The Velvet StraitJacket

While some people were celebrating a long-awaited and hard fought victory last week, another long-awaited and small victory hardly even made the news.

Pentagon releases new ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ rules

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced today that the Pentagon will make it more difficult to discharge openly gay or lesbian members of the military.

I know this isn’t complete repeal, but it’s close… really close.

Unfortunately “Don’t ask Don’t Tell’ is a law and not just a policy. Being an actual law means to repeal it you need Congress and after the battle we just saw for allowing sick children a chance to see a doctor, could you imagine the viscous and vileness of a fight to fully repeal DADT ? So, to save us a massive influx of spontaneous combustion victims,apoplectic seizures, and generally a Heaven’s Gate Cult-like reaction that would be sure to swap our health care facilities thus causing the rationing Republican’s feary-tales warned us about, President Obama and Defense Secretary Gates  did everything they could do to repeal the arcane law without having to involved Congressional leaders who have vowed to sit on their hands and no longer work for the American people who elected them. Of course,  those Congressmen will still take the pay-check the American people pay them, they will just refuse to work for it now.

McCain: Don’t expect GOP cooperation

on legislation for the rest of this year

…warning of little work between parties the rest of this year.

For those who yell at sick people and tell them “You want something in this country, you work for it!” and “There are no free-ride or free hand-outs here!” tell me, what do you call it when you pay someone to do a job and they refuse  but still take your payment for that job? Is that theft or welfare? I really don’t know  but I love how you support it when it’s your leaders getting the free ride. Who by the way, could afford not to work AND not take their paycheck, as opposed to a man in a wheelchair with Parkinson. Oh and they get free health-care to boot on your dollar. So, not only are you paying a man who has so many houses that he can’t count them to do a job that he has vowed not to do any longer, but you’re paying for his healthcare also.

yippeeeeeeee…. and here’s your sign.

Back to the homos.

I know this isn’t the total victory that they wanted but I hope they see this is as good as a repeal as they can get in this political climate.The new rules make it almost, not totally but almost impossible for someone who is gay to be kicked out of the military. Of course they can’t be as open as they would like to be but lets face it, hetero’s  aren’t allowed to be as open as some of them would want to be either. No matter who you are attracted to, there just aren’t couples holding hands and cooing in each others ear all over this or that base. Open displays of affection are just not allowed in the military.  Before the new standards though, just the hint and rumor of ones sexual proclivity would get them booted from the military. The sad part was that many of those who worked with person in question , lived with them, fought and bled with them knew of their sexual orientation but said nothing because it never effected that persons ability to do their job and serve their country. But when they made an enemy of someone, whether valid or not, the scorned person could pretty much say what they wanted and end the career of those who had nothing but serve their country with honor, but were born being attracted to the same sex.

While many of us agree that this is a stupid law, I can only hope the new standards are enough for right now to soothe some of the anger of  those who are or have been unjustly affected. Under the new guidelines hearsay and rumor will not be allowed, those who are making the accusation must swear so under oath, and anonymous accusations will no longer be accepted (not that ever should have been).

Another change is who can approve the discharge. In all cases the discharge must be approved by a one-star general or higher.

The new regulations, he said, require that an officer determine

the reliability of the informant and whether that person

might have an ulterior motive in making a report.

Opponents are of course against any change, some high ranking (very high ranking)   individuals have said it was because of the Dutch allowing gays to serve that the Bosnia genocide happened. The gays were just unable to stop fornicating long enough to fight, not that all that high-pitch screaming and slapping is a danger to the ‘real men’  they were fighting anyway, but you know it looked bad..What with all those sweaty,writhing  bodies fornicating out in the open like the gays are prone to do while a section of the popular was slaughtered.

I wonder if the people who believe this also believe that most of the world was  gay in the 1940’s since Hitler’s genocide wasn’t  stopped before millions were murdered either. I’d love to point out to them that with all the genocide going on in Africa today,  by their argument, the whole world must be protected by homos.

Genocide, it’s the  gays fault!

Ha! It would be funny if 1/2 the population wasn’t stupid enough to believe  it.

These  ‘feary-tale’ are on par with Palin’s ‘death panel’.  There is no basis in reality for the fear or the people who promote it, but  the ones who believe it are who President Obama is fighting to change. Like  the idiots who believe whatever Palins vomits out on twitter, they will believe that allowing gays to fight will cause the next genocide to go unchecked.  They are adamant and unchanging in their beliefs, to them  gays should be housed separately from ‘normal’ soldiers because it’s the only way to keep unit cohesion tight and moral high. Maybe we should issue them a pink triangle to wear on their uniform like another military leader did. I guess it’s never occurred to these generals who think this way, that gays are and have been sleeping next to their ‘normal’ boys for a long long time now without uncontrollably humping them in their sleep and ruining moral.

The Spartans or Alexander the Great are just two examples just how non-unified and ’sissy-like’ the homos can make an army. What general would want people like that fight for them?  I mean.. duh!

We can’t save these people from their beliefs and we shouldn’t try because it’s a losing battle. Unfortunately there is enough of them in power to fail in an attempt to completely repeal DADT at this time. PresidentObama and Defense Secretary Gates know this so they’ve done as much as they can to change things anyway.

Even with these new guidelines, will there still be those who are outed and banned from service because of fear,jealousy and spite? Yes, but just like  the new health reform is not perfect  but a step in the right direction, these new regulations are also a major step forward in the right direction. It may take another generation before we see universal acceptance and/or universal health insurance, but one thing cannot be denied. President Obama ran on a platform of Change, a platform to bring us all, even those who will fight every dirty and nasty way they know how, into a future we can all be a part of and proud of and he’s doing everything he can to live up to his promises.

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I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. It’s not that I would call the person telling me about it a liar, but I would assume they were mistaken. Lil Mike and I have had many disagreements but up until the last few months he’s always been a relatively rational person. So even when I was told about this remark he made on the MucheDumbre forum, I still didn’t believe it because even he isn’t that… backwards.

I was… wrong.

I know that Mike doesn’t speak for all Republicans, but he does tow whatever current talking point the rest of them are towing religiously. Even still, the other day when I 1st saw this theory in the comments section on a leftie blog reporting the news, I didn’t give it much thought because what intelligent,logical, and rational person would actually come out and say that since it wasn’t on TV, they just wouldn’t believe it? I mean the news told me it was windy outside, but they didn’t show me video.. so I’m going to call shenanigans! Jesus didn’t walk the earth because there is no video to prove it! Dinosaurs never existed because no one caught one on film.   You see why this is such a retarded concept?

Now, I am not just addressing Mike in this post even though I am using a lot of singular pronouns, I’m not just talking to him.. (yes, Mike forces me to make this disclaimer now when addressing him)

Lil MIke
I’ve waited a couple of days to comment on this because I wanted to see what evidence turned up on, but so far, nothing.

So in the matter of Rep. Cleaver being spit on, I call shennanigans.

In the matter of Rep. Lewis being called the “N” word, I again call shennanigans.

I’ve scoured YouTube and I’ve seen various news coverage of the walk between buildings in question, and I didn’t hear anyone use that language. The walk was so heavily filmed by so many sources that it strains incredulity that not a single flip or phone camera didn’t catch it, let alone the network news cameras that filmed it. Rep. Jackson actually filmed it with his flip camera, so where is his footage? And no witnesses. Maybe Jackson has it on his flip and is just waiting for the right time to release it, but until then, it sounds like a political trick.

In the matter of Rep. Frank being called a faggot, there seems to be enough witnesses to confirm it, so even though there is no footage of it, I buy the story.

Interestingly though, several people near the person who called him that called him out on it. So that’s positive.

Since you didn’t see it on the ‘telegraph with moving picture-box’.. it can’t be true?

In my best Bill Maher.. “Really?

Of course it’s shenanigans that someone would call black man “nigger” in this country. No one would ever do such a thing, of course they’d call a homosexual a “faggot”, but those kind of people draw the line when it comes to using the ‘n’ word..

Is this how far you’ll stoop to ignore reality? You now have to see it on the picture box..?

Your reality must be interesting if you need the television to prove things to you. As for the spitting that you ‘ scoured YouTube’ for…  it took about 15 seconds to find..

The incident shenanigan is at about 1:20.. you can see his head jerk back, you can see him swat his hand and after he walks away you can see him wiping his face some more. Now I know, John Madden isn’t there to show you a frame by frame but…

wait, what am I thinking, you don’t watch videos that are posted do you?

I know, you don’t believe it unless it’s on TV, but you and your people have lost their fucking minds

Really? Browning can stop it? Well we know who Palin is talking to with her tweet don’t we?

and her map of targets.. ya know the one with the cross-hairs

Means nothing.

Hopefully someone gets the assassination on video so you can watch the TV and see it for yourself since that’s what you base your beliefs on now.

Hey, don’t worry  the GOP is right there egging it all on with “don’t tread on me’ banners draped off the balcony of the House.. They’re right there in the loop of all of this, I’m sure you oozing pride aren’t you? One can only assume that you and they have you fingers crossed that Palin’s target finds it mark.

Of course you hope it’s not caught on camera so you can deny it too..

”

Feet from the Capitol, protesters roar when GOP members fly a "Don't Tread on Me" flag from the House balcony"

I know that this next incident wasn’t on television, so it must be made up too.

One vulnerable Democrat in the post-health care reform era is Representative Tom Perriello (D-Va.), whose support for reform has brought him continual criticism. This week, one self-styled “Tea Party organizer” posted what he thought was Perriello’s home address, encouraging people to harass the lawmaker at home. The address ended up being the home of Perriello’s brother’s family, but the activist, Mike Troxel, took it in stride, saying, “I was a journalism major in college, so I have every reason to believe my research is accurate.” Laugh if you want, but this is precisely how the “journalism” works, circa 2010. This isn’t the first time Perriello critics have struggled with geography: back in December, Tea Partiers got all bent out of shape when they discovered that Perriello’s Charlotteville office wasn’t conveniently located in a way that facilitated their whining.

UPDATE: The call to harass Perriello and the dissemination of the incorrect address has combined to lead to something scary: a propane gas line at Perriello’s brother’s house was cut. The FBI is reportedly investigating this.

Since there wasn’t an explosion, it must be fake..

and the Stupak threats?

“Congressman Stupak, you baby-killing mother fucker… I hope you bleed out your ass, got cancer and die, you mother fucker,”

and

“There are millions of people across the country who wish you ill,and all of those thoughts that are projected on you will materialize into something that’s not very good for you.

was only caught on audio tape..

Stupak audio recordings of threats

But sadly, since it wasn’t a video tape on youtube  it was probably just Stupak calling himself. By the way, what is the GOP’s fascination with male asses?

Nevermind.

Hell, this doesn’t mean anything either

and since a militia leader called for broken windows..

And on Monday, a former Alabama militia leader took credit for instigating the actions.

Mike Vanderboegh of Pinson, Ala., former leader of the Alabama Constitutional Militia, put out a call on Friday for modern “Sons of Liberty” to break the windows of Democratic Party offices nationwide in opposition to health care reform. Since then, vandals have struck several offices, including the Sedgwick County Democratic Party headquarters in Wichita.

and got them, that tweet above should just be ignored because really, who would listen to such a thing? Sir-Han Sir-Han only listened to voices in his head, and Hinkley only did it to make Jodi Foster see him..

I mean really..

who would listen to such a thing?

I guess when the tea baggers meet in Washington on such an innocuous day as April 19 for their BRING YOUR GUNS rally it doesn’t mean anything,because that date doesn’t mean anything and they’re just bringing their loaded guns. It’s not like the anger we see in the spitting video will still be boiling. It’s not like any of the examples in this blog would ever egg someone on..

Of course you’ll just ignore it no matter what.. But let’s just hope the secret service doesn’t

19 April 2010:

Bring Your Sidearms and Longarms
To The Banks of the Potomac Pistol loaded,
openly carried. Rifle unloaded, slung to rear.
Bandoleer of magazines containing ammo. 

We know the GOP would have allowed an armed protest of the war right? Especially an armed protest after all the death threats and assignations promises that you’ve decided are shenanigans and will just ignore..

I don’t really know who you are anymore, then again, maybe I never did. You keep saying you’ve never changed and are the same person you have always been, maybe I just never saw how reactionary and dangerously flippant you are until now.

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After reading Fox News version of Natoma Canfield ’s plight and after getting over my disgust at the flippant skew of their story,I decided to see just what kind of people Fox news is playing to. I was sure those commenting on the piece would be as appalled as I was after reading that article tripe because who wouldn’t be? This idea that she ‘may’ get financial help for the treatment and that somehow negates her ordeal was so outrageous that even the truly heartless,mindless,GOP sycophant must be taken aback.

Oh how I was wrong.

Before  we get to the truly ugly part of our society, the part that feeds on Fox News and GOP rhetoric..Remember where this started. Natoma wrote a letter to the President explaining her situation to him, she had had insurance and had paid it’s high premiums. She explained that last year she paid “$6075.24 in premiums, $2415.26 for medical care, $225 in co-pays and $1500 for prescriptions.” For all of this, her insurance company paid out a staggering $935 to her benefit. What a wonderful return she pays over $10,000 and the insurance gives her $935. I can’t imagine anyone looking at that and saying “A yup, seems right to me”.. but, they do.

When Anthem sent Natoma a letter letting her know that after being with this company for 11 years,  in 2010, her policy would be increased over 40% to $8496.24.

Natoma had to let the insurance go.

$8500 a year,  that’s over $700 a month… for health insurance. Is this normal and satisfactory to people? Are there a lot of us out there who could afford coverage for one person  for the great cost of $177 a week?

When did this become the normal part of American life, so normal that people across the country are not outrage just at that? $177 a week.. not for food,shelter,utilities.. but health insurance on one person? What she if had to cover a family of four?

That is where Fox picks up her story and where this blogs begins. Natoma said in her letter that she was afraid to think about where she would get the money to pay her bills now that she didn’t have healthcare. A perfectly reasonable fear, a fear that even people with insurance might have just because of the emotions  and costs involved. But to Foxnews and those who champion them, this is the pit of waste they decided to swim in. Instead of going after Anthem, they set their sights on Natoma’s fears.

Natoma Canfield, the cancer-stricken woman who has become a centerpiece of President Obama’s push for health care reform, will not lose her home over her medical bills and will probably qualify for financial aid, a top official at the Cleveland medical center treating her told FoxNews.com.

Sure, Natoma might qualify for aid… might. So there you go people, nothing to see here.. move along.

Of course  gold coins might fall out of her ears tomorrow too, but that doesn’t negate another in a long,long list of examples of an insurance company profiting on the health of Americans.

Natoma could possibly be healed by a local voodoo priest laying hands upon her, that doesn’t change the fact that insurance companies have gotten out of control when it comes to their profit margin.

If this ‘probability’ stopped there, then maybe it could be seen as a ‘feel good’ piece. Ya know, a “Thank God, she has one last thing to worry about in this time of need” maybe it would be ok. But it didn’t and as the comments show, it produced the exact feeling FoxNews hoped and always hopes to provoke in people. Of course “feeling” is a loose translation of the word as you’ll see.

Before that though, there seems to be this running theme everywhere of “Well they can just get medicaid” in one breath and “We don’t need government healthcare paid for by tax-payers” in the other.  A “everyone has insurance because they can just use the ER” repetitiveness that somehow excuses the point of having to use the ER like a primary care doctor instead of a.. ya know.. emergency room. Here’s my question, who is paying for that cost when people who don’t have insurance use the ER?   Who do people think is paying for Medicaid ?  The Fairy-Medical-Mother? Do the people wiping drool off their chin from all their blathering about tax-payer government health care not understand that the medicaid they are telling Natoma to get is tax-payer paid for government healthcare?

I don’t think they do.

While we’re playing in the realm of pretend, what if she paid the extortion to her insurance company and they dropped her after she was diagnosed with leukemia? There is an equal, if not better, chance that  would have happened as there is a chance that she ‘might‘ or will ‘probably’ get medicaid or some kind of charity to pay her bill. Had she been dropped,  then what? Who cares because she could have gone on tax-payer government healthcare, but  as long as she doesn’t pay for her own government healthcare it’s ok?

The idea that anyone could say “Hey  you know what? I think you should pay out $10,000 a year, get $900 paid back and next year pay 40% more and get back less.. “ Is pretty much the stupidest thing I think I’ve ever heard. But it seems to be the common thread these days.  She is after all only a house-cleaner, it’s not like she own AIG or anything important like that.

The idea that anyone would champion a system  that says “Look, be happy.. after all those years of paying into this product and getting no return, now you can go on charity so quit your bitching” is not only the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard but probably the most callous. I can only hope that  Karma X3 finds the people saying this with some event that forces them to seek help from a ‘charity’. I just hope they don’t meet people like themselves at those charities who tell  them to go find help somewhere else. Or worse, tell them they’ve helped too many this month so maybe come back next month and see if they can get some help.

We’re the best country on the planet,  the only SuperPower, the beacon of all and the best we can do is.. “She might get charity to help pay for her illness and she probably won’t lose her house”?

As if that’s even a concern, after reading what the Foxnewies GOP sycophants  think.. she really deserves the loss of her home because she should have paid the insurance company their extortion fee and her mortgage and just stopped eating and watching TV, the lazy bitch.

That’s right, she made a choice folks. She should have paid her insurance instead of her mortgage and really.. she has a TV right? She chose to pay them, so there you go! She deserves everything she gets!  The stupid woman should learn to prioritize, doesn’t she know that the American Dream isn’t to grow up, work hard and buy a house. No! It’s grow up, work hard, pay your insurance even when they’re raping you.

It’s truly disgusting the level of bottom-feeder that the GOP and FoxNews has succeeding in producing. If that comment was the only one like it I would attribute it to a mutant strain of GOP, unfortunately… it’s not

How can that poor insurance company be at fault? All they did was continue to raise her rates to the point where she had to decide between them and her mortgage, shheesh.. it’s her fault for not just doubling her deductible, I mean she only paid out $10,000 in costs last year! Hello! Anthem gave her $900 worth coverage for it, what does she want.. more?

It’s gross isn’t it? I just wish that was it…

As a physician, I recommend we all just not pay our bills.. no one loses their house, no one cares that it’s on your credit and all those non-paid bills really have no affect on the system because the Fairy-Medical-Mother bibbity,bobbity,boos them away.

Are you out of your fucking mind? The solution to “paid for by everyone, shared by everyone’ Universal Health care is? We just don’t pay our bills when we incur them because it’s not like anyone has to pay for it anyway.

Fuck me! Someone shoot me if I get this stupid!

That’s right, why do all Americans have to suffer for the plight of a few..

We don’t need to end slavery, why do all Americans have to suffer for the plight of a few?

We don’t need to desegregate, I mean why do all Americans have to suffer for the plight of a few?

We don’t need to let woman vote and have a right to equal and fair treatment, why do all Americans have to suffer for the plight of a few

There are other ways than following the Progressives like Franklin, Washington, Adams, or Jefferson! We’re Americans, why do we all have to suffer for a few? Jesus! Everyone gets treatment anyway, whether they have the money or not and the great Fairy-Medical-Mother pays for it!

It just keeps getting better doesn’t it?

Do you think if someone explained that the ‘charity’ and the ‘medicaid’ might only kick in when the disease has reached catastrophic levels  and had the person had coverage before it got that bad, it might have only cost the tax payers and charity houses a few hundred dollars instead of a few million, they’d understand?

Yeah, I don’t think so either.

That floozy-trash was Natoma’s sister. John Boehner was right though, the GOP is doing everything they can to stop health reform.

I don’t know about you, but after reading the stirrings from the FoxNewies- GOP sycophants I feel unclean. More than that though, I feel frightened that one day a candidate that holds these peoples beliefs as his/her own could one day rule this country. God help us when that day comes.

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There had been something nagging me for the past few weeks.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something was turning me into a grumpy old man every time I read or saw something on TV about Toyota’s problems with unintended acceleration in its vehicles.  If I had a cane I would wave it every time a Toyota recall story came on the air.

It started with the floor mats.  Floor mats were implicated in crashes and one could see how that would happen.  A loose floor mat slides over the gas pedal, and a hapless driver is left to try to kick it off the pedal while the car is accelerating.  A tragedy yes, but a design flaw?  Maybe, but it seems like an obvious problem; easily correctable.

Then it was the gas pedal.  Toyota came up with a specific mechanical fix described this way; “a precision-cut steel reinforcement bar will be installed into the accelerator pedal assembly, thereby eliminating the excess friction that has caused pedals to stick in rare instances.”  I don’t know how rare it could be since Transportation Secretary Roy LaHood initially told Toyota owners to park their cars and not drive them until they could be repaired.  OK, well finally, a mechanical solution found to the problem right?

Not so fast – unless you are driving a Toyota, then you may not be able to help yourself!

Now it’s the electronic throttle control.  OK, at this point I’m thinking to myself, “Come on, really?”  Three totally unrelated problems in a few months causing unintended acceleration in a several different Toyota models?  You have to really drink at the sippy cup of the main stream media to not see this as odd.  Did Toyota start hiring laid off GM quality control techs?

This seemed to finally waken Toyota from it’s stupor as well.  After months of bowing and scraping in front of the press and Congressional committees, it started disputing some of the accusations.  Toyota issued a statement rebutting the latest accusations from Professor David Gilbert of Southern Illinois University that he had discovered a design flaw in the vehicle electronic systems that prevents unintended acceleration.  That’s a strategy that usually goes against the public relations grain, so Toyota must either think it’s in dire enough straits to think outside the box or they really think Professor Gilbert is full of shit.  And there is a lot of reason to think Gilbert is full of shit, since as Toyota responds, electronics don’t rewire themselves.

I’m thinking the latter, since Toyota still doesn’t seem to have even a good phony story that there is light at the end of the tunnel, otherwise they would never have admitted this:

“The president of Toyota’s U.S. operations acknowledged to skeptical lawmakers on Tuesday that the company’s recalls of millions of its cars may “not totally” solve the problem of sudden and dangerous acceleration.

“We are vigilant and we continue to look for potential causes,” Toyota’s James Lentz told a congressional panel.”

So in other words, they’re clueless.

That strains credulity. 

That almost lends one to think there is some conspiracy afoot.  After this long, could Toyota really not know what is causing unintended acceleration after several recalls?

And then, finally, last week there was this:

 Stupid Old People

 That did it.

An 80 year old woman, who just had her vehicle repaired under the recall, had a sudden hiccup of “unintended acceleration.”  And then the memories finally flooded back.

It was the 1980’s, the age of Reagan.  Izod shirts were worn with their collars up and everyone was told to “go for it.”

OK actually it was the early 1990’s and the memories that returned were of a book I read, not polo shirts with upturned collars.  The book?  Parliament of Whores, by P.J. O’Rourke.

O’Rourke recounts in his chapter Protectors of a Blameless Citizen: The Bureaucracy, how the National Highways Traffic Safety Administration had been investigating unintended accelerations throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s. 

“By 1987 six thousand SAI’s [Sudden-Acceleration Incidents] had been reported, and the cars leaving without permission had supposedly caused three thousand accidents, two thousand injuries, and fifty-six deaths.”

So surely the NHTSA finally got to the bottom if right?  Yes it did.  The results?

WASHINGTON, March 7 /PRNewswire/ — The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today announced that an exhaustive, independent study of the “sudden acceleration” phenomenon in cars concluded that pedal misapplications that may be aggravated by vehicle design are the most probable explanation for most reports of sudden acceleration.

That’s right.  “Pedal misapplications.”  A nice euphemism for stupid drivers.

Like now, there was media hysteria during the 1980’s sudden acceleration craze.  60 Minutes even fraudulently rigged the gas pedal of an Audi 5000 to press down, seemingly of its on accord.  In fact, the producers of that venerable news organization set up a device to give the appearance of a gas pedal magically accelerating on its own.

Think the news is above that now?  Ask ABC News.  They rigged a news report on unintended acceleration to show a Toyota Avalon wildly accelerating, even though the doors were open and parking brake was on.

1980’s Knight Rider had better production values.

My conclusion from all this?  Simple.  “Unintended Acceleration” is bullshit.

Usually when I write about my opinions; its opinion supported by facts.  In this case, I freely admit that I don’t have facts to prove that there is no mechanical or electronic reason for unintended acceleration incidents.  I’m basing my opinion, that it is primarily the fault of stupid drivers, not failed automobiles, on both a hunch, and the experience that comes from seeing almost exactly the same thing happen before.  Hysterical news reports and fraudulent reporting, hard to diagnosis mechanics, crying victims in front of Congressional committees, and of course, old people who swear it wasn’t their fault.

And this time we have the added bonus of a government that actually owns a competing auto company.  They get to regulate their competition.  Neat.  If I see Honda start having a batch of mysterious acceleration cases that will really seal the deal.

So I can’t swear that we are being swindled by mass hysteria once again, and if some factual mechanical or electronic reason does show up, I will be happy to change my opinion, but right now, I’m calling shenanigans on unintended acceleration.

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Am I the only one who is flat out amazed at the changes the earthquake in Chile caused?

The magnitude-8.8 earthquake that rocked the west coast of Chile last month was violent enough to move the city of Concepcion at least 10 feet to the west and the capital, Santiago, about 11 inches to the west-southwest, researchers said.

As if that wasn’t amazing enough

NASA scientists have also credited the quake with shifting the Earth’s axis enough to create shorter days. The change is negligible, but still worth noting: Each day should be 1.26 microseconds shorter, according to preliminary calculations. A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.

Holy WOW Batman! I know a microsecond isn’t anything to worry about.. but sweet Jesus, that earthquake was so large it changed time!

It was so violent it moved an entire city 10 ft to the west.

That’s just crazy to think of. It’s something you think of happening during the Permian Period when the world was the super continent of ‘Pangea‘, not in our time.

I’ll tell you something else.. the 2012 predictions don’t look so crazy when you read about the effect of Chilean earthquake do they..?

ok, well maybe they do a little. But it does make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

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Have you ever wondered what kind of people Republicans are ? I have often wondered what makes them so different from a liberal Democrat.  I have especially wondered how some people, notably  the gays , can fall in line with a party that doesn’t believe they have the right to exist.  To me it’s like a black man joining the KKK, of course the KKK will take his money and take his vote if it furthers their agenda.. but they also want him wiped from existence in their world and would gladly do such a thing if they could.

Those kinds of questions are probably left to a psychiatrist couch. They probably have something to do with a need, going back to high school, to be accepted by what they perceive to be the ‘cool kids’. Why those who are fiscally conservative (and that’s the only reason they are a Republican) can’t just be a Blue-Dog Democrat is beyond me.  So those are questions that just have to remain unanswered.  The one we can now answer  though is more general, more encompassing.

What kind of people are Republicans and what kind of people donate to Republicans?  Well, thanks to the Republican National Committee…we have a list.

stef's diary :: :: Daily Kos

They are people driven by fear, they have extreme negative feelings, hate if you will, against the administration, they are weak and cave into peer pressure, they are brown-nosers who want access, they are ego-driven and most of all they are reactionary.

Ouch. I don’t care who you are, that has to hurt. Then again, most Republicans are probably so ego-driven that they don’t realize that they are in this list, to them this is a list of those ‘other’ Republicans.

I’d ask Mike where he fell in this list that his party has said he is a part of, but he’s so far into the kool-aid that even hearing what his religious leaders really think of him doesn’t matter.  Even  though this is what his own party thinks of him and the other members, he, like the others who are either driven by.. well pick something from  the list.. to turn their backs… Thou shalt have no other God beside the GOP and all.

On a happier note, we know what will be the issues for the coming up elections. Fear and we even know what kind.

stef's diary :: :: Daily Kos

and we got a sneak peek at the signs we can look forward to.

stef's diary :: :: Daily Kos

Fear of Socialism, huh.. that’s original

What’s sad is that there isn’t a single policy issue in the 72 pages of motivational material laid out by the RNC.  But even that is not as sad as not a single Republican noticing that. They are running on hate, peer pressure and reactionary impulses of the easily frightened, what do they need policy for?

The worst part of all is a party that thinks this of it’s members. Why would anyone stand with a group that thinks so little and so negatively of it’s own people?

While others are probably enjoying this issue for their own reasons, I find it insulting and frankly unconscionable, but after seeing everything we have seen since a black man took office.. I can’t deny that in many case the Republicans nailed it. That doesn’t mean I think all of their donors and supporters are like this, not like they obviously do, but you can’t watch Hannity or Beck, listen to Rush or Beck.. support Palin or Bachman and not have a few of those things on the RNC list in your make up. The fact that this kind of ‘Faux news’ and ‘rhetoric’ is so popular only shows the amount of reactionary, ego-driven, easily scared people that have become a part of the Republican party.

One thing is for sure, those must be some damn nice “tchochkes” they give out to donors to make people ignore what their party thinks of them.

**********UPDATE*********

Poltico is reporting that

“Rob Bickhart, the Republican National Committee official behind the embarrassing fundraising presentation reported this week by POLITICO, has been paid at least $370,000 since last June by the RNC in salary and consulting fees

wow..he “makes more than the President of the United States” and as if that wasn’t enough..

Between Bickhart’s salary – he is on pace to earn a little more than $196,000 annually – and his consulting fees – which tallied $240,000 in the second half of last year alone – it appears Bickhart could receive north of $500,000 per year from the RNC

That’s a lot of money given to someone who was only able to come up with a ‘fear’ campaign geared towards the ego-driven, reactionaries.

Here’s a question, I expect Mike and some other Republucans to believe him, but do we really believe that Michael Steele didn’t know how his very own “finance director” was planning to “urge top donors and fundraisers to use “fear” of President Barack Obama to raise cash”? While labeling party-members that way? Isn’t one of Steele’s job fundraiser? If so, would he really not know how the RNC was going to do that?  I don’t know that I buy that.

Not that Steele will lose his job, they need him as the scapegoat if they don’t take back the House and Senate like they have predicted. I do wonder how being labeled these horrible things by their own party will affect fund-raising  and thus their ability to finance the type of  “fear” campaigns they plan on running.

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