Thursday, September 30, 2010

School sued for ignoring harassment

There must be some sort of secret legislation on the books that requires schools to lie about the bullying that takes place on their watch.

Just outside Cincinnati, Fairfield Senior High School is being sued because it refused to enforce its own anti-harassment policy and wouldn't do anything about an assailant who repeatedly assaulted the plaintiff over the course of her senior year.

This campaign peaked when the attacker punched the victim in the face, resulting in 9 stitches in her forehead.

This went on even though the victim had a court order to keep the attacker away - which the school ignored.

The school didn't do anything about the harassment because the assailant was a star softball player.

Maybe the association that governs high school sports in Ohio should suspend the school for this. It's bad enough that the school has a lax attitude regarding school harassment, but the fact that the school mollycoddles athletes is another matter entirely. (Not like other schools don't do it too.)


Court: people can be sued, corporations can't

Congress really dropped the ball when it wouldn't repeal the Citizens United ruling. Now look what that hath brung...

The key argument by the Citizens United school of "thought" is that corporations are people. Thus, they get rights that are supposed to be accorded only to people. It's a bogus argument, but that's their bullshit and they're stickin' to it.

Now the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has decided to grant corporations not just the same rights as people but MORE rights than people. This month, the court ruled that the longstanding Alien Tort Statute can no longer be used to sue corporations for human rights violations abroad. The court said individuals can be sued, but corporations can't.

Is that bleevoff or what?

So - according to the Federalist Society whack-a-doos on the court - corporations are considered people as long as it gives them rights, but not when it gives them responsibilities.

This ruling should not only be reversed but disobeyed in the meantime. Congress, the President, and the states should not follow this ruling. If it comes down to it, the states should pass their own versions of the law that the court gutted. And if the court tries enforcing its ruling, it can't very well claim we're the ones who started its little war of aggression.

Congress also needs to impeach the judges who are behind the ruling that grants special rights to corporations that engage in human rights violations.

America is a nation of laws, and this ruling puts corporations literally above the law. What it really means is that all one needs to do to partake in illegal atrocities such as the slave trade is incorporate, thus being shielded from lawsuits. Is that what a democratic republic is about?

If the Democratic Party had the guts to say what I'm saying, I don't think it would have much trouble keeping both houses of Congress this November. I've been through playing nice for a while now.


Wednesday, September 29, 2010

American Taliban gets upset at the strangest things ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

This is what America is up against this election season. We're up against hypocritical self-styled guardians of morality who censor 'Sesame Street'.

'Sesame Street' has long had a habit of featuring celebrities whose fan base is otherwise made up largely of adults or at least people older than preschool age. This revolutionary practice helps adults understand the ol' Ses. Gets 'em in tune with things, ya see.

So recently, 'Sesame Street' invited singer Katy Perry to drop by to perform one of her songs with Elmo. It was something kids and adults alike were gonna love! But since this is 'Sesame Street' we're talking about, it was all pretty much G-rated.

Here's the segment Katy Perry made with Elmo:

There's not a thing offensive about that. Nothing.

But don't tell that to the American Taliban. When they heard 'Sesame Street' was going to feature Katy Perry, they complained until the segment was yanked.

Did they even bother to watch the segment first?

Honestly, is there ANYTHING that does not offend the American Taliban?

When I was growing up in the '70s, 'Sesame Street' even featured Richard Pryor! And nobody complained. Everybody knew this was a kids' show and Richard Pryor wasn't going to use the kind of language he used in his stand-up routines. If people are raising such a stink over Katy Perry today, years after Richard Pryor appeared without any problems, it shows we've really moved backward since the '70s.

If we let the Republicans get a foothold again, the Taliban is in America's future. Brace yourselves for more ridiculous censorship like this.

Isn't that right, "Taliban Dan" Webster?

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Have no fear, ish #459 is here!

Issue #459 of The Last Word got published today, and it's our back-to-school issue!

This edition features some neato articles on poo of this sort:

• A university expands its fascist behavior profiling system.

• A local public school district tries to silence alumni complaining about the way they were treated.

• Republicans play the race card. (Imagine that!)

• And they accuse everybody else of being racist.

• The media ignores a study proving ADHD is overdiagnosed.

• A local county refuses to follow a domestic violence law.

• The story of when a motorcycle club took on a local school bureaucracy.

• A lawsuit regarding an unconstitutional drug sweep at a local school is dismissed.

• Civics education matters!

• A major league sports stadium expels fans over their political views.

So it behooves thee to point thy pooper plumb here:

Monday, September 27, 2010

Week 59 of POOP

The past week has been tailor-made for our POOP feature, since it involves yet another mind-numbing fuck-up by a Google-owned service.

A few days ago, I discovered that YouTube had disabled a video I posted almost 2 years ago. The video was taken crossing a long bridge in North Carolina, and it was disabled because the IFPI (which represents music publishers) complained because it used 10 seconds of the song "It's Raining Again" by Supertramp.

For the record, the manner in which I used the tune was fair use. Anybody who doesn't have a vacuum inside their head can see that, for fair use protects brief snippets of much longer songs, if the snippet is being used for a much longer work of a noncommercial nature. I carefully combed websites about fair use before I made this clip, just so I'd be on the correct side of copyright law.

In other words, the IFPI committed perjury when it submitted its complaint. They knew it was fair use, yet they lied about it.

They've done this to other people before. In 2008, the IFPI lodged a DMCA takedown order against a blog - even though the blog had been licensed to use the music that it featured. In fact, the IFPI's complaint listed a different song by a different band than what appeared on the blog.

When informed of this apparent mistake, the IFPI relented and sent a reply that read in part: "Due to the volume of infringing content we find online there will be instances where legitimate files are picked up as infringing."

So the IFPI admits to making bogus complaints. That's perjury. End of story.

Following YouPube's disabling of my fair use video, I did what 90% of folks confronted with such an act don't do: I fought back by filling out the counter-complaint form that YouTube offers.

YouTube says it submits all counter-complaints to the original complainant. That's fine with me, because I was fully prepared to defend myself in court if the IFPI sued me. But YouTube's claim that it notifies complainants of counter-complaints turned out to be another lie. YouTube e-mailed me saying that 1) they won't enable my video again (even though it's fair use); and 2) because my video is not being enabled, they are not sending my counter-complaint to the IFPI.

Um, didn't YouLube just say it sent all counter-complaints to the original complainers?

Google says I need a court order just to delete my own copyrighted posts from its archive. Where's the IFPI's court order to delete my video? You can't have it both ways, bleezixdolfs.

In the meantime, I redid the offending video and uploaded it again - this time without the music:


Friday, September 24, 2010

GOP candidate proud to be part of idle rich

If there's one thing the Republicans took away from the 1994 "elections", it's that this taught them that it pays to appeal to the very rich. And I don't mean the few self-made millionaires out there. I mean those who were rich from birth and didn't have to work for their money.

John Raese is the Republicans' longshot candidate for Senate in West Virginia (in a special election caused by Robert Byrd's death). Yesterday, Raese was given free airtime by some right-wing radio talk show. During this appearance, Raese said, "I made my money the old-fashioned way: I inherited it. I think that's a great thing to do."

He went on to say we should abolish the estate tax. But nobody who inherits less than $3,500,000 (i.e., 99.75% of the public) even has to pay this tax. In other words, Raese wants to abolish a tax that only the extremely wealthy have to pay.

John Raese isn't very people-faced, is he? There's so many hungry Americans out there, yet he's worried about billionaires having to pay an estate tax? How do the Tea Partiers call themselves a "populist" movement after supporting this guy?

It turns out Raese doesn't even live in West Virginia, even though he's running for Senate there. He spends almost all his time (except campaign appearances) at his mansion in Florida. He owned 15 cars the same time, and he paved his driveway with marble. He even campaigns using his own private jet.

Why would anybody vote for Marble Man unless they're living high on the hog too? Hopefully, Raese and other Republicans will learn in November that catering to the rich is a losing proposition.


Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Crybaby Glenn Beck"

There is something truly wrong with Glenn Beck.

He always looks like he's about to cry! I guess I would too, if I was that much of an idiot.

So let's have some laughs at the loser's expense:

Caught on video: Rand Paul assaults 71-year-old blogger

An interesting video has just emerged of how Rand Paul acts when he goes out in the world (yes, the same world that's laughing at him).

Paul held a campaign stop at a government building on Wednesday. It also included right-wing Kentucky legislator Dan Seum. Paul brushed off questions about the deficit and Social Security asked by people in the audience.

Then, Paul and Seum were caught manhandling a 71-year-old blogger.

The appearance (including the assault) was captured on video for the whole Wide, Wide World Of Sports to see:


The media made such an issue over Bob Etheridge's encounter with a right-wing "kid" (who was actually about 30), yet it won't cover Rand Paul's meltdown. That's no surprise, because the media hardly ever covers anything negative about Rand Paul.

Rand Paul and Dan Seum need to face assault charges.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Republican calls Contract With America redux "dreck"

Although the Republicans' new Pledge to America is incoherent and miserable, I had every reason to think the media would make it their Bible of the new decade - much as the Contract With America was their Bible of the '90s.

But it's crashing and burning before even being officially unveiled.

Even right-wing Republican blogger Eric Erickson is thoroughly unimpressed with the document. Regarding the Pledge to America, he said, "It is dreck."

That it is.

Erickson also said the Pledge to America "proves the GOP is more focused on the acquisition of power than the advocacy of long term sound public policy."

The 21-page manifesto was practically written (or at least overseen) by House staffer Brian Wild, who served as a lobbyist for Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Insurance, and other corporate interests. As a lobbyist, Wild was paid hundreds of thousands each from AIG, Comcast, and other giants of the corporate world.

The Contract With America of 16 years ago was written by the Heritage Foundation. The Hitlerage Foundation is as crazy as fuck and likes voicing support for terrible foreign dictatorships - but at least their garbage is usually readable. But the new Pledge to America was written and overseen primarily by lobbyists and hacks who can barely form a complete sentence.

If the Republican hacks ever raise a point that sounds half-decent on paper, you can never believe them, because it's nothing but a smokescreen for their real agenda: corporate statism and total regimentation of personal behavior.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Pledge to America = crap

I wasn't exactly quaking in my shoes about the Republicans regurgitating the Contract With America - because nobody liked the original one. But that the GOP did - except the new one is even sillier than the piece of shit they issued in 1994.

They call it the Pledge to America. (How original!) At least the original Contract With America was easy to read. The Pledge to America that they're issuing now is barely even coherent.

Not surprisingly, this "small government" pledge is full of ideas that expand government - particularly this "values" and "we are a nation at war" garbage.

The document is full of misleading and often illegible diagrams and graphs - coupled with rambling text. It reminds me of that ridiculous anti-drug ad that appeared in the newspaper some years back that showed a bad drawing of the solar system - if the ad was surrounded by a transcript of Glenn Beck's show.

The Republicans' Pledge to America shows they already have a huge strike against them even before the election. It proves they can barely form a coherent sentence even to express simple ideas. I firmly believe their electoral prospects have just been severely damaged all because they had the arrogance to release such a thoroughly idiotic document and think that everybody would find it worthy of unadulterated admiration.

Brought to you by the letters 'T' and 'P'... ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

'Sesame Street' seems to be a utopia where nobody ever has to go to the bathroom. Big Bird, Cookie Monster, the Count, and the rest of the 'Sesame Street' kick-ass crew all have limitless stamina, I guess.

Eventually, however, the ol' Ses had to acknowledge the existence of toilet paper. It's called the real world.

Not too long ago, rapper MC Frontalot decided to join forces with 'Sesame Street' to teach kids how toilet paper is made:

That little clip takes place in a toilet paper factory, as the rolls of bathroom tissue are sliced and diced for you, the consumer.

I notice that the first shot in this segment looks like the Foundry layout in Halo.

I always thought it would be cool to own a toilet paper factory. Maybe it's because toilet paper is cool. But who knows?

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The senator we can't afford to lose

Now that Christine O'Donnell has dashed the Republicans' chances of winning back the Senate, the country needs to focus on senators we can't afford to lose.

Just as O'Donnell would be the senator America can't afford to gain, Wisconsin's Russ Feingold is the senator we can hardly afford to lose. A rarity, that Feingold is.

Feingold, a Democrat, is one of the most beloved senators nationwide. I generally don't endorse Democrats outright any longer, because of the DLC's dominance. My attitude towards party leaders is: you break, you buy. But Feingold isn't like the assholes and lightweights up there on Capitol Hill who tell us how to live and squander our money like it's their own.

The most striking example of Feingold's forward-thinking views is the fact that he was the only senator who voted against the extreme-right Patriot Act.

Russ Feingold is being challenged by Republican and official media demigod Ron Johnson. The corporate-backed Johnson is a climate change denier who supports offshore oil drilling - in the Great Lakes, of all places! His business got bailout money from the city of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and he demanded stimulus cash even though he opposes the stimulus package.

Just as bad as this, Johnson even opposed Wisconsin's proposed Child Victims Act, which would have made it easier for victims of child sex abuse to sue abusers.

The Senate is full of right-wing clowns who make fools of themselves every time they open their mouths. The Capitol has its share of DeMints, Coburns, Inhofes, and Chamblisses. We can hardly afford to have Ron Johnson swell the ranks of the D.C. circus. I know you like to laugh at these morons, but they're funnier when they lose and throw a shitfit over the results. Don't cheer their election just because you think you'll save money on comedy clubs.

If Feingold wins, Feingold wins. If Johnson wins, I WILL be at the forefront of the effort to have him removed from office (just like with Chris Christie). We need to keep Ron Johnson embarrassingly weak and powerless even as a senator.

(Also, if you're still worried about the GOP retaking the Senate, bear in mind that at this point 2 years ago, John McCain was leading presidential polls by as much as 10%.)


Republican candidate breaks trademark law despite warning

The Rethug-a-lugs have already proven they can't govern competently. Maybe they'd be better if they didn't think they were above the law.

John Boozman is the piece of shit who the Republicans are running as their Senate candidate in Arkansas. His campaign ads prominently feature the logo of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks - in an attempt to imply that the school's athletic teams endorsed him (which they didn't).

It turns out that the university has a policy against using its mascot in political ads. So the university warned Boozman that he needed to remove the logo from his ads, as the logo is protected by trademark law.

However, weeks later, Boozman has refused to comply with the order.

Naturally, Boozman blamed his Democratic opponent, incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln, for the controversy. "Blanche needs to realize that just like in football, you have to play by the rules," said an official for the Boozman campaign.

Nothing's ever a Republican's fault, is it? It wasn't Blanche Lincoln who broke the rules, idiot.

John Boozman is just another Republican with a sense of entitlement who thinks laws shouldn't apply to themselves. This is the party that has pledged to impeach President Obama if they win control of Congress, even though he hasn't done anything illegal. Yet the Republicans break laws like it's going out of style, and they think it's their birthright to be elected. They have the emotional stability of a 2-year-old.


Monday, September 20, 2010

Right-wing election fraud found in Wisconsin

Do you seriously think every election in America is on the level?

You do? Wait, you don't.

And this article is more proof that the Republicans are rigging elections:

It boils down to this: The Republicans, the misnamed Americans for Prosperity, and Tea Party groups have joined up to suppress the vote in Wisconsin. This practice - known as vote caging - involves sending mail to addresses on lists of voters and later challenging their votes. The result is that these voters have to cast provisional ballots - 35% of which are not counted at all.

This also creates longer lines at the polling places - forcing other voters to just get up and leave.

Needless to say, this practice targets Democratic areas.

And it's illegal - but it's been going on for quite some time.

One wonders how many votes are going to be lost - again. At least now we know not to abide by any Republican upsets in Wisconsin.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Christine O'Donnell Is Obsessed With Basting"

I'm battling a sore hip and an ear infection, but that's no reason why 'Lawn Chair Quarterback' shouldn't regale you with the strange obsessions of Delaware's GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell.

O'Donnell is a bit like having Rick Santorum back around. They're both inordinately obsessed with issues surrounding sexuality. Luckily, the public has now gained access to real blogs since the last time Santorum won an election (which was rigged anyway), so there's not going to be a repeat of the disaster that Santorum was. The pop-up media doesn't have the monopoly it had then.

The only thing that seems to be missing from O'Donnell's campaign so far is repeating liar Santorum's bogus claim that the poor are a bunch of druggies. For all I know, maybe O'Donnell has said this, but her other causes have gotten more attention. It's exactly the sort of stupid and bigoted thing her followers claim.

Our latest 'LCQ' episode highlights O'Donnell's weird obsession:

While we're on the topic, why is Rick Santorum still allowed to practice law? After he tried to deprive the poor of constitutional liberties, shouldn't he be disciplined?

GOP prosecutor harassed domestic violence victim

Kenneth Kratz is the district attorney in Calumet County, Wisconsin. Big Republican.

But now, Kratz is under fire for sending sexually suggestive text messages to the victim in a domestic violence case - a case that he was supposed to prosecute. One of the 30 text messages read, "Are you the kind of girl that likes secret contact with an older married elected DA ... the riskier the better?" Another said, "I would not expect you to be the other woman. I would want you to be so hot and treat me so well that you'd be THE woman! R U that good?" Another declared, "You may be the tall, young, hot nymph, but I am the prize!"

Ironically, Kratz had headed a victims' rights board that was supposed to reprimand prosecutors for harassing crime victims.

When reporters confronted Kratz about the text messages, he blew up. "This is a non-news story!" he thundered. "I'm worried about it because of my reputational interests!"

Tough shit, Kenneth.

Later, Kratz finally admitted he sent the messages. Nonetheless, he's somehow been able to avoid being disciplined for this scandal.


Thursday, September 16, 2010

GOP's Senate chances drifting back towards zero

The media has hyped a Republican takeover of Congress ever since the ink was dry on the last election. But nobody outside the media's funhouse mirror world seriously thought it was possible until the scuzzo Supreme Court created corporate "rights" out of whole cloth.

This year's ruling in the Citizens United case allows corporations to do little short of buy elections. After the rogue court illegally gutted a century-old campaign finance law, political ads no longer even have to identify as being paid for by corporations. And there's no longer any limit as to how much they can spend.

Big Business has taken advantage of this "right" that was created for them from thin air. They even ran political ads for a minor county election in eastern Kentucky - buying ad time on stations in a much larger market, even though the county in question represents only a tiny fraction of the stations' viewership. Almost all current ads for Republican candidates are funded at least in part by corporate money that no longer has to be disclosed.

This ruling was a game changer that gave the Republicans a fighting chance. Less than 5%, mind you. But it would be 0% without it.

Thanks to the hilarity that's unfolding in Delaware, I think the chance of the Republicans retaking the Senate has just dwindled almost back to zero. They've got a way of throwing it all away and making us laugh in the process. When the Democrats seize defeat from the jaws of victory like they did in Arkansas, it's just sad. But when the Republicans do it, it's funny. There's always a public kook-out involved.

The GOP might be a little luckier in the House, but that's probably gone for them too, because of the Tea Party dominance among their House picks. And if it isn't within the GOP itself, it's Tea Party whack-a-doodles splitting the vote by running third party campaigns if they lose the Republican primary. Isn't New York's Doug Hoffman doing this now?

I don't answer to the Republicans. I answer to a higher power. If the GOP can pull it off in November, I'm going to make things as rough on them as I made it for the Tea Party shit-eaters when they came to Covington. I know from experience I can't count on waiting another 2 years to fix it (because I had to wait 12 years last time), and the Refuglies are going to get the same treatment the Tea Party got here in April.

In the meantime, Congress needs to impeach Supreme Court Justices who backed corporate personhood. The Justices took an oath to defend the Constitution, and they broke it.

Christine O'Donnell's anti-basting crusade

The media is cheerfully jizzing in its jeans over the Tea Party's upset win in the Delaware primary - not like it's going to pay off in November like they think it will.

But the victor in that GOP contest - Christine O'Donnell - is obsessed with some straaaaange things.

Despite claiming to be a "small government" candidate, O'Donnell is preoccupied with policing what everybody else does in their own bedroom. One of her main targets: masturbation.

That's right, folks. I'm talking about basting here (to use the term that was common in high school)! Pulling the joystick. Polishing the trophy. Walking in Memphis. Pullin' out the fiddle and rosinin' up the bow.

A clip has surfaced of a 1996 interview that O'Donnell gave to some MTV show in which she gave a mind-bogglingly goofy lecture against masturbation:

What's just as funny in that clip is how Christine O'Donnell intentionally tried looking like Paula Jones. What's just as funny is that in recent appearances she tries looking like Sarah Palin.

What are O'Donnell's qualifications to be a senator? The right-wing media assails Senate candidates in other states who are no less qualified. At least those candidates have a resume. O'Donnell doesn't seem to have one at all. It's not clear what her job is, or what her job has ever been. If I'd quit my library job after 6 months at the age of 18 and never worked again, I'd be more qualified than O'Donnell is.

My message to the Tea Party thought police and its media minions: You are going to crash and burn. I can comfortably say that the result of the Senate election in Delaware is going to be one of the most lopsided in the nation against the GOP, now that Christine O'Donnell is their standard-bearer. That is a guarantee. I can't wait to see the media's temper tantrum over this one!

Broadcasters won't run anti-Meg Whitman ad

Federal rules state that TV and radio stations as well as cable companies are not allowed to reject political ads just because they disagree with them. (Ooh, an Allowed Cloud!) They can only reject these commercials if the ad makes a false claim or if they reject all campaign ads outright.

But don't tell that to cable giant Comcast, which usually isn't too fond of following reasonable regulations.

Recently, the California Teachers Association created a commersh opposing right-wing gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. It pointed out that Whitman wanted to slash another $7,000,000,000 from California's education budget.

But Comcast pulled the ad because Whitman's attorney told it to - even though the claim was factual. KNTV-TV in San Francisco - which is owned and operated by the NBC syndicate - also yanked the ad.

Where do people get off complaining about the "liberal media"? Actually, people don't. It seems to me like only the media does. Nice little racket they've got going.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Grover blows his stack ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Few things are quite as hilarious as 'Sesame Street' characters throwing temper tantrums. Wonder Woman throwing a conniption fit because her Lasso of Truth broke would be funny enough, but not nearly as funny as a tantrum on the ol' Ses.

For instance, Bert famously loses his shit in a sketch in which Ernie keeps him awake talking about balloons. Bert's uproarious skizzum was likened to the ending of the original version of Michael Jackson's "Black Or White" video, in which the King of Pop reduced a car to a pile of scrap metal. (Racism fueled much of the effort to have that part of Jackson's video removed.)

But Grover once tantered up the ol' Ses too!

It happened during another of his encounters at Charlie's Restaurant with the bald, blue Anything Muppet. In this segment, Grover keeps fucking up the customer's sandwich - forcing him to have to keep fixing the order. In doing so, he squanders the customer's entire lunch hour, leaving him no time to devour his vittles. When Grover's creation goes uneaten, he angrily marches into the kitchen, and the sound of breaking dishes is heard:

Some questions remain. For instance, why did the restaurant keep Grover as a waiter? During his meltdown, he clearly announced that he quit - and he was incompetent anyway. So why does he still work there?

And why does the customer only receive 3½ minutes for his lunch "hour"? I'm sure this sketch was filmed before Reagan began gutting workplace standards, so you'd think he'd at least get a real lunch break.

New York GOP goes from crazy to crazier

Another Tea Party victory was scored in yesterday's Republican primaries - this one in the race for Governor of New York.

Now, for ages, Rick Lazio had been considered the party favorite. And he is a total right-wing scumbag. He's built his political career primarily on the fact that he hates Muslims and the poor. In Congress, Lazio introduced a law to require public housing residents to perform slave labor. No, I'm not making this up. Although it was clearly unconstitutional, this tissue of class warfare was actually passed by Congress. However, Congress later failed to fund enforcement of this law.

Introducing a law like that should have disqualified Rick Lazio from ever being allowed to call himself human. But - needless to say - the Republican Party just didn't grasp reality.

Though Lazio was the party favorite for governor, he was challenged by Tea Party deity Carl Paladino. On the ever-present issue of economic class bigotry, Paladino decided to do Lazio one worse (if that's at all possible): Paladino advocated using unused prison space to warehouse welfare recipients.

Yesterday, Carl Paladino won the Republican primary with 63% to Lazio's 37%. So another GOP primary has gone to the teabaggers.

This doesn't matter so much in New York's general election, because the Democrats are so far ahead there no matter who the Republicans pick. But it speaks volumes of what the GOP has become. They get more extreme in every election cycle.

Now, about that DLC problem on the Democratic ticket...

GOP crashes and burns with the Tea Parties

The Tea Partiers are on fire in the elections!

Thankfully, I'm not talking about the November elections. I'm talking about the Republican primaries.

The GOP actually had an overpowering chance to win the Senate election in Delaware. But now the party has blown it with a teabagger victory in yesterday's primary. (This is actually the first time this blog has referred to the Nastea crew as 'teabaggers'. I figure it would have more effect if the term was saturated on other blogs first. Really drives 'em nuts!) Delaware's Mike Castle was widely considered one of the last GOP moderates, despite his increasingly conservative voting record. Now that he lost the primary, what do the Republicans have remaining that isn't on the fringes?

Earlier Tea Party primary wins have seriously diminished Republicans' chances in Alaska and Kentucky, and they're in even worse shape in Nevada. It's possible that the only Senate seat where the Tetley terrorism will pay off is in Utah. Not much of a loss there, considering nobody expected Utah to elect a senator who made sense anyway.

Maybe this will teach the media to be careful for what it wishes for. The media has been promoting the Tea Parties endlessly for well over a year, and now it's coming back to bite them plumb on the gluteus maximus.

Monday, September 13, 2010

'UHF' actor Kevin McCarthy dies

Acting legend Kevin McCarthy died Saturday at the age of 96.

One of his most notable roles was in the hilarious 1989 movie 'UHF' starring "Weird Al" Yankovic. In 'UHF', McCarthy played R.J. Fletcher, a scowling, cynical, Monty Burns-like VHF station owner.

Details here:

Murder in Greensburg

Another senseless death, sad to say - this time in Greensburg, Indiana:,0,1101685.story

The students who caused this need to be prosecuted for murder. And if prosecutors won't go after them, they should be jailed immediately for complicity.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Week 57 of POOP

Yes, I've neglected this feature lately, but that's because Google has opted to take its arrogance and irresponsibility so deep that there was simply little else to go with it.

But now I've discovered that just a few weeks ago, the "Google Groups Team" posted a message in its help forums saying that - well, its help forums are no more. Not like they were worth shit anyway. Titled "Important Message About This Forum", the post declares:

"After careful review of this group, we've realized that most of the questions posted here are either duplicate questions or questions answered in our help center. As a result, we’ve decided to archive the group."

Bullshit. The reason they've closed their help forum is because they just didn't feel like answering questions people had. The reason there were "duplicate questions" is that Google never answered them in the help forums, so people kept reposting them. Furthermore, these questions were never answered in the help center either.

So Google lied.

This message directs folks to Google's so-called help center. If you wade shoulder-deep in crap, you can find that they've finally added a layer that deigns to answer the long-running questions about how people can remove their own posts that Google keeps using without their permission. The answer spouts the same mumbo-jumbo that Google has vomited for the past year: It says you need a court order to delete your own posts.

That's another lie. As you know, Google used to have an online form that let you delete your own posts that you made with obsolete accounts. That proves you don't need a court order at all. Google owns YouTube, which accepts fourth-party DMCA takedown notices from corporations with no court order - so Google is lying.

In summary, Google recently got rid of its help forum because they thought it was easier to do this than to keep being embarrassed by their own refusal to answer users' questions. Then it refused to provide a real solution to what may have been the most pressing inquiry.

There ought to be a law. Congress or the states need to pass legislation requiring Google to restore users' control over their own copyrighted posts. As it stands right now, Google shows no respect for either privacy or copyrights.

We shouldn't have to legislate common sense, but remember, we're dealing with idiots.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Why'd You Blink?"

I was out of town last week, so I just flat-out didn't do a 'Lawn Chair Quarterback'. But this week, I scream back with a vengeance!

Right-wingers are afraid of everything. Toilets. Almanacs. Pooping. You name it!

So I developed a nifty little test to gauge their inner fears. I call it the blink test:

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Rand Paul staffer caught trying to defraud Daily Kos

Kidnapper and media demigod Rand Paul wants to be the next senator from Kentucky - yet he encourages fraud like this.

Thomas Kubica is a paid staffer for the Paul campaign. Now he's been caught using the handle "Huey Long" while posing as a progressive Democrat on Daily Kos - so he can attack Paul's Democratic opponent Jack Conway from the left, thereby encouraging Kos fans to focus their efforts elsewhere.

I've seen Kubica's rants on Daily Kos, and I knew they were fake from the moment I saw them. Everybody else seemed to know it too, but only now do we know the source.

The media has not reported on the Paul campaign's hoax.

There's plenty of reasons to assail Conway from the left. For instance, he's thus far neglected to explicitly condemn the Patriot Act or the failed War on Drugs. But right-wing fraudsters just ain't the right people to be criticizing him.

That said, I can't be held responsible if Conway tracks rightward. The Democrats had their chance, and as far as I'm concerned, the DLC ran me off years ago.

Bawm bawm bawm... ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)


For decades, I've insisted on one truism above all others: 'Sesame Street' in the '70s featured a skit in which several Muppets sang, "BAWM bawm BAWM bawm ba BAWM bawm BAWM...bawm bawm bawm bawm BAWM..."

As with a certain Big Boy ad and several other items that once appeared on TV, everybody countered that I was making it all up. But - also like the Big Boy commersh - YouTube has once again proven me right!

I've searched for years, but now somebody has finally found the "BAWM bawm BAWM..." segment on YouPube:

So I'm making that up, am I?

The only fly in the ointment is that I don't think the version profiled in this entry is the same as the American version. It was posted on YouTube by somebody in Yemen, so it's probably from a regional variant of 'Sesame Street'. Although I hadn't seen the skit since about 1977, I don't remember Grover appearing in it, and I remember the other Muppets looking considerably different. The audio track might even be different.

Still, it shall suffice! It's clearly the same song as the American version.

So BAWM bawm BAWM to those who thought this was all just my imagination. Finding this segment is kind of like when the grownup characters on 'Sesame Street' finally learned Snuffy was real.

Monday, September 6, 2010

I'm home, I'm home, I'm home!

The drought of posts here lately on this blog can be accounted for by my week-long trip to the Western U.S. - from which I arrived home last night! I didn't mention this fact-finding mission here beforehand, because of the plague of home invasions I've experienced lately, but now I'm back to embarrass the Far Right more than ever!

Little has changed since I left. Major league athletes are still overpaid, almost everybody else is still underpaid, and the media is still the filth column that it was over a week ago.

Given the media's contempt for workers, you'd think it would've been so shamed in the week leading up to Labor Day that it would've kept a low profile, but I guess shame is alien to America's media moguls.

Labor Day is the traditional start of the general election campaign season - although the other side never leaves campaign mode. Although I'm not seeking public office this year, I'm making this fall a campaign against the media - as the media has now become nearly inseparable from the Republican Right.

Campaign hint for Democrats, Greens, and independents: If you want to win, run against the media as if it's part of the GOP. The pop-up press is just that, and people will see it for what it is if you keep highlighting this point. I think readers of this blog are going to be seeing a lot more here about the media's unchecked partisanship from now on.