Can you pass this short quiz?

? 

So with all the political stuff that’s going on, I’m going to ask you to name two people.

But first,  I’m going to redact some place names so as not to give away the answers. That said, please read the following quote.

“I speak differently in _________ than I do in ______, and when I speak in _______, I say different things than I say in the ____________ Hall. That is a matter of practice, not of theory. We do not want to be a movement of a few straw brains, but rather a movement that can conquer the broad masses.”  

In other words, the person who said this was talking about Etch-A-Sketch politics and the technique of making flip-flopping statements. The theory is, say whatever it takes, lie if necessary, tell one audience one thing and another audience another, so long as you manage to fool lots of people into following you.  

So who was it? It was….

Well, let me give you a hint that may give it away. The speaker delighted his boss, who himself said, 

But the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success

I guess you’ve guessed by now. But in case you haven’t:

The first guy was Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany. And the one who urged repeating a the few points over and over again, the guy who praised persistence, was Adolph Hitler.

Hey, I’m not accusing anyone presently living of anything. I’m only pointing out what Goebbel and Hitler said. You’re grown up enough to draw your own conclusions.

  

A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking pocket change

From a blog piece by Henry Blodgett on Yahoo's Daily Ticker, explaining a jury verdict under which which Samsung pays Apple a billion dollars:

The monetary damages here, though large, are almost irrelevant. Apple already has more than $100 billion of cash, and Samsung will barely miss $1 billion.

And I still see homeless people stooping in the gutter to pick up a nickel.

Is we Americans stoopid enough yet? Not if Republicans have their way!

A few posts back I wrote about the amazing move in Texas to outlaw lessons in critical thinking in Texas schools. (That’s stuff like clear-headed logic, seeking out and evaluating the sources of information, not confusing symbols with actual things, and parsing language.)

I mentioned Wonkette’s right-on comment, “Texas Republicans promise they’ll nip that thinky-learny shit right in the bud.”

But Republican stupidity seems to have grown with the advent of Todd Akin of Missouri’s brilliant discovery that raped women can’t get pregnant, unless, of course, they was askin’ for it, or really wanted it, or something. At least that’s the implication of what he said when discussing whether women can get pregnant because of a rape.

“It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, it’s really rare," declared Akin. "If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”

Yeah right. That was so stupid it resonated around the the nation. More and more people are beginning to notice that Republicans seem not only to be stupid, but also that Republicans want to promulgate national stupidity.

“Having developed an extremist culture that encourages figures such as Akin to seek legislative office, GOP leaders should hardly be surprised when idiotic and reprehensible remarks spill from the mouths of their candidates,” comments the National Memo.

“On matters of basic science and peer-reviewed knowledge, from evolution to climate change to elementary fiscal math, many Republicans in power cling to a level of ignorance that would get their ears boxed even in a medieval classroom. Congress incubates and insulates these knuckle-draggers,” observed Timothy Egan, a New York Times columnist and blogger.

“Republicans don't want to educate you. They don't want to educate your children. The less education you have, the more they can manipulate you. The more they can get you to believe that money in the pockets of their choice somehow benefits you, the better for them,” said Isa Lee Wolf from the Yahoo Contributor Network.

Then there was this bundle of razzle-dazzle self-contradiction from Mitt Romney, who plainly must have been hoping that his fast-babble approach to explaining himself would confuse all us rubes:

Mitt Romney in 2002: ''I respect and will protect a woman's right to choose.'' 

Mitt Romney in 2007: ''Look, I was pro-choice. I am pro-life. You can go back to YouTube and look at what I said in 1994. I never said I was pro-choice, but my position was effectively pro-choice. I changed my position. And I get tired of people that are holier-than-thou because they've been pro-life longer than I have.''

The Republican dumbing down of America has made Americans and the United States the laughingstock of the world. The question is, will we vote out every one of these pro-idiocy Republicans – from Congressioal candidates to the White House candidate?

Or are we already way too stupid to get rid of these idiots?

This post courtesy of the Communications Workers of America

First, a full disclosure: I own Verizon stock. Its dividends are part of my income. That said, I'll be damned if I'll passively put up with a few greedy SOBs at the top taking multi-million dollar salaries, bonuses and stock options while their (and my) employees get shafted.

If you, like me, own Verizon stock, I encourage you to vote no on every stock holder ballot that asks for approval of a compensation plan, a bonus plan, approval of new Board of Directors members nominated by the company, or so much as putting a dried turd in the CEO's pocket until the Communications Workers of America have an agreement they feel they can sign. Want to know why? Over to you, CWA:

August 20, 2012 News for supporters and allies Every Verizon Job, A Union Job! This month—more than a year after Verizon workers’ contracts expired—representatives of CWA and IBEW and the company are in round the clock mediation sessions in Washington, DC, in a process being overseen by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. If that process breaks down, workers could be locked out or on strike within 7 days. We need your support now more than ever. With livelihoods and futures on the line, workers and supporters across the country have launched a massive mobilization to demand that the company bargain fair contracts that support good union jobs Thirteen Months On, Verizon Still Demands Deep Cuts After a year of stalled negotiations with workers in Verizon East, it is clear that the company’s strategy is to destroy middle-class jobs and roll back benefits earned over decades of hard work by CWA and IBEW members at the bargaining table and on the streets. The cuts to wages and benefits that Verizon is asking for are shocking and represent an all-out war on the middle class. For example: Wages that don’t keep up with the cost of living Higher health care costs and fewer benefits for current workers and retirees Pensions gutted for those currently covered and no pensions at all for new hires Job security becomes a thing of the past More outsourcing of good union jobs And the fight for fairness is not restricted to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. CWA members in the Southwest began bargaining in July and are facing the same demands by the company. Workers in the West are preparing to bargain in early 2013 and are expecting the same attacks by the company they now call Verigreedy. "It's flat out bullying and it's disgusting." Nearly five thousand workers and supporters rallied at the Verizon offices in downtown Philadelphia on Saturday, August 11, to demand a fair contract. One of the heroes among the sea of red CWA shirts at the Workers Stand for America rally was a woman fired by Verizon after she stood up for fairness. Jennifer Travis, a CWA member who helped run a repair call center in Pittsburgh, was fired last fall after 15 years of service to Verizon. She told her story to thousands of brothers and sisters in Philadelphia. Her situation, sadly, is not uncommon. Verizon fired or disciplined dozens of union activists after last year’s strike in what many believe was an effort to intimidate workers who would stand up for fairness and exercise their union rights. During the Verizon strike, Travis took her husband and two of her three kids to the picket line. She wanted to pass on the pride of being in a union to her children. We were loud and boisterous, but peaceful. The company says that I assaulted a manager as he escorted a scab across our picket line. Those are outrageous and false allegations. And, together with my union, we are fighting back. But mine was not an isolated incident. Several of my brothers and sisters were fired or disciplined last August for similarly trumped up charges. What many of us have in common is our highly visible status as union leaders and activists. It makes me wonder if the company retaliated against us in an effort to intimidate other members who would consider standing up for their union in the future. If that’s true, it’s flat out bullying, and it’s disgusting. Workers have the right to exercise their union rights without fear of intimidation and harassment by the boss. We know: Workers’ rights are human rights! Watch this emotional video of Jen Travis talking about Verizon's intimidation tactics, then share it with everyone you know who cares about fairness. Corporate bullies like Verizon rely on our silence. Stand up to Verizon and show your support for Jen's bravery--watch and share today: Thank You to Our Allies! Jobs with Justice activists helped the cause on Tuesday, August 7, by delivering thousands of postcards to Verizon board member Joseph Neubauer demanding that he step up and help remove the roadblocks the company has put in the way of fairness. Justin Harrison, a splicing technician for Verizon in Philadelphia and Unit 1 President of CWA Local 13000 explained: Mr. Neubauer and all the members of the board share responsibility for the way Verizon treats its workers. . . . It's time that people like Neubauer stand up and take responsibility. My co-workers and I are going to be standing up to Verizon and those who support its job-killing policies today and every day until we win a fair deal. Religious Leaders Decry Verizon's Lack of Good Faith The Clergy Community for Social and Economic Justice, an organization representing more than 2,000 faith communities in New York state took a public stand with Verizon employees by sending a letter to CEO Lowell McAdam on August 1. The group declared that Verizon’s “failure to negotiate with workers in good faith” and its overall business plan “represent a fantastic race to the bottom,” that is “extremely detrimental” to the community. In another bold move, almost 100 religious leaders from many faiths signed a letter to McAdam on August 2, asking for a meeting to discuss the plight of workers at the company. “Working people deserve fair wages and adequate health coverage, safe and nonthreatening work environments, and time off to care for themselves and their families,” the letter declared. These leaders called on McAdam to bring the negotiations to a just resolution—honoring the dignity of workers. Let's Stand Up to Verizon Together Thursday Rallies Verizon is a $100 billion company that made $10 billion in profits last year and rewarded top executives with millions in raises and bonuses. Verizon’s limitless greed embodies the 1%. We must STAND UP TO VERIZON together. Our future, and the future of our families and communities, is on the line. Workers are inviting union brothers and sisters and other allies to join them at selected sites for Solidarity Rallies every Thursday until they get a contract. To find out about an action near you, go to StandUpToVerizon.com and click on “Find an Action Near You”. Workers and allies also continue to organize weekly actions at Verizon Wireless stores, Darden Restaurants, and Popular Community Bank branches nationwide. For updates on the campaign for good jobs at Verizon, text STANDUPNOW to 69866 right now.

REVEALED! The Romney-Ryan campaign strategy

Just razzle-dazzle the voters with lies.

If you're trying to destroy Medicare, say the Democrats are trying to destroy Medicare. If you're raising taxes on the middle class while giving their money to the rich, say the Democrats are bankrupting the country and that rich people deserve everybody else's money because they're "job creators."

Whatever evil you're up to, claim it's the Democrats that are up to it. Claim Romney and Ryan have the same budget. Then say they have different budgets. Then repeat that they have the same budget.

On talk shows drown out the truth by talking over it so that Democrats can't be heard. Just razzle-dazzle 'em.

Beaver bites scoutmaster, turtle attacks human bride, kangaroo busts out of zoo, Romney picks Paul Ryan.

There must be a full moon out somewhere.

In Pennsylvania, a Boy Scout leader set out to swim across the Delaware River and got bitten by a beaver that turned out to be rabid.

In London, a pair of aquarium keepers wearing full wedding regalia and scuba gear decided to get married underwater in a giant fish tank.”Not in my backyard!” was the reaction of a sea turtle, which attacked the bride and her wedding dress.

In Berlin, a kangaroo, evidently assisted by a fox and a wild boar, who dug holes under the fence confining them, busted out. Last heard, the two carnivores were hunting for Bratwusrst while the ‘roo was devouring lawns.

If you missed all this, it may be because, since the weekend, the news media have focused laser-like on the other piece of weird news – Willard Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as a running mate.

Until now, Willard hasn’t seemed to have much of an economic plan, save to “undo Obamacare” — a move that would drive up health care costs while leaving many citizens essentially bereft of the financial means for hospitalization or surgery. They'd simply have to get out of the way and die.

Now Ryan has a “solution” for Medicare, too, not to mention a "fix" for a Social Security system that doesn't need fixing. It involves gutting Medicare and crippling Social Security, while cutting what’s left of the taxes that the rich pay. The loss to the government from cutting the taxes of billionaires would be made up for by slashing the Social Security income and medical care of the old and poor.

This is not likely (I hope) to endear Romney and Ryan to senior citizens and middle-aged folks. Maybe not even to their children, who will have to start paying for their parents’ care, once Social Security and Medicare become nothing more than bad jokes.

Did I mention I think there must be a full moon out?

Well than, how about the latest conspiracy theory that a weather balloon in Antarctica is really a flying saucer?

“Fokes Ar Dum Where I Kum Frum” — but how did I miss the news that Texas Republicans are fighting to make sure it stays that way?

It’s been all over the blogsphere, but somehow I’ve missed until today that Texas Republicans are seeking to outlaw teaching “higher order critical thinking” in that state's public schools.

In case you’re a bit surprised, too, I want to emphasize that you read it right. They want  a law that teachers can’t help students think clearly and rationally. See, in Texas, clear thinking  – the ability to distinguish between facts and opinions, for example, or the ability to think logically –  is perceived as dangerous. So why haven't I noticed this before?

Perhaps I’ve been comatose. Or perhaps the major news networks, and the New York Times, (which kinda-sorta mentioned the brouhaha in its opinion pages, like here, but not, that I’m aware of, in the news pages, much less the front page) ….perhaps they’ve all been snoozing. 

However, you can read all about it here, here, here, and here, for openers. Read it and groan. For those of you who simply prefer a sound bite, let me commend to you the last line on this topic from a blog post on Wonkette:

“Texas Republicans promise they’ll nip that thinky-learny shit right in the bud.”

New York is “Fine City," unless you recklessly kill somebody with a car. In that case, there’s no arrest, not even a fine. Have a nice day.

Mad King Ludwig

Michael Bloombrg

Above, portraits of two crazy people who might almost have been separated at birth. I’m not going into crazy Ludwig’s history of off-kilter activities. You can get an executive summary right here. 

Suffice it to say it’s a coin toss whether Ludwig or Mad Michael Bloomberg is the crazier of the two. 

Today’s case in point – enforcement of petty violations vs. inforcement of vehicular homicide in New York.

If you were a sane mayor, which would you focus on enforcing? Well get this:

The city's Public Advocate, Bill DeBlasio, is resorting to suing the mayor for information that city hall won't release about who’s getting fined, how often, where, and for how much.

It seems overzealous enforcement of petty regulations is a Bloomberg-directed attempt to make up for the city's income shortfall. The zeal comes “without regard for the impact this policy is having on the city’s small-business owners,” according to De Blasio. 

“Stonewall” Bloomberg

DeBlasio, an elected public official, says the city is stonewalling him in his quest to find out how municipal income for fines have managed to double from less than a half a billion dollars to nearly a whole billion since Bloomberg became mayor.

Meanwhile, according to the city’s elected Public Advocate, small business owners…

“…have been forced to pay thousands of dollars in fines for nuisance violations that could be easily addressed through education. By levying hidden taxes and increasing the cost of doing business, the City is undercutting New York’s small businesses and making it more difficult for them to grow and create jobs. 

 “For example, small business owners in the Bronx provided the Public Advocate with a letter from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene regarding fines, that warns (a) if one contests the fine, the business may have to pay more and (b) if one contests the fine, the small business owner may have to wait around for hours before a hearing is granted. This letter is a strong message to small business owners to simply pay fines without asking questions, instead of seeking to resolve legitimate misunderstandings.’ 

What kinds of terrible offenses have these fined small business owners committed? Well, according to the Public Advocate's website:

• Owners of a family-run grocery store in Flatbush, Brooklyn thought they were going above and beyond what the law required by printing their return policy on every receipt, but regulations require return policies to be posted on signs next to each cash register. During an August inspection, the store was unexpectedly hit with three $250 fines—one for each of the cash registers lacking a return policy sign.

 
• In Manhattan, “when a health-department inspector visited XES Lounge in Chelsea ... he gave general manager Tony Juliano a ticket for having unwrapped straws on the bar. [The] straws [had] been there for nearly eight years, but this time it was deemed a $400 violation.”

“If you snitch, we’ll break your bank account”

Don't get any smart ideas, either, about secretly recording the outrageous visits of Bloomberg’s “inspectors” in search of an out-of-place sign or an unwrapped straw, all in an effort to get you socked with a brutal fine. If you get caught recording evidence of how unreasonable the mayor’s shakedown racket is, you’re really in deep doo-doo. Says the elected Public Advocate's website...

• The owner of the popular downtown diner George’s — where Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly have dined — wound up in hot water after he tried to skewer a city health inspector by recording his visit on an iPhone. When the inspector spotted owner Bill Koulmentas’ cellphone scheme, he quickly hit George’s with a slew of violations — totaling 65 points. Koulmentas was accused of everything from having cracked eggs to keeping cold food too hot and hot food too cold .... Having experienced a similarly overzealous inspection a month earlier, Koulmentas said he decided to document what was happening

But hey, killing people with a car? That's OK!

One of the reasons I bring this up is that every year in New York, approximately two thousand people, on foot or on bicycles, get run over, crashed into, crushed, slammed into the air, and sometimes killed by recklessly-driven automobiles, trucks and taxis. 

And what does Mayor Bloomberg, his Popeye-lookalike police commission Ray Kelley, and the rest of the city's bureaucracy do about it?

You were right when you guessed they do next to nothing.

"It's a perverse system," said Councilmember Greenfield today. "Currently, we're saying to the drivers of New York City: Be reckless, drive drunk, unlicensed, run people over, and nothing is going to happen to you. On many nights there is one AIS police officer in the entire city conducting investigations. God forbid you have two accidents in one night! The NYPD has a budget of $4.5 billion a year. If the NYPD wants to put more people on the ground to hold reckless drivers accountable, they can do it." 

So by all means, feel free to drive into New York drunk and run over the first little old lady or  cyclist you see. Or if you’re blind drunk, you don’t even have to see them. We won’t hold any of that against you here. But do you plan on doing business in New York?

Then have a fine day.

Is this the greatest dadblasted nation on the face of the freakin’ planet, or what?

Despite the latest mass murder in Colorado, where mass murders seem to flourish, it’s clearly futile to rail against the gun-toting thugs whose defenders see every attempt at keeping weapons out of the hands of psychopaths as an assault on the constitution. 

New York’s mayor is trying to go the anti-gun route anyway. He declares before the news cameras that both presidential candidates ought to take a stand against the insane gun culture that’s getting thousands of Americans blasted into oblivion, or crippled for life, for no reason at all. He is even calling for a police strike, which is only slightly nuts. It's on the nutty side because, with the police off the job, guess what class of lowlife will work overtime? And guess what will be coming out of bureau drawers and gun closets all over America? 

All the same, I am in harmony with the mayor’s sentiments for once, if not with his remedy. But it’s easy for him to say what he’s saying. He’s not running for a national office. He doesn’t have to worry about showing up – no pun intended – in the National Rifle Association’s sights. What he's really saying is, Hey Obama, hey Romney, go take some heat even thought it's futile.

Remarkably, although there aren’t all that that many gun thugs,  they’ve got a ton of money behind them, with all the necessary lobbying tools. So woe to any official seeking re-election if he doesn’t score high on the NRA Gunometer.

In fact, the NRA has been doing its job so well, that with many states adapting shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later laws, also known as Stand Your Ground, that there’s hardly anything left for the NRA to do. Except maybe to make sure every six year old in kindergarten is wearing a fully loaded Glock on his belt, even when he's feeling a tad cranky. And maybe the NRA plans to demand a law mandating that every bartender give every drunk at his bar a loaded shotgun.

I mean, in what other civilized (or even uncivilized) nation on the face of the earth can a psychopath with mass murder on his mind drive to the local mall and pick up a gallon of milk, a six pack of beer,  a pound of American cheese, a bag of tortilla chips, an automatic assault rifle with a magazine capable of holding 100 rounds of ammo, and a thousand round box of spare hollow-nosed bullets, just in case he runs low while blowing away little kids, college students, elderly women and congressional representatives?

Is this a great freaking country or what?

Why I hate, hate, hate gurus and motivational speakers – and what this has to do with the way so many idiots vote

Generally speaking, I believe in mercy. I believe in kindness. I believe that if a person is injured, you, and I and all of society should come to that person's rescue. I believe injured people should not be the subject of derision.

But I draw the line at dumbass idiots who blindly put their faith  in some jerk motivational speaker and try to walk across hot coals.

Take the case of the stupid suckers who let a motivational speaker named Tony Robbins persuade them to do just that – the hot coal walk.

Robbins must have known they were going to get burned, if you believe the account of the event in The New York Times. He had a medical staff standing by. But his audience drank his  Kool Aid.

Walking across hot coals on lanes measuring 10 feet long and heated to between 1,200 to 2,000 degrees provides attendees an opportunity to “understand that there is absolutely nothing you can’t overcome,” according to the motivational speaker’s website. 

Yeah, I guess if you happen to be first or second in a line that's filling up the emergency room and putting stress on overtaxed doctors and burn clinics, you can overcome third degree burns on your feet. You might even avoid amputation.

What the hell did those morons think was going to happen when they went for a promenade across a pit of hot coals? One witness told the Associated Press:

“I just heard these screams of agony. People were in pain. It sounded like people were being tortured.”

Hey, you wanna know why people, against their own self-interest, will vote for Willard Romney in the coming presidential election? You wanna know why Michelle Bachmann hasn't been laughed into oblivion by her own constituents? You wanna know why batshit crazies believe global warming doesn't exist and dinosaurs walked the earth with people a mere 4,000 years ago?

Just fill a pit with burning coals and invite some gullible nincompoops out for a stroll.

Will Willard or won't Willard reveal his tax returns? Now there's more speculation on what they contain.

In my last post I speculated on ten reasons why Willard ("Mitt") Romney won't reveal his tax returns to the American public. They ranged from deductions for extra wives and children stashed away somewhere in Utah, to possible investments in a Nevada bordello. Oh, and shorting a key element in the American economy.

Turns out I'm not the only one. My friend Buce at Underbelly calls my attention to a somewhat different round of speculation at the Atlantic Wire.

Meanwhile, twirling the TV dial with my remote last night, I found a small slew of talking heads speculating on whether the increasing drumbeat of outrage will finally force Willard to reveal what he's been up to with his bank accounts in Switzerland, the Grand Caymans, and Bermuda (or wherever) or whether he will stick to his guns, even though he's pointing them at his own head.

Will he or won't he? Beats me, bro. Stay tuned.

The top ten reasons Willard (“Mitt”) Romney won’t show his tax returns

Listen, folks, politics are pretty rough and tumble affairs. I know, I know, you're fatigued with awareness of that already. I’m just saying.

The expected rough and tumble may be why Barack Obama didn’t complain too hard when Republican presidential candidate Willard Romney palled around with Donald Trump, who keeps demanding to see President Obama’s birth certificate even though Obama has already produced it. 

More recently, Trump has been demanding the President’s college transcripts, and sooner or later he’ll insist we need the President’s kindergarten report card.

So it’s a bit surprising that Romney is wailing – like the bully who finally gets what’s coming to him in the schoolyard – because we Democrats are demanding to see his tax returns for the last ten years.

Why do I think that if had nothing to hide, Romney would, just to make the issue go away, produce his tax returns faster than you can say “Blitz, Blots, Blatts, Blutts, Bloomquist Blueblubber, and Cohen, Tax Planners and Certified Public Accountants?”

The question is, what is Romney hiding? Because he refuses produce the tax returns which would clear the air, he’s fair game for speculation. This, then, is purely just me speculating, but, ahem, allow me the following submissions for the top ten reasons Willard won’t come clean:

10. Willard secretly gave up his U.S. Citizenship (or obtained dual citizenship) some years ago to avoid taxation that American citizens face. His tax returns for some years say he is declaring immunity from taxes because he's a foreign citizen. Of course, the reason Willard doesn’t want to let this out is, if he’s a foreigner he’s not eligible to run for president.

9. Willard secretly owns a coffee plantation and a distillery and fears that bringing this out will cost him his Mormon base.

8. Willard invested in diamond mines in Zimbabwe where human rights abuses, even murder, run rampant. Bane Capital supported Robert Mugable when Mugable murdered his fellow citizens. h

7. Willard, about ten years ago, did an immensely profitable arms deal selling automatic weapons to Osama bin Laden, who later used the arms against Americans.

6. Willard invested in a foreign tobacco company that is selling cigarettes to young kids.

5.  Willard tried to short General Motors, and would have made a fortune had President Obama not saved the company.

4. Willard invested in a bordello in Nevada.

3.  Willard was involved in a baby smuggling business involved in taking babies away from poor mothers to give to rich mothers. That’s also why he opposes abortion. He needs to keep selling the babies.

2. Whenever he took over a company, Willard would play droight de seigneur  with his female employees.

1. Willard took tax deductions for his other three wives and their children by him, all secretly tucked away in a fundamentalist Mormon commune in the mountains of Utah.

“Frack you!” Republican Governor John Kasich tells a tiny village in his state. ­ It’s a David and Goliath story in the making.

With under 4,000 people, give or take a few, little Yellow Springs, Ohio (that’s its two-blocks-long main street in the photograph) wouldn’t seem to have much clout in Columbus, the state capitol. Or even in Xenia, the seat of Greene County, where Yellow Springs – which inevitably votes with Democrats and other progressives – is surrounded by hostile Republicans.

But hey, this is a little town with a lot of quirkiness, as I’ve reported before, and a hell of a lot of gumption and stubbornness.

And they’re concerned. Oil company interests, hellbent on fracking Ohio into little pieces, are moving into the area. We’re talking about the possibility that natural gas, or at least the brine-y, chemical laden water used in underground fracking, could poison the soil and the porous limestone under it in and around Yellow Springs. That’s important because rainwater percolates through that limestone into the wells that supply the drinking water for Yellow Springs.

So, before the frackmeiseters could get to town and drill-baby-dr…I mean frack-baby-frack…the village passed a resolution asking the state to put a moratorium on fracking.  What was the response of Ohio Governor John Kasich, a greed-based Republican and (why am I not surprised?) former Fox News Commentator?

Well I can only imagine it was something like this: “Geraldine, would you please come into my office for a moment honey, and take this resolution from Yellow Springs, and flush it down the toilet?”

As for Kasich’s actual response to Yellow Springs, it was, according to the weekly Yellow Springs News, nothing but silence. Hell, a village in his state called on him to do something. Why should he give them so much as the courtesy of a reply?

Meanwhile, reports the Yellow Springs News, one oil company called West Bay Exploration has already received permits to drill in two different nearby Greene County locations and has already struck oil in neighboring Clark County.

You’d think the Republicans, who wail and moan incessantly that big government is bad and that power ought to be returned to local government…you’d think they would let little villages like Yellow Springs determine for themselves whether they want fracking in and adjacent to their town limits. No way, bub. Recent state law preempts them. Guess what party dominates the state’s lawmaking bodies? (Hint: Republican House Speaker John Boehner is from Ohio.)

But the folks in Yellow Springs aren’t giving up. They’re a determined lot. The town’s newspaper reports that a drilling awareness group organizer said, “It’s important to establish that we have a right to be in charge of our own health and welfare.”

That sounds as if it could almost be a Republican opinion. Unless, of course, some friend or contributor to Republican causes could make a buck by making sure people have no control over their own health.

How big will the frackfight get?

• Will Yellow Springs and several other Ohio municipalities that had their anti-fracking laws squashed by the state join together and fight this fracking sucker in court?

• Will the case get up to the U.S. Supreme Court?

• Will the court decide that big government is bad unless it’s Republican and give the finger to Ohioans who don’t want to be poisoned through their faucets?

• Or will there be another Roberts surprise?

But I’m getting years ahead of myself. The story is just beginning to percolate up, even as oil companies prepare to percolate poison down into the local drinking water. Go read the account, here. I’d say this David and Goliath story is worthy of attention from the national news media. Or of a Hollywood movie starring some spiritual successor to Jimmy Stewart.

But what the hell do I know? 

Oh shut up with that nitpicking blather that a healthcare mandate is a tax. Just shut up, will yuh, Willard?

Of all the dissembling horse crap I’ve ever witnessed falling out of a Republican’s mouth, the biggest lump of it came when I watched Willard (aka “Mitt”) Romney talking about the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare (which as you may recall, is almost exactly the same thing as Romneycare. Or at least it’s the same as what Romneycare used to be before Willard etch-a-sketched his own brain.) 

What the Supreme Court ruled is that the penalty that a few people who refuse to buy health insurance will be charged is a tax. And they damn well deserve to be taxed, since by not jumping into the health insurance pool, they’re driving up costs for the rest of us.

But Willard “Mitt” Romney is insisting that the whole bill is a tax, the largest tax in history. He says the Supreme Court says so. He knows that’s not true. Not to mince words, he’s a liar. That’s spelled l-i-a-r.

Willard is lying to confuse enough gullible voters to maybe swing some electoral votes his way in swing states. But there’s no tax increase coming. What is coming is a reduction in the rate at which healthcare costs are growing.

Here Willard. Here’s a firefly in a jar. Or maybe it’s a God particle taken from a horse's bowel. Go swallow it and shut up.

Obama seems to be losing his grip on the newest generation of voters. But they’re committing protest by economic suicide.

Alas, the New York Times this morning ran with a front page article headlined, “Stung by Recession, Young Voters Shed Image as Obama Brigade.”

The kids, recently out of high school or just out of college, at best feel ambivalent to the President, and some feel worse toward Obama than that. They’re leaning either undecided or Republican – an alarmingly far cry from the youthful enthusiasm four years ago that help sweep Obama into office.

Who can blame them? So many are unable to find work, see a grim future for themselves, and emerge at voting age bereft of delivery on a bucketful of Obama’s election campaign promises.

Well, I blame them, not that they don’t have a point, or a quiver full of points. One letter to the Time from Dave K of Cleveland, Ohio, that is appended to the New York Times article sums up the indictment of young voters:

As one of the younger voters who has been disappointed with Obama, let me give you an idea as to what candidate Obama promised that president Obama hasn't come even remotely close to doing:
     - Close Gitmo and give those imprisoned there a fair trial (or release them).
     - End large no-bid contracts. He didn't even need Congress for this.
     - Increase taxes on those making over $250K a year, including eliminating the payroll tax cap and increasing top-bracket capital gains taxes.
     - Increase the minimum wage to $9.50.
     - Work with the states to give same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex couples.
     - Make polluting companies pay for cleaning up their mess.
     - A public option for health care.
     - End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
     Iraq is kinda over, but with several thousand troops still there. Afghanistan is no closer to ending than it was 10 years ago.

That's why I'm strongly considering voting for Jill Stein (Green Party) this year. Not because I want Mitt Romney, but because for many of the things I care about Obama has done exactly what I'd expect Mitt Romney to do.               Obama's strategy, pulled straight from the Clinton playbook, is to just flat out ignore the liberal wing of his party assuming they'll just hold their nose and vote for the Democrats as the lesser-of-two-evils. Well, I'm not playing that game. 

While David's bitterness is not without merit, some of the campaign promises sailed far out of Obama’s political reach after the first two years. More gravely, David also represents a line of thinking that would make matters so much worse if Romney wins or the Senate turns Republican that I shudder to contemplate them. I’m talking about matters such as:

-  Killing off unions that fight to establish reasonable standards for working conditions, pay and benefits. Not to mention the only significant funding there is to put up against the Republican money machine that in effect buys legislative votes for right wing purposes.

-       Gutting Medicare, Social Security and Medicare.

-       Making health care a “privilege” which only the privileged rich will be able to afford.

-       “Permission to poison” the air, sea, land, and municipal water supplies of America by gutting government regulation.

The list goes on, but I’m certain you get the idea.

Obama bears some blame for allowing these dangers to come so close. He rejected the advice of economists like Paul Krugman who told him his job stimulus bill and budget were too puny to do the job. He kow-towed to Republicans, in effect, as the papers put it a few years ago, “negotiating with himself.”

Instead of drawing a line in the sand and telling Republicans and a few recalcitrant Democrats, “step over this and I’ll gut you politically,”Obama compromised, and then compromised many of the compromises with Republicans who clearly were out to make him fail.

Nevertheless, and at the risk of repeating myself, if voters, most especially including the youngest voters, fail to support Obama and the Democratic Party, a nightmare future is lurking just over the hill we’ll arrive at on election day.

My cranky advice: Hold your nose. Vote for Obama and for every Democrat on the ticket, and then make the President’s political life utterly miserable if he shilly-shallies on delivering on last election’s promises as well as this election’s promises.

Occupy the White House and Congress if necessary. But first vote in the November for the only President and for a Democratic congress that is likelier to listen to you.

Cross-posted at No More Mr. Niceblog

Mitt Romney, job-killing Republican conservative

Is your job on the line? Bet your life on it if Romney becomes president.

But don’t take it from me. Take it from a Texas Republican conservative. And nevermind that you’re reading a progressive blog. This is one of Romney’s fellow conservatives saying it on ultra-conservative Fox News:

No wonder the Obama campaign finds it so easy to find out-of-work victims of Romney’s job killing. Like this:

A vote for Romney is a vote for putting yourself out of a job. Or if you''re already out of a job, it's a vote to make sure you stay there.

Is this the face that really belongs on the American Express Card?

“Frankly,” said a junk mail letter, sent for over 25 years to potential customers, “not everybody qualifies for the American Express Card.”

This was back when the card’s appeal was to people who were qualified and trustworthy enough to pay their American Express bills within 30 days. Terms and conditions were mostly in the favor of consumers. American Express was on your side. No wonder people were willing to pay (in those days) an extra $50 a year to have the card.

Then, little by little, the green card slipped down the greasy pole when American Express introduced a gold card, for a higher annual feel. Then both gold and green slipped further down as American Express introduced a platinum card, which has since been topped by yet another card.

As the annual fees grew more and more ridiculous, the benefits of the lower-rung cards begin to fade away. Primary among them was the trust American Express seemed to put in its customers. That shank, just as the window to pay up shrank from four weeks to two.

“We have the right to bankrupt you”

This week I opened my American Express bill and found “Detail of Changes to Your Cardmember Agreement.” Needless to say, American Express didn’t ask me before making them.

And here are the killer details:

“If we need to contact you to service your account or to collect amounts you owe, you authorize us (and our affiliates, agents and contractors) to contact you at any number you provide, from which you call us, or at which we  believe we can reach you. We may contact you in any way, such as calling or texting. We may contact you using an automated dialer or prerecorded messages. We may contact you on a mobile, wireless or similar device, even if you are charged for it. “[Italics my own.]

In other words, not only can they harass you to death, they can keep robo-texting your cell phone until you are over your limit and drowning in a deep financial hole. In fact, if you charge your cell phone bill to your American Express card, you can grow more indebted to them every time they harass you.

And if you’re already in a hole, they can drive you into a deeper hole. They can call you at your office. They can keep calling your boss, a number “at which we believe we can reach you,” until you lose your job.. They can hire thuggish bill collectors with threatening voices to call you.

Of course, you can cancel your card membership. But canceling credit cards will lower your credit rating, so be warned. Or you can simply not use your card, in which case you'll be paying them $60 a year or more for nothing.cccv

Hey American Express get rid of that Roman centurion on your credit cards and replace him with Darth Vader.

Or maybe Dracula.

Is this the face that really belongs on the American Express Card?

“Frankly,” said a junk mail letter, sent for over 25 years to potential customers, “not everybody qualifies for the American Express Card.”

This was back when the card’s appeal was to people who were qualified and trustworthy enough to pay their American Express bills within 30 days. Terms and conditions were mostly in the favor of consumers. American Express was on your side. No wonder people were willing to pay (in those days) an extra $50 a year to have the card.

Then, little by little, the green card slipped down the greasy pole when American Express introduced a gold card, for a higher annual feel. Then both gold and green slipped further down as American Express introduced a platinum card, which has since been topped by yet another card.

As the annual fees grew more and more ridiculous, the benefits of the lower-rung cards begin to vanish. Primary among them was the trust American Express put in its customers. That shank, just as the window to pay up shrank from four weeks to two.

“We have the right to bankrupt you”

This week I opened my American Express bill and found “Detail of Changes to Your Cardmember Agreement” folded in with the bill. Needless to say, American Express didn’t ask me before making the changes.

And here are the killer details:

“If we need to contact you to service your account or to collect amounts you owe, you authorize us (and our affiliates, agents and contractors) to contact you at any number you provide, from which you call us, or at which we  believe we can reach you. We may contact you in any way, such as calling or texting. We may contact you using an automated dialer or prerecorded messages. We may contact you on a mobile, wireless or similar device, even if you are charged for it. “[Italics my own.]

In other words, not only can they harass you to death, they can keep robo-texting your cell phone until you are over your limit and drowning in a deep financial hole. In fact, if you charge your cell phone bill to your American Express card, you can grow more indebted to them every time they harass you.

And if you’re already in a hole, they can drive you into a deeper hole, even bankrupt if they choose. Or destroy your career. They can call you at your office. They can keep calling your boss, a number “at which we believe we can reach you,” until you lose your job.. They can hire thuggish bill collectors with threatening voices to call you.

Hey American Express get rid of that Roman centurion on your credit cards and replace him with Darth Vader.

Or maybe Dracula.

Company lawyer and recipient of company largesse “impartially” investigate Murdoch’s wrongdoing? Yeah right. And babies come from cabbage patches.

If you’re up to your neck in deep doodoo, the last thing you want is an “independent” investigator breathing down your files.

So first you hire a guy to investigate you whom you next appoint as the chief executive of one of your corporate divisions. Appearance of impropriety be damned.

And then you hire your top company lawyer, the guy who gets paid to keep you out of trouble in the first place, and who, for all anybody knows, has a bit of scandalous dirt under his own fingernails.

That’s News Corp. for you. They investigate. Then they tell the investigators how to decide.

No no, I take that back. The investigators know how to decide even before they start to investigate. 

YES, BIG BROTHER IS READING YOUR E-MAIL – AND PRETTY SOON HE'LL BE WATCHING YOUR EYEBALLS AND BODY LANGUAGE, THANKS TO MICROSOFT

Welcome to the new police state.

Advertising Age, an advertising trade newspaper, has revealed that back in 2010:

 “Microsoft sought to patent an advertising engine that gauges people's emotional states based on their search queries, emails, instant messages and use of online games, as well as facial expressions, speech patterns and body movements. The ad engine is device-agnostic; as Microsoft noted in its application, ‘client devices" could include personal digital assistants, smart phones, laptops, PCs and gaming devices.’” 

Wait a second, just wait a second! I have a problem with some of this. And its use as an “ad engine” is the least of it.

It’s not so much tracking search engine queries that sends chills up my spine. That’s old news. You go to look up, say, “navel lint” and some website pins a cookie to your hard drive. The next thing you know, you’re getting pop-up ads for belly button cleaners, lint tweezers, lint brushes, navel jewelry and pulled pork belly sandwiches at your neighborhood takeout joint. So big deal.

But e-mail? They can read your e-mail? Isn’t that qualitatively the same as illegally tapping somebody’s phone or stealing and reading somebody’s snail mail? And instead of saying to the person on the Microsoft staff who thought of this, “This kind of hacking is against the law and is legally and morally repugnant. You have a criminal mind and you’re fired,” .....Instead of that, they give the guy money and a team to develop the technology?

And then they start reading your facial expressions, presumably through that little chat lens on the top of your screen that you thought was there so that you could have face-to-face conversations with your mom in Mumbai or your pop in Peroria.

What’s the next step?

Well, if I can think of the next step, so can some errant cops, or political thugs, or crypto-fascists, or Mitt Romney. They can catch you frowning at the news that Scott Walker won in Wisconsin, or screaming at the computer screen whenever you catch Mitt lying through his teeth again.

And then they can check your e-mails to see if you were one of the people who’s writing to friends and acquaintances, urging them to vote Democratic.

And then they can come for you and take you away.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Cross-posted at No More Mr. Nice Blog