I Hope You're Happy

Appendix fails to assassinate Glenn Beck

The nation asks doctors to put it back for another try.

The Golden State isn’t worth it

After analysis, the studies find that the standard of living in the high tax, high social program, big government state of California, life isn’t as good as in the  no taxes, small government state of Texas, and the residents are leaving to lower taxed states in droves.

Having seen this coming, this is why I’m an advocate of small government. Too bad there isn’t a small government-lowtax social liberal party out there for me to get behind.The Democrats every once in a while show some interest in it, especially after Clinton proclaimed the era of big government is over. The rest of the party just hasn’t come around to that concept yet.

Todd Akin gambles on the Pledge of Allegiance, Loses

If you want to use it as a political weapon, you should take care to say all the words. I’m just saying.

Cheney’s FBI interview featured 72 times where he couldn’t recall

I know Reagan got away with it, but really, he had Alzheimer’s. Cheney is just avoiding the question.

And Lo, the two party system did create a void, and out of this void came…third parties

America is seeing the problem with the two parties, and we all know that being an independent is a bad route to go (Joe Lieberman). Most of Europe has several parties (BUT THEY’RE ALL SOCIALISTS), so it’s about time we got in on the action, and allowed some more voices into the debate. It can’t get any worse (right?)

Doug Hoffman, the Conservative of NY-23 claims Glenn Beck is his hero

No wonder that race got so fucked up that the Republican candidate dropped out and endorsed the Democrat. With an election as strange as that, I’m shocked there wasn’t a former porn star or reality TV b-lister also on the ballot.

As a result of Barack Obama’s policies, lobbyists are quitting in droves

If only there were a pied piper to run the rest of them out.

Iran Accepts nuclear deal

Funny that Bush was never able to do this….

Texas and Ohio voters reject red light cameras

I think that if we can’t get this on the ballot everywhere, we should reject them like the mysterious guy in Chicago: with a cherry picker and the cover of darkness.

Carly Fiorina to run for California Senate seat

Let’s see, she nearly ruined HP and Compaq, got chased out but kept her $29 million golden parachute, and then was economic advisor to John McCain.  This is one chick that has failed upwards. The difficulty on this is she has money, connections and media savvy. The easy way to beat her is to point out how few of California’s citizens have a golden parachute in their contracts. Should be easy to paint her as one of those Wall Street types that caused this whole economic disaster, and who can’t relate to the masses like her Democratic opponent.

Michele Bachmann losing aides like Washington is losing Lobbyists

Michelle Marston has left her for being too crazy.

Michael Steele on the mid-term elections: We’re Transcendant

Presumably, the chairman meant that his party is ascendant, meaning on the rise, and not transcendent, meaning beyond the limits of comprehension.

The quote says it best.

So AT&T sued Verizon, and Verizon said, “Um well, ok.”

Seems AT&T was getting killed by the Verizon ads comparing networks, and sued, claiming false advertising. The expectation was Verizom would drop the ads and they’d settle out of court. Verizon, on the other hand, replied very simply by saying, “Prove it.” See, the burden of proof is on AT&T and if Verizon has its facts together, well, AT&T has little legal recourse.

This lamp is consumer retribution

An LED lamp that connects to the phone jack in your wall, stealing power from the phone company.

Dick Grayson

The Caustic personality of Dick Grayson

I have to admit, I like him because of one of his faults. He’s overbearing, and overbearing as a real personality fault, but this also makes him a no bullshit kind of guy, and that’s really what we need in politics.

He’s so brash, nobody wants to run opposing him

That’s one way to win an election.

The Fox News Beat

Jane Hall left Fox because of how skewed they are

She says she left because they stopped debating the issues, and because “Beck is scary”.

White House to Democrats: Stop providing balance to Fox News

I think the idea is to let Fox News continue to become more extreme and more marginalized.

Of course, by the laws of Social Newtonianism, that sort of means they must also become more extreme and marginalized. I wonder if they’ve found some sort of Social Gravitation constant I haven’t worked out quite yet.

Two! Two Senators from Minnesota! Ah…ah…ah…

Al Franken finally declared the winner by the Minnesota Supreme Court. I can’t wait to see him walk into the Senate chambers.

McCain was for Cap-and-trade before he was against it

Funny how that works out.

Re-Engineering the earth

If it comes to it.

Five lessons from JP Morgan Chase’s survival of the financial meltdown

You have to love a blog that starts out:

All over the country before the banking bust, there were people sitting in their desk chairs so tense and anxious – and painfully silent – they could have been holding pennies in their butt cheeks.

But what he has to say here is absolutely great business practice. Honesty in business. How refreshing.

The U.S. hands over more of Iraq to the Iraqis as bombs go off

It’s promising that we feel good enough to do this, but clear we have a long stay in Iraq left to go.

California issues IOU’s

Yeah, it’s gotten that bad. California can’t meet it’s debt and is now writing on little slips of paper it keeps in a shoebox what it owes to people.

All that Debt we’re racking up? Blame George and the Republicans, not Obama

I’m hoping this math is correct, but the logic is sound, Bush spent without having a way to pay. Obama is spending mostly based on other cuts in spending and sound economic principles. Hey, he even met with Congress about going to a pay as you go system. So who is complaining about fiscal responsibility now?

Seriously, years ago, somebody on a Republican board challenged me about why we had a budget surplus. I tried to explain that we had an annual surplus, but a cumulated deficit that was far greater, and the interest on that would be our downfall. He didn’t believe me. Wonder where that guy is now…..

The Circus in New York

No, not that kind. So it goes like this: Republicans controlled the State Senate since like, the dawn of time. The Democrats gained a majority, but suddenly, just beore a key vote, two of them defected, so they locked the doors, adjourned the session, and then the clowns showed up (watch the video, I’m not joking).

FDA control of Tobacco starts in 3…2…1…

Maybe this will force Pharma to sell their Tobacco stocks as a conflict of interest, and that will drive their values down, making them less attractive to young stockbrokers before they get addicted.

Legal pot in California? Thank the Bush Recession!

I don’t smoke the stuff myself, but I admit that legalizing is the better option. It’ll reduce drug related violence, make tax revenue, take away the easy money for the drug lords, and end the ceaseless whining about it.

The California Supreme Court made a decision on a legal matter which is a minor sideline to our current most divisive issue, gay marriage. Let’s take a quick objective look at what this ruling actually means, before we get to reading between the lines and what it means to the whole debate.
This case was about the legal process by which California voters approved a referendum. That’s it. Objectively, this is an asterisk to the whole debate. It’s a good lesson to not let easily swayed voters make a decision that effects millions of lives. Of course, they did vote in Schwarzenegger and Reagan so whoever decided that letting this vote happen was a good idea was a bigger fool than any of us.
I think the worst part of this is it opens the door for any special interest group with enough sway to pull up a constitutional referendum on their pet issue. Who thinks this is a good idea?
The net effect of this ruling is unfortunate. It means that gay couples who want to get married can’t until somebody calls the actual amendment to task for being against other equal rights clauses in the state constitution. This is exactly the way Iowa managed to legalize gay marriage. While this is an example of what the conservatives would call “legislating from the bench” don’t let them fool you. If they had a judge that was making decisions like this for their side, they’d be just fine with it.
When we read between the lines of this decision, however, we can see an open invitation to do this. They were fairly explicit in stating that if the conservatives tried to extend this to other sides of the gay rights issue, they’d be shut down. They upheld the 18,000 marriages that were conducted while gay marriage was allowed. They all but said gay marriage would happen again and soon.
The biggest victim of this decision was momentum. The conservatives think they have a victory, but they are wrong. Just like they have a lot of trouble interpreting things like words on a page, they are interpreting this decision as favorable to their cause.
When I read between the lines of the decision, I see that the Justices all but asked for a challenge to the amendment based on equality. I think even to them, this was just a legal detail to settle before they got to the actual issue.
This issue is a civil rights fight that has parallels with the other great movements towards equality in this nation. From these issues, racial equality, gender equality, we can learn lessons and settle the issue more quickly than in the past with fewer distractions.
We know that the opposition will come up with pseudoscience, pseudoeconomics, and pseudostatistics to support their case. My favorite so far was Michael Steele’s statement that gay marriage hurts small businesses. If gay marriage hurts small businesses, then obviously traditional marriage is doing far more damage to the economy and should be stopped at all costs. Sheesh. Don’t give me an argument that is so easy to refute, please. I can smell bullshit from miles away.
We know they will defend their position aggressively and it will frustrate us. When the race issue was in its tipping point phase, the cry was for equality now, and we all kind of realized we had to let some of the older beliefs die with their generation. That would be the only way to make progress with some people. It is disappointing that we have to accept this, but beliefs are sometimes unbreakable.
I’ve been working on some definitions for a dictionary. My definition of a religious conservative is “someone who wants to celebrate in God’s great creation, except for those parts of it they don’t agree with.” There are some people who are just out to hate. Let me tell you a story.
I was backstage at a theatre performance in college and our main actor took off his shirt. His back bore quite a number of scars. When we asked him why, he said that it was from when he was attacked by a bunch of guys for being gay. That’s it. Nothing more. Just people who were looking for someone to hate for being different from them.
The problem only starts with the preachers and political leaders who are anti-gay, but they claim to have clean hands of the violence and discrimination they foster. But in the end, they are just people who are looking for someone to hate. The more I look at these types of issues, the more I see a consistent pattern of people who just want to hate. I see the progression happen all the time, a preacher saying something is morally wrong. Soon paranoia sets in. The gays are threatening our families, our nation, our very souls. They want to turn you gay, turn your children gay. The next step is a community of hate, and somebody gets so rampant that an incident occurs, and in the scrutiny, the leader creates distance.
How many times have we heard statements like, “This is an isolated incident, and our movement does not support (insert name of crime here).” Hm, last time I heard it was Sunday, when an abortion provider was gunned down in a church where he was an active member of the congregation by an extremist anti-abortion adherent. Suddenly we get anti-abortion leaders saying they feared this would brand the entire anti-abortion movement as violent and extremist.
It’s time we stopped allowing them to create this distance when their message runs astray. We can’t allow people who preach hate and back out of responsibility when it kills someone. That victim is the mirror of self-reflection.
They talk about how gay marriage destroys families or the institution of marriage, but fail to recognize how they are hurting human beings and creating hate. I’ve never seen anybody who bore scars from those around them being tolerant. It’s that simple.
Marriages don’t suffer from the butterfly effect. If two guys get married in New York, or two women get married in San Fran, it doesn’t make a marriage in Florida break up. Destroying a marriage is something two people do just fine on their own, and maybe, just maybe a little tolerance would save some of those marriages. I know a family that was very homophobic until their son came out. Now it’s no big deal. I know other families that have fractured over intolerance to other issues.
I don’t have a gay bone in my body, but I don’t need one to recognize a human being. I also don’t think I’d be part of a church that taught me to hate somebody. The thought of a church that doesn’t believe in turning the other cheek has sorely missed the message. As a matter of fact, speaking of this, most of the new testament references to homosexuality come from Paul. Most are taken out of context and do not refer strictly to homosexuality, but who needs facts like these when we can hate somebody who is different right? Well, Paul is also the guy who said that the proper life is single, and preferably celibate. The whole religious anti-gay marriage movement is based on a guy who hated marriage and sex. It’s kind of like taking military intelligence lessons from the Bush administration, or economic lessons from the Bush administration.
If you don’t believe me on the bible stuff, do a little digging, and be open to all sides of it, the scholarly and the fundamentalists, look at which text is chose and why. Put some research into King James and why his version of the bible is used by conservatives. You’ll find it interesting. The notion of adhering fundamentally to a text thousands of years removed from its original context, edited by many groups and people to their own agendas and now applied to a faddish political agenda is to me one of the stupidest things a person can do to themselves.
But the history of the anti-gay movement doesn’t really heat up until the last couple decades. It is only in the last twenty years or so that the Extreme Conservative Christians have latched onto gays as somebody to hate. The history of this movement is a little more good research for you. It is a shame that people have to suffer for a fad of a church that is just looking for somebody to target.
And is it mere coincidence that these are the people who manipulated the nation to hate the Islamic world and go to war against it based on scant evidence? Hmmmmm………
Look, morality is a personal experience. If you want this country to remain free, it needs to stay that way. You can’t legislate morality or religion any more than you can outlaw religion. I’ll never share a moral code exactly with anyone else, and I’ll never try to enforce my morals on anyone else so long as nobody tries to enforce theirs on me. It’s that simple.
So, to bring this all back to Prop 8 and legal gay marriage in this nation, Californians are already showing themselves to be more tolerant towards gay marriage. I have no fears that with a consistent and peaceful push, it will happen again. It looks like Nevada is overturning a veto to make it happen. We have Massachusetts since 2003, Connecticut since 2008, Iowa for a month, Vermont and Maine opening up in September. We’re about to reach critical mass, but realistically, it’s going to take quite some time to penetrate the bible belt.
So calm down, breathe, regroup. It isn’t the end of the world. It isn’t even a bad omen.

Somehow this didn’t get published the other day. Sorry to deny you of your news shots. For that you get a shot and a chaser today.

There’s a good reason why Rep. Harman shouldn’t be on the intelligence committee

Might be because she is taking governing lessons from Rod Blagojevich. She’s outraged that she was caught accepting favors for favors on a wiretap investigation of her. Bonus is, she’s a supporter of FISA wiretaps without warrants.

This sounds like it’s going to be a Republican Biased article, but it’s more thoughtful than that

Really, go check it out, a good quick look at the foreign policy issues Obama is facing right now. He certainly is being tested.

The latest casualty of the economy: Halliburton

Maybe there really is a good side to this whole thing.

UK politician resigns after linking gays with pedophilia

Yeah, he went there.

The first one was over slavery, the second…gay marriage?

Texas is already threatening to secede. This is going to be fun.Actually, the article is less interesting than the idea. You might want to skip it, since the suggestion of civil war over gay rights is much better.

Boehner, cow farts, and reality, mutually exclusive concepts

One again, a Republican denies global warming, and denies that humans are causing it citing as evidence…cow farts.

Anti-gay group commends Colbert for openly mocking them

They say sarcasm is a very intelligent form of comedy. I’ll agree with that.

California’s unemployment is at 11.2%

Imagine the tax shortfall now…..