Huckabee on the carpet

British comedian Ricky Gervais recently put together a short TV comedy series, Idiots Abroad; seven episodes indulging his obvious schadenfreude by making his "friend" and reputed moron Carl Pilkington miserable despite having been being sent to visit some wonderful places. It had the effect of annoying me since Pilkington, who isn't quite the idiot Gervais says he is, seems rather to be a nice and decent sort of fellow and deserved better treatment, even if that would undermine the premise of the show.

I don't feel quite the same way about Likable Mike Huckabee, affable and avuncular and sincere though he may seem. It's as hard to feel sympathy for one whose idiocy seems more purposeful and politically founded than genetic, although that may be a factor too. I'm not just talking about his shameless promotion of Bronze age ignorance and mythology and the snickering denigration of science. I'm not just talking about promoting the invasion of Libya and thus cementing the authority of Qaddafi, making us appear imperialistic and escalating the debt and putting a strain on our military capability. I'm talking abut his attempt to enlist a far more scurrilous bit of political mythology than "creation science" to promote his grotesque candidacy by telling us our president grew up in Africa and so really doesn't either understand us or have our interests at heart.

It's not just the racism. I'm used to racism. It's that the possibility of his candidacy rests on building and arming an insurgency of idiots who neither know or care about reality. It's like inviting the Klan to use your back yard for a rally and claiming you're above that sort of thing yourself.

It's not that he's black, you see -- it's just that you can't trust someone with the troubling attribute of being dark skinned. Smiling Mike surely knows that Barack Obama lived in Indonesia as a small boy but wasn't born in and didn't live in any part of Africa. He knows he was born in the USA as surely as Bruce Springsteen was and Mike Huckabee was and grew up in the American Midwest and was raised by his white relatives. So if he does know that and chooses none the less to have you believe otherwise, he's a liar willing to use lies to get elected. If he doesn't know that, he's an idiot to the degree that he shouldn't be given a more responsible or well paid position than a men's room attendant.

Huckabee shouldn't be trusted with leading a Boy Scout troop, much less the United States. He represents, despite his smiling, self-effacing sincerity, the lower skirt of the intellectual as well as the moral decency bell curve, no matter how you measure it.

Yes, professional fixer and HuckPAC Executive Director J. Hogan Gidley says Huckabee "simply misspoke" during his book tour, which is as convincing as saying the dog didn't crap on the carpet, but simply misshit. It only means he's not toilet trained, can't be trusted and we surely don't want him on the expensive rug in the oval office.

Class Warfare

Number of teachers in New Jersey:

112,933

Number of millionaires in New Jersey:

228,442

NJ governor thinks the NJEA

(teachers' union) leeches off taxpayers.

Meanwhile, corporate tax revenues are at historic lows.

Declining union membership, shrinking middle class.

If they can't hunt, put them on ice floes, right?

You know, it’s a funny thing. Every so often as I wander around the more religious blogs, I trip over the hair-rippingly stupid idea that atheists and agnostics have no moral center, and that morality is rooted in religion alone. You can occasionally run headlong into the matching idea that only conservatives are moral and upright, and liberals are twisted, evil libertines.

That being said, let me point out that the religious, conservative David Brooks just wrote a column for the New York Times in which he explained that, because money is tight, we should just let old people die and save our money for the young.

In case you think I’m taking him out of context, let me just hand you a towel as I reveal the money shot in the second paragraph.

Trim from the old to invest in the young. We should adjust pension promises and reduce the amount of money spent on health care during the last months of life so we can preserve programs for those who are growing and learning the most.

His mother must be so proud.

Open mouth, disengage brain

Definition of irony: Tim Pawlenty, the third most boring, elitist multi-millionaire politician in the world, trying to gain Tea Party cred. But all he could manage was to alternately lie and contradict himself (admittedly, this is potentially the alchemical formula for Tea Party fame, so maybe he's on to something).

First, he claimed that Obama supported (or, more accurately, “coddled”) the unions, when that is a fight that Obama has been specifically staying out of, as both sides have pointed out.

Now, recall that the unions are fighting to keep their right to have a voice in contract negotiations, against a governor who wants to strip away those rights and keep them silent. So what does Pawlenty follow up with?

“We don’t share President Obama’s worldview. We don’t want a bigger government shoving mandates down our throats. He’s got it completely backwards. They the bureaucrats don’t tell us what to do, we the people tell them what to do.”

OK, Tim, pay attention: teachers, firefighters, cops – they are "the people." They may not be the people who come to your Eagan, Minn. mansion for tea, but they are "the people." Who are fighting against overreaching government.

How is this not clear?

Gunboat diplomacy again?

It may seem like old news at a time when this morning's Punch and Judy show is already old by lunchtime, but I've been taking a small vacation from blogging and improving my health by not immediately looking at the news every morning. I'm back, but old news is what I have for breakfast today.

I heard Mr. Huckabee lambaste President Obama last week on MSNBC for not parking the Navy off the coast of Libya so as to intimidate Colonel Qaddafi. Do we need any more evidence for the presidential unsuitability of the avuncular mediocrity who doesn't "believe" in science but thinks it's always better to look tough even when it defeats your purpose?

The mad Colonel has made capital out of standing between Libya and the imperialism of America and what better help could we give him in putting out his message that it's either his leadership or chaos?

I have either to think that Obama bashing is sufficient end in itself for Mike to forget about any possible benefit from a move toward liberal democracy in the Middle East, or that waving the flag is all one needs to do to rally the mob, but in either case the pronouncements of Mike Huckabee are all about the candidacy of Mike Huckabee and everything he says or does is designed to further that end rather than to offer any viable solutions to real problems. Just the kind of Bozo America loves to elect, isn't he?

The Next Ten Days

So, I'm at work clearing out my email the other day, and I find a piece of spam; somebody else's copy is here, if anybody cares. Although theirs was apparently addressed directly to them, and mine started out "Dear Pro-Life Friend" (which is two - two - two lies in one).

Now, I have no idea how they got my work email address - I'm fastidious about not using it for anything but business. They've got rules about that sort of thing. Nonetheless, it turns up on somebody's mailing list every so often. And since they'd gone to the trouble of tracking me down, it seemed only right that I should respond to it.
________________


Dear Ms Musgrave,

I realize that you probably didn’t actually write the fundraising letter I received, but it has a facsimile of your signature on it, so you get the blame.

I also realize that you seem to refer to yourself as “Congresswoman.” Well, I’m sorry, but you aren’t one anymore. And as far as I’m concerned, six years representing Colorado (where I’ve never lived) doesn’t entitle you to a lifetime honorific. I realize that it’s a sign of respect to refer to former Congressfolk by their title, but respect, really, has to be earned (and let’s not go there).

Plus, this is America: we threw off the yoke of our aristocracy a couple of hundred years ago. So, for any number of reasons, I think you should probably drop the title.

I also apologize for my delay in responding, but I’m not clear how you got my work email address, but, since I do, in fact, have a job, I have to access this from home, in my own time, to respond. Rules, y’know.

Now, let’s start with the fact that you’re being a spokesmodel for the Susan B. Anthony List, which has misappropriated the name of a staunch feminist and claimed that she was pro-life. Since there are no writings or speeches that can be reliably attributed to her regarding abortion, it’s a bit of an unfounded leap to decide Ms Anthony’s politics for her, isn’t it?

(Of course, I guess that “unfounded leaps” are a specialty of yours. For example, your support for “abstinence only” education, as if AO actually works: you should ask Bristol Palin how it worked out for her. Or your apparent belief that a woman without a functioning brain, like Terri Schiavo, still qualifies as “alive” in any functional sense of the word.)

Now, I understand that you can’t seem to stop your knees from jerking wildly whenever anyone mentions abortion, but your effort to defund Planned Parenthood seems a little bit excessive.

After all, over 90 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services go to preventative healthcare for low-income women, like STD treatment, Pap tests, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and other healthcare that they wouldn’t be getting otherwise.

The most telling argument would have to be that, without the birth control that they offer low-income women, these women would be more likely to get pregnant, which would lead to more abortions. So, by trying to defund Planned Parenthood, you are probably causing more abortions than you’d be preventing.

On the other hand, you’ve never been a big advocate for birth control, have you? Aside from being openly opposed to allowing "Plan B" emergency contraceptive to be available when needed, you actually had the gall to insert an amendment into the "Runaway, Homeless, and Missing Children Protection Act" making it a crime to allow runaways access to contraception - after all, it's right there in the Bible. "Honor thy father and mother." So if they're rude enough to run away from home, they deserve to get pregnant, don't they?

Ms Musgrave, you're a short-sighted, partisan fool who doesn't bother to consider the repercussions of her actions. Isn't it time to leave the public eye, and maybe go hide in a cave and wait for the Rapture?

_________________


Editor’s note: By the way, we all need to stand up for Planned Parenthood.

GOVERNOR WALKER, YOU’VE BEEN KOCH’D! - PLUS THE GOP PLOT TO BREAK UNIONS AND SEIZE PENSION ASSETS (AN OCTO UPDATE)

I am writing fast and furious to beat our dear Octopus to this story and thus keep him contained!

It has been reported and confirmed by his own staff that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was pranked by a caller pretending to be David Koch, one of the roachy duo who own Koch Industries, Inc, long believed to be pulling various GOP strings in order to further their own interests.

Walker fell for it, hook line and sinker and the ensuing conversation is full of priceless gems such as:

On the call, Walker talks about speaking with Democratic Sen. Tim Cullen, one of the Democrats hiding in Illinois to stop the bill, and telling Cullen he would not budge. After Walker said he would be willing to meet with Democratic leaders, the caller said he would bring "a baseball bat." Walker laughed and responded that he had "a slugger with my name on it."

HERE is a link to this breaking story.

And a h/t to BUFFALO BEAST who brought us this diabolical outing!

Fellow Zoners - please feel free to edit and add to this post as the story develops.

UPDATE! In the few minutes between the time I posted this and now, the Buffalo Beast has been removed from the 'net. Hopefully this is only because they were overwhelmed with visitors and not for more sinister reasons.

UPDATE FROM OCTO: Two years ago, I posted this announcement about taking leave from the Swash Zone to collaborate on a story with Lindsay Beyerstein of Focal Point. Two years later, the project remains on hold, and the story untold. I am still constrained from revealing certain details, but I will volunteer this for now: The story is about a ten year plan to break the unions, dismantle all Defined Benefit Pensions in America, and seize pension assets.

You guessed it. The Wisconsin story and the collaboration between Lindsay and Octopus are interconnected. Here is a brief synopsis:

• The story involves former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Senator Max Baucus of Montana, former Secretary of the Treasury John Snow, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and 103 legislators in the House of Representatives.
• Over 1,100 retired airline pilots lost 40% of their pension funds when their employer, USAir, filed for bankruptcy protection. Every organization and institution offering redress failed the pilots at every step along the way.
• US Air (employer) declared bankruptcy after 9/11 and alleged that all pilot pension funds had been lost. During the discovery phase following bankruptcy proceedings, USAir admitted having 78% of the funds which was turned over to the PBGC; later it was shown that US Air had 103% of the funds.
• ALPA - the airline pilot union abandoned their retired pilots by refusing to represent them in claims against USAir … thus violating their own bylaws;
• U.S. Congress -– The pilots lobbied Congress to redress their grievance. The Airline Pension Act of 2003 (the bill known as HR 2719) was sponsored by 103 legislators but died in committee;
• The Law firm representing the pilots was bought by a rival firm that represented only management; thus the original law firm withdrew from case;
• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) – Although the PBGC recovered 103% of the pension funds, pilots are receiving only 60% of their pensions; there is a pending class action suit between the pilots and the PBGC.
• Current Status – of the 1,100 retired pilots participating in the class action suit, 285 have since died – with no resolution after 8 years of litigation. The matter is still pending.

At one point during the lobbying effort, one of the petitioners (a retired pilot) was pulled aside by a chief aid of one of the senators mentioned above, who said:

“[Name redacted], I want to tell you something in strict confidence. If they find out I told you, it will cost me my career and my future. They are not only NOT going to help you, but it is their agenda to dismantle all Defined Benefit Plans worldwide, not just in the U.S.”

According to this aid, these were the goals of the leadership: To remove all legacy costs as a long-term obligation off corporate books with the goal of increasing shareholder value. Not targeting pilots specifically, their aim was to use USAir as a test case for cutting legacy costs in key industries, such as automotive and steel and the public sector, by circumventing or overturning laws that protected these pensions. The pilots were chosen as a test case because they were regarded negatively as “under-worked, over-paid playboys.”

Former Treasury Secretary John Snow was formerly the Chairman of CSX Corporation, a holding company sold to the Carlisle Group after Snow accepted a cabinet post in the Bush/Cheney administration. Dick Cheney held board positions in CSX and Electronic Data Systems (EDS). EDS was the largest creditor named in the USAir bankruptcy filing. As Treasury Secretary, Snow had jurisdiction over the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Snow was Cheney's choice for the Treasury position. These are the relationships between the key players in this story.

As you can surmise from the above synopsis, busting unions and seizing pension assets has been a long term objective of the GOP. Lindsay and Octopus are awaiting the outcome of litigation between the pilots and the PBGC before publishing the full account.

UPDATE! FRIDAY FEB 25

Despite all the evidence coming to light about the connection between the corrupt Gov Walker and the Koch Klan, the Wisconsin Assembly passed their anti-union bill. While the fight goes on it is certainly a sad day for Wisconsin and for America. You can access the article HERE. This really deserves a separate post - is anyone among the Zoners working on this?

On, Wisconsin!

So, I'm clicking through Time Magazine yesterday, and I come across this column by Joe Klein, regarding the Wisconsin trade union debate. Now, I don't always disagree with Klein, but this column was just a revelation to me.

Revolutions everywhere--in the middle east, in the middle west. But there is a difference: in the middle east, the protesters are marching for democracy; in the middle west, they're protesting against it.

Actually, it sounds to me like the public employees in Wisconsin are demonstrating so that they can keep getting their voices heard, and so the government doesn't gain more control over their lives. Really, it sounds kind of like "democracy" to me.

But maybe I'm misreading the situation up there. Go on, Joe.

I mean, Isn't it, well, a bit ironic that the protesters in Madison, blocking the state senate chamber, are chanting "Freedom, Democracy, Union" while trying to prevent a vote? Isn't it ironic that the Democratic Senators have fled the democratic process?

Isn't it interesting That the Senate Republicans want to force through a bill to strip away decades of rights, and only allow it three days of debate? Why is it that they're in such a hurry again?

An election was held in Wisconsin last November. The Republicans won. In a democracy, there are consequences to elections and no one, not even the public employees unions, are exempt from that.

Absolutely right! There was an election! And because of that, you people have to lose your civil rights! That's just logic!

(You know, it's funny. I've been hearing that quote from the Right a lot lately. "Elections have consequences." It's funny, though. You'd think that if they really believed it, they'd have been saying it after the 2008 elections, wouldn't you? But I digress.)

There are no guarantees that labor contracts, including contracts governing the most basic rights of unions, can't be renegotiated, or terminated for that matter.

Uhh... Joe? Isn't that the point here? The unions want to be able to renegotiate as needed. The governor wants to take that right away from them.

Oh, yeah. And by the way, "contracts can be terminated"? (I reworded that a little; the double negative bothered me.) Yes, they can. But, being a contract, the courts get to step in, and if it turns out that one side is not "acting in good faith," they get to face penalties for being a lying bag of douche.

That's the point of a contract, isn't it?

And it seems to me that Governor Scott Walker's basic requests are modest ones--asking public employees to contribute more to their pension and health care plans, though still far less than most private sector employees do.

Well, yeah. When you factor in all the private sector employees who don't even have heath insurance, sure. (That's about 46 million people nationwide, incidentally.)

But here's the point you're missing, Joey. "Governor Scott Walker's basic requests" - what he's asking for now. Because he's also taking away any ability to argue later, when he gets completely unreasonable.

And he will. See, Scott Walker has always been against unions. He longs for the days when the worker had no rights, and the employer could pay slave wages and fire for no reason. It's been a dream of his for years.

But again, I digress.

When I covered local government in New York 30 years ago, the school janitors (then paid a robust $60,000 plus per year)...

OK, hang on here for just a minute.

You're saying that thirty years ago, a janitor was paid almost twice what he is now? Because the current median salary for a janitor in New York is $33,483. And in 30 years, without adjusting for inflation, janitors are earning 44% less than they did in the 80's?

Man, that union sucks!

(Quick math check - 60,000 - 33,483 = 26,517 / 60,000 = 44.195% - does that sound right to everybody?)

I'll skip a little here, while Klein spends about a paragraph whining about how mean unions are. I mean, I could point out the backbreaking demands of the industrial Barons of the 1800s, leading to the formation of labor unions, which were opposed by those privileged elite millionaires who hired thugs to yadda yadda yadda...

Nobody cares. Rich people want to stay rich, and don't care who they have to destroy to do that. If you don't know this history, you're probably too stupid to care.

But that does bring us to this:

Industrial unions are organized against the might and greed of ownership. Public employees unions are organized against the might and greed...of the public?

Uh... no, Joey, that would be the government. You know, like millionaire governor Scott Walker and his billionaire backers. How is that hard to understand?

But then Joey just gets stupid.

Despite their questionable provenance, public unions can serve an important social justice role, guaranteeing that a great many underpaid workers--school bus drivers, janitors (outside of New York City), home health care workers--won't be too severely underpaid. That role will be kept intact in Wisconsin. In any given negotiation, I'm rooting for the union to win the highest base rates of pay possible...and for management to win the least restrictive work rules and guidelines governing how much truly creative public employees can be paid.

Oh, god. I swear we've covered this. Read back up to the top. I'll wait.

OK, now, since Walker wants to remove any ability of the unions to bargain for anything except base salaries... what the hell are you saying here? That they'll win on topics that they can't even argue about anymore?

You're an idiot, Klein. In fact, let's go further than that.

The basic theme here is that public employees are overpaid. According to a study by Jeffrey Keefe, professor of Labor and Employment Relations at Rutgers, public employees are compensated 3.75% less than similarly skilled and educated private-sector counterparts.

And, in fact, Scott Walker is trying to say that he has to do all this to "save" Wisconsin, to plug a big hole in the budget. But you know the funny part? Wisconsin was doing fine (in fact, they had a budget surplus) until Scott Walker became governor, and created a crisis by giving the state's money away to his cronies.

So, basically, Walker is a lying, thieving bag of fuck, with all the integrity of a rabid weasel.

And here you are, Joey, supporting him. What does that make you?

Union Maid

I looked forward to enjoying retirement - to kicking off my shoes and watching my tentacles wriggle in silhouette against the glare of late night TV without a care in the world. What Wisconsin taught me:  The battles for social progress won by my forbearers are fragile and tenuous at best. The social safety net, public education, environmental protection, Planned Parenthood, decent wages - all under siege.  It seems the Kochroaches are hell bent on reversing civilization itself.  Hells, bells, they are even turning back the clock on evolution as Bagheads and Beckheads, devoid of conscience, slither legless on their stomachs.

I hope this YouTube video will remind our progeny how their forbearers fought the good fight.

The Republican War Against Women

As a member of MoveOn.org, I receive regular email on issues of vital importance. This one can't wait so I am posting it here and now:

10 Shocking Attacks from the GOP War on Women

1) Republicans not only want to reduce women's access to abortion care, they're actually trying to redefine rape. After a major backlash, they promised to stop. But they haven't.

2) A state legislator in Georgia wants to change the legal term for victims of rape, stalking, and domestic violence to "accuser." But victims of other less gendered crimes, like burglary, would remain "victims."

3) In South Dakota, Republicans proposed a bill that could make it legal to murder a doctor who provides abortion care. (Yep, for real.)

4) Republicans want to cut nearly a billion dollars of food and other aid to low-income pregnant women, mothers, babies, and kids. 

5) In Congress, Republicans have proposed a bill that would let hospitals allow a woman to die rather than perform an abortion necessary to save her life. 

6) Maryland Republicans ended all county money for a low-income kids' preschool program. Why? No need, they said. Women should really be home with the kids, not out working. 

7) And at the federal level, Republicans want to cut that same program, Head Start, by $1 billion. That means over 200,000 kids could lose their spots in preschool.

8) Two-thirds of the elderly poor are women, and Republicans are taking aim at them too. A spending bill would cut funding for employment services, meals, and housing for senior citizens.

9) Congress voted yesterday on a Republican amendment to cut all federal funding from Planned Parenthood health centers, one of the most trusted providers of basic health care and family planning in our country. 

10) And if that wasn't enough, Republicans are pushing to eliminate all funds for the only federal family planning program. (For humans. But Republican Dan Burton has a bill to provide contraception for wild horses. You can't make this stuff up).