"The blog has made Glab into a hip town crier, commenting on everything from local politics and cultural happenings to national and international events, all rendered in a colorful, intelligent, working-class vernacular that owes some of its style to Glab’s Chicago-hometown heroes Studs Terkel and Mike Royko." — David Brent Johnson in Bloom Magazine
But criticizing the president does not mean the Congress must obstruct every single thing he wants done. To wit: Wednesday’s Senate rejection of Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. See, Debo Adegbile, in his former position as counsel for the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund, once wrote a couple of amicus briefs on behalf of convicted Philadelphia cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Adegbile
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Mumia has been a cause-célèbre since his conviction in 1982. He pretty much was railroaded through the PA state courts, although, I must admit, a careful reading of the evidence against him reveals that, sure, he killed that cop. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania prosecutors had such a tumescence to fry him that they neglected a few of the fair trial niceties the US Constitution calls for. Thus, civil liberty advocates cried whoa and called for a new trial. Thusly, Adegbile got involved.
Abu-Jamal
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Now, ergo, acc’d’g to the conservative loon-ocracy, Adegbile is four-square in favor of every black man killing a cop just for the hell of it. And remember, he’s black, with a really scary black name, so it has to be true.
Indiana’s very own Senator Joe Donnelly, nominally a Democrat, joined the disloyal opposition in quashing Adegbile’s nomination.
So Adegbile has been denied a Justice Dept. post because he did what lawyers are supposed to do: That is, defend people. Apparently, though, defending a scary black man disqualified him.
Post-racial America my foot.
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Soul Man
Speaking of hard-core conservatives in this holy land, I’m getting the feeling a lot of them secretly dig Vlad Putin, aren’t you?
Republican?
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He’s macho. He’s full of strutting braggadocio. He hunts. He hates gays. He’s tough. George W. Bush gazed into his eyes and concluded they were kindred souls. And he does whatever the fk he wants with a gun in his hand (and, by extension, so does his Russian military).
Kiddies, the truth is Putin would be a perfecto Tea Party choice for Prez of these U. States.
And wouldn’t the Dems take a needed first step in repositioning themselves if they selected as a 2016 ticket Hillary Clinton and KG? You might say it’d be suicide to put two women on the same ticket but wags said something similar when Bill Clinton tabbed Al Gore to be his running mate in 1992. No way, they said, can you have two southern boys from smallish states running together. But they won.
That’s The Ticket
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I wonder if the Clinton/Gillibrand pair would win. It’d sure be fun to find out.
[BTW: Google’s Related Searches feature that pops up when one types in the NY Sen.’s name has “Kirsten Gillibrand weight loss” as its number one category. The number two most popular KG search is “Kirsten Gillibrand Vogue.” Apparently, she was profiled in that mag in 2010. “Kirsten Gillibrand on the issues” does not show up until number five. Sigh.]
“Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.” — Robert A. Heinlein
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A NOTE TO MY READERS
If I seem a little cynical today (okay, a lot cynical) don’t blame me. I’m only the messenger.
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MEET YOUR BOSS
Make no mistake now. There is no longer any argument.
This holy land is not led by a president or a Senate or House. Nor is it run by Democrats or Republicans. Not even the combined forces of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines rival the most powerful entity in the United States today.
Kids Stuff
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These Great United States, Inc. are ruled by the investment banking firm and criminal enterprise known as Goldman Sachs.
And that would make the emperor of this nominal democratic republic an unindicted hoodlum by the name of Lloyd Blankfein.
See, Goldman Sachs had been engaged in the selling of subprime mortgage securities for years, earnings ungodly amounts of money. Only Blankfein’s syndicate then went out and bet against the performance of those securities.
In other words, Goldman Sachs sold its clients — including retirement funds, states and municipalities, hospitals, and the like — a pile of shit and then went out and set up a sham insurance safety net protecting itself against the shit smears that would inevitably follow.
The original “Mob” used to have this scam down to an art. A couple of crooked-nosed Charlies would visit a restaurant owner and advise him he needed “insurance” should, god forbid, anything calamitous happen.
Aw, D’at’s Too Bad. Y’See What Can Happen?
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The only flaw in the Mob’s plan was its inability to hold off the dogs of justice indefinitely. By and by, some squeaky clean prosecutor would slap the bracelets on the big boys and their underbosses.
But Lloyd Blankfein won’t be a guest of the state any time soon. In fact. the state is now his guest.
This is, after all, his country. Lock, stock, and barrel.
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PROBLEM SOLVED
You know how Barack Obama is a socialist? And the Clintons before him?
Real red-underwear-wearing types, right?
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At least that’s what the Right would have us believe.
So why is it that the number of people receiving cash assistance from government social welfare programs has fallen a full two-thirds since Bill Clinton’s 1996 welfare reform? And the number of American families who get government subsidies for trivial things like food and heat has fallen by a half?
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The answer, if you believe the Right, is they’ve all gone from the lazy poor to the self-sufficient middle class. Because, after all, it was their own fault they were poor.
The great thing about living in these United States is the fact that we don’t need complicated solutions to baffling problems. The answers, my fellow citizens, are simple.
Oops. I mean simplistic.
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ANOTHER SIGN OF THE COMING APOCALYPSE
Everybody and anybody who had a hand in making this monstrosity a reality should have the living shit kicked out of them:
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This is the brand spankin’ new high school football stadium in Allen, Texas.
You read right: High-freaking-school.
The new home of the Allen Eagles cost $60M. It seats 18,000. It has a 75×45-foot video screen scoreboard.
The story about this crime against humanity in Time magazine’s online newsfeed quotes some little bastard defensive back as saying, “We just have to [be] blessed and humble and not take it for granted.”
Go Eagles!
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Yeah. Like the god that doesn’t exist gave it to you in lieu of doing anything about the flooding in India.
Texas, by the way, last year cut $5B from the state public schools budget..
Nothin’ like seeing your boy’s cerebrum concussed into so much gray goo down on the field in a shiny new stadium, is there?
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LIFE LESSONS FROM FOOTBALL
Yep. Football’s back.
Remember when Ma & Pa America were all aflutter over teenaged athletes using steroids and human growth hormones to build muscle mass?
The Horror
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Heaven forbid our precious scions should risk the devastating side effects of performance enhancing drugs. Like acne.
No. It’s much better for them to suffer permanent disability due to head injuries suffered on the gridiron.
Oh, and thanks to our changing climate (which, I’d bet, plenty o’Texans think is the liberal bunk anyway) more and more high school football players are suffering serious injury and death from practicing in full pads through the August heat.
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SCIENCE TAKES ANOTHER HIT
We don’t have cable anymore at Chez Big Mike but if we did, Animal Planet would be on all the time. The Loved One digs critters and I’m partial to two or three species myself.
The bad news is, Animal Planet is slipping and sliding away from real animals this coming season and becoming more about, well, bullshit.
Two of the cable networks big shows will be “Finding Bigfoot” and “Mermaid — The Body Found.”
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According to the Washington Post’s TV columnist Lisa de Moraes, critics pounded Animal Planet reps when the network held its pre-season news conference. One asked if AP “had run out of real animals.”
When it comes to TV, though, no one can argue with the numbers. AP’s audiences love shows about creatures that don’t exist.
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THE POWER OF MYTH
Great. As if I’m not discouraged enough by the direction in which this nation is headed, this poll comes out:
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The site I Fucking Love Science opines: “Well, this is a little bit scary. Come on America, sort it out. You just landed on Mars!”
To borrow a term from the god-fetishists, Amen!
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Here’s how I waste my time. How about you? Share your fave sites with us via the comments section. Just type in the name of the site, not the url; we’ll find them. If we like them, we’ll include them — if not, we’ll ignore them.
