Bill Maher on modern conservatives

Bill Maher wants right wingers to show their birth certificates to show that they are adult enough to have a discussion regarding how to run the country.

[C]onservatives are the ones who tend to believe in magical ideas, like: America is never wrong; you can defeat terrorism militarily; and lower taxes will somehow fix the deficit. And I'm not even mentioning the stuff about how Jesus used to fly around on a pterodactyl and just hated it when homos ate wedding cake. Now, am I saying there are no adults in today's Republican Party? Absolutely not, there are -- but like a lot of parents today, the adults let their kids cow them. And silence them. And rule over them.

Meanwhile, at Rolling Stone, Tim Dickinson has written an article titled "Rove Rides Again," in which he describes the plan of Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie to become "free agent strategists," and details their aim of raising major money to destroy the Democrats in the upcoming election. Dickinson notes that the recent United States Supreme Court case of Citizens United "opened the floodgates for unlimited political spending by corporations and individuals." He also notes, however, that Citizens United "left in place strict limits on contributions to party committees, and it preserved the legal firewall that bars campaigns from coordinating directly with the outside groups now empowered to spend millions on their behalf." Rove is working with a group called "American Crossroads," which appears to be the main destination for the money to be provided by the richest donors of the GOP. Rove and American Crossroads will collect unlimited contributions from individuals and corporations to back GOP candidates or instigating "the dirty tricks of which Rove is a Jedi Master." All of this is foreseeable, of course, but what remains to be seen is how well Rove's plan meshes with the plan of those who support the "Tea Party." Dickinson's answer is that Rove will exploit the frustration of the Tea Party for his own uses. [more . . . ]

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The stench of secrecy.

According to the Environmental Working Group, most perfumes, colognes and body sprays don't disclose that "many scents are actually a complex cocktail of natural essences and synthetic chemicals – often petrochemicals." This is getting to be a predictable story: The manufacturers are keeping these ingredients secret despite the fact that consumers should have access to the dangers and potential dangers of the chemicals.

The average fragrance product tested contained 14 secret chemicals not listed on the label. Among them are chemicals associated with hormone disruption and allergic reactions, and many substances that have not been assessed for safety in personal care products.

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The war is making us poor Act

I'm delighted to share the letter that Representative Alan Grayson just sent to me. The basic idea is that the obsession of U.S. politicians to fight needless wars is making us poor as a nation (in addition to the immorality of what we are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan). After reviewing the letter, I went to Grayson's website dedicated to cutting the military budget, I became about the 11,000th person to sign his petition, and I'm reprinting Grayson's letter (below). Finally, we see someone who can speak about the military budget with some sanity. I agree with Alan Grayson that we need to stop our absolutely senseless "wars" and, instead, use our money here at home to stabilize our country's noticeable downward economic and social slide. Before you read Grayson's letter, please review (and choke on) two posts about the U.S. military budget numbers here and here.

Dear Erich,

Next week, there is going to be a "debate" in Congress on yet another war funding bill. The bill is supposed to pass without debate, so no one will notice.

What George Orwell wrote about in "1984" has come true. What Eisenhower warned us about concerning the "military-industrial complex" has come true. War is a permanent feature of our societal landscape, so much so that no one notices it anymore.

But we're going to change this. Today, we're introducing a bill called 'The War Is Making You Poor Act'. The purpose of this bill is to connect the dots, and to show people in a real and concrete way the cost of these endless wars. We're working to get co-sponsors in Congress, but, we need citizen co-sponsors as well. Become a citizen cosponsor today at TheWarIsMakingYouPoor.com. Act Now.

Next year's budget allocates $159,000,000,000 to perpetuate the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. That's enough money to eliminate federal income taxes for the first $35,000 of every American's income. Beyond that, leaves over $15 billion to cut the deficit.

And that's what this bill does. It eliminates separate funding for the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and eliminates federal income taxes for everyone's first $35,000 of income ($70,000 for couples). Plus it pays down the national debt. Does that sound good to you? Then please sign our petition in support of this bill, and help us build a movement to end our permanent state of war.

The costs of the war have been rendered invisible. There's no draft. Instead, we take the most vulnerable elements of our population, and give them a choice between unemployment and missile fodder. Government deficits conceal the need to pay in cash for the war.

We put the cost of both guns and butter on our Chinese credit card. In fact, we don't even put these wars on budget; they are still passed using 'emergency supplemental'. A nine-year 'emergency'.

Let's show Congress the cost of these wars is too much for us. Tell Congress that you like 'The War Is Making You Poor Act'. No, tell Congress you love it. All we are saying is "give peace a chance." We will end these wars.

Together.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

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The vast power of political money

If large concentrated chunks private money were not controlling our Congress, we'd have meaningful financial reform, but the critical issues are not even getting a vote. And I'm officially out of patience with President Obama. When is he going to step up and take ownership of the the problem with Wall Street's reckless and corrupt ways? His repeated silence at critical moments of this debate speaks loudly that Obama represents Wall Street, not Main Street and not most of the people who got so excited about electing him. He knows where the bully pulpit is, and he has chosen to now use it. You can easily see why so many citizens have given up on being politically active and given the foxes free access to the hen house.

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You didn’t get mad when . . .

This straight-forward list packs a wallop, in my opinion. It seems like that Tea-party advocates aren't really mad about "government" and they aren't really mad about government incompetence. If I had to make my best guess, I'd say that they are mad that they are losing their country to "them." Who is "them"? All of those people that the Tea Party people have come to see as different than they are. Outsiders. People who look differently and talk differently and dress differently. I don't think of it as racism, though Tea Party people tend to be noticeably race-conscious. But they are also mad about those who belong to the wrong religions and those who come from the wrong countries. But how odd that they think that they are part of the same ingroup as the rich guys who are screwing them. Maybe it's that skin color thing after all . . . They are feeling like they they don't control the country anymore--and they are throwing a huge tantrum. This is what I suspect.

Continue ReadingYou didn’t get mad when . . .