running for re-election.
Yessiree, who needs super pacs when you have the feds financing your media campaign? Hey, there is no time like free TV time, unless it is doing hard time afterward.
Those nifty poll numbers might start to shrink if dominoes begin to fall. Once you've opened the door even a little, God only knows who will come charging through it demanding to look at, not only the books, but for skeletons buried in shallow graves.
The other republican presidential hopefuls have yet to latch onto all this, at least publicly. It is doubtful they will at this time. The situation is fluid and the Ron Reagan code of GOP omerta probably applies at this point. Indeed, the grueling run for the white house is still down the road. If all this goes away they can hammer him on it later. If it doesn't, the governor will be a duck so dead and buried, no one will have to worry about him.
In the end we can't expect the fat lady to sing until the fat man is finished dancing. And right now it looks like he has just begun his performance. As they say, the band plays on. Settle into your seats, this musical is going to last for months.
sic vita est
1-13-14.
The governor might want to enjoy those results while he can. A very large pack of ravenous wolves is starting to close in on the camp fire and they appear to be preparing for a feeding frenzy. Things could get extremely ugly before it is over.
First, democratic NJ Assemblyman, John Wisniewski, who is chairing a committee looking into the whole affair, made an announcement earlier today. Wisniewski contends that back in July of last year, Christie's aides were seeking the endorsement of Jersey City Mayor and democrat Steve Fulop. In fact they felt so sure they'd get it, up to six members of the governor's cabinet and, or appointees were scheduled to meet with him on July 23rd. The discussions were to be about how the state could assist in Jersey City's immediate future. Before the date arrived the Christie staff found out Fulop would not be endorsing their man. On July 18th, within a single hour, four of the meetings were canceled due to, "scheduling conflicts. Mike Baroni, the deputy executive director of the NJ Port Authority who quit in December because of all the nonsense, cancelled his meeting with the mayor on the 19th and the head of Jersey's Economic Development Authority cancelled a little later. No one rescheduled.
Oops. Well, these things happen sometimes. I'm sure it was all just an odd set of coincidences. Or not. A couple of emails released last week showed an electronic exchange between Christie Deputy Chief of Staff, Bridget Kelly and Christie Port Authority appointee, David Wildstein. The messages were sent after Ft. Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich desperately tried to get Baroni on the phone during the traffic crisis
Kelly to Wildstein: Did he (Baroni) call him (Sokolich) back?
Wildstein to Kelly: Radio silence. His name comes up right after Mayor Fulop.
So much for the Rachel Maddow theory that the Ft. Lee mugging had more to do with a couple of Christie's judicial appointments rather than political endorsements. It looks like Steve Fulop and Jersey City, along with Mark Sokolich and Ft. Lee made a hit list Dick Nixon would have been proud of.
So far, no one has linked Christie directly to all the skulduggery. However hearings are going to continue and NJ democrats seem more than ready for some political payback of their own. Wisniewski even threw out the word impeachment when describing his committee's powers, although absolutely no one is ready to--wait for it--cross that bridge now.
Of course the whole Ft Lee/Jersey City ugliness might end up being the least of the governor's problems. Congressman Frank Pallone, D-NJ announced the department of Housing and Urban Development is beginning to audit of a chunk of federal Hurricane Sandy relief funds which the state used to mount a TV tourism campaign rather than, say, rebuild something.
Obviously everyone understands you have to spend money to drag tourists back to the shore, but last year the state had a choice between two separate ad campaigns geared to do just that. One cost $2 million and a second carried a tab of $4.7 million. Guess which one the aforementioned Economic Development Authority, which awarded the contract, went with? You bet--and why, you may ask, did they spend that extra $2 plus million? That is a little fuzzy at the moment. What we do know is the more expensive campaign ended up prominently featuring none other than Chris Christie and his lovely wife, Mary Pat. All of which is okay, except the ads aired in a year during which Christie was running for re-election.
Yessiree, who needs super pacs when you have the feds financing your media campaign? Hey, there is no time like free TV time, unless it is doing hard time afterward.
Those nifty poll numbers might start to shrink if dominoes begin to fall. Once you've opened the door even a little, God only knows who will come charging through it demanding to look at, not only the books, but for skeletons buried in shallow graves.
The other republican presidential hopefuls have yet to latch onto all this, at least publicly. It is doubtful they will at this time. The situation is fluid and the Ron Reagan code of GOP omerta probably applies at this point. Indeed, the grueling run for the white house is still down the road. If all this goes away they can hammer him on it later. If it doesn't, the governor will be a duck so dead and buried, no one will have to worry about him.
In the end we can't expect the fat lady to sing until the fat man is finished dancing. And right now it looks like he has just begun his performance. As they say, the band plays on. Settle into your seats, this musical is going to last for months.
sic vita est
1-13-14.
Friday, January 10, 2014
A Bridge and Troubled Waters
I am not a bully.
Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey and possible candidate for the office of President of the United States.
Well that depends on who you ask. Last year during his re-election campaign Governor Christie's staff was putting together a list of democrats who were supporting him, thereby proving to voters their man could be a sort of bi-partisan messiah. His Honor, Mark Sokolich, the mayor of Ft. Lee, NJ declined to lend his name to the endeavor.
It isn't entirely clear how many people were pissed off by his decision, but one of them was certainly Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie's deputy chief of staff. She sent an email to Christie appointee David Wildstein who worked for the NJ Port Authority. They and their New York counterparts are the ones who control the operation of the George Washington bridge, which is the busiest in the world. Her terse little message said simply, "Time for some traffic problems in Ft. Lee." He emailed back, "Got it."
Shortly afterward, on September 9th, a couple of entrance lanes from Ft. Lee onto the bridge were closed for a, "traffic study." The ensuing chaos turned Ft. Lee into a parking lot for a few days. Accusations began to fly and outraged denials were issued. By December things were starting to fall apart. Wildstein resigned as did Christie's pal Bill Baroni, deputy executive director of the Port Authority.
Then, as they always do, the emails and a text or two became public. In one, Wildstein referred to Sokolich as, "this little Serbian," in another he claimed all the kids on school buses stuck in traffic were the children of Christie's gubernatorial opponent Barbara Buono. The implication being it was alright to make them late to class because of who their parents might be voting for.
Yesterday Governor Christie went with the Ken Lay defense and claimed he was completely unaware of not only his staff's involvement in the affair, but also Sokolich's refusal to back him. To prove it he fired Kelly and his campaign manager, Bill Stepien and took a trip to Ft. Lee in order to apologize to the little Serbian. In a lengthy news conference he told the press he was--not necessarily in this order--"blind sided, betrayed, heart broken, humiliated, and sad." He also called his staff, the people he hired, "stupid." Well, what are you going to do? Good help is so hard to find these days.
It is the first real hit Christie has taken since his name started being bounced around as a republican presidential candidate. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC put it this way to NBC News, "He is kind of a bully. I just don't see how people that close to him could have felt comfortable enough to do this if they thought their boss wasn't of this mind set."
Of course, Christie's road to the nomination isn't going to be easy, bridge scandal or not. That bi-partisanship stuff he likes to brag about works with the general public, but not the tea party loons who have an inordinate amount of influence in GOP primaries. In fact many of them called him, among other things, a traitor when he thanked President Obama for federal help in the aftermath of super storm Sandy. He may be the sort of brute thug they admire, but he is too much of a wheeler dealer and isn't the true believer like Ted Cruz. For the lynch mobs of the screaming right, as the bard said, therein lies the rub.
Luckily for the governor, 2016 is two years away. As long as new and more damaging revelations don't emerge, by the time Iowa rolls around, this ugly little tale of political retribution will have all the relevancy of a Mitt Romney campaign button to the voting public.
Meanwhile, if you're in West Virginia, don't drink the water--at least not in nine counties. An outfit called Freedom Industries managed to dump the chemical, 4-methylcyclonhexane methanol into the Elk River. News reports say the good people who run the company still aren't exactly sure how much of the stuff went into the water. However, one hint might be found on the corporate web site. It claims their plant in Charleston, where the spill occurred, has the capacity to store four million gallons of chemicals. The site also promises us, Freedom can, "process large volumes of chemicals rapidly and cost effectively."
Yes, well tell that to the 300,000 or so people who now have a water supply so incredibly fouled that not even boiling it will help. At this point the only things it is good for is flushing a toilet and fighting fires. If you drink it, cook with it, or bathe in it you can, according to the reports, suffer severe burning in the throat and eyes--be hit with violent vomiting, have trouble breathing, and experience skin irritation and blistering.
Can there be any doubt battalions of lawyers are busing into the state as I type? I didn't think so.
So there we have it, another week down the drain.
The good news is it is nearly 5pm in Poughkeepsi and the bar is open. See you there.
1-10-14
Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey and possible candidate for the office of President of the United States.
Well that depends on who you ask. Last year during his re-election campaign Governor Christie's staff was putting together a list of democrats who were supporting him, thereby proving to voters their man could be a sort of bi-partisan messiah. His Honor, Mark Sokolich, the mayor of Ft. Lee, NJ declined to lend his name to the endeavor.
It isn't entirely clear how many people were pissed off by his decision, but one of them was certainly Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie's deputy chief of staff. She sent an email to Christie appointee David Wildstein who worked for the NJ Port Authority. They and their New York counterparts are the ones who control the operation of the George Washington bridge, which is the busiest in the world. Her terse little message said simply, "Time for some traffic problems in Ft. Lee." He emailed back, "Got it."
Shortly afterward, on September 9th, a couple of entrance lanes from Ft. Lee onto the bridge were closed for a, "traffic study." The ensuing chaos turned Ft. Lee into a parking lot for a few days. Accusations began to fly and outraged denials were issued. By December things were starting to fall apart. Wildstein resigned as did Christie's pal Bill Baroni, deputy executive director of the Port Authority.
Then, as they always do, the emails and a text or two became public. In one, Wildstein referred to Sokolich as, "this little Serbian," in another he claimed all the kids on school buses stuck in traffic were the children of Christie's gubernatorial opponent Barbara Buono. The implication being it was alright to make them late to class because of who their parents might be voting for.
Yesterday Governor Christie went with the Ken Lay defense and claimed he was completely unaware of not only his staff's involvement in the affair, but also Sokolich's refusal to back him. To prove it he fired Kelly and his campaign manager, Bill Stepien and took a trip to Ft. Lee in order to apologize to the little Serbian. In a lengthy news conference he told the press he was--not necessarily in this order--"blind sided, betrayed, heart broken, humiliated, and sad." He also called his staff, the people he hired, "stupid." Well, what are you going to do? Good help is so hard to find these days.
It is the first real hit Christie has taken since his name started being bounced around as a republican presidential candidate. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC put it this way to NBC News, "He is kind of a bully. I just don't see how people that close to him could have felt comfortable enough to do this if they thought their boss wasn't of this mind set."
Of course, Christie's road to the nomination isn't going to be easy, bridge scandal or not. That bi-partisanship stuff he likes to brag about works with the general public, but not the tea party loons who have an inordinate amount of influence in GOP primaries. In fact many of them called him, among other things, a traitor when he thanked President Obama for federal help in the aftermath of super storm Sandy. He may be the sort of brute thug they admire, but he is too much of a wheeler dealer and isn't the true believer like Ted Cruz. For the lynch mobs of the screaming right, as the bard said, therein lies the rub.
Luckily for the governor, 2016 is two years away. As long as new and more damaging revelations don't emerge, by the time Iowa rolls around, this ugly little tale of political retribution will have all the relevancy of a Mitt Romney campaign button to the voting public.
Meanwhile, if you're in West Virginia, don't drink the water--at least not in nine counties. An outfit called Freedom Industries managed to dump the chemical, 4-methylcyclonhexane methanol into the Elk River. News reports say the good people who run the company still aren't exactly sure how much of the stuff went into the water. However, one hint might be found on the corporate web site. It claims their plant in Charleston, where the spill occurred, has the capacity to store four million gallons of chemicals. The site also promises us, Freedom can, "process large volumes of chemicals rapidly and cost effectively."
Yes, well tell that to the 300,000 or so people who now have a water supply so incredibly fouled that not even boiling it will help. At this point the only things it is good for is flushing a toilet and fighting fires. If you drink it, cook with it, or bathe in it you can, according to the reports, suffer severe burning in the throat and eyes--be hit with violent vomiting, have trouble breathing, and experience skin irritation and blistering.
Can there be any doubt battalions of lawyers are busing into the state as I type? I didn't think so.
So there we have it, another week down the drain.
The good news is it is nearly 5pm in Poughkeepsi and the bar is open. See you there.
1-10-14
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
The Only Way Georgia is Going to Change
God bless 'em. They just can't help themselves.
Down in Georgia Congressman Paul Collins Broun is running for the U.S. Senate. He went on Georgia Public Radio and had this to say about the democrat's chances of winning the seat. (sic) "The only way Georgia is going to change is if we have all these illegal aliens in here in Georgia, give them the right to vote. It only helps the democrats if we legalize all these illegal aliens in this country who the democrats want to put on federal welfare programs."
It would seem Representative Broun failed to get the memo from GOP chairman, Reince Priebus. You know, that one about trying to convince Hispanics to vote republican. Well, sometimes these things slip between the cracks. It was probably some junior aide's fault.
Broun is in the middle of a crowded primary field which contains eight republicans running for the office being vacated by Saxby Chambliss. And right now, by golly, each and every one of them are trying to be the most gosh darned conservative hep cat in the whole wide world. NBC News reports the closest thing to a moderate in the race is a guy named Jack Kingston.
Of course some people's idea of a moderate is a tad different than others. Kingston has previously urged that the kids who qualify for the federal free lunch program be forced to sweep cafeteria floors in order to earn their keep. Either that or pay a nickle or a dime per meal, so they understand, in this country, "there is no free lunch."
Yes, yes, that is all fine and good--there is nothing quite like a little old fashioned humiliation to build character--but lets get back to Broun. Actually none of us should be surprised by anything he says. He was first elected to congress in a 2007 special election and we've been stuck with him ever since. He is a licensed physician, but doesn't have hospital privileges any where in the state of Georgia. In addition, proving he is strictly a family values type of guy, he is currently working on this fourth marriage.
In the past he has routinely called Barack Obama a socialist. In fact, according to Wikipedia. at one point in an earlier interview he speculated that Obama's proposal to create a national service corps was an evil ruse to establish a shadow military which the president would use to turn the nation into a Marxist dictatorship.
He currently sits on a few committees. One of them is the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Another is the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.
His knowledge in these critical areas can best be described as unique. First, the Congressman claims global warming is a hoax meant to destroy the United States. Second, in an address to the Liberty Baptist Church Sportsman's Banquet, he said embryology, evolution, and the big bang are, "lies straight from the pit of hell." He also assures us, with a straight face, the planet earth is approximately 9,000 years old and was created in six days, "as we know them." The statements moved PBS' Bill Nye, the Science Guy, to say of him, "He is, by any measure, unqualified to make decisions about science, space, and technology."
You know you've made an impression when the host of a children's TV science show is publicly ragging on you.
Will he be the republican candidate in November? Who knows? It's Georgia for God's sake. There is a series of seven debates, the first of which will be held on January 18th. Before they are done the least lucid of these cranks will have disappeared. The primary will be held in May. If no one gets over 50% of the vote there will be a runoff.
Sitting in the wings, waiting on the winner, is democrat Michelle Nunn, the daughter of retired Georgia Senator, Sam Nunn. Her campaign received a $5,000 contribution from a PAC which was affiliated with former Senator Richard Lugar. He was bushwhacked by a tea party geek in the 2012 Indiana republican primary. Former Senator John Warner of Virginia has also kicked in $500. All of which shows what mainstream members of the GOP think of these clowns.
The Pew Hispanic Center says Latinos make up 9% of the Georgia population. It is unknown how many of them are registered voters. One thing can be certain at this point however, Congressman Broun isn't going to get a lot of support from that demographic. The truth is, he might even want to avoid fast food joints and Tex-Mex restaurants for a while. There is no telling what sort of odd bits of hardware will end up in the burrito when the kitchen staff finds out he is in the dining room.
It is a dark, dank, afternoon here on the southern plains, but that is okay. With guys like Paul Broun running loose my day will aways remain bright.
sic vita est
1-8-14
Down in Georgia Congressman Paul Collins Broun is running for the U.S. Senate. He went on Georgia Public Radio and had this to say about the democrat's chances of winning the seat. (sic) "The only way Georgia is going to change is if we have all these illegal aliens in here in Georgia, give them the right to vote. It only helps the democrats if we legalize all these illegal aliens in this country who the democrats want to put on federal welfare programs."
It would seem Representative Broun failed to get the memo from GOP chairman, Reince Priebus. You know, that one about trying to convince Hispanics to vote republican. Well, sometimes these things slip between the cracks. It was probably some junior aide's fault.
Broun is in the middle of a crowded primary field which contains eight republicans running for the office being vacated by Saxby Chambliss. And right now, by golly, each and every one of them are trying to be the most gosh darned conservative hep cat in the whole wide world. NBC News reports the closest thing to a moderate in the race is a guy named Jack Kingston.
Of course some people's idea of a moderate is a tad different than others. Kingston has previously urged that the kids who qualify for the federal free lunch program be forced to sweep cafeteria floors in order to earn their keep. Either that or pay a nickle or a dime per meal, so they understand, in this country, "there is no free lunch."
Yes, yes, that is all fine and good--there is nothing quite like a little old fashioned humiliation to build character--but lets get back to Broun. Actually none of us should be surprised by anything he says. He was first elected to congress in a 2007 special election and we've been stuck with him ever since. He is a licensed physician, but doesn't have hospital privileges any where in the state of Georgia. In addition, proving he is strictly a family values type of guy, he is currently working on this fourth marriage.
In the past he has routinely called Barack Obama a socialist. In fact, according to Wikipedia. at one point in an earlier interview he speculated that Obama's proposal to create a national service corps was an evil ruse to establish a shadow military which the president would use to turn the nation into a Marxist dictatorship.
He currently sits on a few committees. One of them is the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Another is the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.
His knowledge in these critical areas can best be described as unique. First, the Congressman claims global warming is a hoax meant to destroy the United States. Second, in an address to the Liberty Baptist Church Sportsman's Banquet, he said embryology, evolution, and the big bang are, "lies straight from the pit of hell." He also assures us, with a straight face, the planet earth is approximately 9,000 years old and was created in six days, "as we know them." The statements moved PBS' Bill Nye, the Science Guy, to say of him, "He is, by any measure, unqualified to make decisions about science, space, and technology."
You know you've made an impression when the host of a children's TV science show is publicly ragging on you.
Will he be the republican candidate in November? Who knows? It's Georgia for God's sake. There is a series of seven debates, the first of which will be held on January 18th. Before they are done the least lucid of these cranks will have disappeared. The primary will be held in May. If no one gets over 50% of the vote there will be a runoff.
Sitting in the wings, waiting on the winner, is democrat Michelle Nunn, the daughter of retired Georgia Senator, Sam Nunn. Her campaign received a $5,000 contribution from a PAC which was affiliated with former Senator Richard Lugar. He was bushwhacked by a tea party geek in the 2012 Indiana republican primary. Former Senator John Warner of Virginia has also kicked in $500. All of which shows what mainstream members of the GOP think of these clowns.
The Pew Hispanic Center says Latinos make up 9% of the Georgia population. It is unknown how many of them are registered voters. One thing can be certain at this point however, Congressman Broun isn't going to get a lot of support from that demographic. The truth is, he might even want to avoid fast food joints and Tex-Mex restaurants for a while. There is no telling what sort of odd bits of hardware will end up in the burrito when the kitchen staff finds out he is in the dining room.
It is a dark, dank, afternoon here on the southern plains, but that is okay. With guys like Paul Broun running loose my day will aways remain bright.
sic vita est
1-8-14
Monday, January 6, 2014
Making Sure We're Fiscally Responsible and Warming Republican Hearts
It is a tough time to be out of work, especially for more than 26 weeks. Right now in the Senate democrats are trying to muster enough votes to push through a measure to extend federal unemployment benefits for three months. It is not going well. Apparently safe guarding the only income of 1.3 million people doesn't rank up there with buying a new rocket launcher, or some similar military toy.
NBC is reporting the bill, sponsored by Jack Reed, D-RI and Dean Heller, R-NV is four votes short of the 60 needed. All 55 democrats and independents are for it, while only one republican, the aforementioned Mr. Heller, is in favor. It probably doesn't matter anyway since an extension would never get through the republican controlled House of Representatives. The GOP leadership of that august body is calling the act "fiscally irresponsible." At least that is what the right wing super pac, Club for Growth is telling them to say.
Actually it isn't so easy now days even if you have a job at say a fast food establishment. The current minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. If you're lucky enough to be working full time at that rate your salary comes out to just a shade over $14,000 per year.
Well that isn't bad for some teen aged kid, right? I suppose not, but the problem is, according to economist, Paul Krugman teenagers make up slightly less than 25% of everyone working at minimum wage. 38% are in their 20's and another 38% are 30 years old or older. In fact, Krugman notes 43% of everyone toiling away at $7.25 per hour has at least some college education.
Krugman goes on to write that in terms of real spending power the minimum wage has decreased 32% over the last 46 years. In a moment of whimsy he also informs us if the minimum wage had increased percentage wise as much as the income of the top one percent of American earners the last few years, that the friendly greeter at Walmart's front door would be making $22.62 per hour at this very moment.
Obviously you can't have everything. The trouble is minimum wage workers might not get anything.
There will be a push by the Obama administration this year to raise the minimum to $10.10 per hour. NBC and the Wall Street Journal took a poll in December and found, 77% of democrats are in favor of it. Unfortunately only 47% of main stream republicans are in favor and when you get to that stiff upper right lip of the GOP, the tea party--wait for it--a full 55% are against any sort of increase at all.
I hate to be a pessimist, but who do you think John Boehner is going to listen to? This is the same guy who shut down the entire United States government because he was scared of pissing off those heartless wretches sitting on the far edge of delusion and cruelty. No, as long as the tea party virus is infesting the house in the sort of numbers it is now I wouldn't expect a raise for the cashier at the local McDonald's any time soon.
All the jabbering about becoming more inclusive after Uncle Mitt took it on the chin has gone out the window because the republican center is being held hostage by the tea party. That same NBC/WSJ poll showed overall, white voters approved of the $10.10 per hour figure 59% to 40%. However, 82% of African Americans are for it and 73% of Hispanics agree with them. Yessiree, saying screw you to overwhelming numbers of black and Latino voters is certainly an innovative way to expand your base.
Of course that's only if you were truly interested in expanding your base, which now seems like either an outright lie, or a moment of clarity quickly snuffed out by the tea party rubes. Yes, it looks like the whole don't let 'em vote thing is what the GOP is going all in on. In some ways you can hardly blame them. After all, voter suppression is far easier than trying to accommodate the needs and ambitions of tens of millions of people who aren't really American, or white.
So, there we have it on this frigid Monday.
There is nothing that warms the heart of a republican quite like cutting down the safety net for people in need and making sure the working poor remain really poor.
Hey, bitch, if scads of people aren't suffering then it ain't capitalism!
That's right. E Pluribus fuck 'em.
1-6-13
NBC is reporting the bill, sponsored by Jack Reed, D-RI and Dean Heller, R-NV is four votes short of the 60 needed. All 55 democrats and independents are for it, while only one republican, the aforementioned Mr. Heller, is in favor. It probably doesn't matter anyway since an extension would never get through the republican controlled House of Representatives. The GOP leadership of that august body is calling the act "fiscally irresponsible." At least that is what the right wing super pac, Club for Growth is telling them to say.
Actually it isn't so easy now days even if you have a job at say a fast food establishment. The current minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. If you're lucky enough to be working full time at that rate your salary comes out to just a shade over $14,000 per year.
Well that isn't bad for some teen aged kid, right? I suppose not, but the problem is, according to economist, Paul Krugman teenagers make up slightly less than 25% of everyone working at minimum wage. 38% are in their 20's and another 38% are 30 years old or older. In fact, Krugman notes 43% of everyone toiling away at $7.25 per hour has at least some college education.
Krugman goes on to write that in terms of real spending power the minimum wage has decreased 32% over the last 46 years. In a moment of whimsy he also informs us if the minimum wage had increased percentage wise as much as the income of the top one percent of American earners the last few years, that the friendly greeter at Walmart's front door would be making $22.62 per hour at this very moment.
Obviously you can't have everything. The trouble is minimum wage workers might not get anything.
There will be a push by the Obama administration this year to raise the minimum to $10.10 per hour. NBC and the Wall Street Journal took a poll in December and found, 77% of democrats are in favor of it. Unfortunately only 47% of main stream republicans are in favor and when you get to that stiff upper right lip of the GOP, the tea party--wait for it--a full 55% are against any sort of increase at all.
I hate to be a pessimist, but who do you think John Boehner is going to listen to? This is the same guy who shut down the entire United States government because he was scared of pissing off those heartless wretches sitting on the far edge of delusion and cruelty. No, as long as the tea party virus is infesting the house in the sort of numbers it is now I wouldn't expect a raise for the cashier at the local McDonald's any time soon.
All the jabbering about becoming more inclusive after Uncle Mitt took it on the chin has gone out the window because the republican center is being held hostage by the tea party. That same NBC/WSJ poll showed overall, white voters approved of the $10.10 per hour figure 59% to 40%. However, 82% of African Americans are for it and 73% of Hispanics agree with them. Yessiree, saying screw you to overwhelming numbers of black and Latino voters is certainly an innovative way to expand your base.
Of course that's only if you were truly interested in expanding your base, which now seems like either an outright lie, or a moment of clarity quickly snuffed out by the tea party rubes. Yes, it looks like the whole don't let 'em vote thing is what the GOP is going all in on. In some ways you can hardly blame them. After all, voter suppression is far easier than trying to accommodate the needs and ambitions of tens of millions of people who aren't really American, or white.
So, there we have it on this frigid Monday.
There is nothing that warms the heart of a republican quite like cutting down the safety net for people in need and making sure the working poor remain really poor.
Hey, bitch, if scads of people aren't suffering then it ain't capitalism!
That's right. E Pluribus fuck 'em.
1-6-13
Sunday, January 5, 2014
When I'm 64
A few months ago my youngest daughter, who is 30 years old, asked me the question. "Dad, why have you kept moving to the left politically when everyone else your age has become more conservative?"
By your age, she meant someone born way back in the first week of the first month of 1950--an era about as relevant to her as the one which contained the Ichthyosaurs.
Well, what are you going to do? I mean it was a long time ago--so far back into the foggy past that Herr Hitler had been dead a little less than five years when I came kicking and squawking into the world. And, I suppose it is a valid question given the number of 64 year old white guys born in Muskogee, Oklahoma currently running around claiming to be a leftist.
As with everything there is a history to the long trail which began that frozen night six plus decades ago. First off, as hard as it is to imagine today, almost everyone of voting age in Oklahoma back in the 1950's, including my parents, were democrats. The generation that was our mothers and fathers had not only lived through the second world war, but the great depression. They knew who caused the most devastating economic crisis in American history and it certainly wasn't the party of Roosevelt, or Truman.
Of course the democratic party back in the day was capable of deep and egregious sins. The conservative wing of it was also pro segregationist. It was them, not the republicans, who made sure African Americans couldn't eat at the same restaurants, drink from the same water fountains, and go to the same schools as white people. The anglo southern migration to the republican party was still a decade, or so off.
Be that as it may, the truth is because my parents loathed republicans I did too. To put it simply, I never unlearned what they initially taught me, even when they drifted to the right after the Kennedy assassination and Johnson presidency. Beyond that history the reality is, I ended up where I am now because of a few other reasons
First, after Eisenhower retired to Gettysburg, the republicans were fielding national candidates who appeared to be oily gangster types (Nixon) or were stark raving loons (Goldwater). Given who the GOP was running it was extraordinarily easy to lean toward democrats even before 1972, the first year I was eligible to vote.
Second, there was the war in Vietnam. I know, it is almost trite to even mention it now, but it was true. It wasn't that I was fond of Uncle Ho, or the VC, or anyone else, but the more I studied it the more it seemed to me the motley parade of military tough guys who ran South Vietnam were every bit as bad, if not worse than the regime in the north. In short it became clear to me our government really didn't give a shit about freedom and democracy--in fact we were so obsessed with stopping the red menace we were willing to sacrifice both those ideals, not to mention hundreds of thousands of lives, in order win a civil war we had no business being involved with in the first place.
Before then, back at my high school, we had an enrollment of right around 2000 kids, four of whom were black. It was the first time I had gone to a school with any black kids. I wish I could tell you I wasn't a racist, but I was. In fact my racism was based on the worst of all reasons. I said things about black folks not because I really felt it, but frankly, because that is what most of my friends were saying. During my senior year I was on the school yearbook staff and one of those four black kids was too. She was a classy, intelligent girl and the first African American I actually knew. No, there wasn't a single moment, no blinding light on the road to Damascus. There was, however, a growing awareness over the next three or four years that racism was just so much bullshit. Not only that, it was evil bullshit and all of us--black and white--were in this together and despising someone because of their skin tone was not only useless, but downright counter productive to the nation as a whole. Besides, why take the time and energy to hate someone because of what they look like? I had better things to do and bigger axes to grind.
There were other things. Minor episodes in the big picture, but still stuck in my memory. The day I came out of a grocery store in 1972 and found my car vandalized because of a McGovern for president bumper sticker and peace symbol decal on the windshield was one. Then there was the time I was fired by Hertz as I attempted to organize a union election at their Oklahoma City reservations center.
Finally, I grew up in a gun free home. My father never owned one because his father, my grandfather, wouldn't allow them in his house. To this day my father quotes his old man as saying, "Nothing good ever comes from owning a gun." To prove his point, when I was three, my maternal grandfather bought a hand gun at a pawn shop and promptly blew his brains out with it.
The cold truth is I haven't moved to the left. I've stayed pretty much where I've been forever. Decades ago I was, on more than one occasion, called a communist. Then we moved to Massachusetts for five years and I was considered a quaint, middle of the road, democrat by the activists working for Mike Dukakis' presidential campaign. After we came back I was once again, that communist sonofabitch.
You see, in the end it is all a matter of perspective.
So there you have it. Do with it what you will.
If needed, I'll be at the bar with the other old geezers, my age.
1-5-14.
By your age, she meant someone born way back in the first week of the first month of 1950--an era about as relevant to her as the one which contained the Ichthyosaurs.
Well, what are you going to do? I mean it was a long time ago--so far back into the foggy past that Herr Hitler had been dead a little less than five years when I came kicking and squawking into the world. And, I suppose it is a valid question given the number of 64 year old white guys born in Muskogee, Oklahoma currently running around claiming to be a leftist.
As with everything there is a history to the long trail which began that frozen night six plus decades ago. First off, as hard as it is to imagine today, almost everyone of voting age in Oklahoma back in the 1950's, including my parents, were democrats. The generation that was our mothers and fathers had not only lived through the second world war, but the great depression. They knew who caused the most devastating economic crisis in American history and it certainly wasn't the party of Roosevelt, or Truman.
Of course the democratic party back in the day was capable of deep and egregious sins. The conservative wing of it was also pro segregationist. It was them, not the republicans, who made sure African Americans couldn't eat at the same restaurants, drink from the same water fountains, and go to the same schools as white people. The anglo southern migration to the republican party was still a decade, or so off.
Be that as it may, the truth is because my parents loathed republicans I did too. To put it simply, I never unlearned what they initially taught me, even when they drifted to the right after the Kennedy assassination and Johnson presidency. Beyond that history the reality is, I ended up where I am now because of a few other reasons
First, after Eisenhower retired to Gettysburg, the republicans were fielding national candidates who appeared to be oily gangster types (Nixon) or were stark raving loons (Goldwater). Given who the GOP was running it was extraordinarily easy to lean toward democrats even before 1972, the first year I was eligible to vote.
Second, there was the war in Vietnam. I know, it is almost trite to even mention it now, but it was true. It wasn't that I was fond of Uncle Ho, or the VC, or anyone else, but the more I studied it the more it seemed to me the motley parade of military tough guys who ran South Vietnam were every bit as bad, if not worse than the regime in the north. In short it became clear to me our government really didn't give a shit about freedom and democracy--in fact we were so obsessed with stopping the red menace we were willing to sacrifice both those ideals, not to mention hundreds of thousands of lives, in order win a civil war we had no business being involved with in the first place.
Before then, back at my high school, we had an enrollment of right around 2000 kids, four of whom were black. It was the first time I had gone to a school with any black kids. I wish I could tell you I wasn't a racist, but I was. In fact my racism was based on the worst of all reasons. I said things about black folks not because I really felt it, but frankly, because that is what most of my friends were saying. During my senior year I was on the school yearbook staff and one of those four black kids was too. She was a classy, intelligent girl and the first African American I actually knew. No, there wasn't a single moment, no blinding light on the road to Damascus. There was, however, a growing awareness over the next three or four years that racism was just so much bullshit. Not only that, it was evil bullshit and all of us--black and white--were in this together and despising someone because of their skin tone was not only useless, but downright counter productive to the nation as a whole. Besides, why take the time and energy to hate someone because of what they look like? I had better things to do and bigger axes to grind.
There were other things. Minor episodes in the big picture, but still stuck in my memory. The day I came out of a grocery store in 1972 and found my car vandalized because of a McGovern for president bumper sticker and peace symbol decal on the windshield was one. Then there was the time I was fired by Hertz as I attempted to organize a union election at their Oklahoma City reservations center.
Finally, I grew up in a gun free home. My father never owned one because his father, my grandfather, wouldn't allow them in his house. To this day my father quotes his old man as saying, "Nothing good ever comes from owning a gun." To prove his point, when I was three, my maternal grandfather bought a hand gun at a pawn shop and promptly blew his brains out with it.
The cold truth is I haven't moved to the left. I've stayed pretty much where I've been forever. Decades ago I was, on more than one occasion, called a communist. Then we moved to Massachusetts for five years and I was considered a quaint, middle of the road, democrat by the activists working for Mike Dukakis' presidential campaign. After we came back I was once again, that communist sonofabitch.
You see, in the end it is all a matter of perspective.
So there you have it. Do with it what you will.
If needed, I'll be at the bar with the other old geezers, my age.
1-5-14.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Eating Uncle Jang: Welcome to the New Year
I'll admit it. Sometimes I have to retreat from the real world into a strange sort of alternate universe where there is no news, death, destruction, rape, severe craziness, and stupidity so cruel and bestial that in comparison a pit full of king cobras seems decent company.
Let's face it, when you get up in the morning and find NBC is reporting the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim Jong-un --Dennis Rodman's "awesome guy"--fed his uncle to a pack of dogs it is fairly easy to trip off into never never land.
That is the unconfirmed report, initially published by a Hong Kong paper which allegedly has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The publication, "Wen Wei Po," claims Kim and his brother, Kim Jong-chol hosted the one hour gala event which was attended by about 300 invited guests. According to the story Jang Song-thaek and five close aids were stripped naked and thrown live and kicking into a cage with 120 "hunting dogs" who had been starved for five days. The paper noted Jang and company were, "completely eaten up." It is unknown if a cash bar was made available to those in attendance, or if drinks were on the house.
How the media outlet secured these details is a bit murky. In fact NBC quoted an American official as saying, "This is not ringing any bells here." That is all fine and good, but the recent track records of "American officials," have been a tad spotty. I mean these are the same clowns who told us the ACA web site was up and working in October, so what the hell do they know?
Obviously, if true, the little pudge who is running things north of the DMZ is a roaring psychopath. I understand purges and that sometimes you must make a vivid point when it comes to treason, but turning your uncle into dinner for a pack of wild dogs in front an avid crowd seems bit over the top.
NBC pointed out the veracity of any news coming out of North Korea is always iffy. It could be Kim simply wants people to think he is capable of such an act--a fairly disturbing notion in itself considering the guy has his hands on nuclear weapons. However if he really did do it, there is no doubt the 300 member audience was there not for just an evening of entertainment, but a very real message. That's right--toe the line fuckers, or you'll end up being Kibbles 'n Bits too.
There was some speculation that the story is pure fabrication meant to demonize Kim. The theory being at least some members of Chinese elite want to distance themselves from him because--well--he is as crazy as a rabid gerbil. That would not be completely out of the realm of possibility. The last serious round of saber rattling by the DPRK didn't play well in Beijing. In fact the Chinese seemed utterly exasperated by the bellicose threats of apocalyptic war. The truth is, when your economy has evolved into quasi capitalism and is completely dependent on what happens not only at home, but across the rest of the industrialized world, your tolerance for the yapping Stalinist mutt in the yard next door grows thin--especially when you're the one having to feed him.
Yes, given events such as this, sometimes it is simply easier to lose myself in the wasteland of awful television and the civil war fantasies of college football. Why not? If I didn't read it, hear it, or see it, it didn't happen, right? That's as good a reality as any I suppose.
Too bad it ends up wearing on me even worse than Kim and his dogs.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the New Year and the Same Old World.
Or as they say in North Korea--woof, woof.
1-3-14
Let's face it, when you get up in the morning and find NBC is reporting the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim Jong-un --Dennis Rodman's "awesome guy"--fed his uncle to a pack of dogs it is fairly easy to trip off into never never land.
That is the unconfirmed report, initially published by a Hong Kong paper which allegedly has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The publication, "Wen Wei Po," claims Kim and his brother, Kim Jong-chol hosted the one hour gala event which was attended by about 300 invited guests. According to the story Jang Song-thaek and five close aids were stripped naked and thrown live and kicking into a cage with 120 "hunting dogs" who had been starved for five days. The paper noted Jang and company were, "completely eaten up." It is unknown if a cash bar was made available to those in attendance, or if drinks were on the house.
How the media outlet secured these details is a bit murky. In fact NBC quoted an American official as saying, "This is not ringing any bells here." That is all fine and good, but the recent track records of "American officials," have been a tad spotty. I mean these are the same clowns who told us the ACA web site was up and working in October, so what the hell do they know?
Obviously, if true, the little pudge who is running things north of the DMZ is a roaring psychopath. I understand purges and that sometimes you must make a vivid point when it comes to treason, but turning your uncle into dinner for a pack of wild dogs in front an avid crowd seems bit over the top.
NBC pointed out the veracity of any news coming out of North Korea is always iffy. It could be Kim simply wants people to think he is capable of such an act--a fairly disturbing notion in itself considering the guy has his hands on nuclear weapons. However if he really did do it, there is no doubt the 300 member audience was there not for just an evening of entertainment, but a very real message. That's right--toe the line fuckers, or you'll end up being Kibbles 'n Bits too.
There was some speculation that the story is pure fabrication meant to demonize Kim. The theory being at least some members of Chinese elite want to distance themselves from him because--well--he is as crazy as a rabid gerbil. That would not be completely out of the realm of possibility. The last serious round of saber rattling by the DPRK didn't play well in Beijing. In fact the Chinese seemed utterly exasperated by the bellicose threats of apocalyptic war. The truth is, when your economy has evolved into quasi capitalism and is completely dependent on what happens not only at home, but across the rest of the industrialized world, your tolerance for the yapping Stalinist mutt in the yard next door grows thin--especially when you're the one having to feed him.
Yes, given events such as this, sometimes it is simply easier to lose myself in the wasteland of awful television and the civil war fantasies of college football. Why not? If I didn't read it, hear it, or see it, it didn't happen, right? That's as good a reality as any I suppose.
Too bad it ends up wearing on me even worse than Kim and his dogs.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the New Year and the Same Old World.
Or as they say in North Korea--woof, woof.
1-3-14
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