An answer to the right-wing pundits and tea-baggers:

Since reading the news about the Occupy Wall Street protests I noticed a few common themes in the comments from tea-bagger types. I'd like to take this time to refute the corporate shills' tea-baggers' ideas (which are absolute nonsense).

Teabagger: Aren't these protesters just a bunch of whiney rich kids with nothing better to do?

Me: Um, no. If they were rich they'd be on a yacht off the coast of Monaco thinking about all the ways they can get out of paying any taxes on their capital gains.

Teabagger: The government would have an easier time of it if they just didn't have to pay everyone their "entitlements" like Social Security.

Me: Last time I checked, Social Security is not an entitlement. The government has been taking money out of my check since I was sixteen years old. When I retire, they give it back plus interest. Maybe the teabaggers should take a simple course in economics before they decide to lecture about it.

Teabagger: These kids took student loans out of their own choice and therefore it's their problem.

Me: No, it's really society's problem. When millions of Americans desire an education and cannot afford it and therefore must go into debt to get it, something is terribly wrong with the system. Australians and Europeans get free higher education if they do well in school, and are not saddled with debt the second they get out. We have twenty-something year olds in debt before they even get started in a career path, and then add to that the massive unemployment and the fact that possibly 50% of recent college graduates are either unemployed or working in jobs that do not require a degree, and we (yes we!) have a huge problem on our hands.

To add to that, we waste human capital (not that that matters to the Corporate elite, although it should). Just because you're born into poverty doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a chance at things. Isn't that what the so-called American Dream was all about? If someone is intelligent, they should be given an education free of charge. The teabaggers are a cabal left over from feudalism, wishing to see us return to a time when (corporate) lords protected people (serfs) from the ravishes of the world in exchange for absolute bondage to them. They stand for something that is the very anti-thesis of a free and democratic society.

What is wrong with these teabaggers and those who share such ideology? I'd start with the fact that besides the psychological problems and ignorance they obviously have (signs held up at their "parties" about government staying out of Medicare say it all), they also have no empathy. Why else would you boo a veteran of our armed forces? Or cheer because someone without insurance dies? Or absolve yourself of all interest in your fellow Americans.

Obama was quoted as saying that's not who "we" are. I want to know who these asshats are. Is it just ignorance? Is it that they can't think for themselves so they just parrot whatever they've been spoon-fed by Faux News? Whatever it is, it's refreshing to see that there are still intelligent people left in this country.

"Because if this is gonna be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we've got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition -- and then admit that we just don't want to do it." --Stephen Colbert

The Corporatocracy: It's Official

In case you weren't paying attention, a few days ago the Supreme Court basically ruled that a Corporation has the same "rights" as you and me. If you had been reading the news, you'd probably have missed this, because no major news network bothered to actually report it. Surprise, surprise. Oh, sure, some had letters or editorial opinions about it, but it wasn't news worthy. We all surely knew that the Corporations were in charge. After all, they give to both parties, and every single official in Washington is indebted to them in some way. Sure, Supreme Court Justices are appointed for life, which is supposed to put them above fearing for their position, but they can still be impeached by congress. And since the Corporations have Congress in their pocket, if the Supreme Court doesn't go along and toe the line, they can and will be dissolved.

I decided that it would be fitting to rewrite the Declaration of Independence in favor of the Corporation, seeing as that is what we have become. Enjoy. Feel free to share, just link back here. I call it "The Corporate Declaration of Independence"

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for Corporations to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with a Government, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Corporations are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Business Models, Deregulation and the pursuit of Profits. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Corporations, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the Corporation to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Bottom Line and Profits. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that Corporations are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of regulations and worker protections, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Oversight, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Corporations; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present United States Government For and By The People, is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Oversight over these Corporations. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

They have refused their Assent to Deregulation, the most wholesome and necessary for Corporate Profits.
They have forbidden their Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till their Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, they have utterly neglected to do our bidding.
They have refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of slave labor, unless those people would be given the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right unknown to them and formidable to a free people only.
They have called together legislative bodies at times unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from our Lawyers, for the sole purpose of fatiguing us into compliance with their measures.
They have dissolved Committees repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness their invasions on the rights of the Corporations.
They have refused for a long time, after such disolutions, to cause others to be appointed; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the Corporation remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of worker strikes from without, and bankruptcy from within.
They have endeavoured to prevent the Corporations of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, so that we might pay them slave wages.

They have obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing their Assent to Laws for establishing the Judicial Rights of Corporations.
They have made Corporations dependent on their Laws alone, for the tenure of their existence, and the amount and payment of their worker's salaries.
They have erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Regulators to harrass our Corporations, and make them comply with worker protection laws.
They have kept among us, in all times, Federal Regulators without the Consent of our exective boards.
They have affected to render the People independent of and superior to the Corporate power.
They have combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our business model, and unacknowledged by our lawyers; giving their Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of Federal Regulators among us:
For protecting them, by a Laws, from retaliation for any Fines which they should impose on the Corporations of these States:
For cutting off our free Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Off Shore Tax Shelters:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for using Child Labor and worker abuse:
For abolishing the free System of Monopolies in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein government Oversight, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute Oversight into these Corporations:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Corporations:
For suspending our own Executive Boards, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

They have abdicated Free Market Capitalism here, by declaring us out of their Protection and passing Laws of Oversight against us.
They have plundered our CEO's pay, ravaged our stock options, dissolved our Monopolies, and destroyed the lives of our Executives.
They are at this time transporting large Armies of Regulators to compleat the works of Bankruptcy, Regulation and Oversight, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Overseer of a Corporatocracy.
They have constrained our fellow Corporations, caught in Pyramid Schemes, to become the informants of their friends and Brethren, or to lose their Tax Exemptions by their Hands.
They have excited worker insurrections amongst us, and have endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our Enemies, the merciless Union Organizers, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished desire to protect workers of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define the leader of a Free People, is unfit to be the ruler of Corporations.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Worker brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our organization and the cost of doing business here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these Oversights, which, would inevitably interrupt our ability to use them as slave labor. They too have been deaf to the voice of business and of Profit. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in Hostile Takeovers, in Peace useful workers.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the Corporations of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good Corporations of these States, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Corporations are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent Corporations; that they are Absolved from all Laws and Protections for their Workers, and that all political connection between them and the benefit of the Worker, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Corporate States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, run roughshod over Workers, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent Corporations may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Business Models, our Lawyers and our sacred Profits.

Jefferson and the rest were great men, but they weren't capable of saving us from ourselves.

They Don't Hate us for our Freedom

They hate us for our Corporatocracy, and the endless greed that goes with it.

Study: Poverty fueling Muslim tension with West

By DAVID STRINGER
Associated Press Writer
May 7, 1:51 PM EDT

LONDON (AP) -- Joblessness and poverty are a more potent source of tension between Muslims and wider European and U.S. society than religious differences, one of the first major studies of Muslim integration since the Sept. 11 terror attacks claimed on Thursday.

Attacks by Islamic extremists on the United States, and European capitals like Madrid and London, have sparked debate about whether a failure of Muslims to integrate into Western society has fueled extremism and created divisions between communities.

But a study of around 10,000 people in 27 countries by the Gallup polling company claims non-Muslims - including the public and lawmakers - have misunderstood the attitudes of Muslims in the West, stifling attempts to promote better understanding. Muslims in the West are more patriotic, more tolerant and more likely to reject violence than the rest of Western society believes they are, the study claims...

The study found that only 10 percent of British Muslims consider themselves integrated into British society, compared to 46 percent of French Muslims and 35 percent of German Muslims. Mogahed, an Egyptian-American Muslim, said unemployment and access to education were key factors in isolating Muslims in the West.

The study found that 38 percent of British Muslims said they had a job, lower than the figure for the British general public - 62 percent - and lower than Muslims in Germany or France, where 53 percent and 45 percent respectively said they were employed. Mogahed said that Muslims, particularly in Britain and France, feel marginalized because they have more difficulty finding jobs than non-Muslims, and typically have lower incomes.

"Economic integration may become more precarious in light of the current financial crisis affecting Europe," she said. Another key finding of the study was that that Muslims don't prioritize their faith over patriotism, Mogahed said.

The study found that 77 percent of British Muslims feel a strong sense of British identity, compared to 50 percent of the country's non-Muslims. In France, around half of Muslims and non-Muslims say they feel a strong sense of patriotism...

And this just goes into Muslims who live in the west. They're discriminated against and people assume that they're really terrorists in disguise. I once knew a girl, she was Muslim and had a small child who was about three. All of them were American Citizens. Her family ran a convenience store and one day she told me that this older man came into the store, and when he saw her in her headscarf and the child, he pointed at the toddler and said something to the effect of "He'll grow up to be a terrorist too." I was appalled that someone would assume that because of one's religious persuasions that that automatically makes them a terrorist. Excuse me, but the kid's three. You don't even know if he'll have strong religious beliefs when he grows up. It's absolute, unadulterated ignorance and racism/ethnocentrism, and there's no excuse for it. How can you talk about a toddler like that? How cruel and stupid do you have to be? Is it any wonder that they don't feel integrated into society?

I mean, if you see an Irish Catholic, do you call his kid a terrorist because of the IRA? They blew people up over religion. Do you automatically assume such a thing? Or does it really have more to do with race as to why Muslims get hated on? After all, the Irish guy is white. And don't try that whole "the Koran is different than the Bible" argument, because that's bullshit. Both books are full of barbarity and god righteously ordering the smiting of this or that group of people. Indeed, a portion of the Koran is a retelling of the Bible with the names spelled differently, but no one has a problem with the Bible. Even the Bible says that you should kill unbelievers. Where's the outrage over that?

"If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. Stone him to death, because he tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again." Deuteronomy 13:6-11

Indeed, Christianity itself has historically been a violent religion. Just look at the Inquisition or the pogroms against Jews.

People forget that there are crazies in all walks of life, and while religious convictions (of any type) can fuel that, there are plenty of people who are just plain fucking crazy, and religion has nothing to do with it. Luckily, I think the majority of people, regardless of their religion are basically good people.

When society starts demonizing an entire group of people because of their religion or ethnicity, bad things follow. All one must do is look at history to see this.

Republicans: Party of the School Yard Bully

I have another right-wing rant in my inbox this evening. This one treating Arlen Specter like the popular kid who decided to be friends with the geeks. It's called ostracizing those with whom you don't agree. The Republicans have turned into the party of the school yard bully. "We're taking our ball and going home!" That and when someone doesn't do something the way you want them to, you have to turn on them and tell the whole school that they're really a whore who slept with everyone. It's so fucking immature. I feel like I'm back in high school when I read this shit.

As we learned today, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter has decided become a Democrat in the face of a seemingly insurmountable bid for re-election next year in Pennsylvania... Even before his announcement today, Senator Specter's political future was in grave danger, with recent polls showing him trailing former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey by more than 20 points.

After he crossed party lines to support President Obama's massive $787 billion "stimulus" package, Senator Specter conceded that his vote caused "an enormous political problem for me," yet argued it was a "matter of necessity." His purported willingness to put politics aside for the good of our country ring especially hollow in light of his decision today.

While we are disappointed that Senator Specter has put personal ambition ahead of principles, we are confident that the Keystone State will reject this posturing and elect a new Republican Senator who will stand by his word next year. The fact remains that Pennsylvanians are looking for principled leadership, not political opportunism.

Nevertheless, today's news raised the stakes for all Americans. President Obama and the Democratic Congress have spent more in the first 100 days than what was spent on the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War and Katrina combined. And you and I, along with our children and grandchildren, are going to pay this bill. Senator Specter has chosen to enable this runaway spending by joining the Democratic Party...

First of all, let me say I hold no idealist view of Specter's reasons for defecting to the Democrats. I'm sure that the reasons are probably self serving, but what politician isn't self serving? This is like the pot calling the kettle black. And Specter pointed out a very important thing today, and that was that the Republican party has moved further and further to the right. They have embraced the xenophobic, homophobic, religious fanatics, and that's pretty much what's left right now in their party. I want to point out that the Republicans are one hair shy of outright fascism, and the Democrats aren't even on the left, they're all moderate. They're pro-Corporate at the expense of the people. The only good thing about the Democrats is that they do want the government to stay out of our private lives, which is what the Republicans are *supposed* to be for, before they were hijacked by the Moral Majority... I suppose they're the Moral Minority now.

Secondly, who the fuck do these people think they are taking the Democrats to task for spending money on the economy and infrastructure while saying it's costing more than the two wars we're fighting and the clean up from Katrina. The stupid pricks didn't have to go along with the wars. I'm sure they'll try to blame that on Obama eventually too. We'd still have all that money and hundreds of thousands of people would still be alive, if we hadn't gone off to wage war in Iraq because Saddam flipped G.W.'s daddy off. The Republicans think it's okay to blow a huge wad of cash on killing people, but improving the lives of their constituents? Not on your life.

Republicans are Anti-Worker, but we Knew That

I had another ten page rant about Obama in my inbox this morning. This time from Senator Jim DeMint (Republican) of South Carolina via Townhall.com. Crackpots. They're asking me to sign some petition against unions, because how dare workers organize. Really though, the letter was half attack on Obama and half attack on unions.

I'm not saying unions are all they are cracked up to be, perhaps we could use some reform in that area, but if workers want to unionize they should be able to. My grandmother was in a union when she worked at a factory in the 1970s and she liked it and she made very good money. When I worked for a big box retailer, whose name will remain unsaid, they used scare tactics against any type of organizing, implying that anyone who dared attempt to unionize would find themselves without a job, and saying they had an "open door" policy that meant we didn't need a union. Really? I beg to differ. I think that unions give workers leverage, and the Corporatocracy doesn't like that, because it might eat into their profit margin if workers start demanding enough pay to live. And the sad thing is, the people I worked with who lacked critical thinking skills, were persuaded to believe that unions are a bad thing.

But the thing that really pissed me off about this drivel in my inbox, they don't bother to say what the number is on the bill, or the actual title of the bill, they just call it a "Card Check Forced Labor Bill" which I'm damned sure that's not the name of it, so I can't find what bill they're talking about, and I don't really have time to dig much for it. That in and of itself is underhanded. They spout a bunch of stuff, and make it extremely difficult for anyone with half a brain or a questioning thought in their head to go and see if what they're saying is even true. Oh, and of course at the bottom of the rant, surprise, surprise, they ask for money. There's also a disclaimer at the bottom saying they're "non-partisan". My ass.

Some choice tidbits from the ten page rant:

"You see, passage of the so-called "Card Check" Bill is all that stands between the union bosses and total control over hundreds of thousands of America's small businesses . . .

. . . not to mention the hundreds of millions of forced-dues dollars that will immediately be seized from American workers' paychecks...

Any workers who refuse to sign the so-called "union authorization cards" would find themselves victims of lies, intimidation, threats, harassment -- and worse -- from union militants...

And when you do, please consider a generous contribution of $500, $250, $100 or $35 to the Committee."

They make it sound like the union is going to come in with billy clubs like it's the Republican National Convention and start beating people if they don't want to unionize.

So, I finally found what it is, I had heard of it, but it had slipped my mind. The Employee Free Choice Act. Because you know, it's a terrible thing that employees have a choice about whether they are represented or not. I find the rhetoric in their stupid newsletter a turn off (i.e. Obama is a socialist communist devil worshipper... okay it didn't go quite that far but it might as well have), and I have this sneaking suspicion that it's lies, but I seriously don't have the time right now to go through all their points and research it.

I will say though, that there was a time in this country, when we were prosperous where almost every industry was unionized. Those days are gone. The Corporatocracy has shipped all the high paying jobs overseas and have reduced what they pay to the ones that are left here. So you can't make enough to live any more without a college education, and even then it's dicey.

Republicans, Democrats, What's the Bloody Difference?

In an article from the UK that I stole from The Well-Armed Lamb, it seems that the Obama Administration is taking some pages out of Bush's book. They want to overturn a 1986 ruling (Michigan vs. Jackson) that people have the right to legal counsel before being questioned by the police, and that the police are supposed to inform them of this, and not question them if they want a lawyer. It's designed to protect the mentally ill, the poor, the uneducated, and the young, who may not know that because of the sixth amendment they have a right to a lawyer before being questioned.

If they have any sense, they'll backtrack off this real quick. However, it doesn't do them any favors. If you ever doubted for a moment that this Corporatocracy was run by two parties you have another thing coming. These politicians, on both sides are nothing but lying sacks of shit, plotting on how best they can usurp total control of us all. In the end, that is what both parties want, and they're willing to work together behind closed doors to see it happen. Of course they have to put up the fake fight, it's like a WWE match, so fake you can't even stand it, in public, in front of the cameras, so that we can all see how "different" they are.

And what was that I was saying yesterday about the Swine Flu being used to cover something up... as important as this is, it isn't in any of the American News (yet?), not even on supposedly liberal MSNBC or even on Faux News. Funny that. I would think Faux News would be all over this as much as they hate Obama all. The British report it and it doesn't even affect them. Absolutely fucking amazing.

A Socialist Nightmare

You know, I'd totally move to Sweden... except that it's cold, really cold, and there's not much sunlight six months of the year, and I don't speak Swedish.

Ten weeks of paid vacation! Sixteen MONTHS of maternity leave! Now that's caring about the family. The conservative talking heads who support the American Corporatocracy have no idea about "family." All they care about is the almighty dollar. And they use moral issues to keep people in fear and under their control.

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