Archives for posts with tag: Senate

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

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

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

Joni Ernst, the Teapublican candidate for Senate in Iowa, is well known for her bloodlust and castration fetish (hint: if you are a male and find her on Tinder, DON’T SWIPE RIGHT. She’d love to “swipe” your wedding tackle).The fact that Iowans look like they’re gonna send this crazed, latter day cross between Lizzie Borden and Sweeney Todd to Washington is pretty damned revolting. But hey, what’s a little serial genital mutilation between friends, right?

Now, though, we can add sedition to the list of Joni’s criminal predilictions: she wants to use her gun to take over the government, and to get rid of Obamacare. Click that link there for the details:

“I have a beautiful little Smith & Wesson, 9 millimeter, and it goes with me virtually everywhere,” Ernst said at the NRA and Iowa Firearms Coalition Second Amendment Rally in Searsboro, Iowa. “But I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family — whether it’s from an intruder, or whether it’s from the government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important.”

Iowa, really? The “candidate” wants to kill, mutilate, and maim people she doesn’t like, by her own repeated admission. And you like her well enough to send this person, who wants to overthrow the government, to help RUN the government? No, Iowa, seriously, really?

Dafuq?

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

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

You can’t make this stuff up. Witness the stench emanating from this GOP Senatorial candidate:

South Texas businessman Chris Mapp, 53, told this editorial board that ranchers should be allowed to shoot on sight anyone illegally crossing the border on to their land, referred to such people as “wetbacks,” and called the president a “socialist son of a bitch.”

After being called on his racist, inciting, and un-American position statement, he not only didn’t disavow it, he turned it up to eleven:

Mapp, 53, first made the remarks at an editorial board meeting with the Dallas Morning News last week, but told the San Antonio Express-News on Friday that using the derogatory term for Mexican immigrants is as “normal as breathing air in South Texas.”

Racism. Urging people to commit murder. Trash-talking the President. THAT, Gentle Reader, is the “Republican” party today. Vote for them if you are also a racist, criminal, seditious son of a bitch.

Otherwise, vote them out until the party decides to rejoin Planet Consensus Reality, obey the law, and respect our Constitution.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

That is eleven votes out of millions. And suddenly the Repubs, who until recently controlled the entire state, have lost 2/3 if it. Eleven votes. That made the difference.

F*** yeah, your vote matters. And anyone who says otherwise is an idiot who can’t do first-grade math.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

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

Or, for that matter, anyone else you happen to sling such pejorative names at. No, the Constitution says “All men are created equal”. It does not carve out exceptions for religion, skin color, or gender, and it sure as Hell doesn’t exclude LGBT Americans. All means all.

So it is sad that a law saying that little bit of obviousness even has to be created in the first place, and it is even more depressing that it is likely to get shot down again by our elected “Republicans.” All means all.

Sad though the necessity may be, the law needs passed. Just like the laws banning discrimination based on skin tone, X and Y chromosomes, religion and physical limitations. And anyone who opposes such equality can suck on the Constitution. Equality for all, that is what it says.

AND ALL MEANS ALL.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

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