Teapublicans are out to steal YOUR retirement insurance premiums.

Let’s call some spades, here, OK? Social Security is INSURANCE for which we are forced to pay premiums. Some of us have paid for this insurance for decades and have the right to expect that the seller will deliver the product we had no choice but to purchase. Sounds simple, yes? We pay, we should get what we pay for, like any other insurance (car, home, life) product.

But not according to “Republicans”: they are out to breach our contract and steal our money:

As one of its first orders of business upon convening Tuesday, the Republican House of Representatives approved a rule that will seriously undermine efforts to keep all of Social Security solvent.

The rule hampers an otherwise routine reallocation of Social Security payroll tax income from the old-age program to the disability program. Such a reallocation, in either direction, has taken place 11 times since 1968, according to Kathy Ruffing of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The most cynical aspect of this attack is that it comes from some lawmakers who were helped by Social Security in their own lives. The roster includes Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who received Social Security benefits during his college years, after his father’s untimely death, and now thinks that the nation can’t afford to keep paying them as currently scheduled.

Another is Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), the sponsor of the House rules change, whose father died when he was 2 and then was raised by a single mother on Social Security and veterans benefits. Now he talks about Social Security going “bankrupt,” which is flatly incorrect, and promotes a measure aimed at cutting benefits for all. This is known as climbing the ladder and pulling it up behind you.

Got it, folks? The Teapubbies are doing exactly what they said they would do if elected. They are out to wreck Social Security, pocket our premiums, and throw anyone who is retired or disabled onto the streets instead of giving you the insurance benefits you paid for.

F*** those people. And if you voted for a “Republican”, f*** you too.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Here is why Obama “can’t work with Congress”:

Check out this official statement from John Boehner’s office, in response to Obama’s upcoming executive actions on immigration reform. Tell me if they sound like somebody you’d like to work with:

Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said in a statement: “If ‘Emperor Obama’ ignores the American people and announces an amnesty plan that he himself has said over and over again exceeds his constitutional authority, he will cement his legacy of lawlessness and ruin the chances for congressional action on this issue and many others.”

And it’s not unique. In fact, it’s pretty typical. That is how “Republicans” talk about (and to) the President, on a regular basis. And frankly, this writer wouldn’t wouldn’t feel all warm and fuzzy about working with anyone who talked that way about him.

Insults? Check.
Lies? Check.
Professional decorum? Nowhere to be found.

If the Teapubbies really want to know why they have such an awful relationship with the Prexy, they should try this little experiment: go into a low-class dive bar (the Speaker will be quite comfortable there), find a patron, and start talking this kinda s*** to them. They could say things like “you lie!”, or “Godless Communist Kenyan illegal immigrant!”, or any number of the slurs they have hurled at Obama over the past 6+ years.

Any bets on the sorts of “relationships” the GOPee will establish? Not many productive working arrangements, no. Far more likely that fists will “meet up” with faces.

Hey, Johnnie-me-lad: try using some manners for a change.
Because, dude, you are making a deliberately obnoxious blogger cringe. That says nothing good about your individual and collective social “skills”.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Uh, You DO Know that Obama’s Not on the Ballot, Right?

Just checking, because lots and LOTS of people are yammering on about him during this year’s campaign. Which is pretty f***ing stupid, because OBAMA CAN’T BE F***ING RE-ELECTED. The pundits and “news” types are all ratchet-jawing about the man, but in truth he matters not one bit for next Tuesday’s contests.

The Senatorial candidates matter. The Gubernatorial candidates matter. The House candidates matter. So too do the other state and local ballot options. They matter, and they matter a LOT. (For example, McConnell, Boehner, and a host of other politicos are up for re-election or de-election.)

By your actions you can help turn this country into a Red Hell or a Purple Patchwork (It’ll take a Helluva lot more than one election to turn America Blue). You can take away our rights, or give them back to us. You can enable us to: feed the kids or starve them; fight or cower; fix or ignore; pay or go broke; function or fall apart; all of these vitally important matters are in the hands of voters on November 4th, 2014.

But Obama is NOT on the ballot. We kinda need to ignore him when we hit the voting booth, because the people for whom we DO cast ballots can actually make our lives better or worse.At the very least, we need to focus on the people and issues that are on the table this coming Tuesday.

The media moguls and bribe artists would love nothing better than to have us focus on a lame-duck President: that enables them to play their sleazy shell games via distraction and misdirection, f***ing us over royally in the process. We The People need to see past the sleight of hand and focus on the task at hand.

Like Obama or loathe him, as you choose: but you can’t vote for him this year. Concentrate on the people you CAN vote for instead.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Repubs Helped Cause the Ebola Crisis. Time to Cure our Government: Vote Them Out.

Contrary to the screeches of the Panic Platoon, Ebola has not been the plague depicted in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (admit it: you thought of the end sequence when you first heard about the recent outbreaks in West Africa). Not even close. Everywhere that has the needed resources and good solid best practices were followed, the disease was brought under control quickly and competently.

The only countries that have not yet brought the virus under control are desperately poor nations that have been deliberately f***ed over by “republicans” and their counterparts elsewhere. The disease COULD have been controlled in Liberia, too, but some GOP senator might have wound up with fewer millions in his illegal offshore bank account had America shown some common decency and a wee bit of smarts. But NOOOOOOOooooo, the GOPee stole from the poor and gave to themselves, as is their wont.

So while the Chicken Littles and Admiral Akbar Brigade join their brethren in the Panic Platoon and generally freak out about Ebola in fine hair-on-fire fashion, let us focus instead on a real existential threat: the thieving Repub rat-bastards who caused the f***ing outbreak in the first f***ing place. There, friends, is a SERIOUS problem that needs solving.

And we can solve it. Get to the polls, and take your friends, enemies, frenemies. neighbors, church members, bowling buddies, bandmates, and everybody else you know with you. Vote against every single rotten, stinking son-of-a-bitch GOP candidate and show the lot of them to the door. You don’t have to like Dems (this writer doesn’t): you just have to hate the Repubs for killing so many innocents in the name of fattening their own wallets.

Beating any disease requires an accurate diagnosis and a solid treatment plan. We have done it for Ebola, now we need to eradicate modern Republicanitis before it “kills” the lot of us.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

“Republican” Congress critter Thinks Climate Science is Just Like Surgery.

So, how about we arrange for a climate scientist to perform surgery on GOPee Rep. Benishek? Perhaps a vasectomy, gall bladder resection, or a colostomy? Dan Benishek, you see, thinks that since he is a surgeon, that makes him a “scientist”. He says so:

Rep. Dan Benishek (R-Mich.) says his medical background qualifies him to reject the overwhelming consensus among climate scientists that emissions from human activity are causing the planet to heat up. Pressed to address scientific findings to the contrary, Benishek claimed that no peer-reviewed climate change studies have been able “to prove that there’s man-made catastrophic global warming.”

As of 2013, 97 percent of more than 12,000 peer-reviewed climate science papers have concluded that human activity over the last century has contributed to global warming. Nearly 200 scientific organizations worldwide, including the American Medical Association, the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences also endorse the consensus position.

“Well, I am a scientist,” said Benishek, who worked as a general surgeon for nearly 30 years before running for Congress in 2011. “You know, I believe in peer-reviewed science. But, I don’t see any peer-reviewed science that proves there is man-made catastrophic climate change.”

So, “studying the sciences” makes you a scientist, eh, boyo? That makes this writer a scientist, one supposes. Wow, who knew a couple of college classes (in between drinking bouts) made the Cranky One a scientist? Dang, the lucrative career opportunities that were foregone, because of the silly belief that one had to spend time and effort over a period of years in a specialty before declaring one’s self the master thereof.

And by the same token, if a surgeon is somehow automatically imbued with the ability to do all sciences of all types after graduating medical school, surely the same applies to anyone who has “studied the sciences”, yes? So, chemists should be performing brain transplants, physicists could easily do organ transplants, and astronomers could whip out heart bypasses without breaking a sweat. Right, Danny Boy?

If the distinguished gentleman really thinks that his medical education and time in the O.R. is truly the equivalent of advanced degrees and years of work in climatology and related disciplines, then let him show it. Volunteer to go under the knife as oceanographers and geologists demostrate their “scientific studies” on his internal organs. Put some skin in the game, if you’ll pardon the pun.

After all, the risk is much smaller: only Benishek would be at risk in this fantasy scenario. But the whole f***ing planet is at risk if we accept his “scientific” judgment on the all-too-real phenomenon of global climate change.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

On MLK Day, Florida Republican calls for our black President’s lynching.

Holy Mary, can you believe this crap? This “Republican” is such a racist, anti-American f***wad, even other Teabaggers are disgusted:

ST. PETERSBURG — As Americans honored the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, a Republican candidate for Florida House District 68 said President Barack Obama should be hanged for war crimes.

“I’m past impeachment,” Joshua Black wrote on Twitter. “It’s time to arrest and hang him high.”

Do you need any more information? Teapublicans are a load of treasonous, racist, murderous louts who need to be voted out of office at every opportunity. Because to elect them is to give them approval.

And unless you like lynching black men, you REALLY shouldn’t approve of racist Teabaggers.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Any West Virginian who votes Repub after this week is a complete idiot.

Yeah, that’s harsh. But after the deregulation the Libertarian Repubs enacted caused an enormous chemical spill there, and after the Teabagging Repubs cut the budgets for enforcing what paltry regulations remain, it seems pretty accurate. Note this simple fact: “Republicans” are to blame for the toxic chemical leak that afflicts Charleston and surrounding areas. They are to blame because they deregulated the industries involved.

Yes, a very few “Democrats” voted for such stupid deregulatory bills: including one that was passed even as the chemicals were contaminating the Elk River. This particular law would pretty much make the taxpayer pay for cleanup of messes caused by private businesses. Jesus Christ on a moonshine still, really?

But it is a 95% “Republican” policy, passed by 98% “Republican” votes, and so it is a Repub policy. And when you vote for a Repub, you are telling them that you support the poisoning of our water supplies. So if you vote for an Elephant, you are cheering on the destruction of your infrastructure and any resulting illnesses or deaths.
You are also approving of the way they kicked you in the nuts while you were down, by passing that recent bill which further deregulated the chemical industry even as you could not wash your hair or brush your teeth because of a chemical spill.

And if you vote to have yourself sickened or murdered, you are an idiot, plain and simple. Remember this come Election Day, and PLEASE don’t be stupid. Your life and health depend on a smart vote.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

House “Republicans” cut healthcare.gov funding by 90%. No wonder it doesn’t work well.

Hell, we’re lucky it works at all. Here’s the budget request for building healthcare.gov. 10 billion dollars to build the online exchanges allowing those eligible Americans in a red or purple state to buy health insurance. The Teapublicans gave them 1 billion. And now, they are “outraged” that the online system isn’t working perfectly, and are demanding to know why.

It is pretty safe to say that a NINETY-F***ING PERCENT CUT IN FUNDING had something to do with it. Pretty darned safe.

Try commuting on 10% of the gas you need. Try getting by with 10% of the food you need. Try building a house with 10% of the lumber you need. How well is that likely to work for ya?

Hey, House Repubes- want to know why the website rollout sucked? Look in a friggin’ mirror.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

“Victory”? Somebody buy Ted Cruz a friggin’ dictionary .

Ted Cruz thinks that defeat is victory; or at least, he thinks that being ahead during a contest means more than who actually wins or loses at the end of a contest: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/16/cruz-it-was-a-remarkable-victory-until-senate-republicans-caved-on-the-shutdown/ From the article:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Wednesday blasted members of his own party after he said that they wasted a “remarkable victory” by making a deal with Democrats to re-open the government and avert a default on U.S. debt by raising the nation’s credit limit

Of course, Teapublicans did not win a victory at the end of the recent shutdown/default debacle. At the end, they were forced to “surrender”, in the words of Speaker Boehner. Most of us see a surrender as a, well, defeat. But not Teddy Boi Cruz. In his world:

• Cleveland won a remarkable victory last week, because they led at the half. (Of course, Detroit won the game later)
• Rome won a remarkable victory over Rebbe Yeshua bar Joseph when they crucified him. (Of course, the Christians  are still around, and the Roman empire is long gone).
• England won a remarkable victory over the rebellious American colonies…you get the idea.

Clearly, Teddy Boi hasn’t a clue about the English language. Buy the fool a dictionary, someone, PLEASE.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

John Boehner’s Fear of Losing Power (again) is why the Government is Shut Down.

Lots of people and pundits overlook this bit of history: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/us/politics/15boehner.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Indeed, it gets scant attention even in the above article. Here’s the relevant bit:

When Republicans took control in 1994, Mr. Boehner became chairman of the House Republican Conference, the fourth-ranking job. Just as he had in Ohio, he formed close ties with industry and developed a tight circle of advisers, many of whom have moved on to become lobbyists. Mr. Boehner’s taste for parties and fine wines also soon became evident; his Republican Convention-related soirees are a legend.       

Mr. Boehner lost his leadership position in 1998 after his fellow Republicans decided to clean house after losing seats.

Got that? Speaker Boehner got the axe once, and he is scared it’ll happen again. THAT is why he won’t cross The Thirty and allow the CR to be voted on in the house. He is so attached to the gavel, he’ll let children starve and die, deny Americans health care, weaken our national defense, and bankrupt the nation. The narcissistic son of a bitch.

Not that this writer is the only person to have had this thought: http://wosu.org/2012/allsides/government-shutdown-whos-affected/ Jack Torry and Jonathan Alter have said similar things in the past.

When one man’s lust for power can hold an entire nation hostage,  we need to make some changes. De-jobbing Boehner would be a good start.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky