Conversing With Idiots

One of the most pervasive political movements going on outside Washington today is the disciplined, passionate, determined effort of Republican governors and legislators to keep most of you from voting next time….There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today. Why should we disenfranchise people forever once they’ve paid their price? Because most of them in Florida were African Americans and Hispanics who tended to vote for Democrats. That’s why.

—Preach, Brother Bill, Preach! Former President Clinton gets real about the GOP push to make it harder to exercise your Constitutional right to vote. (via motherjones)

They are kind of saying ‘If you don’t agree to our demands, we will destroy the world economy.’ Which I think is what Dr. Evil said.

—BILL MAHER, on the GOP’s refusal to consider raising the debt ceiling, on Real Time (via inothernews)

New rule: if you can look at a crime where everything points to one answer and not see it, you’re a dumbass. And if you can look at the deficit and not see that the problem is that the rich stopped paying taxes, you’re a Republican.

And before you accuse me of equating the Casey Anthony verdict with Republican thinking, save your breath: I am. …I’m saying that if you’re a working-class American who still votes Republican, then you don’t get to bitch about that verdict.

In his press conference last week, President Obama said maybe, just maybe, is that the billionaires were, quote, ‘enjoying the lowest tax rate since before I was born.’ Yeah, like we believe Obama was ‘born.’

Now here’s Obama’s thinking — and it’s a little counterintuitive, but try to follow it: when Clinton was president, the rich paid a little more taxes, and the government had money. Then Bush cut all those taxes, and now we don’t. I know it’s hard to grasp — it involves (beat) subtracting.

But in suggesting that, in these desperate times, we slightly raise the tax on private jets, Obama was baiting the Republicans to look like extremists by defending private jets. But the gambit failed! Because half the people are not outraged. Half of them say ‘I’m with the party that cuts all these programs for real people, for the 99 percent — Planned Parenthood; environmental protection; college; healthcare; infrastructure — but holds the line on private jets! Voting for them (the Republicans) is as stupid as voting ‘not guilty’ for the mom who lost her baby for a month and went looking at a wet t-shirt contest.

Every election, roughly half the population votes Democrat, and the other half votes Republican, and I understand why Republicans… get the (vote of the) richest one percent (of the population): the other 49 percent, someone will have to explain to me.

The facts about what the Republicans have done to the middle class are beyond reasonable doubt. And yet, their base refuses to see it. The moneyed elite in America are dragging a bag filled with your future down the steps, and your reaction is ‘Hold on there! That looks heavy! Let me give you a hand getting it into your trunk!’

Is it really that radical to suggest slightly trimming the tax break on corporate jets? It seems like a reasonable idea given that a) people who buy corporate jets are filthy rich, and b) I don’t need a ‘B’!

This is a country of the rich, by the rich, for the rich, where very day it seems our laws and culture cater more to wealthy people: tax breaks, industry-written laws, bailouts, deregulation — all of it goes to making the lives of the rich just a little bit cushier. Oh, did I say ‘rich’? I meant ‘job creators.’

That’s actually a prevailing theory on the right: that Obama’s rhetoric toward Wall Street has been so hostile, it has created an ‘uncertainty in the business community.’ Because he called them ‘fat cats’ once, and they’re still suffering from some sort of jobs-creating disorder. Like he burst into the bathroom while they were trying to pee, and now they can’t go at all!

When did the business community in America become so sensitive that we have to treat them like some sort of rare, exotic animal — don’t startle them, or they’ll fly away! We need to soothe them so they can nest here and lay their magic eggs full of jobs! Which never hatch, by the way.

Bush said his tax cuts for the rich would create jobs: they didn’t. We’re now being told if multinational corporations bring home their current overseas profits of $1.4 trillion, they’ll only be taxed five percent on it — because we’re told it will create jobs.

It won’t, just like it didn’t the last time we tried it in 2004: companies took the savings and paid it out to themselves in dividends. Yes, Republican base: you are just like that (Casey Anthony) jury — it is pathetically clear who is killing the middle class, but you keep letting them get away with murder.

—BILL MAHER, in an epic rant likening the Republican base to the Casey Anthony jury, on Real Time (via inothernews)

Now consider that, according to the American Association of Community Colleges, about half of all freshmen and sophomores are enrolled at the nation’s 1,300 two-year colleges, and many of those students transfer to four-year institutions. For a large percentage of people who earn bachelor’s degrees, then, the liberal-arts portion of their education was acquired at a two-year college. Next, factor in all of the community-college students who enter the work force after earning two-year degrees or certificates, and whose only exposure to the liberal arts occurred in whatever core courses their programs required. The conclusion becomes obvious: Two-year colleges are among the country’s leading providers of liberal-arts education, although they seldom get credit for that role. Many Americans learn at a two-year college most of what they will ever learn—in a formal setting, at least—about writing, critical thinking, the history of our culture and civilization, the environment, and human behavior.

—

The Liberal Arts Are Work-Force Development - Do Your Job Better - The Chronicle of Higher Education (via infoneer-pulse)

As someone who lives in a town with a community college that enrolls 75% of our high school graduates: hear, hear!

(Also, almost all of my friends—including my boyfriend—have associates degrees from this college and have turned out just fine.)

(Source: chronicle.com, via girlwithalessonplan)

shortformblog:

• 9.2%unemployment rate, which jumped last month unexpectedly
• 18,000number of jobs added, which is straight-up anemic source

» Why this stinks for Obama: 

Early on in his administration, he said it wouldn’t go higher than 8.2%. While unemployment declined for a little while, it’s been steadily going up again. The Obama administration is trying to downplay the issue, but it’s proving difficult, and could prove his major flaw in the upcoming election. It’s an easy target for GOP candidates. Instead of talking about how he’s helped turn the economy around, Obama is going to have to fight back by saying how the Republicans will make it worse, and let’s face it: That doesn’t sound like such a great defense.

(Source: shortformblog)

revolutionism:

Communism, like any political ideology, is subject to intense debate and questioning, Communism perhaps more than the others, because Communism, unlike so many others, has been attempted countless times and has actually been implemented zero times. Instead, many “Communist” countries have become…

18goingon80:

The US economy is rapidly unraveling … and millions of Americans are losing their jobs and struggling just to survive. Meanwhile, the federal government continues to spend billions of taxpayer dollars every year to fight its endless “War on Drugs,” which includes spending about $7.7 billion a year just on enforcing marijuana laws, and preventing sick and injured patients from accessing this natural, side effect-free treatment for their ailments.

(Source: anarchyagogo)

Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murdering her daughter, as the American public stands by in shock and awe. In other news, millions of sick and dying American children and adults still don’t have healthcare, to the shock and awe of absolutely nobody.

—Jon Stewart (via amazingatheist)

talkstraight:

Half a year after the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), the Obama administration is set to release a series of reforms to the current gun law, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said on Thursday.

The reforms, which are being crafted by the Department of Justice, come after a series of meetings with relevant stakeholders in the Second Amendment debate. But in a nod to the difficulties of getting legislation through a Republican-run House of Representatives, only executive orders or administrative actions — and not an actual bill — are expected to be handed to Congress.

Administration officials were coy on the specifics, from the reforms the Department of Justice would recommend or when it would actually make those recommendations.

“The president directed the Attorney General to form working groups with key stakeholders to identify common sense measures that would improve American safety and security while fully respecting Second Amendment rights,” Carney said at Thursday’s briefing. “That process is well underway at the Department of Justice with stakeholders on all sides working through these complex issues and we expect to have more specific announcements in the near future.”

James Murdoch and News Corp could face corporate legal battles on both sides of the Atlantic that involve criminal charges, fines and forfeiture of assets as the escalating phone-hacking scandal risks damaging his chances of taking control of Rupert Murdoch’s US-based media empire.

As deputy chief operating officer of News Corp – the US-listed company that is the ultimate owner of News International (NI), which in turn owns the News of the World, the Times, the Sunday Times and the Sun – the younger Murdoch has admitted he misled parliament over phone hacking, although he has stated he did not have the complete picture at the time. There have also been reports that employees routinely made payments to police officers, believed to total more than £100,000, in return for information.

The payments could leave News Corp – and possibly James Murdoch himself – facing the possibility of prosecution in the US under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) – legislation designed to stamp out bad corporate behaviour that carries severe penalties for anyone found guilty of breaching it – and in the UK under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which outlaws the interception of communications.

—James Murdoch could face criminal charges on both sides of the Atlantic (via ryking)