Election 2012

Joan Walsh Goes to Bat for Professor Lizzy

An article by Joan Walsh on Scott Brown staffers. As her entire career is based on being a shill for the Democratic Party who assumes that all working-class whites are racist, she conveniently avoids the part of the story where Elizabeth Warren lies about her heritage over a period of decades. Which, really, is more damaging to the aboriginal community? A bunch of frat boys making jokes in poor taste or a white person exploiting their history for personal gain?

GOP Posts Racist Anti-Obama Images, Refuses to Remove Them

It’s 2012 and this garbage doesn’t really work anymore, but someone forgot to tell the Mecklenburg County Republican Party.

Romney Heavily Invested in Russia

He calls Russia America’s “number one enemy,” yet invests heavily there. Not terribly surprising considering there’s one thing we know for certain about Mittens: He’ll do just about anything for money.

Polls Widen in Battleground States

Why Is Romney Losing?

Well, mostly because he’s a terrible campaigner with a total disdain for the electorate. I will say this, though, Barry is a more savvy politician than I’ve previously given him credit for. Sure, he’s kicking a man while he’s down, but he’s doing it right. 

Human Rights

Julian Assange to Address UN

This should be interesting. Assange’s reputation as a folk hero is overinflated, but his importance can’t really be overestimated. When was the last time the UK threatened to storm an embassy over (bogus) rape charges?

Secularism

Innocence of the Muslims Producer Could Get Jail Time

The producer of the inflammatory YouTube video apparently violated his parole by uploading it. I find it hard to believe that if he’d uploaded a video of a cat playing with a brown paper bag that he’d be facing jail time. This is a pretty clear attack on free speech, a principle which means absolutely zero if it doesn’t protect offensive speech.

War

Ahmadinejad Accuses America of Nuclear “Intimidation”

It will forever boggle my mind that the United States — the only country to employ nuclear weapons, and against civilian populations at that — considers it proper to tell other countries what weapons it can and can’t have. I’m no friend of the Iranian regime, but considering that they exist between India / Pakistan and Israel, it’s hard to find a compelling reason why they wouldn’t want nukes.

Barack Obama Threatens Iran at UN

The Obama Administration has largely continued and deepened the policies of George W. Bush. On Iran, it has been even more bellicose. Further evidence that the main divide between street level Democrats and Republicans is cultural (urban / exurban vs. suburban / rural) rather than political. And, of course, reason to be terrified of a second Obama term.

Election 2012

Romney’s “47 Percent” Comments and the Democratic Response

Some of us actually do believe that food, housing, health care, etc. are social rights. Great article from the WSWS detailing what’s wrong with the Democratic Party’s response to Mitt Romney’s attack on the working class.

Gary Johnson Files a Lawsuit to Get Into the Debates

I don’t share Johnson’s politics one iota, but I have respect for the man. His libertarianism is principled and, most importantly, lacking in any of the extra creepy ideology that often accompanies libertarianism. I support his lawsuit to open up the debates.

Elizabeth Warren Responds to Charges She Used Race to Get Ahead

Professor Lizzy has repeatedly and falsely claimed that she is of Cherokee descent. I doubt the veracity of her story that she was raised believing this, and I doubt her claim that she never received preferential treatment because of it.

Scott Brown’s Staff Make Tomahawk Chops, War “Whoops”

I’m about to make a very unpopular statement, surprise of surprises: It is far more offensive to me that Professor Lizzy would lie about her heritage than it is that Brown’s campaign would use racist caricatures to belittle it. I find her behavior far more troubling than Brown’s staffers, even if I condemn both.

Bill Clinton Fuels Hillary 2016 Speculation

She’s not running because she knows she has no chance. Too old, too many skeletons in her closet, too deep of a bench of young, fresh faces on the Democratic side. Assange also apparently has some really damaging intel on her time as Secretary of State.

Tea Party Ground Game Could Trump Dems

It ain’t over ’til it’s over and despite all outward appearances, this one ain’t over. The Tea Party is organized and working on getting out the vote for Mittens.

Secularism

Pakistan Proposes Anti-Blasphemy Laws to UN

In response to the inability of certain Muslims to take insults against their imaginary friend in stride, the UN is now hearing proposals that restrict anti-religious speech.

War

Iran Threatens Pre-Emptive Strike on Israel

I’m not sure that people appreciate just how precarious the balance of power in Central and Southwest Asia is. This could seriously explode into something really nasty at any second. The major powers — in particular the United States — seem content to kick this hornet’s nest until it explodes.

Social Equality

Life Expectancy Drops in the United States

Only for the poorest Americans, who are overwhelming black and Southern. Remember this next time your liberal friend makes a crack about throwing Mississippi out of the Union.

Election 2012

Romney: Uninsured Have Emergency Rooms

Mitt Romney’s Narrow Maps to 270

“No Chance 2012″ continues its full-throttle race to fiery oblivion.

Elizabeth Warren’s Legal Troubles

Elizabeth Warren represents everything troubling about the Massachusetts Democratic Party and identity politics in general. The lying about her racial background is just gross on a base level, to say nothing of her posing as a defender of the so-called “middle class” while working to help Travelers Insurance Company get out of paying out to asbestos victims. But here’s the latest from Professor Lizzy: She’s not even licensed to practice law in Massachusetts.

DNC

Elizabeth Warren’s Wall Street Money

Elizabeth Warren receives beaucoup bucks from Wall Street lawyers and the DSCC, the latter a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wall Street banksters.

Native American Democrats Not Keen On Elizabeth Warren

It’s curious to ponder how Dems would react to a Republican lying about her ethnic heritage for personal gain. Elizabeth Warren is a charlatan and demagogue of the worst kind, exactly the type of vile creature that the Democratic Party’s increasing reliance upon identity politics creates.

World Socialist Web Site on the DNC

Always worth a read, the WSWS cuts through the BS to the heart of issues, particularly with regard to the Democratic Party and “the left.” This article is no exception and a welcome breath of reality.

Animals

Vietnamese Elephants Almost Completely Exterminated

As a vegan, I obviously find this very troubling and sad. Without any intention of diminishing any person or group’s experience, I don’t understand why the world reacts to this differently than it would genocide.

War

U.S. To Retain Role As Afghan Jailer

The American government will continue to oversee prisons in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future. The atrocity stories should start trickling in any second now.

Libyan Alleges C.I.A. Waterboarding

Remember when Barack Obama started an illegal war and liberals didn’t care? Well, it wasn’t as clean and surgical as the self-appointed PR men claimed, surprise of surprises.

Names of the AfPak Dead

The names of the war dead aren’t something I seek out, but I will always repost when I see them. My position isn’t some nationalist “respect for their service,” but a desire to humanize the perverse waste of this deeply unpopular 10-year war.

Secularism

Circumcision Limited But Not Banned in Berlin

Proof that if you say “God commands it” you can get away with anything.

Russian Social Conservatives Emboldened By Pussy Riot Verdict

Pussy Riot’s conviction have emboldened the Russian ultra-right, who are now behaving in a decidedly fascistic manner.

Police State

Police Work With Apple To Block Transmission of “Sensitive Data”

Apple, America’s favorite toy maker, are working hand in glove with police departments on a device that would disable cameras during protests, etc., in any attempt to curtail police brutality footage.

Literature

Bret Easton Ellis Attacks David Foster Wallace

The thousand monkeys in a room known as Bret Easton Ellis projects hard, calling David Foster Wallace “the most tedious, overrated, tortured, pretentious writer of my generation.” Harsh words about the dead from a man who wrote one good book almost 30 years ago.

Odds and Ends

Stanford Study On Organic Food

Organic food is a marketing gimmick. Get over it, hippies.

Are Attacks On Clint Eastwood “Ageist?”

Mostly wanted to post this to point out the absurdity of using -ist / -ism to explain and analyze everything. This is a paradigm that can literally be applied to everything from hair color to what kind of car you drive.

L.A. City Pot Ban Blocked

Add this to the long list of “toldyasos” I have clocked.