Conservatives are Cowards. Liberals are Brave. Which Do YOU Want Working for You?

At least, that’s this writer’s take on it. If you look at what the Left and Right stand for, it seems pretty clear. If you listen to how they speak, it seems even more so. And when you look at how they behave, it seems irrefutable.

“Conservatives” are afraid of women, so they pass laws disempowering them.
“Conservatives” are afraid of LGBTQ people, so they pass laws disempowering them.
“Conservatives” are afraid of People of Color, so they pass laws disempowering them.
“Conservatives” are afraid of poor folk, so they pass laws disempowering them.
“Conservatives” are afraid of non-Christians, so they pass laws disempowering THEM.

And it doesn’t stop there.

“Conservatives” are afraid of free speech, so they pass laws taking away our free speech.
“Conservatives” are afraid of sex, so they pass LOTS of laws restricting it.
“Conservatives” are afraid of losing elections, so they rig elections and take away non-rich-white males’ voting rights.
“Conservatives” are afraid of their own government, so they buy themselves more guns than any person could ever use.
“Conservatives” are afraid of Ebola, so they want to force medical workers into solitary confinement just because they are scared.

On and on, and it never stops. “Republicans” are a bunch of wimps who, when it comes down to Fight or Flight, chose Flight 100% of the time. Big-talking wussies like Chris Christie and John McCain, who run and hide, cowering in the shadows if  ever they are called on their braggadocio.

Liberals behave, of course, in the exact opposite manner. They confront problems and deal with them. They are “Fighters”, not “Flighters”.

Next Tuesday, you have a choice: give control of the most powerful nation in the world to a load of scaredy-cat, bullying little wankers (Repubs), or a bunch of flawed but courageous Liberals (Democrats). It’s kind of a big deal, Gentle Reader. A pretty big and very consequential choice.

Choose the candidates with guts. Vote out the Wussie NeoConservative Caucus.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Americans seem to be OK with terrorists, as long as they are white.

His name is not Abdul Ibrahim, it is Andrew Scott Boguslawski. He was caught with weapons, ammo, dozens of bombs, and other tools of the terrorist trade in Ohio a few weeks ago. He looks to be an average American on the surface. The media has been pretty restrained in their reporting, treating it like a normal criminal case. No one is freaking out.

His name is not Muhammed Bin Arjara, it is Mark Kulis. He is one of those “sovereign citizen” nutbars, and was also busted for having illegal weapons and explosives. The media has been pretty restrained in their reporting, treating it like a normal criminal case. No one is freaking out.

His name is not Abou Ben Adhem, it is Chris Christie. His administration put millions of Americans at risk by shutting down part of the George Washington Bridge (a known terrorist target) on 9/11 of last year. The media has been pretty restrained in their reporting, hardly even mentioning the al-Quaida connection at all. No one is freaking out.

But just imagine the hue and cry and universal brouhaha had any of these three mutts been swarthy males with “foreign-sounding” names. The “news” media would be in 24/7 panic-inducing, fear-mongering, hair-on-fire, freakout mode. The cops would be deploying all manner of special weaponry. Americans would be told to use extra caution, to look under our beds, to be “vigilant”.

But since these are honkie dudes with “normal” names, America pretty much yawns.

Gentle Reader, this is nonsense. The skin color of someone who does you harm makes no difference whatsoever when you are lying in an ambulance or morgue. And paying undue attention to someone’s skin color or religious background when trying to decide if they are a threat makes it far more likely that somebody else you aren’t looking at will blow you to Kingdom come.

Or, of course, the whole “Global War on Terror” schtick could just be a con job, a cynical manipulation of the public so as to enrich the rich and gull the gullible; and maybe we should just calm down and treat all terrorists as common criminals, like we are those two lily-white curs in Ohio… Naah. Couldn’t be.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

The Reason for Bridgegate: Not what we thought.

The “what” is pretty well known by now: members of the Christie administration endangered lives and property by shutting down most of a major bridge, thus crippling the town of Fort Lee, NJ.

The “Who” is becoming clearer: four heads are rolling down the boardwalk thus far, and the Guv is trying to keep his noggin from joining theirs.

The question has been “Why”: on the face of it, the assumption that it was done to f*** over the Mayor of Fort Lee makes no sense. Indeed, that insensibility is a large part of Guv Christie’s defense.

So it took Rachel Maddow to make sense of this nonsense. Short version: it was Christie taking revenge on Fort Lee; but it wasn’t about the Mayor and any sort of endorsement. No, it was about Christie trying to stack the State Supreme Court, and a state Senator from that town who stood in the Governor’s way.

You really need to click the link and read the whole article, but here is a pertinent bit that connects most of the dots:

No governor had ever failed to reappoint a sitting state Supreme Court justice, but Christie had suddenly done it twice – once for the court’s only African-American jurist, infuriating Democrats, and then again for a justice he actually liked. The governor, enraged, held a press conference to tell reporters, “I was not going to let her loose to the animals.”

The “animals,” in this case, were the Democrats in the state Senate.

Christie said that on the afternoon of Aug. 12, 2013.

On the morning of Aug. 13, 2013, Christie’s deputy chief of staff told the governor’s guy at the Port Authority, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

The leader of the Senate Democrats at the time was a senator from … Fort Lee.

Timing? Check. Motivation? Check. Proof? Check.

Governor Christie DID have a reason (in his mind, anyway) to exact vengeance on Fort Lee. And he did it.

Gentlemen and ladies in law enforcement, keep those handcuffs oiled. Hopefully, you’ll be arresting that murderous motherf***er soon.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

“The Buck STARTS Here”: NJ Governor Chris Christie

Not only is he an arrogant, blowhard bully, we now see that he has no concept of personal responsibility. The man is blaming his staff for the deadly Bridgegate scandal. First he mocked, then he deflected, then he denied, and now he is blaming. That, Gentle Reader, is not leadership.

Leaders lead – they don’t hide behind bluster and bullying. And they set the tone for their operations, whether they be in charge of an infantry platoon, a McDonald’s, or a Governor’s office. The person at the top is ultimately responsible for what happens on their watch. That’s Management 101.

This is what real leadership looks like:

Don’t we all wish Harry was still with us?

If Governor Christie had a desk sign, it would read “The Buck STARTS here”.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

“Cause of Death-Chris Christie’s Temper”?

It is possible. It now appears almost certain that governor Blowhard ordered the bridge closure to exact revenge on another politico who didn’t kiss the Christie ass.

The emergency services people aren’t coming out and blaming Guv Bully -and given what happens to people who piss him off, they are probably wise not to do so. But we do know this: because of his rage and petty political vanity, a woman with chest pains waited much longer for an ambulance than she should have. And shortly after the dedicated and hard-working EMTs were able to fight their through the Christie-caused traffic jam way to the poor lady, she died.

So the headline has a question mark in it, because we can’t at this point prove that Chris Christie’s idiotic pre-natal temper tantrum is the direct cause of her death. But then again, the headline has a question mark in it, because we can’t prove it WASN’T, either.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Never Hire a Hothead (Chris Christie Edition)

New Jersey’s Governor is a vengeful, rage-filled bully with a room-temperature emotional IQ. All of these negative characteristics are on full display as the Bridgegate scandal unfolds. For those readers who aren’t familiar with it: Christie had his minions close parts of a vital bridge on order to get payback when a Democratic mayor did not endorse the Repub Guv’s recent reelection bid. He deliberately and knowingly endangered people, property, lives and livelihoods, wasted many taxpayer dollars and cost hundreds of businesses many thousands of dollars, all because he had a temper tantrum. His lackeys are being subpoenaed by the state, and are (when they can be found) testifying to just that effect.

Adding to the scrutiny, the Feds are asking just what the Mouth that Roared was up to. From the article:

In a letter to Port Authority Board Chairman David Sampson, Rockefeller wrote: “Unwarranted lane closures with no public notice can have serious ramifications on interstate commerce and safety in the region, and as the Committee with oversight responsibility of the Port Authority, I continue to have serious concerns about the actions of this agency. The gravity of this situation demands a comprehensive investigation. It also exacerbates my concerns with the governance and previous oversight of the Port Authority.”
Rockefeller also wrote to US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx Monday urging that the federal agency open its own inquiry into the Port Authority.

And this emotional infant, who thinks only of ignoring, abusing, mocking or intimidating those who don’t bow and scrape before him, who put an entire region at risk of calamity if a disaster or terrorist attack had occurred during these ill-advised closures… This hotheaded son of two strangers wants to be the President of the United States. The one person in the world who can launch a nuclear attack on his own. That is NOT a good idea, Cranky Nation.

We allowed an immature, spoiled, petulant, willfully pig-ignorant hothead to run this country before: his name was George W. Bush. Remember how well that worked out? Billions of dollars stolen and wasted, crimes committed, thousands of lives lost, all because America sat back and let him have free reign to unleash his temper tantrums upon a world that didn’t need or deserve them.

It’s bad enough that the voters of New Jersey got conned into electing Chris Christie again. But let’s stop there. We don’t need another vengeful, impetuous, angry idiot in the White House.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky