The party of , “I don’t know?”

The Rachel Maddow show last night ran clips from  Boehner interview.  In it, Boehner was asked about the gulf oil spill, and the moratorium on deep water drilling.  He stated he was against it, then stated we should stop deep water drilling until we find out what happened. He also stated there was no reason for the moratorium to include shallow water drilling. The moratorium doesn’t include shallow water drilling. So what we’re left with is the leader of the republicans in the house who is for the moratorium, but against it at the same time, and the leader of the house Republicans failing to understand what the moratorium encompasses. This is the leader of the House Republicans, folks. Brilliant! The show.

And how about Kagan?  Did she take both Sessions and Coburn to task or what? Her answer to Sessions, when he tried to get a rise out of her over the Christmas bomber with, “Where were you on Christmas day”, was classic: “Like most Jews, I was probably in a Chinese Restaurant.”  A brilliant woman for sure.

How low can they go, that is the question.

Right wing news, that bastion of everything right, has come out with a list of the twenty most attractive female right-wing pundits. Now I know oil is creeping into the shallows, but this is a new shallow low, even for the right-wing idiots.

The list:

20) Elizabeth Blackney from Media Lizzy & Friends
20) Skye from Midnight Blue Says
19) Michelle Malkin
17) Courtney Messerschmidt from GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
17) Kerrie from The Liberal Heretics
15) Michelle Oddis from Human Events
15) Shelly Roche from ByteStyle.Tv
13) Lori Ziganto from Snark and Boobs
13) Ann Coulter
12) S.E. Cupp from Red S.E. Cupp
11) Liz Stephans from The B-Cast
10) Sharon from The Liberal Heretics
7) Tabitha Hale
7) Freeman Hunt
7) Laura Ingraham
6) Columnist Orit Sklar
5) Hannah Giles
4) Mary Katharine Ham from the The Weekly Standard
3) Ashley Herzog from Herzogian
2) Lila Rose
1) Dana Loesch from The Dana Show

Notice there is no Sarah Palin. Wonder why? Well wonder no more. If they added her to the list, she would have immediately condemned it. Not for the fact she was on it, but for the fact there was anybody else on it.  The glory, via the right-wing, is to be hers and hers alone. I wonder if they’re going to do one on ugly right-wing women? How about one on which right-wing women have told the most lies? Which right-wing women have the most hair on their back (Ann Coulter would win that one Nair down).

Any more ideas for right-wing top twenty?

ETHICS . . . POLITICANS WORST NIGHTMARE.

There are currently two separate ethics investigations going on in Washington: investigations to see if Rep. Laura Richardson and Rep. Maxine Waters, both Democrats from California, violated rules of conduct. Rep. Laura Richardson’s case involves whether she received preferential treatment in the foreclosure and eventual re-acquisition of her home in Sacramento, California.

Waters is being investigated for allegedly seeking preferential treatment for a bank linked to her husband, the committee said. According to the panel’s announcement, the investigation will look into whether Waters or her husband benefited from any of her communications or actions involving One United Bank, in which her husband held stock and previously was a director.

At a time when politicians are under intense scrutiny by every pundit with a camera or a computer, one would think those same politicians would learn crime doesn’t pay. South Carolina has had its share of idiots as well, both Republicans, so it’s not limited to any one party. So what is it about politics that tends to bring out the worst in some people? Or do the statistics reflect the general population?  I can imagine the answer to that question runs the gamete of everything from stupidity to outright greed, to it isn’t any different than pick a city near you. But I think there’s a basic question that does need to be answered:  Is politics, hence party affiliation, really involved, or does the perp lose that when he or she walks the on the unethical side? My answer to that is: a crook is a crook, and what party they belong to makes no difference. I’ve seen it used too often when either a Democrat or  Republican is charged with a crime, then suddenly it’s their parties fault. One can list the unethical from both parties, and the list would be ten pages long, at least. So using party affiliation as a blaming factor for criminal behavior is pointless. Any other views?

jammer5

IT’S OFFICIAL: THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS SELF-DESTRUCTED!

New York’s special election is now split three ways, and I’m not talking about a Ménage à trois. It appears the Republican Party has officially split into the GOP and the Conservative party, with people like Sarah Palin endorsing the Conservative candidate. No surprise there. Poll numbers  show Democrat Bill Owens with 33%, Republican Scozzafava with 29% and Conservative Hoffman with 23%.

This section of New York is heavily Republican, and if they joined forces, would gain a Republican seat easily.  But with the split, could lose the seat. This split has gone so far as to put out a call for all Conservatives to refrain from sending any money to the RNC. The Democrats could win huge on this split if they can get their collective together and figure out a plan to use this to their advantage. I have my doubts about their being capable of it, though.

With the Republican Party’s numbers the worst they’ve been in over 25 years, a split sounds like a losing proposition. Meanwhile, Rush is saying Obama is ruining the Democrats . . . Rush fiddles while Republicans burn.

What’s your thoughts?

jammer5

Comments?

Michael Steele: The New drag queenRepublican!

Michael Steele, the leader of the Republican party, except when he isn’t and Rush leads, has stated:

“The feeling in some circles is that this health care train has left the station with the president at the wheel, and Republicans better jump on board,” says our host.

“Well I’m the cow on the tracks,” proclaimed Steele.  “You’re gonna have to stop the train to get this cow off the track to move forward.”

That statement is pretty hilarious, considering a cow is female. Apparently, Steele will then be dressed in drag, a picture nobody should be required to see, let alone visualize.

However, besides the ridiculous statement, what he is proving is the fight is a long way from being over. Even though the bill passed the financial committee, with the help of one Republican, to get the bill passed by both houses, and in a form that will actually benefit the people of this country, will require some serious debate.

Our President will have to step out of his comfort zone and start using the fact Democrats control congress to our advantage.  So far, he hasn’t shown a whole lot of leadership ability in that area. He needs to quit sniping at news pundits and get on with the business of seeing to it true health care reform, as he promised, is passed. Putting road blocks like Steele in their place shouldn’t be all that difficult when you control congress. The Democrats need to remember that trains have cow catchers on the front for a reason. Start using it.

(picture cabbaged from mudflats) jammer5

America’s newspapers: where are they headed?

Up early this morning, and watched a two hour special on Los Angeles as seen through the eyes of the Los Angeles Times and the Chandler Dynasty.  And what a fascinating journey it was.  I was raised in Venice CA, and went through the transformation of the Times from a right wing John Bircher apologist, and voted the third worst paper in the country, to a nationally recognized Pulitzer prize winning newspaper, and voted the third best paper in the country.

Otis Chandler, publisher from 1960 to 1980, led that change from the day he took over the paper as the forth publisher in the Chandler line. I remember my parents, who were right wing Birchers, dropping their subscription to the times in favor of the Los Angeles (Santa Monica) Herald Examiner. The Times had become too liberal for them. Otis Chandler was the instrument that made that change possible.

Prior to Otis, the Times refused to cover either the black or Hispanic issues of the growing city. When he took over, suddenly both races started showing up in both pictures and stories. President Nixon, at the time, ordered his Attorney General, John Mitchell, to investigate Otis Chandler to the extent his tax records were pulled. All because Nixon thought Otis’s gardener was, as Nixon put it, a “wetback.” Such were the times. But that failed to dissuade Otis from reporting on the city he loved and respected to the extent he published a six part series on the John Birch Society, and its negative effects on both the city and the country. Their coverage of the Watts riots was unprecedented at the time.

When Otis was fired by the board of the times, made up of the many members of the Chandler dynasty, the downfall of the Times was pretty much guaranteed. It went from a Pulitzer Prize winning publication, to one concerned with the bottom line only. It forgot its roots and the City of Los Angeles, and worshiped at the alter of the almighty dollar.  It was sold in 2000 to the Tribune Company of Chicago, ending the Chandler line, and an era that saw Los Angeles grow from a small western hick town to a major metropolis. It’s still alive today, but only as a shadow of its former self.

I remember bringing home a copy of the Times, because they had better comics than the Examiner (I think I was around eleven at the time), and watching as my father tore it up and told me never to bring the Times in his house again. That’s really not much different than the rhetoric we are seeing today.

So my questions are: Is the print media going the way of the dinosaur because of the internet? Has reporting reverted to right/left extremes to the extent middle of the road has ceased to exist? How can one believe basic reporting when the same story, reported by the left and right, varies so much there is little to compare either to? Can today’s reporting be compared to the great reporting of the past?   Got an opinion? Let’s hear it.

jammer5

Does a belief in God constitute religion?

While reading “The Family”, I got to wondering about God and religion. If one assumes God exists, does it then become necessary to form religious beliefs? Are they one in the same?  There are over 4200 active religions in the world, all of them thinking they’re the one true religion. The average Christian religion posits one cannot attain heaven if one doesn’t take Christ into both their lives and hearts. That would leave out all atheists, Jews, Muslims and non-Christians. Quite a large group of humans destined for someplace other than heaven.

Jews believe Christ has not been on this planet, Buddhists believe in Buddha, Muslims believe in the prophet Mohammad, etc.. Would a God, any God, exclude such a population because of something they don’t  believe in? God supposedly told the Prophets, after the flood, He would not interfere in the affairs of man again. One can take that to mean there was no Son of God on earth, because if He did, wouldn’t that make God a liar? Can God lie?

My point is religion can be both a good and bad thing, and at the same time. How many wars have been fought in the name of religion? How many humans slaughtered in the name of Religion? Do those wars justify religion in any way? Conversely, and maybe more importantly, does religion justify war? Believe me, I know religion is abused by any number of people, Tony Alamo being one example, but the majority of religious people are good people. But is religion, in the long run, necessary to attain heaven? Is a religion, such as Catholicism, any better than an Australian tribe worshiping  Uluru? My opinion would be emphatically no. My base belief is if one lives the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, that is all that is needed to attain heaven, assuming, again, heaven actually exists. That, to me at least, is not a religion, per se, but a core belief in humanity. Does that mean I’m destined for the bbq pit? I have no problem with religion, I just don’t think any organized religion is a deciding factor when it come to God’s judgment: He judges on how one lives their life.

Okay, can open: your thoughts? (Imagine this post on TBTSNBN)

jamnmer5

Wanted: Pot critic!

The Denver Westward has a job opening for a pot reviewer. The job would entail freelancing and be “an objective resource on the state’s burgeoning medical marijuana scene.” The weekly on-line column would be called, “Mile Highs and Lows.”

As with a dining or architecture critic, a background in the subject helps but Calhoun said the paper is looking for someone who displays a talent for writing and analytical thinking rather than getting baked. In other words, she said, ”You don’t have to smoke pot for 30 years.” Calhoun is asking candidates to submit an essay on the subject of what marijuana means to them, and hopes to pick a reviewer by next week. “We’ll see what we get,” she said. “I know that within five minutes of the posting, we already had an application — which is very fast turnaround for a stoner.”

No word on pay, although munchies are included (I made that up 🙂 )

Anyone here plan on moving to the Rockies and putting in a resume?

jammer5

Congress decides to defund everybody!

In condemning ACORN, and passing HR 3571 IH, the government inadvertently subjected the entire military/industrial complex, as well as any entity doing business, under contract, with the government to the process passed in the bill. That means Blackwater, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Gumman and pretty much everybody. No doubt they didn’t mean to do it, but it just goes to show just how inept congress has become. BTW, it’s against the Constitution to write and pass a bill targeting a single entity, such as ACORN, but that ain’t going to stop congress:

Immediately after the bill passed, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), a constitutional whiz, noted that the measure appeared to be a “bill of attainder” — specifically targeting a company or organization or individual — and is therefore specifically barred by the Constitution. If it’s not targeted at one group, then Northrop Grumman is in trouble.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/22/whoops-anti-acorn-bill-ro_n_294949.html

Like the commercial says, “Very funny.”

The portion of the bill to defund ACORN:

Glenn Beck and left-right confusion

A fascinating article by Glenn Greenwald, at Salon.com, not only attempts to categorize (not an easy endeavor) Glenn Beck. Along the way, Greenwald has much to say about the political climate in the states today. To say the bulk of the protesters (teabaggers, etc.) don’t have a clue about what exactly they’re protesting is oversimplification.
—————————————————————————————————–

Last night during his CBS interview with Katie Couric, Glenn Beck said he may have voted for Hillary Clinton and that “John McCain would have been worse for the country than Barack Obama.”  This comment predictably spawned confusion among some liberals and anger among some conservatives.  But even prior to that, there had been a palpable increase in the right-wing attacks on Beck — some motivated by professional competition for the incredibly lucrative industry of right-wing opinion-making, some due to understandable discomfort with his crazed and irresponsible rhetoric, but much of it the result of Beck’s growing deviation from GOP (and neoconservative) dogma.  Increasingly, there is great difficulty in understanding not only Beck’s political orientation but, even more so, the movement that has sprung up around him.  Within that confusion lies several important observations about our political culture, particularly the inability to process anything that does not fall comfortably into the conventional “left-right” dichotomy through which everything is understood.

Some of this confusion is attributable to the fact that Beck himself doesn’t really appear to have any actual, identifiable political beliefs; he just mutates into whatever is likely to draw the most attention for himself and whatever satisfies his emotional cravings of the moment.  Although he now parades around under a rhetorical banner of small-government liberty, anti-imperialism, and opposition to the merger of corporations and government (as exemplified by the Bush-sponsored Wall Street bailout), it wasn’t all that long ago that he was advocating exactly the opposite:  paying homage to the Patriot Act, defending the Wall Street bailout and arguing it should have been larger, and spouting standard neoconservative cartoon propaganda about The Global Islamo-Nazi Jihadists and all that it justifies.  Even the quasi-demented desire for a return to 9/12 — as though the country should be stuck permanently in a state of terrorism-induced trauma and righteous, nationalistic fury over an allegedly existential Enemy — is the precise antithesis of the war-opposing, neocon-hating views held by many libertarian and paleoconservative factions with which Beck has now associated himself.  Still other aspects of his ranting are obviously grounded in highly familiar, right-wing paranoia

Continued here:

jammer5

COMMENTS?

Which side are you on: What labor day is all about.

Out Of Africa: Human DNA

Did anyone watch “The Human Family Tree” recently on the National Geographic channel? One of the most fascinating facts found out, after checking the DNA of 350,000 human beings from every corner of the planet, is we all come from the same area of Africa.

200,000 – 150,000 years ago: The genetic journey of everyone alive today began with one woman — “Scientific Eve” — who lived in Africa and passed along her DNA through special cell structures called mitochondria, which only women pass down to further generations. What that means is, we are all related: Black, White, Yellow, Brown . . . we’re all the same. Our DNA varies by 1/10 of 1%, and that small percentage is what gives us our individual identities.

The color of a humans skin comes not from DNA, but where our ancestors migrated to. European ancestors lived in cold climates, so skin pigmentation lightened over generations. Those living in warmer or hotter climates retained the darker characteristics. It makes it interesting, then, how much race (which actually doesn’t exist) plays the role it does in society.  I wonder how racists would actually feel if they knew they were hating their brothers and cousins?  My guess is they would not believe the evidence when presented to them. All one has to do is look to people like Linda Jenkins, Bill O’Reilly and their ilk to understand facts have little meaning to them.

So, readers, how do we change the minds of people bent on destroying race relations, when the evidence of DNA points to the non-existence of race? Is it even possible?

Read more: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/the-human-family-tree-3706/Overview66#tab-time-line#ixzz0PxF2vaeh

jammer5

Baggin’ it.

You all remember school lunches? The ones you brought to school, and how they entwined themselves into our daily routines?  First, the brown paper sack. Remember the sound it made when opened at the table with all the other kids? Opening the sandwiches neatly wrapped in wax paper; looking around at what the other kids had. Jimmy’s got strawberry jam; you got grape. He hates strawberry, you love it, so you trade. When you’re done, you carefully fold the sack up and put it in your back pocket, because mom wants to use it again. Even has your name on it.

Then came the rectangular lunch boxes, bright, shiny and new. Mine had Hoppalong Cassidy on it, because Cassidy land was three blocks from where I lived, so he was my hero. Remember the smell wafting out as you opened it up? I think that smell has long gone from this world, and I miss it.

Then you graduated to the big lunch boxes, with the thermos in it. Most of the time it had milk, but once and awhile you snuck in some orange juice instead. Or maybe tried a soda, which turned flat, so you didn’t do that again. Mine was basic black, but had Flash Gorden on it, because he was the intergalactic hero with the beautiful girl at his side, and I was starting to notice such things. Then, suddenly, it was gone, and the cafeteria, mystery meat and all, became the center of the school universe, and your youth slowly faded into the past

What are your memories of lunch at school? Did you bring your own? Make it yourself, or did mom make it for you? Buy it at school? Do you even want to go there? Hungry minds want to know.

jammer5