Lonnie Napier Wants to Crush the Poor

My fellow Americans,

Last week I saw this little story on Huffington post:

Kentucky state Rep. Lonnie Napier (R-Lancaster) has introduced a bill that would enforce random drug testing for all adult Kentuckians receiving welfare, food stamps or Medicaid, which he told HuffPost would “get people off drugs” and save money for the state.

They should drug test unemployed people too, because there is not that many of them, and while we are at it why not drug test employed people as well. In fact why not throw the rest of the constitution out and we can have zero rights to privacy, that will keep everybody safe. One hundred percent police state. Orwell’s vision of 1984 will finally be realized. That would be awesome, totalitarian system of government.

{End sarcasm}

It is wrong and bigoted to treat any group of people as a monolith. The easiest way to do that is to compare with race, because even if you can’t relate to being poor, at least everyone can relate to the race issue. Most homeless people are alcoholics? Most welfare recipients are drug addicts? They are treating a group of people as a monolith when they’re not. The fact is this is profiling. Take out “welfare recipients” and put in “black people” or “Jews” and see how unbelievably horrible it sounds.

“Everyone knows that Jews are at a lower socio-economic level and therefore more likely to take drugs. Everyone also knows that there is no such thing as a casual Jewish drug user. They either don’t take drugs at all or they spend every red cent they have on drugs. Hard drugs too, ones that make an already prone to violence people even more violent. To stop this from happening we should randomly drug test Jewish people so we can cut off their source of income if they test positive, then they will be unable to buy drugs, problem solved.”

Doesn’t that sound extremely racist? But of course, we are not talking about a racial minority group, we are talking about poor people, so that makes it OK. No, it does not make it OK. For far too long in this country the working class has been brainwashed into viciously hating the poor because the poor are “taking all our money.” Well that is just not true, the poor are not taking our money, the rich are taking our money. They take our money to pay for enormous tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans. They take our money to further inflate the already unfathomably wealthy military industrial complex. They take our money to bail out banks that made bets with our money, which they lost, with no stipulations or consequences for non-repayment. They are taking our money and walking away while they let us (the bottom 98%) destroy each other with this kind of bullshit infighting. And, on top of all that, it’s unconstitutional.

Also, just remember that some people spend all their money on drugs, but a gigantic majority of people that take drugs do it recreationally. I’ll bet 90% of people reading this know one person that smokes a little weed every now and again. Would you take away that persons sole source of income because they would pop on a drug test? Maybe some companies would, but I wouldn’t and I sure as shit wouldn’t want the government stepping in and spying on people.

A lot of welfare recipients are single mothers, mothers with children, children who would starve to death if it wasn’t for those checks on the first of the month. Are you really telling me that they are willing to punish all those children because the mom popped on a drug test? Punishing the kids for the sins of the parents is archaic and barbaric. And to all the parents, with the pictures of your kids as your default picture, that “liked” this story, you should all be fucking ashamed of yourselves. Instead of giving these kids a slight chance at some semblance of a life by letting them grow up on welfare, you’d rather throw their parents in jail leaving them with no family and no money, which in essence would lead them shackled and chained directly into the oblivion of generational poverty. Nice, real fucking nice.

What a lot of people are doing is using outdated nineteen nineties talking points about people on welfare. The nineties was over a decade ago, things have seriously changed since then. The high majority of people on welfare are not milking the system and taking drugs. The high majority of people on welfare now are the 99ers. For any one reading this that doesn’t know, the 99ers are the people that have exceeded 99 weeks of unemployment and no longer receive an unemployment check. Those are the majority of people on welfare now, those are the majority of people who receive food stamps now. Those are also the people, the ones that lost their jobs because the global economy went to shit, who Republicans further want to disparage. They lost their jobs through no fault of their own because the banks crashed the economy. There is no money so the economy sucks due to massive tax cuts, bail outs and two wars so they can’t find work. And these are the people that Republicans want to crush even more, because they haven’t had it bad enough. It is like they want to place a thumb on the scale of an already outweighed populace that has no voice and is looked down upon by every other class.

What if you were a 99er? If that happened would you suddenly stop caring about your kid and start doing drugs? That’s what they’re saying all the other 99ers/welfare recipients do, so you would to, right, because 99ers, like welfare recipients, are a monolith.

Last thing, just remember, farms get gigantic subsidies from the government for free to not grow crops or grow bad crops. It is what keeps these farmers alive, and they get a lot more than a few hundred dollars a week. Should we drug test them too?

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Keith Beale? Or is it Howard Olbermann?

My fellow Americans,

So, I was on Huffington Post today because I hate my brain, and I saw that Keith Olbermann is all done at MSNBC. Apparently his contract ran out and MSNBC is not renewing it. A lot of people are saying it has something to do with NBCU being bought by Comcast. This I can’t say, maybe it is, or maybe it was something totally different. I do know, however, that Countdown had very good ratings for a very long time. Myself, I’m not that big of a fan of Olbermann, I would catch the show once and awhile, but mostly I watched just because I was waiting for Maddow to come on. On tonight’s show he gave a heartfelt fare-thee-well were he thanked his viewers and the people on his staff. At the beginning of his speech he mentioned the “I’m as mad as Hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore” scene from the movie “Network”. With that in mind I’d like to do something fun that I thought would be very appropriate. This is a speech given by Howard Beale played by Peter Finch in the movie “Network” with minor changes to make it fit Olbermann’s cancellation. I will put the changed dialogue in brackets.

“[Keith Olbermann was cancelled] today! [Keith Olberman] was the [host of Countdown on MSNBC], and he [was cancelled] at [nine] o’clock this [evening], and woe is us! We’re in a lot of trouble!

So. A rich little man with white hair [was cancelled]. What has that got to do with the price of rice, right? And *why* is that woe to us? Because you people, and sixty-two million other Americans, are listening to me right now. Because less than three percent of you people read books! Because less than fifteen percent of you read newspapers! Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn’t come out of this tube! This tube is the Gospel, the ultimate revelation. This tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers… This tube is the most awesome God-damned force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls in to the hands of the wrong people, and that’s why woe is us that [Keith Olbermann was cancelled]. Because [MSNBC] is now in the hands of [Comcast]. There’s a new Chairman of the Board, a man called [Gerald L. Hassell], sitting in [an] office on the twentieth floor. And when [one of the] largest companies in the world controls the most awesome God-damned propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on [MSNBC]?

So, you listen to me. Listen to me: Television is not the truth! Television is a God-damned amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We’re in the boredom-killing business! So if you want the truth… Go to God! Go to your gurus! Go to yourselves! Because that’s the only place you’re ever going to find any real truth.

But, man, you’re never going to get any truth from us. We’ll tell you anything you want to hear; we lie like hell. We’ll tell you that, uh, Kojak always gets the killer, or that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie Bunker’s house, and no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don’t worry, just look at your watch; at the end of the hour he’s going to win. We’ll tell you any shit you want to hear. We deal in *illusions*, man! None of it is true! But you people sit there, day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds… We’re all you know. You’re beginning to believe the illusions we’re spinning here. You’re beginning to think that the tube is reality, and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you! You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even *think* like the tube! This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God’s name, you people are the real thing! *WE* are the illusion! So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off! Turn them off right in the middle of the sentence I’m speaking to you now! TURN THEM OFF…”

That pretty much sums up how I feel about news television. I hope you enjoyed.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Violence in Tucson

My fellow Americans,

Yesterday a woman was shot. Her name is Gabrielle Giffords and she is a congresswoman. A member of the House of Representatives she represents Arizona’s 8th district and is a blue dog democrat. She was participating in a “meet and greet” with her constituents outside a Safeway Supermarket North of Tucson when she was shot in the head. She underwent surgery yesterday, and as of this writing she is in critical condition. My hopes for a speedy recovery go out to her.

There were six other people who were shot yesterday who, unfortunately, lost their lives. John Roll, a federal district court judge, Gabriel Zimmerman, Giffords’ director of community outreach, Dorwin Stoddard, a pastor at Mountain Ave. Church of Christ, Dorthy Murray, and Phyllis Scheck. There was also a nine year old girl that lost her life yesterday at the hands of a mad man. Her name was Christina-Taylor Green and in the most macabre coincidence she was born on September 11, 2001. So, the young girl who’s life began on the same day as an American tragedy caused by terrorists, ends on the same day as an American tragedy caused by terrorists. Christina was in a book called “Faces of Hope” which is a book that is a collection of pictures of babies born on September 11, 2001. She had just been elected for student council at her school and her neighbor thought it would be fun for her to meet a congresswoman.

There is a suspect in custody, a 22 year old man named Jared Lee Loughner. He has his own YouTube page which is jam packed with anti-government rhetoric and all around bat shit craziness. He claims that the government is trying to implement mind control by controlling grammar. Garance Franke-Ruta of The Atlantic said this about his mental state after viewing his Youtube page: “The convoluted language and obsessive thinking revealed by the videos have led to widespread speculation [that] Loughner who made them suffers from a psychiatric disorder.” I watched those videos, he definitely suffers from a psychiatric disorder.

When this story first broke the blogosphere lost their collective shit. Conservatives said Loughner was liberal, liberals said he was conservative, I said he’s something no one else was saying, he’s a terrorist. It doesn’t really matter what side he is on, he is a terrorist and a murderer. However, when was the last time liberals solved problems with violence? How many liberals do you know that are pro-shoot people if you don’t get your way? When was the last time a liberal endorsed second amendment remedies like conservative Sharron Angle? When was the last time a liberal put up a map of congresspersons with gun sights over their districts like conservative Sarah Palin?

And there is the rub. Should we blame Sharron Angle for saying on several different occasions “if we don’t get our way we will shoot people?” Should we blame Sarah Palin for putting up a map with gun sights on Gabrielle Giffords district? Should we blame Sarah Palin for saying “don’t retreat, RELOAD,” which doesn’t make any sense in any other context besides an incitement of violence? Should we blame the gun toting, violent element of the right wing? The answer is yes, yes we can blame them, but not as much as Loughner himself. Ultimately it was his decision to pick up a gun and kill all those people as well as wound several others. However, as I said before, Loughner is a highly disturbed individual and possibly, easily susceptible to suggestion. If this guy is close to the edge and Angle says “second amendment remedies” and Palin says “Reload” over and over, that could be enough to push him over the edge where he thinks doing what he did would be a good idea. Politicians need to start making it abundantly clear that when they say “take him out” they mean “take him out, of office” not “take him out back and shoot him in the fuckin’ head.”

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Contradictory Ideology

My Fellow Americans,

This mid-term election season we have been inundated with what can only be considered Bat Shit Crazy Republicans. Of course there are the ones that everybody knows like Christine O’Donnell, who claims she has top secret information about China invading the U.S. and that scientists have created mice with fully functional human brains. But, there is also Carl Paladino who claims that “The Gay” will destroy the next generation if your kids see a gay pride parade. Let’s not forget that Paladino was the same guy that sent E-Mail pictures to several of his staffers and constituents of a lovely young lady fucking a horse. That’s right, bestiality is OK, but “The Gay” is what is really ruining the country. And then there is Rand Paul that thinks that Civil Rights laws encroach on the rights of businesses to, oh I don’t know, hate Blacks and Jews and Hispanics. Sharron Angle thinks that if you get raped and become pregnant as a result of the rape, you should not be able to get an abortion and you should, as she said, “turn a lemon situation into lemon aid.” Rich Iott likes to dress up like a Nazi and run around the woods with his Nazi dressed up friends. Joe Miller wants to repeal the Seventeenth Amendment so he can take the vote for Senators and representatives out of the hands of the public. Ken Buck once told a rape victim that he wouldn’t prosecute her rape case because she was just having “buyer’s remorse” about sleeping with the guy, even though the rapist admitted he raped her. And Carly Fiorina wants to outsource the few remaining jobs we have left in America to other countries. Nice, real nice, stay classy republicans.

After reading all the blogs and watching all the news and listening to all the podcasts that I listen to, there is one major ideological corner stone that all republicans subscribe to. Smaller Government. They all scream and cry for smaller government, but is that really what they want. If you just take a minute and think critically about what they say and do you will realize that this isn’t exactly all that true. It would seem to me that the average conservative republican speech (if you decode what they say) would go something like this:

“We want smaller government, we want government tiny, we want government so small that it can look over your shoulder and tell you whether or not you can build a Mosque on property that you own. We want smaller government, we want government tiny, we want government so small that it can fit into your bedroom and tell you who you can and can’t love and/or marry. We want smaller government, we want government tiny, we want government so small that it can fit inside your telephone so that it can more easily illegally wiretap you. We want smaller government, we want government tiny, we want government so small that it can fit inside you uterus so it can tell you what you can and can’t do with your own body.”

Does that sound like smaller government to you? It sounds like some seriously fuckin’ huge Orwellian “1984” bullshit, if you ask me. It sounds like contradictory ideology.

Now, I must make a concession and say that not all republicans subscribe to this contradictory ideology. There are a few sane ones out there (like Gov. John Lynch and John Dennis who is trying to unseat Nancy Pelosi) but they are few and far between. In fact most of the sane republicans are regular people that are not even in congress. And, don’t get me wrong, I don’t disagree with having sane republicans in the house and the Senate. In fact I think that a sane republican/democrat dichotomy is heathy for the country. Unfortunately the maniac’s have taken over the asylum.

So in closing remember that Nov. 2 is the Tuesday after this one and it should be an interesting night.

Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.

A Different Perspective on Israel

My fellow Americans,

In my last blog I said that I am not Christian or Jewish or Muslim, I am somewhere in-between an agnostic and a deist, I am however, very political. It’s hard to talk about Israel without talking about religion and just giving political points of view on the politics of the country. Many times what happens is if you don’t agree with what the Israeli government is doing then you are seen as anti-Israel, which then turns into anti-Jewish and before you know it people are calling you anti-Semitic. This has always baffled me. I have never understood why if you don’t agree with Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government that makes you anti-Semitic. If you didn’t agree with George Dubya, did that make you anti-American? If you don’t agree with Obama does that make you anti-American? No of course not, in fact I think some people would argue that you are actually more American if you are against Obama. Of course this is also ridiculous, nobody is any more or less American because of who they agree or disagree with. So why is it that people get so rabid when you tell them that you disagree with Netanyahu and his administration? Maybe it is because the government and the Jewish religion are so closely intertwined? But then does that mean that you can never disagree with the government of any nation that is not secular? Perhaps I’ll never know.

For the last nine months or longer, the Palestinians have been begging Netanyahu to go to the peace table with them to talk over a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israelis. Their only condition is that Benjamin Netanyahu stops putting up settlements in East Jerusalem. Over and over again Netanyahu has flat out refused and even announced more settlements about a month ago when Joe Biden was in Israel to talk Netanyahu out of putting up more settlements. That, if you ask me, is a serious smack in the face of Joe Biden, but moreover, it’s a smack to America as well. It is basically Netanyahu’s way of saying “I’ll do whatever the Hell I want, regardless of what the rest of the world says, and there is nothing you can do about it.” It’s that kind of attitude that he has that I think is extremely counterproductive for the entire country of Israel. That’s why I think that right now Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremely right wing administration is the worst enemy of Israel.

Just about anything that Netanyahu does would be better for Israel than what he is doing now by continuing to basically poke the Palestinians in the eye. Let’s say, for example, he halts construction on the settlements and the Palestinians then turn around and say “ok you did want we wanted; now we want more.” He could then say “no deal, the deal was stop the settlements and we would talk.” Then he could go right back to putting up the settlements while looking reasonable to the rest of the world and he could say “well at least I tried.” Or let’s say that he stops the settlements and they do go to the peace table but the talks break down and no agreement is met. Once again he could go back to putting up settlements, look reasonable, and say “I tried.” Or, how about this, he stops the settlements, an agreement is met but the Palestinians violate the agreement. Then he could attack the Palestinians and then go back to putting up more settlements. Or, he stops the settlements, goes to the peace table, comes to an agreement, everyone honors it and we have peace in Israel. No matter what he does he wins, but yet he still refuses to do any of this and continues to refuse to work with the Palestinians.

You see, my daughter is Jewish, and when she gets to the age of reason, if she chooses to continue to believe in that faith, that is fine with me. If she doesn’t that is fine too, it is completely up to her and her alone. But if she does continue down the path of the Jewish faith, then someday she might want to visit Israel. If she does want to visit Israel, I want her to be able to do so, which means Israel still needs to be there. Netanyahu and a lot of so-called supporters of Israel want to keep it in a state of perpetual war by not even trying to make friends with the surrounding countries or the Palestinians and never compromising on anything. Perpetual war will not benefit Israel, it will destroy it.

For the last year or so the Palestinians have, for the most part, been doing peaceful non violent protests. This, in my opinion, is the best strategy because it shows that they want to be civil, and if they are civil it will urge the rest of the world to push Netanyahu into peace talks. Of course he hasn’t been pushed into those peace talks yet so naturally the Palestinians are becoming more and more discouraged and if they get discouraged enough they will abandon the non violence completely and move to violent protests. So basically Netanyahu, by refusing to work with them at all, is goading them into attacks. Netanyahu has no interest in peace in Israel, which is why he is terrible for the country.

Now, some people might disagree with me but a recent poll says that 37% of American Jews disagree with Obama’s approach to US/Israel relations, relations that support stopping settlements. That means that 63% of American Jews agree with ending more construction of settlements. And on top of that, in a Gallup poll it sited that a majority of Israeli’s support a peace agreement with compromises. Does that mean land for peace, well, it could. Do you know why the Israeli’s would support that? They support it because they are sick of the fighting on both sides. They don’t want to fight the Palestinians anymore and they don’t want the Palestinians fighting them. If that means giving up a little bit of land then so be it. Of course, some people would argue “that will never work” but yet it worked for Israel and Egypt in 1979 which has been nothing but hugely beneficial to both countries. If it worked then why can’t it work now?

Another reason I think Netanyahu is bad for Israel is because he wants to preemptively strike Iran. Do I even have to explain why this is bat shit crazy. If Israel strikes Iran just because Iran doesn’t like them, Israel will most certainly be destroyed. Not only would they be attacked by what is left of Iran but they would also be attacked by every country around them that doesn’t have good relations with them. This includes Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Do you really think, even with their nuclear capabilities, that they could withstand an attack from all of those countries? No, they could not, that is why it is insane. Has that ever worked before? Did it work for us and Iraq?

So in closing feel free to disagree with me on any of these issues if you want, but just remember, I am advocating peace in Israel. If you support Israel, truly support Israel, you can’t be against peace. It is awfully hard to argue that peace is a bad thing and more war and death solves everything, well, unless you are a republican.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America

UPDATE: Perhaps there will be some progress with peace. Last week Ehud Barak the Defense Minister for Israel issued a statement that said “there must be a two state solution in Israel” and “Israel must recognize that the world will not put up with decades more of Israeli rule over the Palestinian people” That is even stronger than where I was going, and he is the Defense Minister. Of course Netanyahu is still refusing to go to have peace talks with the Palestinians, but maybe the Defense Minister can sway his judgment.

God Hates Fags? No, He Hates The Westboro Baptist Church

My fellow Americans,

If you were to ask me to make a list of the most horrible, evil, despicable Americans in the history of America, a flurry of names comes to mind. Roger B. Taney, Timothy McVeigh, Ted Kaczynski, James Earl Ray, Charles Manson, Benedict Arnold, John Wilkes Booth, George Wallace, John Wayne Gacy and the list goes on and on. However, at the top of the list would not be one person, but a group of people, and those people are the Westboro Baptist Church congregates. This is a group of the most heinous, disgusting, terrible sub-human people in America today. Their website “godhatesfags dot com” blames homosexuality for troops dying overseas. They might be the most hate filled group of people around. They hate every one that is not a member of the Westboro Baptist Church. They hate Jews, Blacks, Christians, Muslims, Americans and Catholics but most of all they hate gays. But enough from me, let’s take a look at one of their actual fliers:

“Thank God for Tsunami. Thank God for 3,000 dead Americans! Yes! Thank God for Sept. 11 and 3,000 dead sodomite Americans in 2001. God sent the Muslim planes to destroy fag New York’s twin towers and hurl 3,000 vile Americans into Hell. Even so, God sent Tsunami last week to execute vengeance upon another 3,000, carcasses swallowed up in Asian jungles, and concerning each of whom it shall be said: ‘He shall be buried with the burial of an ass.’ Jer. 22:19” — WBC flier, January 1, 2005

Yes you read it right, they thanked God for 9/11 and they thanked God for the deaths of all those innocent people. Go ahead and let that soak in for a minute.

The WBC is lead by a man named Fred Phelps who was originally a lawyer but, was disbarred in 1979 by the Kansas Supreme Court for having “little regard for the ethics of his profession.” They are most notoriously known for picketing the funerals of gay people and dead American soldiers. Let me repeat that, they picket the funerals of dead American soldiers. They like to bring signs with them that say things like “God Hates Fags” “No Fags in Heaven” “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” “Thank God for IED’s” and “God is your enemy.” They seem like such a pleasant group of people don’t they?

Do I really have to get into why this is so despicable? If you disagree with the war in Afghanistan or any war at all really, it doesn’t make any sense to blame the troops that are only doing their jobs and putting their lives on the line every day. I disagree with the war, I disagree with us being there, I disagree with President Obama’s surge last January. I do not blame the troops for any of that. To blame the troops for the war would be like blaming bullets for killing someone. It’s not the bullet’s fault, it is the person that pulled the trigger. So, in this case it is originally Bush’s fault but, now it is becoming, and has become, Obama’s fault. It doesn’t make any damn sense to blame the troops, and it makes even less sense to blame homosexuality.

Now, you ask, why is it that they hate gays so much? Could it possibly have something to do with Fred Phelps and him trying to bury his own feelings of homosexuality? Well, I don’t know and that is just speculation, but a lot of times the people that hate gays the most are the ones that are secretly in the closet themselves. Of course Fred would tell you that it says “God hates fags” in the bible. I don’t think I have ever seen that passage before but, there is another passage that can be roughly taken that way depending on how you interpret it. The passage is Leviticus 18:22 “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” “It is an Abomination” they really hang on to that part of it, however, in the Hebrew text the word abomination is translated from the Hebrew word to’ebah which actually is better translated into “ritually improper” in English. So it’s not really an abomination, it’s just “kinda wrong.”

Well, you heard it, the bible specifically states that God hates fags. Now that being said I am not a Christian, I am not Jewish or a Muslim or any thing else really. I claim no religious denomination but if I had to put myself and my beliefs in a category I would fall some where in between an agnostic and a deist. So when I see any of this religious stuff I tend to be skeptical. I wonder what else Leviticus says?

Leviticus 11:10-11 And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:
They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.

Leviticus 19:19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.

Leviticus 19:27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.

Leviticus 20:10 And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

Leviticus 21:9 And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.

Leviticus 21:17-21 Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous
Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded,
Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken;
No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.

So let’s recap, if you eat shellfish, let your cattle graze with other kinds of cattle, plant different types of grass in your lawn, wear a polyester cotton mix blend shirt, trim your hair or beard or cheat on your wife you should be put to death. If you are the daughter of a priest and pretend to be a whore you should be lit on fire. If you are blind, lame, have a flat nose, a broken hand or foot, have scoliosis, dwarfism, Catarax, or are dirty or have scabs then you are not allowed to approach an alter of God.

So my question is: why is the Westboro Baptist Church only protesting homosexuals and what they view as correlations to the tolerance of homosexual acts? Why are they not protesting Long John Silvers, farms, landscaping companies, Macy’s, barbers, people that cheat on their significant other, people that are blind, lame, have a flat nose, broken bones, have scoliosis, dwarfism, Catarax, people that don’t take showers or people that have cut themselves somehow and now that cut is healing? Do they think we should put Tiger Woods and all his mistresses to death? Do they think that we should put Jesse James and Tits McGee (or whatever her name is) to death? Do they think we should put John Edwards to…ok maybe that one is a bad example, but you see what I’m getting at. And above all that, I thought the Westboro Baptist Church hated Jews. Why then are they taking Leviticus so seriously, it is part of the old testament, you know, the Jewish part of the bible.

But back to the whole reason why I wrote this blog. Earlier this week I saw this news story:

BALTIMORE — Donations are pouring in for a fallen Marine’s father who was ordered to pay the court costs of an anti-gay church he’s been battling.
Albert Snyder of York, Pa., appeared Thursday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” He says it was insulting that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered him to pay $16,510 in court costs to Fred Phelps, pastor of Westboro Baptist Church.
Westboro members picketed the Maryland funeral of Snyder’s son, Matthew. The church contends U.S. military deaths are God’s punishment for tolerance of homosexuality. Albert Snyder sued the church, but the appeals court ruled against him. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.
Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly has pledged to pay the court costs. The American Legion is also soliciting donations for Snyder.

Listen, I understand the first amendment and that people are free to say whatever they want but, doesn’t that come with bounds of reason? You can’t scream fire in a crowded theater and you can’t protest a dead soldiers funeral. Shame on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. And further more, I might hate Bill O’Reilly, but he should be commended for this. Of course on the other hand how sad is it for Fox News when Bill O’Reilly is their pragmatic one.

Thank you, God bless you, and God Bless America.

Tea Party Protesters Sink to a New Low

My fellow Americans

Today is a sad day in America. There is an extremely weak Heath Care bill that is about to pass that forces 30 million people to buy insurance from private insurance companies. However, the bill does get rid of two of the most egregious tools of the insurance companies, recision and pre-existing conditions. Some people on the right say that it is a government take over of Heath Care, it’s not. The whole point of reform was to lessen the cost of premiums for the average American and some people on the left say that the mandate will do this because there are so many more people in the heath care system, it won’t. The insurance companies will keep jacking up prices because that is what they do. They try to make as much money as possible by any means necessary. The Heath Care bill is only a slight speed bump to them that, honestly, they don’t really care about.

But, that is not my number one concern for today. Today is a sad day in America, there is a group of people that are extremely angry and they call themselves Teabaggers. They are the people with the signs that claim Obama is worse than Hitler and things like that. I’m sure everyone knows the Teabaggers by now so I won’t explain. Earlier this week I thought that they had sunk to an all new low when they lashed out at a man with Parkinson’s disease who is for Health Care Reform. This video from Dylan Ratigan’s Show made me sick to my stomach.

Deplorable, absolutely deplorable. Is this really what our civilized society has devolved to? Really? Now lets look at the facts about this man with Parkinson’s. His name is Robert Lechter and he is 60 years old. He was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s 15 years ago. He has two Master’s Degrees and a PhD from Cornell. He taught at the University of Michigan and worked as a nuclear engineer. Someone with this resume is very obviously not someone that is “stupid and lazy” that just wants “handouts,“ but enough from me, lets hear from the man himself.

Powerful stuff. Bruce Maiman had an excellent blog on Examiner dot com that said this:
“The raucous debate over health care is just another in a long line of indications that we have lost our sense of community. We say we don’t trust the government, we don’t trust the political class, we don’t trust our community institutions. Mostly, we don’t seem to trust each other. The comment that struck me in the video clip was, “I’ll decide when to give you money.” It’s all about me.”
And once again it makes me think of the Immortal Technique quote that I love so much. “Many of us are in the same boat and it’s sinking, and as long as we keep fighting over kicking people out of the little boat we’re all in, we’re gonna miss an opportunity to gain a better standard of living as a whole.”
I guess that is where liberals and progressives like my self take a different path than these Tea Party people. I want things to be better for everyone whereas the Tea Party people, like five year olds, want things better for only themselves. All I can picture is them standing there with their Obama = Hitler signs stomping their feet screaming “MINE!!! MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE!!!”

Earlier I said I “thought they had sunk to a new level of low” but apparently I was wrong. Yesterday Barney Frank, Emanuel Cleaver and John Lewis were accosted by Tea Party demonstrators. Barney Frank, who I proudly say is the representative of my own district, was leaving an office building when one of the older protesters yelled “Barney YOU FAGGOT!” which then made the other Teabaggers erupt in laughter. Then after that, apparently, the same group of people spit on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. Cleaver who was walking near Rep. John Lewis said he could hear people shouting at them both. What were they shouting at the civil rights hero John Lewis you ask? Well, according to Lewis and a staffer for James Clyburn, they were shouting “NIGGER!” at him. So, just so we all have this straight, the Tea Party people think that it is perfectly fine and quite funny to spit on people, call black people “nigger” and call gay people “faggot”. It truly is a sad day in America.

When I heard this story which I read on The Young Turks forum and then was redirected to Daily Kos, I was very surprised. The Daily Kos blog is from Davidkc and quite excellent. I suggest everyone go check it out at:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/3/20/848307/-Teabaggers-hurl-racist,-homophobic-slurs-at-Reps.-Lewis,-Frank,-Others-(Updated-3x)

It has a much more in-depth look at what happened, more than I am prepared to get into for now. But anyway, I was surprised when I read this because about a month ago the Teabaggers were pissed at Marvel Comics Captain America. That’s right, they were pissed at Captain America. They were upset because Captain America and his fellow super hero Falcon (who is a black man, which comes into play later) planned on infiltrating an anti government group called “The Watchdogs”. One frame in the comic showed a group of protesters that, while never actually being called Teabaggers, was painfully obviously just that. They held many of the same signs that famous pictures show the Teabaggers holding. Signs like “Tea bag the Libs before they tea bag you” (which is hilarious if you understand the sexual connotation of the term tea bag) “Stop the Socialists” and “No govt in my Medicare” (which is also funny because Medicare is 100% funded by the government, with out government there would be no Medicare). The two super hero’s are on a roof top looking down at the crowd of protesters when they have this dialogue exchange:

Captain America: What the Hell is this?
Falcon: Some kind of protest rally, looks like some anti-tax thing. So I guess the whole hate the government vibe around here isn’t limited to the Watchdogs.
Captain America: We’re not in New York anymore Sam.
Falcon: Which brings me back to my earlier point about infiltration, I don’t exactly see a black man from Harlem fitting in with a bunch of angry white folks, if you know what I mean.
Captain America: No, it’s perfect Sam, it all fits right into my plan.

Boy, the Teabaggers where mad about this. In his conservative blog Warner Todd Huston wrote this:

The Captain tells him, “no it’s perfect… this all fits right into my plan.” After this we find that the Captain’s plan is to send the black man into a redneck bar to pretend to be a black man working for the IRS and to get everyone all mad… because… well, you know that every white person is a racist that hates black civil servants, right?
So, there you have it, America. Tea Party protesters just “hate the government,” they are racists, they are all white folks, they are angry, and they associate with secretive white supremacist groups that want to over throw the U.S. government.
Bet you didn’t know that when you were indulging your right as a citizen to protest your government that you were a dangerous white supremacist that wants to destroy the country, did you? Bet you didn’t realize that your reverence for the U.S. Constitution was a subversive thing to do, did you? And I’ll also bet that you never imagined that you’d scare the little blue panties off of Captain America!

Because of Mr. Huston’s blog and pressure from other Tea Party people Marvel Comics issued an apology and changed all the signs in the frames in subsequent printings of the comic.

My favorite sentence in Mr. Huston’s blog is this one “Tea Party protesters just “hate the government,” they are racists, they are all white folks, they are angry, and they associate with secretive white supremacist groups that want to over throw the U.S. government,” well let’s break that down. They want to over throw the U.S. government, just like early Americans wanted there own new government when they dumped all the tea into Boston Harbor. They are angry, angry enough to spit on a United States Representative. They are all white folks in every picture of every Tea Party protest I have ever seen, no Blacks or Hispanics any where. They are racist, racist enough to yell out nigger at a U.S Rep and they hate the government so much so that they would compare America to Nazi Germany with their Obama = Hitler signs.

In conclusion I have a few questions. My first one is for Mr. Huston. I would like to know, since you were so upset that Marvel Comics claimed that some Teabaggers might be racist, would you be willing to give an apology to Marvel and a retraction in your blog, because obviously there are some Teabaggers that are racist? And to the Tea Party demonstrators, are these the people that represent you? Are theses the people that you want to represent you? People that yell nigger at black congressmen? People that yell faggot at gay congressmen? People that berate, ridicule and mock nuclear engineers that are victim’s of horrific diseases? Have you no civility? Have you no shame? Today is truly a sad day in America.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

The Miseducation of America

My fellow Americans,

Please watch the video first before reading the rest below. Thank you.

I completely agree with this guy. Changing one word is a slippery slope because they start with changing “Men” to “People” and before you know it they are changing “right” to “wrong” and “yes” to “no”. The only thing I disagree with is the guy said “men” meant “all of mankind”. It didn’t mean that at all. It meant just what it said “men”, and not just men but white men, but not just white men, white land owning men. Women, Indians, Hispanics, Asians and Africans were considered 2/3 of a person and therefore did not fall under the rights of the original constitution. This is obviously wrong and why we have amendments. This is also the exact kind of discussion that should take place in a classroom. The founding fathers had very good ideas and they were very smart men, but they didn’t have everything right. We have come a long way since those days and it is this kind of progress that needs to be talked about.

American History is absolutely fascinating and I think that students would be into it a lot more if schools gave them the truth and not the same old bull shit that I got in school, which went like this:

“Chris Columbus was awesome, he was the first person EVER to discover America, but there were already people here. He then ate some corn with the Indians and they lived happily ever after with the pilgrims until some people brought Africans to America. And that was kind of mean, but then there was a war and the African slaves were freed so it all worked out in the end. Then there was a depression and a lot of people lost their jobs, but that worked out too because there was an evil man named Hitler who was killing a lot of people in Germany. AS SOON as America found out about it we rode to the rescue and killed all the Nazi’s in a war which created jobs and saved the country. Then hippies came and they sucked, and Black Panthers came and they were stupid, but it was ok because Ronald Regan and Richard Nixon defeated them all with their fire breathing technique. And that is why America is the bestest best nation in the Universe. Hell Yeah, AMERICA.”

OK, OK, maybe I exaggerated that last part a little, but you get what I am saying. American history that is taught in school reads more like “The Night Before Christmas” than an actual account of the facts. American history is filled with horrendous atrocities that are actually interesting and need to be taught lest we repeat the mistakes of the past. Take for example; something that I never learned about in school was the Dred Scott decision. You would think that something that was the catalyst for starting the Civil War would be discussed in school. There were also a lot of fantastic things that happened that are completely overlooked. Take for example; Mother Jones, who you never hear about in schools. Here is a woman who organized people to fight for child labor laws and equal rights for women in the work place.

Mother Jones and Dred Scott are just two of the many things I learned about long after I graduated from high school. Unfortunately, it is cherry picking of the facts that leaves students today utterly ignorant to the actual historical events, and it all starts with things like changing “Men” to “People”.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

2010 Census, They’re Not “Coming to Get You”

My fellow Americans,

I was going to post a blog about education, but before I did that my dad sent me this video. I couldn’t help but comment on it and I figured I’d share it with all of you. Now, let me start by saying that I don’t think my dad found this on his own, I think someone sent it to him and he forwarded it to me. It doesn’t seem like something he would actively search out. Let’s all take a minute and watch the video.

This guy seems a little “tin foil hat” to me. He makes a claim about all the outrageous questions the Census is going to ask, but it seems to me that if they really wanted all that information they could just head over to the IRS and find out exactly where you work, how much you make, how many cars you own and if you’re on disability or get food stamps. Then he goes on to wonder why the Census counts us every year instead of every ten years. Maybe it is because there are 300 million people in the US which is a lot more than there was in 1787. It is a lot easier to count some of the people every year than all of the people once every ten years. Plus they collect important statistics about the nation. They don’t ask me to fill it out every year; I have only gotten one Census form in my whole life. Then he starts talking about the government encroaching on our privacy and even though he doesn’t come out and say it, he is talking about the 4th amendment. An amendment which Dub-ya Bush basically lit on fire and threw out the window when he signed the Patriot Act into law letting him and the government, not kind of, but directly, spy on whomever the Hell he wanted to, whenever the Hell he wanted to. Also he makes a big deal about his questions not getting answered, but two minutes before that he said the Census never called him back. Well no wonder you got a “no answer” on all your questions, because you didn’t talk to anyone. But you know, I can answer some of these questions, in fact let me pick, let’s say, five of these questions, that’s half of them, and let’s see how I do answering them.

1 Q: Is there any limit to invasion of privacy? A: Not really, Patriot Act, remember they can wire tap you for no reason at all.

2 Q: Do current levels of data collection violate the fourth amendment? A: Again, due to the Patriot Act the fourth is pretty much null and void so it doesn’t matter if they do or not.

3 Q: How may we be penalized for maintaining our privacy? A: Like I said before, the really private stuff that most people would not want to answer, like “how much money do you make,” they already have that info at the IRS. But if you really want to know what the law says, according to census laws and fines Title 13 Chapter 7 Subchapter II section 221 “Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided for by subchapters I, II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not more than $100”

4 Q: Can Security agencies access my private information? A: Probably, they can pull Tax records so why not census information. Now, do I think that is right? No of course not but you wanted an answer so here it is.

5 Q: How will my homes GPS coordinates be used? A: Who knows, maybe it will help surveyors or topographers make maps, but that doesn’t really matter because you can go on google earth and not only see the GPS coordinates of my house, you can see if I’m home or not.

Census data directly affects how more than $300 billion per year in federal and state funding is allocated to communities for neighborhood improvements, public health, education, transportation and much more. It is nothing to “Fear” like this idiot would have you believe.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

First Things First

My fellow Americans,

OK, so I figured as my first blog post I would tell you a little bit about myself. That way if you are interested in this you might be interested in the rest of my blogs. My name is Mark and I live in a minor metropolitan area in Massachusetts. It is a city, but not a city as big as say Boston. I own my own house where I live with my wife who I’ve been married to for two and a half years and our daughter who is 8 months old. I work one full time job during the day at a kit car company and I also work at night at an almost full time job in a major national grocery store chain. Working damn near 70 hours a week is frustrating because I spend very little time with my family and no time with my friends, but it keeps a roof over our heads and food on the table. I am also a believer in working hard for what you have, and that hard work and perseverance pay off in the end.

When I had free time I enjoyed playing video games and making music, but now that I work so much both have kind of fallen by the wayside. My favorite types of music are (in no particular order) Oldies, Blues, Soul, Funk, 70’s Rock, 80’s Pop, Grunge Rock, Hip-Hop/Backpack Rap, Rap, Neo-Soul, Rock, Rap-Core, and Metal. My top five favorite movies (in no particular order) are Shawshank Redemption, Hard Candy, The Star Wars Saga (I know it’s more than one movie, but this is my blog so I make the rules), Goodfellas, and The Usual Suspects. My favorite book is The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran and my favorite video games are The Hitman series, The Legacy of Kain series and the Assassins Creed series.

Now, however, we get to the substance and why I have decided to write a blog. I am a political junky, I see politics as a reality show that affects all of us, and that sometimes in small ways we can affect as well. Although I am not a fan of reality shows as a general rule, I find that politics is more entertaining and more ridiculous than say, The Real World or Jersey Shore. All you have to do is take a few minutes watching “The Rachel Maddow Show” or “Countdown With Keith Olberman” or listening to “The Young Turks” (all great shows by-the-way) to see what I am talking about. Congress and the White House is jam packed with extremely weak, barely liberal democrats and absolutely insane, bought-and-sold conservative republicans. That dichotomy makes for some pretty damn entertaining and interesting TV.

So now that I have told you what shows I watch and how I feel about politicians (and the title of this blog) you can probably figure out that I am a progressive independent. I am a progressive because I believe that most people in this country *are in the same boat and as long as we keep fighting over kicking people out of the little boat we are all in, we are going to miss an opportunity to gain a better standard of living as a whole*. A lot of people don’t really see a difference between “progressive” and “liberal”, but I will tell you how I see the difference. This can be debated, but this is how I see it. Liberals want change, progressives demand change. For example, liberals would say “I’d really like some Health Care Reform” and progressives would say, “you better give me some fuckin’ Health Care Reform NOW!” Now, with that withstanding, I do consider myself to be a pretty reasonable person, which is why I am an independent. I don’t really care if a good idea comes from a Democrat or a Republican, a good idea is still a good idea.

Lastly I want to explain the title of this blog. Originally I wanted to call it “The Liberal Lion” but after thinking about it and talking to my wife I decided that it would be in bad taste seeing as Ted Kennedy, who wore that moniker with pride, just passed away a few months ago. So I scraped that idea and tried to come up with another one. I though about naming it “The Wellstone Agenda” after Paul Wellstone, the most progressive congressman in recent history, but his unfortunate and controversial death dropped that one into the same “Bad Taste” category as “The Liberal Lion”. Then there was “The Tom Paine Report” but I figured not enough people would know who Thomas Paine was and actually end up thinking that my name was Tom Paine. So I went back to the drawing board and came up with “The Progressive Panther”, as an homage to the name Liberal Lion but not encroaching on it. Yeah, it’s a little clunky to say, but I like the imagery that it stirs up. The ideals of a liberal, but the “take no shit” attitude of a Black Panther. Haha.

So in closing, if you are interested in politics and you are interested in political news and opinion, than this might just be the place for you.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

** Denotes a quote from Hip-Hop artist Immortal Technique